- Author: Saoimanu Sope
UC ANR advisors, staff research methods in conserving highly perishable product
If you visited the greenhouse at the University of California South Coast Research and Extension Center in early fall, you would have smelled a sweet aroma with notes of lemon, pepper and licorice.
In one of the conservatories, a team of UC Cooperative Extension advisors and staff grew seven varieties of basil and by the end of October, the plants stretched nearly two feet tall with leaves large enough to warrant a closer look. The wonderful smell would soon become delightful tastes, as the team planned to turn the basil into pesto.
"The rationale was to provide a high-value crop and a value-added solution for urban horticulture, transforming a highly perishable product into something that can be conserved," said Gerardo "Gerry" Spinelli, UC Cooperative Extension production horticulture advisor for San Diego County, who initiated the passion project.
After noticing a sign at South Coast REC asking consumers to use produce grown onsite in their everyday cooking, Spinelli felt inspired. The sign also requested photos of homemade dishes be sent to South Coast REC's interim director, Lindsey Pedroncelli, to generate content for the REC's Instagram account.
Envisioning a "bigger picture" for this effort, Spinelli turned to Pedroncelli for support. The two agreed that the basil project demonstrates a viable pathway for urban growers who have limited space, and positions South Coast REC as an ideal partner for such endeavors. Uniquely located in urban Irvine, South Coast REC has nearly 200 acres of land reserved for agricultural research and is one of nine RECs housed under UC Agriculture and Natural Resources.
"Urban growers are constantly looking for new ways to grow food and market their products. Growing plants using the Kratky hydroponic system is a low-input method that is simple to establish and easy to maintain," said Pedroncelli.
Aside from its research purposes, the project was the perfect opportunity to engage other advisors and staff at South Coast REC. The extra hands and taste buds that helped with this effort would later be known as the South Coast REC Pesto Task Force.
Growing in hydroponics
Given Spinelli and Pedroncelli's Italian ancestry, it was no question that the basil would be used to make pesto – a traditional sauce originating from Genoa, Italy that's commonly consumed on pasta. In just about two months, the following basil varieties flourished in a hydroponic system: cinnamon, Mrs. Burns' Lemon, Kapoor Tulsi, Thai Towers, Amethyst Improved, Red Rubin and the traditional Genovese. With these varieties, Spinelli and Pedroncelli were also interested in testing how taste and color affect the pesto.
Since learning about the Kratky method, a passive hydroponic technique developed by Bernard Kratky at the University of Hawai'i, Spinelli has championed it as an easy and affordable way to grow food. He has produced several videos in English and Spanish about the technique on his YouTube Channel and created a fact sheet that can be downloaded from his website.
Some of its advantages are the low initial capital investment, excellent water and nitrogen use efficiency, short cycle of production and the fact that it is modular and easy to set up, move and store – a major advantage for growers who only have access to space for a limited time and investments on immobile structures are not justifiable.
For the setup, eight 2'-by-3' tubs were used, and each was filled with 20 gallons of water before adding a fertilizer mix that contains one ounce of calcium nitrate, one ounce of magnesium sulfate or Epson salt and 0.6 ounces of lettuce formula. With the additional steps of seeding, drilling holes into the Styrofoam, and placing the net cups with seedlings into each hole, Spinelli estimated about 30 minutes of setup for each tub.
Estimating potential profit for urban growers
Although prices per quantity vary, he also estimated about $25 for the 20-gallon tub, a panel of Styrofoam and net baskets, which can all be reused. In addition, the fertilizer and propagation materials, including seeds and pellets, will cost roughly $68. When breaking these materials down according to the number of growing cycles, about one to two months each, the cost amounts to approximately $5 per tub for 25 cycles.
Using basil sold at Trader Joe's for reference, Spinelli estimated that each ounce of basil grown is worth about 70 cents. The "million-dollar question," as Spinelli puts it, is how much profit one can earn from this endeavor. Because the Amethyst Improved and Red Rubin varieties had the lowest yields of 12 and 18 ounces, they were combined to make 40 ounces of pesto. In contrast, Genovese had the highest yield of 51 ounces of basil – which produced 64 ounces of pesto.
