Ag Alert May 1, 2024

Ag Alert is the newspaper of the California Farm Bureau Federation, reaching Farm Bureau agricultural and collegiate members. Agricultural members are owners and decision-makers on California farms and ranches. The California Farm Bureau Federation is a non-governmental, non-profit, voluntary membership organization whose purpose is to protect and promote agricultural interests throughout the state of California and to find solutions to the problems of the farm, the farm home and the rural community. Farm Bureau is California's largest farm organization, comprised of 53 county Farm Bureaus. Farm Bureau strives to protect and improve the ability of farmers and ranchers engaged in production agriculture to provide a reliable supply of food and fiber through responsible stewardship of California's resources.

Groundwater plans Local agencies seek to correct deficiencies

Courting beans Heirloom varieties make comeback on small farm

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www.cfbf.com • www.agalert.com MAY 1, 2024

Field Crops Fruits & Vegetables

special reports

By Ching Lee To limit the spread of highly pathogen- ic H5N1 avian influenza in livestock, all lactating dairy cows must test negative for the virus before they can cross state lines under new requirements by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The federal order, which took effect Monday, excludes heifers, dry cows and bull calves. Culled cows going to slaughter that do not show signs of illness also are not required to be tested. But they will still need a certificate of veterinary inspection or approval by animal health officials from the state sending the cattle and the state receiving them. USDA issued the order last week as out- breaks of the disease have spread to 33 dairy herds in eight states—Kansas, Idaho, Michigan, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, South Dakota and Texas. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration also confirmed last week that fragments of the virus have been detected in one in five samples of retail milk, with a larger propor- tion of positive results coming from milk in areas with infected herds. Federal officials acknowledged the findings suggest the vi- rus may be more widespread than USDA’s official count. Despite the revelations, FDA continued to stress the safety of the commercial milk supply, saying that “pasteurization is very likely to effectively inactivate heat-sensi- tive viruses, like H5N1, in milk from cows and other species.” The agency also said “additional testing is required to determine whether intact pathogen is still present and if it remains infectious, which determines whether there is any risk of illness associ- ated with consuming the product.” The new testing requirements are meant to help animal health officials better un- derstand the disease and how it is being spread, USDA said. “This is an evolving situation, and we’re treating it seriously and with urgency,” Michael Watson, USDA administrator of See TESTING, Page 16 Dairy cow testing aimed at slowing bird flu outbreak

Jeff Quiter, farm manager at Hedgerow Farms in Yolo County, walks between rows of lupine and yarrow that the farm grows for seed for use in home gardens and land restoration projects. Farmers and seed companies report rising demand for wildflowers and other plants that support pollinators.

Pollinators drive home garden selections

By Caleb Hampton With plant nurseries germinating seeds for springtime garden transplants, pro- ducers and seed companies report steady supply and demand after recovering from a pandemic-time gardening boom that depleted seed inventory for some varieties. During the pandemic, “We all got a lot more customers really fast, and there were

seed shortages because no one was pre- pared for it,” said Renee Shepherd, founder of Renee’s Garden, a garden seed compa- ny based in Santa Cruz County. “I would say that that is behind us now, and most mail-order packet companies are much more well stocked.” Steve Wiley, general manager and chief operating officer at American Takii, a Monterey County subsidiary of a Japanese

seed company that serves commercial agriculture and home gardeners, said the popularity of gardening during the pan- demic helped the company compensate for a dip in sales to commercial growers. “Now it has shifted back to more of the commercial growers, but the home garden market does remain quite

See GARDENS, Page 8

n e w s p a p e r

From the Fields........................4-5 Fruits & Vegetables.................6-7 Field Crops..........................10-11 Classifieds........................... 18-19 Inside

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Farmers curb emissions while producing more food

