ask a farmer
A behind-the-scenes perspective
Alex Jack carries on his family’s farming legacy in the Imperial Valley.
They dig shorts weather Jack buys plant starts from a nursery in King City and usually plants from late August through mid-December and harvests from early November to early April. This cycle ensures the plants will be in the ground during the months with the ideal weather for winter vegetables—pleasantly warm. Jack compares Imperial Valley winters to those in Palm Springs. “It’s that kind of weather, where you can golf and some days still wear shorts,” he says.
Lett-uce thank the valley Farmer helps keep veggies on the table during winter
Story by Linda DuBois • Photo by Joy Kramer
North Americans can enjoy a bounty of vegetables and salad in the dead of winter, thanks in large part to farmers in the Imperial Valley desert region. Farms there grow at least two-thirds of the fresh vegetables consumed in the U.S. during the cold-weather months. One of these growers is Alex Jack, a third-generation farmer who provides the U.S. and Canada with fresh broccoli, cauliflower and lettuce from November through early April. Also through the winter, he grows greens and other vegetables for an organic juice company. During warmer months, he replants the harvested fields with wheat or Sudan grass and also grows alfalfa year-round in separate fields. His family has been farming in the valley since his grandfather started Jack Bros. farm in Brawley in 1914. After serving in World War I, he started a business, buying vegetables from farmers, driving them down to Los Angeles and selling them. After about a year, he decided he also wanted to grow his own. “When my father got out of the second World War, he took over the farming operation because my grandfather’s health was failing, and then my father ran it until 1989. Then, he handed the reins over to me,” Jack says.
Precious resource The farm aims to be “highly efficient” with water, Jack says. “My father was on the local water board. He wanted to set a good example, so he started doing water conservation measures back in the ‘70s.” He started implementing drip irrigation by the early 1980s and flattened off sloped fields to prevent runoff. Since Jack has taken over, he’s added more electronic sensors that keep the soil moisture at an optimum range, no matter what the weather does.
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January/February 2023
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