Using a ratio of 0.7 to 0.9 ounces of basil for every liquid ounce of pesto, and calculating projected value based on Trader Joe's pricing, the Amethyst Improved and Red Rubin combined pesto had a projected value of $21, whereas Genovese had a projected value of $36. Without being combined with any other variety, however, the smallest projected value was the Kapoor Tulsi variety which had a yield of 22.5 ounces, making 28 ounces of pesto and resulting in a $16 projected value.
There are a few costs that Spinelli and Pedroncelli could not account for, such as hypothetical transportation to the market for sale, and the various prices of ingredients used to make pesto – almonds and walnuts, for instance, could be used as a cheaper alternative to the traditional pine nuts.
"With a traditional recipe you spend $5 for the basil and $25 for the other ingredients to produce eight 8-ounce jars of pesto. If you can sell each jar for $10 at the farmers market, there are $50 for profit – maybe more if you can sell one jar for $15, or you can save with non-traditional ingredients," Spinelli explained.
An additional advantage, which may come with additional expenses, is that pesto can be conserved. The business model could be that the grower sells basil at the farmers market and transforms the unsold product into pesto before it goes bad.
"Getting involved in agriculture can be intimidating and costly, so researching and showcasing inexpensive methods that can easily be scaled to fit your needs is incredibly helpful for both new and seasoned growers," Pedroncelli said.
South Coast REC staff offer taste buds at ‘pesto party'
Following their harvests in October, Spinelli and Pedroncelli hosted two "pesto parties" for staff at South Coast REC. Although traditional pesto is made with Genovese basil, pine nuts, garlic, Pecorino cheese and olive oil, Spinelli and Pedroncelli experimented with different cheeses and nuts across the seven varieties of basil. Staff offered their taste buds and critical review of each pesto, advising the two chefs to add more or less of a particular ingredient.
Eager to share their progress and vision with UC ANR's senior leadership, Spinelli and Pedroncelli carefully preserved and packaged eight jars of homemade pesto and had it specially delivered to Vice President Glenda Humiston.
"This is a creative way to demonstrate innovation and a fantastic opportunity to support our urban communities. It's not just practical, but economically feasible," said Humiston, who was pleasantly surprised by the pesto delivery. "Plus, I love pesto!" she added.
What started out as a passion project quickly turned into an opportunity to show how a resource hub like South Coast REC can empower its urban clientele both educationally and economically. It was also the perfect opportunity to engage South Coast REC staff in an activity outside of their day-to-day responsibilities, making for excellent photo ops and social media posts.
- Author: Pamela S Kan-Rice
The Emmy-winning KPBS show “Fresh Glass” will feature Vice President Glenda Humiston and Darren Haver, director of UC ANR's Research and Extension Center System, in an episode discussing the importance of California agriculture.
In the episode, Humiston takes show host Cassandra Schaeg on a tour of South Coast Research and Extension Center in Irvine. They talk about avocados, citrus disease, the importance of agricultural research in urban communities and more. The episode premiered at the FIRA USA robotics conference in Woodland on Oct. 23.
Humiston thanked Schaeg for attending the premiere and “for so beautifully conveying the bounty of our South Coast REC and the breadth of UC ANR's work.”
"You caught the big points,” Humiston said. “The issues are so complex; there are so many things going on. To really get the message across about the importance of food and how research fits into it, I think you knocked it out of the ballpark."
For the series, co-founder, producer and host Schaeg travels across the country exploring unique flavors, captivating stories and the entrepreneurial spirit of America.
You can view the 27-minute episode online at https://video.kpbs.org/video/cassandra-gets-down-and-dirty-pzkq1b/.
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
Richards named ag land acquisitions academic coordinator
Chandra Mercedes Richards joined UC Cooperative Extension as agricultural land acquisitions academic coordinator II for San Diego, San Bernardino and Riverside counties on May 10.
As an agricultural lands acquisition academic coordinator II, Richards aims to better support San Bernardino, Riverside, and San Diego counties through the Sustainable Agricultural Lands Conservation (SALC) grant program.
“More specifically, I will be identifying and addressing regional barriers to land use planning, connecting producers with ANR services and climate-smart technical assistance providers, supporting grant applications and agricultural assessments, and ultimately protecting agricultural systems in perpetuity,” she said.
The East Coast native has lived in California for 11 years and is rooted in San Diego. Prior to joining UC ANR, Richards was a conservation ecologist at the greater San Diego Resource Conservation District, where she led the agriculture, forest health, and habitat restoration programs and supported climate-smart agriculture through planning, education, and technical assistance. She also was a key grant writer and project implementation leader.
