Rolland and Noel Rosa Interview
Item
Title
Rolland and Noel Rosa Interview
Description
The Rosa Brothers, Noel and Rolland were born in Hanford, California. Their grandparents were emigrants from the Azores islands and began a dairy operation that has been in the family for three generations. They have been innovators in dairy production and retail of dairy products. Although second generation born on the US, they are very committed to their cultural legacy and the values brought from Portugal by their forefathers.
Creator
Rosa, Rolland and Rosa, Noel
McCoy, Kelley
Relation
Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute
Date
1-6-2020
Identifier
SCUAD_pbbi_00005
extracted text
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ROSA BROTHERS
Jan. 6, 2020
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Kelley McCoy: Rolland, what
is your full birth name?
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Rolland Rosa: My full birth
name is Rolland Manuel Rosa.
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Kelley McCoy: Were you named after anyone?
Rolland Rosa: No, I don't think so. Manuel
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is my dad's first name. So, that's where
I got the middle name, Manuel, from.
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Kelley McCoy: And how about you, Noel?
Noel Rosa: My name is Noel Manuel Rosa and I
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got the middle name from my dad as well.
Kelley McCoy: So
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when and where were you born, Rolland?
Rolland Rosa: I was born March 13, 1963
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in Visalia, at Kaweah Delta Hospital. I think it
was called Kaweah Delta Hospital at that time.
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Kelley McCoy: Noel?
Noel Rosa: I was born January 26, 1969, one of the
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wettest winters on record in Hanford. And I was
born in Hanford at, what was that called? The
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Sacred Heart Hospital, I think, it was. Yeah.
Kelley McCoy: Now when did your
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family immigrate to the United States?
Rolland Rosa: So, our grandfather on our mom's
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side -- So this is our mother's side. He came at
15 years old and he was born in 1901. So, he came
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in 1916. Now, on our father's side, it's a little
bit different because our grandfather came over
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here as a single man. We don't know exactly what
year, but it was about the same time. He started
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working, kind of established a little life for
himself, went back and married our grandmother,
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and then brought her back to the United States.
And then, they started their life here. So,
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it was around the same time around the '20s.
Kelley McCoy: So both sides, your mother and your
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father's families, both came from the Azores?
Rolland Rosa: Correct.
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Kelley McCoy: Same islands?
Rolland Rosa: Different islands.
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Kelley McCoy: Which islands?
Rolland Rosa: Yes. So, our mother's side was from
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Terceira and our father's side was from Pico.
Kelley McCoy: So you both were born in the
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Central Valley. So which side of the family,
your mother's or your father's, established
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this area here where you are?
Rolland Rosa: This dairy where we
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are here in Hanford was established
by my grandfather on my dad's side.
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So this was his second dairy. His original dairy
was in the Laton-Hardwick area. Is that right?
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Noel Rosa: Yeah.
Rolland Rosa: And he actually bought
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this dairy as a second dairy at an auction. He
didn't want to buy. He didn't intend to buy it.
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He was bidding on it as a favor to a friend
of his. And he ended up buying the dairy and
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he sent my dad, my uncle, over here who
were young high school graduates that come
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over here and run this second dairy.
Kelley McCoy: And do you know at that
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time how many cows that are worth
this dairy when it first started?
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Noel Rosa: The story goes, there was about 50
cows and they walked them from the latent area
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here, because this milking barn was better. This
was a Grade A milking barn and the milking barn
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at his home place was a Grade B. So, in order to
sell higher quality milk, they had to have the
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updated milking barn which this facility had.
Rolland Rosa: So, Grade A milk could be sold
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for fluid, right?
Noel Rosa: Right.
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Rolland Rosa: Grade B milk was for processing
only. So it was a higher valued milk.
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So, the upgraded barn allowed them to
get a better price for their milk.
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Kelley McCoy: So was your family also involved
in dairy over in Portugal or was this something
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that they started here when they moved here?
Noel Rosa: The story goes from what we've been
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told over the years that on our father's
side, the majority of those people were
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whalers, fishermen. And there was even some
relatives that had been to San Francisco on
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whaling ships and had gone back and had furniture
in the Azores from the United States. So,
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they were not cattle people. It was more of on
our mom's side. They were more cattle people.
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Of course, when they immigrated and they didn't
speak the language, the opportunity for them
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was to all milk cows. So the Portuguese people,
whether they were cow people in their homeland,
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when they got here they milked cows by hand and
that was their opportunity to get started and to
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get jobs, and then, to start their own businesses.
Kelley McCoy: So now your father and your uncle,
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they worked over here at
this current dairy, right?
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Noel Rosa: Correct.
Kelley McCoy: So does this
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mean that you grew up here as well on this land?
Rolland Rosa: Yes, we both grew up here. There
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is five kids in our family: three boys and two
girls. We all grew up working here on the farm
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from a young age. I don't know exactly when.
I estimated somewhere between first grade and
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third grade, maybe, before school, after
school, weekends, Saturdays, Sundays, summers.
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We worked all the time.
Kelley McCoy: From the time
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that you were very small?
Noel Rosa: Yes.
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Kelley McCoy: So tell me, because I'm
curious, having no [inaudible] in this,
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what does a second grader start out
doing on a dairy? What kind of work?
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Noel Rosa: A second-grader starts
out feeding the little calves.
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Yeah, feeding the little calves and taking
the strings or the twines off of the hay bales
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that feed the cows and feeding the babies milk.
Feeding the babies grain. What else do we do?
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Rolland Rosa: Cleaning up.
There's always clean up. So,
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you're washing equipment in the barn, you're
washing tractors, you're putting things away,
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all the odds and the ends. The young people
start and do a lot of odds and ends things.
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Kelley McCoy: So you said that there were five
of you in your family: three boys, two girls.
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Did all of you work on the dairy, then,
growing up, the girls and the boys?
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Noel Rosa: The girls, they didn't do
a lot on the dairy. They were more
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helping Mom. And then, the boys would help Dad.
So, the girls were the oldest two. And then,
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the three of us were the younger. So, yeah, the
girls helped Mom more with the domestic things.
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And then, the boys did more of the dairy stuff.
Rolland Rosa: Well, with five kids, there was like
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household domestic things to do. So, the girls
were helping Mom -- you know, support the family
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and the boys went outside and did the cow work.
Kelley McCoy: Well, we're going to talk more
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about the cow work, so to speak. But, I
first want to ask you a few questions.
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I'm imagining that you were fairly close
to your grandparents. Can you tell me,
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did they ever tell you what life was like in
the Azores? Any stories they've passed down?
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Rolland Rosa: My grandfather on my dad's side
passed away when I was really young. I'd say,
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maybe, three or four years old. So, I didn't
really remember him at all. My grandmother
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on my dad's side, at that time, had already
moved to the coast. So, she was living
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in Pismo Beach and her English was not really
that great. I mean, she could communicate.
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But the time that we had together, it seemed like
she wanted to know more about what we were doing
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than what her family stories. And then
she always wanted to tell me stories
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about the church, about God, about
Jesus, making sure that we knew
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who we were in relative to the bigger picture.
Kelley McCoy: Well, you talk about who you are
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relative to the bigger picture. One of the things
that has come out on several of the interviews
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is just how central the Catholic Church is to
the Portuguese community. Would you say that was
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the sense for you as well, that not only was the
church central but, specifically, the church was
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central as Portuguese Americans?
