About Us

One Earth Hearts of Palm is a part of California Specialty Produce, a family owned and operated company founded by German Llano and his wife Clara Fernandez in 1986. California Specialty Produce has been growing, importing and distributing specialty gourmet vegetables and herbs to the finest restaurants in the US and Canada for 35 years. They started their small company out of the back of a station wagon and grew it into a well-renowned, boutique provider of specialty produce. This tight family crew has always maintained a strong commitment to the highest quality produce and the strictest environmental guidelines. It was this ethos that motivated them to develop a market in the United States for fresh hearts of palm and try to spread the word about this amazing, yet little-known, product.

Spending much of their time living in the mountains and jungles of Costa Rica, the Llano family developed a close relationship with the tropical rainforest and the rural people that live and work there. They could see that besides being delicious, nutritious and incredibly versatile, fresh hearts of palm have many positive environmental benefits for the regions they are grown in, as well as socio-economic benefits for the farmers that purvey them. The Llano family saw an opportunity to introduce the North American culinary community to a unique and versatile product, while simultaneously being part of the fight against the vicious cycle of Slash-and-Burn Agriculture that was decimating our precious rain forest (Read a little more on the environmental benefits of Fresh Hearts of Palm here).

One Earth Hearts and California Specialty Produce are now run by German and Clara’s sons, Luke and Dan, and daughter, Sarah. They continue to expand the awareness of this amazing product and help curb the effects of the exploitation of our rainforests, while creating opportunities, and providing services for small farmers in rural areas of Costa Rica.