Home Industry News Releases The Mauritson Family Is Sonoma County Farm Bureau’s Farm Family of the...

The Mauritson Family Is Sonoma County Farm Bureau’s Farm Family of the Year

930
1
Advertisement

(Santa Rosa, CA) -The Mauritson Family, a multigenerational farming family in the Dry Creek Valley, has been selected as Sonoma County Farm Bureau’s 2016 Farm Family of the Year.

Mauritson Family

Like many Sonoma County farming families, the Mauritson Family’s story starts nearly 150 years ago with the great great grandfather of Thom Mauritson. Sven Parker Hallengren, known as SP, emigrated from Sweden, landing at Ellis Island in New York before coming west. SP settled in the Dry Creek Valley raising sheep, growing grapes and making wine to ship back to Sweden.

Thom Mauritson is the President of Mauritson Farms, overseeing the management of all the family’s vineyards. Thom and his wife Linda raised five children: Cameron, Bob, Clay, Courtney and Blake. Cameron and Bob work alongside their father to manage the day to day vineyard operations for more than 600 acres plus an additional 100 they manage for friends and family. Courtney works at Francis Ford Coppola Winery, and Blake farms citrus in Visalia with his wife’s family.

Thom’s son, Clay, began making wine in 1998. When the Mauritson Family Winery was built in 2004, Clay became the primary winemaker in addition to managing the family winery.

Clay and his siblings are part of the sixth generation to farm in Sonoma County. Thom currently has nine grandchildren that compose the seventh generation of Sonoma County residents.

In addition to growing grapes, the Mauritson Family is also involved in the beef industry. Thom is the owner of an Oregon cattle ranch and a partial owner of Painted Hills, a national distributor of beef. Additionally, the family runs several smaller herds of beef cattle in Sonoma County.

The Mauritson Family will be presented an award at Sonoma County Farm Bureau’s Love of the Land event on July 15th at Saralee’s Vineyard and Richard’s Grove. They will be honored alongside the Hughes Dairy/Westview Jerseys receiving the Luther Burbank Conservation Award and Tim Tesconi who will be inducted into the Farm Bureau Hall of Fame. Tickets are on sale at sonomafb.org.

Love of the Land begins at 4 p.m. with a reception of local wine, cheese and food. Dinner starts at 7 p.m. and is followed by the presentation of awards and a live auction.

The event is open to the public. Ticket prices begin at $65 for individuals and $700 for a reserved table of 8. Corporate sponsor tables are $1,250. To make reservations visit www.sonomafb.org/loveoftheland or call 707-544-5575.

Advertisement

1 COMMENT

  1. I’d like a response to the article on Kqed titled “Blacklisted for Speaking Up: How California Farmworkers Fighting Abuses Are Vulnerable to Retaliation”.
    Thank you

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.