Noel Rosa: Right. Yeah,
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the church definitely plays into the heritage,
definitely big influence. It would be hard to
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be Portuguese and not be Catholic and
put all the pieces together. Yes.
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Kelley McCoy: So for someone who isn't Portuguese
American, can you tell me how the experience
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of a Portuguese Catholic is, maybe, a little
different, like [inaudible] and other things?
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What's kind of unique to that type of
celebration, that type of Catholicism?
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Noel Rosa: I don't think that the celebrations
and any of that is really unique to the Portuguese
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heritage because, in Catholicism you have, OK,
so we have our Lady of Fatima where the mother
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of God appeared to these children in Portugal.
But then, you have Our Lady of Guadalajara
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where she showed up in Mexico.
Rolland Rosa: Guadalupe.
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Noel Rosa: Yeah, Guadalupe. And then, you have
Our Lady of Perpetual Help where she showed up
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in the Philippines. So different cultures
have this same type of relationship with
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the Church. As the Portuguese, we just happen
to be Portuguese so that's kind of our tilt
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on the Catholic. But it's all over the world.
Kelley McCoy: So what other ways were Portuguese
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traditions observed in your home, growing up?
Noel Rosa: We went to a matancero
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[check spelling], too, which is basically like
slaughter a pig and you all cut up the meat
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and you cook it. And we did a few of those. We
definitely would go to the Portuguese celebration,
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celebrating, you know, the Holy Spirit. And then,
all those Holy Spirit festivals are in the spring.
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And then, in the fall, you have the Our
Lady of Fatima celebrations. And so,
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we definitely attended some of those. I
mean, I wouldn't say we were the most active
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in the Portuguese community. We were a little bit
more heavy on the work and less on the festivals
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than a lot of other families. But, yeah, we
definitely were part of the Portuguese community.
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Kelley McCoy: Was that important
to -- I'm sorry, go ahead.
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Rolland Rosa: I just recalled growing up,
going back 50 years, our Portuguese community
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was a lot like the Mexican community is now,
where there was Portuguese television station,
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there was Portuguese radio, there was a lot
more Portuguese speaking people to each other
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and you heard the language a lot and you saw a lot
of the cultural things in the media. And you don't
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see that now, the Portuguese immigration wave
slowed down and essentially stopped about 30,
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40 years ago. And so, the people that were
here assimilated and Americanized, whereas,
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the Mexican immigration still continues
today, although, at a slower pace. And so,
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there's more Mexican culture [inaudible] around
in our everyday lives that we used to see.
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In Portuguese, kids were like that.
Kelley McCoy: Do you perceive that as
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a loss or do you just think it was inevitable?
Rolland Rosa: Well, I don't know that that's the
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right term to say, inevitable. It's just it's
the amount of immigrants coming in. So whatever
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group has that influx of immigrants coming in,
that's where you're going to see more of that
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cultural, what do I want to
say, influx is more current.
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Kelley McCoy: Was it important to your parents,
do you think, that you retain a strong sense
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of yourselves as Portuguese Americans?
Noel Rosa: Yeah. I think, our parents would
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encourage us to, maybe, marry someone of the same
nationality. They encouraged that. They'd always
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say, "You need to meet a nice Portuguese
girl." So, yeah, it was important to them.
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But, they had been raised that way.
Even though our parents were born here,
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they had been raised that way by their immigrant
parents. And so, yeah, as each generation goes on,
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you hold on to the things of your culture that
you think are really important and -- you know,
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you want to hold on for the next generation.
And you lose a little bit. And we lost language.
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My parents did not teach us the language.
They didn't want us to learn the language
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because when they had gone to school l-- like,
our father didn't speak English when he went to
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school. Even though he was born here, he didn't
speak English. So his first year in school was
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spent learning the language. And you were looked
down upon if you didn't speak English. So,
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he had to learn English in school. So, the
last thing he wanted to do was teach his kids
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Portuguese. He wanted his kids to learn English.
They also used it as a tool to communicate
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because that way, the parents could
communicate and go right over our heads.
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And so, later on in life, some of us have
learned a little bit of Portuguese along the way
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and to this day don't really like that. They still
want to be able to communicate with one another.
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You know, about us in front of us.
Rolland Rosa: The whole time [inaudible]
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I felt it was really rude. I felt it
was really rude that I feel like they
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were talking about us behind our back to our
face, if that makes any sense. And I thought,
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"Man, I'd like to learn that so that I can know
what they're talking about." And I don't know.
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I just had a problem with languages, I guess.
And I still try to pick up words and phrases.
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And I do a little bit. But, mostly, I just can't.
Kelley McCoy: You had mentioned that as successive
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generations go on and become increasingly
more Americanized, you kind of hold on to
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those things that are important and other you let
go. What have the two of you held on to? I know
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that you're both married and you're fathers, you
have children. What have you two held on to that
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you have wanted to bring to your children's lives?
Noel Rosa: Well, definitely, the Catholic faith.
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Definitely, our kids have participated in the
festivals and the parades and all that. So,
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we've definitely held on to the religious aspect.
Rolland Rosa: You know, with me and my kids,
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my kids are 25, 23 and 21. And it seemed to me
like it wasn't so much me trying to teach them
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specific things historical or cultural or
whatever; it was them asking me then me trying
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to provide information to them. It wasn't like
I was trying to pass anything on specifically.
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It was like, "Why do we do this? Why does
Grandpa stay that way? Where did that come from?
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How does that fit into when you were a kid? And
what does all that mean?" And so it's more of me
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trying to explain how these pieces of the puzzle
fit together with stories that they've heard or
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things that they see, rather than me
trying to specifically pass on things.
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Kelley McCoy: Is it important to you, guys,
that they retain some sense, do you think,
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of being Portuguese?
Rolland Rosa: Yeah. I think,
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it gives them a grounding, a place of who they
are, where they're from, where they fit in to
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the universe. And so, from that aspect, yes.
Noel Rosa: I think that we would feel much more
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strongly since we've never gone back and visited.
So, what I've noticed is our friends and family
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that go back to the old country and actually
firsthand witnessed the culture and the traditions
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and things, they come back just really excited
about the culture. And we even have cousins who
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their kids who are our kids' ages come back
and they want to learn the language and they
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want to do everything Portuguese, because they've
actually gone back and witnessed firsthand. Since
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we haven't been back there, we kind of have a
little bit less of an excitement about the culture
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than if we had gone back. So, someday when we go
back, we will probably come back and be on fire.
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Kelley McCoy: Do you plan to go back?
Noel Rosa: Sure.
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Rolland Rosa: Yeah. I'm a little bit older so
I feel a little bit more pressured to go back
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sooner, I guess. I feel like I want to go before
I'm too old before it's difficult to travel.
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But, at the same time, I'm still really busy.
We're still in the peaks of our careers here. So,
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it's that push and pull of wanting
to get away and needing to get away.
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Kelley McCoy: So you brought up the push
and pull of a career. So we're now going to
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talk about the business. Did you always know that
you were going to stay in the family business,
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Rolland, in the [inaudible] ?
Rolland Rosa: No.
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Kelley McCoy: Why did you?
Rolland Rosa: Why did I stay?
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Kelley McCoy: Why did you stay?
Rolland Rosa: I stayed -- so,
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I went to college and I studied engineering
and I was intent on being an engineer.
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I wasn't a very good engineer. So I came back.
And my older brother who was here with my dad
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running the dairy, he decided to buy
his own dairy and move to Oregon.
