This story was originally published by The Merced FOCUS.
As the sun rises over a 14-acre farm just southwest of Merced, Angelica Estrada-Bugarin walks the rows of ripe cucumbers ready to be picked.
The harvest won’t travel far. It’s headed for tables in the community.
A second-generation agriculture worker turned entrepreneur, Estrada-Bugarin returned to Merced County in 2020 with a vision to rethink how local produce reaches the people who live around it.
Through her company, Sweet Valley Produce, and her new venture, the farm-to-table Sweet Roots Kitchen, she partners with small growers across the Central Valley to recover surplus and so-called imperfect crops that rarely make it to grocery stores.
“It tastes great. It just doesn’t make it to market because it’s not visibly appealing,” Estrada-Bugarin said. “We need to create consciousness around that.”
The new kitchen in downtown Merced offers a way to market imperfect produce through meals, salads, desserts, food boxes, and aguas frescas. Estrada-Bugarin hopes to reshape local food systems in a region where fresh fruits and vegetables are plentiful, yet often out of reach.
“There needs to be a connection with the food that you eat,” she said. “Food heals. Knowing your farmer and knowing what’s going into your food is huge, especially nowadays that we’re becoming more aware of all the food additives and things that are not healthy for us.”
Estrada-Bugarin’s earliest ties to food trace back to her family’s work buying the Central Valley’s harvest to sell at swap meets across Southern California.
Coming home to Merced
Estrada-Bugarin doesn’t remember much about Los Angeles, the city where she was born and her three older sisters were raised. The family business there came to a halt after the unrest caused by the acquittal of four LAPD officers in the beating of Rodney King.
“When the riots happened, they had to decide to either go back to Mexico or try out living in a small town,” said Angelica Estrada-Bugarin.
The family settled in Livingston, and a warehouse in Atwater became the base of their new operation.
Growing up between the farms and swap meets, Estrada-Bugarin set her sights on college with a clear goal to return equipped with the tools to help families like hers, who, as she put it, “struggle to keep up with the world.”
Armed with a UC Davis bachelor’s degree in managerial economics and real-life experience from working at Kitchen Table Advisors and at a fresh-cut produce company, she set out to expand her family’s work into something more lasting and community-based.
Her time away from home showed her that farmers have limited places to sell their products. Plus, her parents, like many lifelong fieldworkers, had no formal retirement plan.
“That’s when I decided to come back home 100% and help my parents be able to retire,” she said. “They’re gonna keep working until que ya no pueden – until they can’t no more.”
Her entrepreneurial debut was Sweet Valley Produce, a sweet potato wholesale operation launched in 2020 to connect small farmers to institutional buyers.She launched Sweet Roots Kitchen in downtown Merced in June. Both ventures are rooted in the work her parents have done for decades.
Inside Sweet Roots Kitchen
Nestled in the middle of the alley at 828 N. Main St., the small Sweet Roots Kitchen is designed to do more than serve lunch.
The goal, Estrada-Bugarin said, is to help farmers find a place for the fruit of their labor in a market with limited selling options.
The kitchen is open Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., offering fresh salads and wraps made-to-order using local ingredients.
“I don’t think Merced has a lot of places where you can get a fresh salad to go quickly,” Estrada-Bugarin said, adding that many customers say they feel better after eating their meals.
“They feel full, they feel energized, and some of them even said it helps their digestive system,” she said.
Each garden mix, priced at $6 for a small and $12 for a large, starts with a choice of three bases of local greens and a choice of six of the 18 mix-ins available. To finish, one of six housemade dressings is added, along with proteins ranging from a $2 boiled egg to a $4 serving of salmon.
On Wednesdays, customers can also try Mom’s Special, a comfort meal made from whatever extra ingredients are on hand. All menu items are available for delivery through DoorDash.
“We’ve had everything from chile rellenos to sweet potato enchiladas,” said Estrada-Bugarin.
A former farmworker, Yesenia Jacinto, now runs the kitchen solo, transforming whatever produce Estrada-Bugarin brings into inventive meals that reflect the season and the soil.
“It is challenging because you have to find the right one for the right thing,” said Jacinto about working with different produce items as they become available. “We’re just trying out stuff right now, and we offer it to customers. They like them.”
Jacinto’s creations have quietly built a loyal following among locals who crave something fresh and meaningful.
Elena Suaste first found Sweet Roots through a friend’s Instagram post. She works downtown at the Merced City School District office and stops by most weeks on her lunch break.
“Fresh produce,” she said when asked what keeps her coming back. “It’s nice having this here, and the fact that they offer lunches to go.”
While the menu shifts with the harvest, staples such as overnight oats, protein bowls, and parfaits layered with nonfat Greek yogurt and seasonal fruit are always available for grab-and-go.
Each Wednesday, farm boxes filled with about 15 pounds of fresh produce from local farmers are available on a first-come, first-served basis, with no subscription required.
Addressing local food access
The disconnect between abundance and access remains a reality for many in the Central Valley, an area known as one of the most agriculturally productive regions worldwide, according to A. Susana Ramirez, a public health expert at UC Merced.
“Communities here experience disproportionately-high rates of food insecurity and diet-related diseases,” she said. “My own work in the community has found that two-thirds of people say healthy food is too expensive, and this has only become worse since the COVID-19 pandemic and inflation has made food even more expensive.”
