Focus on Agriculture

On May 18, the Salinas Valley Fair returns to King City for four days of family-friendly events, exhibits and activities.

The Rancho Cielo Youth Campus was the site of a groundbreaking ceremony for the Ted Taylor Agricultural Center on April 8, with speakers including Bruce Taylor and John Phillips, founder of Rancho Cielo.

The Castroville Artichoke Food & Wine Festival will return to the Monterey County Fair and Event Center for two full days of cooking demonstrations, activities, exhibits and entertainment.

About 3,000 people with lavender shopping bags in-hand converged on the Paso Robles Downtown City Park to enjoy the Ninth Annual Paso Robles Lavender Festival, July 8, hosted by the Central Coast Lavender Growers Association and the Paso Robles Main Stree

“Pollinate!”, a farm to table, flower to table event, will be held Sept. 23 as Farm Discovery at Live Earth’s ninth annual farm dinner. It will feature local chefs, farmers, artisans and winemakers, celebrating the abundance of fruit and vegetable crops grown in the Santa Cruz area.

In a barn tucked away in a corner of the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds, volunteers from the Agricultural History Project are hard at work restoring a piece of the past.

Hosted by Congressman Jimmy Panetta and joined by Congressman Doug LaMalfa, the trio fielded questions from farmers, farmworkers and other agriculture industry personnel from across the Central Coast to discuss policies and federal programs in hopes of improving and investing in agriculture innovation.

The Ecological Farming Association (EcoFarm) recently announced Andy Fisher as its new Executive Director. The selection was made after an extensive national search.

At Blossom’s Farm in Corralitos, owners Delmar McComb and Carin Fortin are doing things differently. A “biodynamic” farm, Blossom’s attempts to be self-sustaining—utilizing land, plants and animals to create a single living organism, which is a concept introduced by Rudolf Steinfer in 1924. “We are trying...