(bright music) - [Avery] You know, not a lot of people would think a black football player got a farm, so you know it's definitely something that's different.

- [Liset] The fruit stand is called Sweet Girl Farms, but the family business has been running for a much longer period of time than the existence of the farm stand.

- [Interviewer] When you found out you were being drafted by the Tennessee Titans, in your home state, how did that make you feel?

I was shocked.

You know, I was like, what?

To the Titans?

I was like, I was in shock, you know, that would be that close to home.

[Interviewer] There's a lot to consider when taking care of a farm, isn't there?

Yeah.

Um, and then a lot of the things I'm still learning along the way.

That's literally what got me out of the rut, to start to move again, to start to do my own rehab.

And then, yeah, just look for the opportunities that would arise, from like a lot of the negative situations that were happening.

Man, I've been driving a tractor since, uh, I was young, I was probably around eight or something like that.

My Dad, he can tell, he can tell from the way the tractor sounds, like if I'm going faster than what he tells me to go or something like that.

Benny, this is Liset from the farm stand.

I have the purple salsa ready for pick up.

I tell people, you know, if you need your therapy, come out here to the farm stand.

Oh, yeah, you see, those are the lemons.

- [Customer] Yeah.

Man, it's the way to go.

It's, when I retire, wherever I'm at, man, I'm a have me a garden.

(laughs) Okay, so when these are blooming, I feel that the pomegranate trees are gonna look super green so this'll be a nice back drop.

The farm stand is the community hub.

Of ideas, of dialogue, of connections, of business partnerships, of opportunities, of a lot of things.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, that's what the farm stand represents to me.

Shoot, I was out here playing around, doing stuff, since I was a kid, you know.

So we moved here, I was like close to one.

So this is all I've ever known.

(country music) - [Narrator] Production funding for American Grown, "My job depends on AG."

Provided by, James G. Parker Insurance Associates, "Insuring and protecting Agri business for over forty years."

By Gar Bennett, the central valley's growing experts, "More yield, less water, proven results.

We help growers feed the world."

By Brandt, Professional Agriculture, "Proudly discovering, manufacturing, and supplying the AG inputs that support the heroes who work hard to feed a hungry world, everyday."

By Unwired broad band, "Today's internet for rural central California.

Keeping valley agriculture connected since 2003."

By Hodges Electric, "Proudly serving the central valley since 1979."

By Pickett Solar, "Helping farmers and ranchers save money, by becoming energy independent."

By Harrison Co, "Providing family farms with the insights they need to make the best possible strategic M and A and financial decisions."

And by Valley Air Conditioning and Repair, "Family owned for over fifty years, proudly featuring Coleman products, dedicated to supporting agriculture and the families that grow food for a nation."

(country music) (light guitar music) You know, being away for eleven years now, [ Interviewer] Yeah.

You know, it definitely, the older you get the more, you know, the more you just wanna, you just kind of, relax.

So I mean, to come home, it's like, so simple.

Come on, come on.

We got about, I'd say we got like forty five heads, forty five to fifty heads.

We gone count 'em.

But yeah.

We got this building up now, we got big cows so you know, graze the, graze the calves up get 'em to like, you know seven, eight months, till Robert's hit, and you know, take 'em to the market.

Um, so, that's what we're doing, we're focusing on that, um, and man we're just increasing it man, then, you know, buying new equipment, improving the fences, and you know, just, you know, just doing things that we didn't have the, uh, the funds to do, you know, ten years ago.

And we've got our, we've got some peas, we plant some peas right here, uh, we got bell peppers, bell peppers, got your tomatoes, got squash, that's a, that's a vol, a voluntary squash that came up.

We had some cabbage, we just, uh, we cut down, cut them up.

When I retire, wherever I'm at, I'm a have me a garden.

(laughs) If it's out here, somewhere, I'm a have me a garden man.

Um, I got an offer from them after my junior year, um, we went to the state game, my junior year, uh, did really good, had twenty two tackles, um, and I ended up getting an offer from Kentucky, I think it was that summer, going into my senior year, they kept on recruiting me, and I finally, they got me to commit, and it was like, going into my, it was like towards the end of the season, of my senior year I finally committed to them, and, shoot, that's I said, I'm going to get turkey.

Yeah.

Had a lot of tackles.

I was on the field a lot.

(laughs) Yeah, good and bad.

I was shocked.

You know, I was like, what?

To the Titans?

I was like, I was in shock, you know that I'm gone be that close to home, you know, two hours away, and my family come up, you know at any time, you know, my Dad, my Dad, his company that he, he worked for was like literally right by the stadium.

