Farm to Fork Profile: A Generational Partnership with A&J Orchards
- by Peter Todaro
Sam Asai (right) stands with his son Aron in their orchard.
Outside of Hood River, Oregon, fruit trees sprawl across acres and acres of bucolic landscape of the Columbia River Gorge. Sam Asai and his family have been tending their orchard here for generations.
Sam, whose grandparents emigrated from Japan in the early 20th century, owns and operates the orchard together with his family. Sam’s grandparents purchased some of the land that now makes up A&J’s acreage in the 1900s, raising their family and establishing their first fruit trees. But in the 1940s, the Asai family was forcibly removed from their land and placed in a concentration camp, during the widespread internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. While the Asai’s were able to return to their land after the war, many Japanese American-owned farms were forced into foreclosure. Japanese Americans lost an estimated $400 million dollars in property during incarceration, leading the United States government to provide reparations in 1948.1
Sam was born shortly after the Asai’s returned to their orchard, which expanded throughout the latter half of the 20th century. A&J has always been a family business, with Sam’s mother, now 102, still holding an ownership stake in the orchard that is jointly operated by Sam, his son, grandson, and cousins.
Today, fruit growing on the Hood River and much of the Pacific Northwest is dominated by large orchards who produce 15-18% of the United States’ Bartlett pears and 30% of winter pears. Most of these commercial orchards send their harvest directly to packing companies or cooperatives for nationwide distribution, with little direct wholesale or direct-to-consumer sales.
Cherries!
A&J is different. Sam and his family still send a percentage of their produce to a packing house, but a significant amount of their annual sales stem from a long-term relationship with Bon Appétit accounts in Oregon, including Willamette University, Lewis and Clark College, Pacific University, George Fox University, Oregon Episcopal School, and Reed College, among others.
The Asai family’s partnership with Bon Appétit began nearly 20 years ago, when Sam met a Bon Appétit chef from Lewis and Clark at the Portland Farmers’ Market. “He asked me, ‘How many boxes of pears can you give me next week?’” says Sam. “We started supplying Lewis and Clark with 15-20 cases a week and it just grew from there.” In the years that followed, a spontaneous interaction at a farmers’ market ballooned into a state-wide partnership with Bon Appétit. “Sam supplies all of our units in Oregon,” says Regional Manager Marc Marelich. “I can’t understate how much we appreciate them.”
A&J produces a wide array of fruit throughout the growing season, from cherries that ripen in late June and early July, peaches and nectarines later in the summer, to pears and apples in the Fall. Many Bon Appétit accounts in Oregon exclusively purchase A&J fruit when it’s in season. “I don’t even buy stone fruit unless Sam is growing it,” laughs Willamette University Executive Chef M. Palmer. “And he grows the best Asian pears I’ve ever tasted.”
All of this demand for A&J fruit means that Sam stays busy making deliveries to Bon Appétit accounts throughout much of the year. They load up their truck three times a week and make the journey to accounts across Oregon. Over many years of deliveries, the Asai’s have formed close relationships with Bon Appétit teams and the communities they serve. “Sam is always happy to come out and do events, meet with staff and faculty,” says Palmer. “He gives students the change to engage with the guy who grew the food they’re about to go eat.”
With Sam’s son Aron now overseeing orchard operations, and his grandson Hunter (the fifth generation of Asai’s to work on the farm) taking on deliveries, Bon Appétit and A&J’s partnership is set to continue for decades to come.