Kenter Canyon Farms

Andrea Crawford began growing lettuce mixes in her yard in Berkeley in the 1970s. When Alice Waters tasted her lettuces and asked to have them at Chez Panisse, Andrea increased production through a series of backyard gardens. In the fall of 1985, Andrea and her family relocated to Los Angeles to work with Wolfgang Puck's restaurants, where they developed the first urban salad garden and their work found a permanent home.

Kenter Canyon Farms gradually evolved from a series of small suburban backyards and urban lots to its current base of operations in Ventura County. They now have 300 certified organic acres, spread over the Santa Clara River and Coachella areas. They dedicated five acres of riparian land along the river to a permanent conservation easement, providing a biodiversity and wildlife refuge. Stewardship of the environment is at the heart of everything they do, from preserving wild spaces to planting rows of flowering annuals between their lettuce rows to offer sustenance for crucial pollinators.