You know, to be able to say, man my son is pro, and he driving by there and going to the stadium, and you know, you know, it was really cool man, I, I definitely man, I enjoyed it, I enjoyed the hell out of it man.

(guitar music) My full name, Liset Garcia, and I'm the operator and founder of Sweet Girl Farms.

I have the purple, I have the tomatillo, and then the green one.

It's a farm stand that's open year round, here in Reedley California, and we carry different products, and so the focus is to carry all organic, no till, regenerative, grown, vegetables, flowers, herbs, and fruits.

And so, it's, it's a, it's a little bit of everything, and then that's sold directly at the farm stand, that is on site, of the same farm where we grow the majority of the things.

And, um, yeah, that's how it's taken off.

Cause this is where you would normally do my white sunflowers, - [Customer] Right.

Right.

And like my purple ones, yeah.

But now I have these, if I feel I can fit sunflowers out here, then that'll do it, but maybe, maybe it's not gonna do, cause these are permanent.

This was our old vineyard, all just now tossed in a big pile of, random wood.

(laughs) Originally, it was only, uh, just my family.

So, it's four of us, but one of our family members left to serve in the military, so now, it's just three of us.

(laughs) What I'm gonna be doing is like, loading it up on the cart, and then taking it, because this is going to, hopefully, become, uh, wood chips, for our, um, for part of the plot here on the farm.

Specifically the one directly behind the farm stead, because that's where I grow a lot of the vegetables, flowers, and herbs, and so I want to implement more water conservation methods, um, so I'm trying to repurpose our grapevines, still have 'em here at the farm, um, in form of wood chips and, we're gonna try to see if that project can happen.

My parents are immigrants from southern Mexico, from the state of Oaxaca, and so, from my understanding, (laughs) they came here, it was like, late eighties?

Yeah, late eighties, something around there, um, and so, they settled and arrived in LA, and then that's where a lot of my childhood took place.

Um, up until maybe my teenage years, when they, um, traveled more up to the central valley, and for one reason or another, found Reedley and settled here.

You know, not a lot of people would think, uh, a black football player, got a farm?

You know, so it's definitely something that's different, and it can you know, really inspire some people, so you know, that's why it's like, you shouldn't, you shouldn't withhold what all you're doing, you know, you don't have to tell the world everything, but, you know, you can, you can uh, show people I'm doing this and it might inspire a kid, or shoot, a grown person.

You know what man, I should start doing, doing some more farming, something like that.

So, you just never know.

(bright guitar music) Hey, somewhere I gotta find 'em, they back there somewhere.

But they'll come up to eat, that's why my Dad got bread in the, in the gator, cause they'll come up to eat bread.

Right out your hand.

(cow mooing) Come on, come on.

(cow mooing) There you go, come get you some.

They gentle when you got food.

You get good rain, um, I mean, summer time, like July, August, you might get some, some droughts, for like maybe, three or four weeks don't rain, but I mean, for the most part, it gone get a good amount of rain, throughout the year.

- Yeah.

- No, yeah.

They graze and stuff, and um, shoot, this, you know, um, the biggest thing is having like, enough land to move 'em around, so like, once we cut the hay out of my farm back on the, on the highway, you know, they'll, he'll let it grow back up when it's winter, they'll get it, they'll graze about it there.

So, it makes it easy kind of move 'em around, so you don't have to feed 'em as much.

They just kind of, uh, tend to themselves.

My Dad, when he was trying to get me to uh, you know, since I went pro, he was like, man you should invest, you know, in the farm, and I was kinda like eh, you know, and uh, my second year, um, I found one of my locker mates, one of my team mates, Al Woods, he was uh, he, he somehow he uh, him and my Dad started talking at the game, and he was uh, after the game, my Dad told me he was like, said, man, uh, your team mate Al Woods man, they got, a few hundred head down in Louisiana, I said, what?

I said, really?

And, um, I went the next day, I asked him, I was like, hey I ain't know y'all had cows, he was like, yeah we got a whole bunch.

You know, we got like a thousand acres, and uh, I was like, d#*mn, I was like, I didn't realize that.

And uh, me and my Dad kept on talking and I was like, I was like, you know what, maybe I should start putting some money back into it.

And so, that off season man, I, um, bought a new tractor, bought some, bought like ten or twelve calves, and um, just kind of started to add to it, and you know, um, shoot, five years later, we really like, uh you know, bought a couple farms out, and just really like, you know, turning and expanding it, and uh, you know trying to create a business.

(light strings music) This is uh, this is my property man, I love it.

I love it man.

[Interviewer] So the cows, they, they know people, right?

Oh yeah.

They'll know you, they'll know, but they won't know me.

They don't really know me as much anymore, cause I have a, you know, I'm in and out, so, they'll be kind of, kind of looking at me crazy.