have increased by 6.4% while the U.S. pop- ulation increased 33%, adding more than 83 million people in three decades. This means U.S. agriculture has been called upon to feed more people than ever before. When factoring in productivity and population gains, however, both per unit and per capita agricultural emissions are declining. That means U.S. agriculture is producing more food, fiber and renewable fuel for more people while using fewer re- sources and emitting fewer greenhouse gases. Additionally, the adoption of con- servation practices through voluntary, market-based incentives has helped farm- ers and ranchers trap 854 million metric tons of carbon in the soil. With conversations on a new farm bill gaining momentum, it is vital that invest- ments in conservation are maintained to assist farmers in further improving effi- ciency. Ensuring that the U.S. leads in ag- ricultural research that allows farmers and ranchers to be part of cutting-edge plant and animal technologies that increase productivity, capture more carbon in the soil and reduce livestock-related emissions even more, among many other environ- mental benefits, is also vital. The data show that when agriculture is recognized as a partner in reducing green- house gas emissions, farmers and ranchers have more opportunities to use voluntary, market-based incentives that work to re- duce agriculture’s environmental foot- print. This also helps farmers and ranchers economically produce the food, fiber and renewable fuel that U.S. families—and the world—rely on. (Daniel Munch is an economist for the American Farm Bureau Federation. He may be contacted at dmunch@fb.org. This article is adapted from his April 15 Market Intel report, which can be found at fb.org/ market-intel.)

By Daniel Munch The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last month published its estimate of all man-made greenhouse gas emis- sion sources in the U.S., a report submit-

ted to the United Nations as part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change re- porting guidelines. According to the findings, U.S. agri- culture represents less than 10% of to-

Daniel Munch

Cows at Straus Dairy Farm are fed a diet containing seaweed to curb enteric methane emissions. U.S. dairies increased milk production by 53% from 1990 to 2022 while cutting emissions by 26%.

tal U.S. emissions. While overall U.S. green- house gas emissions increased from 2021 to 2022 by 1.3%, agricultural emissions dropped 1.8%—the largest decrease of any economic sector. Agricultural emissions in 2022 were the lowest in a decade. The drop in emissions highlights the success and continued importance of vol- untary, market- and incentive-based con- servation practices that help farmers and ranchers access finances for the research and technology needed to take ever better care of our natural resources. In 2022, crop cultivation emissions were down 1.7% from 2012. Agricultural fuel com- bustion was down 1.2%. For livestock cat- egories, enteric emissions from beef cattle sat at 2.19% of total U.S. emissions in 2022. That is a 2.43%, or 3.3 million metric-ton, decline from 2021. Dairy cattle contributed just 0.77% of total emissions and recorded a 451,000-metric-ton decrease from 2021. U.S. agricultural emissions for 2022 totaled 593 million metric tons, down 11 million metric tons from 2021, repre- senting 9.3% of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Agricultural soil manage- ment represents approximately 50% of all

agricultural emissions but only 4.6% of total U.S. emissions. Agricultural productivity is increasing, as it must to keep feeding a growing global population, and emissions are on the de- cline relative to this productivity and pop- ulation increase. Innovation and advance- ments in technology have allowed farmers and ranchers to increase their productivity while using the same amount of inputs. Acreage in operation has declined by 323 million acres since 1950, almost double the size of Texas. This means that farmers and ranchers continue to produce more using fewer resources. The additional decrease in agricultural emissions shows that volun- tary, market-based incentives are helping farmers and ranchers accomplish this. Production of food is important not just for farmers and ranchers, but also for the millions of families in the U.S. and around the world that U.S. agriculture feeds. Agriculture’s sustainable intensification through productivity gains, in addition to the adoption of practices that further shrink the environmental footprint of

farms and ranches, has had remarkable results in crop yields and animal nutrition and breeding. Between 1990 and 2022, U.S. dairy farm- ers increased milk output by 53%, going from 148 billion pounds to 226 billion pounds to meet increasing global de- mand for products such as cheese, butter and dairy powders. During this same time- frame, emissions from enteric fermenta- tion from dairy cattle per billion pounds of milk produced dropped 26%. In 1990, U.S. farmers produced 39 bil- lion pounds of red meat; this grew 44% to 55.6 billion pounds in 2022. In the same timeframe, greenhouse gas emissions from enteric fermentation from beef cat- tle dropped 28%. Livestock producers have embraced technological innovation and production practices that increase output while reducing associated emissions. Not only have producers focused on im- provements to production and sustainabil- ity, but they have also focused on feeding more families, both at home and abroad. Since 1990, U.S. agricultural emissions

