Meet the Team

Jane Hayes
Jane Hayes is the founder and president of Monterey Farms since 2000. After working in the culinary field for over 25 years, her entrepreneurial spirit came to life. Exploring new ideas, she began R&D in her home kitchen using locally grown, central coast artichoke farm artichokes and developed a unique, hands-on process that provides fresh tasting artichoke hearts to her customers. Always the innovator, Jane collaborated with Janet in 2022 to create Chef Butter.

Janet Melac
Janet Melac studied at the Cordon Bleu in Paris, France where she graduated first in her class. She went on to own two award winning fine dining restaurants in California. In 2012 she joined Monterey Farms as Research and Development Chef and Quality Assurance Manager. In 2022, collaborating with Jane, Janet created Chef Butter, drawing from her knowledge of unique flavor combinations. She invites you to add a burst of flavor to your dining with Chef Butter.
North America's only Artichoke Heart Producer

The incredible edible flower™


SHOP LOCAL
Whole Foods Monterey
Local Vender Spotlight
Nutritionix ArtiHeart Fact Sheet
Nutritionix’s goal is to make it easier to understand what you eat. Through interactive nutrition tools and world-renowned nutrition database, they help millions of consumers understand nutrition every single day.
Edible Monterey
A former chef creates a convenient gourmet product from blemished artichokes that otherwise would go for animal feed.
Have You Eaten? SF | Okie Dokie Artichokie: The Sequel
I guess I still have artichokes on the brain. Paul and I are having a couple of our best friends over for dinner and I am trying to work artichokes into the menu. Chris and Carol are both great cooks, so we always need to raise the bar when we
SFO Newb Blog | Monterey Farms Artichokes! Found ‘em!
Dano and I are in love with these delicious artichoke hearts (ArtiHearts)… flavored in Herbal, BBQ, or Grilled! We would get our weekly supply at Jimbo’s… Naturally! when we lived in Encinitas. After moving to the Bay Area, I noticed that our local (Redwood City) Whole Foods did not carry
Chowhound | Monterey Farms Artichoke Hearts – FTW!!!
I just wanted to come on here and say that I’m insanely impressed with Monterey farms artichokes. I am not affiliated with them in any way, I just went into the fresh market a couple of weeks ago looking for artichokes. They are such a pain to clean and grill
Holistic Empire Blog
“OK, so let’s talk about these artichoke hearts!!! I discovered them one day in the produce section of Whole Foods. They come in a sealed plastic bag, and are made on the Monterey Peninsula in California, where artichokes thrive. I very quickly became seriously addicted to these “chokes” marinated only
Monterey Farms ArtiHearts™ featured Saveur Magazine
Fresh tasting and firm, as the product is called, retain the sweet complexity of fresh hearts.
Monterey Farms ArtiHearts™ featured in Shape Magazine
Monterey Farms ArtiHearts featured in InShape Magazine as a “Healthy Obsession”.
“Fresh Plaza” Article
Vacuum sealed artichoke hearts promote natural health benefits Earlier this year, parts of California experienced freezing conditions which had affected a number of fruit and vegetable varieties. One of these were artichokes, some of which received frost and a subsequently darkened exterior. Producers generally have a hard time selling aesthetically