When asked why Filice Farms has survived for 60 years, Kay
Filice said it’s all about balance.
When asked why Filice Farms has survived for 60 years, Kay Filice said it’s all about balance.
There have been big changes since Rose and Peter Filice started the farm in 1947. The operation has grown, and the products have shifted from prunes, walnuts and apricots to row crops like lettuce, sweet red onions, and green and red bell peppers.
The farm is still changing. Farm manager Mark Wright said that since he joined Filice Farms in 1999, the operation has expanded from five crops to 15, and the number of shipping partners has doubled.
Experimentation and innovation are an absolute necessity, Kay Filice said.
“If you’re not constantly planning and looking toward the future, you’re going to be left behind,” she said.
But Filice said the farm is also careful to make sure that its risks are thought-out and controlled. In fact, Filice said that striking a balance between caution and risk has been key to the farm’s longevity.
Wright said the farm’s new tractors, which are guided by Global Positioning System technology, are emblematic of that thoughtful approach to experimentation and risk. The tractors were pricey, he said, but they’ll allow tractor drivers to do a much more efficient job plowing the fields. And that, in turn, should lead to huge savings on gas.
“We’re hoping that in a couple of years, they’ll be able to pay back the cost in efficiency,” Wright said.
Despite its growth and the introduction of cutting-edge technology to its fields, Filice and Wright said the farm retains its connection to its early days through its commitment to quality and its family atmosphere.
“We want to get bigger, but we don’t want to get too big too fast,” Wright said. “Our main focus is to provide quality product.”
Most Filice Farms produce carries the label of a larger distributor – Wright said their cherries are an exception – so readers won’t be able to pull produce off the supermarket shelves and put those claims of quality to the test. However, the vegetables have gotten good reviews at the San Benito County Fair, where the farm took first place in four categories last year: green bell peppers, red bell peppers, romaine lettuce and red onions.
And after more than half a century, the farm is still in the Filice family. Chuck Filice – Kay’s husband – built the operation for more than 40 years, and Kay Filice has been heading the farm since her husband’s death eight years ago.
There’s a chance that Filice’s sons – now in their early 20s – might not take over, but that won’t stop Filice Farms from being a family operation, she said.
“I consider most of the employees to be part of the family anyway, so it’s still going to be a family farm,” Filice said.
In fact, Filice Farms is also a family business of sorts for Wright. His father, Mitch Wright, joined the farm 30 years ago. After going to college and spending a few years working elsewhere, Mark Wright decided to return to Filice Farms.
For a while, father and son managed the farm together – a pairing that Filice believes embodied the farm’s balancing act between “experience on the one hand, and the energy and excitement of youth on the other” – and Mark Wright said his father is still involved.
Wright now has a wife and children on the farm, but he said it’s tough to balance work and family. He said that from April to November, he’s in the field seven days a week, so most of his family time occurs during the offseason.
“You’ve got to love doing this,” Wright said. “This type of job, it’s not eight-to-five. … During the peak season, I spend more time in my truck at work than with my family.”
Despite the farm’s long history, Filice said there are some big challenges in its future. For one thing, San Benito County agriculture was hit hard by last fall’s E. coli outbreak. Filice said the farm will continue working hard to ensure its food is as safe and healthy as possible.
Weather is also a constant variable, Filice noted, and it forces the farm to continuously adjust its plans
As the farm has changed, so has the community. What was once a county dominated by farmers has become a bedroom community, with around half the population commuting outside San Benito for work.
“I’m not against a certain amount of controlled, managed growth,” Filice said, adding that the county is capable of sustaining both agricultural production and a strong business community.
Even with the changes and the challenges, Filice believes San Benito continues to be a good home for Filice Farms.
“I think the community overall has a love for farming,” she said. “We want to keep family farms strong and preserve our ag tradition.”
