I cannot remember the last time that I took a breather and enjoyed spring break! From school to work to the real world, spring break gets easily lost! However, that all changed this year! I have been teaching a few classes at a local Community College this semester and spring break arrived, allowing me to focus on more of the work that I have been putting off. So, what did I do? I jumped in the car and took a road trip to visit some California farms! What else would I do?!
I thought it would be fun to share what is going on around California in real time. I will do more in depth blogs showing the behind the scenes of each operation in future posts, but for now, you can enjoy the beauty that is California agriculture!
Monday
Visit: Mister Spear in Stockton, CA.
One thing that I love about doing this blog is not only learning about different crops, but learning about different variations of crops. At Mister Spear, they specialize in heirloom artichokes and jumbo asparagus. The asparagus was what really caught my eye, since they are significantly larger in diameter than the widest asparagus you will ever find at the grocery store. Right now, it is the peak season of asparagus grown in California. Mister Spear is a specialty packer that receives jumbo and colossal cuttings of asparagus plants and packs and sends them direct to consumer.
After Mister Spear, I continued on my way to Santa Maria. The best part about heading toward Santa Maria is getting to stop at the beaches on the Central Coast! If you have never been to the Central Coast beaches (e.g., Morro Bay, Cayucos, Avila), I highly recommend making a trip out of it! This is what the beach in Morro Bay looks like in April, and basically every day of the year!
Tuesday
Visits: Babé Farms and Darensberries in Santa Maria, CA.
I spent the whole morning at Babé Farms, which was a complete blast! Babé Farms grows specialty produce, so it was exciting to get to see and learn about crops that I had never heard of before. In this type of operation, they are not competing with similar growers, but have to work to introduce new products to the market. Most of the products are very colorful and are used by chefs to help make beautiful dishes.
With the climate in Santa Maria, they are able to grow most of their crops year-round in Santa Maria, without having to transition between Santa Maria and the Yuma, AZ area. I am really excited to show you the behind the scenes of how their products are harvested and packed! Some examples of what they grow can be seen below.
Then I was off to Darensberries to see a strawberry harvest. I went at just the right time, as the strawberry harvest had just started a few weeks earlier for them.
Wednesday
Visit: Lakeside Organic Gardens in Watsonville, CA.
The timing was just right for my visit to Lakeside Organic Gardens, as I was just in time to get to see the start of the cauliflower harvest. At this point in the week, the weather was just starting to turn. Once I got to Watsonville, it started raining, and continued to as we arrived at the field. With the cauliflower harvest, it was rain or shine and all of the workers were equipped, so the trip was worthwhile!
Thursday
Visit: Canceled due to the rains.
Friday
Visit: Wolfskill Experimental Orchards in Winters, CA.
Although it was spring break, I took some of my students to Wolfskill for a tour to show them how great and exciting Wolfskill is. There is no ripe fruit that is ready to taste yet, but since the pollination period is still occurring for some fruit, we got to see some exciting things happening with the trees. One example was walnut trees. Walnut trees do not have showy flowers, as other nut trees do, because they are wind pollinated species. As a result, the pollen on the male flowers is lightweight and ready to be blown in the wind. For the female flowers, instead of having showy flowers, they have an exerted stigma to be able to catch the pollen blowing in the wind.
It was quite the exciting week! To top it off, I was able to guest host the California Farms and Ranches (@californiafarmsandranches) Instagram account for the week to share some of my adventures with a new audience. The account is ran by Colin at Muller Ranch, and showcases the great diversity of agriculture (both produce and animals) throughout the state of California. In order to learn more about Muller Ranch and see more footage of California farms, you can check out their Instagram and/or Facebook pages.
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