- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Strawberries in the central San Joaquin Valley are ripening about two weeks earlier than normal in 2015, reported Robert Rodriguez in the Fresno Bee. The story was localized and also used in the Merced Sun-Star and Modesto Bee.
Normally strawberry season starts in early April, but in the Fresno area Rodriguez found a dozen roadside stands already selling the springtime favorite.
Rodriguez spoke to Michael Yang, an agricultural...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The Los Angeles Times ran a profile today of Fresno County farmer Pang Chang, an immigrant from Laos who grows mangoes, papayas, 20 varieties of guava and jujubes. The article said the secret to Chang's incongruous crops is his friendship with UC Cooperative Extension Hmong agricultural assistant Michael Yang.
Yang told reporter Diana Marcum he grew up helping his family raise vegetables — and hated...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
No matter how small the farm, the operator must have a workers' compensation policy and comply with other regulations - even if they are getting on-farm assistance only from family, said UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor Richard Molinar in a press release picked up by GrowingProduce.com.
If farms are found to be out of compliance, they could be hit with substantial fines. Molinar provided the following example:
A refugee strawberry farmer who speaks very little English was fined $2,000 by Labor Standards Enforcement for not having workers’ compensation...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Yesterday, Fresno's ABC Action News ran a report on the effect of recent rain storms on strawberry production. The story featured Southeast Asian grower Nelson Yang, who expressed relief that the rain seems to have stopped before damaging his crop.
Reporter Dale Yurong also interviewed UC Cooperative Extension agricultural assistant
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
A brief article in this month's issue of San Joaquin Magazine gave readers a glimpse of one of the more unusual research plantings at the UC Kearney Research and Extension Center by UC Cooperative Extension small farm advisor Richard Molinar and his assistant Michael Yang.
The publication, which the title page claims "is found in affluent homes of Stockton, Lodi, Tracy, Ripon, Manteca, and Mountain House," said "evocatively-named" herbs Siberian motherwort, Vietnamese...
