CandyCot Fruit Company

MILES TO MARKET: 120

ACRES: 10 (Candycot is part of a 400-acre operation)

PEOPLE: Brothers, John and Bob Driver, and their sons, Andrew and Mark Driver, along with 2 full-time and 10 part-time employees

ABOUT: 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.

The Drivers are currently transitioning their 10-acre plot of CandyCots to organic. To maintain soil fertility, they use cover crops, mulch, and compost. To control pests, they use organic pesticides and prune their trees to encourage good air flow.