Sunnyside Packing Continues As Bright Path

The story of the Hirasuna family's vegetable growing, packing and shipping operation is one of evolution over more than 60 years, from a strawberry cooperative to vineyards and stone fruits to squash, peppers and onions.

 

 

 

Young Farmers Tap Opportunities In Organic Market

For Benina Montes, the goal was to diversify her family's mix of crops. Todd Hirasuna wanted to meet his customers' needs.Both saw opportunities in organic agriculture and joined a number of other young farmers who have gravitated to the specialized market.

 

 

 

In the News

SELMA, Calif. -- It took just five hours to shatter the dreams of young Fred Hirasuna. Those same five hours would indirectly draft what was to become his life's work -- Sunnyside Packing Co. Inc., Selma, long a fixture of California's produce industry, now celebrating its 60th anniversary.

 

 

 

Third Generation Takes the Wheel at Sunnyside Packing

Brad and Todd Hirasuna are brothers working together at Sunnyside Packing in Selma, CA, a company that was founded by their grandfather in 1948 as a strawberry exchange.

 

 

 

 

New Machines Alter Agriculture's Future

In a green bean field near Fowler, hundreds of metal fingers on a machine are doing what 66-year-old Joe Santellano's fingers did decades ago when he harvested beans in the San Jose area.
They're picking the beans and sending them into a box -- their first stop before being hauled to Sunnyside Packing in Selma.

 

 

Eggplant Harvester

A crew from Sunnyside Packing Co. Inc., Selma., Calif., works on an eggplant harvester-packer on a company field Aug 17 near Sanger, CA.

 

 

 

 

Virus Pressure Hurts Crops this Fall

Joe Santellano has never seen such a tough virus year in vegetables. As the farm manager for Sunnyside Packing, Selma, Calif., he works with the company's organic production areas as well with numerous small family farms growing both organic and conventional vegetables.

 

 

 

Harvesting squash at non-peak times nets better prices

Overproduction is the single most common problem with California summer squash, according to Mark Gaskell, University of California Cooperative Extension farm advisor for small farms and specialty crops in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.