Employees enable us to produce our fresh fruit and wine products. They are essential to our existence. Our top priority is their safety. All of our actions are based on this premise. During each employee's tenure, we teach new skills which can be applied later to another job or which simply furthers their knowledge about what it takes to get food to market.

I have always been a proponent of what is now called the "Green Movement." It is finally being embraced on a large scale. We have always exceeded building code requirements on insulation and closely manage our use of electric power. We have used a renewable resource, firewood, from our forests to heat our home and out buildings for 25 years. For every practical case, we use compact fluorescent light fixtures. We are currently in negotiations to have photovoltaic panels installed to provide our electric power. "Buy local" is our mantra, and we exercise it whenever possible.