My guest Ellen Brokaw is the President and Owner of Brokaw Nursery, one of the largest subtropical tree suppler located in Ventura County, California. Sixty years ago, Hank and Ellen Brokaw began the nursery as an avocation. With hard work and innovation, they built Brokaw Nursery into one of California’s largest suppliers of subtropical orchard trees. Brokaw currently produces over 300,000 plants per year and exports to several countries worldwide. They are an industry leader in innovation of new varieties of fruits and rootstocks. They specialize in avocados and citrus. My conversation with Ellen various topics from the history of avocados & Brokaw Nursery to farm worker housing and the power of bringing diverse communities together. Please enjoy the episode.
My guest Ellen Brokaw is the President and Owner of Brokaw Nursery, one of the largest subtropical tree suppler located in Ventura County, California. Sixty years ago, Hank and Ellen Brokaw began the nursery as an avocation. With hard work and innovation, they built Brokaw Nursery into one of California’s largest suppliers of subtropical orchard trees. Brokaw currently produces over 300,000 plants per year and exports to several countries worldwide. They are an industry leader in innovation of new varieties of fruits and rootstocks. They specialize in avocados and citrus.
Brokaw Nursery website - http://www.brokawnursery.com/
This episode is sponsored by UnitedAg, one of the largest association health plans to offer healthcare to the agriculture industry of California and Arizona.
Kirti Mutatkar, President and CEO of UnitedAg. Reach me kmutatkar@unitedag.org, www.linkedin.com/in/kirtimutatkar
UnitedAg's website - www.unitedag.org
Speaker1: [00:00:00] today I'm really, really excited because I have Ellen Brokaw, the president and the owner of Brokaw Nurseries here with me. And this [00:00:10] is really special for me, Ellen, because I know you knew Bill and Jo Goodrich. So Bill was our founding CEO at United AG. My mentor, [00:00:20] my coach, I've learned a lot of things from him. I looked up to him. So this is a very special podcast for me. So welcome to the show.
Speaker2: [00:00:31] Thank [00:00:30] you so much. I do indeed have a long relationship with UnitedAg, which has been very [00:00:40] enjoyable and beneficial.
Speaker1: [00:00:43] One of the things I was really when I do this podcast, what is your my 10th podcast interview? What [00:00:50] I've learned, I don't know how many people listen to the podcast that is important, but for me personally, the growth, I have gone [00:01:00] through my personal growth by just listening to leaders like you and your stories have been so enriching and so inspiring. So even if one person like me inspired, [00:01:10] I feel like that's success and our employees are that I listen to this podcast and they get inspired. So I just wanted to know, what's your story, Ellen?
Speaker2: [00:01:21] Well, [00:01:20] since I'm 89, I think a lot of I can say, Yeah.
Speaker1: [00:01:28] We are listening. [00:01:30]
Speaker2: [00:01:32] I'm married at 21, moved from Chicago with my new husband to Ojai [00:01:40] in 1954. He? I had met him in the Glee club at the University of Chicago. He [00:01:50] had recently graduated from Harvard and was at the University of Chicago getting a master's degree in anthropology. And [00:02:00] he wanted to teach in his home state, which was California. So we moved to California, and [00:02:10] I thought I was married to a teacher and I was for ten years. But during that time he started growing [00:02:20] avocado trees in our backyard in coffee cans, because he had grown up in a family that [00:02:30] of avocado and citrus nursery men in Whittier. That little enterprise grew and grew. So [00:02:40] by the time he had been teaching ten years, he had a quite large nursery, and he was [00:02:50] ready to make the decision whether to become a farmer or a nurseryman or whether to continue teaching. By that time we had three children [00:03:00] and very little money because teaching I was I was home raising children. We only had one income and teaching didn't pay very much. [00:03:10] We consulted and decided to do it. And after ten years he switched and started [00:03:20] a nursery, which grew into a very successful enterprise. After my youngest, [00:03:30] the youngest of our five children, was ready to go to school, I joined him in the business and that's when I first began [00:03:40] to get acquainted with farmworkers. And since I tried as much as I could to help them with any problems, [00:03:50] both at work in a way that they were experiencing, I learned a lot. Part of what I learned was that [00:04:00] they were living often in appalling circumstances, in garages, single [00:04:10] rooms that weren't really meant for habitation or crowded into houses.
