Organic farm produces vegetables in Klamath Basin
great location and community to expand our business,” he said. Currently, spring mix items represent about 97% of what DFF produces in the basin, mostly baby lettuces and baby greens. The farm also grows baby spin- ach, arugula, kale and bok choy. “We also have a full-size romaine let- tuce program, mature kale and a multi- leaf lettuce program,” Calderon said. Some of the crop goes into the spring mix and some is sold individually, he said. Romaine, for instance, is grown
to full size, so it’s sold as either romaine hearts or chopped salads. Mature kale is either sold as chopped salad or for juicing, and somet imes bunching, Calderon said. “Wi th the mul t i-leaf lettuce pro- gram, it’s more of a teen-size lettuce, a little bit larger than the spring mix and that can be sold as a loose leaf or as a whole head,” he said, adding they’re doing research and development to determine the feasibility of starting a
ByKathyCoatney Harvest season is beginning for an or- ganic vegetable operation in theKlamath
regions. Calderon already knew the Klamath Basin area, so he suggested expanding there. “Everybodywas interested, andwe did some research tomake sure the crops we grew would perform well in that area. When we determined it would work, that’s when we decided this would be a
Ba s i n , w i t h water shor t- a g e s a d d e d to the other challenges of growing leafy greens along
See KLAMATH, Page 27
the California-Oregon border. For Duncan Family Farms, 2021marks the fourth season growing vegetables in the basin. Why the Klamath Basin? Juan Calderon, the company’s director of farming operations for the West region, said he first came to the basin in 2006-07 with a former employer. “We had a small spring mix program with the local farmers here in the area. When I was there, I real ly l iked the growing area and the communi ty,” Calderon said. When he started working for DFF in 2009, the company was looking to ex- pand its footprint into new growing Water shortages reduce planned tomato acreage In the wake of water shortages, food processors have reduced the tonnage of tomatoes they plan to buy from California farmers. A new government estimate says tomato acreage and tonnage will be down 4% from an original planting-in- tentions survey released in January. The U.S. Department of Agriculture sa id tomato processor s repor t ed they expect to have contracts for 11.6 million tons of processing tomatoes, down from 12.1 million tons in the ear- lier survey. “Another year of dry weather during the winter and spring caused concern over water availability and resulted in a decrease in contracted acreage and ton- nage,” the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service said. The report said the early tomato crop “has been developing nicely,” wi th no descr ipt ions of disease or pest problems. “At this point in the season, yield is projected to be average,” the report said, “but expected high temperatures in the coming months could have a sig- nificant impact.” Contracted processing tomato acre- age for the 2021 season stands at 231,000, down from the January forecast of 240,000. Fresno County remains the top county in contracted acreage, at 62,000. The other top counties—Yolo, Merced, Kings and San Joaquin—combine with Fresno toaccount for 71%of the contract- ed acreage.
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June 9, 2021 Ag Alert 3
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