Fruits & Vegetables

Shelby Trimm, executive director of the Imperial Valley Vegetable Growers Association and two other farm groups, works to solve problems for farmers and ranchers in her home county.

Photo/Courtesy Shelby Trimm

Maurizio Carrubba worked at family farms in Italy. After he and his brother purchased the Mt. Hamilton GrandView restaurant in Santa Clara County, he opened a farm next door to grow their own fresh produce.

Photo/Courtesy GrandView Farm

Organic sweet baby broccoli grows between hybrid cover crops of sudangrass and sorghum at an experimental regenerative agriculture field at the Braga Fresh Foods ranch in Soledad.

Photo/Braga Fresh Foods

Alejandro Juarez, a seasonal driver for Antonini Fruit Express in Modesto, works on a trailer during processing tomato harvest. High yields in tomatoes, pistachios and other crops left some California farmers scrambling for hauling services as trucking companies were stretched thin.

Photo/Steve German

Parastoo Farajpoor, a doctoral student at the University of California, Davis, collects tomato plant leaves in a Yolo County field infested with a parasitic weed, branched broomrape, which can devastate tomato crops. 

Photo/Karin Higgins/University of California, Davis

At a San Joaquin County farm near Manteca, a harvester digs “creamer” potatoes that are destined for microwavable steamer bags. California farmers this year planted 23,000 acres of potatoes, an increase from 19,000 acres in 2022. 

Photo/Vicky Boyd

Honeydew melons are harvested and loaded onto a trailer in a field in Firebaugh. Melon grower-packer Turlock Fruit Co. in Stanislaus County says it expects harvest will run through early October.

Photo/Vicky Boyd

The Center for Agroecology farm at the University of California, Santa Cruz, collaborates with farmers and others on research to improve organic farming practices and increase sustainability. 

Photo/Erin Foley/Center for Agroecology

Organic herbs are grown at an indoor facility of Virgina-based Soli Organic. The company’s co-founder and president, Philip Karp, says the indoor growing sector may need to narrow product offerings after some operations failed to meet investor expectations.

Photo/Soli Organic

Bakersfield-based Grimmway Farms, billed as the world’s largest carrot producer, says its sustainable farming is “dedicated to protecting natural resources.”

Photo/Grimmway Farms 

California Sun Grower Services employee Eden Peña cleans debris from a tomato harvester in a Sutter County field. Growers say they fear delays in early-season planting could result in excess tomatoes needing processing all at once. 

Photo/Caleb Hampton

The International Fresh Produce Association Foodservice Conference featured produce promotions. Growers connected with food service executives are still gearing up orders after the pandemic. 

Photo/International Fresh Produce Association

Branched broomrape, a parasitic weed, invades a processing tomato field. The noxious weed can cause tomato yields to plummet. Once the weed is found in a field, entire crops must be destroyed.

Photo/Brad Hanson/University of California Cooperative Extension

Attendees gather at the International Fresh Produce Association Foodservice Conference in Monterey. Speakers at the event discussed challenges for produce shippers adapting to changing consumer markets as the food service sector recovers from the pandemic.

Photo/International Fresh Produce Association<

Taylor Farms display at International Fresh Produce Association Foodservice Conference in Monterey. The company offered farm tours for attendees, including representatives of school districts seeking healthy options for students.

Photo / Des Moines Public Schools Food & Nutrition)

Garlic is harvested in Fresno County, where most of the state’s garlic is grown. California remains the nation’s No. 1 producer of the bulb, but growers continue to face competition from China, which dominates the global garlic market

Photo/Courtesy Borba Farms

Employees working for Del Bosque Farms pick and pack organic watermelons in a field in Firebaugh during the second week of July. The state’s melon crop was delayed by two weeks due to cooler temperatures, missing the window to supply supermarkets for the Independence Day holiday.

Photo/Cecilia Parsons

Wren Ramsey, a “robot wrangler” for the Salinas Valley agricultural tech firm farm-ng, monitors the company’s farming robot, the Amiga, at Jacobs Farm del Cabo in Watsonville. The firm is among several tech startups drawn to the vegetable-growing region.

Photo/Caitlin Fillmore

New strawberry varieties, bred for resistance to soil-borne fungal diseases, are grown in the Salinas Valley. Growers say university and private breeding efforts are critical to sustaining crop production.

Photo/Vicky Boyd

Glenn Cole, a plant breeder at the University of California, Davis, works on creating new strawberry varieties that are resistant to crop diseases.

Photo/Bob Johnson