He was driving a tractor by age six, but before James Chinchiolo went to college, his father told him that first he needed to do something else before returning to the Linden, CA family farm. After receiving a degree in business from the nearby University of Pacific, Chinchiolo ran a company that repaired landslides and mitigated rockfall for 10 years before getting a call from his father, who said he couldn’t physically farm any more and was thinking about leasing the ground.
- James Chinchiolo inspects the bloom in late March on a ‘Bing’ cherry tree. To space out the harvest in his California orchards, he grows four other varieties: ‘Brooks’, ‘Coral Champagne’, ‘Lapin’, and ‘Tulare’.
- Photo by David Eddy
“I said I wanted to do it, I have a real love for being in nature, and I figured out a way to take over the company Feb. 14, 2018,” he says.
The company is Chinchiolo Farming Co., and is not to be confused with Chinchiolo Stemilt, which involves other members of the family.
Chinchiolo soon came to the conclusion that with just 220 acres, 40 of cherries, 180 of walnuts, he couldn’t compete with other wholesale family farms, which in California average 360 acres…