We’re back!!!

Western Growers will hold its 2021 Annual Meeting at the Fairmont Grand Del Mar in San Diego, from November 7-10, as the western produce industry celebrates the return of in-person events with a robust program.

“We are looking forward to greeting everyone in San Diego,” said Western Growers CEO and President Dave Puglia. “The pandemic shut-downs taught us all to adapt in our professional lives, but nothing replaces being together in person. This will be a memorable occasion as we reconnect and refocus.”

“Grow Together,” the theme of the event, symbolizes the hallmark of the Western Growers Annual Meeting since its inception nearly a century ago: colleagues and competitors coming together to tackle issues of mutual concern and forge collaborative solutions that benefit the broader fresh produce industry.

“With the challenges of last year in the rearview mirror, we are refocusing on the long-term competitiveness and viability of our industry,” said Western Growers Chairman and Partner at Talley Farms Ryan Talley.

For past attendees, the format for the 2021 Annual Meeting will be a return to the familiar, featuring the networking, educational and social gatherings that have formed the core of the meeting for many years. There will be several workshops, the Chairman’s Address as well as the closing dinner, which will recognize this year’s recipient of the Award of Honor. The always-popular golf tournament will be held during the closing day of the Annual Meeting at the resort’s beautiful championship golf course.

Save the date on your calendar and sign up for the meeting on the Western Growers website (www.wga.com). Sponsorship opportunities are still available.

Amber Strohauer, Chief Operating Officer, Strohauer Farms

As a 4^th-generation farmer, Amber works alongside her father day in and day out to learn how to keep her family legacy going. She joined the family farm in May 2015 and is responsible for oversight of business development, sales and marketing, food safety compliance and logistics. She also manages the packing warehouse and H-2A employees, serving as a key player in delivering everything from fingerling potatoes to shallots.

She is heavily involved in the agricultural community, serving on boards for organizations such as Colorado Fruit & Vegetable Growers Association, Colorado Potato Administrative Committee, and Weld Food Bank. Amber is a Vanderbilt University alumna and previously worked as a Compensation Analyst for Asurion in Nashville, TN.

Fun Facts:

•  Amber is a dancing queen. She currently participates in salsa dance performance teams in Denver, CO, and was a NFL cheerleader for the Tennessee Titans in 2011 and 2012.

•  Amber thoroughly enjoys taking online courses. In fact, some may call her an “addict.”

•  Cooking is Amber’s way of relaxing. “I believe there’s no better way to show someone you care than making a home-cooked meal.”

•  Amber’s motto in life: Go big or go home.

Journey with Amber in the images below as she shares her TOP PASSIONS.

Amber is one of nine individuals selected to be in Class 6 of the Future Volunteer Leaders. She is the first Future Volunteer Leader from Colorado.

Garret Powell, Sales & Operations, Peter Rabbit Farms

Previously handling business development for tech giant Oracle, Garret has applied his operational intelligence and strong business acumen to further solidify his family farm as one of the premier produce grower/shippers in the Coachella Valley. Garret serves as a key player in the sales and operations team at Peter Rabbit Farms, and through the years has skillfully delivered a seamless customer experience and facilitated breakthrough innovations to enhance standard operating procedures.

Today, Garret proudly stands alongside his father, brother, uncle and cousin as the third and fourth generation of Powells owning and operating Peter Rabbit Farms.

Journey with Garret through the images below as he shares a little bit more about his life.

Garret is one of nine individuals selected to be in Class 6 of the Future Volunteer Leaders, a program that guides the next generation of leaders within Western Growers member companies interested in becoming more informed and effective advocates for the fresh produce industry.

George Boskovich III, Boskovich Farms and Fresh Prep

By Tim Linden

“When I was in high school, I mentioned to my dad that it would only be a couple more years before I would be working full time for Boskovich Farms,” recalls George Boskovich III, the fourth generation of the family tree involved in agriculture. “But he told me, he wouldn’t hire me unless I had a college education.”

George III, who is not called that except in the office and in this article, moved to Camarillo when he was five years old and ever since assumed he would become an active member of the Boskovich farming team. “It seems my dad (George Boskovich Jr., CEO of Boskovich Farms) always took me to work with him. At least that’s the way I remember it. From an early age I always wanted to work with my dad and figured I would.”

The younger George did go to California State University at Channel Islands, which is the youngest university in the Cal State system. George majored in Business Management and did join Boskovich Farms on a full-time basis in 2005. “My dad started me off in the sales office. He wanted me to learn about each customer and know what products they buy and how they wanted them.”

After about 18 months, George III went into the operations side to gain more knowledge on every aspect of the firm from growing through harvesting, cooling and processing. “I have been involved in many different projects in all aspects of the operation over the years,” he said.

