Delfino Perry had no intention of building one of the West Coast’s largest melon brokering firms when he planted his first crop 75 years ago.
He was just pursuing his dream of pursuing a better life in America with the aim of keeping family together and faith in God strong.
Today that dream is going strong with three generations working side-by-side year round bringing farmers and retailers together by growing, brokering and distributing a wide repertoire of melons including watermelons and pumpkins.
“People always want to know how we get along,” Art Perry said. “We always say ‘why shouldn’t we get along? We’re all family’.”
Not only does the family work together but they also socialize extensively with each other away from work. Perry & Sons today would without a doubt please Delfino as it combines his dream of using farming to not just support family but to help them grow closer together.
Not one Perry in 75 years has elected to do something else even though no one is pressured to join in the family business. Even Art, who oversees the family operation, said he was seriously thinking about becoming a teacher while attending San Louis Obispo Polytechnic University but ultimately decided where he wanted to be was in Manteca working with family.
“My grandfather’s main beliefs were family and God,” Art said. “He didn’t want to leave his family in the Azores but he needed to provide for his own family.”
It is the reason Delfino left the Azores in 1906 via Ellis Island. He ended up in California first landing in San Luis Obispo and Oakland and eventually making his way to Modesto before settling Manteca.
He started a small dairy on Jack Tone Road and started growing sweet potatoes, pumpkins, and watermelon. His brother farmed on Brunswick Road where the Perry & Sons main yard is now located just north of Manteca.
During the Great Depression, his brother opted to find employment in Oakland which is how Delfino came to farm on Brunswick Road.
“Times were tough back then,” Art said.
Art started working on the farm at an early age. His father George Sr. kept having to stop and get off the tractor while he was working the field and then get back on and move again. That is what prompted George Sr. to teach 5-year-old Art how to drive the tractor so he could be more efficient doing his work.
“I thought it was great,” Art recalled. “I loved it.”
They came to an agreement that Raymus would get a share of the crop receipts as payment for use of the land. When George Sr. wanted to put it in writing Raymus refused noting that a handshake was good enough for him.
“A lot of farmers even big ones still do business that way today,” Art said. “You’ve got to always do the right thing.”
It is that philosophy of “doing the right thing” by customers that has made the name “Perry & Son” synonymous with quality and dependability among clients ranging from chain stores to chain restaurants.
While Perry & Sons is a dominate force in the California watermelon and pumpkin market, they have also extended sales farther east to Colorado and even New Jersey thanks to firms looking for assurances of quality and timely delivery.
Manteca is the major source of California pumpkins with more than 70 percent of the crop grown around the community. It is for the same reason watermelons that come from here are considered among the best due to soil conditions, hot days, and cool nights.
“We love selling two fruits that kids love - pumpkins and watermelon,” Art said.
George Perry & Sons has come a long way since George Sr. planted his first four acres of pumpkins on Cottage Avenue near Southland Road in 1958. Back then, the pumpkins and melons were tossed into the back of a truck and dropped off at markets. Today, family members equipped with cell phones and accessing I-Trade on the Internet grow, sell, and broker enough melons to keep trucks rolling daily to markets up and down the West Coast as well as Canada.
They are starting to wind down the Manteca watermelon harvest 96 years after Ed Powers shipped the first rail car of the fruit grown for the first time in 1914 in the fabled sandy plains. That was before irrigation transformed the area into an oasis for orchards and vineyards. The melons being picked today and tossed into field wagons were seeds just three months ago.
The firm has built working relationships with growers in Arizona, Mexico, the Imperial Valley, and the San Joaquin Valley to move to market a wide variety of melons and squash through the year. They’re most noted for pumpkins as they are literally the biggest pumpkin brokers in the West and Manteca the largest pumpkin-growing region on the Pacific Coast.
California’s climate - plus its location close to arid areas such as Mexico and Arizona that can grow fruit and vegetables in the winter months - gives Golden State consumers the freshest and most varied produce in the world.
The family has applied science, with marketing, business savvy, personal relationships, farm know-how, and even international business expertise to become a force in the melon business. Perry & Sons ship as far away as Japan.
But it is what they - and other growers - have done with the melon itself that is the most important.
Back when George Sr. started out markets wanted big 20-pound watermelons that were known as “stripers” for what appears as alternating yellow and green stripes. Then it was the bright green watermelons.
Today there are numerous species with “numbered variations” such as the one that develops the sweetest watermelon from Manteca soil. Consumers started eating more watermelon when growers found ways to give them the seedless variety they wanted by cross-pollination.
And now the new rage are so-called personal watermelons.
“A lot of them have been with us for 20 years or more, “art said.
Topping the list at 36 years is Nate Weight followed by Vic Alvarado with 34 years.
“They’re just like family,” Art said.
He was just pursuing his dream of pursuing a better life in America with the aim of keeping family together and faith in God strong.
Today that dream is going strong with three generations working side-by-side year round bringing farmers and retailers together by growing, brokering and distributing a wide repertoire of melons including watermelons and pumpkins.