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So I stuck around to help dad in the transition
period just to make sure everything was going
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okay at that same time Noel was starting college.
So I kind of stayed around. And, one thing led to
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another and dad offered me a partnership as he
did with Noel. And so we saw an opportunity here
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that I thought was a pretty good one. So I
stayed. But, growing up as a kid, we worked a
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lot here and the work was hard and the hours were
long. And that's not very appealing to kids. So
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I didn't intend to come back, but I did.
Kelley McCoy: How about you,
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Noel? What's your story?
Noel Rosa: My story was a little bit different.
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I've always had a fascination with business.
So I was studying business in college and I
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liked agriculture. I like the fact that it's
family-oriented. I like the people that we deal
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with. I like everything about it. And so I was
studying agriculture and business. And I was going
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to do an internship halfway through college.
I said, "I'm going to go to this internship."
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And that's when I told my dad, "Hey, I'm not
going to come to work this summer because I need
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to start working towards what I'm going to do when
I graduate." So he offered me a deal just like he
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had offered Rolland. And I said, "Yeah, that's
a pretty good opportunity, because if you know
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anything, if you've ever started a business, and
that was the ultimate goal, to have a business."
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And if you've ever started a business, it's very
hard to get the financing and to get started.
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So if you have someone who has trust in you,
which our father did, then, he was willing to
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basically sell us the business without us
having to put any capital down, which is very
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hard to do in the business world. So we saw it
as an opportunity. I saw it as an opportunity,
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probably, a better opportunity than this
corporation was going to give me that I was
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going to go do the internship in. So I stayed
and after college came back, because it was
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an opportunity to get started in a business.
Kelley McCoy: So you're working on and living
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on the same way that your grandfather
purchased, I think I've read 1949.
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Noel Rosa: Correct.
Kelley McCoy: So you must feel a
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heck of a connection to this place.
Noel Rosa: Correct.
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Kelley McCoy: Every day you wake up and you
see the same land that you saw as little boys.
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Noel Rosa: Well, it's different, though. Our dad,
during his career, remodeled this facility. And it
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went from being just a barn with a bunch of
pastures around to. He built corrals and he
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did things. And then, since we've taken over the
last 20 years, we've knock down that old portion,
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built in new things there, added on. So, it
is the same place, but it's not. So, yes,
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it's the same land, it's the same neighborhood,
but even the freeway in front of us has changed
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and the neighbors have changed. So, it is the same
land, but it's different also. That being said,
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you can see the progress of your career. You can
see how much things have changed. And it really
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hits you when you see old photographs.
Kelley McCoy:
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Because you started out with 50 cows, right,
you said? And you have how many now?
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Rolland Rosa: So we milk about 1,000 cows.
There's about 1,150 total mature cows here.
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And we've seen it from that 50 cow, one
barn, open lot, barbed wire, wooden posts,
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where we spent years just with a hammer
and nails pulling wire, rusty old nails,
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to hold the cows and the cows getting loose, and
crooked dirt roads and weeds all over and old
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trees that needed to be pulled out. And we've
pretty much seen the evolution to where, now,
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this is a modern, efficient, functioning farm. And
so, that's the biggest gratification that I get,
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being here on one facility, is to kind
of being fast forward 50 years later and
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saying what we thought was possible that
long ago now is what that vision was.
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Noel Rosa: Yeah. When we were growing
up, when we started working on the farm
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as small kids and while we were growing up
-- you know, grade school and high school,
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this was a 200-cow dairy at that point, 200 to
300 cows. And it wasn't until our oldest brother
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got out of college, he took the leap, or
dad took the leap from my four to -- I mean,
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300 to 400 cows. And so, when our dad retired
20 years ago, it was at 500. So we've doubled.
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Rolland Rosa: We've done everything along the
way. We've laid concrete, put in water pipes,
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welded top rails, put in cables,
pulled out barbed wire. And then,
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we've knocked it down already. We've already
built a dairy, knocked it down, rebuilt it better,
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leveled, moved dirt. And we've completely seen,
essentially, three phases of the dairy business.
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And today, we're still working on improving it.
Kelley McCoy: Well, I know that in
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2012 your family began processing in your
farms milk in a small creamery, right?
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Noel Rosa: Right.
Kelley McCoy: So, tell me,
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take me through to where you are now where
you've got Rosa Brothers Milk and Save Marts
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and Krispy Kreme, you're winning awards for
Best Food Product. How did you get the vision to
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open the creamery, to get into the flavored
milk business? And where are you going next?
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Rolland Rosa: Well, one of the
first things that happened to us was
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this little two-lane highway became an
elevated four-lane. What do they call it?
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Noel Rosa: Expressway.
Rolland Rosa: Expressway.
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And we knew that there was going to be a lot more
traffic through here and there was a lot more eyes
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being able to see what we were doing
here. So, we thought that it would be
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a good idea for us to offer tours. So, that kind
of got the ball rolling on us thinking of the
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possibilities that brought us. Instead of looking
at it as being a negative thing, we tried to look
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at what the possibilities would be. And processing
our own milk and the creamery was kind of the next
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step of, "OK, well, if we offer tours, we should
have products. We should start to look at, maybe,
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processing our own milk. And what would that
look like? Would we make cheese? Would we make
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butter? What would we do?" And we started kicking
around ideas. And there was a lot of other things
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going in to the dairy business in California,
in general, and our future profitability.
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Noel Rosa: Yeah. California's not a good place to
make commodity milk because the costs of operating
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are so high. So, we realized we would actually
lose our way of life here and lose our ability
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to dairy if we didn't add value to our product,
if we continue to be commodity milk producers. So,
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we started looking for a way to add value to our
product to keep up with inflation in California.
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Kelley McCoy: And among the ways you added
value, the glass bottles factored into that?
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Noel Rosa: Absolutely.
Kelley McCoy: Tell me about that.
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Noel Rosa: So glass bottle. So, as a consumer,
you're a consumer, you walk into the store and
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you see milk, milk, milk. And how do you decide
which milk you're going to buy? So most consumers
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look at me and they say, "Well, that milk, that
brand of milk is the same as that brand of milk.
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It's the same as that brand of milk. They're
all in cartons or they're all in plastic jugs."
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Then, the first thing you do is, "Well, I don't
know what the difference is between these milk,
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so I'll just get the cheapest one." So we said,
"What kind of package can we use that'll make the
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milk better? That'll keep the milk colder,
make it last longer, longer shelf-life,
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preserve the flavor." Because glass doesn't impart
a flavor but cardboard does and plastic does. So,
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we found this package that was superior
to anything else in the store. And we've
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realized, if we put that in the store,
then, the consumers will recognize
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that's a better product and we're willing to pay a
little bit more. We have to get a little bit more
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for our milk because we are in a small inefficient
creamery that we don't do 10 semi-loads a day.
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We're only doing a partial load a day. So, we
have to have a little bit higher cost. So we're
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able to differentiate with that glass bottle. And
it does. It really stands out on the shelf. People
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like the fact that they can take that bottle
home, drink the milk, and then, take that bottle
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back to the store. We pick it up, wash it, and
refill it, and take it back. So, it's good for
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the environment. It's good for the overall flavor
of the milk. It's good for the shelf-life. It's
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really a good package. It's inconvenient
for us as manufacturers, but that's okay.
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It's one thing that we can do with our one farm.
Kelley McCoy: Well, speaking of the flavor of the
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milk, how did you get into your flavored milks?
