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Postharvest Center: New research focus and outreach
Still providing the world with top-notch information
UC Davis has been a leading source of information for people handling, packaging and transporting crops since the beginnings of the Postharvest Research and Extension Center in 1979. Now, the center is strengthening its focus on the needs of industry, offering fresh courses, weaving strategic partnerships and expanding into digital media, all while building up its research capacity to better serve the needs of the produce industry.
“We're asking people in the industry, ‘How can we support you? How can we better listen to you?' We want people to know we're not disconnected know-it-alls,” said new center co-director Bárbara Blanco-Ulate, an associate professor in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences. “We're getting more faculty involvement, people with expertise in related fields such as quality engineering and safety, as well as bringing in emeriti faculty and people from around California. We're forming partnerships with organizations around the world, and we've opened up to people from other institutions around the country.”
“The larger the network, the more things we can do,” added fellow co-director Irwin R. Donis-Gonzalez, an associate professor of UC Cooperative Extension in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering.
The foundation: Expanded research
The new co-directors will beef up the center's applied science component with the hiring of a research specialist. They aim to provide new information that can be used industry-wide as companies explore new ways to handle and store fresh produce.
“We're building the capacity to respond to industry requests for research,” Blanco-Ulate said.
New courses, national reach
Their first workshop, held recently, demonstrates the center's renewed vision and commitment to broad networking: The Agricultural Water Systems Workshop addressed current concerns around water management and risks to food safety. Partners in the course included the Western Growers Association, the University of Arizona, the University of Florida and Salinas-based Taylor Fresh Foods, Inc.
Courses given over the past several years that have been recorded will be posted to the center's new, online video library and to the center's YouTube channel.
“People can watch those courses for free,” Blanco-Ulate said. In addition, new courses will be offered in-person and hybrid.
The co-directors are working with the University of California to offer continuing and professional education credits to course participants.
Online resources – many for free!
The center's website features a database with scores of free product fact sheets, which are downloaded by users around the world. The fact sheets are so highly regarded that they are considered expert evidence in legal proceedings, Blanco-Ulate said. Visitors to the website can also find links to research papers published by UC Davis faculty, including seminal works by Adel Kader, who founded the center.
Books are offered through the center's online bookstore and include titles through UC Agriculture and Natural Resources. Ten new titles are being planned, including topic-specific updates taken from previous classics.
Debunking myths: Ethylene
A new newsletter deals with a new problem: Misinformation about food and food handling that spreads through social media. One example is the use of ethylene to ripen produce such as bananas, so that they can be safely stored until ready for the consumer.
“Ethylene is safe for humans and does not leave any harmful residue on produce,” Donis-Gonzalez wrote in the center's latest newsletter. Even better news, he added: The levels of ethylene used on food are a tiny fraction of the concentrations that would be needed to create an explosion, one of the false alarms being raised in social media.
Evolving with the times
After 47 years of service, these and more updates will keep the center at the forefront of an evolving postharvest world. The top goal: Meet the needs of agriculturalists, industry and consumers.
“We are adapting to new needs, with both the resources and the workshop we're offering,” Donis-Gonzalez said.
“As a land-grant institution, we take our outreach mission seriously,” Blanco-Ulate added.
Related links
More about the UC Davis Postharvest Research and Extension Center.
This story first appeared on the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences site.
/h3>/h3>/h3>/h3>/h3>/h3>/h3>West Side REC study: A cradle of California regenerative agriculture
In 20-year study, UCCE specialist Mitchell, colleagues, growers advance no-till and cover cropping practices
In the 1990s, long before “regenerative agriculture” was a buzzword and “soil health” became a cause célèbre, a young graduate student named Jeff Mitchell first learned about similar concepts during an agronomy meeting in the Deep South.
Mitchell was astonished to hear a long list of benefits attributed to practices known internationally as “conservation agriculture” – eliminating or reducing tillage, cover cropping and preserving surface residues (the plant debris left after harvest). Potential positive impacts include decreasing dust in the air, saving farmers money on fuel and equipment maintenance, improving soil vitality and water dynamics and a host of other ecosystem services.
“All of these things start adding up and you kind of scratch your head and say, ‘Well, maybe we ought to try some of this,'” recalled Mitchell, who became a University of California Cooperative Extension cropping systems specialist at UC Davis in 1994.
In 1998, Mitchell launched a long-term study of those practices at the West Side Research and Extension Center (REC) in Five Points, Fresno County. “We started this because, way back when I first began my job, nobody was doing this,” he explained. “This was brand-new, uncharted territory for California.”
