Southern California Farm Tour
In February, 2010, CUESA’s Director of Market Operations, Dexter Carmichael visited three of the southern most farms that sell in the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market: Flying Disc Ranch, Bernard Ranches, and Star Route Farm’s second location.
In February, 2010, CUESA's Director of Market Operations, Dexter Carmichael visited three of the southern most farms that sell in the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market: Flying Disc Ranch, Bernard Ranches, and Star Route Farm's second location.
"Driving up to Flying Disc was a little like approaching an oasis," says Dexter. The soil in the area is especially high in minerals, due, in part to its proximity to the Salton Sea.
Farmer Robert Lower grows date palms and a number of citrus trees, including grapefruit and pomelos. Here you can see how he practices inter-cropping, planting the citrus between the date palms.
The undergrowth on the property is lush and a little wild – partly due to an-in-depth composting program that involves shredding tree debris and returning it to the soil. He also uses drip irrigation – a less common, more sustainable approach than the flood irrigation most date farmers in the area still use.
This is the hole that is left behind when a palm is removed. The view offers a peek at the impressive root system of a single tree. Robert Lower will add compost and plant a replacement palm here soon.
Robert Lower hates to take out his palms, even when they've gotten too tall to harvest the dates easily. But occasionally, he'll sell one to be used in landscaping in Northern, CA (where they usually stop fruiting because it's not warm enough). Here you'll see some of Robert's crew preparing the tree to be transported, and eventually re-planted.
"For Robert, removing a tree is kind of like chopping off a finger," says Dexter. But he can get a good price for the palms from landscapers and the money helps offset the cost of running the farm
A Medjool date tree. Robert grows 18 varieties of date palms. Two of the most popular are Medjools and Barhis.
Thermal (in the Cochella Valley) has a rich history of date and citrus farms (as well as some current vineyards). It's a dry area, and water can be a challenge. It's also very heavy in minerals and salt. The nearby Salton Sea is increasing in size and salinity every year due to run off from agriculture and golf courses.
Driving through Thermal, you can see rows of industrially-produced carrots that are also the product of flood irrigation.
In addition to the land they have in Bolinas, Star Route Farm also has 100 acres in Thermal. They farm around 25 acres at a time, and rotate the crops around the property.
In addition to selling produce at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market and the Marin Farmers Markets, farmer Warren Weber ships his produce to restaurants and stores around the country. This is Star Route's production shed and packing tractor.
The Bolinas Star Route location can get very wet and cold in the winter, so the southern location is crucial for the winter growing season. While a few crops, such as broccoli and carrots, do well in Bolinas winters, other essential crops like spinach, tatsoi, lettuce, and frisée need more sun..
Bloomsdale spinach — a popular Star Route crop.
Little Gem lettuces
"The next crop going in," says Dexter, "is gated communities with golf courses." This development was being built right next to Star Route's land and the sprawl continues more or less until Palm Springs. "They're building right over good farm land," says Dexter.
After a 2-hour drive, Dexter reached Bernard Ranches in Riverside County, where Vince and Vicki Bernard farm citrus on 50 acres.
The Bernards grow Valencia, blood, and navel oranges (pictured), as well as several varieties each of lemons, limes, grapefruits, and avocados. They use several sustainable practices, such as drip irrigation and beneficial bugs fight to the kinds of scale pests that attack citrus trees in the area.
Vince bought the land he farms 30 years ago and is now one of the last citrus farmers in the Riverside area. His house appears here in the background.
The only other remaining orchards are at the nearby California Citrus Historical Park and at the University of California at Riverside. This photo gives a good sense of the encroaching development.
Vince remembers when there were orange groves as far as the eye could see. (This is the view of the back of his property.)
Vince is proud of his antique citrus sorter. The oranges come up the conveyor belt on the right, get rolled around (the rolling action cleans them) and sorted by size.
Stebler and Parker were competitors who came together to begin making these sorters in the 1920s. Vince's Stebler Parker may be the last orange sorter like it in the world.
The Bernards full-time employee Cesar Pascual helps manage the farm and market operations. They also hire seasonal workers and Vince does a lot of the fruit picking himself.
The Bernards also raise goats, mainly as a source of meat for themselves and their workers.
Vince feeds the goats greens scraps from the farmers markets where he sells his citrus.
Who doesn't love a good shot of a hungry baby goat?
The farm truck loaded up for a nearby market.
