Looking back on the Southeast Produce Council’s (SEPC) Southern Exposure 2026, this year’s theme, “From Fields to Families: Nourishing Our Nation,” was a meaningful reminder of why we do what we do. As a family-owned company that’s been growing fresh vegetables since 1924, we’ve always focused our innovation on the real-life needs of families.
Dinnertime is a real-life challenge for families.
Families want to put fresh, wholesome meals on the table. But dinnertime comes after long workdays, school pickups, sports practices, and packed calendars. Finding the time to serve fresh, nutritious meals is a challenge we can all relate to. This challenge drives everything we’re working on at Ocean Mist Farms: finding more ways to create shortcuts to fresh, ready-to-cook meals that are easier, faster, and more enjoyable.
Fresh vegetables for every occasion.
Southern Exposure gave us the chance to share the full range of what we offer. Our conventional line includes more than 30 fresh items, from our signature artichokes (green, purple, and baby) to broccoli, cauliflower, romaine, Brussels sprouts, spinach, kale, asparagus, and more. Along with our value-added products like our Season & Steam line, this year’s show allowed us to spotlight our award-winning Roastables product and our latest fresh innovation, Heartichokes.
Say goodbye to long prep times for fresh
Both Roastables and Heartichokes provide your family with:
• Fresh options without lengthy or messy prep
• Convenient shortcuts you can feel good about
• Flavor-forward vegetables that deliver homemade flavors
• Easy ways to incorporate more produce into weekly meals
Our Roastables kits, now seven items strong with a rebrand and bold new packaging, got a great response on the show floor. Each kit comes washed and ready to cook with flavorful seasoning blends like zesty herb, buffalo, and sweet sesame. Roast, air-fry, microwave, or sauté; these fresh vegetable choices go straight from package to pan.
Heartichokes: artichokes, any night of the week.
Heartichokes, the first-of-their-kind fresh artichoke quarters in ready-to-cook kits, made a big splash at Southern Exposure. Never frozen, Heartichokes go from bag to table in about 20 minutes, with no trimming, and are available in Lemon Butter, Savory Parmesan, and Unseasoned.
As Chris Drew put it, “When weeknights are hectic, products like Roastables and Heartichokes make it easy to put wholesome, home-cooked meals on the table in a fraction of the time.”
Heartichokes are shipping now and heading to stores. Keep an eye on the fresh produce aisle. We created them because artichokes shouldn’t be a “weekend only” ingredient. They’re an anytime ingredient.
Why it matters.
Everything we grow and create comes from a simple belief: fresh vegetables should fit into your life, not the other way around. A century of farming has taught us that quality starts in the field, but innovation is what gets it to your table when you need it most. This year’s Southern Exposure resonated with our mission to bring fresh, nourishing food from the field to your family.
“Our latest innovations deliver the convenience today’s busy families are seeking without compromising on flavor or nutrition, and Southern Exposure was the perfect place to tell our story,” said President and CEO Chris Drew.
Find Ocean Mist Farms products at a store near you at oceanmist.com/where-to-buy.