VOL. 51, NO. 17

May 1, 2024

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2 Ag Alert May 1, 2024

Agencies race to fix plans to sustain groundwater levels

plans include the Tule, Kaweah, Kern County, Delta-Mendota and Chowchilla subbasins. Local agencies overseeing the subbasins are scheduled to appear before the state water board later this year and early next year to learn if the board will place them under probationary status. With dairies located in affected subba- sins, Geoffrey Vanden Heuvel, director of regulatory and economic affairs for the Milk Producers Council, said he has been following the SGMA process. “The first lesson that subbasins ought

to learn is you have no chance if you don’t submit an updated groundwater sustain- ability plan,” Vanden Heuvel said. He add- ed, “All of the problems in the subbasins are fixable, but people have to be motivated to solve them.” The Tulare Lake Subbasin, which cov- ers Kings County, was placed under pro- bation April 16 after the state water board agreed with staff that the plan submitted by agencies failed to show how actions would address critical overdraft by limiting

By Christine Souza

sustainability plans evaluated, the state water board has moved to implement the 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, or SGMA. Last month, the Tulare Lake Subbasin became the first subbasin in the state to be placed under probation. Other critical- ly overdrafted subbasins with inadequate

Water allocations get a slight boost as reservoirs rise State and federal water agencies last week announced additional allocations for farmers and other users, citing improv- ing reservoir levels amid spring snowmelt. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said it is increasing promised water deliveries from the Central Valley Project for agricultural contractors south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River to 40% of requested supplies, up from 35% pledged last month. But the Westlands Water District, which serves 1,000 square miles of farmland in Fresno and Kings counties, criticized the water-supply pledge as insufficient. “With the state’s reservoirs and snow- pack at above-average levels and much of the state out of drought conditions, this meager increase in allocation continues to present unnecessary and unjustified hard- ships for the hard-working people of our District,” Allison Febbo, Westland’s general manager, said in a statement. “Water from the Central Valley Project is the lifeblood of our farms and communities that rely on the crops they grow.” Karl Stock, director for Reclamation’s California-Great Basin region, said the “gradual increase” in allocations was based on improving hydrologic conditions, which the agency continues to monitor. “We realize that our contractors were hoping to see a greater amount of water, and we understand how critical irrigation is to California agriculture and the sur- rounding communities,” Stock said in a statement. “However, continued uncer- tainty in long-term hydrology and regula- tory constraints necessitate Reclamation’s approach with available water supplies.” The California Department of Water Resources said it will increase water de- liveries to 40% of requested supplies from the State Water Project, up from a pledge of 30% last month. DWR said the allocation decision was based on an 800,000 acre-foot increase in water storage at Lake Oroville and the latest snow survey data from key April 1 measurements. By April 28, the lake was at 126% of historical average and 97% of capacity. Seeking to prevent the California State Water Resources Control Board from stepping in to regulate groundwater in critically overdrafted subbasins, local agencies are working to correct deficiencies in their plans to protect groundwater. With groundwater sustainability agencies formed and groundwater WATER GROUND

See GROUNDWATER, Page 15

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May 1, 2024 Ag Alert 3

From the Fields ®

To contribute to From the Fields, submit your name, county of membership and contact information to agalert@cfbf.com.

Dick Peixoto Santa Cruz County vegetable farmer

John Pierson Solano County rancher

We transitioned our production from the desert to the Pajaro Valley about the first week of April. A lot of the leafy greens, lettuce, spinach, cilantro, chards, kales, collards and bok choy have suffered from the excess rain. We put the seed in the ground in January and couldn’t get in for a month. It would rain every five to six days, so the ground never dried out. We couldn’t cultivate, couldn’t fertilize, couldn’t spray. People think when the rain is over, then all of a sudden, the crop is going to be better. But the crop has stunted growth. They’re not the normal-looking product we’re used to. It’s been a battle this spring even for our pest control, like with the beneficial habitats that we plant to attract beneficials. The beneficial activity hasn’t been what it normally is. It was so wet that a lot of the plants didn’t survive the winter. Normally by April, the good bugs are pretty active going after the bad bugs. But that’s not really happening yet. They’re just now building a population for the natural beneficials that we rely on. Their populations are getting built back up to where they can fight the battle for us. It’s been overcast all week in the low 60s. The 70s would be the best (for crop growth). The problem is not so much the cold weather as much as the wet weather. Even a couple weeks ago, we got rain, and that slowed us some more, so it’s really frustrating. Markets are up because supplies are down. It’s not just us; it’s across the board. Everybody’s struggling because we all have the same weather through the Salinas Valley down to King City, which is where most of the production comes from right now. We all suffer from the same rain and cold weather. I think we’re still about two or three weeks from getting into good, normal product.

