grown, well-cared-for, tasty mandarins, particularlyduring thisCOVID-19period, has really exploded,” he said. At his farm, “everybody’s working 10-12 hours a day just to keep up right now. It’s been a very, very good season and continues to be.” Along with his harvesting and pack- ing crews, Colwell named the U.S. Postal Service as a hero of the harvest season. On one recent December morning, Colwell shipped 82 boxes of mandarins in the morning, addressed to customers around thecountry, andhad15 to20more ready to go in the afternoon. Shipments of 5- or 10-pound boxes have gone up “by an order of magnitude this year,” he said, compared to 2019. “They’re being inundated with orders that are going out, and they’re keeping up with them,” Colwell said of the post office. Colwell runs one of 40 to 50 family mandarin farms in Placer County, east of Sacramento. Placer’s mandarin farmers handle their own packing, he noted. “We have a very personal touch, very close relationship with the trees,” he said. “We planted themourselves. We nurture themourselves.Weprune themourselves, andwe pick themwith crews ourselves.” Most of the California mandarin crop goes into retail channels, Creamer said, whereuncertaintyandchangingshopping habits brought on by the pandemic await. “Whoknowswhat thenewnormal isgo- ing to be?” he said. “We anticipate a good, strongmarket overall for thecitrus catego- ry, but the future, what that holds, is really, really uncertain.” Mandarins Continued from Page 1
aproductionforecast remainsat least three years down the road. Cooler weather of late has been a boon to the crop, Creamer said. “I would say this latest spell of cold, wet weather early in the harvest seasonhas re- allyhelpedcolorupthefruitoverall,”hesaid. Cooler weather “hardens the rind,” he added. “It just helps the fruit sort of set, helpswiththebrix-to-acidratio”andhelps the crop hold on the tree longer. “We’re a little bit different crop than most,” Creamer said. “The crop can be ready, but it can still hold andmature on the tree and get more sizing and improve quality. Having that coldweather early on reallyhelps that fruit hold longer and taste better for a longer period of time.” Creamer said he’s looking forward to a goodseason for farmers, “because frankly, the last couple of years have been pretty difficultoncitrusgrowers, as faras returns.” “I’m hoping for a really good year,” he said, “to really help our growers get back toamarket that they canbeprofitable and productiveandcontinue theiroperations.” (Kevin Hecteman i s an ass i stant editor of Ag Alert. He may be contacted at khecteman@cfbf.com.)
An employee packs mandarins in Rich Colwell’s packinghouse in Penryn. Colwell and his fellow Placer County mandarin growers handle their own packing and shipping.
Harvest season typically starts the first week of November and runs through mid-January for Satsuma mandarins, said Colwell, who was harvesting Owari Satsumas last week. Orchards with late-season fruit such as Nuggets or Clementines might go another month or so beyond that, he added. Aspartof thegreaterSacramentoregion, Placer Countywas placed into a newpan- demic lockdown under state guidelines earlier this month. Colwell said he’s seen an increase in on-site orchard-store sales, noting that this is where most growers in his area do best. “I think the consumers believe that it’s much safer to come out to the ranches,” saidColwell, noting that precautions such as social distancing andmaskwearing are in place. “It’s a getaway for them, particu- larly now that we’re going to experience another lockdown inCalifornia.” Committeeandtobecomeavotingmember of the stateFarmBureauboard. Delegates returned seven incumbent members to the board: Andy Wilson of Riverside, representing Riverside, San Bernardino and Inyo-Mono counties; Richard Bianchi of Hollister, represent- ing Monterey, San Benito and San Luis Obispo counties; Jan Garrod of Saratoga, representing SanMateo, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties; Paul Sanguinetti of Stockton, representing Calaveras and San Joaquin counties; KenMitchell of Elk Grove, representing Amador, El Dorado, Placer and Sacramento counties; David Rosenthal of Middletown, represent- ing Lake and Mendocino counties; and JimMorris of Etna, representing Shasta, Siskiyou, Tehama and Trinity counties. Johansson, Douglass and Crook will serve as delegates to the American Farm Bureau Federation’s virtual Annual Conventionnextmonth. Delegates to theCaliforniaFarmBureau meeting also confirmed Garden Grove as thesite for theorganization’s103rdAnnual Meeting, scheduled for Dec. 5-8, 2021. (Kevin Hecteman i s an ass i stant editor of Ag Alert. He may be contacted at khecteman@cfbf.com.)
Colwell’s farm stands among the 166 acres of Placer County farmland planted tomandarins in2020, according to theU.S. Department of Agriculture. The state has 63,809acres ofmandarins this year, USDA reported; TulareCounty leads thewaywith nearly 24,000 acres. Earlier this year, the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service conducted its firstMandarinObjectiveMeasurement Survey, covering seven counties from Fresno to Imperial. The survey found an average of 945mandarins per tree among the 271 trees sampled, with an average size of 1.49 inches in diameter. USDA said
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Delegates Continued from Page 3
ing process, with others to be taken up at next year’s AnnualMeeting. “Thank you all for your patience so far ina very interesting year,”Douglass said to thedelegates, “andwereallyhopeweget to see you in person soon to talk face to face about these policies.” Johansson acknowledged the try- ing circumstances but pointed to Farm Bureau’s resiliency. “We know that this year and social dis- tancing have made policy deliberation quite difficult,” he said. “The silver lining, however, is that we have over 100 years of policy todirect staff toadvocate in thebest collective interest of you and the agricul- tural community.” The delegates conducted elections for the California Farm Bureau Board of Directors, electing three new members to the board: KevinMerrill of Los Alamos will represent Santa Barbara and Ventura counties; Joey Airoso of Tiptonwill repre- sent Tulare County; and Garrett Driver of Woodland will represent Colusa, Glenn and Yolo counties. LindseyMebaneofBakersfieldwaselect- edtochairtheYoungFarmersandRanchers
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December 16, 2020 Ag Alert 11
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