Third generation learns nuts, bolts of family business
By Michelle Knight knight@theacorn.com

WENDY PIERRO/Acorn Newspapers HOW CAN WE HELP?- Camarillo residents and siblings Jeremy Resnik and Rebecca Pecsok work the counter with their father's dog, Beau, at the Somis Nut House on a recent Thursday. The Nut House was started by their grandparents and father in the late 1950s.

Three generations built the Somis Nut House.

The rustic wooden building sitting just a few feet from Highway 118 east of Somis Road doesn't look much like a Ventura County icon, with its faded-rust colored exterior and boarded-up windows. But it is.

For nearly 50 years, the Resnik family has owned and operated this unassuming business in the tiny village of Somis.

The family run business started out as a walnut processing plant in 1959, founded by Morris and Annette Resnik and their son Steve.

In a tiny room out in front, the family sold walnuts to their friends and neighbors and the occasional traveler along the county road. Over time, as commuters along the highway and the demand for more items grew in number, so did the inventory.

In time, the retail nut trade that came to include dried fruit and chocolates began to outpace the shelling business, as local walnut groves were supplanted by citrus and avocado orchards.

By 1983 Morris had died, and Annette needed help in the office. Enter Rebecca Pecsok, who hadn't planned on joining the family nut business. Married only a year to Michael Pecsok, she had just graduated from college with a biology degree when her father, Steve Resnik, asked her to help out.

Pecsok agreed. She not only learned from Annette Resnik, her grandmother, how to run a successful small business but had the joy of watching her two children grow up with strong attachments to her family. She said that working side-by-side has strengthened the family bond.

"It was fun to work with my family," said Pecsok, now 46. "I just ended up staying."

Annette Resnik designed the original gift baskets of chocolates, nuts and dried fruit that are shipped out across the country, and she taught Rebecca to carry on the art.

The demand for gift baskets, especially during the holidays, has grown over the years, as inventory and the popularity of the Internet have swelled. With healthy Internet sales, expanding the business no longer depends solely on word of mouth or traffic from Highway 118.

But while business may have increased, the amount of time Annette spends at work has gradually diminished over the years. Before a fall last month, the 93-year-old great-grandmother stopped by the Nut House once a month. She's recuperating with therapy now, and still asks how the business is doing.

Although Pecsok never worked in the field of biology, she said she's had the joy of watching her two children grow close to her father and grandmother.

"I really enjoyed working with my grandmother- she was fun," Pecsok said.

Longtime customer Barbara Fulkerson smiled as she overheard Pecsok talk of days past. The 87-year-old Fulkerson, a longtime Somis resident whose own family ties to the area date back to 1898, has shopped at the Nut House since the day it opened. The Fulkerson family has run a hardware store in Somis since 1912.

"Everybody knows about the Nut House," Fulkerson said. "I mentioned it to someone that doesn't live around here, and they said, 'I know the Nut House.'"

Generations of the two families have gone to school together and patronized each other's businesses for decades.

"That's one of the nice things about Somis," Pecsok said. "It's a small town."

A few years after Pecsok came home, her brother, Jeremy Resnik, joined the business.

Married and the father of two young daughters, Jeremy likes that he can leave work to care for family matters when he needs to. He wouldn't have that luxury working for someone else.

"It's a benefit," Jeremy, 43, said. "The downside is I don't have a 401(k) . . . but I think I'd rather spend time with my family."

Working with family has its drawbacks, however.

"You learn to bite your tongue," Jeremy said. "Working with family can be trying at times. . . . It's kind of a unique situation, and you stay with what works for you."

The three generations have nevertheless learned from each other. The older Resniks have accepted calculators and computers as office staples, while the younger Resniks have learned from their parents the vanishing art of personalized customer service.

"Old School is your customers are very important to you," said 70-year-old Steve Resnik. "And you want them to keep coming back to you. . . . One way is by being genuinely nice."

"We're still oldfashioned and small," Jeremy said, adding that the family takes pride in being a local business that buys goods from local suppliers whenever possible.

Steve's other daughter, Rachel Miles, chose to work in the banking industry but comes out to help the family from time to time.

Steve said that, as with Rachel, he won't force the fourth generation of Resniks to take up the family business, although he has no plans to sell and would like it to stay in the family.

If his four grandchildren did carry on the family tradition, "it would be great, that's for sure," Steve Resnik said.

"You hate to think something you've been involved in is going to close . . . but everybody has to live their own life."