Kearney research station a Fresno County 'gem'

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In the waning days of her tenure at the Fresno Bee, food writer Joan Obra devoted an entire column to the UC Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center near Parlier.

When she first announced her decision to leave the Bee to return to her family's Hawaii coffee farm, Obra wrote rapturously about the UC Lindcove Research and Extension Center. Her following column said, "I'm not yet done telling you stories." She then recounted treasures she discovered over the years during tours of the 330-acre Kearney station near Parlier.

Obra was fascinated by:

A demonstration planting of medicinal and culinary herbs from Southeast Asia which includes common and scientific names for the plants.
Sichuan peppers that she wrote "nearly choked me," planted by UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor Richard Molinar at Kearney as a possible California specialty crop.
A late summer field day where she tried more than 20 varieties of mini watermelons. "The red flesh of the Little Deuce Coupe was pleasingly crunchy but not super sweet. And the sunny interior of the Mini Yellow was sweeter but not as crisp," Obra wrote.
Jujubes. Not the artificially flavored candy that sticks to your teeth, but small apple-like fruit important in Asian communities.

Obra closed what might have been her final Fresno Bee missive by encouraging readers to explore valley food beyond grocery stores and restaurants. And she asked her readers to think of her "when you're enjoying a Fay Elberta peach," considered a "threatened variety" in California, now grown as a specialty crop and made famous by Mas Masumoto's "Epitaph for a Peach."

We will think of you, Joan. Aloha.

A watermelon field day at Kearney. (Photo: B. Dawson)