03/22/2026
The whole Panella Family is thankful to follow in Aunti Di’s footsteps, and to be able to learn from such a pioneer in the business.
Our Women’s History Month salute continues as the spotlight falls on fifth generation pear farmer, Diane Henderson. Diane's family roots in Lake County extend back to the 1850's when her great great grandfather, Robert Henderson, arrived in Kelseyville, California, and established a homestead on the outskirts of town. His son, Lewis Henderson, planted the first large commercial pear orchard of 20 acres in 1890. It became the foundation of the Henderson family pear farming legacy. Many of those 131 year old trees are still standing today, their majestic gnarled trunks a testament not only to time, but good care.
Some of Diane’s earliest memories are of pear farming: rising at 5am to extinguish the burning orchard heaters during frost season, driving tractors, moving irrigation pipes, and hauling wooden bins of pears to the packing shed with a specially designed machine that her father dubbed "the straddlebug.”
She always loved farm life— watching the pear trees grow strong and vigorous through the seasons, culminating in a heavy crop of pears and a successful harvest. Working the land her grandfather had passed down through the generations made her feel connected to something bigger than herself. Despite the inherent risks and stresses of being at Mother Nature’s mercy, farming resonated in her soul. This truth ran deep despite the fact that her generation did not encourage women to be farmers.
She left Lake County after high school to earn an undergraduate degree in English Literature from Chico State, then pursued her Masters and teaching credential at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo (SLO). After graduation, she accepted a teaching position at Cuesta College in SLO where she taught writing, grammar and literature for the next twelve years.
She returned home to Lake County following the untimely deaths of her father (1980), and her daughter (1981). She came in search of healing, and turned to working the fields she had always loved. She began working for her mother to learn the family business, and hired on at $4.50/hr. to study the ropes of pear farming as part of the Hispanic field crew. The foreman, Salvador Martinez, took her under his wing, and she credits his willingness to teach her when others frowned on a woman trying to navigate in a man’s world.
She realized she had to do the work, and prove she could do it to earn the respect of employees and fellow pear farmers. So she rolled up her sleeves and learned it all--the intricacies of mowing, discing, spraying, pruning, irrigation and equipment maintenance.
To prove herself, Diane made her commitment to farming by using her teacher's retirement money as the down payment on her own 18 acre plot of land contiguous to her family's home orchard and began to farm her own pears. “It’s still the best orchard out there!” Diane says with pride. In 1988 her mother hired her to manage the family orchards, giving her 160 total acres to farm. Two years later, Diane and her husband, Syd Stokes, purchased one of these orchards, and she continued to farm it. They still live on that acreage.
“Farming is an unpredictable, high risk profession,” notes Diane. “You have to have a gambling spirit.” Now retired after 35 years of farming, she enjoys spending her days on the golf course, but still feels the pulse of the seasons. “It’s in my blood,” she says simply.
Hats off to you, Diane, for your can-do, trail-blazing spirit in Lake County agriculture!
