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Our farm is truly family owned, 2 parents (Anne and
Tony) and 2 kids (George and Emily) own the ranch and make
decisions about how to run the business. Tony and Anne live
on the farm with Posie and Rudi (their dogs) and Brokaw (the
cat). Emily also lives on the ranch with her husband Tony
(yes, there are 2 Tonys) their new son, Oliver and dogs Tico
and Cassie. George lives with his wife Marcia and 3 kids,
Matthew, Andrew and Mariana, in Hollister where he works for
a vegetable seed company.
Tony and Emily run day-to-day operations, while Anne helps
with bookkeeping and fills in at the packinghouse when needed.
George, Marcia and the kids visit often and add advice and
input. Little Matthew and Andrew do what kids do best, they
eat lots of fruit and play in the orchard!
We are very lucky to have wonderful long-time employees, without
whom we would not be able to run the ranch. Felipe Estrada
and Reyes Estrada, from Colima, Mexico have worked for Friend's
for over 25 years and are family to us. They know the ins
and outs of the farm and are fully capable of running the
show. Their nephew, Lupe Estrada, has also been with us for
a long time and is our best tractor driver and is in charge
of the farmers' market in Gardena. Other members of the Estrada
family have also worked with us; Lupe's son Omar Estrada helps
at farmers' markets and his wife Angela helps make our juice
and usually accompanies Lupe to the Gardena market on Saturday
mornings. Without the Estrada family we would not be able
to get all the work done!
We also include within our family all of the longtime buyers of our
produce both at farmers' markets and wholesale markets. We
wouldn't be growing great fruit without the people that buy
it!
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