BRENTWOOD, Calif. — When Al Courchesne decided to quit his teaching job in Hawaii to farm in California, he got some good advice.

“I came here as a complete novice, and the first local farmer I talked to said, ‘Plant peaches, you’ll make nothing but money,’” Courchesne said. “He was right. People love peaches, and peaches grow better here than anywhere, even Georgia.”

“Farmer Al,” as he likes to be called, farmed tomatoes, corn, mixed vegetables and soybeans in Hawaii while teaching history to eighth-graders. When he realized farming was his true calling, he gave up the classroom and moved to Brentwood and started farming in 1976.

Today he farms 270 acres in Contra Costa County and raises more than 97 varieties of organic fruit. He also sells baked goods, dried fruits, meat, poultry and gift boxes through his stand and website.

Disease pests are ubiquitous, he said. Fungus and bacteria are everywhere in the environment and become a threat when conditions are favorable to their growth. It usually has to do with the temperature and moisture.

“As a general rule, bacteria and fungi don’t like it too hot or too cold, they like it just right — just like people,” he said.

Drought continues to be the biggest challenge for California farmers but it has not directly affected his operation because of strong, pre-1914 water rights in the area.

“It has affected our planning and spending though,” he said. Out of caution and a desire for an “insurance back up,” he spent several hundred thousand dollars drilling a well, which will only be put to use if desperately needed.

He also installed permanent soil moisture probes throughout the farm to monitor the ground and make more efficient use of irrigation water.

Fruit boxes are his biggest sellers.

Brie Mazurek, communications director of Foodwise, formerly CUESA, said Frog Hollow Farm has been a part of the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market since the market’s founding nearly 30 years ago.

“They’re beloved by market shoppers and restaurants like Chez Panisse alike for the delicious tree-ripened, organic fruit, as well as their hand-crafted preserves and pastries,” she said. “They exemplify the environmentally sustainable and regenerative values that we champion here at Foodwise, with care for the land, their workers and our market community.”

Labor issues are a concern for Courchesne on a deeper level.

“Labor looms as a dark shadow on the horizon because of the unfriendly political landscape towards immigrants,” he said. “Here in California we understand and welcome immigrants but, generally speaking, immigrants from across the border are not welcome in America and that is felt in a very real way on an emotional level, in villages and townships all across Mexico.”

Immigrants just aren’t coming to the U.S. to seek temporary work like they used to, he said, and federal programs such as the H-2A guestworker visa are not built to help “small and medium-sized farmers, but unfairly stack the deck against us, in favor of big conventional agriculture,” he said.

Occupation: Farmer

Hometown: Brentwood, Calif.

Family: Wife and co-owner of Frog Hollow Farm, Becky Courchesne, and two teenage daughters

Education: B.A. in anthropology and Spanish from the University of California-Berkeley, 1965

Website: https://www.froghollow.com/

Personal quote: “I wouldn’t trade this job for Jeff Bezos’ job.”