September/October 2024 - 10

GROWER PROFILE
ROOTED
Carriere Family Farms
navigates a new era in
walnut production
BY KEITH LORIA
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
arriere Family Farms possesses decades of
growing, processing, selling and shipping quality
inshell and kernel walnuts around the world.
The Glenn, California, family operation grows and
processes 10 varieties of English walnuts, including
Chandler, Howard and Hartley. Carriere Family Farms
processes for approximately 100 northern California
growers of all sizes, with its own farms producing about 15%
of the company's overall processing.
C
" Our first year of processing, we packed 11 loads of
bleached jumbo Hartley walnuts, all shipped to Spain, " said
William D. Carriere, president and CEO of the operations.
" It took two days to process a load, and we loaded the
containers by hand. Today, we ship several loads of inshell
and/or kernels every day to more than 25 countries, and
most everything is automated with dedicated loading and
logistics teams. "
A little history
The genesis of Carriere Family Farms comes from more
than a century of history.
William Carriere's great-grandfather, Albini Carriere,
immigrated to California in the 1890s and purchased a small
17-acre farm, where the great-grandson built his home
and resides today, Carriere said. Albini worked for a local
farmer and cultivated his small farm, growing grains such as
corn, milo and wheat. He eventually married the farmer's
eldest daughter and raised four children, which included
William's grandfather, Wilfred, the oldest. During the
Depression, William's grandfather purchased 200 acres of
land and was one of the valley's rice pioneers.
10 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2024
Top: Herb and Bill Carriere. Photos courtesy of
Carriere Family Farms. Bottom: Carriere Family Farms
began with Albini Carriere in the 1890s and grew
during the Depression when Carriere's grandfather
purchased 200 acres.
After attending UC Davis and a short military service, in
1964, William's father and uncle returned to the farm. His
dad purchased 30 acres of walnuts and a house, while his
uncle acquired some nearby land.
" My father loved working with the walnuts, and my uncle
worked primarily in rice, " Carriere said. " Over the years, my
father and uncle grew the business and expanded their acreage
of walnuts, including building a huller and dehydrator. "
In 1986, they partnered with Borges, a Spanish familyowned
company that wanted to vertically integrate its
walnut purchases by owning some orchards in California.
" This basically doubled the walnut acreage we were
farming and added another huller and dehydrator to the
September/October 2024

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