Get to know your Growers
With the sun having set on yet another great California cantaloupe season, we encourage you to take a moment to get to know the folks behind the fruit. Please allow us to introduce your California cantaloupe farmers; meet the families and discover the stories behind a few of the California cantaloupe growers in our Golden State…
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From century-old California cantaloupe farms to rapidly-growing family operations, the culture that exists at the heart of each of the farms that grow your California cantaloupe is woven through our state’s rich history and remains ever-present today. Within these stories you will find everything from a Yale baseball captain to a San Francisco lawyer, yet the diverse pasts behind each farmer share a common thread: they all led to the sprawling fields of California cantaloupe farms that host the plants that bring us the sweetest, year after year.
Meet these unsung heroes below and the next time you sink your teeth into a sweet, juicy California cantaloupe, think of all the hard work they put into growing you the best year after year and season after season…
Steve Smith of Turlock Fruit Company: Farm Fresh Cantaloupes Shipped Right to your Local Grocery Store
George Pappas of Pappas Family Farms: Farming in the “Cantaloupe Center of the World”
Pat Tucker and Barry Zwillinger, The Heart and Soul of Legend Produce
Bill Colace of Five Crowns in the Imperial Valley, the First to Harvest and the Last to Finish
Berj Moosekian of V.H. Azhderian & Company, a story spanning over 100 years and 2 countries
Garrett Patricio of Westside Produce, modernizing the successful company from the ’40s
Alec Smith of Turlock Fruit Company, from Yale baseball to farming cantaloupe in California
All of these stories can be found in the Meet a Farmer section of the website here.
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