Food Share

Food Share

We visited the distribution center of Food Share.  The center serves as a warehouse for affiliated agencies and does not directly distribute food themselves. 

 Our guide for a tour of the warehouse was Christina Forina, Coordinator for Volunteers. We arrived to volunteer some time to the center.

Christina, Coordinator for Volunteers

  

Food waiting for distribution

Food assembled for a member agency

For our volunteer project we wrote Thank You cards to donor agencies.  Libbie and I wrote 2 Thank You letters each including addressing and inserting our cards into envelopes.  Since we were a group of 26 and if each person did 2 Thank Yous, there should have been a total of 52 letters written and addressed.

Heritage Square - Oxnard

Heritage Square - Oxnard

The City of Oxnard purchased a series of Victorian and Craftsmen style houses and moved them out of the path of development.  The houses have been arranged facing inward with a center square as a focus point and sold to private individuals for uses as offices, restaurants and specialty retail.  We had lunch in one of the houses in a cafe named "La Dolce Vita".

La Dolce Vita

Docents in period costume gave a brief talk on the history of the Square and then led us on a walking tour.

Docent in Character

The Square has a unique blend of beautiful period homes saved from the wrecking ball.

The Square

Our docent leads the walking tour

Nice attention to detail

Windows with curved glass in this beauty

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Proceed to the next stop, Food Share

Conroy Farms - Strawberries in Oxnard

Conroy Farms

Strawberries are the #1 cash crop in Ventura County, having displaced Lemons by a large margin.  We visited the strawberry Fields of Conroy Farms which employs 300 pickers at the season peak which just happens to be last week.  Our host for the Conroy Strawberry fields was the second generation owner.

Owner-Farmer, Conroy Farms

Conroy Farms has 117 acres of Strawberries.  Interestingly, the Strawberries are ripped out every year, the field is tilled and laser leveled for drainage, plastic mulch covering laid down and then replanted.

Ripe Strawberries

  Strawberries are picked and packed directly into consumer packaging without any further handling.  Shelf life is short and strawberries can't be washed since they start molding immediately.

Picked directly into Consumer packaging

Consumer Packaging ready for shipping

Strawberries that are overripe or otherwise damaged are picked in bulk containers and sent to Smuckers for crushing.

Strawberries for Crushing

Ripening Strawberries ready in a day or two

McGrath Family Farm

This was not my favorite of the Organic Farms we visited.  The owner was more of a gentleman farmer than a real farmer, most of his fields are leased out to commercial corporate growers.

McGrath Family Farm

We took a short walk in the newly planted field led by owner McGrath.

Farm owner McGrath

Newly planted organic vegetable crop

New planting

A dirt driveway/road runs along the field.  Alongside the road this planting of corn acts as a dust shield keeping the vegetables clean.  The corn will reach 5 to 6 feet in height which will nicely protect the crops from a cloud of dust by passing farm vehicles.

Row of emerging corn seedlings

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Proceed to Heritage Square, Oxnard

Faulkner Farm

Faulkner Farm

The University of California-Hansen runs the Faulkner Farm as an educational and research facility.  The original farmhouse has been restored as offices and the barns have been painted, restored and serve as a classroom facility.

Faulkner House

Restored Barn, now a classroom

Our guide for the Farm tour was Dr. Jose De Soto, Director of the Research Center. After a brief lecture explaining the challenges facing agriculture and the economic value of the current top crops in Ventura County, he took us on a walking tour of the grounds and crops.

Jose De Soto

Research Fields

Faulkner Farm, UC-Hansen

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Proceed to Conroy Farms Strawberry Fields

Ventura Agricultural Museum

Agricultural Museum

As a tribute to agriculture in Ventura County over the past Century, a former warehouse next to the train tracks was refurbished and now serves as an agriculture museum. 

Ventura Ag Museum

Kevin Genovese, Museum Director, was our host and tour guide.  Kevin was pretty excited over the museum since he was a part of the research and acquisitions that went into the creation of the facility.

Kevin Genovese

Museum Director Kevin Genovese explains the newest exhibit

Across from the Agricultural Museum I noticed the Santa Paula train station fully restored as an Art Gallery.

Santa Paula Train Station now an art gallery

For lunch in Santa Paula we went down the street to Tia Babes for a Mexican lunch and Guacamole making demonstration.

Tia Babes restaurant

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Proceed to Faulkner Farm, a UC-Hansen educational farm