June, 2008

Hollandia Produce / Live Gourmet Shows You
How to Make Good Food Taste Great with Hydroponic
Butter Lettuce in New Online Video with Dani Spies

Carpinteria, CA – Hollandia Produce Inc., grower and shipper of the Live Gourmet family of living lettuces and upland cress, has launched a streaming video with simple tips on how you can use living lettuce to enhance your cooking. The video titled “Hydroponic Butter Lettuce 101” is on the Live Gourmet website at http://www.livegourmet.com/guestchefkitchen.html.

Presented by Dani Spies, the video is a rich informational resource that answers many frequently asked questions about hydroponically grown butter lettuce. Dani shares her intimate knowledge of the benefits of cooking with natural ingredients while discussing the “101” basics of butter lettuce. Her advice includes tips on selection criteria, care and handling, consumption and more:

• When choosing your living lettuce, look for rich green leaves. You can also look at upper right-hand side of label for the “enjoy by” date that’s there to help promote freshness.
Living lettuce is mild and sweet with a buttery texture that almost melts in your mouth.
• A great addition to any diet, butter lettuce is packed Vitamin A, Vitamin K, and like all leafy green veggies, is extremely cleansing and detoxifying.
• Butter lettuce is really hearty and pairs up with a lot of different ingredients. Try using it in lettuce wraps as a low-carb substitute for traditional sandwiches.
• The “mini-greenhouse” packaging protects leaves still attached to the root.

Live Gourmet guest chef Dani Spies is an ACSM Certified Fitness Trainer and Health Counselor and star of her own highly successful health and nutrition informational website that features her trademark Clean Simple, D lishes Living approach to food and recipes.

“We are very pleased to have Dani present our freshness message as her cooking style and philosophy of utilizing whole, natural, unprocessed foods to make good food taste great matches what we do at Hollandia Produce,” says Hollandia’s Director of Marketing Vincent Choate. “We look forward to working with Dani to expand awareness of our products in new and interesting ways.”

Live Gourmet living lettuces and upland cress are merchandised by leading supermarkets, specialty retailers and health foods stores across America. Harvested with their roots intact Live Gourmet products are at their peak of freshness and alive with flavor.

Hollandia Produce Inc. can be reached at P.O. Box 1327, Carpinteria, CA 93013 For further information, please contact Vincent Choate, Director of Marketing at (866) LETTUCE

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May, 2008

Hollandia Produce / Live Gourmet Launches New Sustainability Resource to Promote Conservation Education

Carpinteria, CA – Hollandia Produce Inc., grower and shipper of the Live Gourmet family of living lettuces and upland cress, has launched an online streaming video resource here to further its ongoing commitment to the environment and common sense conservation.

The video is titled"Our Commitment to Sustainability" and was created to meet growing consumer curiosity and interest in a positive and constructive dialogue on sustainability. The lively 3-minute presentation demonstrates how Live Gourmet products are not the only things green about Hollandia Produce. In addition to growing and shipping a superior product, the company maintains a policy of environmentally friendly best practices and consistently chooses vendor partners that provide sustainable product solutions.

The video outlines Hollandia’s successful green strategies:

• Hydroponic growing techniques that conserve 66-84% of the water that would be used if lettuce were grown in the fields
• A unique clamshell packaging made from 70% recycled PETE drink bottles
• Cardboard cartons made from up to 53% recovered paper and are recyclable after use.
• Energy efficiency that has enabled Hollandia to reduce overall energy consumption by 60% over the last 10 years

“Farming and sustainability go hand and hand,” says Hollandia Produce President Pete Overgaag. “Stewardship of the land and marshalling the resources of modern agriculture to promote a healthy and productive farming environment is not only environmentally responsible, it’s essential in preserving what generations of our family have worked so hard to achieve.”

Live Gourmet living lettuces and upland cress are merchandised by leading supermarkets, specialty retailers and health foods stores across America. Harvested with their roots intact, Live Gourmet products are at their peak of freshness and alive with flavor.