Noel Rosa: Well,
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we've traveled across the country and looked at
different farms that were doing different things.
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I went to Penn State and took an ice cream making
course and learned how to make ice cream at
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Penn State. So, we do make the ice cream and the
glass bottle milk. And well, while we were there,
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while I was there, I met a guy and he was an
ingredient supplier. And I told him, "Hey,
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we need some ingredients. We're starting this milk
and ice cream company." And he said, "Okay, well,
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I can give you 15 or 20 different chocolates,
different grades and things." So, we went through
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and tasted all these different chocolates
and all these different things. And then,
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I said, "I went to another state and I had this
certain flavor. Do you have that?" And he says,
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"Yeah, I can get you that flavor." And then, I
said, "Well, what else do you have?" And he says,
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"Well, I've got this flavor and this flavor." So,
as we've been requested flavors, if he has them,
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we get them. And then, the last few flavors, we've
actually developed ourselves. They don't have,
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you can't buy a mix or whatever. So, we've
actually developed those ourselves now.
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We have more experience now. We've been in eight
years. So, now, we can actually play around in
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the test kitchen and make flavors ourselves.
Kelley McCoy: So I imagine you don't have
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a difficult time at all finding
people who volunteer to be your -296
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Noel Rosa: Right.
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Kelley McCoy: So how many
flavors of milk do you have now?
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Noel Rosa: We have seven flavors of milk
and that’s flavors and then we have the
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different butterfat contents that whole 2%
and nonfat and we also have lactose free
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and we have seven flavors as well.
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Kelley McCoy: So as you look for the future then
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for the company what do you aspire to accomplish
and you guys are already you're doing so much.
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Rolland Rosa: We aspire to sustainability
and sustainability to us means to
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right-size the dairy to the amount of milk
at the maximum potential for our sales.
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So our goal is to have those lines intersect
where the the increase production peaks and we
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bring the production of their Dairy to equal to
where right now we we process about 30 20 to 30%
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of our milk that we produced in the rest is sold
to Land O'Lakes Cooperative. So the idea is to
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have all the movie produced here being processed
through our Creamery and sold under our brand.
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Kelley McCoy: So do you see yourselves
introducing new product or are you gonna
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stay with the flavored milks and ice creams. Or do
you see yourself getting into cheese eventually.
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Noel Rosa: You know you never say never in
this business right because you know what the
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consumer-driven thing so yeah if you know
everybody in the country wants Rosa Brothers'
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cheese we'll make cheese you know. Right now the
milks and ice creams we're continually bringing
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out new flavor we were doing some R n' D on a
new flavor this last Saturday of ice cream and
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so you know we'll continue like like any food
manufacturer you discontinue the slow items and
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bring in new items so yeah we'll continue the
enovation you know for a while there it looks
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like we might do something with yogurt. Yogurt was
getting very popular and we were looking at that
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now we're starting to see a trend in the
decline of the consumption of yogurt so
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maybe that was just a little hiccup you know for
a few years you know when the Greek yogurt came
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in it was very popular and now that popularity
seems to be waning a little bit. So but yeah
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we'll continue to go with the flow what consumers
want. We recently came out with coffee creamers
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coffee creamers are very popular the next 3
flavors we make will actually make 4 we make
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plain half and half creamer we make vanilla
we make hazelnut and we make salted caramel
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so you put that salted caramel and your coffee
and it tastes like a caramel macchiato and I mean
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it's really good stuff is really good products
think they look very nice in a glass bottle you
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have a nice color that goes with it and lets you
know what's in there and what flavor it is and so
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that's that's that's an innovative thing
that we were able to do, it matched up with
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our dairy product line up and has been doing
pretty well and we had a less than a year.
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Kelley McCoy: Products are available
in how many stores in California now?
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Noel Rosa: 800 so that being
said probably over half of
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those or convenience store where
they have a little single serving
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of 12 oz milks flavored milk and then you know
that the donut shops in the bakery in the delis
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and that kind of thing probably you know over half
of them are convenient stores and the rest are
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markets your Vons your Save Marts your independent
grocers meat markets these kinds of things.
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Kelly McCoy: You're the third generation to
be working the Dairy will there be a fourth,
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have any of your children expressed an
interest in going into the business?
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Rolland Rosa: I don't know my oldest two
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girls are college graduates and they're both
currently working not working here on the farm.
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My youngest is Junoir in college at Cal Poly
and he studying Ag business where that's
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going to take him I don't know he currently
hasn't expressed interest in dairy production
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I don't know where where is his interest taking
his Ag business degrees is is gonna go. Maybe.
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Noel Rosa: And my kids are younger yet so my
oldest is a year younger than his youngest
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and so he's at the Air Force Academy all he
thinks about is airplanes so don't know about
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him. Then I have a daughter she's a Senior in high
school right now she wants to be a Dentist, then
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we have a freshman in high school and a 6th grader
and they're very noncommital at this point so.
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Kelley McCoy: There's a chance.
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Noel Rosa: There's a chance they're very
noncommital. There's always a chance.
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Kelley McCoy: Okay so I just have a
couple I have a couple more questions
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and we're gonna circle back to the
Portuguese-American aspect of it.
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We'll go first with Noel and then we'll go
to Rolland. What is to what extent do think
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being Portuguese-American has shape
you, professionally and personally?
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Noel Rosa: You know I don't consider myself
to be Portuguese-American I consider and
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of Portuguese descent yes
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but I don't consider myself Portuguese-American I
consisder myself American and maybe that's because
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I don't speak the language but I think it's
definitely shaped me religiously so I'm very
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comfortable with with our faith and I I understand
it and you know it plays in well with a culture
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so you know I think it's help me religiously you
know I think it gives me a sense of community in
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the Central Valley because there are so many other
people of Portuguese descent you know you have
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a certain bond with those people even you
know even if you don't know him that well
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you know you might know their cousins or whatever
so and the in Portuguese-Americans the the
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Portuguese, people of Portuguese descent tend to
have large families so we do have a lot of cousins
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around extended families which is interesting
even if don't see them on a regular basis
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you know when you go to an event or something
you'll recognize you know your third-cousin's
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kids like you're so n' so's kids and so. It's
kind of like My Big Greek Wedding it's kind of
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like that the Portuguese community is like that
every year when the festival kick up yeah it's fun
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I wouldn't say it shapes my everyday life and has
a big influence on my everyday life but it is fun.
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Rolland Rosa: How do I think of
it I think of being Portuguese
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part of one of the pillars that holds me up
I guess. So I think of myself is American
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I think of myself is a Californian think of
myself as a Catholic I think of myself as a
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dairyman I think of myself as Portuguese. So it's
not it's part of that whole structure that holds
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my identity I guess so I thought I wouldn't
say it's any more than any of the other parts
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and I wouldn't say any less than any other parts
but it's a significant necessary part of my
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identity. That's how I think of it and I don't
identify when I meet other Portuguese people I
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know I know where that person is from I know
that history that we have that commonality and
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a lot of those people that I interact with also
have a lot of those other things in common too
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being Catholic and being in Agriculture and
being in California and rarely meet people
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that aren't Californians so when I meet other
Portuguese people I usally have a lot of other
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things incommon with them too. So it's nice part
it's a central part but it's not the only part.
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Kelley McCoy: I wanna thank you guys very much
for this time and for the interview is there
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anything that we didn't touch on that I should've
asked you that you can think about that you wanna?
