THE LAND and it's people

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March 2015

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

Starting the day off right

Strawberry acres decline

PRJUSD partners with SLO Food Bank 
for free breakfast program

Of the Land

By TARMO HANNULA

By ALLYSON OKEN Of the Land

PASO ROBLES — Three Paso Robles elementary schools launched a pilot program that would provide free breakfast to 1,500 students in the district on Tuesday, Feb. 17. This program was ignited by a donation made to the San Luis Obispo County Food Bank a year ago and now the nonprofit has partnered with the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District to provide the meal program. Bauer-Speck Elementary was one of the three schools chosen to participate. Students in a fourth grade class seemed to be enjoying the breakfast on Tuesday. Each morning teachers will bring the meals in and students that arrive to class by 8:10 a.m. will be able to choose three things for breakfast. They will offer fresh fruit, milk and juice as well as a breakfast item ranging from a pastry to pancake and sausage on a stick. Fourth-graders Jaden Jackson and Gabriel Jorge both said they really liked the food. Jaden said, “I thought breakfast was delicious.” “It is awesome. They did a good job. This breakfast is good,” said Jorge, who was munching down his apple. The first day of the program was considered a great success for Paso Robles Superintendent Chris Williams said they are excited to be able to partner with the Food Bank. Williams spoke of a meeting he had with Jordan Cooper from the Food Bank in December, when they looked for ways to better serve the community and students. Free breakfast was the result. “A little boy told me that he never gets to eat breakfast and he was smiling as he ate,” Williams said. “Just watching the kids Please turn to Page 3

Renaissance High students Roxanna Medina (right) and Jennifer Meza pot oak seedlings in the after-school class. Photo by Tarmo Hannula/The Land

Project helps students branch out

Renaissance High class helping to restore state’s oaks By TODD GUILD Of the Land

WATSONVILLE — When biology teacher James Mattson arrived at Renaissance High School for his job interview two years ago, he noticed the greenhouse adjacent to the parking lot. Excited, he imagined the teaching possibilities such a structure held for science classes, but upon closer inspection he saw it was dilapidated and likely had been unused for a long time. “When I got closer, the beautiful parts went away,” he said. After he was hired, Mattson made it his mission to restore the 900-squarefoot greenhouse, working after school and in his free time.

His students and colleagues joined him, hauling in the gravel that makes up the floor, replacing broken panels and otherwise making repairs that brought the greenhouse back to working order. That included fixing the lights and the watering system. “It was actually a working mess, but we put it back together,” he said. Once the Dragon Greenhouse was completed the question remained: how to use it in his lessons? After briefly considering flowers and fruit trees, both of which he dismissed as overdone in the Pajaro Valley, he remembered a lesson he taught on the oak trees native to California, and their Please turn to Page 4

WATSONVILLE — California’s strawberry acreage is expected to dwindle somewhat again this year. Weather and the amped up yield and quality of some varieties of strawberries are part of the reason, said California Strawberry Commission spokeswoman Carolyn O’Donnell. Farmers in 2015 are expected to plant 37,438 acres of strawberries, which is down from 2014’s total of 38,937. In 2013 the total acreage was 40,816, O’Donnell said. “There are always new varieties being developed, and farmers want a berry that tastes good, looks good and ships well,” O’Donnell said. “It takes five to seven years to develop a new variety and many of these are producing more fruit per acre than earlier varieties.” O’Donnell said growers in 2014 produced more than 191.9 million flats. That is down from 194.8 million flats in 2013. Recent rains on the Central Coast were a plus for strawberry growers since strawberries have just recently been planted and the water comes as a plus. “We’re happy to have the rain,” O’Donnell said. “The strawberries now are starters and the weather is unseasonably warm. Some workers have had to go out to cut off the blossoms, to help accelerate the plant growth.” This year Watsonville and Salinas combined will have 14,307 acres of strawberry farmland. “Because we have a longer season we produce just about half of the state’s berries,” O’Donnell said. “In California about 70,000 people work in strawberries.” Roughly 85 percent of the nation’s strawberries that are grown within the United States come from California. “Though there are numerous varieties of strawberries, they are simply marketed as strawberries, as opposed to apples or pears that come with many different names,” O’Donnell said.

Pocket Park officially open to public By SAMANTHA BENGTSON Of the Land

KING CITY — The King Street Pocket Park is officially open and available to the public. Mayor Robert Cullen, City Manager Michael Powers, City Engineer Octavio Hurtado, Assistant Planner Maricruz Aguilar, residents and kids from the neighborhood and preschoolers from the King City Co-op met at Pocket Park on Jan. 28 for a ribbon cuttting with the King City Chamber of Commerce. The Pocket Park project was part of a Proposition 84 grant that builds parks in under served areas of the community. The project began with workshops at churches and at the co-op preschool to see what the community would like to see in the park. The next stage of the project was breaking ground which occurred on April 28. Over the next several months crews Children can enjoy shorter or longer slides at the Pocket Park. Photo by Samantha Bengtson/The Land

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Young strawberry plants thrive on a farm on Beach Road in Watsonville. Photo by Tarmo Hannula/The Land

Inside ... Mini horses

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Open space district

3

Living history farm

4

Ag careers

6

Ag tour

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