Backyard Orchard News
Kearney gets a new agricultural and biological engineering assistant advisor.
Alireza (Ali) Pourreza is a new UC Cooperative Extension assistant advisor at UC ANR Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center, agricultural engineering. His research and extension area includes spray technology, precision agriculture, automation and robotic control, sensor design, geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing, computer vision, spectroscopy, machine learning, and big data. He completed his graduate studies at the University of Florida and obtained his Ph.D. degree in Agricultural and Biological Engineering under the advisement of Wonsuk “Daniel” Lee, professor in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at the University of Florida. Pourreza also received an interdisciplinary certificate in GIS and Remote Sensing. Ali holds a master's degree in Mechanics of Agricultural Machinery and a bachelor's degree in Farm Machinery Engineering.
Pourreza's doctoral dissertation was focused on interdisciplinary research in citrus diseases detection using computer vision, and machine learning. He developed two real-time, vision-based sensors for citrus Huanglongbing (HLB) disease detection for laboratory and field experiments. He also developed an autonomous field inspector robot and a vision-based sensor for on-site diagnosis of citrus diseases.
Alireza Pourreza, UC Cooperative Extension assistant advisor in agricultural engineering.
Customer Engagement: U-Pick Membership Programs
The people of Suzie's Farm, diversified organic growers in San Diego, have explored many ways to connect their customers to the farm and the good food growing on the farm. They offer regular farm tours, a CSA program, strawberry U-Pick days, farm dinners and other events. About a year ago, farm manager Lauren Gagliano Saline and her staff noticed that some of their customers wanted more chances to get their hands dirty, maybe to harvest their own CSA.
Suzie's staff tried an unguided vegetable U-Pick, letting customers pick vegetables from the fields. That didn't work out so well. Many people didn't know how to walk in the fields without trashing the beds, and didn't know how to harvest the different crops, and the random picking adventures tied up staff time. So Lauren and the team created a guided U-Pick option, and the U-Pick Harvest Club was born.
Now about fifty U-Pick Harvest Club members pick their own CSA every week. They join and prepay for four, eight, sixteen or more "picks". Each "pick" is a varying list of eight items with a set quantity of each item, designed to be approximately equal to a CSA share. Harvest Club members are told the times each week that they can pick their shares, on Tuesday, Saturday or Sunday. The picking times are when farm staff are leading their regular farm tours, so Harvest Club members join any of the tours and are supervised in their picking by the tour leaders. Of course they are not charged for the tour, which usually costs $10 per person.
Another advantage the U-Pick Harvest Club members enjoy is the chance to customize their pick, an option not available to regular CSA members. Rather than picking a set amount of each of the eight items, they are allowed to substitute more of one crop if they prefer. For example, they can pick eight melons one week if melons are one of the listed items, and take none of the other things on the list. And some people, Lauren explained, just prefer to pick that perfect bunch of kale. Harvest Club members are also allowed to bring along up to three people to "help" them pick - which includes the free farm tour.
The first year of Suzie's U-Pick Harvest Club has been a success, seeing steady growth and renewals for the second year. For more information, see Suzie's Farm website.
About four years ago, the Olsons set up a "U-pick/CSA Member Program," and now reserve the u-pick experience for farm CSA members. The price of membership is a case of Gabriel Farm's organic juice. For $36, customers get three gallons of juice and the ability to pick and purchase whatever is in season. Once they had the membership program established, Lucy and Torrey felt comfortable in opening up the U-Pick options to their full range of crops - from apples, pluots, berries, Asian Pears, tomatoes and flowers in August through persimmons and pineapple guavas in November.
Membership in the U-pick CSA program at Gabriel Farm averages about 500 families. A membership is good for a family or for a group of four people. Most customers are families with young children who want their children to learn where their food comes from and to be able to experience the farm. Most drive an hour or two from the greater San Francisco Bay Area. Lucy and Torrey are happy with their program. They have found that most people who make the membership commitment are supportive, kind and respectful of the farm.
Most U-Pick CSA members only come out to the farm once a year, as they are very busy people, Lucy explained, although she encourages all members to experience the apple harvest at least once if they start in a different season. Turnover in the program is about 80 percent, but enough new members join each year to maintain the average membership numbers.
The Olsons are not trying to grow their U-Pick program. They tried a hay pyramid one year for the children to play on, but decided that they didn't want to be in the agri-tainment business and did not repeat the experiment. They plan to continue to use the U-Pick membership program to limit the number of customers and to make more of a connection with people who enjoy and respect Gabriel Farm. For more information, see gabrielfarm.com/portal/u-pick
Proof of Life
Sometimes caregivers, including grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and neighbors, take photos of...
A monarch caterpillar summits a milkweed, Asciepias speciosa. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
It's dinner time! It's always dinner time for a monarch caterpillar. It later became dinner for a bird. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A monarch caterpillar surrounds its food. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Teachers observe next generation science in action on Kearney tour.
Third grade teachers from around California toured UC ANR Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center (KARE) Center July 21 during a week of Next Generation Science Standards training in nearby Reedley sponsored by the K-12 Academy and WestEd.
Led by Chuck Boldwyn, KARE superintendent of agriculture, tour stops highlighted the California Irrigation Management Information System (CIMIS) weather station, sorghum deficit irrigation trials, and how a soil weighing lysimeter measures tree and vine crops water use.
Boldwyn encouraged teachers to subscribe to California Agriculture journal. Readers in the United States can subscribe for free. Published by the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources (ANR), the quarterly peer-reviewed journal reports on research, reviews and news of California's agricultural, natural and human resources. Content can be easily understood by non-specialist readers. International subscription rates are $24 a year, or $20 a year for two years or more.
Khaled Bali, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in statewide irrigation water management at KARE, explained at the weather station how the data is used for irrigation management decisions. CIMIS was developed in 1982 by the California Department of Water Resources and UC Davis. One of the first CIMIS weather stations to be put into use is still located at the UC ANR West Side Research and Extension Center in Five Points.
At a stop in a peach orchard, teachers were surprised to learn of the large weighing lysimeter just below their feet. Basically, a lysimeter is a large "flower pot" measuring 6.5 feet wide by 13 feet long by 6.5 feet deep that rests on a sensitive balance-beam weighing scale in an underground chamber. Why would you want to measure soil weight? Short-term soil weight loss is almost entirely due to water evaporation through leaves or from the soil surface. When a specific threshold is exceeded, the crop is automatically irrigated. The orchard lysimeter has also been used to study the effects of water stress on tree water use. Two lysimeters were constructed at KARE in 1986. The second lysimeter is located in a vineyard.
Comments from teachers recognized the value of the agricultural science research underway at KARE.
"I was not aware of all the research that is going on in ag."
"A great tour. I hope the Reedley teachers take advantage of having the Kearney Center so close to them."
"It was amazing to see the concepts we have been learning put to work."
Bully in the Bee Garden
He's the bully in the bee garden. If you've ever watched the male European wool carder bee...
Male European wool carder bee (Anthidium manicatum)targets a female Valley carpenter bee (Xylocopa varipuncta) on a bluebeard (Caryopteris). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Male European wool carder bee (Anthidium manicatum) takes another swipe at the female Valley carpenter bee (Xylocopa varipuncta) on a bluebeard (Caryopteris). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Sleepytime! Male European wool carder bees sleeping inside a mason bee condo, bee housing meant for blue orchard bees. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)