The seemingly endless rows of tomato plants at Valdivia Farms are thick with sun-ripened heirlooms — red, bright yellow, green and purplish globes peeking through the vines.

Workers quickly move down the rows methodically plucking the tomatoes and placing them in cardboard boxes, tossing aside bruised or split ones deemed unfit for sale.

Before long, the bed of a pickup truck is full with cartons of tomatoes that ultimately will find their way from Southern California to farmers markets, fine-dining restaurants and distributors who will ship the product to buyers as far away as the Midwest.

Besides tomatoes, there are delicate golden squash blossoms still to be picked and green beans to be harvested, as well as berries, watermelons and baby corn.

Meanwhile, workers in the packing shed at this family-run farm neatly fill foam-lined cardboard boxes with an assortment of heirloom tomatoes, creating a mosaic of Cherokee purple, Brandywine, pineapple and great white varieties.

All of this is carried out under the ever-watchful eye of patriarch Francisco Valdivia, an immigrant from Mexico who learned farming on the job as a young man.

At 64, an age when many people are relishing the prospect of retiring, Valdivia is still working 10 to 15 hours a day managing the Carlsbad, Calif., farm he has overseen for nearly three decades.

Valdivia Farms, which began as 5 acres on leased land, now occupies 60 acres of beautifully manicured farmland cascading over gently rolling hills just 2 miles east of the Pacific Ocean. A twisting, bumpy asphalt road meanders through the farm, which yields plentiful crops of fruits and vegetables year-round.

A humble, painfully shy man with bushy eyebrows, mustache and a full head of black hair, Valdivia shifts uncomfortably as he responds to questions about his farm and his background.

Valdivia concedes that talent may have something to do with his successful operation, but the real credit goes to God, he says matter-of-factly. As if to prove his point, he shows visitors his homemade shrine, housed in the packing shed. Crudely fashioned from timber, the display features framed images of the Virgin Mary and various saints.

"Yes, I have talent, but I ask God for that talent to grow," Valdivia says. "I farm because I don't know anything else."

CHEFS' FAVORITE

Valdivia produce, especially the heirloom tomatoes and baby vegetables for which the farm is best known, garners high praise from chefs and wholesalers.

Jeffrey Strauss, chef and owner of Pamplemousse Grill in Solana Beach, Calif., offers unrestrained praise of Francisco Valdivia, both the man and the farmer.

"If you look up the word 'gentleman' in the dictionary, Francisco Valdivia's name would be there," said Strauss. "He's a great father, he's a family man, and he has always been great to the people who work with him."

Strauss says he uses Valdivia heirlooms and squash blossoms for a number of menu items, including a tomato salad with balsamic vinegar and smoked buffalo mozzarella, and zucchini blossoms stuffed with porcini mushroom duxelles and summer black Italian truffles, served with roasted langoustines.

"Their tomatoes are as good, if not better, than anything I've tasted," said Strauss. "He has a beautiful property and beautiful soil."

Mary Hillebrecht, a farmer herself and manager of San Diego County farmers markets, praises the Valdivias as respected stewards of the land.

"Their farm is beautiful, and they're more meticulous about things than a lot of people, and the quality is outstanding," said Hillebrecht, who grows avocadoes and potatoes. "They don't get as much credit from the chefs as they should, but there are a lot of restaurants in town that serve their products."

Valdivia Farms is very much a family affair, with two of Valdivia's three children, as well as other relatives, actively involved in the operation. While he never pressured his children to help with the business, Francisco Valdivia says he is pleased that they decided to.

"I don't think I ever thought this was something I wanted to do," says Valdivia's daughter, Lulu, who helps out at farmers markets, makes occasional restaurant deliveries and runs errands for her dad. "But now that I'm older, I appreciate it more, and I wouldn't mind doing this for the rest of my life. What I really appreciate is when people will say, 'This is the best tomato I've ever had.' It's like I'm proud of it."

CRISPY PRAWN-STUFFED SQUASH BLOSSOMS

Chili glaze:

2 teaspoons oil

2 tablespoons chopped ginger

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1/2 bunch green onions, chopped

1/4 cup mirin

1/4 cup rice-wine vinegar

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 bunch cilantro stems

1/2 gallon fresh orange juice

1 cup sweet chili sauce

1 teaspoon chili paste

Tempura batter:

1 cup flour

1 cup cornstarch

Pinch baking soda

1/4 teaspoon sesame oil

1/2 cup ice cold vodka

2 cups soda water

Blossoms and stuffing:

12 ounces (16/20 size) tiger prawns, peeled, deveined

1 egg

1/2 cup heavy cream

Grated zest of 1 lemon

1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped

1 teaspoon chopped ginger

2 teaspoons oil

Salt and pepper

6 squash blossoms, washed, stamen removed, baby squash attached

Peanut oil, for deep-frying

Yields 6 servings.

To make chili glaze: In medium saucepan over medium heat, place 2 teaspoons oil and heat until almost smoking. Add ginger, garlic and green onion; saute, constantly stirring, until golden brown. Add mirin to pan, scrape up browned bits from bottom of pan, and cook until liquid is nearly all gone. Add rice-wine vinegar, soy sauce and cilantro stems; cook until liquid is reduced by 1/2. Add fresh orange juice; increase heat slightly and let reduce until thick and syrupy. Add chili sauce and chili paste, reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes. Strain sauce and reserve.

(To save time, you can purchase Mae Ploy sweet chili sauce from the grocery store's Asian section and use it rather than making the sauce from scratch.)

To make tempura batter: In mixing bowl, combine flour, cornstarch and baking soda. Add sesame oil and vodka, and whisk until a paste is formed. Slowly add soda water while continuously whisking until thickness is that of room-temperature heavy cream. Reserve batter.

For filling: Place 1/2 of the shrimp and the egg in a food processor; process at medium speed, slowly adding cream, until all the cream is incorporated. Remove mixture from food processor and transfer to a mixing bowl. Roughly chop remaining shrimp and fold into mixture along with lemon zest and cilantro.

In saute pan over medium heat, saute ginger in oil until golden brown; let cool and fold into shrimp mixture. Season mixture to taste with salt and pepper. Test filling by scooping a dollop into boiling water and tasting once it is fully cooked. Adjust seasoning as needed. Place shrimp mixture in piping bag and pipe into cleaned squash blossoms; blossoms should be about three-quarters full. Pinch tips of blossom slightly to create a seal.

Heat peanut oil in deep-fryer or heavy pot to 350 F. Dip stuffed squash blossoms into tempura batter until completely coated; hold blossoms above tempura bowl for 3 seconds to allow excess batter to run off. Deep-fry blossoms for roughly 6 minutes. Serve blossoms with chili glaze as dipping sauce, or coat crispy blossoms in glaze. Garnish with sesame seeds or green onion if desired.

— Executive Chef Jason Maitland of Arterra in San Diego.

Lori Weisberg writes about food for The San Diego Union-Tribune. Contact her at lori.weisberg@uniontrib.com.

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