"Necessity is the Mother of Invention!"
A truer statement could not be made in our life. Eight years ago, Manuel and I found ourselves, in need of more income. We each had a daughter graduating from High School and going on to College. As each of us were a Single parent at that time, we were in need of more money. Motivation wasn't the issue, but how were we to accomplish this? We each had full time jobs and households to run and children to raise and financially we were tapped out.

Sitting in Manuel's yard one day, discussing this, we looked out across the orchard of Walnuts. Harvest had just finished, and we saw many walnuts still laying on the ground. Manuel, stated, " If we could just find a market for those walnuts, we could make a little extra cash." I suggested that we try to sell them at roadside fruit stands in the Monterey and San Francisco Bay areas. We then proceeded to the next step, which was to gather all the walnuts we could. We commissioned one of our Son's and his friend to help us. We drove out to the orchard in an old pickup and proceeded to fill the pickup bed with Walnuts. For days on end, every evening we would Crack the walnuts and bag them in 8 oz baggies and 3 lb. Baggies. Friends would stop by and we would hand them a hammer and walnuts and put them to work, explaining our endeavor to them.

Finally, we had enough to begin our journey of marketing them. One Saturday, we loaded a truck with our packaged goods and began our trek to the Montery Bay Area. We stopped at every fruitstand we found. Now one must realize that Manuel was (the key word is WAS) very shy and so it was up to me to get out of the truck and approach the owners of the fruitstand, if they were a wee bit interested, Manuel would join me and we would discuss the possibilty of selling the walnuts to them. We traveled many miles that day and were met with rejection after rejection, all stated they had already purchased their supply of walnuts for the season, maybe next year. I don't remember being discouraged, but I am sure we both were. We then learned of Farmers Markets. Where the Farmer could sell direct to customers for a small fee. After investigating this medium of sales, we went to a Farmers Market in Saratoga, California, I mean we just showed up, we knew nothing about the protocol involved! The Market Manager, Doug Hayden, was thrilled to have us, he needed a nut vendor. We set up out ot the back of the truck, Doug supplied us with a table and before we knew it we sold every last nut we had and the response was "when will you be back".

I still remember our first customer. What a thrilling experience. Now remember Manuel was extremely shy, so he stood with his back to the customers all 4 hours, turning only his head, when I would ask him a question!!!. At the end of the market, after selling all the walnuts, we counted our funds and were amazed and greatly motivated. Doug, advised us as to what we would need to continue selling at a Certified Farmers Market and invited us back for as long as we would like to come.

Well, that has been 8 years ago.and here we are today, selling on the World Wide Web!!! We grew from a little tiny business, not knowing anything to selling our Walnuts, Almonds and Pistachio's and their by products in over 12 weekly Farmer's Markets. Our children got involved, their friends became involved and the 2 eldest girls, Daylene and Jennifer, supplemented their College education working the markets, selling nuts. The best part of all this story is that God showed us an avenue to supplement our incomes, we picked up the tools and here we are. Only in America, can such success be obtained, with a lot of motivation, hardwork and God's Blessings. But even a greater blessing came from all this hard work, Manuel and I were married 3 years ago and have joined families, ideas, and experienced great personal growth. My once shy husband, now cannot talk enough about our Nuts.

We thank all those people who have encouraged us, A special thanks to Doug Hayden and Jerry Hascell with the California Certified Markets, they have been there every step of the way always encouraging us.

We have expanded our nuts from a Single Walnut Variety to over 55 products. Gift baskets made individually for gifts, trade shows, festivals, our nuts have now touched many corners of the world, New Zealand, England, Kuwait, and Hawaii. Thank you all for your support and we hope from your many requests and encouraging words that our WebSite will enable everyone to enjoy our nuts.

Manuel and Martha Teixeira