The Camlam farms have supplied the United States with California avocados since the 1870s. Green pastures, roses, and two inviting beach chairs posed in front of a lake greeted us as we arrived at the 1,000-acre Ventura County farm owned by the Lamb family.

Freshfruitportal.com had the chance to walk through the farms alongside the California Avocado Commission this year. Camlam, originally called Camarillo, a big name in the industry and the reason behind the city's name, is more than just a piece of land for the Lamb family. 

The estate has always been a family business, tended and cared for by John and Robert Lamb and their family members before them. Now, the team is considering passing the baton into the hands of Maureen Cottingham Lamb, Robert's daughter.

Although she studied AG Business and has an extensive background in the field, she didn't expect to return to the family farm, but she said being back has been a blessing in disguise. For four years, she has been working day and night to learn the ropes of the farm, a job that she deems rewarding and never-ending.

"Outside of being a woman, I just feel so blessed to be able to follow the steps of my family and our legacy," she explained. "I think the energy is really positive for women in farming."

Lamb family and California Avocado Commission

The Camlam farms are home to 1,000 acres of Lamb Hass, Hass, and GEM avocados, and lemons. The fields are a perfect harmony of young and old trees ready to burst with avocados this season, which is shocking to the Lamb family since avocados are an alternate bearing crop, and last year's output was big.

During this year's California Avocado Commission tour through the farms, the first since COVID, the family showed attendees the behind the scenes of the operations: the avocado trees, how to pick an avocado, which is done manually, how to tend for the trees, the different varieties, and how to tend for each variety.

You even got to see the bees that made sure all the trees were pollinated and ready for the California avocado season. 

"The best fertilizer in the grove is the owner's footprint," John Lamb said. "That's when you're seeing what's going on and you made the real decisions."

Maureen was one of the tour guides, alongside her uncle and father John and Robert Lamb. Throughout the tour, just like his predecessors, she was always ready to guide attendees through any questions or concerns.

In these four years, she has absorbed an exorbitant amount of knowledge from her family and the commission, which she is part of, and is currently working to prepare the land for whatever's next.

"I was in Sonoma for 20 years, and it was a much different world up there, but coming down here and being part of agriculture and putting my hands in the dirt every day, it's just a deam," Cottingham said. "I grew up here and I used to come with my dad often, and there's still so much to learn." 

Cottingham explains it'll be four years in May, and throughout she's been shadowing ranch foreman Mario Hernandez, who has been in the ranch for almost 50 years, and her uncle John and dad Robert. 

"On the flip side," she adds, "I have learned a lot, there's some things like the tractor breaking that I'm still working on, the mechanic side of things, but there there are so many more things that I can learn about and just experience first hand."

When asked about the possibility of implementing new things she said that's a tricky path to go down to, but there are definitely a couple of things she's kept in mind. 

"We put in new weather stations, we only had two and now we have 7," she explained. "Weather stations tell you the temperature of different parts of the ranch so that our guys don't have to run around reading physical thermometers." 

Plus, she says she's a fan of excel spreadsheets, a thing her uncle and father didn't really cared for. "I put some spreadsheets for my own good to look at our own yield and what blocks are producing and which aren't," she explained. 

This year, the farm is expecting a yield of a 1 million or 1 million and a half, not as good as last year's $2 million return, but still a decent yield. 

However, to Maureen this is more than just numbers, the farm is more than just produce. This is family - home. "A lot of these guys I've been around since I've been little," she explained, "they're my family." 

In tears because of how overwhelmed she is with joy and pride, she says there's so much more to do, but every day is a lesson, and she's ready to continue taking up the challenges as they come.