8
CapitalPress.com
October 14, 2016
California
Subscribe to our weekly California email
newsletter at CapitalPress.com/newsletters
Festival raises funds
for college ag program
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
Growers scramble
to get crop in
before storms
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
ANDERSON, Calif. —
Pumpkin farmer Greg Hawes
was happy to see his ields
lush with big pumpkins, but
he was also wary of what
could happen if they aren’t
picked before the rains come.
At Hawes Farms on Oct.
7, employees were picking
pumpkins and putting them
into large bins while clearing
and irming up walking paths
for customers in case an antic-
ipated mid-October change to
a wetter weather pattern ma-
terializes.
“That’s why I want to
get this all opened up,” said
Hawes, who had just opened
his pumpkin patch to guests a
day earlier.
The precautions come after
the farm lost between 5 and
Tim Hearden/Capital Press
Eric Eiler, a worker at Hawes Farms near Anderson, Calif., puts a white pumpkin he just picked into a
bin on Oct. 7. Workers were picking pumpkins and clearing walking paths in anticipation of rains that
were expected within the next week.
10 percent of its pumpkins to
rot two years ago after a storm
dumped nearly 3 inches of
42-2/#7
REDDING, Calif. —
Nearly three years ago, Bre-
anna Rice left the bustle of
Southern California to im-
merse herself in agriculture
at Shasta College.
What attracted her to the
community college was its
reputation, she said.
“Shasta College is known
as one of the best ag programs
you can get into because of
the hands-on experience,”
said Rice, who’s in her inal
semester at the college and
plans to transfer to Montana
State University and study
agribusiness.
Rice was one of many stu-
dents leading tours of the col-
lege farm on Oct. 10 during
the ag program’s annual
Harvest Fest, one of the pro-
gram’s key fundraisers.
Aside from the farm tours,
about 300 community mem-
bers were treated to a din-
ner featuring pork and other
foods from the farm or from
local producers, live and
silent auctions of donated
items, and entertainment.
The festival was started
several years ago after the
ag program survived a bud-
get crisis in 2009 but need-
ed to ind ways to generate
income. The last festival in
2014 raised about $22,000,
said Trena Kimler-Richards,
an agricultural instructor and
program coordinator.
The college suspended the
fall event last year because
the program’s new dean, Mi-
chael Sloane, had just start-
ed. The program also holds a
Christmas fair, which raises
funds for a student leadership
team.
The 90-acre farm raises
livestock, hay and other com-
modities and includes a dor-
mitory program that immers-
es students in the operation.
It’s now a money-maker for
the community college dis-
trict, selling premium goats,
pigs and cattle.
Rain threatens pumpkins
rain in late September 2014.
The National Weather Ser-
vice in Sacramento advised
that a cool, wet system could
move in from the northwest
by Oct. 12 and rains could
continue through the end
of the week, reaching as far
south as Modesto.
AccuWeather’s long-range
forecast showed that Northern
California could dry out by
Oct. 18 and see intermittent
clouds — but no more rain —
through Halloween.
So far, the moderately
warm summer and early fall
have enabled good pumpkin
yields in California, grow-
ers say. Art Perry, co-owner
of George Perry and Sons
farm in Manteca, Calif., said
the yields in most ields are
higher than last year, when
some growers reported a bet-
ter-than-average crop.
“We’re really excited
about the quality we have this
year,” said Perry, whose fam-
ily’s farm is one of the state’s
largest shippers of pumpkins,
watermelons and hardshell
squash.
“The weather is really
helping us a lot,” he said.
“We’re getting the fall feeling
but it’s dry. It couldn’t be bet-
ter for pumpkin harvest.”
California’s harvest begins
as pumpkin farms in the Mid-
west are reporting a rebound
after early-summer rains last
year created a shortage of
pumpkins for canning. Lib-
by’s, which sells most of the
canned pumpkin in the U.S.,
reported this year’s yields are
much higher than last year,
when the company’s yields
were reduced by half and the
harvest ended a month early.
In a typical year, nearly
6,000 acres of pumpkins are
grown in California, one of
the nation’s top six pump-
kin-producing states. Most are
planted in May or June for the
Halloween season, according
to the University of Califor-
nia Cooperative Extension.
Most of the pumpkins grown
in California are sold in the
state, the California Farm Bu-
reau Federation reported.
Over the last decade, many
pumpkin farms in California
have developed into booming
tourist attractions. Now in its
12th year of providing enter-
tainment, Hawes Farms offers
a corn maze, train and hay
rides and other attractions that
thousands of families enjoy
each autumn.
While it has shipped
pumpkins in the past, the farm
has gotten to the point that it
sells all the pumpkins grown
on its 17 acres.
Hawes is happy with how
his crop has developed.
“I think it looks great,” he
said. “We’ve had a little deer
damage, but that’s normal.”
Large Transmission Power Lines on Your Property? Lease Us Your Land!
Long Term Land Leases Needed! 20-40 Years - Up to $1,250 per Acre per Year
• We require large tracts of land (over 150 acres), currently clear and clean
with 3-phase transmission type power lines for our solar farms.
• Land cannot be in flood zone or have wetlands issues. Owner must retain
mineral rights both above and below surface, or have executive rights.
• No underground utilities, including oil and gas lines, within the
proposed solar site.
42-7/#4X