00:00:02,853 --> 00:00:04,163
ROSA BROTHERS
Jan. 6, 2020
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Kelley McCoy: Rolland, what
is your full birth name?
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00:00:06,785 --> 00:00:11,200
Rolland Rosa: My full birth
name is Rolland Manuel Rosa.
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00:00:11,200 --> 00:00:17,680
Kelley McCoy: Were you named after anyone?
Rolland Rosa: No, I don't think so. Manuel
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is my dad's first name. So, that's where
I got the middle name, Manuel, from.
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Kelley McCoy: And how about you, Noel?
Noel Rosa: My name is Noel Manuel Rosa and I
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00:00:27,680 --> 00:00:31,680
got the middle name from my dad as well.
Kelley McCoy: So
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00:00:32,320 --> 00:00:40,160
when and where were you born, Rolland?
Rolland Rosa: I was born March 13, 1963
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00:00:40,160 --> 00:00:46,880
in Visalia, at Kaweah Delta Hospital. I think it
was called Kaweah Delta Hospital at that time.
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00:00:46,880 --> 00:00:54,480
Kelley McCoy: Noel?
Noel Rosa: I was born January 26, 1969, one of the
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wettest winters on record in Hanford. And I was
born in Hanford at, what was that called? The
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Sacred Heart Hospital, I think, it was. Yeah.
Kelley McCoy: Now when did your
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00:01:06,320 --> 00:01:14,560
family immigrate to the United States?
Rolland Rosa: So, our grandfather on our mom's
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side -- So this is our mother's side. He came at
15 years old and he was born in 1901. So, he came
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00:01:21,680 --> 00:01:30,240
in 1916. Now, on our father's side, it's a little
bit different because our grandfather came over
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00:01:30,240 --> 00:01:37,600
here as a single man. We don't know exactly what
year, but it was about the same time. He started
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working, kind of established a little life for
himself, went back and married our grandmother,
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and then brought her back to the United States.
And then, they started their life here. So,
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it was around the same time around the '20s.
Kelley McCoy: So both sides, your mother and your
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father's families, both came from the Azores?
Rolland Rosa: Correct.
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Kelley McCoy: Same islands?
Rolland Rosa: Different islands.
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Kelley McCoy: Which islands?
Rolland Rosa: Yes. So, our mother's side was from
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Terceira and our father's side was from Pico.
Kelley McCoy: So you both were born in the
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Central Valley. So which side of the family,
your mother's or your father's, established
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this area here where you are?
Rolland Rosa: This dairy where we
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are here in Hanford was established
by my grandfather on my dad's side.
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So this was his second dairy. His original dairy
was in the Laton-Hardwick area. Is that right?
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Noel Rosa: Yeah.
Rolland Rosa: And he actually bought
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this dairy as a second dairy at an auction. He
didn't want to buy. He didn't intend to buy it.
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He was bidding on it as a favor to a friend
of his. And he ended up buying the dairy and
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he sent my dad, my uncle, over here who
were young high school graduates that come
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over here and run this second dairy.
Kelley McCoy: And do you know at that
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time how many cows that are worth
this dairy when it first started?
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Noel Rosa: The story goes, there was about 50
cows and they walked them from the latent area
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here, because this milking barn was better. This
was a Grade A milking barn and the milking barn
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00:03:27,760 --> 00:03:34,880
at his home place was a Grade B. So, in order to
sell higher quality milk, they had to have the
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updated milking barn which this facility had.
Rolland Rosa: So, Grade A milk could be sold
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for fluid, right?
Noel Rosa: Right.
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00:03:42,080 --> 00:03:46,400
Rolland Rosa: Grade B milk was for processing
only. So it was a higher valued milk.
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So, the upgraded barn allowed them to
get a better price for their milk.
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00:03:52,400 --> 00:04:01,360
Kelley McCoy: So was your family also involved
in dairy over in Portugal or was this something
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that they started here when they moved here?
Noel Rosa: The story goes from what we've been
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told over the years that on our father's
side, the majority of those people were
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whalers, fishermen. And there was even some
relatives that had been to San Francisco on
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whaling ships and had gone back and had furniture
in the Azores from the United States. So,
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00:04:34,320 --> 00:04:40,160
they were not cattle people. It was more of on
our mom's side. They were more cattle people.
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00:04:40,160 --> 00:04:45,040
Of course, when they immigrated and they didn't
speak the language, the opportunity for them
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was to all milk cows. So the Portuguese people,
whether they were cow people in their homeland,
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00:04:50,960 --> 00:04:57,680
when they got here they milked cows by hand and
that was their opportunity to get started and to
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get jobs, and then, to start their own businesses.
Kelley McCoy: So now your father and your uncle,
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they worked over here at
this current dairy, right?
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Noel Rosa: Correct.
Kelley McCoy: So does this
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mean that you grew up here as well on this land?
Rolland Rosa: Yes, we both grew up here. There
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is five kids in our family: three boys and two
girls. We all grew up working here on the farm
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from a young age. I don't know exactly when.
I estimated somewhere between first grade and
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third grade, maybe, before school, after
school, weekends, Saturdays, Sundays, summers.
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We worked all the time.
Kelley McCoy: From the time
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that you were very small?
Noel Rosa: Yes.
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Kelley McCoy: So tell me, because I'm
curious, having no [inaudible] in this,
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what does a second grader start out
doing on a dairy? What kind of work?
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Noel Rosa: A second-grader starts
out feeding the little calves.
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Yeah, feeding the little calves and taking
the strings or the twines off of the hay bales
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that feed the cows and feeding the babies milk.
Feeding the babies grain. What else do we do?
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Rolland Rosa: Cleaning up.
There's always clean up. So,
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you're washing equipment in the barn, you're
washing tractors, you're putting things away,
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all the odds and the ends. The young people
start and do a lot of odds and ends things.
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Kelley McCoy: So you said that there were five
of you in your family: three boys, two girls.
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Did all of you work on the dairy, then,
growing up, the girls and the boys?
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Noel Rosa: The girls, they didn't do
a lot on the dairy. They were more
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helping Mom. And then, the boys would help Dad.
So, the girls were the oldest two. And then,
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the three of us were the younger. So, yeah, the
girls helped Mom more with the domestic things.
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And then, the boys did more of the dairy stuff.
Rolland Rosa: Well, with five kids, there was like
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household domestic things to do. So, the girls
were helping Mom -- you know, support the family
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and the boys went outside and did the cow work.
Kelley McCoy: Well, we're going to talk more
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about the cow work, so to speak. But, I
first want to ask you a few questions.
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I'm imagining that you were fairly close
to your grandparents. Can you tell me,
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did they ever tell you what life was like in
the Azores? Any stories they've passed down?
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Rolland Rosa: My grandfather on my dad's side
passed away when I was really young. I'd say,
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maybe, three or four years old. So, I didn't
really remember him at all. My grandmother
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on my dad's side, at that time, had already
moved to the coast. So, she was living
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in Pismo Beach and her English was not really
that great. I mean, she could communicate.
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But the time that we had together, it seemed like
she wanted to know more about what we were doing
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than what her family stories. And then
she always wanted to tell me stories
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about the church, about God, about
Jesus, making sure that we knew
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who we were in relative to the bigger picture.
Kelley McCoy: Well, you talk about who you are
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relative to the bigger picture. One of the things
that has come out on several of the interviews
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is just how central the Catholic Church is to
the Portuguese community. Would you say that was
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the sense for you as well, that not only was the
church central but, specifically, the church was
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central as Portuguese Americans?
