Posts Tagged: blueberries

Purple rain

Stories about blueberries are still trickling in. Today, the Visalia Time-Delta reported on the fact that 35 percent of California blueberries are produced in the newspaper's Tulare County circulation area.

For the story, reporter Hillary Meeks spoke to Steve "Doc" Blizzard, a local blueberry farm manager. He said the company started growing blueberries with encouragement from Manuel Jimenez, the UC Small Farm Program farm advisor for UC Cooperative Extension in Tulare County.

Jimenez recently arranged for several Central Valley growers interested in the crop to take a tour of the Lagomarsino blueberry farm, the article said.

"In terms of growing, if you have the right conditions, boy do blueberries grow in Tulare County," Jimenez was quoted.

The making of a blueberry story

Los Angeles Times freelance writer David Karp sent a response today to last week's ANR News Blog post about his May 27 blueberry production story. The nicely written article covered the introduction of a crop usually associated with the Northwest, Michigan and Maine into California; it didn't go into UC's role.

Karp wrote in his e-mail that he agonized over what to include in the article, given the amount of space he would have in the newspaper. He interviewed more than 40 sources, but only had room to cite two.

"If I had room to cite the contribution of three or four persons, and explain what they did, I would certainly have cited (UC Small Farm Program farm advisors) Manuel (Jimenez) and Mark (Gaskell)," Karp wrote. "I'm quite aware of their very substantial contributions to California's blueberry industry."

Karp mentioned that he spent two months of his life and thousands of dollars of his own money to research the article because, "I'm passionate about writing about fruit only when I really know what I'm talking about."

In conclusion, he said, "I apologize to Manuel (Jimenez) and Mark (Gaskell), Ben (Faber) and Gary (Bender) and others, but I'd like to think that they understand that in telling a shortened version of the full story for a newspaper, writers face difficult choices."

 

Mo' better blues

On Saturday, the Fresno Bee published its take on the Valley's burgeoning blueberry industry. Writer Robert Rodriguez, well acquainted with UC Cooperative Extension, spoke to farm advisor Manuel Jimenez for perspective on producing a crop whose value climbed from zero at $30 million in less than 10 years. Jimenez's home county, Tulare, is the state's leading grower, producing a blueberry crop valued at $17 million.

"We have nearly every level of production right now from small plots to large commercial plantings of more than 1,000 acres," the Bee story quoted Jimenez.

Rodriguez noted that Valley farmers have spent years researching and experimenting with different varieties to find the ones best suited to the region's climate and soils, "with Jimenez's help."

Jimenez holds annual blueberry meetings at the UC Kearney Research and Extension Center near Parlier to discuss new varieties and growing methods.

"But it's not easy having those field days, because growers don't always want to share," Jimenez was quoted.

Blueberry field day.

Capital Press gets it right

I'm not sure about writer Cecelia Parsons' opening analogy - the "blue wave" cresting and growers "still putting their boards in the water" - but her article in Capital Press about last week's blueberry field day at the UC Kearney Research and Extension Center did hit all the important points.

Now that blueberry production in the Central Valley has been underway for the better part of a decade, and many growers have invested heavily to coax the healthful fruit out of the Valley's uncooperative alkaline soil, folks are starting to wonder what to do with what is beginning to look like a more than abundant crop.

A speaker at the blueberry field day - Mark Villata, executive director of the U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council - said its time to build on blueberry's healthful image to increase consumption, the article said. In the West, only 42 percent of consumers reported buying blueberries, compared with 58 percent in the Northeast. Ideas for new uses, ranging from pet food to cosmetics, were also raised.

Parsons noted in her story that UC Cooperative Extension small farm advisor Manuel Jimenez pioneered some of the early blueberry trials in California. She mentioned that Jimenez organized the field day and showed visitors some of the successes and challenges with blueberry plants growing at Kearney.

Jimenez speaks at a blueberry field day.

California blueberry industry owes much to UCCE

California farmers interested in branching out with blueberries have gained much wisdom from UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor Manuel Jimenez, who has maintained extensive research plantings of the crop at the UC Kearney Research and Extension Center near Parlier since 1998.

Annual blueberry field days consistently bring significant numbers of farmers to the station to get the latest information on blueberry varieties and cultural practices, the most recent of which was held last week. According to a report on the field day in The Packer, more than 60 farmers were in attendance.

An article in the Los Angeles Times today about blueberries correctly notes that it took an "extraordinary confluence of scientific advances, daring growers and market forces to fuel the great California blueberry boom of the last decade." But writer David Karp failed to mention that it was UC Cooperative Extension farm advisors -- Jimenez, plus others working in the San Joaquin Valley and on California's coast -- that deserve the lion's share of credit for getting the industry off the ground.

The Times article speaks to the challenges of growing blueberries in an environment so different from the cool northern states where most of the nation's crop is produced. Summers are hot, winters cold, alkaline soil must be acidified and voracious birds discouraged.

At the end of his article, Karp suggests consumers remember, when they see local blueberries at the market, the heroic efforts that it took to get them there. However, the writer himself didn't remember to credit UC scientists who first thought of bringing commercial blueberry production to California, nurtured dozens of blueberry varieties under California conditions, and freely shared whatever they learned with the state's farmers.

Blueberries.

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