Nuevo Amanecer: Growing Select Crops With Great Care
Just north of Eugene, OR, along a country road dotted with farms of all sizes, is a plot of immaculate acreage that’s long been known to Organically Grown Company.
Dave DeCou, one of OGC’s original co-op members, farmed there under the name One Step Forward Farm. The acreage has been certified organic for at least 34 years. Since DeCou’s retirement in 2000, the land has been leased by an Oaxacan family whose history of farming in the region goes back generations.
Now called Nuevo Amanecer (meaning New Dawn), Juan and Maria Aparicio run the farm.
Maria’s family has a long history with OGC. Her grandfather, Vidal Cruz of Sonora Farm, was another of the original OGC co-op farmers. Her father, Roberto, who later founded Cinco Estrellas Farm in Junction City, Oregon, eventually began working with DeCou.
As for Juan, he arrived in the US from the state of Oaxaca at the age of 17 and made his way from Florida to the Willamette Valley when a cousin who was living in Oregon promised work would be waiting for him when he arrived. Soon after, he met Maria.
Together, Juan and Maria run a tight ship.
On a stunning morning this past week, Juan invited OGC to take a farm tour to check out the lettuce that OGC buyer Matt Visser can’t say enough good things about.
“In my opinion, Nuevo Amanecer sets a high standard for quality vegetables grown in the Willamette Valley,” Matt shares. “Juan is an incredibly talented grower who consistently packs some of the most beautiful produce OGC is fortunate to offer.”
Juan’s acres are pristine; long, tidy rows of perfectly spaced heads of Red Leaf, Green and Red Romaine and Red Butter lettuces grow happily in the rich soil. He and three long-time employees tend to the beds daily, and the care they take is evident—quality control and efficiency reign supreme here.
Proud yet incredibly humble, Juan beams when explaining how they run Nuevo Amanecer. Over six months, the farm will produce 13-15 successive plantings of lettuce; all started from seed in their hoop house. Each head is accounted for from seed to harvest with precise detail.
When asked how early he started his first seeds this year, Juan produced his transplanting log and flipped through pages and pages of his perfect handwriting. That level of detail is uncommon and reflects how keenly aware Juan is; that at his scale, there’s little room for error.
Juan favors hard work and precise planning to achieve extraordinary results, and it’s this philosophy that explains why Nuevo Amanecer produces a concise list of very specific crops, and grows each so exceptionally well. In addition to lettuce, Juan grows red and green cabbage, Savoy cabbage, and a handful of winter squash varieties such as Butternut, Buttercup, Kabocha, Red Kabocha, and Petite Spaghetti. Each variety is chosen with great consideration and care.
OGC is proud to partner with Nuevo Amanecer and is thrilled to offer their gorgeous lettuce this spring and their fall and winter crops later in the year!
