You can take the man out of Tucson, but in Yadi Wang‘s case, it would appear you can’t take Tucson out of the man.
Which could explain why Wang, who earned his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering and last year finished a doctorate in agriculture and life sciences from the University of Arizona, was eager to reconnect after taking a job in February as the general manager of Oatman Flats Ranch and Oatman Farms in Gila Bend.
Oatman Farms grows the heritage grains that are the soul of Tucson’s City of Gastronomy — White Sonora, Blue Beard Durum, Skagit 1109, Red Fife and Mesquite wheats, most of it using environmentally conscience regenerative farming practices that don’t require irrigation.
“Every year we generate roughly a half million pounds of grains so that roughly conserves 3½ million gallons of water,” said Wang, a native of China who came to the United States in 2010 initially to play college basketball in California before ditching his hoop dreams for the UA.
Oatman produces a line of bread, pancake and waffle mixes that they started selling in July through Amazon and their website, oatmanfarms.com. Wang figured there was likely a market here for those mixes, especially the popular Sonora Wheat blends.
Wang
But Wang and his small staff were a bit out of their league; they had the product and the moving parts, but they weren’t sure where to go with it.
“In food space, we realized there are a lot of learning curves,” he said, adding that his goal with becoming part of the StartUp Tucson accelerator program was to create some brand recognition for Oatman’s grains and mixes.
The 11-week program helped food entrepreneurs develop ways to bring their ideas to the market, or find bigger markets for their existing products.
“We are hoping to have some degree of brand recognition and to continue to network with StartUp Tucson to grow in the community,” he said.
The program paid off. Wang said he made connections with Barrio Charro and the Southern Arizona Heritage & Visitor Center, both of which are carrying his mixes.
“It was very beneficial for us particularly in the Tucson market,” he said.
