Hello California farmers and ranchers. Are you considering inviting visitors to your land for extra income, public education and community connections? Or are you already an agritourism operator interested in networking with others involved in California agritourism? If so, we invite you to join us at one of the upcoming events where UC SAREP Agritourism Coordinator Penny Leff will be speaking about agritourism development that benefits growers and communities.

Sustainable Food and Farming Conference, February 7 to 9 at Nevada Union High School in Grass Valley, organized by Sierra Harvest. Penny will be joining Debbie Bierwagen, long-time agritourism operator of the Donner Trail Fruit Farm Market & Pumpkin Patch, in leading a workshop, "Adding to your income stream with agritourism," from 1:00 to 2:15 p.m. on Sunday February 9th.

Tuolumne County Agritourism Summit, Thursday, February 20 in Jamestown, organized by Visit Tuolumne County, This event, organized to leverage Tuolumne County's agricultural resources, will be held at the Hurst Ranch, giving attendees a chance to tour and hear firsthand from experienced and successful agritourism operator Leslie Hurst. Penny will lead a discussion about assessing the agritourism potential of your farm or ranch. Local farmers and ranchers are invited to sign up online or call (209) 533-4420. Cost is $20 per person, which includes lunch.

California Small Farm Conference, February 27 - 29 in Paso Robles, San Luis Obispo County, organized by the Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF). Join Penny and founding members of the newly organized San Luis Obispo Farm Trail for a workshop on "Building a Farm Trail," from 2:15 to 3:30 p.m. on Friday, February 28.

We hope to meet you at one or more of these exciting California educational and networking events.

The University of California Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (UC SAREP), a statewide program of UC ANR, hosts an agritourism program dedicated to sharing resources and connections for the California agritourism community. We manage a directory and event calendar (www.calagtour.org) providing information to the public about opportunities to visit and enjoy California farms and ranches. Listings on calagtour.org are free to California farmers and ranchers offering any kind of on-farm or on-ranch direct sales or experiences, including tours, farm stands, tasting rooms, pumpkin patches, U-Pick, farm dinners, guest ranches, farm stays, classes, weddings, or other adventures. UC SAREP also produces a regular newsletter for the California agritourism community and hosts a website full of resources for those involved in the California agritourism industry, https://ucanr.edu/sites/agritourism/.

From winery tasting rooms to pumpkin patches, apple picking and goat yoga, California farmers and ranchers are leaders and innovators in agritourism, utilizing tradition and creativity as they invite the public to visit and experience rural life. They mange farm stands, host on-farm dinners, offer school field trips, public tours, festivals, classes, on-farm lodging and guest ranches, outdoor recreation and multiple other experiences to diversify income and connect with their own communities and visitors from far away.

All Calilfornia agritourism operators are are invited and encouraged to take part in a national survey about agritourism and direct sales.

The survey is at: tinyurl.com/agritourismsurvey

The UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (UC SAREP), a statewide program of UC ANR, is collaborating with the University of Vermont and others to gauge the scope and impact of the industry nationwide. Farmers and ranchers throughout the country are being asked to participate in the short survey for a study led by the University of Vermont. The data will be used by cooperative extension and research personnel to develop resources to help increase the success of small and medium-sized farms and ranches that offer on-farm direct sales, education, hospitality, recreation, entertainment and other types of agritourism.

The survey, which will take about 10-15 minutes to complete, is available online at tinyurl.com/agritourismsurvey. All responses will be kept confidential, and participants may opt out of answering survey questions at any time.

Leaders of California's many farm trails and agritourism associations are encouraged to share the link to this survey with their members to ensure that California is well represented in this important national study.

In addition to demographic and farm information, the survey will collect data on direct sales and agritourism experiences offered, visitor numbers and goals, successes, challenges and future plans for agritourism. Farmers also will be able to provide input on the types of support needed to achieve success with agritourism including on-farm direct sales.

This multi-state survey and research project is being coordinated by Extension Professor Lisa Chase and Associate Professor David Conner, both with the University of Vermont, and funded through a Critical Agriculture Research and Extension grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Collaborators include research and cooperative extension faculty in California, Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon and West Virginia.

