Fruit Growers Association celebrates 103 years

Marking 103 years in business, the Loomis Fruit Growers Association held an informal year-end get-together on Dec. 29 at the Penryn home of Cliff and Jessica Kennedy. In attendance were five LFGA members - Bob Hansen, Dick Nishimura, Angel Betancourt, Janice Thompson, and Randy Hansen - as well as former employee Barbara Leak, associates, and other local growers."When the Loomis Fruit Growers Association was chartered on April 29, 1901, no one could have foreseen the changes that have taken place in the fruit industry or that the Association would become the second-oldest surviving fruit-growers operation in the state of California," wrote Barbara Leak in Volume I of "The Fruits of Their Labours - A History of the Loomis Fruit Sheds," published in 2001 by the Loomis Basin Historical Society.In 2005, the LFGA might be a shadow of its former self, but it continues to hold onto its charter.At incorporation, LFGA membership totaled 18 growers; today there are 16 members. But those numbers don't accurately tell the story of the fruit industry in Loomis and Placer County. In the 1930s and 1940s, the industry's heyday, there were seven fruit sheds in Loomis, including the LFGA's High Hand packing shed, plus 15 additional sheds throughout the county. For nearly 100 years, thousands of carloads of Placer County fruit were shipped throughout the country.The High Hand shed is now a nursery, and the LFGA has closed its office in the Blue Goose shed where it had moved after the 1998 sale of its building. But shipping continues out of Placerville."Plums and Asian pears continue to be packed at Goldbud Farms in Placerville under the High Hand label," Randy Hansen, LFGA's manager, said last week. "Most of the fruit is sent to specialty stores in the Bay Area and East Coast locations." Looking toward next year when the LFGA's charter is due for renewal, Hansen said he plans to file the necessary paperwork to keep the High Hand registered trademark in effect.Janice Thompson, whose family has been in the area and in agriculture since the 1880's, sees the growers association's long history as "a reflection of the area." "It is all a part of life as I know it," she said about the business of growing fruit and produce, harvesting it, and getting it to the consumer. Thompson's grandfather, Harold Leak, was manager of a different Loomis fruit shed, but at one time she ran a fruit stand for the Loomis Fruit Growers Association. She also served on the LFGA board for several years.Martha Garcia may be contacted at marthag@theloomisnews.net.