CandyCot Fruit Company

Out for the Season
10 acres (Candycot is part of a 400-acre operation) in Waterford, CA, 120 miles from the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market.
Brothers, John Driver, and sons, Andrew and Mark, along with 1 full-time employee, Santos Guzman, and 5 part-time employees.
Transitional
The Driver family has been farming in the Modesto area for three generations. John Driver works as a consultant on international agricultural development projects. In the mid-1990s, he worked on a project helping apricots growers in Central Asia. He brought home several Central Asian apricot seeds and worked for 10 years to breed the 6 varieties that he calls CandyCots.
Although formerly organic, they dropped certification to combat bacterial canker disease that kills trees. Now, the Driver family are using sustainable production practices.
To control pests, they use organic pesticides and prune their trees to encourage good air flow.
To maintain soil fertility, they use cover crops, mulch, and compost.
