Photo: Jason Cole
Just northeast of Santa Paula, Ca. sits Cole Ranch on a more than 4,000 acre piece of land. The land is divided amongst three areas of focus—800 acres of avocados, 200 acres of lemons, the remaining dedicated to farm cattle.
“The fire started from about 1/8th of a mile away from our northwest corner and today I believe we lost 200 acres of trees. I estimate that’s around 3 million lbs. plus of fruit so about 25 percent of our planted acreage,” says Jason Cole.
Photo: Jason Cole
“We had some thermal imaging done—you walk through below and everything’s burned. The irrigation system is completely gone. But if you go high and look down, you see some green,” says Cole. “But I’ve never seen fire before so I don’t know what these avocado trees are going to do. Some are developing fire blisters which is a red sap coming out of the trunks. There’s smouldering through the leaf mulch that lays on the floor of the groves—that’s the worst actually because then it kind of stays there and burns around the base of the trunk.”
That mulch is what makes avocado trees so susceptible to fire in the first place. “It’s like throwing a match into a box of pencils—it’s going to burn,” Cole adds. Interestingly the lemons on the farm have seen minimal damage.
Photo: Jason Cole
Widespread effects
Meanwhile over at Freska Produce International in Oxnard, Ca. it too is assessing the full effects of the fire. “Avocado crops were affected but they’re still gathering info. But it will be significant between the wind and fire in Ventura County and Santa Barbara county,” says Gary Clevenger of Freska.
Effects are being seen in produce beyond avocados and lemons. “The local produce economy was affected by bad air quality and ash drop which has affected the harvest of strawberries, celery and other row crops,” says Clevenger. “But I think the overall effects were minimal.”
So the California produce community moves on to recover what it can from the fires. “January 16 is supposed to be the maturity date so I think you’ll see a lot of people pick where they can. But some areas are total losses,” says Cole. “Everybody is pretty positive though. Even with these losses, we had such an abysmal yield last year with our production that even with all of this, we’ll still have 50 percent more fruit than last year. Everybody is starting to rebuild.”
Effects are being seen in produce beyond avocados and lemons. “The local produce economy was affected by bad air quality and ash drop which has affected the harvest of strawberries, celery and other row crops,” says Clevenger. “But I think the overall effects were minimal.”
So the California produce community moves on to recover what it can from the fires. “January 16 is supposed to be the maturity date so I think you’ll see a lot of people pick where they can. But some areas are total losses,” says Cole. “Everybody is pretty positive though. Even with these losses, we had such an abysmal yield last year with our production that even with all of this, we’ll still have 50 percent more fruit than last year. Everybody is starting to rebuild.”
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Jason Cole
Cole Ranch