Jul 1, 2025

Family stone fruit tradition: Mountain View’s stone fruit focus

Mountain View Fruit Sales has been family-owned and -operated since 1994, working in the San Joaquin Valley in Reedley, California. Over the past three decades, the company has emerged as an industry leader in innovative technology and sustainable farming practices. 

“Being family-owned, our fruit comes from family farmers, many of whom live on land farmed by their parents and grandparents,” said Krista Beckstead, director of marketing for the company. “Old-time traditions are still practiced, and knowledge is passed down one generation to the next.”

The company deals in stone fruit, citrus and grapes, but its stone fruit is where it is really leaving its mark in recent years. The stone fruit industry is currently undergoing significant changes, which the company views as a chance for growth and expansion.

The company deals in a variety of stone fruit, including yellow peaches, white peaches, plums, yellow nectarines, white nectarines and plumcots. 

An essential component of Mountain View’s success is the adoption of sustainable practices. The company works to implement sustainable farming techniques to reduce environmental impact while meeting the growing market demand for socially and environmentally responsible products.

Meet the growers

One of Mountain View’s growers is Walt Lehrman, a grower/packer who works with his son Josh to farm more than 500 acres of Summeripe peaches, plums and nectarines. 

When it comes to nutrient practices, Lehrman takes soil and tissue samples and fertilizes accordingly. 

“We have to know all the different soil types so we can adjust,” he said.

For irrigation, approximately half of the ranches are in furrow irrigation and half on fan-jet sprinklers, and there’s water monitoring on each ranch.

“Where there’s furrow irrigated, there’s not much automation; it’s pretty old-school with an irrigator taking care of it,” Lehrman said. “Where there’s sprinklers, we have timers that can be turned on and off automatically. We can even do that with our phones.” 

Across the farm, automation and tech play a major role in operations, especially for the ranchers located farther away from the home base. 

“No matter what you do, you have to drive around on the ranches at least every few days to make sure you get your eyes on things and find any issues,” Lehrman said. “For instance, there can be one row that has a broken hose, and there’s no way to automate that. You need a hands-on approach.”

Before peak bloom time, Lehrman will check the monitoring stations to ensure there’s enough water in the soils.

Weather is always a challenge for the farm.

“For instance, last summer, there were almost two weeks of close to 112° F, so it was very hot,” he said. “The trees don’t necessarily use more water when it’s hot though; they can only absorb so much. You’re constantly watching your weather station and water monitoring.”

This year’s earlier nectarine season allowed retailers to enjoy incremental sales for a longer period of time during the summer, Beckstead said. The earlier season, combined with Mountain View’s newly branded Autumnripe fruit that harvests through late October, allows for many sales opportunities at the retail level and encourages consumption, she said.

Mountain View also works with other California growers, including Mizuno Family Farms in Santa Clarita; the Sawatzky family, who grow on 550 acres; and the Friesen family in Kingsburg, who grow more than 50 varieties of tree fruit. 

New varieties 

Mountain View employs a careful approach to developing new varieties within its specialized test block orchards.

“This initiative underscores our dedication to innovation and the ongoing enhancement of fruit quality, yield and resilience,” Beckstead said. “Success in this industry stems from a combination of key factors, including horticultural expertise, effective orchard management, stringent quality control, the integration of technology, teamwork, market research and adept business management.”

Mountain View serves a range of customers, from independent small storefronts to large national retail chains.

“We value each unique relationship we’ve built and pride ourselves on being more than just a box of fruit,” Beckstead said. “We strive to go beyond the conventional, continually seeking innovative and creative ways to market our products to consumers.” 

This includes social media giveaways, showcasing products at events and attractive retail display options.

To celebrate 31 years of harvest, the company will be featuring newly designed retail bins, boxes and pouch bags.

The redesign’s primary goal was to promote Mountain View’s premium California tree fruit grown from family farms via brighter colors, a refreshed logo and proprietary Summeripe, Summertime, Summersweet and Autumripe labels, Beckstead said.  

Mountain View also markets its old-time traditions passed down from generation to generation.

“The amount of passion and love they have for growing their fruit and delivering the very quality is exceptional,” Beckstead said. “Many of the growers live on the land where they grow their fruit, and the packing houses are located next to where they live and raise their families. They literally eat, sleep and breathe growing their fruit.” 

— A graduate of the University of Miami, Keith Loria is an award-winning journalist who has been writing for almost 20 years. View his recent writing at keithloria.contently.com.