between the furrows · the handbook has research-based information and detail on cover crop botany...

Between the Furrows INSIDE this issue

SANTA CRUZ COUNTYU

FARM

SANTA CRUZ COUNTYU

FARM

A Santa Cruz County Farm Bureau Monthly Publication

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The Santa Cruz County Farm Bu-reau and the organization Agri-Culture have been honored with

a national award for their 2011 Santa Cruz County Agriculture Video/DVD. This is the second consecutive year that these organizations have been given a national award for a program. Last year, they were honored for the Focus Agri-culture program. There are 3,140 county farm bureaus in the United States. Very few ever receive a national award and it is even more unusual for a county to receive awards two years in a row.

The video/DVD was selected because of the manner in which it was developed and promoted. The video/DVD was directed and narrated by Cristina King, who was an NBC anchor in Missouri

before settling in Santa Cruz County. The cinematography was done by ac-claimed artist Damon Meyer. The movie stars were local growers. The script was written and edited by local agriculture experts Ron Tyler and Dave Moeller. The executive producer was Jess Brown.

The national selection committee was impressed with the promotion through social media and the unique “red carpet” premiere. The premiere included movie-themed food and people dressed as lo-cal produce greeting the guests.

The award will be presented at the American Farm Bureau Federation An-nual Meeting in January 2012.

The DVD is available by contacting Agri-Culture at (831)722-6622 or by visiting www.agri-culture.us. The DVD sells for $10 each, 2 DVD’s for $15 or 3 DVD’s for $20. Online orders add shipping and handling costs.

NATIONAL AWARD! To Be Presented In Honolulu, Hawaii, January 2012

2ND CONSECUTIVE YEAR

Between The Furrows is a monthly publication of the SCCFB.

Members receive a subscription as part of their membership investment.

Mary Walter, EditorJess Brown, Managing Editor

141 Monte Vista Avenue Watsonville, California 95076.

(831) 724-1356 or (831) 688-0748Fax: (831) 724-5821

Email: [email protected]

Web: http://www.sccfb.com

3 Ask Laura Cover Crops

4 Water Nanny Price of Water Unused

5 Recipe Thanksgiving Recipes

12 Calendar

NOvembeR 2011vOLume 35, Issue 11

The Steer (aka Kirk Schmidt) was a player at the Agri-Culture DVD Premier this past Spring.

Photo by Bill Ringe

President’s messagechris enright, President

n o v e m b e r / 2 0 1 1 b e t w e e n t h e f u r r o w s 3n o v e m b e r / 2 0 1 1 b e t w e e n t h e f u r r o w s 2

The other day a diverse group of growers, present company included, met with Karen Ross, the California Secretary of Agriculture. She came here to hear our concerns and see if she could help in any way.

Many topics were discussed-among them were invasive pest regulations, water quality and food safety issues. All of these concerns are very important and are caus-ing financial hardships to our local growers. The Secretary heard our advice on how to streamline and improve on those regulations, and of the merit and effectiveness of these laws, what little merit there is.

Secretary Ross was very gracious and acknowledged some of the problems with the regulatory system. She appreciated our concerns and willingness to bring local farmers ideas to her attention.

On a less important note: It’s been a year since I started as the Farm Bureau presi-dent and what a busy year. It’s been an honor to represent our hard working farmers

and I look forward to the coming year.

In the course of my duties, I oftentimes go to meetings that remind me of the unrelenting regula-tions that come our way, and at times it can deflate even the most optimistic grower.

But, this is November. The Thanksgiving season is upon us, and it is time to reflect on all of our blessings. We have plenty to be thankful for. In our county we have many harvests...the apples are in the warehouse, the berry season is winding down, the grapes have been picked, the flowers are gear-ing up for the holidays, and the brussels sprouts are waiting for your dinner table. During this year’s Thanksgiving holiday, lets give a nod to the farmers who made your holiday dinner plentiful.

A Nod To The Farmers

Q: What can you tell me about cover crops and how they might benefit my vegetable production?

