From A Dairy to Treenuts

Charles Crivelli farms tree nuts in Stanislaus County. He said his family started with a dairy.

“I grew up in a dairy farm family. And in 1965 I left dairy farming and went into banking with Farm Credit where I spent 35 years and retired in 2000. The last 20 years I served as CEO and stayed in the four-county area Stanislaus, Merced, Mariposa, and Tuolumne Counties,” he said.

“I was quite familiar with the area and I bought my first 20-acre almond ranch in 1978, then just kind of expanded our operations as we moved along. And today we farm with my son-in-law and granddaughter, about 300 acres, about 60% of its almonds, 40% walnuts, and we operate a walnut huller,” noted Crivelli

Crivelli said his son-in-law and granddaughter do the day-to-day work, however he still makes the rounds nearly every day.

And I've got a key guy that's been with me 25 years. And he is an integral part of our operation.

And again, he's on that farm, checking things out, making sure things are going right.

“I just kind to wander around and oversee what's going on. And, and it's fun. I’m still involved,” he said.