Hollandia Produce Inc. can be reached at P.O. Box 1327, Carpinteria, CA 93013 For further information, please contact Vincent Choate, Director of Marketing at (866) LETTUCE.

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June 2006

Live Gourmet Living Lettuce
Wins Masters of Taste Award

Carpinteria, CA--- Hollandia Produce Inc. grower of Live Gourmet living lettuces and upland cress has won a prestigious Gold Taste Award from the American Academy of Taste. Live Gourmet living family of products were judged superior by a panel of renowned Chef Master Tasters of the American Academy of Taste in a unique triple blind judging on June 8th in Vallejo, California.

American Academy of Taste Executive and Corporate Chefs collectively represent over 10,000 industry leading hotel, restaurant, and resort establishments. American Academy of Taste founder Jesse Sartain “America’s Palate” has personally tasted over 150,000 food & beverage products and directs the Academy’s tasting panels and industry outreach efforts.

Judged for superior taste attributes Live Gourmet living family of products surpassed all competitors in the category. Taste, size, texture, weight, freshness, color and product uniformity were judged superior by the panel.

Live Gourmet living family of products are hydroponically grown and harvested with their roots intact to preserve freshness. Live Gourmet is merchandised by leading grocers and sold by quality minded food service purveyors across the nation.

Hollandia Produce Inc can be reached at
P O Box 1327, Carpinteria, CA 93014.
For further information, please contact Vincent Choate, Director of Marketing at
vince@hollandiaproduce.com or (805) 684-4196 ext. 11

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Fleets are increasingly turning to vehicle graphics to carry their ad messages along with their cargo. With today’s more vibrant images, it’s hard to miss these colorful moving billboards. On the following pages we present the winners of our annual fleet graphics competition.

This isn’t any ordinary head of lettuce but a premium brand that’s being delivered live with the roots still attached to guarantee consumers the freshest product available. The graphics on Live Gourmet trucks aren’t ordinary either. Unique to the design is that no adhesive material was used in the application. Rather, the vinyl was printed and stretched over a special aluminum frame that’s mounted to the truck, giving it a smooth, clean appearance. Working closely with Pete Overgaag, vice president of Hollandia Flowers-growers of the Live Gourmet brand of vegetables-Greg Novak, a designer at Partners Imaging Services, says it took his company 41/2 months to come up with exactly the right images Hollandia wanted to portray on its trucks.

According to Overgaag, Hollandia adopted the graphics last year to promote its new lettuce product. "My theory is that since we already own the trucks, this is a very effective way for us to advertise," he says. "It’s basically a one-time cost. A side benefit is that our fleet is now beautiful, stylish, and eye-catching. It stands out on the road and we get tons of compliments."

Part of what gives the graphics their sleek appearance is the process used by Metromedia Technologies (MMT) to print the vinyl material. David Schaub, account director, describes it as a flexible face vinyl that’s designed to be changeable/reusable.  "We use digital imaging technology to produce the graphics," he notes, "which gives them a clean, crisp appearance. We also use automotive grade acrylic-based paint for the longest possible durability. The MMT process produces full four color shifts from truck to truck."

The flexible vinyl is designed specifically for use with a frame system. For Live Gourmet, the Kwik Zip system from Epic Media Group was employed. The biggest advantage of the system, according to Marvin Smith, CEO, is its quick, easy installation, which allows fleets to switch the graphics on their trucks over and over again. Initial installation of the frame and graphics, he says, can be completed in under an hour. The reason the frame is so fast to use," Smith explains, "is that the installation, tensioning, and adjustment for vinyl sizing all occurs in one step. When we zip an image into the frame, it’s tensioned at about 30 pounds per inch, so it’s as tight as a drum."

Live Gourmet is using the flexible vinyl graphics and frame system on all six of its straight trucks as well as its 48-ft reefer trailer.

BY DEVORAH MCGUFFIE,
ASSOCIATE EDITOR