A: Your question—and its timing—couldn’t be better. The Central Coast and California are leaders in vegetable crop production for the state and na-tion. Cover crops, which are typically not grown for harvest when they are used in vegetable production systems, can play an important beneficial role in your farming operation. Cover crops are included in vegetable rota-tions for many reasons, most notably to achieve production, regulatory, and environmental goals. Production goals include building soil fertility and qual-ity, regulatory goals include compli-ance with relevant federal, state, and local legislation, and environmental goals include soil and water resource protection.

A new resource from the University of California’s Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources has everything you will want to know about using cover crops in vegetable production. Cover Cropping for Vegetable Production: A Grower’s Handbook, is available for purchase at most local UC Cooperative Extension offices. You may also pur-chase it from our online publications department at: http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/Items/3517.aspx.

The handbook has research-based information and detail on cover crop botany and species selection, the ef-fects of cover cropping on soil and water management, the effects of cover cropping on pest management, cover crop management, regional considerations, and economics. The book includes many beautiful color

photographs, tables, and illustrations to help explain the science associated with cover cropping. Potential ben-efits of planting cover crops, as noted in the handbook, include:

Reduced soil erosion by water or wind

Increased water infiltration

Fixation of atmospheric nitrogen, which can later become available for cash crops

Retention of soil nitrogen and ni-trogen leaching prevention

Enhanced soil organic matter and improved long-term soil fertility

Disruption to plant pathogen and other pest life cycles

Habitat for beneficial insects

When planting and managing cover crops, it is important to select a partic-ular species or type to match your own production situation, needs and goals. Cover crops have direct establishment and management costs. They can also present management challenges in vegetable farming systems. For exam-ple, when planted as a substitute for fallow land during the fall and winter months, cover crops can delay bed preparation, spring planting, and early harvest of a vegetable crop, possibly leading to lower than expected “first-to-market” prices. These are only some of the considerations associated with planting and managing cover crops. In addition to this new resource, your local UC Cooperative Extension Farm Advisors are here to help you with any additional questions you might have.


OFFICERS CHRIS ENRIGHT President, State Delegate, Orchids

CYNTHIA MATHIESEN first Vice-President, Alternate State Delegate, Berries

DAVID VAN LENNEPSecond vice-President, State Delegate, timber

JOHN E. EISKAMPPast President, Alternate State Delegate, Berries DIRECTORS MATTHEW BISSELL Timber CFBF District #10 Director STEVE BONTADELLI Brussels SproutsTOM BROz Organic VegetablesDAVID CAVANAUGH NurseryGORDON CLAASSEN Livestock Manager, Cal Poly FRANK ESTRADA Cattle NITA GIzDICH Apples JOHN PISTURINO Cattle DICK PEIxOTO Organic Vegetables SILVIA PREVEDELLI Apples JJ SCURICH Berries CARMELO SICAIROS Berries JANET WEBB Timber GILBERT YERENA Timber

Ex-OFFICIOMARY LOU NICOLETTI Interim Ag Commissioner ELIzABETH GIANNINI CFBF Field RepresentativeBILL RINGE Agri-CultureLAURA TOURTE UCCE Farm Advisor

STAFFJess brown Executive Director celeSte Din Assistant to Director cArOl leGrAnDe Special Events, Membership Record Keeper, Newsletter Advertising Rep. elizABeth AnDerSOn Office Assistant mary walter Newsletter Editor

La2010/2011BOArD Of DirectOrS Laura Tourte, County Director & Farm Advisor

Cover Crops & Their Benefits to Vegetable Production

Ask Laura

Price of Water Unused

About a year ago the Pajaro Valley Water Man-agement Agency (PVWMA) Board created an ad hoc BMP committee to review and advise

the Board on the best options for a new Basin Manage-ment Plan (BMP). This is necessary as the election which raised the water extraction augmentation charge to $166/af must be reviewed within five years. A new BMP must be adopted. The board appointed 21 people to the BMP committee, including 3 of their own. The goal is to review possible ways to either increase recharge to the aquifer or reduce pumping and then recommend a package of projects to the board for consideration and eventual adoption as the new BMP.

