UC Blog
UC Davis receives $1.57 million grant from Kellogg
A $1.57 million grant from the Kellogg Foundation will create an endowment for the UC Davis Agricultural Sustainability Institute to support a network of scholars at 14 universities working to improve children's access to healthy food, said a brief article in the Modesto Bee.The article was based on press release distributed yesterday by UC Davis.
Tom Tomich
Tomatoes get their day in the sun
It's little later than normal due to an unusually cool spring, but California tomato season is now in high gear. Farmers markets, roadside stands and many back yards are teeming with a wide variety of vine-ripened tomatoes, according to an article in yesterday's Sacramento Bee.UC Davis Cooperative Extension post-harvest specialist Marita Cantwell told Bee reporter Niesha Lofing that consumer demand for high-flavor tomatoes has prompted greater availability of a diversity of tomato varieties in hues from golden yellow to deep burgundy.
"Sales are greater if you have more variety," Cantwell was quoted in the story. "The beefs, the rounds, the grape tomatoes – that diversity has stimulated consumption, and that stimulates interest to produce (more varieties)."
Lofing also spoke to Pam Geisel, the UCCE Master Gardener statewide coordinator, who offered a few suggestions for using this summer's tomato bounty:
- Blending different varieties of tomatoes makes a more interesting tomato sauce.
- Sauce need not be cooked for hours. Geisel makes a tomato sauce with fresh basil, fresh garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper in just five minutes.
- No need to blanch and peel tomatoes before cooking. Instead, after cooking, a food mill can quickly separate the peel and seeds from the tomato meat.
Tomatoes and other garden vegetables.
Santa Barbara funds CE; Faulkner Farm supporters write letters to editors
The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to save the local UC Cooperative Extension programs by approving additional funding, according to the Aug. 11 Lompoc Record.
“State cuts to the UC system, combined with local funding reductions, would have reduced the Extension program’s presence in Santa Barbara County to practically nothing without the infusion of cash from the Board of Supervisors,” writes reporter Sam Womack.
In other South Coast news, Ventura County residents have been writing letters to the editors of the Ventura County Star and the Santa Paula Times voicing opposition to the Hansen Trust Advisory Board’s recommendation to sell Faulkner Farm.
In the Aug. 9 Ventura County Star, Douglas Nelson and Nicholas Deitch of Mainstreet Architects + Planners write that they were hired by UC to provide a Master Plan for the Hansen Agricultural Center at Faulkner Farm.
“We worked for over a year with the first Hansen Trust Advisory Board, UC staff, UC Cooperative Extension and design focus groups from the local community,” they wrote. “Through a collaborative process, we developed a long-range plan for the Hansen Trust - a plan that was based on principles and goals reflecting the vision of benefactor Thelma Hansen.” They call the recommendation to sell Faulkner Farm “a very short-sighted decision.”
In the Aug. 6 Santa Paula Times (available only in print form currently), Mike Mobley and Ginger Gherardi of Santa Paula urge readers to “help in preventing this travesty by writing a letter” to President Yudof and VP Dooley.
Wine demand expected to rise in US, fall worldwide
Within 20 years, 42,000 acres of new vines could be needed to meet growing U.S. wine consumption, Western Farm Press reported Jim Lapsley, UC Davis professor emeritus of ag economics, said at the “Outlook and Issues for the World Wine Market” symposium sponsored by the UC Agricultural Issues Center in late June.
But recently, cheaper wine imports have been spurring growers to replace grapevines with more profitable crops, notes reporter Harry Cline. In the Central Valley, wine grape plantings declined from 190,000 acres in 2001 to 157,000 in 2008.
“Using UC crop budgets, wine grapes are netting only $80 per acre compared to almonds at $200, walnuts at $1,070, pistachios at $860 and pomegranates at $620,” writes Cline.
“The supply of inexpensive wines from other countries acts as a ceiling on prices for wine grape growers,” Lapsley is quoted saying regarding San Joaquin Valley wine grapes.
Based on population/demographic trends and the falling wine consumption in Italy, France, Spain and Argentina, Dan Sumner, director of the University of California Agricultural Issues Center, expects world wine demand to decline despite projected consumption increases in the U.S., U.K. and Germany.
“World wine markets may still expand as incomes grow gradually in traditional markets and wine consumption is introduced in places with rapid population and income growth,” Sumner is quoted as saying.
UC Master Gardeners study 'no-dig' techniques
Even if you can't push a spade in the ground, you can grow your own vegetables using unusual techniques that are under investigation by UC Master Gardeners in Santa Clara County, according to a story in the San Francisco Chronicle.Master Gardeners Joe Gallegos and Abby Goddard are experimenting with plantings of chilies in straw bales and directly in bags of potting soil. Although straw bales show promise, they didn't produce a robust crop in the Santa Clara County test. The mostly stunted plants pale in comparison to chili plants that are growing in the ground, wrote the article's author, Laramie Treviño, who is also a Master Gardener.
The potting soil bag idea met with greater success. The Master Gardeners suggest gardeners lay the bag flat on the ground, slit it down the middle on top and poke holes in the sides for drainage, add seeds or transplants and water.
"Camouflaging the soil bags with straw mulch can improve the appearance of bag planting," Treviño wrote. "At the time of planting and every few weeks, some gardeners add a few tablespoons of fertilizer to growing plants."
A bag of potting soil slit open on the top can be a garden bed.