July/August 2025
Fly like an eagle
After completing his service as an officer in the U.S. Air Force in 1969, George Schweers was ready to return to his agricultural roots. Raised in rural Nebraska, Schweers had been stationed at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico. He and his wife Marianne decided to stay in the Tularosa Basin.
“We became really infatuated with this area and the climate, so rather than go back to the Midwest, we set out on a quest to find a crop that would grow in the desert,” Marianne said. “After doing our due diligence, we discovered that pistachios would thrive there.”
In 1974, the couple came upon an opportunity to purchase 400 2-year-old pistachio trees on 20 acres from a contractor at Holloman, and Eagle Ranch was born in Alamogordo, New Mexico.
“Our first harvest started with bedsheets on the ground and hitting the branches by hand to drop the nuts. The next improvement was pulling a tarp with a tractor to catch the nuts,” Marianne said. “Finally, we couldn’t get anyone to work because it was such hard work. We then got some mechanical harvesting equipment. We bought equipment as we could to give us the ability to do more with fewer people.”
At the time, theirs was the only pistachio grove in the state. With no support system for harvesting or processing in place, the entirety of the work fell on the Schweers and children Gordon, Laura and Jean. Together, they did everything from fabricating equipment to trucking the nuts for salting and roasting.
“At first, we were just glad to see something growing in the desert,” said Marianne. “But then we needed to find a market for the crop. Because we were so isolated from the main industry, which was mostly in California at the time, we had to do everything ourselves.”
A new name, a new chapter
In 1986, a trademark conflict with Anheuser-Busch’s Eagle Brand Snack prompted a name change. The Schweers were always getting involved in other enterprises and operated their other ventures under the umbrella of Eagle Enterprises, which complemented their Eagle Ranch pistachio business. But to avoid legal trouble with Anheuser-Busch, they rebranded the pistachio business to Heart of the Desert — a name inspired by the land they love.
The transition proved to be a turning point. Demand grew, and Heart of the Desert began to flourish.
Growth and innovation
Today, Heart of the Desert grows 105 acres of pistachios. The first expansion involved planting 700 trees with the help of Gordon’s high school baseball team. Over the decades, the orchard grew through small, steady additions.
“Flavored pistachios is an area we moved into,” Marianne said. “When we first started, chile-flavored pistachios were a new thing on the market.”
The family originally sold pistachios right off their dining room table. But as they grew, they opened a retail store. With it came the need to diversify.
“When you have a store, you need to offer more than one product and come up with new things and new flavors,” Marianne said. “So we developed a line of flavored pistachios and auxiliary products like ice cream, baked goods. We give the pistachios to the local folks making these products, and they use our pistachios for whatever they’re making.”
Today, Heart of the Desert offers seven flavored pistachios, including salted and unsalted options, as well as spicy varieties like red chile/lime, red chile, garlic/green chile and garlic/onion. Their green chile pistachios received the “Best Product” award at the Specialty Food Association’s Winter Fancy Food Show, highlighting their flavor innovation and quality.
Heart of the Desert employs eight full-time employees. A daughter handles marketing, while Gordon and his wife help with operations.
“Staffing has been a challenge, because we don’t have as many people in the workforce now,” Marianne said. “The work ethic we grew up with isn’t always there in the younger generation, so we patch things together with part-time help. But we have a great core group that’s been with us for years.”
The entire operation is still totally self-contained, with growing, harvesting, processing and marketing of pistachios directly to the consumer. The pistachios are sold in a traditional burlap sack, as well as in resealable plastic packaging.
“We’re almost equally divided between wholesale and retail,” Marianne said. “We have small mom-and-pop boutique stores but also Whole Foods and some of the bigger specialty grocers. We also have our products in our store and two other stores in the next biggest town, which is 70 miles from us.”
Sales from the online store are nearly equal to what is sold in the brick-and-mortar stores.
Branching out
In 2002, the Schweers family diversified again, planting 12,000 grapevines. The vineyard has since doubled in size. Today, Heart of the Desert wines offers seven varieties, including Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, Shiraz and Riesling.
The product line also includes pistachio candies, cookies, gourmet foods and gift boxes.
Looking ahead
Now in their later years, Marianne and George are thinking about what comes next.
“We have put our whole operation up for sale. All of our kids have their own careers and are busy with what they’ve built,” Marianne said. “We don’t have anyone in the family ready to step up, so we have to find someone outside the family.”
The hope is to find someone they can mentor who shares their passions for pistachios.
“Our place in the industry has always been having a quality product,” Marianne said. “We have the beautiful thing of being able to control the quality throughout the whole process. That’s always been important to us.”
Looking back on their legacy in the pistachio business, the Schweers are pleased they have been able to live their dream.
“My husband loves dirt,” Marianne said. “He’s always had a passion for farming, and I come from the same community. It was a shared passion.”