Not too long ago, the Boskovich Farms management team, which includes George III as well as his father and others in the family business, decided to spin off its Fresh Prep division as a stand-alone company. “We did it for a number of reasons,” said George III, who serves as CEO of Fresh Prep while also continuing to wear the hat of vice president at Boskovich Farms. “We wanted to be more nimble and be able to meet consumer demand more easily.”

He said there were also fiscal management reasons, including separating risks on the business side, but first and foremost was the concept of being able to make decisions independent of the farming and commodity operations.

“This is my project,” George says, noting that sometimes the commodity and value-added businesses have to make decisions without considering the impact on each other.

To be sure, Boskovich Fresh Food Group Inc. is the parent company of both Fresh Prep and Boskovich Farms and the two sister companies do have a symbiotic relationship. But Fresh Prep also works with other growers for supplies of its value-added offerings. In 2020, Fresh Prep added a new value-added product line under its new “Fair Earth Farms” brand. The initial line included single-serve and bagged salad kits in 100 percent compostable packaging, and continues to expand.

In 1915, the family farming operation, which would eventually become Boskovich Farms, was started in the Los Angeles area by Stephen Boskovich, who had emigrated to the United States from Croatia in the 1880s. After World War II, Stephen’s three sons—Phil Sr., George Sr. and Joe—took control of the company, expanded it tremendously and started growing green onions, which became Boskovich Farms’ signature crop.

In the 1970s, the third generation joined the fold and today two of those members remain in the top leadership positions. George Jr. is the CEO of Boskovich Farms while Phil Jr. runs the growing operations.

As a member of the fourth generation, George III is joined by cousins Phil III and Bridget (Phil’s kids) rounding out the quintet of Stephen Boskovich’s family tree currently involved in the 105-year-old company.

Today, Boskovich is a well-rounded company with dozens of crops, but George III said green onions are still its number one item. “They represent about 25 percent of what we do.”

The company also has significant involvement in spinach, romaine and cauliflower, with foodservice sales accounting for about half of the business.

George said COVID and the heavy foodservice focus of Boskovich made 2020 a challenging year. “But we got through it and every week it seems like more of our foodservice business is coming back.”

The Fresh Prep CEO knows it is an increasing challenge to farm in California for many well-publicized reasons, but he believes the California ag industry will still be around, in one way or another, to provide opportunities for his children. “There will still be farming in Ventura County for at least another generation,” he predicted. “We may have to change the crops we can grow here, but the Oxnard Plain will still be here,” he said, noting that there has been a moratorium on employing ag land for other uses and he expects that moratorium to be renewed when it soon expires.

George, who turned 40 very recently, spends much of his free time with his family. He and Joanna married in 2014 and have two sons with six-year-old George IV showing an aptitude for golf.

The Short & Sweet

•   Name: George Boskovich III

•   Title: Vice President of Boskovich Farms, CEO of Fresh Prep

•   Namesake: Grandfather George Boskovich Sr. helped build the company that was started by his father, Stephen Boskovich. George Boskovich Jr. is current CEO of Boskovich Farms. And yes, there is a George Boskovich IV, who’s not yet old enough to be part of the fifth generation of the Boskovich family to farm in California…but his time is coming…around the late 2030s.

•   Family: George and his wife, Joanna, have two children: George IV, 6; and Henry, 4.

•   Family Pastime: George Sr., George Jr., and George III are into car collecting, concentrating on those in the Ford family. They have quite a few cars among them including more than a handful of Mustangs.

•   College: George earned his business management degree at nearby California State University at Channel Islands.

•   Fun Fact: “Before I popped the question to my bride, we did have subtle conversations about my intention to name my son, if we had one, George IV. If she didn’t agree that would have been a deal-breaker,” he joked.

•   More Name Games: In the office, his colleagues do call him George3, but when the family gets together there has never been an effort to distinguish among the various “George” generations with cute nicknames. “You can tell by the inflection and the tone of voice which George is being referred to,” he said.

Bruce Talbott, Talbott’s Mountain Gold, Palisade, CO
Colorado Member Profile
Member since February 24, 2014

A Family Migrates: In the first several decades of the 20^th century, the state of Colorado tried to entice residents of Iowa to relocate to the Rocky Mountain State claiming that it had an abundance of “good air and good water.” Bruce Talbott’s great-great grandfather, Joseph Evan Yeager, took the bait and moved west in 1907, and began the family history of growing peaches on the Western Slope near Palisade. Harry Augustus Talbott, a farmer from Kentucky and Bruce Talbott’s grandfather, married into the Yaeger family and began what is now Talbott Farms.

The Early Years of Talbott Farms: Granddad Talbott started the business at its current location in 1945 and ran it relatively independently, though he had some summer help from his four sons with one eventually managing a set of satellite orchards. “My granddad was an autocrat who kept tight control over the organization. Dad taught school and though he planted an apple orchard in the early ‘70s and bought a peach orchard a few years later, most of his farming efforts were marketed through the local peach co-op,” said Bruce Talbott.