Noel Rosa: Right. Yeah,
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the church definitely plays into the heritage,
definitely big influence. It would be hard to
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be Portuguese and not be Catholic and
put all the pieces together. Yes.
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Kelley McCoy: So for someone who isn't Portuguese
American, can you tell me how the experience
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of a Portuguese Catholic is, maybe, a little
different, like [inaudible] and other things?
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What's kind of unique to that type of
celebration, that type of Catholicism?
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Noel Rosa: I don't think that the celebrations
and any of that is really unique to the Portuguese
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heritage because, in Catholicism you have, OK,
so we have our Lady of Fatima where the mother
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of God appeared to these children in Portugal.
But then, you have Our Lady of Guadalajara
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where she showed up in Mexico.
Rolland Rosa: Guadalupe.
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Noel Rosa: Yeah, Guadalupe. And then, you have
Our Lady of Perpetual Help where she showed up
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in the Philippines. So different cultures
have this same type of relationship with
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the Church. As the Portuguese, we just happen
to be Portuguese so that's kind of our tilt
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on the Catholic. But it's all over the world.
Kelley McCoy: So what other ways were Portuguese
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traditions observed in your home, growing up?
Noel Rosa: We went to a matancero
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[check spelling], too, which is basically like
slaughter a pig and you all cut up the meat
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and you cook it. And we did a few of those. We
definitely would go to the Portuguese celebration,
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celebrating, you know, the Holy Spirit. And then,
all those Holy Spirit festivals are in the spring.
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And then, in the fall, you have the Our
Lady of Fatima celebrations. And so,
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we definitely attended some of those. I
mean, I wouldn't say we were the most active
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in the Portuguese community. We were a little bit
more heavy on the work and less on the festivals
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than a lot of other families. But, yeah, we
definitely were part of the Portuguese community.
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Kelley McCoy: Was that important
to -- I'm sorry, go ahead.
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Rolland Rosa: I just recalled growing up,
going back 50 years, our Portuguese community
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was a lot like the Mexican community is now,
where there was Portuguese television station,
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there was Portuguese radio, there was a lot
more Portuguese speaking people to each other
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and you heard the language a lot and you saw a lot
of the cultural things in the media. And you don't
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see that now, the Portuguese immigration wave
slowed down and essentially stopped about 30,
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40 years ago. And so, the people that were
here assimilated and Americanized, whereas,
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the Mexican immigration still continues
today, although, at a slower pace. And so,
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there's more Mexican culture [inaudible] around
in our everyday lives that we used to see.
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In Portuguese, kids were like that.
Kelley McCoy: Do you perceive that as
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a loss or do you just think it was inevitable?
Rolland Rosa: Well, I don't know that that's the
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right term to say, inevitable. It's just it's
the amount of immigrants coming in. So whatever
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group has that influx of immigrants coming in,
that's where you're going to see more of that
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cultural, what do I want to
say, influx is more current.
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Kelley McCoy: Was it important to your parents,
do you think, that you retain a strong sense
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of yourselves as Portuguese Americans?
Noel Rosa: Yeah. I think, our parents would
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encourage us to, maybe, marry someone of the same
nationality. They encouraged that. They'd always
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say, "You need to meet a nice Portuguese
girl." So, yeah, it was important to them.
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But, they had been raised that way.
Even though our parents were born here,
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they had been raised that way by their immigrant
parents. And so, yeah, as each generation goes on,
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you hold on to the things of your culture that
you think are really important and -- you know,
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you want to hold on for the next generation.
And you lose a little bit. And we lost language.
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My parents did not teach us the language.
They didn't want us to learn the language
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because when they had gone to school l-- like,
our father didn't speak English when he went to
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school. Even though he was born here, he didn't
speak English. So his first year in school was
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spent learning the language. And you were looked
down upon if you didn't speak English. So,
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he had to learn English in school. So, the
last thing he wanted to do was teach his kids
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Portuguese. He wanted his kids to learn English.
They also used it as a tool to communicate
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because that way, the parents could
communicate and go right over our heads.
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And so, later on in life, some of us have
learned a little bit of Portuguese along the way
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and to this day don't really like that. They still
want to be able to communicate with one another.
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You know, about us in front of us.
Rolland Rosa: The whole time [inaudible]
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I felt it was really rude. I felt it
was really rude that I feel like they
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were talking about us behind our back to our
face, if that makes any sense. And I thought,
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"Man, I'd like to learn that so that I can know
what they're talking about." And I don't know.
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I just had a problem with languages, I guess.
And I still try to pick up words and phrases.
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And I do a little bit. But, mostly, I just can't.
Kelley McCoy: You had mentioned that as successive
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generations go on and become increasingly
more Americanized, you kind of hold on to
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those things that are important and other you let
go. What have the two of you held on to? I know
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that you're both married and you're fathers, you
have children. What have you two held on to that
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you have wanted to bring to your children's lives?
Noel Rosa: Well, definitely, the Catholic faith.
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Definitely, our kids have participated in the
festivals and the parades and all that. So,
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we've definitely held on to the religious aspect.
Rolland Rosa: You know, with me and my kids,
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my kids are 25, 23 and 21. And it seemed to me
like it wasn't so much me trying to teach them
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specific things historical or cultural or
whatever; it was them asking me then me trying
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to provide information to them. It wasn't like
I was trying to pass anything on specifically.
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It was like, "Why do we do this? Why does
Grandpa stay that way? Where did that come from?
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How does that fit into when you were a kid? And
what does all that mean?" And so it's more of me
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trying to explain how these pieces of the puzzle
fit together with stories that they've heard or
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things that they see, rather than me
trying to specifically pass on things.
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Kelley McCoy: Is it important to you, guys,
that they retain some sense, do you think,
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of being Portuguese?
Rolland Rosa: Yeah. I think,
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it gives them a grounding, a place of who they
are, where they're from, where they fit in to
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the universe. And so, from that aspect, yes.
Noel Rosa: I think that we would feel much more
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strongly since we've never gone back and visited.
So, what I've noticed is our friends and family
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that go back to the old country and actually
firsthand witnessed the culture and the traditions
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and things, they come back just really excited
about the culture. And we even have cousins who
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their kids who are our kids' ages come back
and they want to learn the language and they
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want to do everything Portuguese, because they've
actually gone back and witnessed firsthand. Since
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we haven't been back there, we kind of have a
little bit less of an excitement about the culture
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than if we had gone back. So, someday when we go
back, we will probably come back and be on fire.
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Kelley McCoy: Do you plan to go back?
Noel Rosa: Sure.
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Rolland Rosa: Yeah. I'm a little bit older so
I feel a little bit more pressured to go back
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sooner, I guess. I feel like I want to go before
I'm too old before it's difficult to travel.
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But, at the same time, I'm still really busy.
We're still in the peaks of our careers here. So,
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it's that push and pull of wanting
to get away and needing to get away.
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Kelley McCoy: So you brought up the push
and pull of a career. So we're now going to
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talk about the business. Did you always know that
you were going to stay in the family business,
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Rolland, in the [inaudible] ?
Rolland Rosa: No.
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Kelley McCoy: Why did you?
Rolland Rosa: Why did I stay?
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Kelley McCoy: Why did you stay?
Rolland Rosa: I stayed -- so,
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I went to college and I studied engineering
and I was intent on being an engineer.
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I wasn't a very good engineer. So I came back.
And my older brother who was here with my dad
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running the dairy, he decided to buy
his own dairy and move to Oregon.