The BMP committee reviewed 43 concepts. Some were great ideas, some not so. Many were duplicative. In general there were three categories, local projects, out of district import projects and irrigation conserva-tion. The consultants were very creative in assembling every possible concept. Big projects were all Silver Bul-let ideas, if you build it all your problems are solved, if you actually can afford to build it given huge cost and political hurdles. Pipe dreams include: building a dam on zayante Creek north of Santa Cruz with a 25 mile pipeline ($250,000,000); a pipeline from Lexington Res-ervoir ($151M) and three alternative import pipelines

connected to the Central Valley Project ($117 - $172M). These were removed from further consideration.

Local ideas receiving favor included: Murphy Crossing recharge basins yield-ing 500 af/yr at an annual cost (amortized

and O&M) of $600,000 or $1,200/af/yr; College Lake with a pipeline to the coastal distribution system, 2,000 af/yr costing $1,200/af/yr; tanks to store recycled water, $680/af/yr; and Pajaro River diversion to a new reser-voir at Bolsa de San Cayetano, 5,000 af/yr, with an an-nual cost of $12,100,000 (construction cost of $113M) or $2,420/af/yr. Other local, and affordable, ideas will also receive further consideration.

Irrigation conservation has always been a key to reduce the over pumping of the aquifer. Placing a value

on the non-use of water is difficult for con-sulting engineers. However, at least nine BMP committee members are farmers who are happy to conserve water if they can save money and still be commercially successful.To review all projects it is assumed that ag uses 83% of all water farming 27,000 acres, with 2 af/acre/year for irrigation. One very cool idea is the use of wireless soil tensi-ometers (see page 33 of http://www.pvwma.dst.ca.us/ committees/assets/ah_bmp_committee_assets/10_06_11_Alternatives.pdf ) This would save (yield) 1,500 af/yr with real-time soil moisture data to schedule irrigation. Capital costs are estimated at $2.4M, with O&M of $15,000/yr for annual cost of $334,739 (10 yr. amort). All this works out to an annual cost per acre conserved (yield) of $223. Each acre foot conserved costs the Agency an amount equal to the augmentation fee, now $166/af. So the real cost to the PVWMA would be $389/af/yr, or half of the most efficient local capital project. The farmer also saves $166 plus $100 paid to PG&E for each af not pumped.

Your Nanny thinks that money motivates and sug-gests new incentives for conservation. What if each farmer received a PVWMA credit of $200/af conserved for each af between 5 and 10%, a 5% window, (water usage variation between 0% and 5% may only reflect changes in weather) of the prior five year’s average use for that parcel. If a 20 acre parcel uses, on average, 40 af/yr to irrigate and the farmer uses only 36.5 af she would receive a credit against her PVWMA bill of $300 (1½ af ). She would also save 3.5 af x 266 (fee + PG&E) or $931. The agency would have a cost equal to revenue lost at $166/af plus the conservation incentive, $881, or only 252/af conserved. A farm fallowed for one season would be limited to the 5% credit even though the wa-ter conservation would be 100%. The credit would be good for 5 years against the prior five years’ average us-age so the grower would continue to receive the benefit of improvements which resulted in the conservation. If 30% of the growers saved 8.5% of irrigation the total would be 1,377 af/yr. Good Job Farmers.


“Agriculture, the Original Green”

The Water Nanny

B oth of these recipes were prepared by two of my children a couple of years ago because they were “bored” with traditional mashed potatoes and the old holiday standby “green bean casserole”. Those were things they liked when they were young, but now that they are older with more “sophisticated” taste buds, they

asked if they could make the potatoes and green beans. Of course, was my answer. Never turn down help in the kitchen. So I relinquished my title of “Chief Cook and Bottle Washer” to my son and daughter. I am happy to say these recipes have become favorites and we have said so long to a couple of old favorites. Hope you enjoy! The Editor

mashed Potatoes with Sauteed Mushrooms

Green Beans with Caramelized Onions & Almonds

Kosher salt

3 pounds green beans, trimmed of stem end

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 large onions, sliced thin

2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme leaves

Freshly ground black pepper

Add enough water to a pan, adding a big pinch of salt and the green beans. Bring to a boil and cook for about 5 minutes. The beans should be crisp tender. Drain the beans running them under cold water. Set aside to drain completely.