(cows mooing) Man, we had that thing since, we had that thing since, probably, man, I know it's twenty years old.

- Yeah, you could probably (background noise drowns out).

I was out here, this height, trying to I was stumbling bumbling, shoot.

You want a baby one, or do you want like a bigger quantity?

- [Male Customer] Bigger quantity.

The, the half bale?

Okay.

The specialty comes in, like the surprise products that we bring, because, even though we grow, and sell the vegetables, farm fresh as is, like just meaning the actual fruit itself, I feel that we give it a twist when we bring out different presentations of it, so, right now, since it's citrus season, we're doing a lot of fresh squeezed citrus juice.

It's sweet, it's not tart, and it's not sour.

- [ Male Customer] Yeah.

Um, and it's, so that, - [Purple Haired Woman] That like really strong citrusy smell.

[Male Customer] Really different!

[Liset] Uh huh, uh huh, yeah!

[Male Customer] Yeah.

[Liset] It has a floral like, smell, that you can, basically, you're eating the scent.

So, previous to becoming a farm girl, (laughs) uh, my upbringing was mostly in LA.

Um, unusual in the way that it was still, like I still saw, the AG and farm life.

Um, on a weekly basis, because, a lot of the times, my brother and I, we would go out to the farms with my parents and, we would not harvest, but we would, help them pass the boxes or bring down crates, and stuff, you know, minimal things.

It was odd to see that, and then, you know, within a matter of like, a couple hours, be back in LA in the big city, with all the, um, buildings and just, you know, people not dirty like us, because you know, we would come from the farm, and we're like, all soiled.

(laughs) I think I followed you on Facebook and things for bout, a year and a half, so it's, it's really good, Aw!

(laughs) Yeah!

Oh, wow!

See all the posts and, yeah.

- [Male Customer] So are you here for the salsa as well?

No?

(laughs) I was mostly excited about the honey.

(laughs) Yeah, I, I.

So, but, yeah, actually I do want that as well.

So, yeah.

Um, yeah.

I'm really excited to try something at least.

(laughs) - Uh huh, yeah, yeah, oh yeah.

We'll get you stocked up in a bit, we'll get you stocked up.

(laughs) (bright string music) Throughout the years, I was in and out, in and out, of doing farmers markets, so throughout the years from my, uh, graduation from UC Mercer and then up until, um, I was going to SC.

I had a steady job out in LA, um, while I was studying for my masters, and then after, but, during the course of a couple weeks I suffered an accident, and then, that's where like, both my hands got severely injured, um, and I had like twenty something stitches, and, my, like I had lost a little bit of some sensation on a few fingers, and I couldn't do much with, both my hands.

So, with that, happening, um, I was out there in LA, um, with my brother, and really he was busy, so my parents decided to tell me, Hey Liset, we'll help you, um, you know, get back on your feet, because I was actually doing a, career transition, with my job, so I had left my job, to move to another job, but, then the accident happened, then I was out there, not with much support, and so my parents, they're like, Liset, just come back to the farm, we're gonna take care of you while you, um settle back in to a kind of, um, normal lifestyle again, meaning being able to just be, uh, independent and be able to do things for myself again.

When I came to the farm , well that's how I got to the farm.

It was because of that.

Yeah, as soon as this grows out a little bit more, um, that's what I typically do.

So, if I don't have it there I'll offer it to the customer, saying, hey, I have this today, would you like me to get some for you?

And then, I do a, um, harvest, and go kind of thing.

(laughs) (upbeat strings music) (bluesy guitar music) My Granddad used to, he'd say, his Dad wouldn't really feed the cows, kind of see, cause they eat too much they can die.

Uh, but it's literally just the seed from inside of a cotton, a cotton hull, and uh, it's got a lot of nutrients in it, so my Dad feeds 'em that in the winter time.

Uh, you can grind it up with, with anything.

(upbeat country music) I'm probably five years old, you know, start doing stuff, you know, kids wanna, you wanna help.

We be out there, and, I used to hate it though.

(laughs) I used to hate it, I used to, I had to get up in the morning down there, you know, getting the weeds out the garden, but, um, I mean, looking back man, it was, it was good man, taught me how to work, and I mean, it also gave me good food, I mean, cause that's something that a lot of people don't get to experience.

Like, fresh home grown food.

And I mean, it's, I wish I had a garden right now, like, it, it's, you know I hate eating at the store, cause if food, it tastes so different.

I mean, I went to college, when I first went to college, and I was like, I had some green beans, I was like, d#*mn, why they taste so waxy, like crunchy?

And you know, it's just like, it don't taste the same.

