Farm families pause, reflect as harvest ends

By Christine Vovakes
Special to The Herald

Dusty tractors sit idle, and tall orchard ladders lean against barn walls as farmers pause at the end of another cycle of planting and harvesting.

With Thanksgiving approaching, this seasonal interlude gives farm families a chance to reflect on the joys and difficulties of a way of life that many in the younger generation are abandoning, either by choice or because of economic hardship.

In spite of a rapidly changing industry, 38-year-old Bill Carriere has decided to stay on the Glenn County land east of Willows that his great-grandfather Albini first cultivated in 1890.

“The biggest thing that drew me back to the farm was that my father, Herb, and his brother, Dick, were farming together,” he said.

He emulated their example of a compatible, equitable partnership, and sought to acquire their business skills and sense of justice.

“My dad and my uncle were the opposite of greedy, and I’m very proud of that,” he said.

After his father died in 1998, two cousins and another relative joined the family rice and walnut-producing enterprise.

He and his wife, along with their three small children, are members of St. Monica Parish in Willows.

Carriere said his Catholic faith influences his work. “It definitely has an impact on the way I treat employees, customers, vendors, and the farmer next door.”

He believes that a person’s word is his bond. “My grandfather, and my father more so, instilled that in us,” he said.

He and his partners work long, hard hours to make the business profitable. Like many small-scale farm operations, they’re trying innovative ways to reach the consumer, such as the direct marketing of packaged walnuts.

“But in the end, the way of life in farming is one of the most valuable things, even if you don’t make a lot of money,” he said.

* * *

In the harvest season of 1986, Jane Flynn was the busy mother of six active children. Her husband, Vincent Flynn, deftly oversaw the family’s Pacific Farms operations in Tehama County. Widely respected as a leader, he was appointed to numerous county, state and national agricultural boards.

His death in a small plane crash that November was a personal tragedy for Jane and their children, and their large extended families in Southern California. The loss also was shared by local communities, by fellow parishioners of Sacred Heart Parish in Red Bluff, and by those who knew him through a career in agriculture that began in 1961.

As she dealt with her grief, Jane had to make difficult decisions. She ultimately opted not to sell the family farm because her husband had invested his life’s work — and their mutual dreams — in it. Thinking of the future, she thought it was important to maintain a viable operation in the event that one of their four daughters or two sons would eventually choose to farm the family acreage.

“I also felt such a sense of responsibility to those who worked for us,” she said.

During that time, many of the employees —several of whom still work for Pacific Farms —were seeking resident alien/naturalization status in the United States. “They were as saddened and frightened as I was,” Jane Flynn said.

The employees, and the camaraderie he felt with them, eventually are what enticed Brendon Flynn back to the farm. The second youngest of the siblings — he’ll be 31 in December — Brendon and the other Flynn children spent summers working at the farm moving irrigation pipes and doing other chores.

“Working in the field with the men is something that solidified my desire to go back to the farm,” he said. “The men who work with us, and for us, are who I consider to be the backbone of our operation.”

In addition to giving him and his wife the opportunity to raise their three young children in a small town, farming provides Brendon with a sense of purpose he’s not certain he would find elsewhere.

“You put in the hours and the hard work and you see a product at the end of the day that is both useful and essential to other people,” he said. “Of course, you have to have both a product and a profit.”

He keeps abreast of the latest innovations in agriculture, keenly aware of his fiscal responsibility to make the farm worth his time and the family’ s shared investment. Experimenting with direct marketing to sell Pacific Sun olive oil, he hopes to find a cost-effective way to place the company’s new specialty item in America’s pantries.

“My challenge and my goal is to make sure our operation for the family is profitable,” he said.

The Pacific Farms land parcels — most of them Class I deep loam soils near or next to the Sacramento River — are some of the best soil in the valley.

“I feel a special attachment to the land and its production capability that’s hard to convey to other people,” Brendon said. “Land ownership from an agriculture standpoint is quite a bit different than for those who own commercial real estate, or a lot that your house is on. You develop a real affinity for certain parcels as you work with them through the years. When you consider buying and selling, there’s a practical side — the economics of it — but there’s a real emotional side, too.”

He thinks stewardship of the land is a value most farmers share.

“In general, the majority of agriculturists who understand the growing cycle know you have to be a good steward of the land,” he said. “There’s a symbiotic relationship between nature and the activities we must do to make the land productive.”

* * *

For three generations, the Spanfelner family of Red Bluff has grown walnuts in Tehama County. Dave Spanfelner said he and his brother Gary, both members of Sacred Heart Parish, face some of the same problems that confronted their grandfather and all farmers.

“You get used to dealing with the weather and all of nature’s obstacles,” Dave said, “but the biggest concern right now is marketing. There’s no built-in margin, and the price of walnuts and other commodities can keep going down and down.”

He voiced a topic painfully familiar to farmers: the small farm has to increase its economic size to compete. Too often a family operation either is swallowed up by the bank to satisfy debts, or is sold to a larger agribusiness because it simply could not survive.

“The future is the same in agriculture as it is in business,” he said. “It’s becoming more and more difficult for the small ag person to make a living.”

For various reasons, none of the two brothers’ adult children are pursuing careers in agriculture. But in spite of the difficulties, Dave said farming is still a wonderful way of life, especially for raising a family.

“I enjoy farming very much — I’m drawn to it,” he said. “There’s great satisfaction in seeing something that you initiated, and helped to grow, come into fruition. To know that something beneficial and valuable has come out of your efforts is very fulfilling. That will always hold true.”

For him, harvest determines the calendar, stretching from November to November, rather than beginning with January.

“Because of harvest, Thanksgiving is a particularly special holiday,” he noted. “It’s the culmination of the crop-growing year and it gives you a chance to share with family and friends and be thankful. It’s also an opportunity to analyze the year and decide what you can do differently.”

He looks forward to that seasonal pause. “At Thanksgiving you allow time to look inside yourself and life in general, instead of being caught up in day-to-day activities.”

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