Folks,

A great workshop is scheduled for Thursday Aug 10 at UC Davis.  It's a busy time of year, but it could be a great time to improve your skills to benefit this summer's seed saving.

ORGANIC BREEDING AND SEED INTENSIVE

Join Jared Zystro of Organic Seed Alliance, and Julie Dawson and Bill Tracy of University of Wisconsin-Madison, to learn how to develop new varieties and produce commercial quality seed. Learn basic principles to evaluate, develop, improve, and maintain both cross-pollinated and self-pollinated plant varieties for your farm. The training will also include a brief overview of seed biology, how to manage population size and isolation distances and seed production, harvesting, cleaning, and storage best practices. 

$25 

Number of participants is limited. 

https://seedalliance.org/events/organic-seed-intensive/#fastaction-signup

DEADLINE TO REGISTER EXTENDED THROUGH TODAY!

Join us for an exciting tour of Bay Area Wholesale Markets!

Register by Friday June 9 at

http://ucanr.edu/survey/survey.cfm?surveynumber=21089
Space is limited.  All are welcome.

Warm regards,
Margaret

Join UC Cooperative Extension's Margaret Lloyd and UC Small Farm Program's Shermain Hardesty on a tour of wholesale markets in the San Francisco Bay Area.

We will be meeting with:

• Michael Janis, General Manager, San Francisco Wholesale Produce Market
• Cooks Company, San Francisco Wholesale Produce Market
• Organic Produce Wholesaler, San Francisco Wholesale Produce Market
• Bay Cities Produce, San Leandro
• Simon Richard, BiRite Market's Produce Manager, San Francisco
• Topics covered: Pricing, produce quality, packaging standards, grading standards, building relationships, selling to wholesalers, compliance and other topics.

The bus will begin loading at 6:15AM in front of the UC Cooperative Extension Office in Woodland, 70 Cottonwood Street. We will leave promptly at 6:30AM, returning by 5:30PM.

$10, REGISTER BY JUNE 9 Space is limited.

Registration fee includes a snack, bottled water and lunch.

http://ucanr.edu/survey/survey.cfm?surveynumber=21089

TOUR DESCRIPTION

The tour will begin with an overview of the San Francisco Wholesale Produce Market by Michael Janis, the Market's General Manager. We will also visit several of the Market's vendors, including Cooks Company and an organic produce wholesaler. We will talk to buyers about what they look for when buying produce, and learn about standard pricing practices.

We will then visit Bay Cities Produce in San Leandro; it supplies produce to restaurants, institutions, foodservice and government organizations. Bay Cities carries a full line of fresh, frozen, and prepared fruits and vegetables. Next, we'll visit with BiRite Markets' Produce Manager, Simon Richard, and learn how they buy direct from farmers and what they are looking for. The tour will cover the specialties of the different wholesalers and provide tips on how to build long-lasting relationships with wholesale clients.

During the bus ride from Woodland to San Francisco, Shermain will describe the packaging and grading standards that farmers and other businesses must comply with when selling wholesale.

Knowing whether your fresh market tomatoes have enough nitrogen at each growth stage can be very challenging because multiple amendments are often added to grow organically such as compost + sea bird guano + liquid fertilizers.  A small research team at the University of California are undertaking a study to demystify this information.  Through this research, we will determine the nitrogen demand in tomatoes and how much nitrogen is made available by each amendment, for each week over the season.  We would love to know what amendments you are using so that we can include them in our study.

Nitrogen in Organic Tomatoes Survey

Please help us make this research most relevant for you by completing the survey. Results from this research will be made publicly available. 

Thank you so much!   

Margaret

*For those who attended the Organic Production Meeting at UCCE in February and completed the survey then, THANK YOU!

Yolo RCD has partnered with Tehama County RCD to offer free irrigation evaluations for Yolo County. There are ten evaluations available this spring. It will be first come, first serve.  Only 10 available this spring.  See attached flyer.

What is the Mobile Irrigation Lab (MIL)?

It's a service that performs on-site evaluations of agricultural irrigation systems
in order to determine the efficiency rating and the application rate. The goal of the MIL
is to give growers an overall snapshot of their irrigation system, provide scheduling information,
and give recommendations to help improve efficiency.

How does it work?

The MIL manager will contact you to schedule an evaluation. You will need to
have a representative to meet with the MIL crew for approximately 10 minutes to
provide information about the irrigation system. The MIL only requires the grower to
have an irrigation system design map or the ability to draw a sketch of pipe locations.

If interested please contact Heather Nichols at;
Yolo County RCD
530-661-1688 x12
heather@yolorcd.org