She earned a Ph.D. in soil biogeochemistry from UC Berkeley and double B.S. degrees in chemistry and mathematics from Pennsylvania State University.
Richards is based in San Diego and can be reached at cmrichards@ucanr.edu.
Bayless named Master Gardener Program coordinator
Aliya Bayless has been named the UC Master Gardener Program coordinator for Tulare and Kings counties. She joined the UC Master Gardener Program in 2016 when she decided to start her own garden and, in her words, “didn't know anything about gardening.”
Bayless is originally from Baku, the capital city of Azerbaijan, located along the Caspian Sea, but has been a resident of Visalia since 2006. Although she grew up in the city, she learned to love plants (mostly house plants) from family members including her grandmother, father and aunt. When she was an adult, her dad finally bought a piece of land that he had dreamt of for many years. It was on this new property that he started his own garden with a lot of fruit trees and berries. Bayless helped him as much as she could, but like many gardeners, her main job was pulling weeds.
“Since then, I've learned a lot about gardening, met amazing people and enjoyed every minute of volunteering. I'm very excited to start my new journey as a program coordinator and hope that I will be able to help with the program and future projects,” she said.
Bayless is based in Tulare and can be reached at ambayless@ucanr.edu. – By Melissa Womack
Lewis selected to deliver ESA Founders' Memorial Lecture
Vernard Lewis, emeritus UC Cooperative Extension specialist at UC Berkeley, has been selected to deliver the Founders' Memorial Lecture at the 2021 annual meeting of the Entomological Society of America, set Oct. 31-Nov. 3 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver.
Lewis is a national and international authority on drywood termites and is known for his pioneering research on detection innovations and nonchemical methods of control. A nationally recognized urban entomologist, Lewis's research encompasses a variety of urban pests including ants, bed bugs, cockroaches and wood-boring beetles. He has authored and co-authored more than 150 refereed and trade magazine articles and book chapters on termites and household insect pests.
The Founders' Memorial Award was established in 1958 to honor the memory of scientists who made outstanding contributions to entomology. On Nov. 2, Lewis will give a presentation on the life and legacy of African-American entomologist and civil rights advocate Margaret Collins.
To read more about Lewis' career, see https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=24625 and to learn more about Margaret Collins see Bug Squad https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=47649.
Tompkins recognized for fire safety
The Plumas County Fire Safe Council announced Ryan Tompkins, UC Cooperative Extension forestry and natural resource advisor, as one of two new recipients in its Fire Safe Recognition Program on May 13.
Mike Flanigan of Flanigan-Leavitt Insurance nominated Tompkins for the award for playing a significant role in improving the community's fire safety and emergency preparedness.
“Ryan Tompkins has been a huge part of the progress made with the Quincy Firewise USA initiative,” Flanigan said in his nomination letter. “He is currently the UC Cooperative Extension Forester for Plumas, Sierra, and Lassen counties where his research focuses on forest restoration and post-fire restoration. He successfully received certification in his own neighborhood – Galleppi Ranch. He is thorough and keeps the committee focused. We on the Quincy Firewise Committee are very grateful for Ryan's professional input and support.”
Tompkins started his own firewise community four years ago. “Just my little neighborhood HOA of 36 residences,” Tompkins said, “but when I joined UC ANR, I really felt that I needed to focus on making the entire town of Quincy (over 2,000 residences) a Firewise USA Site to serve all the facets of our community and we did it this May!”
“Also, last December, we helped the Sierra Brooks community outside of Loyalton become the first NFPA Firewise USA Site in Sierra County! I'm now working with Sierra City (another community in Sierra County) on their assessment. I see value in the NFPA Firewise USA site program because it focuses on empowering residents to educate, outreach, and work together as a community in wildfire preparedness. It certainly isn't a panacea, but it's a start and a good way to engage folks.”
South Coast REC honored as community service partner
Since October 2019, the Saddleback Valley Adult Transition Program and the South Coast Research and Extension Center have been developing a vocational training program for adult transition program students. As a result of this partnership, South Coast REC was recognized as Community Service Partner of the Year.