Speaker2: [00:04:19] Several families [00:04:20] in a house that was meant for one family. For years I thought about that and wondered what I could do. But I didn't have [00:04:30] an opportunity until about 25 years ago. I didn't see how to what how to do anything. But [00:04:40] I didn't. About 25 years ago, I was part of a group that's called the Farm Workers Alliance, and we did a study on farmworker [00:04:50] housing and produced a report. And out of that effort, the nonprofit that I've been volunteering [00:05:00] with ever since was born. It's called House Farmworkers. But I want to go back to the nursery business because [00:05:10] Brokaw Nursery was my springboard into this kind of community action also. I want to talk a little bit about my husband [00:05:20] because he was an innovator and creator and problem solver. He [00:05:30] was the kind of person that would spend years trying to solve some problem about [00:05:40] how to grow a better avocado tree, fail, try again, persist. And because he both had the [00:05:50] scientific background, because he'd been pre-med in college and because he had this characteristic of persistence, [00:06:00] stubbornness, you know, he solved a very big problem in the avocado industry, which was how [00:06:10] to produce avocados that could resist the disease that was killing orchards all over the state [00:06:20] in the 1960s and seventies, a disease called avocado, root rot or Phytophthora Simoni. And the process that he was [00:06:30] able to come up with and commercialize so that he could grow, it could be grown in a nursery on a large scale as the cloning [00:06:40] of the rootstock, and now it is commonly used all over the world.
Speaker1: [00:06:46] When you were talking about that story, it reminded me of Thomas [00:06:50] Edison, right? The light bulb thing that you do, you try, you try, you persistent, you persistent. And then that that's what happened. For some reason, when you're telling me that story, it reminded me of that. And [00:07:00] he about his persistence and what he did. He solved a problem and avocado And that's what that's the reason why the market that is today [00:07:10] with avocados and where it is, is credit goes to Hank. Right.
Speaker2: [00:07:16] Right. And the other thing about him was that he was [00:07:20] never about making money. I mean, he wanted his business to succeed because he wanted to support his family and continue [00:07:30] to employ his people. He was always focused on the future. And when he did manage to succeed at one of his [00:07:40] ventures, he apparently was then no longer interested, didn't take a whole lot of pleasure in that. It [00:07:50] was just on to the next thing.
Speaker1: [00:07:53] He was, like you said, the true problem solver, innovator, he solved the problem is going to move on to the next one.
Speaker2: [00:08:00] And [00:08:00] he was always dreaming. One of the things that the that the family still laughs about was that he was [00:08:10] periodically talking about going to Paraguay and raising cattle.
Speaker1: [00:08:19] That would have been [00:08:20] his next one, because that's quite a journey for him, right, from Harvard and Chicago. [00:08:30] And then he comes to California, and he does this. This is that. That's amazing. I don't know if people love avocados. I love [00:08:40] avocados, and others do, too. But the amazing part is through I've noticed through these podcasts, we find so many of these stories that link back to the food we [00:08:50] eat. Some I'm sure people did not know this if that wouldn't have been solved right the disease that he was working on, then we wouldn't have [00:09:00] had the avocado crop like we see today. You were part of the operation from after the kids grew up and stuff and you got involved [00:09:10] in it. And I know you've been engaged. And even since he passed away, you still have been really involved with the operation, right?
