From the Fields - Celeste Alonzo

By Celeste Alonzo, Riverside County vegetable grower 

We just started harvesting sweet corn, green beans and shishito peppers. Very soon we will begin bell pepper harvest. Our corn harvest ends about Memorial Day weekend, and green bean harvest is three to four weeks.

Because of COVID, it was two years of bad markets. It has taken a while, but we are seeing progress. I feel like we’re starting to get out of those dark clouds where there was not a lot of demand. The markets have been steady lately, and so far, there are good projections for this season.

This is the first year we didn’t sell corn at the local music festivals. The organizers were taking a 43% commission and brought in a lot of vendors, so it dilutes your profit even more. It goes back to COVID, so I don’t blame them for trying to get their money back.

The state and our agricultural commissioner have done a good job containing the fruit fly to the west side of the county. I’m grateful for the work they did because we were worried. It could have affected us, and we could have lost our harvest. It can still affect our valley, but they’ve done a good job of containing the threat.

Related to water, we rely on Colorado River water, and we’re on our toes with what is going to happen with this new contract. California is probably going to receive 10% less of its allocation, so it is scary for my brother and myself, being the younger generation. If we don’t have water, we can’t grow.

This was our first season applying pesticides with our new drone. My brother got his drone pilot license, which involved the local, state and federal levels. There were many hoops to go through, but it’s really been cool to see my brother flying the drone. We will probably see our return on investment in the first year or two.