Starting on April 16, students began assisting with propagating vegetables in the South Coast REC greenhouse, harvesting, postharvest processing, maintaining vegetable crops, pruning, irrigating, and detecting and identifying insects. This unique partnership allows students to learn skills that can be applied in various settings vocationally, at home and on campus. UC Master Gardener volunteers helped them develop a more robust school garden.
“As the community starts to reopen, we look for further integration of the fruits and vegetables produced within our micro businesses for all students,” wrote Principal Raymund Bueche. “This includes the processing of produce and vegetables in the Educafe and Esperanza kitchens for student consumption and the addition of fresh items including smoothies and juices in Hope Café, a student-run coffee cart, and The Cutie Pie Café, a student-run restaurant.”
This project has also been embraced by Orange County Local Partnership Agreement, a group spearheaded by Chapman University to bring together organizations serving special needs and at-risk youth with training and on-the-job experiences as they transition from school to the workforce.
- Author: Ann Filmer
A research project initiated in the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis evaluates landscape plants in two-year trials under varying irrigation levels to determine the best irrigation level for optimal plant performance in regions requiring supplemental summer water. Creating water budgets is required by California's Model Water Efficient Landscape Ordinance (MWELO), and the results from these research trials help landscape professionals and home gardeners make informed decisions when specifying, selecting or promoting low water-use landscape plant material.
This year, the CDFA/USDA Specialty Crops Multistate Program funded a new Climate Ready Landscape Plants project, which will replicate the successful fields that are currently installed at UC Davis and UC ANR South Coast Research and Extension Center in Irvine.
Loren Oki, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences, is the lead principal investigator and collaborators include researcher Jared Sisneroz; project leader Karrie Reid, UC Cooperative Extension environmental horticulture advisor in San Joaquin County; and Darren Haver, UC Cooperative Extension water resources and water quality advisor and director of South Coast REC and UCCE in Orange County.
Under Oki's oversight, this new $999,992 grant will support the development of additional fields at several western universities:
- University of Washington, Soo-Hyung Kim
- Oregon State University, Lloyd Nackley and Ryan Contreras
- Utah State University Center, Youping Sun and Larry Rupp
- University of Arizona, Ursula Schuch
Conducting these new experiments on landscape plants at diverse sites across the western U.S. will reveal differences in recommendations since irrigation guidelines for landscapes vary depending on climate and soil type.
The initial project was initiated as Reid's master's degree thesis research in 2004, with Oki as her major professor, and has been ongoing since then.
Project descriptions, results and images can be seen at the UC Landscape Plant Irrigation Trials website at https://ucanr.edu/sites/UCLPIT.
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
To gain a better understanding of UC ANR's work in communities and to see firsthand how UC's Agricultural Extension programs engage with the public in an urban setting, the UC ANR Governing Council toured the South Coast Research and Extension Center in Irvine on Feb. 19.
The UC ANR Governing Council, which is chaired by UC Riverside Chancellor Kim Wilcox, visited UCCE specialist Alex Putman and UC Riverside graduate student Lindsey Pedroncelli's strawberry disease study, UC IPM advisor Cheryl Wilen's herbicide demonstration, and the urban landscape demonstration site, where Darren Haver, South Coast REC director and UCCE water resources advisor, conducts water studies. Niamh Quinn, UCCE human-wildlife interaction advisor, described her research on vertebrate pests ranging from rats to coyotes, and Beatriz Nobua-Behrmann, UCCE urban forestry advisor, and John Kabashima, emeritus environmental horticulture advisor, showed the council members shot hole borers and other pests that attack trees.
The UC ANR academics were joined by public and private sector partners, including Mark Lopez from OC Produce who is also the Orange County Farm Bureau president; Bryan Thompson, owner of Pest Options; Jenna Voss, South Orange County watershed manager for Orange County Public Works; Dave Erickson, Wildland Resources Planner for Orange County Fire Authority; Jim Hartman, deputy agricultural commissioner for Los Angeles County; Laura Krueger Prelesnik, vector ecologist for the Orange County Mosquito and Vector Control District; and Rick Howard, Orange County Mosquito and Vector Control District agency manager.
Foods grown at the center were incorporated in the lunch prepared by UC ANR culinary partners Andrea Machua of Culinary Underground, Kyle Manns of Taps Brewery and Lan Pham Zenti, owner of Jadetiger Tea.
“The day was both enjoyable and informative for all,” said Kathy Eftekhari, chief of staff to the vice president.
