The Sisters Market in Exeter, owned by Bea Garcia, Jenna Allison and Elise Peltzer, are featured in a state campaign recognizing International year of the Woman Farmer. Image via California Grown

Women now operate on 63% of California farms — more than any other major agricultural state — and two Central Valley businesses are among those the state is highlighting as part of a United Nations initiative celebrating women in agriculture.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture is participating in the International Year of the Woman Farmer, declared by the United Nations for 2026. Led by the United States and supported by 123 countries, the designation recognizes women’s essential role in agriculture worldwide and reflects a global commitment to equity, visibility and opportunity across food and farming systems.

California has more than 45,000 women producers, with women making up nearly 38% of all producers statewide. In the last decade, the number of women farmers in California has grown by 13%.

One of the businesses highlighted by CDFA on its California Grown blog is The Sisters Market, run by twins Elise Peltzer and Bea Garcia, along with their cousin Jenna Allison, in Exeter. They offer curated boxes featuring citrus from their family farm paired with other locally grown produce.

The three women grew up on the family’s fourth-generation citrus farm and launched the business in 2019, shipping boxes of their family’s citrus to customers across the United States.

While The Sisters Market is known for its citrus, it also offers the family’s persimmons and pomegranates seasonally, as well as fresh produce from local farms.

 

Amber Balakian is the owner of Balakian Farms, a fourth-generation farm that grows certified organic stone fruit, heirloom tomatoes and summer crops in Reedley.

Balakian is currently a full-time professor at Fresno City College, where she teaches entrepreneurship. After attending Harvard for her master’s degree in management, she returned to the Central Valley to contribute to her family’s farming legacy.

Today, she runs the farm with her mother Ginger, grandmother Stella, aunt Kathy and father Clarence Robinson.

“What I like most about farming is probably the lifestyle. I guess what I mean by that is when it’s farming season it’s so integrated into our lives, it’s what we do, what we talk about and even what we eat. What we eat is based on what’s in season,” Balakian said.

Balakian’s heirloom tomatoes are carried by major retailers including Whole Foods Market, Williams-Sonoma and Sur La Table, and have been highlighted in Oprah Magazine and Sunset Magazine.

To elevate women’s contributions to California agriculture, CDFA has partnered with California Grown on a yearlong campaign spotlighting women farmers through a coordinated digital campaign woven throughout the organizations’ initiatives in 2026.