The pasture conditions in this area are great. We’ve had the right amount of rain. We’ve had warm weather but on the cool side, and the grasses have grown really well. I’ve got one field that I’m going to put the cows in, and think I’m going to lose them because the grass is so deep. It’s up to about my mid body. Mother Nature has done good for us. We’re cleaning up the weeds around areas where you don’t want tall weeds— in around the barn, in the corrals where the cows can’t get to the grass. We have to do that by hand. We probably won’t need to irrigate until the middle of May. Almost all our fields are irrigated. The water thing has gotten to be a nightmare, as far as irrigation and the things that they’re doing on the water boards. I thought we owned water. I thought we owned our ground. Now they’re looking at the wells. Why does the government get to own our ground? The cattle prices are up. We’re getting more per pound, and we’re get- ting more per animal, but we’re also paying more for everything that we use, that we have to buy. The fuel is terrible. The price of a pickup—who- ever thought you’d have to spend $100,000 on a pickup? Last year, hay was $200, $300 for volunteer hay. Normally in good years, it would’ve been $80. After the summer broke in and everybody realized they had so much hay, the price dropped. The cattle are getting along pretty good. They’re on a regular vaccination pro- gram, so ours are fairly healthy. We’ve had good luck this year. I can’t complain about that.

Celeste Alonzo Riverside County vegetable grower

We just started harvesting sweet corn, green beans and shishito peppers. Very soon we will begin bell pepper harvest. Our corn harvest ends about Memorial Day weekend, and green bean harvest is three to four weeks. Because of COVID, it was two years of bad markets. It has taken a while, but we are seeing prog- ress. I feel like we’re starting to get out of those dark clouds where there was not a lot of demand. The markets have been steady lately, and so far, there are good projections for this season. This is the first year we didn’t sell corn at the local music festivals. The organizers were taking a 43% commission and brought in a lot of vendors, so it dilutes your profit even more. It goes back to COVID, so I don’t blame them for trying to get their money back. The state and our agricultural commissioner have done a good job containing the fruit fly to the west side of the county. I’m grateful for the work they did because we were worried. It could have affected us, and we could have lost our harvest. It can still affect our valley, but they’ve done a good job of containing the threat. Related to water, we rely on Colorado River water, and we’re on our toes with what is going to hap- pen with this new contract. California is probably going to receive 10% less of its allocation, so it is scary for my brother and myself, being the younger generation. If we don’t have water, we can’t grow. This was our first season applying pesticides with our new drone. My brother got his drone pilot license, which involved the local, state and federal levels. There were many hoops to go through, but it’s really been cool to see my brother flying the drone. We will probably see our return on investment in the first year or two.

4 Ag Alert May 1, 2024

Insights from farmers and ranchers across the Golden State, including members of the California Farm Bureau.

Derek Lange Tulare County citrus grower and rancher

We’ll be harvesting navels, mandarins, minneolas and lemons for another six weeks or so. This area is 75% to 80% finished with the navel crop. Some smaller packinghouses are wrapping up, but the bigger independent ones will be picking navels into the second week of June. It’s a lighter crop. We had very heavy thrip damage, which causes a bit of scarring on the rind, but it doesn’t affect the eating quality. The packinghouses collectively decided to try to push the boundary on what fruit got packed into a fancy box and what got packed into a choice. The industry did a very good job keeping our pack- outs high early in the season, even with thrip damage as high as it was. Pack-outs and prices remained strong through Feb. 1. Packinghouses have started packing summertime Valencia oranges. We’ll prob- ably start picking our Valencias in the next two weeks. The crop looks good. We’re hoping for good, decent early sizes and decent pricing in the first part of the season. The juice plants that service our packinghouses are completely full, with wall-to- wall trucks of trailers filled with fruit waiting to be processed. Even though the juice price remains good on navels, the plant is not taking any fruit. I don’t know if it’s too much at one time, but I’ve never seen it to where they’re turning juice loads away. The packinghouses are either holding the fruit until it rots or dumping it. Some of it is being fed to cattle. We feed citrus year-round to our cattle, so we take a little bit of culled fruit, but nothing near the amount they’re needing to get rid of. The cow-calf operation looks very good. Feed on rangeland and pastures is very strong. We’re planning to not need to start feeding hay until June 15. We’re hopeful beef prices remain high. We’ll be weaning and shipping calves the middle of May. We’re hoping to sell into a strong market.