When the elder Talbott retired in 1985, the organization was 90% apples, 5% peaches and 5% pears. After he retired, Bruce and two of his brothers—Charlie and Nathan—along with his dad took over the operation and have since greatly expanded it. “Dad was the exact opposite of my granddad. He had no desire to be a controller. In the early years, he was happy to let us do what we believed was necessary to stay viable.” A fourth brother went into medicine and became a doctor. He does own orchards with the production being part of Talbott Farms.

Talbott Farm’s Evolution: Today’s farm is 65% peaches and 30% wine grapes. They have some conventional and organic cherries and also produce sweet cider, hard cider and wine. Bruce said that the 1990s were a period of transition. They had some problems with peaches in the 1990s and started eliminating the apples in 1999, shipping their last apple crop in 2005. Wine grapes came into their vision in 2000. Though they were gun shy about peaches, they remained an important crop and today, Bruce Talbott raves about Colorado’s Palisade Peaches, the family’s signature crop, which he believes rivals any peach out there for great taste. The Talbotts market that peach “anywhere but California,” Bruce quips, adding that sales to several Midwestern states form the heart of their deal. Palisade Peaches are marketed from mid-July to mid-September, with the cooperation of Mother Nature. Talbott Farms grows about three dozen varieties within that time frame with each having a 10-14 day harvesting window. “We get a premium for our fruit in our market,” Bruce said.

The three brothers have divided the task of running the operation into three well-defined compartments. Bruce oversees farming, Charlie runs the business end of the operation, and Nathan is in charge of packing and processing. That includes the cider business, which was launched in 1983 and “has become a significant part of what do.” The hard cider business, and later the wine business, was started six years ago and Bruce commented that his teetotaling mother has never quite been comfortable with the wine grape and hard cider businesses.

Bruce Talbott’s Journey: Bruce was born in 1959 and grew up around the family business. He began driving a tractor and working on the farm at a very young age, which convinced him that he was going to grow up and be farmer. He worked on the family farm during summers and knew that would be his career. He took a slight detour after college and went on an eight-month worldwide tour with his younger brother. They worked along the way, picking apples in England, grapes in France, oranges in Greece and grapefruit in Israel, basically being international fruit hobos. They attempted to pick tea leaves in Malaysia but weren’t given the job. Bruce returned to Colorado to continue managing orchards for a couple neighbors. “An attempt to work for my granddad proved to be unsuccessful at which point he decided to retire,” Bruce said.

Diversification: Though the Palisade peach is their top crop, Talbott Farms has been built to last with diversification being a key component of that strategy. The operation now includes a taproom with wine and cider on tap. Bruce said the area is well known as a destination with bike riders often stopping by for a sip of one beverage or another. “We are only two miles off of I-70. It’s a very easy place to get to and a lot of tourists come by looking for fruit and wine.”

The brothers have separated the operation into multiple entities with the alcoholic beverage portion being under a separate business structure from the fruit side. A new dry storage facility was built last year for paper, aluminum cans, etc. to free up cooler space. The taproom, which was the original sweet cider building, has also seen a number of upgrades including recently adding a new stage for events.

The Next Generation: Bruce (who was born Harry Bruce Talbott) is not certain how the transition to the next generation will occur. Three of his four kids are currently involved in the alcohol and retail side of the business though “Harry” Charles Talbott would prefer to brew beer over making hard cider and wine. There are additional nieces and nephews that will hopefully return but at the moment there is no heir apparent for the farming side of the venture. Bruce said he and his brothers were never forced into the family business and he is giving his kids that same latitude. “I think a family member should spend 10 years elsewhere before coming back to work here,” he quipped.

Industry Involvement: Bruce has always been the brother involved in the farming organizations including the local Farm Bureau, Western Colorado Horticultural Society, Colorado Association of Viticulturalists and Enologists, Child and Migrant Services, Western Growers, and the Colorado Fruit and Vegetable Association. When longtime CFVGA President Robert Sakata stepped down to accept a position on the Colorado Water Conservation Board, Talbott was elected president. “I’ve always felt it was important to be a part of these organizations whether it was out of passion for agriculture or out of a sense of self preservation.”

Colorado’s Regulatory Drift Toward California: Bruce Talbott has nothing against his agricultural colleagues in California, but he is a bit perturbed about his state following California’s lead in several thorny areas including a change in overtime pay regulations, other labor laws, water priorities and urban sprawl. He said Colorado has always had good right to farm laws but population growth, urban encroachment and demographic shifts are bringing new voices to the table that have the potential of drowning out the farm community. The urban-rural divide has never been greater, affecting political attitudes and voting patterns.