When Thomas McGinn and his son, Tim, moved from Southern California to the desert of New Mexico in 1980, Thomas was looking for a change. He wanted to get back into farming and get out of his job working in food production for big factories.

He purchased land for a farm and built a home. Eventually, the farm grew to the size it is today, hosting 12,300 pistachio trees and 7,500 grape vines. The farm, officially titled Pistachio Tree Ranch, produces wine and pistachio products on-site and is now known as Pistachioland.

When Thomas McGinn passed away, his son Tim became the owner. Tim wanted a way to memorialize his father and the work he had done to start the family business. One night the idea came to him — build the world’s largest pistachio to honor his late father and recognize his achievements.

“I worked with my dad here for 28 years, and when he passed, I had a lot of grief,” shared McGinn. “I wanted a way to memorialize my father and one night I realized instead of building a memorial at the cemetery or donating to the zoo, it would be better to have something here at this business. I thought, I could build this giant pistachio and put a plaque in front of it.”

McGinn built the pistachio memorial in 2007. The world’s largest pistachio now sits proudly next to the country store where McGinn sells his products, including pistachio ice cream. The memorial turned out to be great for business too. People started coming from all over to see the giant nut, and it became a destination.

“Tim’s humble and won’t talk about how awesome it is, but it’s the world’s largest pistachio,” said Sheyenne Drake, head winemaker at the business. “People come here just to see that, and it makes a lot of people happy. We never have unhappy customers. Everyone is enjoying themselves here.”

As the farm grew, thanks in part to the memorial to his father, so did the farms electricity use. The farm has 15 meters to power a country store, production buildings, and water pumping. Tim’s interest in using solar energy to help with the bills started at an early age. Tim’s father installed heat exchange panels on his house when he built it in the ‘80s. Inspired by his father, Tim investigated installing solar, but found the costs were just too high.

“I always wanted solar panels. It was just issues coming up with the money and affordability,” shared McGinn. “I didn’t want to finance them and there are a lot of other projects that get in the way and demand your money. Then they started talking about REAP grants.”

Tim learned about the Rural Development Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) grants and loans program, along with some other programs offered by the state to help install solar. He applied three times over three years and received grant money in 2019, 2020, and 2021.

“By saving money on the monthly utility bill, you are able to put it into hiring more people and creating more jobs or into capital projects to improve your business,” said McGinn. “That brings more customers in, which creates more gross receipts tax and more enjoyment. It is a win-win, and the money just rolls through the community more that way.”

The business uses most of its energy for air conditioning in the country store and the wine production area. The country store holds 160 solar panels and the wine production area uses 28 solar panels. A second store at another location features 35 panels on its roof. The solar panels collectively produce about 60 percent of the farm’s energy, 683 megawatts since the first system went online.

Aside from solar energy, McGinn also introduced other environmentally friendly farming practices. He stopped spraying pesticides on his pistachios and grapes around eight years ago and started using cover crops and mulch around the grapevines about two years ago.

“We are trying to become as natural as possible,” said McGinn, referring to applying mulch at the farm. “Ultimately, someday we hope to go away from the manufactured fertilizer. We want to build the soil profile with organic matter and living bacteria. Ultimate nirvana will be the day that I find earth worms in the soil.”

Pistachioland’s new head winemaker, Sheyenne Drake, also helps with the winemaking and farming. She has a degree in biology from New Mexico State University and just finished a wine production program at the University of California, Davis.

“I was looking for a job in this field where I could work outside with the plants and also have chemistry inside with the wine,” said Drake. “This isn’t a job that I imagined I could do growing up. It is one of those things you hear about and it’s like, oh this is awesome; I’m going to take part in this.”

The farm’s grape production continues to increase, and McGinn shared he feels it is partly due to the mulch and cover crops and Sheyenne Drake’s help. Six years ago, they filled eight open top fermenter bins with their crop. This year, they will fill 22 open top fermenter bins.

As production increases at Pistachioland, the New Mexican sunshine will keep powering the business forward.

“If you are in a sunny place in the southwest, solar is awesome and it is the way people should go,” said McGinn. “To have Rural Development able to help you to do that, it’s a win-win for the people and for the grid. I’m very thankful that USDA Rural Development was there and pushing this program and they were so easy to work with.”

To learn more about Rural Development programs to help you or your business, visit the programs page.

For more photos, visit the Rural Development Flickr page.