My parents, Hank and Ellen Brokaw, met as students at the University of Chicago in 1951.
Hank was born and raised in Whittier, California, a section of Southeast Los Angeles County that, in retrospect, is arguably the birthplace of the California Avocado Industry. Hanks’ father & uncle were independent avocado & citrus nurserymen.
Ellen was born in Chicago; her father was a congregational clergyman, a theological seminary administrator and a writer of religious history.
Hank earned his masters in anthropology, he and Ellen got married and they both moved to Southern California so that Hank could earn his teaching credential at UCLA; at this time, there wasn’t even a pretense of plans for Hank to follow his familys’ footsteps and get involved in agriculture.

They eventually settled in Ventura County, Hank started teaching high-school & junior college math & chemistry and they “popped out” my 3 oldest siblings, Debbie, Rob & Elisabeth.
Initially they rented a home in Ojai but later bought an acre in an Oxnard community called El Rio. They moved into the properties’ tiny Quonset, where they started raising my 3 oldest siblings. But what about that 1 acre parcel size? Were Hank & Ellen subconsciously planning on returning to Hanks’ agricultural roots?

Inevitably, Hank & Ellen decided to invest in the necessary equipment & materials and start raising avocado & citrus nursery-stock in their El Rio backyard as a side business; meanwhile Hank continued his full time teaching career.
As a result of hard work, Hanks’ problem solving skills, Ellens’ saleswomanship, the “forced” labor of my 3 older siblings and lots of good luck, the side nursery business grew. The first “good problem” that had to be addressed was space; offsite land had to be leased in order to increase production & fulfill demand. And the second “good problem” was time. Eventually, the side nursery business became so busy that Hank couldn’t manage it and teach at the same time; this is when Hank left his teaching career and the Brokaws became a full time farming family.

In the middle of the 20th century, avocados were a niche commodity and the USA per-capita consumption was relatively low. However, in the 60s & 70s, they somehow became more conspicuous, marketing for avocados became robust enough to sponsor adds using personalities such as Angie Dickenson and the demand for avocado nursery stock increased dramatically.
In response, Hank & Ellen collateralized their assets and financed an increase in nursery-stock production capacity; their gamble paid off resulting in Brokaw Nursery being positioned as one of the few avocado nurseries capable of accommodating the 1960s & 70s “avocadoization” of California.

Since Brokaw Nurserys’ success, Hank & Ellen were able to fulfill their actual dream of avocado & citrus ranching. In 1967, they bought virgin land in Soledad, California, provided a water source & road access, planted a citrus & avocado orchard from scratch and named it “Lemoravo Ranch”. They did pretty much the exact same thing in Santa Paula, California in 1977; we moved into our new home on “Cheravo Ranch” on my 10th birthday.

I refer to Hank & Ellen as “Avocado Industry Pioneers” not only because of their contribution to the growth of the industry as nurserypersons but also because of (1) their active & influential pursuit of better production methods and (2) because of their dedication to improving nursery stock, fruit varieties and the avocado industry as a whole.
For example, Brokaw Nursery shared in or developed outright several patents since the 60s. Their most famous one would be the “Clonal Avocado Rootstock.” Root-rot is a fungal disease that stunts or kills avocado orchard trees. UC Riverside, Californias’ avocado research university, isolated an avocado variety, the cutting of which proved to be root-rot resistant; it was named The Duke-7. However, avocado trees can’t be propagated from cuttings; in order to successfully propagate at production levels, they must be initially grown from seeds. So how does one graft a root-rot resistant Duke-7 onto an avocado seedling, “force” the Duke-7 cutting to become the seedlings’ main root system and then “choke off” the original seed & root system? Furthermore, how does one do so reliably at scale and while using tools & methods that can be taught to and carried out successfully by staff members of varying talents? Hank, who was a natural problem solver, figured out a way and Clonal Rootstock has since become the standard for orchard quality avocado nursery-stock.

Also, Hank & Ellen have always been dedicated to developing & maintaining win-win employee, vendor & client relationships.
Since the El Rio days, they’d always endeavored to foster positive client experiences and did all that they could to assure that clients benefited from doing business with them; the trust that they built up definitely paid off when it came time to scaling up production.
Hank & Ellen also took very good care of their valuable & skilled staff members. All have been paid a complete set of benefits, health coverage & pension, since the early 70s. And many whom I worked alongside of during my teens are still with us.

As post-harvest handlers, retailers & wholesalers of Brokaw Ranch Company avocado, specialty citrus & subtropical tree-fruits, we endeavor to carry on the Hanks’ & Ellens’ legacy of product excellence, positive client experiences and a nurtured & well-paid staff.
Thanks so much for your support; we look forward to a bright future together!