For the next 20 years, Mitchell and his colleagues studied changes to the soil and ecosystem, learned from their failures and successes, and shared those hard-won lessons with fellow scientists and farmers across the state. A summary of their findings was recently published in the journal California Agriculture.
Conservation agriculture in California: ‘No trivial undertaking'
Mitchell and the Conservation Agriculture Systems Innovation Workgroup – a network established in 1998 comprising farmers, researchers, public agency personnel and members of private entities and environmental groups – started with a virtually blank slate. According to Mitchell, surveys at the beginning of the 21st century found that conservation agriculture practices were used on less than one-half of 1% of annual crop acreage in California.
Although no-till is common in the Midwest and Southeast of the U.S. and across wide swaths of the globe, it was almost unheard of in the Golden State. With the development of irrigation infrastructure in the 1920s, California farmers saw continually phenomenal growth in yield over the last century – and thus had little incentive to deviate from tried-and-true methods that relied on regular tillage.
Nevertheless, intrigued by the potential benefits of conservation agriculture, Mitchell wanted to see which of those practices could be feasibly applied to California cropping systems. During the 20-year study at West Side REC, the researchers grew a rotation of cotton-tomato, followed by a rotation of garbanzo, melons, and sorghum, and finally tomatoes.
But at first, it was a struggle to grow anything at all – as they had to master the basics of how to establish the plants in a no-till, high-residue system.
“This was no trivial undertaking,” Mitchell said. “Early on we struggled – we failed the first couple of years because we didn't know the planting techniques and we had to learn those. There was an upfront, very steep learning curve that we had to manage and overcome.”
Then there was the long wait to see any measurable improvements to soil health indicators, such as the amount carbon in the soil.
“For the first eight years, we didn't see any changes whatsoever,” Mitchell said. “But then they became strikingly different, between the no-till cover crop system and the conventional field without cover crops, and the divergence between those two systems became even starker.”
The two-decade time horizon for the West Side REC study is one major reason why it has been so valuable for growers and scientists alike.
“It's so hard to capture measurable changes in soil health and soil function metrics through research because those changes are really slow,” said Sarah Light, UCCE agronomy farm advisor for Sutter, Yuba and Colusa counties and a co-author of the recent California Agriculture paper. “Often in the course of a three-year grant you don't actually get statistically significant differences.”
Reaching, teaching and learning from farmers
The study site on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley also has been a vital teaching resource. Even though Light works with farmers in the Sacramento Valley, she has conveyed findings from that research with her clientele and uses soil samples from the site to vividly illustrate a significant benefit of conservation agriculture practices.
In one demonstration, she drops soil aggregates – which look like clumps of soil – into two containers of water. One clump, from heavily tilled land, falls apart quickly and the water becomes dark and murky. The other, comprised of soil that has been no-till and cover cropped for 20 years, holds together – a sign of healthy, resilient soil – and the water remains relatively clear.
“It's a really simple demo, but it's very effective because it shows how easily soil aggregates break apart with water – or not,” Light said.
That aggregate stability is a key factor in soil's ability to both move water (infiltration) and hold onto water (retention). Those dynamics are crucial for farmers to avoid ponding in their fields, preserve water for drier months, and generally endure the flood/drought whiplash of climate change.
Over the years, Mitchell has hosted thousands of visitors at the West Side REC study site to showcase the potential benefits of adopting soil-health management practices.
“I don't think I'm exaggerating in saying that this is probably the most-visited agricultural field station project in the history of UC ANR (UC Agriculture and Natural Resources),” he said.
Both the West Side REC – and Mitchell himself – are greatly valued by the local grower community.
“Jeff is a microcosm of the university's applied research on the West Side of the San Joaquin Valley,” said John Diener, who grows almonds, fresh market garlic, canning tomatoes, cotton, masa corn and wheat for production and seed on land adjacent to the field station.
Growers adopt, adapt and adjust practices
Tom Willey, a retired farmer and longtime collaborator with Mitchell, has actively encouraged peers to visit the Five Points site – especially in the early years.
“It was very innovative and there weren't many examples of that anywhere in the state,” Willey said. “So, I helped encourage people to go out there and learn and possibly think about doing similar work on their own farms.”
Willey himself was a pioneer in experimenting with no-till practices in organic vegetable cropping systems.
“As organic farmers, we were probably more tillage dependent than conventional farmers because it was the only method we had for weed control; we weren't able to use herbicides,” Willey said.
