Friday February 3, 2012

We left at 8:15am for El Centro, CA for out farm tour. We didn't leave early enough for a REAL breakfast so drove through McDonald's for a breakfast sandwich.

Our tour is scheduled for 10:30(Arizona Time) but we need to be there at 10:00 for registration. El Centro is about 55 miles west of Yuma on RT 8 and is an easy drive. I had the information sheet on how to find the University of California Farm Extension but we both read the directions wrong. We thought it said the exit was 5 miles west of El Centro but actually said 5 miles EAST of El Centro. We drove 20 miles out of our way, so we had to rush to get back in time to register.

 Entrance to Research Farm

When they started the tour, they featured a fruit salad recipe and called two people out of the crowd to show us how to make the salad. Afterwards, they served all of us the fruit salad, which was wonderful. I am guessing there were approximately 110 people for tour.We split into two groups and our group went with Nancy on a tour through a green house into a classroom for a presentation.
 The other group loaded onto wagons to tour the vegetable fields. During the presentation she told us how most of the vegetables are harvested and packed for shipment right in the field. Each farm worker must wear gloves, hairnets and face masks. The worker is watched closely to keep everything sanitary and there is a person that makes sure each wash their hands after using the bathroom. The fields are kept as sanitary as possible and people and animals are prohibited from entering the fields unauthorized. Nancy also made a point of how important it is for us as consumers to thoroughly wash our fruits and produce before eating. She also told us to clean the skins of melons with a brush before ever cutting into the fruit as bacteria enters into the food if cut before cleaning.  Nancy explained how much of each dollar is spent by the farm owner for labor, advertising, cooling, packing and shipping. After all of the expenses, the farmer ends up with profits of about 19 cents out of the dollar. The migrant workers must all be certified as legal migrants by the farmer who pays them about $8 per hour. The workers catch a bus at 2:30am at the border to ride to the fields and their paid time only begins once they arrive at the fields. The workers then take the bus back home arriving about 6:30pm each evening.

In 2010 the top 10 ranking crops in Imperial County were,in order from top, cattle, head lettuce, leaf lettuce, wheat, alfalfa, broccoli, carrots, onions, sugar beets and spring mix. 
 
 At 11:30 we all meet in a main area with picnic tables and they served an amazing green salad and a drink.The salad was loaded with locally grown produce including sugar beets, which I don't believe I have had  in a salad. They were very tasty as part of the salad but don't think I'll buy them just for that purpose. Nancy and her husband provided musical entertainment. Her husband played something that I think he called a shoulder harp and Nancy joined him and played the fiddle. They were very good and enjoyable to listen to.

This morning I noticed a lady in the group with a sweatshirt that said Hackensack, MN so I told Larry he should talk to her. After lunch Larry went over to where the couple were setting and introduced himself and told them he and his family fished in Hackensack when he was younger.  When I joined them, they introduced themselves as Herman and Correl.  Correl told me she grew up in San Diego and met Herman when he was stationed in San Diego in the Navy. He grew up in Hackensack and his family still live there. They also told us that they were full time RV'ers and their children all lived in California, two of them live in the San Diego area. They are probably somewhat younger than Larry and I.  They have their motor home parked on a private lot that they are renting on 54th Street in Yuma. Correl said they are only paying about $250 for the month--a far cry from what we are paying at Las Quintas. There are about 8 or 10 lots and all have full hookups.  We told them we would try to drive over to check the place out.

 The 'old farts' loaded on wagon for farm tour

 Our tractor driver--- Willie Nelson 'look alike'!

After lunch the groups switched places and our group loaded onto the wagons for the field tour. They drove us through the vegetable fields and told us what was growing in each plot and a gave us a lot of information about what and how they grow each item. Most of the plots are test plots where they are experimenting with insecticides, irrigation, creation of different hybrids and emerging bio-energy crops. They have a weather station that is published on a website, that helps the farmers determine their water needs, etc. Each farm owner must order his water supply for crops in advance and the water is scheduled for delivery from the Colorado River via the All-American Canal. With each water delivery, the farmer must be present when a ditch rider, known as 'zanjeros', opens the gates along the lateral canals so that farmer can receive the water he ordered. They explained that the water has so much salt content that the fields have to be tilled several times to move the salt down as deep in the soil as possible before planting.

The research center houses the largest research feedlot cattle facilities in the US. It has 105 pens with a 700-head capacity which mainly house Holstein cattle. They said the majority of meat in the stores in the southwest come from Holstein cattle.

There are 4 single-family residences used by university employees and a six bedroom dormitory used by visiting faculty and staff. They have many visiting students that come to the farm for research studies or academic internships.

They showed us Sugar Cane also grown and tested on the research farm. One cane was bigger around and used for sweeteners and the other, which was much thinner was used for ethanol. We were told that sugar cane is not as widely used for sweetener as sugar beets. They also had a plot of sugar beets on the farm but currently they were out of season. There are many different plots grown on the research farm and all have rotated growing seasons during the 12 months.

We turned onto a road that ran by the cabbage and broccoli patch and we all unloaded to pick what we wanted. The broccoli was pretty much done for the season so we only found a couple of small bunches. The cabbage, however was plentiful and we picked two heads to take home.

We road on and came to a group of plots containing, leaf and romaine lettuce, cauliflower, swiss chard, daikon radishes and one plot of beets that were mostly harvested. There were a few red radishes but our tour guide told us they may or may not be acceptable for eating as they were also at the end of the season. They let us pick as much as we wanted and provided nice heavy bags to take our produce home.

We loaded back onto wagons and came back through the parking area in front of the farm to drop our produce at our vehicles.

We walked back to picnic area and were served ice cream with numerous toppings of  choice. The ice cream was served in reusable cups that turn various colors when they are cold. Something of interest to save for our granddaughters!

They drew numbers for many, many door prizes but as usual, neither of our ticket numbers were drawn. When we left we were all given a small recipe book. The book contained recipes that were created or shared from the university staff and we were also offered a bag of wheat, which had a recipe included in the book.

We left the research farm around 3:00pm to head back to Yuma. We talked a lot about the day and felt that the cost of $15 each was very much a bargain.

We arrived back in the Foothills about 4:30 and tried to decide where to eat. Restaurants in the Foothills are pretty limited and if you want to eat before 10:00pm you have to do it early. We decided to try a new place called Red Rose Cafe. There was a couple coming out so we asked them if the food was good and they gave us a rave review on the fish. We went in and looked at menu and decided to try the fish. It was an 'all you can eat' item which should have raised a red flag. When it came, it was fried to perfection but the fish was terrible. We ate one piece and decided we had enough to last a lifetime.  We both wondered how the reviewing couple could have though the fish was even edible! The place was busy and was nice and clean. it was run by two gay guys who were so friendly it was hard to shake them but we found our chance to sneak out so we left without having to tell them how BAD the meal was.

We came home and found a message from Dr. Don from the animal clinic. He basically said he would call again tomorrow to talk to us about Charlie.