FARM TOUR 2018: SUN VALLEY FARMS

Sun Valley’s home ranch is nestled in the upper reaches of the Pajaro Valley along a creek that flows into the Elkhorn Slough.  Rogelio Jr. met us at the ranch entrance with his business assistant Chris.  His brother Steven who is the farm manager and crop scientist arrived shortly after with Rogelio Sr. their father and farming mentor.  The Ponce family has been farming in the area for three generations growing mostly berries with the newer additional of row crop vegetables.  The addition of row crops allows Sun Valley to have a solid crop rotation program without having to lease their land to outside vegetable growers.  This crop rotation system increases soil fertility, as well as, limits soil-borne diseases like Verticillium Wilt which strawberries are particularly susceptible.  As long time, former Driscoll’s contract growers, the Ponce family is both skilled in growing multiple varieties and types of berries but they also have a seasoned and honed eye toward quality.

Rogelio Jr., Rogelio Senior and Steven

We toured the home ranch and adjacent parcel where they are currently growing strawberries, greens, herbs, carrots, radishes, bok choy, romanesco & cauliflowers.  The Ponce’s have selected a few varieties of raspberries to trial and will be in production by 2019.  They have a few acres under hoop houses which gives them season extension and protection from weather extremes.  There was a block of baby sweet broccoli that they were experimenting with mowing to get second and third harvests.  Regenerative agriculture inaction.  A quick visit to the cooling shed led us through the heart of berry country past Driscoll’s experimental berry plots and where Rogelio’s grandfather sharecropped strawberries in the 1950’s.  Rogelio is a wealth of local information and knows the growing history of much of the Pajaro Valley.