Despite early struggles, he persisted in trying different techniques and mechanical means of weeding. And Willey later partnered with a group of progressive vegetable growers and UC and California State University Chico personnel to secure a Conservation Innovation Grant from the Natural Resources Conservation Service to support more on-farm trials and share their experiences.
In the end, however, no-till proved too risky to continue, given the losses they incurred. One tricky issue is nutrient cycling. The organic growers found that after mowing down a cover crop and spreading compost, leaving those nutrients on the surface without incorporating into the soil through more vigorous tilling (or adding synthetic fertilizers, as conventional growers could do) results in lower yields. In the short term, farmers simply did not see yields that could sustain their operation.
“It's very difficult in vegetable systems, and particularly difficult in organic vegetable systems,” Willey said. “I would say a number of us have learned to diminish the over-reliance that we had on tillage, but not to completely eliminate it.”
Cover cropping is also a challenge for some farmers, with certain cover crops making a perfect haven for devastating pests such as lygus bugs and stink bugs, according to Diener.
“We do everything we can to eliminate the host crop from which they come, so why am I going to bring the enemies to my house?” he said. “It's about making enough money to be there next year. You're not going to be there next year with these pests. It's just not a practical management option, in light of our significant pest pressure and disease hosts for our crops of value.”
Instead of planting cover crops, Diener said he opts for mixing in grain crops that can similarly contribute to soil health – while generating revenue at the same time. According to Diener, a longtime collaborator with Mitchell, the best way to adopt conservation agriculture practices is to tailor them to specific localities and each grower's circumstances. And in his corner of the San Joaquin Valley, that means not following the template of the high-precipitation, no-till systems found in the Midwest.
“We've adapted Jeff's principles to our program; it won't look like Iowa to you, which is what everybody comes to expect to see. It ain't how it works, folks,” Diener said. “It's a different methodology. We do those things that fit our environment and that's why that West Side field station is important – because it's our environment.”
Promoting and enhancing soil health, one step at a time
More widespread adoption of soil-health management practices can be driven by a variety of factors. With the rise of drip irrigation in tomatoes, for example, more growers began using no-till or reduced till to minimize disruptions to the delicate driptape in their fields.
And, according to Mitchell, the dramatic increase in no-till practices in dairy silage production – from less than 1% to over 40% – was the result of entrepreneurial efforts by a small but extraordinarily dedicated group from the private sector that worked with farmers, one by one.
Because optimizing these practices requires close and intensive attention – and no small amount of courage and gumption – Mitchell and Light understand that growers might need to take an incremental approach. Even one fewer pass over the field, or cover cropping every other year, can provide some benefit for soil health, Light said.
“The value is that when you can prove the concept, then you can motivate every step of the way,” Light explained. “Jeff is showing the shining light of the goalposts, and that can motivate us to take every challenging step along the way.”
Shannon Cappellazzi, who helped with the data analysis on the recently published California Agriculture paper, agrees that there is value in taking a stepwise approach in building soil health.
Cappellazzi was the lead project scientist on the Soil Health Institute's North American Project to Evaluate Soil Health Measurements, which looked at 124 different long-term soil research sites across the continent – including the Five Points site.
After analyzing 2,000 samples from the various study sites, Cappellazzi said the evidence suggests that layering on each component of a conservation agriculture program – doing no-till, adding cover crops and then integrating livestock, for example – can have additive, cumulative benefits for soil health.
“I think having the data to show the long-term benefit makes people willing to do the short-term change, even if it's a little bit hard for a couple years,” Cappellazzi said.
The research at the West Side REC also produced another key takeaway.
“To me, what really stood out was that for most of the soil health indicators, cover crops had a huge impact. Both the cover crops that had no till – and the cover crops that had standard tillage – had considerably higher carbon and soil health indicator measurements than those without cover crops,” said Cappellazzi. She added that the data also indicated improvements in how the water moved into the soil, and how the soil held that water.
Vital research drives an enduring legacy
Water management and conservation, of course, will be paramount in California's increasingly volatile climate reality. Mitchell's Five Points research – and related studies across the San Joaquin Valley by UC Davis agroecologist Amélie Gaudin and others – contributed data that overturned a long-held belief about winter cover cropping.
“There's a lot of preconceived ideas about cover crop water use,” Mitchell said. “One of the things that we learned was that compared to bare soil water loss in the wintertime, cover crop water loss during that same growing period – from about November through March – tends to be almost a wash.”
