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Orchards:
Continued from Page 16
having an ample supply of food.
Thomas said cherries, peaches and apples
are typically higher-end items at grocery
stores. With the economy essentially crash-
ing in April 2020, he was concerned that
people would skip those fruits in favor of
other items. He said those were but a few of
the concerns across the fruit growing indus-
try. Nonetheless, he said 2020 was a stand-
out year for cherry sales industry-wide.
Other than making sure orchard work-
ers are socially distanced and wearing
masks, COVID-19 did not change much of
the farm’s day-to-day operation, with the
orchards being so remote.
A-PLUS
CONNECTORS
THE HISTORY AND DAY-TO-DAY
OPERATIONS AT THOMAS ORCHARDS
Thomas, 42, said that he, his father, John,
79, and uncle Jim, 77, each have their areas
of responsibilities when it comes to han-
dling the farm’s day-to-operations.
Jim runs the mechanical and irrigation
side of the business, while John handles the
pesticide applications and, during the sum-
mer, will drive trucks.
Jeff Thomas said he handles the sales,
delivery, payroll and accounting side of the
orchards.
He said his wife, Laura, the Monument
School District superintendent, helps out on
the weekends at times.
The orchards have been in Kimberly
since 1902, when the Kimberly family
started it. Jeff Thomas said his grandparents
purchased a “chunk” of the land in 1947 and
bought the orchards outright in 1965.
“We’ve been here ever since trying to eke
a living out one way or another there,” he
said.
THE COMPLEXITIES OF OPERATING
A FAMILY BUSINESS
Jeff Thomas said his dad could talk about
how drastically the farming industry has
changed from the 1970s to now.
It seems like year after year, he said, the
state throws him another “haymaker,” and it
gets harder and harder to dodge those issues.
With that comes some economic realities
that he wants to be “mindful” of when it
comes to the next generation.
He said when he looks at his kids, and the
question comes up about leaving the busi-
ness to them to take over some day, he asks
Tel: 541-567-3231 • Fax: 541-567-7541
Angel Carpenter/Blue Mountain Eagle
1055 N. 1st Place • Unit 3-G, Hermiston, OR 97838
Red peaches are ripening at Thomas Or-
chards in Kimberly.
himself if he would be “setting them up for
success or failure.”
Jeff and Laura Thomas have three kids:
Josh, 12, Olivia, 8, and Kaycee, 7. Jeff
Thomas said, even as young as they are,
they talk about how they want to grow up
and work on the farm to carry on the fam-
ily tradition.
“The days of having stable farm income
that can support a family, let alone two or
three families, those days are gone,” he said.
He said when he came back from Western
Oregon University to help his dad in 2002,
his dad told him that he wanted to make sure
Jeff truly wanted to work on the farm.
Jeff said working on the farm fit with
what he and his wife wanted to do. She had
just finished her degree and her ideal job
was to teach at a small school. Soon enough,
he said, they got married and Laura started
teaching.
While the romance of running the farm
faded somewhat given the realities of the
business, he nonetheless fell in love with ag
life.
“You’re one small part of a huge indus-
try that feeds the world,” Thomas said. “And
there’s not a lot of people that can say that.”
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