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Clarisa Cruz, cc33645

23 October 2013
Hilltop Gardens and the growth of aloe vera

First, off a long and winding, seldom busy farm-to-market road, you see the palm trees. Tall and
slim except for the green bust at the top, they line both sides of a mile and a half long driveway.

The asphalt driveway sits in the middle of 500 acres of farmland. The brown dirt is tilled and the
straight rows seem to go on forever. Unlike the surrounding fields that seem to cover every inch
of the land not occupied by a road or a house, this land grows aloe vera plants.

Aloe vera leaves are processed and used cosmetically and medicinally throughout the world.
Hilltop Gardens, Inc. is one branch of a company invested in planting, harvesting and processing
aloe vera and implementing it into several products.

Hilltop Gardens is known as the historical home of aloe and boasts the largest collection of
species aloe in the United States with over 200 species, Paul Thornton, Botanical Garden
Manager, said. It is located in Lyford, Texas and the warm southern climate houses aloe well.

(Hilltop Gardens) earliest history dates back to 1939 with the Ewald family, Thornton said.
Were currently working on getting a state of Texas historical marker for recognition as the first
aloe vera farm in the country. Hilltop Gardens parent company, Econet, bought the land in
1988 and has continued growing aloe and expanding.

The dark green aloe plants sit in soft, light brown dirt 22 inches from each other in rows spaced
40 inches apart on 15 acres Andy Cruz, Farm Facility Manager, explained.

Planting the aloe vera starts with six inch pups, which are the little baby leaves, cut from the
mother plant, Cruz said. Traditionally you harvest just the outer leaves- the older, mature
leaves- every 90 days. Standard operation procedure is to leave 14 leaves on the plant.

Once the aloe vera leaves are harvested, they go through one of two types of processing- inner
gel or whole plant processing- Joseph Kim, Executive Vice President of Operations, explained.

Inner gel processing is when the leaves are put on a machine that takes off the skin and we
collect the soft gel from the leaves and throw out the skin, Kim said. In whole plant
processing, we chop the leaves three or four times and send them to a grinder to mix the skin and
the gel.

Prior to processing, workers cut the top and bottom of the leaves off because there is an
unnecessary ingredient called aloin that is not safe to use, Kim said. The aloin, which makes the
clear gel look yellow, is what causes the unpleasant odor associated with aloe vera. The gel itself
is odorless and flavorless.

The end result of processing is either a juice or powder product, both 100 percent aloe ingredient,
Kim explains. Concentrating the juice product takes the water out of it and concentrating the
powder product takes all the moisture out of the aloe juice, Kim said.

These products are used in a wide variety of products made and sold by Hilltop Gardens and its
family companies.

Aloe really just does a lot, Thornton said. It works on a cellular level in a very broad way
throughout the body, and topically outside the body.

We put it in creams, gels, drinks, ointments, shampoo and conditioner, soaps, Cruz said. All
the products have aloe in them, Thornton said.

The use of aloe vera in cosmetic and medicinal products is increasing as the benefits of aloe
become more known. As the industry continues growing, so will the organic, hidden gem that is
Hilltop Gardens, Inc.

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