That crucial finding provided researchers and soil health advocates with invaluable evidence to preserve the practice as an option for farmers.
“They've needed to go around and give a dog-and-pony show to a lot of Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSA) that had been on the brink of banning the growing of cover crops because the perception out there is that they use a lot of water,” said Willey, the retired vegetable grower. “But over the winter months, cover crops don't use a lot of water. In fact, they may not use any net water at all.”
The young researchers who studied cover-crop water use represent another important legacy of the Five Points study site. It has been an experiential training ground for many of the next generation of soil scientists, agronomists and ecologists.
“The number of students who have been trained by and through this study has been really phenomenal,” said Mitchell, noting that they have worked on topics ranging from air quality to soil carbon related to no-till and cover cropping.
Their contributions will be essential in continuing to refine and optimize these practices that are fundamental to conservation agriculture. On Diener's concerns about lygus bugs and stink bugs, for example, Cappellazzi – in her new role as director of research at GO Seed – is studying and breeding cover crops with an eye on characteristics that make for less hospitable habitats for certain pests.
Indeed, while the California Agriculture paper effectively wraps up the 20-year study at Five Points, its lessons will continue to resonate and inspire for years to come.
“This is a step in a long journey,” Light said. “It's a launchpad – this paper might be able to tie a bow on it in terms of the data collection, but in terms of the extension impact, this is really just the beginning.”
And for Willey, the omnipresent climate crisis compels the entire sector to pick up the pace along that journey.
“We've got a lot of pressure now to evolve agriculture very rapidly in response to climate change and I don't think we can sit around and twiddle our thumbs,” he said. “We know the directions we need to be heading – with more natural systems mimicry and less reliance on toxic inputs and synthetic fertilizers – and we need to figure out how to incentivize and support farmers in moving in those directions.”
/h3>/h3>/h3>/h3>/h3>/h3>Controlled environment agriculture courses offered online
UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education and The VINE launch indoor farming classes
A new, comprehensive and advanced learning experience in indoor farming is now available for growers. The VINE, an initiative of University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC ANR), and UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education have opened enrollment for their new Controlled Environment Agriculture Program. Courses begin on July 1.
Controlled environment agriculture is a technology-based method of growing plants that offers precise control over temperature, humidity, light, carbon dioxide and air circulation. CEA can take place in greenhouses, indoor vertical farms or hydroponic farms.
"Unpredictable and extreme weather, pests and growing demand for year-round, local produce are driving growers to move crop production indoors,” said Gabe Youtsey, UC ANR chief innovation officer and co-founder of the VINE.
The CEA Program is designed to impart a deep understanding of both the scientific and practical aspects of indoor farming. The series of four detailed courses, designed to be completed in less than a year, are offered through a flexible online platform. This program is suitable for a wide range of professionals from various sectors including farming operations managers, horticulturists, indoor farming specialists, early-career agriculture professionals, and those in related fields.
"As the agricultural sector evolves, our CEA Program aims to provide the foundational knowledge and practical skills crucial for success in controlled environment agriculture," said Youtsey. "We are preparing participants to effectively manage and innovate within their own agricultural practices."
Participants in the program will receive instruction from international experts in controlled environment agriculture. The curriculum includes an exploration of various business models in CEA, optimal crop selection for different environments, and effective strategies for managing pests and diseases. Additionally, it covers the application of data to enhance growing conditions and profitability, as well as best practices for ensuring product safety and quality.
"Students in this program will gain a deeper understanding of the operational aspects of indoor farming and how they can apply this knowledge to real-world scenarios," said Jennifer Greenier, Ph.D., UC Davis Life Sciences Workforce Development director. "We are committed to providing educational pathways that nurture the skills necessary for advancing career opportunities in agriculture."
The Controlled Environment Agriculture Program is structured around four core courses, each designed to build specific skills and knowledge essential for success in indoor farming:
- Introduction to CEA – Fundamentals of indoor farming, business models, and technological advancements.
- Plant Production in Indoor Farming – Planning and implementing effective operations, understanding plant physiology, and nutrition management.
- Postharvest Processes: Ensuring Crop Quality and Safety in CEA – Food safety, proper storage, distribution, and marketing strategies.
- Data-driven Growing – Developing data management skills and optimizing operations through data analytics.
Individual course fees are $1,000 to $2,000 and the full CEA Program is priced at $6,000. Completely online, the courses are accessible to professionals both domestic and international.