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So I stuck around to help dad in the transition
period just to make sure everything was going
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okay at that same time Noel was starting college.
So I kind of stayed around. And, one thing led to
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another and dad offered me a partnership as he
did with Noel. And so we saw an opportunity here
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that I thought was a pretty good one. So I
stayed. But, growing up as a kid, we worked a
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lot here and the work was hard and the hours were
long. And that's not very appealing to kids. So
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I didn't intend to come back, but I did.
Kelley McCoy: How about you,
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Noel? What's your story?
Noel Rosa: My story was a little bit different.
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I've always had a fascination with business.
So I was studying business in college and I
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liked agriculture. I like the fact that it's
family-oriented. I like the people that we deal
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with. I like everything about it. And so I was
studying agriculture and business. And I was going
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to do an internship halfway through college.
I said, "I'm going to go to this internship."
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And that's when I told my dad, "Hey, I'm not
going to come to work this summer because I need
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to start working towards what I'm going to do when
I graduate." So he offered me a deal just like he
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had offered Rolland. And I said, "Yeah, that's
a pretty good opportunity, because if you know
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anything, if you've ever started a business, and
that was the ultimate goal, to have a business."
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And if you've ever started a business, it's very
hard to get the financing and to get started.
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So if you have someone who has trust in you,
which our father did, then, he was willing to
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basically sell us the business without us
having to put any capital down, which is very
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hard to do in the business world. So we saw it
as an opportunity. I saw it as an opportunity,
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probably, a better opportunity than this
corporation was going to give me that I was
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going to go do the internship in. So I stayed
and after college came back, because it was
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an opportunity to get started in a business.
Kelley McCoy: So you're working on and living
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on the same way that your grandfather
purchased, I think I've read 1949.
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Noel Rosa: Correct.
Kelley McCoy: So you must feel a
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heck of a connection to this place.
Noel Rosa: Correct.
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Kelley McCoy: Every day you wake up and you
see the same land that you saw as little boys.
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Noel Rosa: Well, it's different, though. Our dad,
during his career, remodeled this facility. And it
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went from being just a barn with a bunch of
pastures around to. He built corrals and he
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did things. And then, since we've taken over the
last 20 years, we've knock down that old portion,
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built in new things there, added on. So, it
is the same place, but it's not. So, yes,
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it's the same land, it's the same neighborhood,
but even the freeway in front of us has changed
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and the neighbors have changed. So, it is the same
land, but it's different also. That being said,
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you can see the progress of your career. You can
see how much things have changed. And it really
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hits you when you see old photographs.
Kelley McCoy:
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Because you started out with 50 cows, right,
you said? And you have how many now?
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Rolland Rosa: So we milk about 1,000 cows.
There's about 1,150 total mature cows here.
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And we've seen it from that 50 cow, one
barn, open lot, barbed wire, wooden posts,
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where we spent years just with a hammer
and nails pulling wire, rusty old nails,
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to hold the cows and the cows getting loose, and
crooked dirt roads and weeds all over and old
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trees that needed to be pulled out. And we've
pretty much seen the evolution to where, now,
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this is a modern, efficient, functioning farm. And
so, that's the biggest gratification that I get,
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being here on one facility, is to kind
of being fast forward 50 years later and
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saying what we thought was possible that
long ago now is what that vision was.
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Noel Rosa: Yeah. When we were growing
up, when we started working on the farm
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as small kids and while we were growing up
-- you know, grade school and high school,
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this was a 200-cow dairy at that point, 200 to
300 cows. And it wasn't until our oldest brother
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got out of college, he took the leap, or
dad took the leap from my four to -- I mean,
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300 to 400 cows. And so, when our dad retired
20 years ago, it was at 500. So we've doubled.
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Rolland Rosa: We've done everything along the
way. We've laid concrete, put in water pipes,
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welded top rails, put in cables,
pulled out barbed wire. And then,
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we've knocked it down already. We've already
built a dairy, knocked it down, rebuilt it better,
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leveled, moved dirt. And we've completely seen,
essentially, three phases of the dairy business.
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And today, we're still working on improving it.
Kelley McCoy: Well, I know that in
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2012 your family began processing in your
farms milk in a small creamery, right?
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Noel Rosa: Right.
Kelley McCoy: So, tell me,
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take me through to where you are now where
you've got Rosa Brothers Milk and Save Marts
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and Krispy Kreme, you're winning awards for
Best Food Product. How did you get the vision to
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open the creamery, to get into the flavored
milk business? And where are you going next?
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Rolland Rosa: Well, one of the
first things that happened to us was
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this little two-lane highway became an
elevated four-lane. What do they call it?
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Noel Rosa: Expressway.
Rolland Rosa: Expressway.
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And we knew that there was going to be a lot more
traffic through here and there was a lot more eyes
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being able to see what we were doing
here. So, we thought that it would be
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a good idea for us to offer tours. So, that kind
of got the ball rolling on us thinking of the
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possibilities that brought us. Instead of looking
at it as being a negative thing, we tried to look
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at what the possibilities would be. And processing
our own milk and the creamery was kind of the next
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step of, "OK, well, if we offer tours, we should
have products. We should start to look at, maybe,
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processing our own milk. And what would that
look like? Would we make cheese? Would we make
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butter? What would we do?" And we started kicking
around ideas. And there was a lot of other things
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going in to the dairy business in California,
in general, and our future profitability.
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Noel Rosa: Yeah. California's not a good place to
make commodity milk because the costs of operating
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are so high. So, we realized we would actually
lose our way of life here and lose our ability
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to dairy if we didn't add value to our product,
if we continue to be commodity milk producers. So,
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we started looking for a way to add value to our
product to keep up with inflation in California.
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Kelley McCoy: And among the ways you added
value, the glass bottles factored into that?
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Noel Rosa: Absolutely.
Kelley McCoy: Tell me about that.
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Noel Rosa: So glass bottle. So, as a consumer,
you're a consumer, you walk into the store and
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you see milk, milk, milk. And how do you decide
which milk you're going to buy? So most consumers
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look at me and they say, "Well, that milk, that
brand of milk is the same as that brand of milk.
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It's the same as that brand of milk. They're
all in cartons or they're all in plastic jugs."
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Then, the first thing you do is, "Well, I don't
know what the difference is between these milk,
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so I'll just get the cheapest one." So we said,
"What kind of package can we use that'll make the
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milk better? That'll keep the milk colder,
make it last longer, longer shelf-life,
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preserve the flavor." Because glass doesn't impart
a flavor but cardboard does and plastic does. So,
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we found this package that was superior
to anything else in the store. And we've
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realized, if we put that in the store,
then, the consumers will recognize
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that's a better product and we're willing to pay a
little bit more. We have to get a little bit more
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for our milk because we are in a small inefficient
creamery that we don't do 10 semi-loads a day.
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We're only doing a partial load a day. So, we
have to have a little bit higher cost. So we're
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able to differentiate with that glass bottle. And
it does. It really stands out on the shelf. People
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like the fact that they can take that bottle
home, drink the milk, and then, take that bottle
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back to the store. We pick it up, wash it, and
refill it, and take it back. So, it's good for
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the environment. It's good for the overall flavor
of the milk. It's good for the shelf-life. It's
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really a good package. It's inconvenient
for us as manufacturers, but that's okay.
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It's one thing that we can do with our one farm.
Kelley McCoy: Well, speaking of the flavor of the
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milk, how did you get into your flavored milks?
