Our Story

The Deardorff family arrived in Jackson California in 1850. As German farmers during the gold rush, they soon discovered that food was better than gold; everyone has to eat, miners included. After the second generation came along, they picked up and traveled down the hill and began dry farming grain in Merced. Due to disputes between Mexican and Spanish land grants, the family lost two of their farms.

The Deardorff family was able to take advantage of the Homestead Act of 1862, signed by President Lincoln, and in 1870 they moved to Kings  County.

Some years later, in 1933, Rusty’s grandfather met and married his grandmother. Her family was farming walnuts and thus two love affairs began. In 1956 the current property was purchased here in Hickman, California. The first walnut trees were planted in 1959.

In 1968 the first hulling and dehydrating line was installed to hull and dry the family's own walnuts. It was state of the art at 2 tons per hour with a total drying capacity of 12 tons. It wasn’t until the mid 1990’s that the Deardorff family began commercial hulling and dehydrating.

The expansions in 2005 and 2006 have increased the drying capacity to 275 tons. For 2011 our hulling line will have a capacity of 20+ tons an hour with a total drying capacity of 500 tons.