To attend an informational session on June 6, visit https://bit.ly/IndoorAginfo. For additional details, visit the UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education website: https://cpe.ucdavis.edu/subject-areas/controlled-environment-agriculture.
New UC study estimates costs for growing coastal organic strawberries
![Organic strawberry field showing mulched raised beds with weeds growing between the beds. Berries not visible. Organic strawberry field showing mulched raised beds with weeds growing between the beds. Berries not visible.](http://ucanr.edu/blogs/food/blogfiles/106868.jpg)
A new study that can help growers and other readers estimate costs and potential returns for Central Coast organic strawberries was recently released by UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, UC Cooperative Extension and the UC Davis Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
“This study provides growers with a baseline to estimate their own costs, which can help when applying for production loans, projecting labor costs, securing market arrangements, or understanding costs associated with water and nutrient management and regulatory programs,” said Brittney Goodrich, UC Cooperative Extension specialist and study co-author.
The cost study models a management scenario for a 30-acre farm, 27 acres of which are planted to organic strawberries. The remaining acres are for the irrigation system, roads, and buildings. The study describes the cultural practices used in organic strawberry production and harvest, including land preparation, soil fertility and pest management, irrigation and labor needs.
The 20-page study shows costs for each operation, material inputs and costs, and cash and non-cash overhead costs in a variety of formats for one production and harvest cycle. A ranging analysis is also included and shows potential profits or losses over a range of prices and yields.
The new study, “2024 Sample Costs to Produce and Harvest Organic Strawberries,” can be downloaded from the UC Davis Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics website at https://coststudies.ucdavis.edu.
For a detailed explanation of the assumptions and calculations used to estimate the costs and potential returns for each crop, readers can refer to the narrative portion of each study.
Sample cost of production studies for many other commodities grown in California are also available at https://coststudies.ucdavis.edu.
For more information about the organic strawberry cost study, contact Mark Bolda, University of California Cooperative Extension farm advisor, at mpbolda@ucanr.eduor Jeremy Murdock in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at jmmurdock@ucdavis.edu.
Personas sin hogar cultivan alimentos y una mejor salud en albergue del condado de Alameda
La conversión de un viejo jardín de flores en un huerto de verduras ha dado un nuevo significado a la vida de varias personas sin hogar que, con orgullo, cultivan y cosechan las verduras que complementan las comidas con las que ellos y sus compañeros de un albergue del condado de Alameda, se alimentan.
Comer frutas y verduras es algo casi inexistente para la mayoría de las personas que viven en condiciones de calle.
Por ello, pensando en la salud de estas personas, el equipo del programa CalFresh Healthy Living de Extensión Cooperativa de UC en el condado de Alameda se asoció con el Proyecto para Indigenes South County para cultivar frutas y verduras para las personas que se alojan en las viviendas de emergencia de Hayward.
Y para muchos de ellos el cultivar sus propios alimentos se ha convertido en una tarea de aprendizaje y buena nutrición.
"Me encanta el huerto y cuando cocinamos las verduras, saben increíble”, expresó entusiasmado uno de los residentes. “Estoy agradecido de contar con este huerto y por el equipo de CalFresh Healthy Living”.
El Proyecto para Indigentes de South County da alojamiento a 24 personas por un periodo de hasta un año. Con la ayuda de CalFresh Healthy Living, el equipo de Extensión Cooperativa de UC, el jardín existente fue restaurado y rediseñado. Ahora el huerto grande del exterior ubicado detrás de las instalaciones les ofrece a los residentes la oportunidad de practicar una jardinería terapéutica y aportar alimentos para sus comidas.
Durante los últimos siete años, CalFresh Healthy Living de UCCE de Alameda ha ofrecido lecciones sobre nutrición a los residents del Proyecto para Indigentes de South County, el cual es parte de Building Opportunities for Self Sufficiency (Construyendo Oportunidades para la Autosuficiencia). Las clases incluyen los temas Rethink Your Drink (Piensa dos veces tu bebida), Food Safety (Seguridad alimentaria), Making Every Dollar Count (Que cada dolar cuente), Eat Healthy Be Active Community Workshops (Talleres comunitarios come saludable y mantiene activo) y Fresh from the Garden(Fresco desde el jardín).
En un tiempo, el patio trasero del Proyecto Para Indigenas de South County tenía un jardín de flores, pero después de varios años de negligencia, las malezas se apoderaron de él.
En el 2022, CalFresh Healthy Living de UCCE Alameda propuso que los residents participaran en el cultivo de alimentos lo cual le trajo vida de nuevo al jardín con plantas comestibles.