“People always want to know how we get along,” Art Perry said. “We always say ‘why shouldn’t we get along? We’re all family’.”
Not only does the family work together but they also socialize extensively with each other away from work. Perry & Sons today would without a doubt please Delfino as it combines his dream of using farming to not just support family but to help them grow closer together.
Not one Perry in 75 years has elected to do something else even though no one is pressured to join in the family business. Even Art, who oversees the family operation, said he was seriously thinking about becoming a teacher while attending San Louis Obispo Polytechnic University but ultimately decided where he wanted to be was in Manteca working with family.
“My grandfather’s main beliefs were family and God,” Art said. “He didn’t want to leave his family in the Azores but he needed to provide for his own family.”
It is the reason Delfino left the Azores in 1906 via Ellis Island. He ended up in California first landing in San Luis Obispo and Oakland and eventually making his way to Modesto before settling Manteca.
He started a small dairy on Jack Tone Road and started growing sweet potatoes, pumpkins, and watermelon. His brother farmed on Brunswick Road where the Perry & Sons main yard is now located just north of Manteca.
During the Great Depression, his brother opted to find employment in Oakland which is how Delfino came to farm on Brunswick Road.
“Times were tough back then,” Art said.
Art started working on the farm at an early age. His father George Sr. kept having to stop and get off the tractor while he was working the field and then get back on and move again. That is what prompted George Sr. to teach 5-year-old Art how to drive the tractor so he could be more efficient doing his work.
“I thought it was great,” Art recalled. “I loved it.”
Perry & Sons pumpkins started on handshake
George Perry & Sons’ pumpkin business was born on a handshake with the late Antone Raymus. George Sr. wanted to farm acreage that Raymus owned near the old Summer Home School on Cottage Avenue. They came to an agreement that Raymus would get a share of the crop receipts as payment for use of the land. When George Sr. wanted to put it in writing Raymus refused noting that a handshake was good enough for him.
“A lot of farmers even big ones still do business that way today,” Art said. “You’ve got to always do the right thing.”
It is that philosophy of “doing the right thing” by customers that has made the name “Perry & Son” synonymous with quality and dependability among clients ranging from chain stores to chain restaurants.
While Perry & Sons is a dominate force in the California watermelon and pumpkin market, they have also extended sales farther east to Colorado and even New Jersey thanks to firms looking for assurances of quality and timely delivery.
Manteca is the major source of California pumpkins with more than 70 percent of the crop grown around the community. It is for the same reason watermelons that come from here are considered among the best due to soil conditions, hot days, and cool nights.
“We love selling two fruits that kids love - pumpkins and watermelon,” Art said.
Pumpkins already rolling out of Manteca
Pumpkins have already started rolling out of Manteca. Several truckloads departed last week and more are due to be packed and shipped this week. During the peak of the season 50 truckloads a day of pumpkins while depart George Perry & Sons. The record for one day was 105 truckloads.George Perry & Sons has come a long way since George Sr. planted his first four acres of pumpkins on Cottage Avenue near Southland Road in 1958. Back then, the pumpkins and melons were tossed into the back of a truck and dropped off at markets. Today, family members equipped with cell phones and accessing I-Trade on the Internet grow, sell, and broker enough melons to keep trucks rolling daily to markets up and down the West Coast as well as Canada.
They are starting to wind down the Manteca watermelon harvest 96 years after Ed Powers shipped the first rail car of the fruit grown for the first time in 1914 in the fabled sandy plains. That was before irrigation transformed the area into an oasis for orchards and vineyards. The melons being picked today and tossed into field wagons were seeds just three months ago.
The firm has built working relationships with growers in Arizona, Mexico, the Imperial Valley, and the San Joaquin Valley to move to market a wide variety of melons and squash through the year. They’re most noted for pumpkins as they are literally the biggest pumpkin brokers in the West and Manteca the largest pumpkin-growing region on the Pacific Coast.
California’s climate - plus its location close to arid areas such as Mexico and Arizona that can grow fruit and vegetables in the winter months - gives Golden State consumers the freshest and most varied produce in the world.
The family has applied science, with marketing, business savvy, personal relationships, farm know-how, and even international business expertise to become a force in the melon business. Perry & Sons ship as far away as Japan.
But it is what they - and other growers - have done with the melon itself that is the most important.
Back when George Sr. started out markets wanted big 20-pound watermelons that were known as “stripers” for what appears as alternating yellow and green stripes. Then it was the bright green watermelons.
Today there are numerous species with “numbered variations” such as the one that develops the sweetest watermelon from Manteca soil. Consumers started eating more watermelon when growers found ways to give them the seedless variety they wanted by cross-pollination.
And now the new rage are so-called personal watermelons.
Extended family among 200 workers at Perry & Sons
Among the 200 workers that labor for Perry & Sons picking, planting, sorting, packaging, or shipping are “extended family.”“A lot of them have been with us for 20 years or more, “art said.
Topping the list at 36 years is Nate Weight followed by Vic Alvarado with 34 years.
“They’re just like family,” Art said.
