The Imperial family is one of the reasons the Yakima Valley is known for producing world-class farm fresh fruits and vegetables. They harvest nearly 1,600 acres of tomatoes, grapes, peppers, watermelon, corn and much, much more. They are a leading supplier for national grocery stores such as Wal-Mart, Safeway and Kroger. But despite their success on the national level, they have a lot of love for the Yakima Valley, and work hard to provide farm fresh produce for the entire community.

Watch Imperial’s Garden Hand-crafted Yakima Valley story

SO WHAT BROUGHT YOU TO THE YAKIMA VALLEY?

Our family immigrated to the Yakima Valley about 32 years ago. After all this time, we have deep roots in the Yakima Valley. This is our home. And it’s the only place we can grow what we grow and do what we do.

WHAT MAKES THE YAKIMA VALLEY SO GREAT FOR GROWING PRODUCE?

The climate and weather in the Yakima Valley helps to supply enough sugar to the plants to produce the vegetables that we grow today. It just makes the watermelon sweeter, the tomatoes sweeter, and the corn really sweet.

HOW HAS TECHNOLOGY CHANGED THE WAY YOU FARM?

Technology has been amazing. We went from dumping produce on a table and sorting it by hand, to having a computerized machine that color-sorts tomatoes now. It’s kind of mind-blowing.

Categorized in: Farm Fresh Fun, Meet the Maker