In a skillet, add the almonds and toast stirring fre-quently until golden, about 3 - 5 minutes. Remove the almonds from the skillet and reserve. Add to the skillet the butter and olive oil and heat until the butter has melted. Add the onions season with salt and pepper, and cook stirring frequently until the onions caramel-ize, about 20 to 25 minutes. Add the thyme and cook for another 5 minutes. Add the cooked, cooled green beans and almonds and stir well to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve and enjoy!

Serves 6 - 8

6 cups (about 2 pounds) dices new potatoes

1 cup white wine

1 clove garlic, chopped

2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives

1/2 cup diced onion

1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms

8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, divided

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup Sour Cream

Small amount warmed whole milk

In a saucepan, melt 1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) butter and saute mushrooms, onion, chives and garlic. Add wine and simmer for about 15 minutes. In a pot, boil potatoes until done; drain. Mash potatoes and add re-maining 1/2 stick butter, salt, pepper, sour cream and warm milk to desired consistency. Combine all ingredi-ents and whip until thick and creamy.

Serves 6 - 8

HappyThanksgiving!


Favorite Recipes


Some Thanksgiving Traditional Alternatives

Are Banks Financially Responsible for Forged or Altered Checks?


La Alan Smith, Attorney at Law

legally speaking

F or several years, Cali-fornia employment law attorneys have experi-

enced continuing uncertainty over whether California em-ployers may just make meal and rest breaks available or whether they must affirmatively make sure they occur. One case has

been watched for a decision whether employers have to make employees take meal and rest breaks or whether it’s enough to just offer the meal or rest break. It had been over two years since the California Supreme Court decided to hear Brinker Restaurant Corp. v. Superior Court. Meanwhile, an appellate court in Hernandez v. Chipotle Mexican Grill, issued a published decision holding that it was enough to provide the breaks (i.e. make them available). But then the California Supreme Court granted review in Hernandez too, so that Hernan-dez could no longer be relied upon as law.

An answer may be close. On October 23rd the Su-preme Court notified the parties in Brinker that it had scheduled oral argument for November 8th. The deci-sion will have the effect of deciding several other cases

including Chipotle.

Lawyers say that the Brinker case may also provide important guidance on another issue, whether trial courts may accept surveys and statistical evidence as a way to prove meal period, rest break or “off the clock” claims as a class. There is no doubt that knowing what types of evidence can be used to prove meal period and rest break violations would be of immense practical and legal help.

In Brinker, the Court of Appeal refused to certify a class of 59,000 Chili’s and Romano’s Macaroni Grill restaurants saying it could not decide whether an indi-vidual employee chose to skip a meal break or was pres-sured by management to skip. This is somewhat similar thinking to that in the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Duke v. Wal-Mart decided on June 20, 2011 saying the plaintiff employee class did not have enough in common to constitute a class. Wal-Mart was the biggest class action in United States history. But Wal-Mart was a gender-based employment discrimination suit and Brinker is a wage and hour suit.

Much debate has occurred over the use of surveys and statistics in such cases, whether wage

and hour or employment discrimi-nation. Proponents say statistics and surveys can be strong evidence of a pattern, policy or practice of interfering with breaks. Opponents of the use of such evidence say that declarations of a subset of employ-ees on their personal experiences is not a reliable or recognized form of proof. Opponents of statistics and surveys also argue it’s is not fair to survey the plaintiffs who will ben-efit from the litigation.

You can subscribe to the Cali-fornia Supreme Court web site for email notices regarding this case by going to http://bit.ly/q0xh0l and typing in your email address.

On May 11, 2011, Organic Food Research Foun-dation Executive Director Maureen Wilmot told a “What’s Next Lecture” audience in Santa

Cruz, “Agriculture can be the solution, not the problem. If farmers along the Mississippi clean nitrates out of the water used in their processes, they could eliminate the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico.”

