What smells better to a Formula 1 fanatic than the aroma of burning tires and smoking engines? For the Kimball family of Santa Paula, Calif., avocados — acres and acres of ripening avocados — would be that perfume.
The Kimball family has farmed California's Ventura County for six generations, a story that began in 1895 when Allen Crosby Hardison packed up his new diploma in civil engineering from the University of Maine and traveled cross-country. By 1929 his family farm was growing avocados. The next five generations stayed close to the homestead, with 92-year-old Dorcas Hardison Kimball Thille at the top of the family tree today.
Now, what about racing? Kimball Avocados patriarch Gordon Kimball fell in love with racing at the soap box derby age and enjoyed an exciting career as a mechanical engineer designing cars that won three world championships four decades ago. Two children, Charlie and Rachael, were born overseas on the Formula 1 circuit, and they also swooned at the adrenaline of high-stakes auto racing. Charlie was a top-rated driver for 20 years, retiring in 2021, and Rachael worked her way through the Formula 1 business side, eventually becoming head of hospitality and events for Mercedes AMG Petronas. Charlie and his family live in Indianapolis and are not involved in running the farm.
The nonstop travel associated with international racing and living overseas full-time slowly took its toll on Rachael. “It became harder and harder to say goodbye to my parents and the ranch after each vacation. I was standing in the departure hall in Los Angeles crying because I didn't want to go back to England, and my dad said, ‘Just stay.' That sparked a two-year conversation about my return to California and joining the ranch. If I came back, there had to be a defined role for me and a way to quantify the value I was delivering for the business.
“Working in F1 took dad and me away from the ranch, but it taught us how to strive for excellence in every aspect of the business,” Rachael remembers. “Dad brings engineering expertise and is responsible for designing and building our irrigation systems, pump designs and fertilizer injection systems. My experience in F1 events taught me how to manage a million little details while still keeping an eye on the big picture. That's helped me in managing day to day operations while overseeing long term strategic planning.”
Rachael sweats the small stuff because she has to: “Most millennials have never set foot on a family farm, much less a commercial growing operation, and have no idea of the challenges we face,” she opines. “We are price takers; once the crop is mature and ready for harvest, we have to take the price on offer, as we are selling a perishable commodity. Beyond that, we can do everything right, from pruning to irrigation to fertilizing, and still be completely knocked down by Mother Nature. But, as my dad always says, farming is tough, but farmers are tougher.”
Married with a young son, Rachael has an eye on the future of the farm. “I feel a lot of pressure to prepare the business to hand over to G7 if they decide it is something they want to do,” Rachael says. “Neither my brother nor I were ever pressured to come back to the ranch. For me, it was something I got to choose, and I want to do the same for the next generation.”