Our Mission
At Ibara Farms, our mission is to grow exceptional fruit while caring for the land that has sustained our family for more than a century. We are committed to producing premium-quality fruit through responsible farming practices that promote healthy soils, conserve natural resources, and minimize unnecessary chemical inputs.
By combining generations of farming experience with modern agricultural science, we continually seek better ways to care for our orchards. Through precision nutrient management, integrated pest management, water conservation, biodiversity, and improved rootstocks, we strive to produce healthy crops while reducing our environmental impact.
We believe that farming is a continuous process of learning and improvement. Each year, we educate ourselves on the latest agricultural developments and strive to improve at least 10% of our land in various ways, such as replacing diseased or unproductive trees, grafting new fruit varieties, amending our soil, and evaluating new pest control methods. Overall, we hope that these sustainable practices will enable current and future generations of the Ibara family to carry on the legacy that began in 1903.
Our Story
1903 - A New Beginning
Our story begins with Magoso Ibara, a first-generation Japanese immigrant. At just 16 years old, he immigrated to Hawaii, where he worked as a mechanic maintaining generators on a sugar cane plantation. In 1903, he moved to Reedley, California, becoming one of the first Japanese Americans to settle in the area. He helped establish a Japanese language school and the first Buddhist church in Reedley. After working as a dishwasher and farm laborer for several years, he had saved up enough money to purchase his own ranch in 1920. He began by growing asparagus, grapes, and various other crops. More than a century later, that original ranch on Avenue 416 (El Monte Way) is still actively cultivated by Ibara Farms.
Circa 1920s - Magoso and Taka Ibara pictured at the original ranch on Ave 416 in Reedley, CA.
Magoso and Taka Ibara
Magoso married Taka Takahashi, a picture bride who came from a wealthy family in Japan. As first-generation immigrant farmers, they faced many hardships while building a life in America and frequently argued with one another. Nevertheless, they raised six children together: Kazuo, Terashi, Mitz, Kan, Ichika, and Irene. Their second son, Terashi, would one day become the next steward of the farm.
Born in a barn in 1914, Terashi grew up immersed in agriculture. During his sophomore year of high school, he left school to work the farm full-time, following in his father's footsteps. In 1941, he married Mitsuko Ishizue, and together they began building the next chapter of the Ibara family legacy.
Various family members packing fruit together. Foreground members identified from left to right: Dexter's mother (Mistuko), grandmother, grandfather, and uncles.
War and Internment Camps
In 1942, the Ibara family was forced into Japanese Internment camps. While Kazuo, Mitz, and Kan were drafted into the US army, Terashi, his wife, and other members of the family were incarcerated. During their imprisonment, Terashi worked as a mechanic building car trailers, and in 1943, he and Mitsuko had a son named Dexter, who would become the next successor of the farm. Tragically, Mitsuko died at just 24 years old, only two years after Dexter’s birth, likely due to the harsh living conditions in the camps.
Rebuilding After the War
Following the disbandment of the War Relocation Authority and the end of World War II, our family was finally able to return to Reedley 1946. However, upon their arrival, they discovered that all their equipment had been taken and the farm had fallen into disrepair. Facing tremendous financial hardship, many of the family members sought work elsewhere. Terashi, however, remained committed to the land and would continue operating the farm for the next several decades.
Terashi Ibara holding up grapes in the field.
In 1948, Terashi started the “El Monte Garage” business on the ranch. Being one of the only garages around at the time, the family found great success. The business quickly became one of the area’s primary repair shops for everything from school buses and tractors to lawn mowers. Terashi’s brothers Kan and Mitz were skilled automotive mechanics and took over the garage business while Terashi continued operating the farm. In 1949, Terashi remarried to a woman named Masai Yasuhira and together, they raised 3 daughters (Nora, Juna, and May) and one son (Ron).
Over the next 50 years, Terashi grew a wide variety of fruit and sold it to wholesale markets in Los Angeles and San Francisco. From 1955 to 1985, the family had its own packing operation and trucking business. Every summer, young family members would come from out-of-town to visit the farm and work the packing line while trucks transported the fruit to markets across California.
Behind the scenes, however, Terashi struggled with mounting financial pressures. Realizing he could not continue alone, he asked his son Dexter to return home to help save the family farm. At the time, Dexter was working as an automotive engineer for Ford.
2014 - El Monte Garage (post-shutdown) at the original ranch on Ave 416 in Reedley, CA.
An Engineer Returns Home
Having been born in the internment camps, and having lost his mother at an early age, Dexter faced significant challenges from the beginning of his life. He was mostly raised by his grandparents, Magoso and Taka, and was placed into English as a Second Language classes alongside many Mexican students. From an early age, he displayed a remarkable talent for mechanics. He learned while helping out his Uncle Kan at El Monte Garage and earned extra money from fixing television sets in high school.
In 1964, Dexter was drafted into the U.S. army, where he served for 6 years. He was trained to be a night sniper who uses a starlight scope, and almost got deployed in Vietnam, but was ultimately stationed in Fresno instead. While serving, he studied engineering at Fresno State University and began working for Ford in 1967.
Over the next 26 years, Dexter built a successful career, serving as an engineer for Ford, Toyota, General motors, and other automotive manufacturers. During this time, he trained in Japan, where he learned Toyota's revolutionary Just-In-Time manufacturing system. He later spent six years helping launch a Mazda plant in Mexico, where he also developed his farming skills and fluency in Spanish–skills that would soon prove invaluable back on the farm.
In 1993, Dexter left his engineering job at Ford to return home and help his father run the family farm. Using the savings from his engineering career, he paid off his father’s debts and expanded the original 40-acre farm into several ranches. At its peak, Ibara Farms encompassed more than 500 acres across ten different ranches and even exported fruit to Taiwan.
2013 - Terashi Ibara, Lilian (Terashi's girlfriend), Dexter Ibara, and Jun Ihara (Dexter's 1st cousin, son of Kazuo)
However, like many small, family-owned farms, Ibara Farms has faced significant challenges in recent years. Competition from large, vertically-integrated agricultural corporations, along with recurring droughts, damaging frost, declining market returns, and a shrinking family labor force have all taken their toll. Today, the farm has scaled back to 212 acres across four ranches. Moreover, as Dexter has grown older, the physical demands of farming and the financial risk involved has led to costly reliance on outside labor, making it difficult to operate the business as previous generations once did.
2025 - Dexter picking cherries
Looking Toward the Future
Today, Dexter's nephews Charles and Kenneth represent the fourth generation preparing to carry Ibara Farms into the future. They are learning from Dexter while honoring the legacy started by Magoso and Terashi over a century ago. By combining that heritage with fresh ideas and an entrepreneurial spirit, they hope to revitalize Ibara Farms to be successful in the modern world.
As part of that vision, they are expanding into farmers markets and other direct-to-consumer marketing channels, including pop-up fruit stands, home delivery, online sales, and specialty fruit products. While agriculture has changed dramatically over the past century, the Ibara family's commitment to growing exceptional fruit and serving the local community remains as strong as ever.
2025 - Dexter Ibara, Jun Ihara, Charles Ihara, and Kenneth Bohr on Pine Flat Lake in Reedley, CA.