A Trip to Lundberg Family Farms in NorCal During their Rice Harvest

“LEAVE THE LAND BETTER THAN YOU FOUND IT.” – ALBERT LUNDBERG

Supporting companies that make it their main priority to create their products in a way that is responsible and with their customers’ best interest at heart is important to me. I love getting to know more about companies, whose running them, and what’s going on behind the scenes. This is one of the big reasons why I love buying food at local farmers’ markets, nabbing produce from the farm stand down the street from me, and attending events where I get to learn firsthand about how food is made with love.

That’s why when Lundberg Family Farms recently contacted me inviting me to visit their farm in Northern California during their rice harvest, I jumped at the chance. Lundberg is an organic, non-GMO certified maker of all kinds of rice products, and I was excited to know more about what they do.

Last Thursday I flew from Los Angeles to Sacramento, then traveled to an area known as Chico for the blogger event that Lundberg was hosting. That night, the event was kicked of with a dinner at the Red Tavern. Five other food bloggers were in attendance, and we were joined by Bryce and Jill Lundberg, one of their sons and his fiancee, and Lundberg’s PR and marketing team for some yummy eats and wine.

My favorite dish of the night was the above pictured stuffed mozzarella arancini with sweet pepper tomato sauce. I’m a sucker for a flavorful, crispy rice ball!

Bryce Lundberg is one of about 35 owners of the family run farm, and quite a character might I add. It was so nice getting to chat with him and his wife, who you could immediately tell were such sweet, down to earth people. Bryce seemed so passionate about the company, and was excited to answer questions and share some of the history behind Lundberg Farms. I found his infectious spirit to be a trend throughout the Lundberg family members that we met with.

The next morning, we headed off to Lundberg Farms itself for a full day of farm fun. First up, the company’s CEO, Grant Lundberg, took us on a walking tour of the tiny town where the farm is located, called Richvale.

The treelined streets of modest Richvale, a town that’s about 4×4 blocks big, were quiet. An old dog laid on the front porch of one of the houses, mildly curious in what we were doing, but not enough to move or bark. Standing on the crossroads between Rice Ave and Caloro St (which is a type of rice), you wouldn’t think that a company with 300 employees is on the next block. This town is where the Lundberg Family Farms began in 1937, and still operates, at a much larger capacity, today.

With a lot of water access through the local watershed, the farm is situated in an area well-suited for agriculture. Grant spoke about the main principle that was central to the farm when it first started, and is still a main focus today: leaving the land better than they found it. This is evident in their eco-farming methods and the non-GMO certified and certified organic products they produce.

In front of Lundberg’s office building, they have an area that showcases the 18 rice varietals that they grow. I had no idea that they make that many kinds of rice!

Besides producing packaged rice, Lundberg also makes a variety of rice cake flavors, what they call thin stackers, and my favorite vegan rice crispy treat sweetener, brown rice syrup. They also recently came out with chocolate covered rice cakes, which are a delicious little bite for those with a sweet tooth. Lundberg makes a number of rice chips, which I have a new appreciation for since eating a lot of on this trip – such a yummy, healthier alternative to satisfy a salty craving!

After our walking tour, next up it was time to get a closer look at one of their rice fields. After putting on some pretty sweet Lundberg hats, the group got to visit a sushi rice field being harvested.   

{Joanie and I showing off our farm hats like goofballs}

We learned a lot more about Lundberg’s organic farming method, called biodynamic farming, which focuses on keeping the soil healthy and fertile. This was also our chance to ask any questions we had about growing rice….

…and to ride on the combine to harvest some sushi rice! 

Growing my little garden in my backyard is as much farming as I’ve ever done, so getting to ride on the harvester was pretty fun! It’s crazy how much rice the combine harvests in such a short amount of time. I believe they told me that 50-60 acres of rice can be harvested from one combine in a day. That’s a whole lot of rice!

