After 60 years on the wholesale side of agriculture, the Holbrook family last year crossed over into retail when they acquired Klement’s Grove and Country Store, a well-known Taylor Road farm stand at McAllen’s western limits. Now operating as Earth Born, the store provides an outlet for the family’s organic vegetables and citrus, which are grown, harvested, packed and shipped as South Tex Organics. The organic vegetables have been marketed under the Earth Born label for 20 years.
Don Holbrook moved his family from Utah in 1955 and began farming cotton and grain before moving into grove care. Soon after, he purchased citrus groves and opened a packing shed for vegetables and fruit. His son Dennis took over the business in 1970. By the 1989 freeze, Dennis could observe the resiliency of the organic citrus trees he had planted after the 1983 freeze. He converted all the groves and fields from conventional farming to fully organic. “It was a 180 degree shift. The freeze was a blessing in disguise,” said Russon Holbrook, who operates Earth Born with his father Dennis, his mother Lynda and his wife Emily.
Growing organic citrus and vegetables moved the Mission producers into a niche market. “Whole Foods was an early client in the 1980’s when they first opened in Austin,” Russon said. “Today our relationship with them has grown beyond grapefruit and oranges,” with South Tex Organics supplying organic kale, broccoli, cabbage, daikon radishes and onions to Whole Foods distributors around the country and to other distributors as well. The company also sells direct to small retailers.
“Most of our products don’t stay in Texas. There’s more demand for organics outside of Texas. The big portion of the buyers we sell to don’t even see the product.”
And then, Will Klement approached Dennis and Lynda Holbrook after a citrus convention, saying he was ready to retire. The Holbrooks shadowed Klement’s store operation last season, learning about marketing citrus and vegetables from the retail angle.
When Earth Born opened for business last November, customers had the equivalent of a farmers’ market on tap daily instead of weekly. “The name Earth Born says a lot about what we are growing,” Dennis said The Holbrooks experienced immediate feedback from customers who raved about the fresh-squeezed orange, grapefruit and tangerine juices, fruits, grapefruit pie and pecans. That was a big change from wholesale operations.
“The nature of a farmers market is to sell what is in season,” Russon said. The store’s primary products — citrus and fresh squeezed juices — are seasonal as well. Besides supplying the store with their own vegetables and citrus, the Holbrooks are actively seeking growers from across the Valley who use organic methodology, whether they are certified or not. “We can move more of their volume. We can retail to a consistent traffic flow.” Growers of sweet corn, tomatoes and 1015 onions are lined up to supply Earth Born this spring. Locally grown strawberries will be in the store by February.
To read more of this story by Eileen Mattei, read the February 2015 edition of VBR under the “Current & Past Issues” tab on this website, or pick up a copy on news stands.