On April 15 and August 19, 2011, several of the world’s largest producers of fresh herbs, vegetables and berries met for two think-tank sessions at Hartnell College’s Alisal Campus in Salinas to discuss one of the most abundant elements on the planet and one of the most vital to agriculture – water – how to clean it up, keep it clean and reduce its use in their production of 85% of the world’s fresh vegetables and berries.

The group was convened by Grower-Shipper Associa-tion in partnership with Hartnell and Project 17, funded by the U.S. Small Business Administration to dovetail technology solutions into the agriculture industry to help Ag increase their bottom-line profitability.

So the questions for the group were, 1) what are the problems with the Salinas Valley’s agricultural water and 2) what are some technologies that can provide solu-tions to those problems? The first question was tackled in the April session and the second in August.

Participating Ag companies included Tanimura & An-tle, Rose Royal Radicchio, Duda Farm Fresh Foods, Taylor Farms, Dole, Ocean Mist, Driscoll’s, Rio Farms, Gills On-ions, Luis Scattini & Sons and Paraiso Vineyards.

Representatives from business looking to assist Ag with solutions included Wilbur-Ellis Company, Muller Ir-rigation of Salinas Valley, AMEC Geomatrix, John Deere Water, APTwater, Watch Technologies, ANzU Technology, BioVantage Resources, Wise Solutions and SAP Global Business Incubator. Also present were representatives from the Western Growers Association, Monterey Coun-ty Water Resources Agency, UC Davis, Grower-Shipper Association, Cal State University at Monterey Bay, and Hartnell College.

After defining the problems in the April session, the group created a “wish list” of solutions, especially to ni-

trate issues, but also discussed problems of storm-water run-off, water supply and quality, sea-water intrusion, recycled water, crop-water dis-tribution unifor-mity, keeping nutrients in root zones and monitoring for optimal water usage.

In the August session, Dr. Tim Hartz from UC Davis and Dr. Marc Los Huertos of CSUMB discussed bio-de-nitrifi-cation of regional surface and ground water through an anaerobic process that mimics the water clean-up work that natural wetlands perform.

Murray Einarson, principle hydrologist of AMEC Geo-matrix, based in Oakland, presented case studies where forcing water through bio-de-nitrification systems of wood chips and sugars had cleaned surface and ground water entering water ways. Growers were encouraged to learn that they might not only be able to reduce pol-lution of surface water from agricultural nitrates, but might also be able to use these techniques to clean up ground-water that was polluted by farms a hundred years ago.

Craig Hornung of John Deere Water then led a discus-sion of how growers can reduce water use by imple-menting technology that can tell them when the root zones of crops and trees are saturated, eliminating waste of water.

Participants were pro-active in looking for solutions to the region’s ag-water issues. But a one size solution will not fit all. The thorny issues ahead will be to iden-tify and implement a suite of solutions that work for different soil types and different water sources across the region. Stay tuned.

CSUMB’sMarc Los Huertos, Gills Onion’s Bob Martin, Wilbur-Ellis’ Joel Wiley, Ocean Mists’ Dale Huss and Tanimura & Antle’s Ron Yokota listen to Dr. Tim Hartz explain bio-de-nitrification of water

Central Coast Growers Pro-Active on Water Clean-Up and Pollution-Prevention


Project 17 - Monterey Bay’s Regional Ag Innovation Cluster

La Susan Arcady Barich, Executive Director



Food For Thought

I want to die before my wife, and the reason is this: If it is true that when you die, your soul goes up to judgment, I don’t want my wife up there ahead of me to tell them things. ---Bill Cosby

When Albert Einstein was making the rounds of the speaker’s circuit, he usually found himself

eagerly longing to get back to his laboratory work. One night as they were driving to yet another rubber-chicken dinner, Einstein mentioned to his chauffeur (a man who somewhat resembled Einstein in looks & manner) that he was tired of speechmaking.

“I have an idea, boss,” his chauffeur said. “I’ve heard you give this speech so many times. I’ll bet I could give it for you.” Einstein laughed loudly and said, “Why not? Let’s do it!” When they arrive at the dinner, Einstein donned the chauffeur’s cap and jacket and sat in the back of the room. The chauffeur gave a beautiful rendition of Einstein’s speech and even answered a few questions expertly.

