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Kulwant Johl’s orchards have produced peaches
for more than three decades.
Family heritage Johl’s grandfather, Nand Singh Johl, moved from India to Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1906. From there, he moved to Bellingham, Wash., then to California, where he and four fellow Indian immigrants worked in railroad construction. “That’s how he reached Yuba City,” Johl said. When the five friends arrived, “a farmer asked if they wanted towork for him—he could give them yearlong work and a place to stay,” Johl said. “He and those other four guys, they were the first Indians in Yuba City.”
Life’s a peach Many a pie gets its start in Kulwant Johl’s orchard
Story by Kevin Hecteman • Photo by Ching Lee
Another successful growing season for Yuba County farmer Kulwant Johl is in the can—as in, the can of peaches youmight have picked up at the store the other day. Johl grows peaches for canning, as well as walnuts, in his orchards along Highway 70 north of Marysville. His family has been farming in California for 96 years; Johl bought the property he’s farming now in 1987 and has been growing peaches there nearly as long. He serves on the board of the Yuba-Sutter Farm Bureau and was its president from 2006-09. Most canning peaches are of the clingstone variety, meaning the fruit tends to cling to the pit. (The fresh peaches you bought last summer were likely freestone peaches, which more easily separate from the pit.) Johl’s orchards number among the 16,000 acres of clingstone peaches grown in California in 2018, according to the state Department of Food and Agriculture.
Making the grade A clingstone peach’s first stop after harvest is a receiving station, where U.S. Department of Agriculture employees inspect the fruit and assign a grade. That could be Fancy, Extra No. 1, No. 1 or No. 2, depending on its condition upon arrival. Next stop is the cannery—and processors don’t waste any time. “Canning peaches will be in the can within 24 hours” of leaving the orchard, Johl said.
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January/February 2021
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