Pearson Farm "FAMILY" Friday..... A family's legacy is carried on by its children, and at Pearson Farm we know that first hand being a 5th generation farm. However, our Pearson Farm "FAMILY" legacy is being carried on by more than just Pearson children. Maribel is the Farm's Accountant and she is a "CHILD" of our Pearson Farm "FAMILY." Maribel grew up in a migrant family with 8 children that traveled up and down the east coast working in citrus groves, blueberry fields and apple orchards. In the mid 80's a catastrophic frost damaged most of Florida's citrus crop, so Maribel's father was forced to seek another crop for his family to work. He remembered seeing the "Big Peach" on I75 as they traveled north each year, and thought that the peach farms might be in need of workers. He was able to make contact with Mr. Al Pearson who agreed to let him and his brothers work the next peach season. Little did either of these men know how this summer would affect the Farm and their families. Maribel came with her father as a teenager to work beside him in the peach orchards, pruning and helping with the "piece work" style payroll for his crews. Her family would always return to Mexico a few months in the winter, to rest after all the crops had been harvested. Maribel started dating her husband during one such trip home. They wrote letters and kept in contact by phone while she traveled with her family and finally in the fall of 1994, they were married. When it came time for her family to come back to the United States to work, Maribel chose to stay in Mexico. During that time, she gave birth to her first daughter, took a few classes and even taught school. All the while, her family continued working in the United States (many at Pearson Farm.) Maribel remembers phone calls from her sister asking her to come back to Pearson Farm to work. After a couple years, Maribel, her husband and daughter came back to the United States and back to Pearson Farm. She spent her first season supervising a crew in the field and her second season she ran the packing house and helped with payroll. She always loved accounting and had started taking college courses so in 2001, when the accounting position became vacant, Maribel was the perfect candidate to fill the job. Mr. Al knew that her personality, education and understanding of the payroll system for the field crews and packing house would make her an invaluable asset to the Farm Office. Maribel's legacy is so intertwined with Pearson Farm that some days it is hard to tell where one stops and the other begins. Every member of her family, including her children either work or have worked at Pearson Farm. During her lifetime, she has spent more years on the Farm than off. If you were to ask Maribel to tell you about her time on the Farm, she would tell you that she grew up here. Making her a self-proclaimed "CHILD" of our Pearson Farm "FAMILY."
