Borchard Farms

Borchard Farms was established in 1940 in Southern California by Ed Borchard; raising cattle, growing walnuts, tomatoes and hay. In 1956 the Borchard family sold their Southern California ranches to comedian Bob Hope's family and moved to the Salinas Valley and that's where Borchard Farms resides now.In the late 1950s and early 1960s, we continued to ranch cattle but changed our focus to crops such as sugar beets, beans and hay. In the mid 1960s, we changed again; this time we took on the artichoke with a vengeance and as everyone knows in the Salinas/Castroville valley, it worked out well.In the 1970s, while traveling through Milpitas, Tom Borchard spotted something that caught his eye, "Cow pumpkins." He contacted a family member in the seed business, and began to grow pumpkins as a hobby. In the 1980s, in addition to growing artichokes, Borchard Farms began to focus on growing row crops, such as broccoli, lettuce and cauliflower. Tom, however, couldn't get enough of pumpkins and began to grow giant pumpkins with the intention of competing in pumpkin contests around California. Tom perfected his pumpkin growing practices so well that he won the West Coast Half Moon Bay contest six times, with one of his giant pumpkins winning the International Pumpkin Confederation's Weigh-Off competition. Competition member countries included Russia, Canada, Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom. In 1991 Tom Borchard represented the U.S. in Japan as the international winner of giant pumpkins.Today Borchard Farms is known for producing quality artichokes and row crops; but our American, European and Asian fame comes from a hobby that got out of control our Giant Pumpkins. We are the only site in the United States that is a member of the IPA, and every year we celebrate the orange beasts by holding an annual weigh-off where contestants come from all over California come to play with the big boys literally. The winner of our contest gets a trip to Japan in addition to prize money.The Salinas Valley community has been very good to the Borchard family throughout the years, and the Borchard family believes in giving back to its community; therefore, each year at our annual pumpkin weigh-off, we donate a portion of the proceeds to Ag Against Hunger an outstanding non-profit that feeds the hungry and homeless.