IT ALL
STARTED
WITH MY
SAE
Maisie Jane Hurtado, commonly known as “Maisie Jane,” is
a real person and not just a company stage name. As a high
school FFA member she started Maisie Jane’s as her Supervised
Agricultural Experience (SAE) project and to this day plays a very
active role in every aspect of the business. She lives
in Northern California, the location of her farm
and Chico located storefront, with her husband,
Isidro, and their three daughters. FFA Superior
Region Historian Kaia Harry (pictured at left),
caught up with Maisie Jane to learn a little more
about how her SAE remains a booming business
nearly 25 years later.
A:
“My
great-grandfather
Natalie Bertagna settled
here from northern Italy, he was a
gardener by trade. He found out
that almonds were just starting to be
planted in Northern California and so
he began to plant them in his own yard as an experiment. My
grandfather then started farming them on his own. At the age of ten,
he would help out local farmers, so by high school he had worked
enough and raised enough money to buy his first orchard. This
orchard still is in existence on Chico Avenue. His three sons were in
farming and being an almond farmer’s daughter, I for sure helped
out. I worked all the harvests, even though I was a girl. I was driving
the sweeper and changing the shaker pads, which is a very dirty
job. I also helped out in the office and did whatever was needed
and definitely experienced almond farming on a first-hand level.”
What is your
agricultural
background?
A:
“At that time, you
started out in FFA
as a sophomore so I did that
as well. I was so excited my
grandfather and father were
both FFA members and now it
was my turn. At that point I started learning about SAEs. I had a flock
of sheep at the time that I was breeding and selling for my first year.
Then I was done with sheep and I thought, you know, a good SAE
would be an almond business.”
When did you get
involved in the
FFA organization?
A:
“I recalled
as a child
all the dinner table
conversations about
almond
farming,
and how California
almonds were so under marketed in the United States, because a
majority of the crop was exported. I was frustrated with the fact it
was common to go into a grocery store and not find fresh good
quality almonds. Also, I thought nothing was being creatively done
with them. My mother always had freshly baked nuts, and she had
so many recipes. So, I thought, yeah, I can have a business selling
high quality almond products. I started the business at age 17 and
bought my first 2,000 pounds of almonds by selling my flock of
sheep. My dad always taught me to do business and learn business
the honest, hard way, so I was always paying fair market value. I
When did you start your
SAE, and what inspired
you to continue it?
California FFANEWS • PAGE 6 • Winter 2017
{ Continued on page 7 }