Speaker2: [00:09:18] Well, I remained [00:09:20] involved with the nursery, but one of the things that happened over the years was that not only did he sell the nursery trees that [00:09:30] we grew, he also bought property in Santa Paula, planted orchards, so we were could also [00:09:40] produce fruit. When my oldest son, Rob was, who had been working with us in the nursery, was about 30, 30, [00:09:50] 35. Hank turned the nursery over to him. And we separated the two businesses and they're still going and they're still [00:10:00] family businesses. So at this point we have Brokaw Nursery, which is an LLC and and broke our ranch company. Hank and I and the remaining [00:10:10] kids lived on the ranch in Santa Paula, which we moved to in about 1980. And [00:10:20] he then, for the rest of his life, managed the ranch property and other ranch properties we had.
Speaker1: [00:10:28] One of the things that you mentioned [00:10:30] when you were earlier on, you were involved in the nursery. You kind of saw the farm workers understood that you are a very employee centric [00:10:40] and you took the time to understand what your workers needed. So and then a couple of years later, we got a little bit more involved in it. So can you can you tell [00:10:50] us a little bit about that and where what is the situation like today and what can we do to the people listening and UnitedAg to help with [00:11:00] this?
Speaker2: [00:11:00] The organization I spoke of has farmworkers, doesn't build housing. We do education and [00:11:10] advocacy. In Ventura County. Most farmworkers live inside one of our tent cities. Because we have [00:11:20] very restrictive policies about what can be built on unincorporated land. Including [00:11:30] land zoned for agriculture. We have committees in six of the ten cities, those that have most [00:11:40] farm workers. And the kind of work we do is to try to make the farm work worker real to [00:11:50] the general populace, populous of the city. Because people who live in Ventura County mostly appreciate the fact that [00:12:00] we have these orchards and green fields between our cities. They think they're beautiful and they drive [00:12:10] by them and they see people working in the field, but they have no idea what the lives of those people are like, and they don't realize that [00:12:20] they most of those people are part of the communities that they live in, in the cities. So we try to we have a film and we [00:12:30] give programs and try to develop both knowledge and interest in the welfare of farm workers. And then the major [00:12:40] work is advocacy with the political leaders that make the decisions are the ones that approve or disapprove proposed [00:12:50] farmworker housing in their cities over the last 20 years. They're actually after a long period when almost no housing was built [00:13:00] there has been some increase in housing for farmworkers. Probably at this point about 2000 [00:13:10] units. But there are more than 40,000 farmworkers in Ventura County. So there's a long way to [00:13:20] go. Unfortunately, there are still people living in very overcrowded circumstances, which became very [00:13:30] apparent in the pandemic when it was almost impossible for families to protect themselves. When once one person got infected.
Speaker1: [00:13:39] As a [00:13:40] farmer, you understood what the farmworkers were going through. And you tried that group tried to help and do this. But the perception when [00:13:50] you look at somebody thinking of agriculture or somebody from outside, the perception is that the farmer treats the farmworker a certain way. [00:14:00] And what I have found being involved in this industry for now over 30 years, it's the farm, the owners, the employers, everybody wants [00:14:10] to take care of the farm workers. That's what I've seen. But there is this misconception out there that that's not happening. Do you have any thoughts on [00:14:20] that and why. Why would why is that? Why does that occur?
Speaker2: [00:14:25] You know, if we say, well, you know, we're really trying to do [00:14:30] our best and we're good guys.
Speaker1: [00:14:33] That sounds defensive.
Speaker2: [00:14:35] Yeah.
