Focus on Agriculture

After more than four years of devastating drought, 2017 saw California receive the wettest winter in more than 100 years.

In 2014 Elizabeth Hoover, associate professor in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at UC Berkeley, set out on a road trip across the U.S. Hoover covered 20,000 miles over four months, visiting 29 different Indigenous communities and asking everyone she met one question: How do...

Edward Ortega of Ortega Berry Farms was recently selected by the Santa Cruz County Farm Bureau as the 2019 Farmer of the Year.

WATSONVILLE—Heavy-duty earth-moving equipment rumbled into gear at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds over the past week, reshaping a chunk of land at the Agricultural History Project to make way for the expansion of the Living History Farm. Situated near the entrance of the fairgrounds, the...

Apple harvest is underway, and at Pista Farmlands in the Pajaro Valley, the season is shaping up to be a bountiful one. Pista Farmlands is a 75-acre plot of land about one parcel northwest of Watsonville, consisting mostly of apple orchards that supply fruit to...

As the Santa Cruz County Fair nears the folks at the Agricultural History Project have wheeled their featured showpiece into place.

Three years ago, 18-year-old Cesar Mendoza walked into the El Pajaro CDC Kitchen Incubator with a group of his peers. They were there for a workshop to make vitamin water and to learn how the kitchen ran.

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—Santa Cruz County Agricultural Commissioner Juan Hidalgo released the 2021 Santa Cruz County Crop Report on Oct. 5, which shows a 3.4 percent increase in overall crop production values over the past year. Strawberries remain the top crop in Santa Cruz County, with...

WATSONVILLE—The Watsonville Certified Farmers’ Market continues to offer an array of fresh fruits and vegetables, and gives back to the community every Friday in downtown Watsonville. While many shoppers stop by for a bag of kettle corn, fresh flowers, eggs, hot prepared foods or a...

Turning onto Bonny Doon Road from Highway 1 north of Santa Cruz, one can expect a number of different sights and smells. Wildflowers flank the paved road at first, pushing out onto the pavement persistently. Then there are damp, cool redwood groves. After