Noble Orchards in Paradise, California is the last remaining apple orchard in Butte County. This family business, with close to a hundred years of history, lost almost everything in the Camp fire last year, including all the infrastructure, buildings, fences, ladders, tools, boxes, scales and other things needed to maintain the orchard. But, miraculously, the apple orchards survived the fire.

The bloom was strong this spring. The native bees happily pollinated all the apples. Now the apple trees are heavily laden with fruit ready to pick. Farm owners Jim and Laurie Noble are inviting the public to come to the farm to pick the apples. There are about 80,000 pounds of crisp, delicious apples remaining on the trees.

Here is their message:

JOIN US THIS Wednesday, October 9 (or next Wed - Fri, Oct. 16-18) - 8:30 AM TO 4:00 PM
TO U-PICK

No Charge - donations welcome

Noble Orchards: 7050 Pentz Road, Paradise, CA 95969

"We welcome one and all to come pick our large bounty of fruit this season. As most everyone knows the apple orchards survived the Camp Fire, the infrastructure needed to manage harvesting fruit is 100% missing.

Thank you to our trees for carrying on production without our assistance. No cultural practices were used to help produce tasty, sweet and crunchy apples. With all that said, please come and get them.

OUR RULES: BE SAFE!!!

1.Closed toed shoes and long pants for everyone.

2 No running anywhere and no one climbing in our fruit trees.

3. Bring containers to haul fruit home, picking sticks to reach high fruit, wagons etc to move fruit from orchards.

4. Take all you can possibly use, share with others who are unable to pick themselves, take apples to local food programs, use them as you please, make a gift basket for all the fall fundraisers, most importantly enjoy the bounty you pick!

5. Offer to volunteer here at the farm. We need a lot of assistance both picking now as well as pruning and cleaning up the orchards this fall and winter. Sign up at the farm when you visit

JOIN US THIS Wednesday, October 9 - 8:30 AM TO 4:00 PM
TO U-PICK

No open picking next weekend. The Sierra Oro Farm Trail is a ticketed event we will host both Sat 10/12 and 10/13. Tickets are available at Sierra Oro Farm Trail 2019. Get yours TODAY.

U-Pick will be open again Wednesday - Friday October, 16, 17 and 18.

For more information, updates and future U-Pick dates, see the Noble Orchard Facebook page

As a Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems student at UC Davis, I love having the opportunity to visit farms and ranches that are putting what I am learning in my classes into real practice. Pacific Star Gardens exceeded my expectations. Located near Woodland, CA Pacific Star Gardens is a diversified farm that offers a variety of fruits and vegetables for u-pick and also offers egg subscriptions for on-farm pick up by subscribers.

We were greeted by Robert Ramming at Pacific Star Gardens. He was more than happy to give a tour of the cultivated land. We toured the greenhouses where transplants are grown not only for Pacific Star Gardens but also for other farms and seed companies. Ramming also showed us a piece of land where he was growing Triticale and Rye as chicken scratch and feed. He explained how this is a financially better method than continuing to solely buy feed.  Although he still purchases grain from feed stores to compensate for what he has not grown, his goal is to eventually switch to a full self sustaining method. We then passed by the tomatoes and apricots on our way to the berries which Ramming explained were the best crop to grow for a beginning u-pick farm.

Throughout our walk Ramming also shared some of his experiences being a small scale farmer. Pacific Star Gardens used to sell at local farmer's markets. Unfortunately, due to family changes, they had to stop farmers' market sales and subsequently withdrew from their organic certification because the cost was unaffordable without the farmers' market as a source of income. Despite not having organic certification, Pacific Star Gardens still maintains all organic practices to ensure the quality of product and trust of consumers. Pacific Star Gardens direct marketing sales currently include u-pick, some farm stand sales and egg subscriptions. Ramming mentioned that roughly 80 percent of sales are from people living close by and the other 20 percent of sales are from visitors coming in after seeing their Facebook page or through word of mouth.

This visit would have not been complete without a bag of strawberries to take home. Before leaving us, Ramming showed us to the farm stand where we grabbed a clean picking bucket and headed out to the strawberry field. I picked two pounds of yummy strawberries which cost $3.50 a pound. They accept either cash or PayPal/Venmo.

Blackberry u-pick will be coming up soon, so keep your eye out on Pacific Star Garden's Facebook page for more information to visit. https://www.facebook.com/pacificstargardens/