Legacy Continued from Page 6
very much money, and it seemed like the people who were handling the prod- uct couldn’t sell it for any extra money so we would have a profit,” he said. “So, I decided I would do my own marketing and drive it to San Francisco and Oakland wholesale markets myself.” Later, he ventured into organic ber- ry farming, but it didn’t pan out when “the yield wasn’t good enough.” When Driscoll’s took a chance on him back in 1998, he started small and built up to around 75 acres of strawberries and 75 acres of blackberries. “It’s only been in the last 25 years that I’ve really been successful,” George said. “All those other years it was just a struggle.” More than his work in the fields, George’s lasting legacy will be his influ- ence on younger generations of Pajaro Valley farmers who grew up watching him face Mother Nature season after season. “I think what they were impressed with was my determination,” he said. “I was doing everything on the farm, and the harder you worked, the more chance you had of being successful. But you had to work hard.” In a speech he gave last year honoring George as the Santa Cruz County Farmer of the Year, Tom AmRhein said, “Guy is living proof that a little hard work might kill you, but a lot of hard work won’t.”
to learn or his ability to weld any kind of equipment, but there was something that made George give him more and more responsibilities around the farm. “I learned things from him that I never thought I would learn,” Diaz said. “Like going on top of the tractor when I didn’t know how to drive. He would say, ‘Just keep going, and move this and that. You’ll figure it out.’” In 1998, they became partners, forming Rancho Alitos, and they’ve been in busi- ness farming berries ever since. “One thing about farming is, once you make friends, you keep them for life,” George said. Over the years, he’s seen the cost of farming grow exponentially. He remem- bers when there were 33 conventional lettuce farmers in this valley. Now there are six. “I can’t imagine being a young farmer starting out today,” he said. “It’s almost im- possible unless they have a father or some- one to bankroll them. The equipment is just too expensive. But there’s nowhere else in the world I would rather farm, so you make it work however you can.” (John Beck is a reporter and documentary filmmaker based in Benicia. He may be contacted at john@beckmediaproductions. com. This story was first published in the March/April 2023 issue of California Bountiful magazine.) Last year, at 91, Guy George, left, was honored as Santa Cruz County Farmer of the Year. He began growing strawberries and blackberries for Driscoll’s in 1998. He is hailed for his perseverance and regional influence in farming.
As a boy, AmRhein watched George do everything around the farm, recall- ing, “He drove tractors. He drove trucks. He got dusty. He got muddy. He got oily and greasy.” AmRhein is vice president of Naturipe Berry Growers, a Salinas-based market- ing cooperative. Dick Peixoto, also inspired by George, used the word “perseverance” to describe
his mentor. “I wouldn’t be here without Guy,” he said, leaning against his pickup truck in the middle of a Rancho Alitos blackberry farm. “When I needed a trail- er to move a tractor, Guy was there. When I needed a tractor to help cultivate, Guy was there. I remember once I had money to rent the pipe, but I still needed a pipe trailer to transport it, so once again Guy was there to help.” Peixoto owns Lakeside Organic Gardens, farming 45 crops on 48 parcels on 1,800 acres in Watsonville. He farms another 1,100 acres in the Imperial Valley. “You hit bad times, and so many peo- ple give up,” Peixoto said. “It was never an option for Guy. His motto is: ‘If you just keep going forward, times will get better.’” But possibly the most life-changing mentorship George fostered was when he took a chance on a young strawberry picker who showed promise in the fields more than four decades ago. “I didn’t speak a single word of English,” Arturo Diaz recalled. “And I didn’t speak a single word of Spanish,” George added. “So how we understood each oth- er, I don’t know, but we figured it out,” Diaz added. Born in Jalisco, Mexico, Diaz came to the U.S. at 13 and started working in the fields. Maybe it was his eagerness
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