Our NorCal Pecans owner Garry Vance graduated Corning High School in 1977 on a mission to work and get rich. He first started at age 18 working in a sawmill and worked his way up to foreman. When he left to start his trucking career in 1983 hauling logs with a log truck, he didn’t even have a license to drive.
It had been a passion of Garry’s to watch the big off highway log trucks drive by his parents’ home in Paskenta CA. With two children staring high school and the need for a better lifestyle with time for his kids, he purchased our first 42 acre established pecan orchard in July 1996. Garry continued trucking while farming pecans up until 2006 when he married Ginger and moved her and her sons to the orchard.
We increased our orchards by 20 acres established trees in 2000 and an additional 48 acres of established trees in 2006. Those trees are now 44 years old and still producing some of the highest quality and highest yields in the United States.
In 2012 we purchased an additional 60 acres west of corning and planted our first new trees. At that time, our farming operation was named G and G Farms after Garry and his wife Ginger. Those trees are now producing some of the nicest Wichita and Pawnee pecans available. We contribute our high yields and quality pecans to our success at having the highest density plantings which are mechanically pruned every year to provide maximum sunlight penetration promoting a higher percentage of pecans per cubic foot of canopy.
In 2002 out of the need for the pecan industry of California, we built the first dedicated pecan huller/dryer in the state. That little 4800 square ft building full of pieced together equipment from multiple auctions and bone yards has grown to over 10000 square feet with the most modern equipment in the pecan industry processing over 2.5 million lbs. of quality California Pecans in 2019.
In 2010 We started Northern California Pecan Inc. to better serve the need of our growers including G and G Farms. With this expansion came a 10000 square foot warehouse and many new pieces of equipment to enable NorCal Pecans to package pecans for market both domestically and for export from orchards in Tehama, Butte, Glenn, and Colusa Counties with some orchards as far south as Tulare and Kern county.
In 2017 their oldest son joined the NorCal Pecans Team as COO and has since leased established pecan orchards of his own, now he and his family farm also produce quality California pecans for market.
In 2018 we started offering Walnut hulling and Drying on a limited basis and in 2020 are expanding our commitments to new growers with the expectation of growing that part of our service to the growing California Walnut Industry.
Today, Norcal Pecans is grow (quite literally) every day, we’re making new relationships with growers for both pecans and walnuts, and our entire processing facility is humming right along with the most modern and fastest equipment in the industry.
