Bob Steinacher came to farming from an unexpected location - Silicon Valley.  His family had not been farming the land for generations, but after tending to his family's small garden became smitten with working on the land.  After leaving college to run a high school farm, he gained experience in various forms of agriculture and decided to pursue his dream by building his own farm.  He selected a 265 acre bare piece of land in the Northern California town of Corning. After inspecting the land’s soil conditions, Bob decided to plant figs for the dried fig market. In 1986, he had his first harvest. This harvest was too small to mechanically harvest and transport to the processor, so he hand picked, packed, then drove the figs to the San Francisco terminal market. The response from the buyers was so good that he decided to focus his efforts on growing fresh figs.  That same year, Bob met and married Karen, an Engineering Construction Management student at California State University, Chico. After graduation, Karen worked for various contractors. In 1989, she realized that running a farm and a construction site are very similar and decided to rework the farm's production operation. With Bob and Karen working together, the farm has become a successful operation. During harvest, Bob handles shipping and sales, while Karen runs the crews and oversees production.

In 1990, Maywood Farms obtained C.C.O.F. Organic certification for 25 acres of figs. This was so successful that they started the transition process on remaining acreage in 1998.