(blaring country music) [Interviewer] So, Carl, you've got to be really, I mean, how great was it to be the one that inspired Avery to play football?

And then, what was it like the first time you went to his first pro game and watched him play?

Man, I was, I was really, I was happy for him, uh, most of all, I'm just glad he was able to accomplish what he accomplished, uh, it's a great feeling.

Uh, you know, little cousin, um, we grew up together, you know, right around, you know, within five, ten miles of each other, and, uh, you know, I just love the, you know groom him, and to see him play, you know, for the Titans, was, it was unbelievable for everybody.

So, are you from this area too?

Oh yeah, I live, man, a mile around the road.

Born and raised right here, helped install some of the old fences, the farm it just runs in the family, it's in our blood, um, and it's a, it's a great thing, uh, hard work, lotta hard work, uh, everybody can tell you that, which, my son, he loves it, he's uh, he's planning on majoring in AG himself.

So, you know, it's a great thing, a great family, uh, business, uh, you know, and every, you know, we all enjoy it.

(upbeat country music) [Interviewer] And who's that driving the tractor?

Oh, that's, that's uh, one of our neighbors, Mr. Bailey, so he's been working with us for like, uh, I wanna say probably, five years now.

Yeah, he's been doing a good job, man.

My Dad, he can tell, he can tell the way the tractor sounds, like if I'm going faster than what he tells me to go or something like that, he'll know, what, what Mr. Bailey, he'll, he'll, he'll know when he coming up, if he like, drawing it down or something like that, he going too fast, actually I think, I started learn how to rake the hay first, that's the easiest, and then, I started learning how to do cutting hay with the board, and then the last part was bailing it.

Now the, the bailer that we got now is so easy, all you gotta do is just drive, it tells you when the, when the ball is formed, everything, um, but he just showed me, you know, each step.

(twangy guitar music) (soulful country music) I think it's important for, farmers, for farms, for ranchers, ranches, for urban gardeners, urban farmers, to survive, (laughs) Yeah, it's good, it's good!

Okay, here you are.

Okay, thank you.

Looking at how, the trends and lifestyles are moving, yes, with technology being more and more involved in our lives, what I see from all of that is that people are still going back to, rudimentary practices, like when I first heard of like, no till agriculture, or like, regenerative agriculture, to me, it wasn't a foreign thing, because my parents already practiced a lot of that, and to me that comes from generations of knowledge, that is rudimentary, like, really basic, like no tools needed, like literally, if that were the best way to do everything, why're so many people invested, and um, blown away by local, organic, maintaining soil health practices?

That's my big question.

So, I don't feel we would let it die as humans.

Because we're already tending to go back.

(upbeat guitar music) You know, what I do, it might inspire somebody else to do, you know, do some farming.

[Interviewer] Sure.

So, uh, man, I'm just uh, I'm just, you know, just trying to do what I love and inspire the, the next generation.

What you put in your body is important, so, being able to, provide real food, is, uh, it's important man, and, and people don't understand the value of it, cause they've never seen it.

So, me coming from out here, I know it, and that's something that I wanna, you know, instill it in my children, and uh, and being able to eat from the earth, and, and, and it's good for your body, and just, everything.

So you could just, like, do this.

- [Customer] Oh, like, lightly just, pop it.

- [Male Customer] Wow.

- And then.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, like there it is.

It's like, go ahead and take it.

[Male Customer] Thank you, it looks good.

Oh, okay!

Yeah, it's ready to, it's ready to eat, it's ready to eat!

All right, there you are.

Yeah, I'll see you!

Enjoy the salsa!

(laughs) (upbeat rock music) With a piece in my hand and bloodshot eyes, I walk to the water for a last goodbye, he begs so much, it clouded my mind, and one things clear, the mans gotta die.

(guitar music) [Narrator] Production funding for American Grown, my job depends on AG, provided by, James G Parker Insurance Associates, "Ensuring and protecting agri business for over forty years."

By Gar Bennett, the central valleys growing experts, "More yield, less water, proven results.

We help growers feed the world."

By Brandt, Professional Agriculture, "Proudly discovering, manufacturing, and supplying the AG inputs that support the heroes who work hard to feed a hungry world, everyday."

By Unwired broadband, "Today's internet for rural central California.

Keeping valley agriculture connected, since 2003."

By Hodges Electric, "Proudly serving the central valley since 1979."

By Pickett Solar, "Helping farmers and ranchers save money, by becoming energy independent."

By Harrison Co, "Providing family farms with the insights they need to make the best possible strategic, M and A and financial decisions."

And by Valley Air Conditioning and Repair, "Family owned for over fifty years, proudly featuring Coleman products, dedicated to supporting agriculture and the families that grow food for a nation."