The centenarian and co-creator of lettuce giant T&A talks about birthdays, vegetables and business.

When George Tanimura was coming to after open-heart surgery a decade ago, the thing that got him out of the cloud of anesthesia was the price of lettuce. “We were buying acreage in the Imperial Valley, and he had maps in the hospital room,” recalls Kerry Varney, a VP at Tanimura & Antle, which Tanimura co-founded. “He said, ‘If I don’t make it, make sure you get the very best ranches.’”

Tanimura did make it, and he’s been driven by smart business and successful farming in the Salinas Valley since the ’40s. He turned 99 on July 2, and then – in keeping with Japanese tradition, which counts birthdays based on the year you’re entering – celebrated his 100th on Saturday, surrounded by family and local agri-biz leaders. (“It’s like a racehorse,” Tanimura says. “When they’re born they’re 1 year old.”)

The eldest son of Japanese immigrants, Tanimura worked at thinning lettuce on his dad’s small Castroville farm as a kid. He became the family patriarch at 16 after his father died, providing for his 12 siblings. In 1947, after many of them were held in internment camps during World War II at Poston, near Yuma, Arizona, Tanimura bought 14 acres of land in Aromas, where he put up his siblings in one big farmhouse. Tanimura himself moved to Salinas and started farming, eventually growing exclusively for Bud Antle. Antle and his dad, Lester, had made it big selling fresh lettuce during the war years, and eventually, T&A launched in 1982 with Bud’s son, Bob, at the helm.

The Weekly caught up with Tanimura at his modest South Salinas home, which has a Japanese-style garden and a small Buddhist shrine.

Weekly: Does this birthday feel different than others?

Tanimura: It’s just another day.

How did you meet your wife, Masaye?

In World War II, Japanese were in concentration camps, and that’s where I met her. I worked in the mess hall cooking rice, and she worked as a waitress.

What was your first property in Aromas like?

That was a nice little town. I bought it mostly for living quarters, but we had a big cherry tree and maybe five or six apricot trees. It was the livelihood of my whole family that I was responsible for. We were six boys, seven girls. The girls, I didn’t want them to work in labor.

When you started doing business with Bud Antle in the ‘50s, was it controversial for a Japanese grower and an Anglo businessman to work together?

He didn’t care who it was, he cared about the quality. He liked the best, and the best farmers were Japanese. The Antles are specialists in marketing. I don’t bother them too much, they don’t bother me in farming.

You still visit the Huron ranch at least once a week, and more often in season.

A driver takes me to all the fields, every Tuesday. I check the crops. The background there is all fields, no mountains.

Why do you still go?

I still go there because I like it. I feel good on the farm. Maybe that’s what makes me live longer, I don’t know.

You’re known as the father of drip irrigation. Tell me about that.

You make a little water go a longer way.

Many growers now say they are pressured to outsource to Mexico or China because of high costs here. Will there still be farming in Salinas Valley 100 years from now?

Oh yeah, it’s the best ground in the world. You have to raise crops somewhere.

How will agriculture change?

It’ll be more scientific. I have only an eighth-grade education. The rest I learned the hard way.

What business advice would you offer to young people today who are coming of age in tough economic times?

You have to do any work that they offer you, if the price is right, and you don’t rob anybody.

What vegetable do you like best?

Well, I like lettuce. That’s the one that made me.

To eat, I mean.

I don’t eat too many vegetables.