Alex Frecker’s Green House

When you think of Alex Frecker and the growth he’s had over the last five years in his farming endeavors, you’d maybe be a little surprised to find out that his latest project is growing just two acres of expensive greenhouses in Carpinteria.

Alex started farming eight or so years ago with three small acres in Carpinteria above Rincon beach. Quickly after that, he and two other farmers (Sunrise Organic Farm, and Alcantar Organics) took over a 45 acre farm in Carpinteria and it was divided into three plots, each of them with 15-ish acres. As years went by, Sunrise and Jose took over other farms in the Buellton area and Alex Frecker was farming the 45 acres alone with his crew. At the same time he was opening more and more farmers markets in LA, and even started his own CSA when the pandemic hit. Now Alex is in a total of 18 markets, has a steady amount of wholesale customers (us!), and things are going great. So when a local family asked him if he would want to take over two small green houses in Carp that costs the same as his entire 40 acre farm we were flabbergasted!

Farming is hard- we all know that. Keeping crops “exciting” during the winter months is even harder. We are so out of touch with seasons that most times, people don’t understand why we don’t have tomatoes throughout the year when the store offers them. It’s so easy to go and grab items anytime that we aren’t connecting what crops are grown when. So for Alex Frecker, the idea of having tomatoes in the winter is A: extremely exciting and B: it’s insanely financially helpful to get through the dead of winter. And that is exactly why Alex is doing this. He’s keeping his customers excited and he is probably doing more in sales than ever before thanks to the power of a greenhouse.

However, green house crops has this certain stigma about them that is hard to break. People often think the process isn’t natural, they are grown hydroponically, maybe people even think there are green house gasses involved? We know first handedly the response from customers when you tell them those early May tomatoes are grown under a hoop house. But the truth is is that a green house isn’t much different than outdoor farming other than it is under plastic hoop houses making it much warmer. We are still farming in soil, it is still certified organic, we still use a tractor, we are still hand weeding, we still have the same pest issues only it’s MUCH warmer so your outputs and yields are insanely different. You are talking about a farmer that can get heirloom tomatoes in January! It’s quite amazing and to me, I’d way rather get a juicy, ripe green house tomato that is locally grown than a an outside firm, green tomato that is harvest in Mexico and shipped thousands of miles.

Alex is mostly excited to learn through trial and error in his little green house farm over anything else. “It’s exciting to see how differently things are growing indoors vs. outdoors here. We have to be super aggressive and plant between rows to make sure we are harvesting enough to pay for the land. But it’s worth it to have all these summer crops being harvested in January.”

Before Alex took over the land, he made sure it was possible for his greenhouse to become certified organic and it is. He uses the exact same farming technique as he does at his 45 acre farm in Carp. We are hoping Alex will have enough heirloom tomatoes, sugar snap peas, zucchinis, cherry tomatoes, etc. to get our hands on. For now we will enjoy his insanely beautiful spinach and cilantro that is coming from his green house. Alex can’t believe the difference in his cilantro and spinach crop indoor vs. outdoor.  He says “the cilantro and spinach is thriving in here!”