(graphics whoosh) (soft chiming music) - [Rob] For decades, K&J Orchards has supplied fruit to some of the most prestigious restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area, including the Michelin-starred French Laundry.

You're just as likely to see chefs shopping at their farmer's markets as their longtime customers, and it's all because of one mother's dream.

- I would like to grow food that taste like a fruit and bring to the customer, no middleman.

- [Rob] Kalayada Beutel was born in Thailand and moved to the United States to work as a nurse.

Raising her two daughters as a single mother, she wanted land that they could call their own.

She bought a single acre and planted fruit trees, but they all died.

So she asked the county to connect her with a local expert on Asian pears.

- I want to grow here because the weather should be perfect.

So they said the only person they know is Dr. James Beutel.

Later on, he married me.

- [Rob] Dr. James Beutel worked for UC Davis and began advising Kalayada over the phone.

They talked for 10 years before finally meeting in person by chance at the hospital where she worked.

- With that, they met, they collaborated, and K&J formed in 1990.

So K&J Orchards, it is a combination of two farms that are now one, and we are an orchard farm.

We grow mostly stone fruits, pears, apples, and citrus and some nuts.

- [Rob] Aomboon helps run the orchard along with her husband, Tim Deasy, and her sister Onanong Montoya.

Dr. Beutel died in 2016.

Kalayada remains the family matriarch at the age of 80.

- I've grown up doing this because my mom enjoys it.

It's her passion, and that inspires me to be that kind of person, to understand where my food comes from.

- [Rob] In 2022, Aomboon took that passion to the next level, opening her own farm to table restaurant in Oakland called Pomet.

- My idea was to literally take the farm to table definition to its truest form.

- To have Boonie as a farmer, she has so much more access to other farmers.

She understands, you know, sort of how they work and how farms work.

- [Rob] One example, the goat cheese in this persimmon beet salad comes from Andante Dairy in nearby Petaluma.

It's one of many local farms that Aomboon has a personal relationship with and whose products she features at the restaurant alongside her own.

- The fruit or the produce they're getting from us tells a story.

The story is this was picked by hand.

The fruit is at its optimal sweetness so that not much manipulation needs to happen in terms of it being presented to the customer.

Hi, chef.

- Hi, Boonie.

- How are you?

- How are you?

- Very good.

How are you?

- [Rob] The family is driven by the same mission, to sell fruit that delights and amazes their customers.

- The greatest joy going to the farmer's market is actually seeing these customers enjoying and laughing and enjoying the fruits.

- Yeah, they're good.

- Their surprised look on their face like, "Oh my God, this tastes fantastic.

What is this?"

'Cause we actually grow very different varieties of fruit that you don't really see in like the supermarkets, and that's why I always try to convince customers, "Go to farmer's market."

You'll see a lot more, more fresh, more local fruit out there that you don't even know about that the supermarkets don't have.

- I'm very happy because I want people come by and get the real fruit, - The quality.

- the real taste.

- [Rob] Kalayada says sometimes stops customers from buying more than five pieces of fruit at a time.

That's because she wants them to have the freshest fruit possible, telling them to come back next week for five more pieces, picked straight off the tree.

- It's a little bit too strict and too bossy, but you can go home with a good fruit.

- But it's all about quality and taste with our family, and we wanna make sure it continues to stay that way and people know that it's family owned and always be family owned.

- [Rob] Kalayada says she's happy her daughters have taken over, but she has no plans to retire anytime soon.

- I will be here as long I live, I can walk.

If I cannot breathe, then that's the end of my career.

I will be with you all my life.

- [Rob] And they say the orchard also honors Dr. Beutel's legacy as both an academic expert and a beloved member of their family.

- Learned a lot from him.

If it weren't for him, I wouldn't - We wouldn't be here.

- doing this, yeah.

- I'm hoping that what we do here and now will teach our later generations the importance of agriculture.

I want them to understand that being stewards of the land is as important as being able to purchase fruit from the farmers because we are gonna be the ones who take care of it for the next generation.