The building near Watsonville, California, was used for sorting flowers grown in nearby fields when clients Lakeside Organics and Farmhouse Culture approached engineer Ken Mabie about a project.
Farmhouse Culture makes sauerkraut, and because of a new contract with discount wholesaler Costco, the company needed more production space than it had in nearby Santa Cruz. Lakeside Organics wanted Mabie to help convert its flower-sorting building, with a low wastewater flow, into a processing factory that would make cabbage into sauerkraut.
“This became a perfect marriage because Lakeside Organics grows the organic cabbage that Farmhouse Culture wants to make the sauerkraut out of
