- Author: Deanne Meyer
If you're a fan of Groundhog Day, you know that Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow (Feb 2) and we've got six more weeks of winter. Whether you believe this tale or not, we're definitely in winter. Thank you everyone who shared pictures from throughout California over the last few days. It's been incredible to see SNOW from Arcata (sea level) to Vacaville hills (900') and elsewhere. Frankly, the photos on the evening news are awesome. The days ahead will identify how severe crop damage is and the final impact on our great agricultural bounty. The sky in Yolo County had its share of helicopters out on Saturday.
The week started off with Programmatic Orientation. Thank you Vice Provost Daniel Obrist and Greg Ira, Lead for State Wide Programs and Institutes who working along with Katherine Webb-Martinez (Program Planning and Evaluation) and Lynn Schmitt-McQuitty (Director of County Directors) to share great information to our new academics. Darren Haver shared about opportunities at our RECs for research. Although I was unable to stay for the entire orientation, I hear presentations were superb: Fadzayi Mashiri (conducting informal needs assessment), Yana Valachovic (strategies for community engagement), Margaret Lloyd (working with diverse, multilingual audiences), JoLynn Miller (increasing reach with social media) and Aparna Gazula (measuring outcomes and communicating impact). Katherine Webb-Martinez and Vikram Koundinya (Evaluation Specialist, UCD) finished off the morning with measuring outcomes and communicating impact.
It was exciting to see the information in employee news from the staff assembly. Beginning March 1, 2023, the UC ANR Wellness Reimbursement Program will begin accepting applications for reimbursements of personal wellness expenses up to $75. Thank you everyone involved in making this happen. Be sure to take advantage of this opportunity! If you read the staff assembly e-news you know UC ANR Staff Assembly Ambassadors are committed to making a positive difference for our staff experience and work environment across our community, helping to make UC ANR the best to work, live and learn within the UC system. Thank you, Staff Assembly colleagues who put in time to make this program work!
There's exciting news in the ANR building. Drilling, hammering, and anything else needed is occurring to refresh all our meeting rooms. The new system will enhance our meeting rooms and the ability to zoom people into hybrid meetings. This is fantastic. Recently I used the Coast Room for a hybrid meeting (back in January during floods in Monterey) where we needed to zoom folks in. We had multiple technology failures before Sherry Cooper was able to get the temperamental system to function. Thank you to Sree Mada, David Hatter, Heather Moore, and everyone else involved in making this transition happen. Also, a quiet shout out to everyone who endured noise while working through these fabulous upgrades!
Welcome to Elizabeth Ramierz, Fresno/Madera MCP, a new Blank Assistant 2. We're excited to have new Community Education Specialists as well: Heidi Holmquist, San Diego; Brittany Gore, Los Angeles; Nancy Chang, Santa Clara; Heather Montgomery, Sutter/Yuba; Vianca Nunez, Riverside; and Kelsey Dugan, San Luis Obispo. We're fortunate to have some familiar faces in new roles as well: Lani Landayan, Immediate Office of the Controller; Bridgette Alvarez, Program Support; Jason Dillon, Resource Planning and Management; Nancy Lu, Statewide Programs and REC ops; Jessica Falor-Ward, Development Office; and Violeta Kavocevic, Facilities, Planning and Management.
- Author: Lynn Wunderlich
A few of you growers out there have told me in the past "Lynn, if you want it to rain, hold a field meeting!"
So it is in this spirit that my very first blog post forecast a warm winter right before the major snow dump in the Sierra over the holidays! Indeed the Department of Water Resource's (DWR) California Data Exchange Center (CDEC), my go-to site for up to the minute hydrological information, shows the latest snow data for the American River Basin range sites at 52 to 67 inches of snow! This includes the snow stations at upper and lower Carson Pass, Aloha and Echo lakes, and Tamarack flat. The snow currently has an 18-30% water content and is at 31-60% (depending on the location) of April 1 historic records. According to the CDEC, the April 1 historic average is based on measurements from 1951-2000.
A little closer to home, all of that snow in the Sierra amounted to a good drenching of rain to ring in the New Year. The following stations recorded December rainfall amounts:
Camino CIMIS: 7.41in.
Diamond Springs CIMIS: 6.99 in.
Plymouth CIMIS: 6.49 in.
And our PMI stations recorded December rainfall totals:
Lava Cap PMI: 9.56 in.
Fairplay PMI: 5.8 in.
Amador Eagle: 6.16 in.
Amador Renwood: 5.47 in.
Calaveras Ironstone: 10.17 in. (Wow! this one surprised me, as Calaveras often has lower precip. than further North).
A very good start to the new year. Let's hope the cold weather sticks around.
- Author: Penny Leff
New this year – snow in Lathrop!
Christmas carols fill the air, Santa chats with children in the general store full of sweet treats and local crafts and families meet live raindeer and baby farm animals. Meanwhile, a crew of farmworkers-turned-snowmakers work 24 hours a day blowing 100 tons of snow onto a tube-sledding slope. It's all at the Dell’Osso Family Farm right off Highway 5 just south of Lathrop. Welcome to the latest family adventure in the San Joaquin valley, Holidays on the Farm.
Ron and Susan Dell’Osso started taking their October pumpkin patch and corn maze seriously about eight years ago, and last year about 140,000 people showed up to buy pumpkins, enjoy the corn maze, haunted house, pony rides, pumpkin blaster, and otherwise play on Dell’Osso Family Farm. Tourists contributed about 50 percent of the San Joaquin County farm’s gross annual income. The other 50 percent of income comes from 350 acres of pumpkins, Indian corn and other seasonal specialty crops sold wholesale through a broker to grocery stores throughout the Western United States.
This March, the Dell’Ossos started researching Christmas attractions in order to extend their agritourism season. They bought a train and a zipline, built a general store with a bakeshop, learned how to make snow and opened the first annual “Holidays on the Farm” in late November. The train, zipline and store make business sense when they are amortized over both the October and December holiday seasons. The Snow Tube Mountain is already popular, with online reservations recommended for the $15.00 90-minute sessions of tubing, since the hill can only hold 250 tubers each session.
Why would these third-generation farmers turn to corn mazes and snow-making? Susan Dell’Osso explained that agritourism spreads the risk. Commercial farmers hope to make a three percent return on crops like alfalfa or pumpkins, and some years, like last year, 50 percent of the pumpkin crop can be wiped out by wet weather and mold problems.
Holiday attractions like Dell’Osso’s are also great ways to connect to and support the local community and offer low-cost entertainment for local families. Dell’Osso Family Farm tries to keep the prices low. There is no charge for parking or admission and some activities like the hay rides and go-cart speedway are free. They also include more than twenty local non-profit organizations by offering concession opportunities for volunteers to donate their time to benefit organizations including the Lathrop Senior Center, the Lathrop Police and Fire departments and the Lathrop Square Dance Club. In addition to extending the work season for many farmworkers, all of the agritourism employees are hired locally, and the popular operation is a major contributor to the local tax-base.
Watch for more pumpkin patch operators to jump on the December holiday wagon next year!