Wishnatzki Farms has been offering quality produce since 1922. We have always prided ourselves on being a family owned and operated business that was built from the ground up. From the humble beginnings of an immigrant pushcart peddler to Florida’s largest strawberry shipper, we appreciate our customers and treat our employees like family.
We were so grateful when In The Field Magazine chose to recognize one of our employees by writing a story in their May 2011 issue. Lonnie “Buckaroo” Gonzalez has worked for us since he was a teenager. After 50 years of dedication and loyalty he truly is a core member of our Wish Farms family!
IN THE FIELD MAGAZINE, May 2011
50 Years and Counting
Lonnie “Buckaroo” Gonzalez
By Mark Cook
After working for 50 years with one company most folks have their sights set on their gold watch and a retirement party. But longtime Wishnatzki employee Lonnie “Buckaroo” Gonzalez won’t hear of it.
“I’m going to keep working as long as they will have me,” Gonzalez said. “Working here is all I’ve known and I still enjoy being here every day. These people are my family.”
Operations and Food Safety Manager Clint Austin has no problem with the lack of retirement plans.
“Every year at least a couple times Lonnie asks me if we are going to have him back again the following year,” Austin said. “I tell him, Lonnie I have a better chance of winning the lottery then I have of you not coming back. As far as we are concerned Lonnie can work here until he decides it’s time to hang it up.”
Born in Tampa General 67 years ago and raised in Plant City, Gonzalez still lives in the old family homestead.
“It’s over one hundred years old and it’s the only place I’ve ever known.”
Gonzalez began his Wish Farms career in 1961 as he approached his 18th birthday.
“I came by and needed a job and they hired me,” Gonzalez said. “Willard Powell was my boss and he taught me my job.”
“I started pushing flats of berries off the truck. My boss told me keep the berries moving and that’s just what I did. I’d keep them moving. We loaded lots of berries on the rail cars that came through the packinghouse,” Gonzalez said.
A lot has changed in the last 50 years.
“I tell people before there was forklifts and technology there was Lonnie,” Austin said.
“He has seen the business from the early days to the changes today.”
“We would load them in a cooler. The coolers we have today would fit three of the old sized ones in it with room to spare,” Gonzalez said. “Sometime we would load them on trucks and take them directly to the Tampa airport. But we had to wait to make sure the plane took off without any problems. If there was any type of problem we had to take them off the plane and bring them back to Plant City.”
Gonzalez remembers the company founder’s son, Joe Wishnatzki, fondly.
“I tell you he had a calculator in his head,” Gonzalez said. “He could add in his head faster than people could write the numbers down. He would walk through one end of the cooler to the other and have the exact amount counted before he walked out.”
“He was good to his employees and would help anyone who needed it.”
Gary Wishnatzki, president and CEO and son of Joe Wishnatzki, has valued Gonzalez as a friend and employee.
“I remember when I came aboard in 1974 and Lonnie was already a veteran,” Wishnatzki said. “We loaded a lot of berries together. He was and still is to this day just a great example of a dedicated employee.”
“We used to pay on Friday afternoons and tell the guys make sure they show up on Saturday because we always had work to do. Lots of them would cash their check and not show back up until Monday. But not Lonnie. He and I spent many a Saturday working together, just the two of us.”
Gonzalez can be found at the Wishnatzki offices located at the Plant City Farmer’s Market most everyday they are open. If he isn’t at work most likely he’s getting his breakfast at Fred’s Market restaurant. And if its spring time you’ll find him at the Strawberry Festival, his one other passion besides work.
Up until this year Lonnie never missed a concert at the festival.
“I’ve been there with the rain coming down like crazy and I’ve been there in freezing weather, it didn’t matter to me,” Gonzalez said. “I like a lot of the new country artists coming up but I really loved seeing the old singers. That’s what I really like to see.”
Because of some personal issues Gonzalez wasn’t able to attend any shows this year except one he attended with Gary Wishnatzki.
“I kept asking him all week of the Festival if he would go to the Kenny Rogers show with me,” Gary Wishnatzki said. “He would say, I don’t know yet, we will see. But I talked him into it and we had a great time.”
Today if you drive up to the Wishnatzki offices you’ll probably see Lonnie Gonzalez. Tall and thin with a gray beard and neatly dressed, Gonzalez is a fixture on the loading and receiving docks.
“When I started in 2006 I thought he was a food inspector,” Austin chuckled, reminiscing. “I asked somebody a few days later who that person was and they said, Aw that’s just old Bukaroo. I asked what he does and they told me anything we need.”
“People ask me about my job and what I do and I tell them I just work for Mr. Gary and the Wish Farms,” Gonzalez said. “It don’t matter what my title is, I just do whatever they need me to do. And I plan on doing it as long as they will have me.”
Left to right: Clint Austin–Operations & Food
Safety Manager, Lonnie “Buckaroo” Gonzalez,
Gary Wishnatzki–Chief Executive Officer
Good afternoon everyone. As you may have seen on the local media stations we decided to hold our first ever u-pick at one of our 46 acre farms located on Sparkman Rd. in Plant City. We were expecting a pretty good turn out, but nothing like we got. We estimate that we had close to 5,000 people come by the farm that day. We advertised that it would start from 9am -4pm and I was pleasantly surprised to see a rather large group waiting at the farm at 7:45 am. So, it was only right that we started the u-pick around 8:15am. All that we asked from patrons was for them to make a minimal donation to the Redland’s Christian Migrant Association (RCMA). We ended up raising close to $6500 for them so we were quite pleased.
Good Morning everyone. Wishnatzki Farms will be selling fresh Plant City strawberries at the Florida Strawberry Festival this weekend (March 13th and 14th). This is the first time that we have ever had a stand at the festival. We will be located on Oak Ave. towards the festival entrance. Just follow the wonderful strawberry scent coming from our berries.