Noel Rosa: Well,
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we've traveled across the country and looked at
different farms that were doing different things.
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I went to Penn State and took an ice cream making
course and learned how to make ice cream at
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Penn State. So, we do make the ice cream and the
glass bottle milk. And well, while we were there,
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while I was there, I met a guy and he was an
ingredient supplier. And I told him, "Hey,
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we need some ingredients. We're starting this milk
and ice cream company." And he said, "Okay, well,
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I can give you 15 or 20 different chocolates,
different grades and things." So, we went through
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and tasted all these different chocolates
and all these different things. And then,
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I said, "I went to another state and I had this
certain flavor. Do you have that?" And he says,
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"Yeah, I can get you that flavor." And then, I
said, "Well, what else do you have?" And he says,
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"Well, I've got this flavor and this flavor." So,
as we've been requested flavors, if he has them,
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we get them. And then, the last few flavors, we've
actually developed ourselves. They don't have,
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you can't buy a mix or whatever. So, we've
actually developed those ourselves now.
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We have more experience now. We've been in eight
years. So, now, we can actually play around in
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the test kitchen and make flavors ourselves.
Kelley McCoy: So I imagine you don't have
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a difficult time at all finding
people who volunteer to be your -296
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Noel Rosa: Right.
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Kelley McCoy: So how many
flavors of milk do you have now?
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Noel Rosa: We have seven flavors of milk
and that’s flavors and then we have the
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different butterfat contents that whole 2%
and nonfat and we also have lactose free
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and we have seven flavors as well.
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Kelley McCoy: So as you look for the future then
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for the company what do you aspire to accomplish
and you guys are already you're doing so much.
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Rolland Rosa: We aspire to sustainability
and sustainability to us means to
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right-size the dairy to the amount of milk
at the maximum potential for our sales.
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So our goal is to have those lines intersect
where the the increase production peaks and we
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bring the production of their Dairy to equal to
where right now we we process about 30 20 to 30%
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of our milk that we produced in the rest is sold
to Land O'Lakes Cooperative. So the idea is to
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have all the movie produced here being processed
through our Creamery and sold under our brand.
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Kelley McCoy: So do you see yourselves
introducing new product or are you gonna
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stay with the flavored milks and ice creams. Or do
you see yourself getting into cheese eventually.
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Noel Rosa: You know you never say never in
this business right because you know what the
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consumer-driven thing so yeah if you know
everybody in the country wants Rosa Brothers'
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cheese we'll make cheese you know. Right now the
milks and ice creams we're continually bringing
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out new flavor we were doing some R n' D on a
new flavor this last Saturday of ice cream and
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so you know we'll continue like like any food
manufacturer you discontinue the slow items and
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bring in new items so yeah we'll continue the
enovation you know for a while there it looks
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like we might do something with yogurt. Yogurt was
getting very popular and we were looking at that
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now we're starting to see a trend in the
decline of the consumption of yogurt so
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maybe that was just a little hiccup you know for
a few years you know when the Greek yogurt came
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in it was very popular and now that popularity
seems to be waning a little bit. So but yeah
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we'll continue to go with the flow what consumers
want. We recently came out with coffee creamers
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coffee creamers are very popular the next 3
flavors we make will actually make 4 we make
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plain half and half creamer we make vanilla
we make hazelnut and we make salted caramel
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so you put that salted caramel and your coffee
and it tastes like a caramel macchiato and I mean
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it's really good stuff is really good products
think they look very nice in a glass bottle you
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have a nice color that goes with it and lets you
know what's in there and what flavor it is and so
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that's that's that's an innovative thing
that we were able to do, it matched up with
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our dairy product line up and has been doing
pretty well and we had a less than a year.
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Kelley McCoy: Products are available
in how many stores in California now?
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Noel Rosa: 800 so that being
said probably over half of
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those or convenience store where
they have a little single serving
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of 12 oz milks flavored milk and then you know
that the donut shops in the bakery in the delis
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and that kind of thing probably you know over half
of them are convenient stores and the rest are
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markets your Vons your Save Marts your independent
grocers meat markets these kinds of things.
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Kelly McCoy: You're the third generation to
be working the Dairy will there be a fourth,
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have any of your children expressed an
interest in going into the business?
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Rolland Rosa: I don't know my oldest two
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girls are college graduates and they're both
currently working not working here on the farm.
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My youngest is Junoir in college at Cal Poly
and he studying Ag business where that's
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going to take him I don't know he currently
hasn't expressed interest in dairy production
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I don't know where where is his interest taking
his Ag business degrees is is gonna go. Maybe.
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Noel Rosa: And my kids are younger yet so my
oldest is a year younger than his youngest
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and so he's at the Air Force Academy all he
thinks about is airplanes so don't know about
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him. Then I have a daughter she's a Senior in high
school right now she wants to be a Dentist, then
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we have a freshman in high school and a 6th grader
and they're very noncommital at this point so.
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Kelley McCoy: There's a chance.
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Noel Rosa: There's a chance they're very
noncommital. There's always a chance.
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Kelley McCoy: Okay so I just have a
couple I have a couple more questions
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and we're gonna circle back to the
Portuguese-American aspect of it.
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We'll go first with Noel and then we'll go
to Rolland. What is to what extent do think
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being Portuguese-American has shape
you, professionally and personally?
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Noel Rosa: You know I don't consider myself
to be Portuguese-American I consider and
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of Portuguese descent yes
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but I don't consider myself Portuguese-American I
consisder myself American and maybe that's because
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I don't speak the language but I think it's
definitely shaped me religiously so I'm very
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comfortable with with our faith and I I understand
it and you know it plays in well with a culture
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so you know I think it's help me religiously you
know I think it gives me a sense of community in
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the Central Valley because there are so many other
people of Portuguese descent you know you have
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a certain bond with those people even you
know even if you don't know him that well
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you know you might know their cousins or whatever
so and the in Portuguese-Americans the the
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Portuguese, people of Portuguese descent tend to
have large families so we do have a lot of cousins
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around extended families which is interesting
even if don't see them on a regular basis
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you know when you go to an event or something
you'll recognize you know your third-cousin's
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kids like you're so n' so's kids and so. It's
kind of like My Big Greek Wedding it's kind of
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like that the Portuguese community is like that
every year when the festival kick up yeah it's fun
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I wouldn't say it shapes my everyday life and has
a big influence on my everyday life but it is fun.
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Rolland Rosa: How do I think of
it I think of being Portuguese
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part of one of the pillars that holds me up
I guess. So I think of myself is American
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I think of myself is a Californian think of
myself as a Catholic I think of myself as a
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dairyman I think of myself as Portuguese. So it's
not it's part of that whole structure that holds
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my identity I guess so I thought I wouldn't
say it's any more than any of the other parts
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and I wouldn't say any less than any other parts
but it's a significant necessary part of my
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identity. That's how I think of it and I don't
identify when I meet other Portuguese people I
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know I know where that person is from I know
that history that we have that commonality and
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a lot of those people that I interact with also
have a lot of those other things in common too
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being Catholic and being in Agriculture and
being in California and rarely meet people
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that aren't Californians so when I meet other
Portuguese people I usally have a lot of other
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things incommon with them too. So it's nice part
it's a central part but it's not the only part.
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Kelley McCoy: I wanna thank you guys very much
for this time and for the interview is there
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anything that we didn't touch on that I should've
asked you that you can think about that you wanna?