The Enduring Legacy of a Lake County Farming Family

by D.R. Darvishian

The view from a big rig is sometimes astounding, but there are notable blind spots while perched behind the wheel high up in the cab. As it worked out, just before she disappeared from my line of sight beneath the whole-acre hood of a 1999 Kenworth model W900L truck, I saw Debbi Holdenried and came to a stop.

Standing with her hands on her hips, she was staring at me and obviously speaking, but I couldn’t make out a word. The truck’s ancient air conditioner barely chirped, so I wore a bandana and kept the windows rolled down, but I still couldn’t hear her. I shut off the motor.

“What are you doing?” she yelled.

“What do you mean?” I shot back.

“Dust! Look in your mirror. Slow down, please! Slow … down,” she said, pumping her palms at the ground, as if telling a group of exuberant cowboys to cool it.

Back in 2020, the Holdenrieds needed drivers and were paying good money, so after its ice age in limbo, I renewed my old Class A license. I’ve been a fan of this hardworking farming family ever since. Debbi and her husband Brent, along with their three sons, run Holdenried Harvesting Inc. in Kelseyville (pop. 3,382). They grow wine grapes, pears, hay, and alfalfa, and also provide custom harvesting and bulk agricultural transport services. They worry about dust because it can drift in tiny mites which feed on the leaves of pear trees and grape vines. As someone who’s been around farmers most of my life, and even had a Jack Russell terrier who barely survived a dust-borne fungal infection, I should have known better.

“Alright, I got it,” I shouted.

“Thank you!” Debbi yelled back.

I started the truck and eased on to another set of empty “gondola” trailers, the kind seen hauling grapes and holding up traffic all over California during late summer and fall. Every season, usually starting in late July, Debbi manages 20 or more truckers. She dispatches each of them, two or three times a day, into various orchards and vineyards to get 20-ton loads of pears and grapes bound for fresh-product distributors, canneries, and wineries scattered throughout the north state. The work goes on every day of the week, with some shifts lasting 14 hours a day or longer, usually into late September but sometimes into October. Like everyone else, if Debbi’s not catching a few winks of sleep, she’s onto another assignment. And she somehow finds time to shop, prepare family meals, arrange gatherings, and participate in the high school life of her youngest son, Gene.

Brent covers the farming on almost 600 acres and keeps up repairs. Though he has help from longtime mechanic, Brian Rentsch (yes, sounds like “wrench”), and a ranch foreman named Raphael Fernandez, he personally deals with what comes with farming and drayage: the endless weeding and mowing, the fertilizing and watering, the breakdowns, blown hoses, flat tires and oil changes, the plumbing and broken radiators, frost protection, seasonal laborers, the pruning, the mud, heat and mosquitos, the midnight-to-dawn spraying, worker safety and shelter, busted trailers, bent bumpers, stuck trucks, shifted loads, bad fuel, and broken straps. He’s also a fill-in driver and runs their complex and finicky machine grape harvesters.

Two years ago, he even had to chase down his own stolen pickup. Debbi shook him awake around two in the morning, when the thief started the engine. Brent found it abandoned—minus all the tools he’d had in the bed. He then got some coffee and started his workday.

After attending Chico State University for a few years, eldest son Carson returned home to run the hay and alfalfa operation, in addition to hauling and operating the enormous harvesters. Their middle son Evan followed in his footsteps, earning a degree in farm management at Chico and now working toward an advanced degree in finance from there as well. They all pitch in during harvest, whether it’s painting gondolas, digging post holes, or washing trailers. Their mother often has them working on so many projects that they sometimes call her Debbi, just like the other workers. “I live on the ranch, so she can pretty much get hold of me any time,” said Carson.“Which she does.”

Debbi is also a powerhouse of a host. Last June, the Holdenrieds feted 250 people in the backyard of their 1928 American Craftsman home to honor a retiring school superintendent. “I could do without socializing so much,” Brent said mildly during an interview with the couple. “I’m just saying.”

“I like entertaining and I like working,” Debbi said simply. “And I’ve always had a job.” Past positions included horse grooming as a girl, winery quality control, canning her own fruit, and running Holdenried Harvesting Inc., one of the most well-known such outfits around according to Shannon Gunier, co-owner of North Coast Winegrape Brokers in Lower Lake. “I think they’re well known because they’re hard working and really good people to work with,” said Gunier, whose own family business is brokering grapes and bulk or finished wines to buyers outside of California. “They’re scrappers, like us,” she said.

Debbi’s younger self, Debra Raye Tuttle, grew up in Hopland, the oldest of three daughters. They were horse sisters and rode for miles through the orchards, vineyards, and hills along the green Russian River. Later, they won top honors in state and national equestrian competitions. Her parents, David and Melodye Tuttle, were also farmers. They eventually moved to Lake County, where David reportedly planted the first European vines in the high Red Hills appellation. Andy Beckstoffer, the largest grape grower in California—dubbed “Grapelord of Napa” by The New York Times (2020)—followed his lead by expanding into Lake County and planting the well-regarded Beckstoffer Vineyards. Beckstoffer grapes can be found in a number of Northern California’s popular wines, and is now Holdenried’s largest haul.

Brent’s family has been here since 1858, raising cattle and farming the lowlands between Mt. Konocti, the volcanic massif near the county’s geographical center, and Lakeport, on the shore of Clear Lake itself. Brent’s mother, Marilyn Holdenried, is also a force of nature, not unlike his wife. She’s both a passionate voice for family farmers and founder of the Lake County Quilt Trail, a public art series of huge painted blocks imitating quilt patterns and displayed on buildings and barns all over the county. Common in the midwest, Lake County’s trail is the first of its kind in California and includes over 50 stops.

These deep roots in local farming have served the Holdenrieds well, and the family continues to build upon that legacy. The next generation is stepping up, with Carson aspiring to plant more land with either pears or hay. I so admire the grit, warmth, and talent of these folks that I’ve signed on for another season, getting paid well to deliver some of the best agricultural bounty anywhere.

D.R. Darvishian is a longtime writer, journalist, editor, and middling poet in Lakeport. He’s partial to Jack Russells and good Belgian ale.

Family photo by Jamie Johnson and courtesy of Holdenried family. All other photos by D.R. Darvishian.