THE LAND and its people

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JULY 2015

Serving Santa Cruz, Monterey, San Benito and San Luis Obispo Counties

State regulators considering new pesticide rules

Pinot and Paella Festival is for lovers Local annual event draws crowd from far and wide By BETH BOLYARD Of the Land

TEMPLETON — The scorching 99 degree heat couldn’t keep paella lovers from the 12th annual Pinot and Paella Festival, held June 7 at the Templeton Community Park, which drew more than 600 festival participants, paella chefs and wine pourers to the popular event. The festival, which is notorious for selling out months in advance, featured over 20 wineries pouring their best paella pairing wine, mainly Pinot Noir, and 15 paella chefs, each vying for the first place spot in the People’s Choice vote. Each participating winery and chef donated their time and products to the event and all proceeds went to benefit the Paso Robles Youth Arts Foundation in Paso Robles. Marc Goldberg, the 25-year owner and winemaker of Windward Vineyard, started the festival at his vineyard 12 years ago, but the event became so popular they had to move to a larger location, where they invited more wineries and local chefs and began to give the proceeds to the PRYAF. “It brought everybody together, and we never looked back,” Goldberg said of the successfully harmonious food, wine and fundraiser union where over $350,000 has been raised for the Foundation since the event’s conception. “It works for the community, it works for the children, and everybody loves it.” When asked about why Pinot and paella was chosen as a pair, Goldberg said that with Pinot’s unique quality and paella’s nearly 400 varieties, it was a “marriage made in culinary heaven.” At the beginning of the event, each

By TODD GUILD Of the Land

Growing a community Garden at Calabasas Elementary School for families By TODD GUILD Of the Land

WATSONVILLE — Calabasas Elementary School has long been a place where students could get their hands dirty. At an after-school program called the Children’s Discovery Garden, students learn about science, biology and botany as they study everything from plants to pollinators and watch as the seeds they place in the soil grow to fruition. Now the school is taking that idea a step further. UC Santa Cruz, which runs the Children’s Discovery Garden, is now working with the school to turn a spare, sunbaked patch of earth into a community garden. Organizers say that as early as next year the project will allow parents to grow their own food and feed their families. More importantly, it will also give them a sense of ownership in the

school and in their children’s education. “It’s a community meeting place for the school,” Principal Todd Westfall said. On June 2, two workers from Watsonville-based Whiskey Hill Farms used a powerful tractor to till the compacted dirt on the two-acre site, the first step in a process that included mixing in rich soil. Organizers say that families will be able to grow food on individual plots. Whiskey Hill Farms, which grows ginger, turmeric, cucumbers and kale on the former Kato rose farm, will help with the infrastructure arm of the community garden, said CEO Michael Wachtel. “We want to help out and build the community,” he said. The project was funded by a grant from the UC Santa Cruz Blum Center on Poverty, Social Enterprise & Participatory Governance. Please turn to Page 4

Please turn to Page 4

Farmer’s Market attracts locals and visitors from all over California By SAMANTHA BENGTSON Of the Land

The Maxwell Family picked up some flowers from Flora’s Farms. Photo by Samantha Bengtson/The Land

KING CITY — The sixth year of the King City Farmer’s Market kicked off on May 20 bringing local residents and visitors from as far away as Vacaville to enjoy vegetables, fruits, live entertainment, tacos and more. Fresh vegetables and fruits as well as a variety of restaurant dishes attracted not only locals but two bicyclists from Vacaville. Bob Haran and Steve Chun rode 127 miles on their bicycles to end up at San Lorenzo Park just in time for the Farmer’s Market. “We started our journey in Morgan Hill and are headed to Paso Robles for the Great Western Bicycle Rally,” said Haran. “For the last few years I’ve been Please turn to Page 2

SALINAS — Hall District Elementary School kindergarten teacher Margalete Ezekiel told a panel of California pesticide regulators June 2 that she has two students whose severe asthma causes frequent absences. One of these students, she said, did not show any symptoms of the disease until he moved to the area and began attending the school, which is abutted on all sides by farm fields. Still another of her students, she said, recently died from leukemia. “That to me is an emergency,” she said. Ezekiel was responding to a statement by Department of Pesticide Regulation Chief Deputy Director Chris Reardon that the organization only cites pesticide users who skirt rules in dire situations. “We have to have justification to do that,” Reardon said. Ezekiel joined dozens of people who addressed the Department of Pesticide Regulation, which is holding a series of meetings statewide as it attempts to craft regulations that would govern dangerous chemicals used on farm fields around schools. “This will be a statewide policy that will be enacted and enforced by the county agricultural commissioners,” Reardon said. Reardon said the agency hopes to finish gathering public input by the end of the year, and have a policy in place by the end of 2016. Cesar Lara, executive director of the Monterey Bay Central Labor Council, called the meeting a “positive step forward.” “The DPR is here to hear input,” he said. “Pesticides have been an issue in the Pajaro Valley, and we have to tell our stories.” The meeting at the Cesar Chavez Library in Salinas, which drew more than 100 people, was the second of five in which the DPR says it hopes to gather public input. The meetings include Sacramento, Ventura, Kern County and Coalinga. The attendees included teachers, Please turn to Page 3

Inside ... Honduras students

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Discovering life

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Farmworker video

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Greenfield FFA

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Safe water act

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