Se cultivan més de 15 variedades de hierbas y verduras
Los residentes y personal se propusieron reemplazar las malezas con un huerto de verduras y hierbas y lo lograron.
“Trabajamos con el personal y residentes de South County en el diseño, limpieza, cultivo y finalmente la incorporación de los alimentos de huerto en la cocina para que los residentes disfrutaran de los frutos de su trabajo”, señaló Fairbee.
Para ofrecer apoyo y experiencia en huertos, Fairbee invitó al equipo del Huerto Comunitario del Condado de Alameda del programa Maestro de Jardineros de UC. Mientras que el personal de CalFresh Healthy Living de UCCE continuó ofreciendo las clases sobre nutrición, los voluntarios de Maestro de Jardineros de UC capacitaron a los residentes sobre conceptos básicos de jardineria.
En abril, después de las fuertes lluvias, el grupo plantó 50 semilleros, la mitad de los cuales fueron donados por Maestro de Jardineros de UC. Plantaron dos variedades de lechuga, arugula, cuatro variedades de tomates, calabaza zucchini, col rizada, cebollas, pepinos, ejotes, acelgas, albahaca, cilantro, estragon, tomillo, perejil, romero, orégano y yerbabuena.
Del huerto a la mesa
“En mayo cosechamos lechuga y en junio, ejotes, pepinos, col rizada y cebollas”, indicó Fairbee.
Las verduras y hierbas frescas se usaron para preparar ensaladas, sándwiches y platillos con pasta para los residentes. Fairbee y otros educadores han usado los productos frescos para hacer demostraciones de cocina y degustaciones como parte de su clase Fresco del huerto.
"Hemos podido usar muchas de las verduras como platillos de acompañamiento o en ensaladas", manifestó uno de los cocineros del Proyecto para Indigentes South County.
"¡Uno de los chefs usó la calabaza zucchini en salsa para pasta, estaba muy buena! No sabia que se podía usar de esa manera!", dijo un residente del lugar.
Después de probar la calabaza de verano y gazpacho preparado con tomates del huerto, Selina una residente de South County, expresó: "Me sorprendió lo bueno que sabe la calabaza de verano cruda y cómo el sabor fue diferente después de concinarla. Definitivamente voy a agregar más zucchini a mi plato".
Los desafíos para poder mantener el huerto funcionando
Para mantener saludable el huerto, los encargados se enfrentan a la competencia de los caracoles, babosas y áfidos que devoran las plantas y los gatos que escarban en el suelo. Debido a que la fuente de agua se encuentra a 200 pies del huerto, extienden un manguera bien larga a lo largo del camino principal en el estacionamiento para regar las plantas y luego la quitan, la doblan y la guardan adentro después de cada uso para que no se la roben.
Otro desafío para mantene el huerto es contar con suficientes residentes y personal que quieran trabajar allí de manera voluntaria.
“No obstante que el personal apoya el huerto, ninguno tiene tiempo para trabajar en él”, señaló Fairbee.
Los residents recogen, lavan y guardan los productos en la cocina. Solo cuatro o seis de los 24 residentes se interesan en trabajar en el huerto, sacando maleza y protegiendo las plantas de las plagas – la mayoría se enfoca en encontrar un nuevo empleo y una casa. Los residents de South County usualmene se van de la vivienda temporal a los pocos meses de haber llegado.
Para contar con un mantenimiento del huerto más constante, Fairbee está en busca de voluntarios entre grupos los comunitarios. También espera persuadir al gobierno del condado para que instale una llave de paso cercana al huerto para poder instalar un sistema de riego por goteto.
“Nos gustaría trabajar con el programa Maestro de Conservadores de Alimentos para enseñarles a los residentes a preservar hierbas y verduras”, dijo Fairbee.
El experto espera que los residentes de South County continúen practicando la jardinería en sus nuevas residencias para cultivar verduras frescas y puedan disfrutar de una dieta nutritiva y una mejor salud.
Mas allá de los alimentos frescos, los residents y el personal del Proyecto para Indigenas South County disfrutan del ambiente del huerto.
"Es realmente ir allí y solo sentarse, es muy pacífico", indicó un miembro del personal.
Uno de los residentes agregó, "(El huerto) me relaja del estrés. Me encanta el huerto".
Adaptado al español por Leticia Irigoyen del artículo en inglés. Editado para su publicación por Diana Cervantes.