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May 1, 2024 Ag Alert 5

Fruits & Vegetables A SPECIAL GROWERS’ REPORT OF AG ALERT ® CALIFORNIA

A new strain of fusarium wilt disease was discovered in Oxnard strawberry fields in 2022, prompting researchers to scramble to develop resistant strawberry varieties and short-term solutions.

Remedies sought for new strawberry disease strain By Bob Johnson

planted strawberry field in Oxnard. The field was planted with strawberries considered resistant to the plant virus. But they were no match for the new disease strain, which wilted foliage, and deformed and discolored strawberry crowns. Once a strawberry plant is infected with fusarium wilt, fungicides will not help manage the disease. It eventually kills the plant. Henry said researchers screened almost 200 varieties of strawberries, “includng heir- loom and wild types, and none of them showed promising resistance to race 2.” He told the Strawberry Production Research Meeting in Watsonville in February that a study team is screening 300 wild and heirloom varieties in collaboration with UC Davis and the strawberry producer Driscoll’s. “We’re very hopeful at least one of these will provide a meaningful source of resistance,” Henry said, adding researchers will reach out to the National Clonal Germplasm Repository plant bank in Corvallis, Oregon, for potential breeds that may be resistant to the disease. While the process of identifying sources of resistance remains slow and painstaking, researchers have made progress helping growers protect against the new strain. Henry said polymerase chain reaction tests can be conducted on soil and plants to determine how much of the race 2 fusarium wilt pathogen is present.

A resistance-breaking strain of fusarium wilt discovered in five Oxnard area fields could upend the strawberry disease management program carefully crafted since soil fumigation with methyl bromide was banned. University of California plant breeders have 36 precommercial strawberry varieties with resistance to four soil-borne diseases—fusarium wilt, macrophomina charcoal rot, verti- cillium wilt and phytophthora crown rot, according to Mitchell Feldman, director-elect of the strawberry breeding program at the University of California, Davis. Fusarium and macrophomina first became problems after strawberry growers stopped fumigating their ground with methyl bromide and chloropicrin. Strawberry growers have had success preventing crop diseases that can be caused by the race 1 fusarium wilt strain. But an emerging variety of the disease—fusarium race 2—had devastating impacts in Oxnard strawberry fields in the fall of 2022. So far, researchers have been unable to find or develop strawberry varieties that are resistant to race 2. “It’s going to take time to breed resistance to race 2, but resistance to race 1 remains ef- fective in most fields,” said Peter Henry, a U.S. Department of Agriculture plant pathologist. “This is the new resistance-breaking strain we found a little over a year ago.” Henry is one of six authors of a study published last May in the journal Plant Disease that reviewed the impacts of the race 2 strain in an organic, summer-

See DISEASE, Page 7

6 Ag Alert May 1, 2024

Disease Continued from Page 6

Researchers say they have yet to dis- cover fusarium wilt race 2 in the Salinas Valley, the largest strawberry growing re- gion in Calfornia. Henry said they tested 243 samples from strawberry fields in the Watsonville- Salinas area, 302 samples from Santa Maria and 52 from Mexico and failed to detect the new disease strain. “We only detected race 2 in samples from five fields in Oxnard,” Henry said. “If you are not in Oxnard, you probably don’t have race 2.” Strawberry varieties UC San Andreas, UC Eclipse, UC Keystone, UC Golden Gate, Portola and Fronteras, plus varieties from Driscoll’s and other private breeders, all have resistance to fusarium race 1. That resistance remains strong, researchers say. Oleg Daugovish, a UC Cooperative Extension strawberry and vegetable crop advisor in Ventura County, exposed plants to large amounts of race 1 inoculum and has “not seen any decrease in yield or dis- ease symptoms,” Henry noted. Fusarium race 1 produces a distinct pro- tein. Resistant strawberry varieties recognize this protein and throw up their defenses. “We define race 1 and race 2 based on this protein,” Henry said. “Race 2 does not produce the protein, so the plant is not protected.”

This summer-planted, organic strawberry field was hit by an emerging disease strain, fusarium wilt race 2. Several commercial varieties are resistant to a previous generation of the disease, but none are available for the new strain, believed to be confined to Oxnard.

