- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
In the waning days of her tenure at the Fresno Bee, food writer Joan Obra devoted an entire column to the UC Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center near Parlier.
When she first announced her decision to leave the Bee to return to her family's Hawaii coffee farm, Obra wrote rapturously about the UC Lindcove Research and Extension Center. Her following column said, "I'm not yet done telling you stories." She then recounted treasures she discovered over the years during tours...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The Fresno Bee's ag-savvy food writer Joan Obra has decided to put aside her word processor and return to her parents' Hawaiian coffee farm. It is an enormous loss for the Valley and its agriculture industry. Obra is a rarity among food writers, publishing as much about farming as restaurants and recipes.
"I'm going home," Obra wrote in her weekly column published today. "In a way, it's a testament to my time in the Valley: Local food producers have inspired me to become one of them."
In today's piece, which she said isn't her last, Obra wrote about local treats that she believes capture the history, culture, climate and...
- 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...