The Lundberg employee I rode with has been with the company for 37 years, and he spoke about how proud he is of the products that the farm makes. This was a constant theme during my visit at Lundberg: people who work for the company expressing pride for the food that they help to make.

Lundberg rice is yielded from 20,000 acres of land – 5,000 of which Lundberg farms themselves, and 15,000 acres that is farmed by other growers, some of whom they’ve partnered with for many years. 

Being the animal lover that I am, I obviously loved seeing all of the adorable farm dogs around riding in the back of their owners’ trucks. Being a farm dog is probably a pretty sweet life, don’t ya think?

In true Lab form, Gus the farm dog wasted no time getting wet and dirty when he arrived at the sushi rice field. Pictured above, he had giving his owner Bryce a paw to get a treat down pat.

The group of bloggers (from L to R) Kimberly, Joanie, Ericka, me, Rachael, and Dana with our Lundberg tour guides

After lots of hard work in the field (I kid!), we were all hungry for some lunch. We had a lovely picnic right next to the rice field. There were awesome sandwiches, fruit, salad, cookies, and of course, Lundberg rice chips to eat.

Before heading back to Lundberg’s headquarters, we got to see where the rice goes after it’s harvested. We got a bit of exercise climbing stairs to stand on top of a rice dryer, which is where the rice goes to reduce its moisture content post-harvest.

The photos don’t do it justice, it was a beautiful view of the farms and of the Chico area up there!

Next on the agenda was a tour of Lundberg’s office building – which of course, was built with eco-friendliness in mind and is gorgeous! – and production facilities by another owner, Jessica Lundberg.

Putting on these sweet hairnets and goggles was a very I Love Lucy moment! We got to see production of their rice cakes happening…

…as well as their packaged rice. Getting a behind-the-scenes look at how everything is made was really interesting!

Afterwards, we had our last event of the day: the blogger cook-off. We paired into groups of two, and had the challenge of coming up with a specific type of dish incorporating one specified ingredient. Dana and I paired together (side note: I love the Oh My Veggies website, which she’s the editor of!), and had to make a vegetarian appetizer or entree using avocado. Another group had to make an entree using pork tenderloin, and the remaining group had the task of making a dessert. We all included as many Lundberg products as we could into our dishes, and this is what our dish was….

Southwestern avocado cups: Avocado halves stuffed with Lundberg’s black pearl rice, black beans, zucchini, bell pepper and onion sautéed in avocado oil, avocado chunks and chopped tomato, topped with toasted cumin seeds, smoked habanero sea salt, and drizzled avocado oil, served with Lundberg’s Fiesta Lime rice chips for dipping and lime wedges.

I thought that ours had great flavoring and was happy with how it turned out! We all got to try each other’s dishes and have dinner together with the judges, Jessica Lundberg, Grant Lundberg and his wife.

In the end, the delicious dessert that Kimberly and Joanie made won: shortbread tarts, which incorporated Lundberg’s Sweet Dreams chocolate covered rice cakes, with stone fruit compote and candied pecans.

(photo cred: Joanie Simon)

The other bloggers were all super nice women that I enjoyed getting to meet. It’s always nice to spend time with people who share my love of good food! We all departed for our homes all across the country the next day, but it was an experience I won’t forget anytime soon, and I think it’s safe to say that the other bloggers feel the same way. It was such a fun event, and I have so much respect for Lundberg Family Farms and how they’ve stayed true to their roots in sustainable farming and creating wholesome rice products.

Lundberg Farms sent me home with lots of rice products to play around with and I’m now a lifelong fan of theirs, so stay tuned for some recipes with their products!

Tell me… What’s your favorite kind of rice? Any questions for me about Lundberg Family Farms? 

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Disclaimer: Lundberg Family Farms hosted me for the trip to their farms, but as always, all opinions expressed are genuinely my own. A huge thank you to Lundberg Family Farms, their marketing coordinator, Ashley Delorey, and their public relations agency, Access PR, for arranging such an awesome, well planned trip!