Who says you can’t go home again? Certainly not Josh Stensland, the new plant manager at Seneca Foods in Blue Earth.

The 34-year-old Blue Earth native has worked for Seneca Foods for more than half of his life.

He started with the large food processing company when he was just 16. And after working in Blue Earth first, he did some time at the Glencoe, Minnesota, and Modesto, California, plants before returning home to work once again at the Blue Earth facility.

“It was in 1999 that I began working here as a seasonal employee,” Stensland says. “I was just 16 and in high school. Back then Seneca hired eight to 10 high school students to work after school boxing up cans.”

From there, he was hired by plant manager Larry Trenary during pack season to do sampling of pea trucks.

“I kept working here as a seasonal employee through college,” Stensland says. “I was going to the University of Wisconsin, River Falls, getting a degree in ag education.”

That’s right, he was going to become a high school ag teacher.

“I was very fortunate and was able to do my student teaching with Dan Dylla at USC in Wells,” Stensland says. “That was a great experience.”

After graduation in 2005, Stensland was spending the summer interviewing for teaching positions.

That is when he got a call from Seneca plant manager Colleen Gronewald.

“She asked me if I was interested in coming in and interviewing for an open full-time field rep position,” Stensland says. “My mother worked at Seneca at that time, with Colleen, and I had even babysat Colleen’s kids for a while.”

Stensland did the interview and landed the job.

“I did that for about two years when I had the chance to move up and become the warehouse manager here in Blue Earth,” he relates. “And I did that for about two years.”

Then Seneca asked him to move to Glencoe and become the plant superintendent at that facility, and he accepted it.

“It seemed like a good opportunity,” Stensland recalls now. “It is a larger facility and a bigger position.”

A plant superintendent manages the canning of the product, he explained, while a plant manager oversees the entire operation.

Stensland was in Glencoe for about two years again.

“Then Seneca asked me to go to Modesto, California, to be in charge of technical services and quality compliance,” he says. Again, it was a good opportunity, and he accepted it.

“The Modesto plant cans fruit apricots, peaches, pears and fruit cocktail,” Stensland says. “And, it is huge. There are 35 processing lines, the whole facility is about two million square feet and it covers about 120 acres.”

That would be enough to handle, but after Stensland had been there two years, Seneca added plants in Sunnyside and Yakima, Washington, and Stensland was covering those plants as well, in his position. Plus, he was doing product quality auditing at some plants in Minnesota and Wisconsin, too.

“It was definitely a good experience, but it meant more travel,” Stensland said. “More time away from family.”

After five years in California, the job of plant superintendent (not plant manager) opened up back in Blue Earth.

“My wife, Sarah, and I talked about moving back home,” Stensland says. “And, if we were going to make a move, it seemed like we needed to do it now, before the kids got too old.”

Those kids are Jacob, 8, Emily, 6, and Rachel, 3.

So late last April, and early May, the Stensland family made the move back to Minnesota Winnebago, to be specific.

“It was kind of nice we were able to spend last winter in California and their spring starts in February so we had spring there and then came to Minnesota and had spring here, too,” Stensland says. “And then had summer here.”

But, it was also time to get ready at the plant for the new pack season, just as Stensland started his new job.

“I kind of had to dust off my memory of canning corn and peas,” Stensland says. “But everyone here (at the Blue Earth plant) was very helpful and knew what to do and we made it through pack.”

Then in November, the position of plant manager in Blue Earth opened up and Stensland accepted the position and started moving into his new office.

He had come full circle from being a 16-year-old seasonal worker to the boss in charge.

Did he ever envision becoming the plant manager when he was in high school?

“No, I didn’t, but my younger brother did,” Stensland says with a laugh. “My mother worked here at Seneca and we were here visiting her and he told her he wanted to run the plant some day.”

But it was the older Stensland boy, Josh, who ended up in the front office, while his younger brother, Shane, is living in New York.

Some people might be surprised by Stensland’s seemingly meteoric rise in the company, becoming a manager so quickly and at a relatively young age.

“That is something unique about Seneca,” Stensland explains. “They fundamentally believe in promoting from within. They give employees the opportunity to gain knowledge of the business and learn the culture of the company. They offer leadership training for those who wish to take it. And I did, over the past four years.”

As far as leaving California and returning home, the Stenslands could not be happier.

“We had a wonderful opportunity out there and we had made some great friends,” Stensland says. “But we wanted to be back somewhere in the Midwest. As it turns out, it was right back where we started.”

Sarah Stensland, too, has returned to her previous working place, at United Hospital District (UHD), where she is employed as a physical therapist.

“We think it is great to be back home,” Stensland says. “The kids can see their grandparents, all within 20 miles of home. And this is such a wonderful place to raise a family, the ingrained value system here, the good people, the quiet way of life.”

They have enrolled their children at Genesis Classical Academy in Winnebago, which Stensland says is just one more benefit to living in this area.

“They have such an excellent staff that do such a great job,” Stensland says. “It is a wonderful learning environment.”

Now they have also purchased a “fixer-upper” house on some land outside of Winnebago and are working hard to get it whipped into shape.

The bottom line is, Stensland says, that it is good to be back home.

Very good.