Safe, healthy and happy Thanksgiving
A chicken on every lot
Raising backyard chickens for food and fun was the highlight of a Contra Costa Times story published over the weekend that was based on a Point Reyes Station 4-H workshop held last week.
UC Cooperative Extension Marin County director Ellen Rilla told reporter Rob Rogers that the growing interest in chickens seems to be tied to enthusiasm for the "slow food" movement, which embraces traditional methods of producing food.
"I think a lot of people have become interested in local food production," Rilla was quoted. "People like to know where their food is coming from."
The chickens were said to be productive - each generating about an egg a day - plus easy to care for and entertaining. Workshop participants learned that feeding chickens oyster shells provides calcium for their own egg shells and that chicken's egg color can be judged by their earlobes. (Earlobes? I'm skeptical.)
Another bit of practical information came from workshop speaker John Pellham of Western Farm Center in Santa Rosa.
"My advice is don't name your chickens," the story quoted Pellham. "Things happen to them. It's hard, but that's part of nature."
I wish I had heard that word of warning before bringing home a chicken as a family pet (and for organic snail control.) "Amber" drowned in a neighbor's pool just a few weeks later.
4-H chicken project.
The making of a blueberry story
Los Angeles Times freelance writer David Karp sent a response today to last week's ANR News Blog post about his May 27 blueberry production story. The nicely written article covered the introduction of a crop usually associated with the Northwest, Michigan and Maine into California; it didn't go into UC's role.
Karp wrote in his e-mail that he agonized over what to include in the article, given the amount of space he would have in the newspaper. He interviewed more than 40 sources, but only had room to cite two.
"If I had room to cite the contribution of three or four persons, and explain what they did, I would certainly have cited (UC Small Farm Program farm advisors) Manuel (Jimenez) and Mark (Gaskell)," Karp wrote. "I'm quite aware of their very substantial contributions to California's blueberry industry."
Karp mentioned that he spent two months of his life and thousands of dollars of his own money to research the article because, "I'm passionate about writing about fruit only when I really know what I'm talking about."
In conclusion, he said, "I apologize to Manuel (Jimenez) and Mark (Gaskell), Ben (Faber) and Gary (Bender) and others, but I'd like to think that they understand that in telling a shortened version of the full story for a newspaper, writers face difficult choices."
Mo' better blues
On Saturday, the Fresno Bee published its take on the Valley's burgeoning blueberry industry. Writer Robert Rodriguez, well acquainted with UC Cooperative Extension, spoke to farm advisor Manuel Jimenez for perspective on producing a crop whose value climbed from zero at $30 million in less than 10 years. Jimenez's home county, Tulare, is the state's leading grower, producing a blueberry crop valued at $17 million.
"We have nearly every level of production right now from small plots to large commercial plantings of more than 1,000 acres," the Bee story quoted Jimenez.
Rodriguez noted that Valley farmers have spent years researching and experimenting with different varieties to find the ones best suited to the region's climate and soils, "with Jimenez's help."
Jimenez holds annual blueberry meetings at the UC Kearney Research and Extension Center near Parlier to discuss new varieties and growing methods.
"But it's not easy having those field days, because growers don't always want to share," Jimenez was quoted.
Blueberry field day.
Capital Press gets it right
I'm not sure about writer Cecelia Parsons' opening analogy - the "blue wave" cresting and growers "still putting their boards in the water" - but her article in Capital Press about last week's blueberry field day at the UC Kearney Research and Extension Center did hit all the important points.
Now that blueberry production in the Central Valley has been underway for the better part of a decade, and many growers have invested heavily to coax the healthful fruit out of the Valley's uncooperative alkaline soil, folks are starting to wonder what to do with what is beginning to look like a more than abundant crop.
A speaker at the blueberry field day - Mark Villata, executive director of the U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council - said its time to build on blueberry's healthful image to increase consumption, the article said. In the West, only 42 percent of consumers reported buying blueberries, compared with 58 percent in the Northeast. Ideas for new uses, ranging from pet food to cosmetics, were also raised.
Parsons noted in her story that UC Cooperative Extension small farm advisor Manuel Jimenez pioneered some of the early blueberry trials in California. She mentioned that Jimenez organized the field day and showed visitors some of the successes and challenges with blueberry plants growing at Kearney.
Jimenez speaks at a blueberry field day.
Another mission for the winged wonder
Farmers may wish to welcome bats to their agricultural fields. Genetic testing of bat scat proves they eat the menacing pest coddling moth, according to an Ag Alert article published in the Woodland Daily Democrat.
Rachel Long, University of California Cooperative Extension farm advisor in Yolo County, is studying bats' diets to ascertain their role in combating insect pests in agriculture. She captures the winged rodents and keeps them until she can collect their guano for analysis.
"We just have one year under our belts, and so we don't have much data at all. But we do know that bats are feeding on codling moths because the test shows genetically that the fecal pellets are positive for codling moth," Long was quoted.
Their preferred abode may be a batcave, but farmers can attract the flying mammals by offering a place to live.
"There are growers that put up bat houses on their farms just to bring in bats," Long was quoted in the article.
Long also eased concerns about the common misconception that bats carry diseases such as rabies.
"The incidence of rabies in bats is no higher than skunks, or raccoons or dogs," Long was quoted. "If you have unvaccinated cats or dogs running around the shop or a barn, then it's not a good idea to have a bat house right there because any bat that falls out is likely to be sick."
Long offers some advice for building a bat house in her article, Use of Bats to Enhance Insect Pest Control (pdf).
Bat in flight.