Strawberry fusarium does not affect oth- er crops, but rotation is of limited value. Strawberry growers frequently rotate fields with lettuce or other leafy greens, but a single season of not growing strawberries does little to reduce fusarium pathogens. Because the fusarium pathogen can re- main viable deep in the soil for years, crop rotation takes a long time to rid a field of the disease, although growing broccoli

does reduce the level of pathogens. Conventional growers use deep fu- migation to treat infested fields, while organic growers use anaerobic soil dis- infestation, or solarization. Because the pathogens are easily carried within a field or to new fields on equipment or boots, a good sanitation program is essential to limit the spread of fusarium. Water or heat stress or heavy fruit loads

make the symptoms worse. A long-term solution will have to be the development of commercially ac- ceptable varieties with resistance to fu- sarium wilt race 2. “Genetic resistance is the key to manag- ing fusarium wilt,” Henry said. (Bob Johnson is a reporter in Monterey County. He may be contacted at bjohn11135@gmail.com.)

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May 1, 2024 Ag Alert 7

Gardens Continued from Page 1

of a growing number of gardeners. “We were blown away by the amount of interest” in seeds of native grasses and wildflowers, Michaels said, which Hedgerow Farms sells through a part- nership with the online seed packet company Nature’s Seed. She said the farm’s success in the home garden sec- tor could inform future cropping de- cisions as gardeners drive demand for certain species. Recent favorites among home garden- ers have been wildflowers such as lupine, clarkias and California hibiscus. Funding offered by some cities to in- centivize homeowners to replace tra- ditional grass lawns with drought-re- sistant plants has helped drive sales, Michaels said, especially of species such as slender sedge, a native grass favored for landscaping. While it might once have been fashion- able to have a gorgeous lawn, Michaels said “the new status symbol” may be to have a drought-resistant garden with pol- linator habitat. “People are thinking about what they can contribute to the world through their individual gardens and feeling more em- powered to make a difference,” she said. California seed producers such as Hedgerow Farms and American Takii, which grows its own vegetables for seed in the Salinas Valley, reported favorable growing conditions so far this year. Due to increased production costs, “we’ve seen a little bit of a contrac- tion of acreage of most crops,” Wiley of American Takii said. Like many seed companies, Takii breeds vegetables and flowers for seed in North America, Europe and Asia. When it comes to vegetables, garden- ers continue to prefer varieties with short growing seasons such as cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower, all of which reach maturity within 90 days, Wiley said. “We have very good onion seeds,” he said, “but we don’t sell a lot into the home garden market because the typical onion has to be in the ground almost half a year.” Shepherd of Renee’s Garden noted a recent preference for vegetables such as lettuce, cucumbers and dwarf tomatoes that can be grown in small containers on a deck or patio. “People want to find toma- toes that don’t grow 6 feet,” she said. Home gardening may be a small niche within agriculture, but when it comes to consumer preferences, “I think we are a good bellwether of what’s going on,” Shepherd said. “Home gardeners are peo- ple who go to the supermarket, so you want to keep track of what is popular and what people are looking for.” Judging by this year’s seed orders, she said, grocery stores may be wise to stock up on chili peppers and Asian vegetables such as gai lan and bok choy. “International trends are strong,” Shepherd said. “In other words, bringing the world into your garden.” (Caleb Hampton is an assistant editor of Ag Alert. He may be contacted at champton@cfbf.com.)

strong,” Wiley said. Seed producers and suppliers said many of the people who started gardening with- in the past few years stuck with the hobby after COVID-related stay-at-home orders were lifted. “We haven’t seemed to have lost a lot of the customers who we gained during the pandemic,” Shepherd said. “It’s just that the rapid growth rate has diminished to what it is in most years.” This year, many home gardeners are opting to grow plants that bring environ- mental benefits such as water conserva- tion or pollinator habitat. While vegetables such as tomatoes and cucumbers remain popular, suppliers said they have seen ris- ing demand for flowers. “Home gardeners are looking at how they can make their gardens more wel- coming to both bees and other pollinat- ing insects and birds, and just generally support wildlife,” said Shepherd, who is a director of the Home Garden Seed Association. “We’re seeing flowers make a little bit of a comeback.” Wiley said he has also observed in-

Jeff Quiter of Hedgerow Farms picks yarrow flowers in Yolo County. The native seed farm has seen strong interest from home gardeners in wildflowers and drought-resistant grass varieties.

