Willett Garden of Learning Yolo Agriculture

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1 Willett Garden of Learning Yolo Agriculture Activity: Learn about what is grown in Yolo County (emphasis on Processing Tomatoes and Farmers Markets & CSAs). Optional Supplies: Word search Coloring sheets Crayons (from classrooms) or pens Pencils Blank paper How to proceed: There is no real activity for this lesson. Provide as much information as the students are interested in. Encourage it to be interactive this is a local topic and hopefully the students will see a connection between themselves and the food produced locally. For example, have the kids seen any of the crops growing? Have any of their family/friends worked in local farming or processing? Do they get a CSA box or shop at the Farmers Market? Spend any additional time doing: Brainstorm meal ideas using this week s CSA box (Leeks, carrots, broccoli, spinach, butternut squash, oranges, lemons, potatoes, chard, radicchio) Brainstorm foods that use processing tomatoes. Discuss the differences between how processing tomatoes and CSA produce are picked, processed, and distributed. Have students draw foods that are grown in Yolo. Word search ( Read I Bought A Pet Tomato poem ( Have students draw a pet tomato. Coloring pages. Printouts will be provided for links above.

2 Yolo Crops (2008) Sunflowers Wheat Other Processing Tomatoes Organic Production Almonds & Walnuts Seed Crops Alfalfa Hay Wine Grapes Rice Crop Information: Total agricultural commodities produced $527 million. (Includes plants and also cattle, dairy, etc.) Top crops: Processing tomatoes: $105 million Alfalfa Hay: $73 million Rice: $58 million Wine Grapes: $42 million Note that there are microconditions even within this small area. I don t have any data on this, but from what I ve seen, the rice is grown in the flood areas near the Sacramento River (around the causeway) and wine grapes are grown near the delta around Clarksburg. Processing tomatoes were not always so dominate in Yolo agriculture. They became the largest crop in Yolo in the 1960s. In the 1950s, some of the largest crops were barley ($13M), tomatoes ($9M), beets ($9M), rice ($6M), alfalfa hay ($6M), corn ($3M), almonds ($4M). The produce that is grown in Yolo county comes to our homes in different ways. On one end of the spectrum, processing tomatoes go to processing plants and end up in our homes as ketchup & spaghetti sauce. On the other end, produce can be purchased from the Davis Farmers Market or CSA subscriptions, where the food is grown locally and comes to us directly from the farmer. Sources: Yolo County 2008 Crop Report (

3 Processing Tomatoes: Processing tomatoes are processed for canning and sauces. (They are not the same variety of tomatoes that we buy fresh in the stores.) Over 90% of the processing tomatoes in the US are from California. (California produces nearly half of the worlds processed tomatoes.) 11% of that is from Yolo County (41% from Fresno Co., 12% San Joaquin Co.) Tomato Canneries The Hunt-Wesson Cannery was built in Davis in 1963 and closed in (Was located on Covell, just east of the railroad overcrossing. Kids may know it as where the Emerson carnival was held.) Campbell Soup Company Cannery is in Dixon. The Pacific Coast (PCP) cannery is located in Woodland near Main St and Hwy 113, across the road and railroad from OSH & Ross. (This was previously a Del Monte facility until 2000.) 20% of the tomatoes they process are grown in a 10 mile radius of the cannery; The remaining 80% are grown within 20 miles. Store tomatoes vs processed tomatoes There are an incredible amount of differences between store bought tomatoes and tomatoes that are processed for canning and sauces. One of the first and most important is that processed tomatoes are picked ripe and red. In contrast, fresh market tomatoes are picked green and some of the fresh tomatoes are gassed with the fruits own natural ripening hormone called ethylene to promote consistent ripening. The second is that processed tomatoes are used immediately, from the moment of picking less than 6 hours pass until the tomato is in the can. Third, processing tomatoes are completely machine harvested, the only humans needed are for picking out stray vines and any rare tomatoes that are moldy or crushed. Square Tomatoes Gordie Jack Hanna was a UC Davis professor who helped revolutionalize the tomato industry. In the early 1950s, there was a lack of labor to manually harvest tomatoes in California. In the 1950s, Jack Hanna bred a tomato that was firmer skinned and less rounded (so it wouldn t roll off the conveyors), which was dubbed the square tomato. He then went on to work on a mechanical harvesting machine. By 1962, 85% of California s tomatoes were machine harvested. Personal note: My husband was part of this transition. As a high school student, he picked tomatoes in Davis as a summer job. By the time he was a UC Davis student, the machine harvesters had taken over. He held jobs on the harvester (manually picking out the green tomatoes) and in the Hunt-Wesson factory.

4 Picking & Processing To avoid the daytime heat, tomatoes growers often harvest the crop after sunset. Mechanical harvesters move through the fields picking the entire tomato plant and shaking the tomatoes off the vine. Specially designed electronic sensors on the harvesters sort the ripe, red tomatoes from the vine and transfer them into a gondola pulled by a tractor following alongside. The tomatoes are immediately transported from the fields by trucks, which can hold approximately 50,000 pounds of tomatoes (about 300,000 tomatoes. 6 X 50,000). Trucks haul the crop to a nearby statecontrolled grading station to be graded, then on to a tomato processing plant where they are peeled, sliced, diced, or sauced into the familiar canned tomato products seen on store shelves. Misc Why are tomato trucks uncovered? Time. During the height of the season, California tomato growers are producing 40,000 tuckloads of tomatoes per week! The other main reason is that since tomato harvest is in the summer covering the trucks could result in the tomatoes being damaged by the trapped heat.

5 California's tomato season is in its peak from July through September when harvesters run 24 hours a day. The season, however, actually runs a full six months, beginning in June and running all the way through November Are tomatoes fruits or vegetables? Technically a tomato is a fruit, since it is the ripened ovary of a plant. But in 1893 the supreme court ruled in the case of "NIX v. HEDDEN" tomatoes were to be considered vegetables. Among all vegetables except potatoes, tomatoes contribute the greatest amount of nutrients to the American diet. Each man, woman and child in America consumes almost 80 pounds of tomatoes every year Sources:

6 Farmers Markets & CSAs: Both Farmers Markets and CSAs tend to be sell from small, organic farms that grow a variety of products. Buying from these sources, the produce you get is what is in currently in season where you live. (Very different from a grocery store, where the produce is shipped from around the world.) Background on Certified Farmers Markets Until 1977, regulations required farmers to properly pack size, and label their fresh fruits, nuts, and vegetables in standard containers to transport and sell in markets anywhere other than the farm site. Certified farmers' markets in 1977, by Department regulations, exempted farmers from packing, sizing, and labeling requirements. The Direct marketing of agricultural products through CFM's benefits the agricultural community and consumers. CFM's provide a flexible marketing alternative without disrupting other produce marketing systems. The high quality and fresh produce brought to the CFM's by its' producers creates a diverse market and also provides the consumer with opportunity to meet the farmer and learn how their food supply is produced. CFM's provide a great opportunity for small farmers to market their products without the added expenses of commercial preparation. This increases their net income and makes it possible for them to stay in business.

7 Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Community Supported Agriculture consists of members or "share-holders" of a farm or garden who cover the anticipated costs of the farm operation and farmer's salary. The consumer joins a CSA program and purchases, in advance, a share of the farm s crop, and in exchange is provided a part of the crop each week, delivered to a predetermined pick-up spot, usually near the customer s home or work-site.

8 Sources: