The Durbin Family has been growing peaches
since 1940, starting with Glaucus Durbin. The fruit business was part of a diversified
farming operation consisting of various vegetables and livestock. All work was
performed by two mules and hand labor. The labor force originally consisted of
Glaucus Durbin, his two sons (Jimmy Durbin and Jerry Durbin) and one hired
man. After the death of Glaucus Durbin in 1960, Jimmy Durbin was drafted
into the military and served two years. Jerry Durbin pursued other interests.
After his tour in the military, Jimmy Durbin returned to a public job in
Birmingham. The love
of farming was still alive and well. In 1972, Jimmy
returned home to form a full time establishment in what is today known as J.
Durbin Farms. With a hard work ethic, strong religious beliefs, and honest
relationship with everyone, the farm has grown from 10 acres of peaches in 1970
to what now consists of more than 500 acres of peaches, a custom nursery timber
harvesting operation, a custom tree planting operation, and through its
affiliate farm, Sunshine Farms,
 owns and operates one of the fastest growing
seedstock cattle operations in the United States, which covers another 2500
acres. The farm is located in Chilton County, Alabama, in the central part of
the state. In 1968, Jimmy married Jettie Minor and in the process became the
father of 12 year old Gary Minor and 8 year old Tim Minor. Both sons are full
time farmers along with their father Jimmy. After struggling in the early years,
the farm now employs some 60 employees with some having been with the
operation 18 years. The farm is more mechanized than in the past, packing US #1
EXTRA Fruit for various retail chains by the semi truck loads, but we
still pick our fruit one peach at a time by hand. Each peach is harvested
only after it has reached its full maturity. When we say it's tree ripe,
we mean it. We want
our customers to experience juice running off their
chins when they eat one of our peaches. After all, there's still a little
bit of kid in all of us.
For information consisting of purebred and percentage Simmental x Angus cattle, visit Sunshine Farms' Website (Coming soon)
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