Crain Walnut Shelling, Inc. (CWS, Inc.) was incorporated in California in September of 1988. Its primary business is the processing, packing and shipping of English Walnut meats. The business began in 1982 by Charles R. Crain, Jr. and his wife, Rose Crain, as a division of a much larger business, Crain Orchards, a farming operation which currently cultivates approximately 4,300 acres of English Walnuts. The Crain's philosophy of self-financed growth has resulted in a well-capitalized structure with low overhead. This coupled with the high efficiency, state of the art processing and packing facilities, have tended to maximize grower returns and led to rapid growth of the grower base through continued grower satisfaction.