creased demand for flowers as garden- ers gain more appreciation for the role pollinators play in cultivating a produc- tive garden. “If you don’t have a few bees visiting your flowers, your melons won’t get

pollinated and may not make a crop,” he said. “They’re good for the overall environment, and they provide benefits for other plant species, be they decorative or food crops.” Finding habitat in residential gardens can also make a difference for California’s roughly 1,600 bee species, many of which are threatened or endangered. “The good news is that we don’t need to create huge national parks to protect these pollinators,” said Julia Michaels, res- toration ecologist at Hedgerow Farms, a native seed farm in Yolo County. “You can really take a bite out of this problem just in your own garden.” For decades, Hedgerow Farms has specialized in growing large quantities of native grass and wildflower seed for land restoration projects. Last year, the farm began selling retail seed for home gardens. With its focus on habitat res- toration, the farm produces a unique range of seeds that meet the demands

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Field Crops A SPECIAL GROWERS’ REPORT OF AG ALERT ®

Retired science teacher Mike Reeske, above left, and his wife Chris grow more than a dozen varieties of heirloom beans at their San Diego County farm. They partner with restaurateur Carlo Guardado, right, who uses the beans in his culinary creations.

Heirloom bean revival inspires science teacher, chef By Linda DuBois

All modern-day dried common beans—including black beans, kidney beans and pinto beans—were first cultivated in Mexico more than 10,000 years ago, when they were do- mesticated from wild plants, Reeske explained. Planted today, beans perfected by indigenous people have the same distinct flavors that developed in each variety’s unique growing conditions, he said. In contrast, the bean varieties familiar to most Americans have been bred for mass production and to create a uniform product. Drawing on his science background, Reeske is working with University of California re- searchers to learn what bean varieties are naturally resistant to pests and diseases and what will grow best in the local soils. He is also working on a program to restore the cultivation of certain tribal heirloom beans that are an important part of ceremonies and traditions. As an heirloom bean advocate, Reeske is trying to convince more small farmers to try growing them. Even though they aren’t a big moneymaker, heirloom beans add nitrogen to the soil, giving farmers “free fertilizer,” he said. Reeske also partners with restaurants and chefs in delivering heirloom varieties for their culinary creations. Carlo Guardado, who has owned and cooked in restaurants for about 17 years, contracted

After seeing an article about heirloom beans, Mike Reeske and his wife, Chris, decided to put in a few plants on their 2½-acre property in the San Diego County community of Valley Center. “I couldn’t believe how tasty they were,” he said of their first crop. Influenced by his parents, who were citrus farmers and restaurant owners, Reeske turned to farming after he retired from a long career as a high school science teacher in 2008. A researcher and organic chemist, he had co-authored books and developed edu- cational materials dealing with science and sustainability, and created programs to teach youths and adults about their local environments. Knowing that few farmers cultivate heirloom beans, the Reeskes saw a void and offi- cially launched their Rio Del Rey farm in 2013. They now grow 10 to 15 different varieties on 7 acres. Since their modest beginnings as heirloom bean farmers, Mike Reeske has become an afficionado of the science and history of the legumes as a practical and reliable food source. “There’s a lot of variation in beans, and they’re so highly adaptable that they can grow in many different parts of the world,” Reeske said. “I’ve collected beans off the Black Sea in Northern Turkey, with origins from Chile 200 years before that.”

See BEANS, Page 11

10 Ag Alert May 1, 2024

Tino Muñoz of Rio Del Rey farm in Valley Center loads freshly harvested beans into a machine that removes stems and rocks. The farm sells heirloom beans to restaurants and specialty markets.

Continued from Page 10 Beans

Rio Zapes and created a hybrid. They planted the seeds and got identical beans the next year and have been growing them ever since. “We did a tasting with 15 of some of the top chefs in San Diego County, and 13 out of 15 voted that bean No. 1,” Reeske said. While deeply committed to organic heir- loom bean revival, Reeske said the pursuit has its challenges. About 90% of heirloom beans have bean common mosaic virus, which inhibits pho- tosynthesis, leading to small yields and, therefore, higher prices for consumers. The process is also labor-intensive. People, not machines, do the soil prepa- ration, fertilizing, laying of drip irrigation and planting in the spring. In the late summer, they hand-harvest the partially dried beans with sickles and throw them into piles to finish drying. Because each bean variety matures at a different rate, harvesting must be done intermittently from about mid-August to late September. Then there are relentless weeds. Last year, Reeske lost about 80% of his typical crop because he couldn’t find enough workers for this task, forcing him to tem- porarily halt online bean sales. Besides selling packaged beans to spe- cialty markets and other online customers, Reeske does his own deliveries to restau- rants rather than hiring a distributor. “I decided it was more fun for me to go and meet the chefs,” he said. Reeske is working to create farm tours and other educational opportunities for the public to get more people to eat beans more often, emphasizing they are an eco- nomical, sustainable source of protein, with numerous health benefits. “For instance, I’m a Type 2 diabetic, and after I started eating beans three times a week, I gave up one of my meds because beans stabilize blood sugar,” he said. “I also want to educate people that all beans don’t taste the same, and there’s a