In partnership with the California Association of Family Farmers, Estrada-Bugarin’s farm packed 450 produce boxes a week for the California Association of Food Banks to be sent to the Merced County Food Bank. She chose to pack individual boxes instead of delivering in bulk, saying it helped get fresh food directly onto tables and created more jobs on the farm.
The partnership through the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program is set to expire in August. Estrada-Bugarin doesn’t expect it to be renewed.
“That is really going to affect farmers in California or in general,” she said. “That program was helping us, and now that it’s not available, we’re not getting that access (to food banks and institutions).”
Though the recently-passed federal budget package known as One Big Beautiful Bill didn’t directly defund food banks, Ramírez said its broader cuts, “have reduced support for nutrition assistance and rural development programs that are going to worsen food insecurity in already hungry areas like Merced County.”
The success of community-based food systems, Ramirez said, depends on trust and sustained participation.
“Models that are grounded in community needs and developed with them … can help to improve access, in terms of affordability and geographic availability, and also in terms of cultural relevance and dignity,” she said.
Efforts like Estrada-Bugarin’s deserve attention, but Ramirez said they shouldn’t be seen as a substitute for broader policy action.
“It’s important that we don’t let governments off the hook, even as we celebrate community-empowered models,” said Ramirez. “It is a profound societal failure that people go hungry in a land of such agricultural abundance and wealth.”
The people behind the produce
Back at the farm, community spirit is grounded in the daily rhythms of the land.
Three dogs roam the property, usually quick to bark when anyone approaches, according to Estrada-Bugarin. This time, they wandered over quietly, tails wagging, looking for affection.
A sense of care and renewal runs through the fields, where rotating crops are planted each season to maximize yield and sustain the ecosystem.
“Each crop will give back to the soil,” Estrada-Bugarin said. “We have lemongrass, we have beans, we have jicama, squash, corn, chayote, and sugar cane.”
Corn stalks planted between the crops create natural windbreaks to protect both the harvest and the buzzing life that helps it thrive.
“We have beneficiary plants that attract honeybees,” she said. “They pollinate the plants and eat the aphids.”
In a region where agricultural work is often seasonal and unstable, Estrada-Bugarin said she cultivated something different. In this workplace, employees return year after year, not just for the paycheck, but for the environment she’s created.
“People like coming back every time,” she said. “My goal is to have work year-round. That’s why we planted this year, para también darles trabajo a todos — so we could employ everyone.”
Her parents still work alongside Estrada-Bugarin, though in more comfortable roles. Her father offers guidance and her mother manages the books.
There are only five, non-family, year-round positions, but turnover is rare.
Blanca Cervantes used to pack vegetables for Estrada-Bugarin’s father. When his daughter’s new venture began, Cervantes joined the team.
“Cuando agarraron este rancho nos venimos y ya tenemos bastantito — when they got this ranch, we came to work here, and we’ve been here a while,” she said in Spanish.
Originally from Oaxaca, Cervantes has worked in Central Valley fields for more than two decades.
Her sister works beside her. Her daughter, who has an intellectual disability, often joins them too, pitching in to assemble produce boxes or other tasks around the farm.
“She gets paid for that,” Cervantes said. “She’s a great boss. She’s overly good.”
Estrada-Bugarin smiled. “We really believe in supporting each other. Y por eso trabajamos a gusto — that’s why we work in peace.”
A small house on the property, included with the farm when it was purchased, now functions as both a kitchen for workers and a temporary home for those without housing.
Two warehouses stand at the heart of the farm. One is mostly empty, holding newly-acquired equipment for processing pre-cut produce, which Estrada-Bugarin hopes will create more jobs.
The other is stacked wall-to-wall with wooden bins, filled to the brim with sweet potatoes marked with the names of farms across Merced County.
Among them is Kuldip Singh, a third-generation onion farmer from Livingston. His family has supplied Estrada-Bugarin since she launched her business, though their connection goes back much further.
“I’ve known her since I was a kid,” he said.
As Estrada-Bugarin’s husband, Gustavo Avila, steered a forklift carrying 400 pounds of onions for salad kits and produce boxes, Estrada-Bugarin learned that Singh had about 1,000 pounds of okra he couldn’t sell.
“I need to find some okra recipes,” she said.
Built to give back
In a field often dominated by men, Estrada-Bugarin credits her quiet resolve and sense of grit to her father, who raised four daughters to hold their own.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re a man or a woman. You’re a business person first,” she remembered him saying. “It takes a lot to set up your value and your place in the business world. I like to represent women in a good way.”
She hopes one day the business will switch to a nonprofit organization so she can access grants and other funding to expand operations while supporting the workers.
“I’m very confident that what we have going is a good idea, and that it comes from the best place in our heart… for our community,” Estrada-Bugarin said.
Her motivation — or “ganas,” as she put it — isn’t about chasing wealth. It’s about giving back to the people who have long kept the system moving: her parents’ generation, her team, and the farmworkers who often grow the food but can’t afford to eat it.
“They need me, and I need them,” Estrada-Bugarin said. “We have so much food available, and yet the people who are working in the communities, working in the farms, don’t really have access to that food.
“We feel the support and the love, and we want to give back as much as we can and stay in business.”