From the Fields ®
Bryan Van Groningen San Joaquin County farmer
Steven Springer Yuba County farmer
Our family is centralized in a few different crops. We sell watermelons under the Yosemite Fresh label and pumpkins under the Pamper’d Farms label. We also grow al- monds, and we have some field crops like wheat and alfalfa. And we raise beef cattle. Pumpkins were hot and heavy with harvest leading up to Halloween. We grow about 50 different varieties of pumpkins that are shipped up and down the state and as far as Utah. We harvested most of our regular, carving-size pump- kins. Our ornamental varieties that are smaller were harvested back in August, September and into October. The crop looks good. Yields are running slightly above average. The weather this past year was conducive to pumpkin production. We didn’t have too much extreme heat. Our watermelon crop was very good as well. We’re at the very tail end of watermelon harvest. Everything is done by hand labor. Our crews start with watermelon harvest in June and they continue all the way through the end of October. Pumpkins have to be handled carefully. They can’t have broken stems or scars from lying in the field. It’s like a beauty contest. We send some of our off-grade pumpkins and watermelons to our feedlot for the cattle and to some local dairies. We just finished almond harvest and are getting ready to do some postharvest ac- tivities like pruning, fertilizing and preparing the trees to go into dormancy. Our almond crop was down maybe 10% to 20%. We had some really poor pollination weather. The whole state was down, so that drove prices up, which makes up for it a little bit. We have a long season. We’re almost through it, and we’re thankful to make it through another year. We’re thankful we’ve had good weather this year and good yields in some of our crops.
I just finished my walnut harvest and started harvesting persimmons. I grow four varieties of English walnuts. Walnut harvest was a little rough. Yields were off probably 15%. The size is off, and the meat yields are down. I think the heat in the summertime and the extended bloom in the spring came back to bite us. The walnut market doesn’t sound like it’s very good. The last word I got was prices were maybe the same as last year. That isn’t enough to make it, with all the inputs being super high this year. Fertilizer prices are up, and now this fuel price right through our harvest when we’re burning the most. It adds up. The persimmon crop looks decent. I’ve got about 24 acres of persimmons, which are split pretty much evenly between the fuyu and hachiya varieties. There’s a little bit of sunburn from the heat, but overall it looks fairly decent this year. I would say yields are average. Quality is a little better in the hachiyas. I sell the persimmons right here at the ranch. I’ve had a lot of phone calls the last two weeks—people wanting me to get started. I just don’t have enough employees to do the walnuts and persimmons at the same time. I always start a little behind everybody because of my walnut harvest. I’ve got some pretty good orders through the first seven to 10 days. It looks strong right now. Our biggest customer is a wholesaler who sells the persimmons to grocery stores. Persimmon harvest will go probably through Thanksgiving. I kept my price the same as last year. I’m selling a 40-pound box of fuyu persimmons for $28 and hachiya persimmons for $24. I feel like if I raise it too much, I’ll lose some sales. You’ve got to find a happy medium between making a dollar and leaving them out on the tree.
Jim Spinetta Amador County winegrape grower
I help my brother farm 100 acres of winegrapes in Amador County. Our harvest is complete. Now it’s time to go through and fix the trailers, repaint them and wash out the bins—preventive mainte- nance. The vines are getting a nice drink of water from the rain. We’ll start pruning in January. We grow primitivo, zinfandel and barbera. What’s unique about the Italian varietals that grow really well up here in the foothills is they like the hot days and cold nights, and they also like the dry condi- tions. A lot of the vines are irrigated three times a year at the most. This year’s crop is down, which is beneficial for the industry. It will help balance the situation that we’re getting our way out of right now. We’ve been farming here since 1852. The wine industry has seen ups and downs, but it’s working itself out and getting more into balance. This year’s harvest was the earliest ever for us. We started in August and finished up weeks ago. We had favorable ripening conditions. We had a cooler summer. We didn’t have the extreme heat in our area, and it al- lowed the grapes to ripen faster. It was very favorable for quality. This is one of those excellent-quality years. The majority of the grapes here have to be handpicked because we’re on hillsides. A lot of the vines are also head-trained, so they’re not even on wire. Labor this year is extremely expensive and very hard to find. We take care of our crews like they’re family. There are three really good local farm labor con- tractors that we use for harvest. A lot of people are using more mechanization. We’re using electrical hand pruners, which are much faster and more efficient as opposed to using the old-fashioned hand pruners. It’s probably 60% faster. It’s also easier on the body and safer for the crews. And the pruning is done better because their hands and arms aren’t tired.
4 Ag Alert November 4, 2026
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