- (209) 000-0000
- Linden, CA
We believe that to know where you are going, you have to remember where you started.
Our story is written in the soil of Linden, spanning four generations of sweat,
sunshine, and stewardship.
Our story begins in 1906 when Manual Francisco Pimental arrived in California from the Azores island of Pico. Saving his earnings from sheep herding, he purchased land in Linden and married Angelina Nunes, from the Azores island of Terceira. They raised sheep and grew grain on the ranch while raising seven children.
Manual’s untimely death left Angelina to operate the ranch with help from her children and two hired hands. She was able to purchase more land for expansion. Angelina remarried two years later to Gregorio Machado, also a native of Terceira, and they continue to grow the farm. They have three sons together, George, Tony and Bill Machado.
Our family’s legacy includes serving our country. While the farm continued to raise sheep, the farm diversified into dairy, row crops, winegrapes, peaches and cherries. Bill Machado enlisted in the US Army, was sent to Germany and served as a tank gunner in the 9th Armored Division during WWII. He returned after the war, married his high school sweetheart Grace and formed a partnership with his older brother, Joe Pimental. Together they grew the original family farm into a diversified farming operation focusing on row crops, custom harvesting and orchards. The farm became known as P & M Farms.
Bill and Grace Machado had three children: Michael, Sue and Gregory. The farm produced canning tomatoes, dry kidney beans, sugar beets, peaches, cherries, wheat and alfalfa. Michael married his sweetheart Diana after graduating from Stanford. He served in the US Navy in Vietnam, returning to earn a graduate degree in agricultural economics from UC Davis. After UC Davis, Michael and Diana returned to Linden to farm with his father, uncle and brother. Their family grew with the arrival of Christopher and Erahm. Gregoria doted on Christopher, they enjoyed sharing a “cuppa de cof” in the afternoon and working in the garden.
Michael would become active in local and state politics. He and Diana’s family grew with the arrival of Melissa. Michael became an advocate of strict land-use policies to preserve farmland. Their children became active in 4-H with all three children learning to raise and care for animals and work the land.
Michael Machado served in the California State Assembly where he represented the 17th District from 1994 to 2000 and served in the California State Senate from 2000-2008. During this time, following the loss of their son, Christopher, in a farming accident, the farm’s future was in question. Michael and Diana asked Melissa and her husband Drew, both UC Davis graduates, to join the farm operation. They build a home next to Mike and Diana and devote their careers to the farm, becoming the fourth generation to continue to grow our family’s land.
With Bill Machado’s passing at the age of 89, the farm’s name was changed to Machado Family Farms, Inc., in his honor. His wife, beloved, Grace would die eight years later at the age of 97. But the couple’s story continues to live on through their family.
Drew and Melissa, as fourth-generation farmers, raising a family of their own, are committed to honoring the legacy of the past as they work with Michael and Diana to farm sustainably. Machado Family Farms is making changes. We are farming using regenerative practices such as cover crops, grazing sheep and reducing pesticide use to invest in the health of our soil and trees… returning to the many practices used by Angelina and Gregorio.
A legacy is more than just land and history—it’s the people who show up every day to tend it. Our family is the heartbeat of this mission, from the founders who planted the first trees to the next generation currently learning the rhythms of the orchard.