Letter: Rail Trail classism
The selection of the “Dirt Road To Davenport” over a badly needed county light rail system demonstrates that climate change means little to the supervisors, councilmembers and bureaucrats of Santa Cruz County.
Monies are found for a dirt road for bicyclists and tourists. Meanwhile the...
Local water agency works toward long-term drought solutions
In 1983, a group of local farmers looking for ways to manage the Pajaro Valley’s groundwater basin formed the Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency (PVWMA). A year later, the agency was officially recognized by the state legislature, who tasked them to stop groundwater overdraft...
No greater love
Memo from Pastor Rene
This summer our nation is reeling at the horrific police brutality on display in the death of George Floyd and others, and grappling with the difficult task of criminal justice reform––and the broader plague of systemic racism.
But while the country’s focus...
King City ag teacher earns national recognition
King City High School agriculture teacher Lauren Peterson has been named this year’s Region 1 winner of the National Association of Agricultural Educators’ Outstanding Young Member Award, which recognizes agriculture teachers nationwide for their exceptional civic and professional leadership.
The circus comes to town
The Circus has come to town, this time at Ramsay Park on Main Street in Watsonville.
Circus Royal Spectacular—out of Las Vegas—rolled into town Tuesday, and crews quickly began driving giant tent stakes into the softball diamond to set up their mammoth bigtop tent.
Circus spokesperson...
Guest View: Showing up with love
With nearly three feet of rain in three weeks, national news picked up on the big impacts in our small county. Folks from Nebraska to North Carolina saw images of our battered coastline and the wreckage of Seacliff State Beach and Capitola Village. But...
Letter: Pajaro Valley soil is the best in the world
I grew up in Watsonville and have lived and worked in the Pajaro Valley all my life. I have been an agronomist, scientifically analyzing agricultural soils in California and throughout the United States. I have studied thousands of different soils, and I can say...
Ag Calendar | November 2019
Nov. 22
Pumpkin Floral Workshop
Sarah’s Vineyard, 4005 Hecker Pass Hwy., Gilroy
Come visit Sarah’s Vineyard 6:30-8:30 p.m. for the 3rd Annual Pumpkin Floral Workshop to create a centerpiece for your Thanksgiving table using fresh cut flowers and fall accents. Tickets are $65 for the public and...
Sandy Lydon: The legacy of the county boundary in the river
Back in three successive Pajaronian columns (July 1, Aug. 5 and Sept. 2), I laid out the convoluted story of how a group of Yankee (white) residents in and around Santa Cruz seceded from Monterey County and the two were born side-by-side in 1850.
Monterey...
Templeton Valley Farms’ organic bounty
Every Friday locals pick up their allocated farm share boxes outside a small brown barn up Climbing Tree Lane. Rows and rows of laid back, suntanning sunflowers line the fence at the CCOF certified organic, sustainable Templeton Valley Farms, and it’s quiet – other than some purple berry-stained-faced children coming back from the new U-pick berry tents, and neighbors chatting with Angela, who mans the farm stand, who will describe with her Berlin accent, how to cook any vegetable the healthy way.
Jim Barsi—owner of Barsi’s Liquor Store—dies
James Joseph “Jim” Barsi, who ran his eponymous liquor store on East Lake Avenue for a half-century before selling the business and retiring in...


















