Family preserves an heirloom grain
Innovative marketing approach helps new generation build on family's farming legacy.
To see how truly successful Koda Farms is today, you have to first look at the past. The farm was started by Keisaburo Koda back in 1928. He had moved to the United States from Japan and had always longed to have his own farm. But when World War II broke out, his dreams were dashed. Keisaburo and his family were ordered to an internment camp in Colorado, and his new farm was left to strangers.
After the war ended and Keisaburo was allowed to return to his farm, there wasn’t much left. So he and his family got to work rebuilding the rice farm and mill. They began growing sweet rice, which they discovered was an unfulfilled niche market in the United States. After much trial and error, the Koda family eventually became the first commercial growers of sweet rice in California.
They also began breeding and producing a variety called “kokuho rose.” This special medium grain rice is usually grown more for flavor than for yield—which is why a lot of farmers opted not to grow it at the time. But today, it is more popular than ever, due to the efforts of the next generation of Kodas. Keisaburo’s grandchildren, Ross and Robin, are finding success with the heirloom grain and continuing their family’s farming legacy in the San Joaquin Valley, thanks to an innovative marketing approach.
Because it is a fully integrated farm—one where they harvest, mill and package on site—the Kodas are also able to market their rice in the way they want. This is accomplished mainly through one-on-one interaction and education with customers, which Robin gets to do every week at the Alemany Farmers Market in San Francisco.
In addition, they have found fortune selling to high-end restaurants like the M Café in Southern California. Based on a macrobiotic diet—everything is eaten in balance and eggs, dairy, sugar and meat are in eaten in moderation—the restaurant is packing customers in faster than they can wrap together the hundreds of sushi rolls they prepare daily. Everything at the M Café is made from scratch from the highest quality, most flavorful ingredients they can find—like the ones they get from Koda Farms.
Up to 40 percent of M Café’s cuisine is based strictly on Koda Farms rice—everything from sushi to rice bowls to rice pudding to their famous Big Macro veggie burger.
And because of their innovation in marketing and determination in farming, Koda Farms is the oldest, continuously family-owned and family-operated rice farm and mill in California.
For more information about Koda Rice, visit www.kodafarms.com.
For more information about the M Café, visit www.mcafedechaya.com.