(Linda DuBois is assistant editor of California Bountiful, where this article first appeared in the January/February 2024 issue. She may be contacted at ldubois@ californiabountiful.com.)

whole variety of flavors you can experi- ence,” he added. Summing up his passion, Reeske said, “I guess I’m like the Johnny Appleseed of beans.”

with Rio Del Rey for beans he uses in a new venture cooking for farm dinners and special events. He said Reeske’s heirloom dried beans have much better flavors and textures than typical store-bought varieties. “Some stay firm, and some get very creamy. Some are sweeter than others, and some have rich notes of chocolate,” Guardado said of the beans. “The flavor profile is very nuanced. But the cool thing is, when you put them all together, they make a very good, flavorful broth.” He noted that some people who attend his special dinners “don’t eat beans ever,” which is why he often prepares a bean- soup appetizer to get them to “try just a couple of bites and maybe change their opinion and then add them to their diet.” Beans were an important staple of Guardado’s Mexican heritage. As much as he enjoys eating them, the chef likes cook- ing with them even more, incorporating them into entrées, side dishes and appe- tizers. His two favorites are cowboy beans and dirty rice with roasted vegetables. Guardado initiates discussions with dinner and special event customers on his culture’s Alta California cuisine and the farmer who grows his beans. The varieties grown at Rio Del Rey farm include two lima-type beans, about sev- en common pinto-type beans and five high-protein tepary beans. “Tepary beans grow from one rainfall in the desert in poor soil and high tempera- tures,” Reeske said, adding the legumes show promise as a sustainable protein source in a hotter, drier climate. The Reeskes also developed a new variety of common bean—Anazape. About five years ago, out of 800 pounds of their Anasazi beans, they discovered about 25 unusual-looking seeds. Even though it’s rare for beans to cross-pollinate, the Reeskes surmised from the beans’ appearance that bees brought pollen from a nearby field of

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May 1, 2024 Ag Alert 11

CIMIS REPORT | www.cimis.water.ca.gov

CALIFORNIA IRRIGATION MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM

For the week of April 18 - April 24, 2024 ETO (INCHES/WEEK)

YEAR

3.0

THIS YEAR

2.5

LAST YEAR AVERAGE YEAR

2.0

1.5

1.0

0.5

0.0

MACDOEL II (236)

BIGGS (244)

DAVIS (06)

MANTECA (70)

FRESNO (80)

SALINAS-SOUTH (214)

FIVE POINTS (2)

SHAFTER (5)

IMPERIAL (87)

THIS YEAR LAST YEAR AVG. YEAR % FROM AVG.

1.20 1.08 1.06 4

1.35 1.39 1.36 1

1.42 1.51 1.36 5

1.08 1.44 1.27 -16

1.35 1.53 1.35 1

1.19 1.39 1.19 -1

1.54 1.60 1.53 1

1.54 1.47 1.39 11

1.88 1.89 1.86 2

W eekly reference evapotranspiration (ETo) is the rate of water use (evapotranspiration—the sum of soil evaporation and crop transpiration) for healthy pasture grass. Multiplying ETo by the appropriate crop coefficient gives estimates of the ET for other crops. For example, assume ETo on June 15 is 0.267 inches and the crop coefficient for corn on that day is 1.1. Multiplying ETo by the coefficient (0.26 inches x 1.1) results in a corn ET of 0.29 inches. This information is

useful in determining the amount and timing of irrigation water. Contact Richard Snyder at the University of California, Davis, for information on coefficients, 530-752-4628. The 10 graphs provide weekly ETo rates for selected areas for average year, last year and this year. ETo information is provided by the California Irrigation Man- agement Information System (CIMIS) of the California Department of Water Resources.

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