A cornucopia of fruit
Local produce sweet and plentiful
Doreen Lum, owner of The Vegetable Patch, grows much of what she sells in her produce stand. (Joel Rosenbaum/The Reporter)
|
|
Fast facts • Apricots, peaches and nectarines first appeared in China more than 2,000 years ago. From there, they spread to Persia, Rome and Greece. • Spanish explorers brought the fruits to California in the 18th century. • California nectarine growers produce 175 commercial varieties of the fruit. California grows 93 percent of the U.S. nectarines.
|
The bubbly matriarch of the Vegetable Patch married into a farming family that has long been known for their tomatoes, pears, peaches and apricots.
These days, Doug and Doreen Lum sell fruit and vegetables from their fruit stand on Rockville Road in Suisun Valley. The Vegetable Patch is one of a dozen produce stands that the county Agriculture Department lists on its Web site, in addition to four seasonal strawberry stands.
Kiwis, apricots, pears, peaches, cherries, figs, apples and strawberries, among other fresh fruits, are sold in the county's produce stands.
Farmers worked 172 acres of apricots in 2005 - about 30 fewer acres than the previous year, when they produced 99 tons of apricots. (Production figures for 2005 were unavailable.) The 85 acres devoted to cherries produced 193 tons of fruit in 2004.
Solano farmers also grow tangerines, plums, peaches and persimmons, as well pluots, a cross between a plum and an apricot that is growing in popularity as it shows up in local markets.
There is no better fruit than that which is grown in Solano County, said Bob Hansen, a lifelong farmer and president of the Suisun Valley Fruitgrowers Association.
The dirt and microclimates in Suisun Valley are perfect for stone fruits, but valley farmers are tearing out their orchards because they have few places to sell their fruit.
The Lums feel the pinch on farmers.
"Business just isn't that good anymore," Doreen Lum said. "It took years for us to get here. Every year Doug would add another roof onto our place on Abernathy (road). Now things are just slow."
The Lum family and Ray Ferrari may pull out the last of their pear trees this year because they don't make money on them. That would essentially decimate the pear market in Suisun Valley.
"I hate to do it," Ferrari said. "But it's costing more than we can get on the market."
The problem is that canneries and processors have disappeared, leaving fewer markets for the fruit.
"I don't know if anybody around here will ever put in another crop of pears," Hansen said.
The acreage of pears in the county has dropped in the past few years. The crop report for Solano County listed 898 bearing acres of pears in 2004 and 527 acres in 2005. But tonnage increased per acre because farmers are learning more efficient techniques. Tonnage between 2004 and 2005 increased from 178 to 198 tons of pears.
Hansen has a deal with the University of California, Davis, which does pesticide testing on his pears and pays him market price. It's just one way of surviving as a farmer.
Solano County's produce stands offer a variety of fruit and produce grown on local farms, but sales don't put a dent in the tons of farm produce coming out of the farms in Solano County.
"When you look at the big scheme of things, it's small tonnage" that's sold at produce stands," Hansen said.
Much of Solano's stone fruit ends up at drying facilities, such as Cal-Yee in Suisun Valley or Mariani Packing Co. in Vacaville. Pears are sold to canneries, such as Signature in Modesto or Del Monte. Consumers might find them in Del Monte or Libby cans of split pears, diced pears or in fruit cocktails.
Solano's fruit production pales in comparison to that in Central Valley counties, and even within Solano fruit and nut sales are anemic, when compared to nursery stock, which brought in $50 million in 2005. In contrast, fruit and nut sales accounted for only $36.5 million in 2005. When the figures are adjusted for inflation, the fruit and nut sales in Solano have been stagnant for at least eight years.
Farmers are creative and resilient when searching for new markets and alternate methods to their trade, but this year has been particularly rough on fruit farmers, Agriculture Commissioner Jerry Howard said. The New Year's Flood and seemingly endless rain hurt some tree crops, such as apricots, cherries and peaches.
"The latest problem is the extensive heat of July," Howard said. "We know there was quantifiable damage to crops."
Howard's office has already secured designation for two disasters - the floods and rain - for farmers. That means the federal government may help affected farms.
With all of the difficulties of farming fruit and nuts, farmers continue looking for ways to stay afloat and grow.
Hansen said that, with some changes in county rules, farmers could do more to sell their products - and others' -near the farm.
"We need production plants so we can sell our commodities," Hansen said. "If people have a good destination - let's say they go to Suzy Parker for her specialty tomatoes - we'd like to see her buy fruit from others and sell that, too. It would be nice for her to be able to offer muffins and other foods."
Fruits and vegetables can also be processed into pastes and purees that are popular with consumers. Hansen would like to be able to process these items in Solano County and sell them at the farm.
"If we're going to keep our agriculture as agriculture, we're going to have to produce" the value-added products, he said.
Send comments to citydesk@thereporter.com.