Speaker1: [00:14:35] Yeah, it doesn't. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker2: [00:14:38] So. That [00:14:40] year. That leads me to the other thing that I've been very involved in more recently, the last five years [00:14:50] There are groups in Ventura County and indeed everywhere in the county where AG takes place [00:15:00] that do advocacy on the part for farmworkers. And they actually are the ones [00:15:10] that keep telling people that farmworkers are being mistreated. And since we have the unfortunate [00:15:20] human tendency to glom onto the bad news and the negative, they are believed and [00:15:30] some of what they say is true. Yeah, but we have a very forward-looking farm leader in Ventura [00:15:40] County who's the head of a very large berry company, Reiter Berry and Garland Reiter, in [00:15:50] response to a publication of a list of demands for change [00:16:00] for farmworkers. That seemed to say that all ag employers in Ventura County [00:16:10] were mistreating their farm workers and therefore action was needed to remedy this on the part of our political leaders, our Board of [00:16:20] supervisors. Anyway, in reaction to that, he pulled together a bunch of few of us or fellow ag employers [00:16:30] and suggested that we try to find some common ground with. These groups [00:16:40] that were calling us names.
Speaker1: [00:16:45] Right.
Speaker2: [00:16:47] Now, most of the ag community was very angry about [00:16:50] that. But Garland said, you know, it doesn't do us any good to be angry and fight with them. So the upshot of that [00:17:00] was the three of us. Sat down with four people from the leading organizations in the county [00:17:10] there called my cop, And what is the M4? [00:17:20] I guess it's a mystical Indigenous organizing committee and Paws which does. Social [00:17:30] justice work for not only farmworkers, but all people who are disadvantaged [00:17:40] in Ventura, Santa Barbara counties. And my eldest daughter was [00:17:50] the facilitator for this group. At the first meeting that you could have cut the distrust around the [00:18:00] table with a knife. And one of the the the young doctor who was the board chair for my cup said [00:18:10] at that meeting, if we accomplish anything, it will be a miracle. So we named ourselves the Miracle Group, and that's what we still call [00:18:20] ourselves. This group is still meeting. It's been expanded a little bit. And we we looked at the ten item Bill of Rights [00:18:30] that cause had published to see if there was anything in it that we could agree about. [00:18:40] One of their list of demands that cause had issued was to establish a an ombudsman blessed by the county [00:18:50] to assist farmworkers and in their issues, workplace issues.
Speaker2: [00:18:56] So after probably a year of [00:19:00] discussion, two of us went to the Board of Supervisors to to one particular supervisor and asked if [00:19:10] he would sponsor the creation of a program to help farmworkers resolve issues [00:19:20] with the first. Emphasis being on trying to resolve them with the employer on the ranch. Empowering the worker [00:19:30] to help himself, in other words the fallback being assisting workers in dealing with the agent appropriate agency [00:19:40] to help them, which was almost impossible for them with language barriers and the difficulty of reaching these agencies that are [00:19:50] spread all over the state and not locally present. The board approved and passed this program and several [00:20:00] of us on the Miracle Group became part of the advisory. Committee for it that then actually created [00:20:10] the nuts and bolts of the program. And it is now called the Farmworker Resource Program. It's housed in in [00:20:20] the Human Services Department of the county has a staff, an amazing leader who had [00:20:30] already been working in that department. And I think now four outreach workers, [00:20:40] all of whom are trilingual. So they speak English, Spanish, at least the indigenous [00:20:50] language Mixteco and often other indigenous languages that are often also spoken in the in our workforce. And [00:21:00] that program has been so successful that it is now being replicated around the state.
Speaker2: [00:21:08] The bill [00:21:10] was passed in the state legislature to fund replication of the program elsewhere and under the leader of Telia, [00:21:20] who is the head of it, her amazing leadership, they the services that they provide, have now gone beyond [00:21:30] helping with workplace issues. One of the things that happened during the pandemic that I was very involved in was establishing [00:21:40] a program, another coalition. Of House farmworkers. The Ventura [00:21:50] County Community Foundation. And the Farm Worker Resource Program to raise money to give to farm [00:22:00] workers who were to grant out to farm workers who were unable to pay their rent and their cover, their [00:22:10] transportation costs, their utilities or medical bills, or even pay for food because so many lost their jobs during the pandemic. [00:22:20] You know, so much of the work we do to try to help people is just putting Band-Aids on. And what we need [00:22:30] is really systemic change that will solve the problem. And I think the only way that kind of change can come about is through collaboration [00:22:40] and that the Miracle Group represents this. Program during the pandemic represented. There's just a huge power [00:22:50] in bringing diverse parts of the community together to address something. So I really [00:23:00] just love working on that kind of thing.
