Focus on Agriculture

Focus on Agriculture will soon be two years old.

One year after announcing a new research and development partnership to grow strawberries indoors, Watsonville-based Driscoll’s and Plenty Unlimited Inc. are building a new indoor vertical strawberry farm.  Together, the companies aim to accelerate the growth of Driscoll’s top crop by using Plenty’s growing platform. According...

WATSONVILLE—The Land Trust of Santa Cruz County recently announced that it secured a conservation easement for the 178-acre Tynan Ranch, located one-half mile from the current urban growth line of the City of Watsonville off of Lakeview Road. Tynan Ranch has been in production for...

On March 29, the members of Watsonville Rotary and guests gathered at the Watsonville Elks Lodge for the first in a series of special monthly meetings.

Patrick and Teresa Royan were living in Los Gatos when they first discovered Pleasant Valley, a rural area in Aptos permeated with rolling hills, orchards, vineyards and pastures. The couple had been looking for a place to settle relatively close to the beach yet...

WATSONVILLE—On March 30, the Watsonville Municipal Airport (KWVI) announced it had renewed a two-year lease with Watsonville-based Urban Organics, aiming to bring fresh produce to the community as the sole organic farm within city limits. At the southernmost tip of airport property, just over the...

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—About two dozen farmworkers settled in on picnic tables at a Lakeside Organic Gardens field Wednesday for a fresh, healthy lunch featuring the very crops they harvest.  The meal was prepared by Charlie Hong Kong, a Santa Cruz Asian fusion restaurant that was Lakeside’s first...

Ranked 11th by last year’s U.S. food and wine festival calendar critics, the 2017 Paso Robles Wine Festival is scheduled for May 18-21 and will feature four days of dinners, tastings and educational seminars fit for both experienced and inexperienced pala

WATSONVILLE—Guy George has been selected as the 2022 Farmer of the Year by the Santa Cruz County Farm Bureau. The annual award is presented to farmer(s) who have contributed “beyond their normal farming duties to help the community,” according to SCFB.  George has been farming in...