(A forklift operator lugs boxed produce to a loading bay inside the recently opened Lakeside Organic Gardens shipping and storage facility on Sakata Lane in Watsonville. Photo by Tarmo Hannula/Pajaronian)
WATSONVILLE — Two giant trucks were being loaded with fresh produce at Lakeside Organic Gardens’ new shipping and storage facility Monday, while three others waited their turn.
This occurs from 10 a.m. until around 10 p.m. at the sprawling building.
An estimated 60 fully laden, full-sized trucks – about 3,600 full pallets – leave the facility per day, with produce shipped throughout the U.S. and into Canada, Lakeside Marketing and Communications Coordinator Bryant Hammer said.
“There is a lot of product moving through here,” he said. “Sales are very robust.”
Shipping is the final step of a process that typically begins no more than a few days earlier, when workers pick the produce at farm parcels throughout Watsonville.
From there, Lakeside’s 60 products are brought to the facility at 25 Sakata Lane, where they are washed, iced and boxed, and then brought into a massive chilled warehouse. There, the products wait their turn to be loaded and shipped.
“It goes from the farm to the cooler within three to four hours,” Hammer said. “Some of this can be on a truck within five hours.”
Bryant Hammer, marketing and communications coordinator at Lakeside Organic Gardens, talks about the shipping process at the family owned and operated business. Photo by Tarmo Hannula/Pajaronian)
The 50,000-square-foot facility was completed about six months ago, replacing the former one on Holohan Road that stood at 16,000 square feet.
The new building offers several loading docks to allow several trucks to be loaded at once.
The company recently saw an increase in business after people were sickened by romaine lettuce contaminated with e coli bacteria. That problem did not affect Lakeside, thanks to the company’s organic farming practices, Hammer said.
And so customers desperate for the lettuce contacted Lakeside, hoping it was in stock.
Still, all Lakeside employees recently went through a refresher course on keeping themselves and the products clean, Hammer said.
“You’re constantly paying attention to minor details,” he said.
Lakeside Organic Gardens, which is currently the largest family-owned and operated organic grower-shipper in the country, grows in both the Pajaro Valley and the Imperial Valley in Southern California.
Within a year, work will begin on another large building that will include administrative and sales offices.
Both buildings will feature 100,000 square feet of solar panels on their roofs, and will be home to Pajaro Valley Laser Leveling and Pajaro Valley Irrigation, both part of the Dick Peixoto Family of Companies.