Then a supremely pompous professor asked an ex-tremely esoteric question about anti-matter formation, digressing here and there to let everyone in the audi-ence know that he was nobody’s fool. Without missing a beat, the chauffeur fixed the professor with a steely stare and said, “Sir, the answer to that question is so simple that I will let my chauffeur, who is sitting in the back, answer it for me.”

Smile!1. The bandage was wound around the wound.

2. The farm was used to produce produce.

3. The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

4. We must polish the Polish furniture.

5. He could lead if he would get the lead out.

6. The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

7. Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.

8. A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

9. When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

10. I did not object to the object.

11. The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

12. There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

13. They were too close to the door to close it.

14. The buck does funny things when the does are present.

15. A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

16. To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

17. The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

18. Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.

19. I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

20. How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

So You Think English is Easy!



WANT TO ADVERTISE?

For More Information

Call the Santa Cruz County Farm Bureau at (831) 724-1356 or visit

www.sccfb.com

n o v e m b e r / 2 0 1 1 b e t w e e n t h e f u r r o w s 1 1n o v e m b e r / 2 0 1 1 b e t w e e n t h e f u r r o w s 1 0


WANT TO ADVERTISE?

For More Information

Call the Santa Cruz County Farm Bureau at (831) 724-1356 or visit

www.sccfb.com

Agricultural News

California Farm Bureau Federation

93rd Annual Meeting

The California Farm Bureau Federation (CFBF) will hold their 93rd Annual Meet-ing in Sparks, Nevada, December 3 - 7, 2011. The theme of this year’s event is

“Celebrating The Hands That Feed Us”.

Registration for the event may be made online at www.cfbf.com/am2011/regis-tration or by mail. A downloadable brochure will provide you will all of the infor-mation you need to register.

The convention will be high-lighted by the Leadership Farm Bureau graduation on Saturday and a Sporting Clay Tournament. Mon-day features the Recognition Dinner and Entertainment.

For more information and a complete list of events, please visit the CFBF web site www.cfbf.com/am2011.

sad News!

We are sorry to report that our Assistant to the Executive

Director, Celeste Din, is leaving. Celeste will be moving out of the area to pursue her career in a larger market.

Celeste has been an important part of the Farm Bureau and the or-ganization Agri-Culture, becoming very active in the Young Farmers and Ranchers and playing a part in introducing the social media to both organizations.

We will miss you Celeste, but we all wish you the best of everything in what we are sure will be a bright future.

n o v e m b e r / 2 0 1 1 b e t w e e n t h e f u r r o w s 1 1n o v e m b e r / 2 0 1 1 b e t w e e n t h e f u r r o w s 1 0

for adVertising info and rates call: (831) 724-1356 or (831) 688-0748

141 Monte Vista Avenue, Watsonville, CA 95076 Find Us On FacebOOk FOllOw Us On TwiTTer

SANTA CRUZ COUNTYU

FARM

SANTA CRUZ COUNTYU

FARM

Between the FurrowsCALENDAR

A Santa Cruz County Farm Bureau Monthly Publication

PRsRT sTDu.s. Postage

PAIDMailed from

Zip Code 95076Permit No.237

Change Service RequestedNOvembeR 2011vOLume 35, Issue 11

ThURSdAY ----NOVEMBER 17Agricultural Policy Advisory Commission

WEdNESdAY - NOVEMBER 23Central Coast Agriculture Task Force meeting

ThURSdAY----NOVEMBER 24Thanksgiving day - Office Closed FRidAY----NOVEMBER 25Thanksgiving holiday - Office Closed

CFbF 93RD ANNuAL meeTINg dECEMBER 3-7, 2011 sPARks, NevADA WEdNESdAY --- TBA • Executive Committee meeting• Membership Committee

meeting• Legislative Committee

meeting

MONdAY - – DeCembeR 12Public Relations & information Committee

WEdNESdAY ----dECEMBER 14Young Farmers & Ranchers meeting

ThURSdAY - DeCembeR 15Agricultural Policy Advisory Commission

between the furrows · the handbook has research-based information and detail on cover crop botany...

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