Speaker2: [00:23:55] I'd like to come back to the family business. And [00:24:00] just to clarify what has happened in the last few years. When my husband moved [00:24:10] to to run the ranches, we and we had separated the two companies. We renamed [00:24:20] the ranch company Brokaw Ranch Company. So we have now Brokaw Nursery and Brokaw Ranch Company. And he had a stroke 14 [00:24:30] years ago and died 12 years ago, at which point our longtime manager was [00:24:40] left in charge. Now, he was a man who had come to work for Hank when he was probably about 20. He had [00:24:50] a fourth grade education. He knew nothing about ranching. When he came to work for us, he'd been working or nothing about tree crops. He'd been working [00:25:00] in other parts of the state. And today he is our ranch manager, an absolutely amazing man. He [00:25:10] is has made himself fluent in English. He's become a U.S. citizen, raised a wonderful family here. [00:25:20] He is has a an empathy with his employees, with our [00:25:30] workers. That is remarkable. And at the same time, he demands a lot. Yeah. And they give [00:25:40] a lot.
Speaker1: [00:25:41] That's a good leader. Sign of a good leader.
Speaker2: [00:25:43] During the Thomas Fire, which burned a good portion of our orchards, we [00:25:50] were just five miles from where it began, and it went right through the ranch. And he and his crew, [00:26:00] all the families got off the ranch. And my daughter and I actually were already off the ranch when it started. But [00:26:10] he and his crew stayed to fight the fire, and they didn't have much help from the fire crews because they were busy rescuing people [00:26:20] and they spent all night beating out flames, employing the water truck, trying to save everything that they could. And when Debbie [00:26:30] and I were finally able to come back onto the ranch sometime the following day, the fire was still smoldering everywhere. Workers [00:26:40] were still there, red eyed and exhausted. And one of them came up to us and said with crying, saying, I'm so sorry we couldn't [00:26:50] save everything. Oh. Oh. So. They were absolutely [00:27:00] our heroes. Yeah. And his leadership was key to it all. So I. I [00:27:10] took over as CEO of the ranch, which was funny because I really knew nothing. But [00:27:20] Jose knew a lot and he needed somebody to make the big decisions. So. So I did that for a few years. And then [00:27:30] I had promised my children that I would retire at some point. You know, I'm I'm not working actively in [00:27:40] either one, either the nursery or the ranch anymore, but I still chair of the board of the ranch company. So I have my finger in it. [00:27:50]
Speaker1: [00:27:52] And you do a lot of community service and you do all of that. So you super, super busy lady.
Speaker2: [00:27:59] That just [00:28:00] saved me during the pandemic because I live alone in my house. Although Debbie's not far away. She lives on the ranch about half a mile away. But I was alone for months and months [00:28:10] and. But through Zoom.
Speaker1: [00:28:13] Yeah, yeah.
Speaker2: [00:28:15] I was able to do a lot. And. And to have purpose [00:28:20] and feel useful is very important as you get old.
Speaker1: [00:28:27] Is there anything, Ellen, that we missed? Anything [00:28:30] you want to add?
Speaker2: [00:28:32] Oh, I could talk all day.
Speaker1: [00:28:34] I could listen all day. This is just that I'm [00:28:40] like, okay. I know you and I talked earlier, but this is so much good information. This is this is awesome.
Speaker2: [00:28:46] Thank you very much. I enjoyed it. And wonderful. [00:28:50] Thank you so much, Kirti.
Speaker1: [00:28:51] Thank you.
Speaker2: [00:28:52] Bye bye.