Since 1975, Bakersfield College’s Agriculture Department has conducted a fruit sale from the trees located on the agriculture laboratory near the library.
This year it took place on Jan. 30-31. The fruit sold for $3 a bag if someone picked it themselves and $5 a bag if it was picked for you by BC students in the Agriculture Department. Cilantro was also given out for free.
The Agriculture Department has their citrus sale every winter. This year it was supervised by Bill Kelly, BC instructor for the Agriculture Leadership Training class.
According to Kelly, the funds earned from the sale help the Agriculture Department. He also added that the fruit is probably worth $10 a bag.
Kelly went on to say that they did not have the money to advertise, so the buyers are mostly limited to the students and staff with some participation from the community. He said that if they don’t sell all of the fruit, what’s left over is taken down and given to a homeless shelter.
Alma Rolanday, a laboratory tech and first-time picker, was out in the morning chill to pick cilantro and oranges with Joe Salinas, a friend of hers and a custodian in the same building. They both agreed that cilantro was good for soup, salad, and hot sauce on meats and other foods.
A forestry and wildlife major in her second year in Kelly’s class, Rolanday said she really enjoys heling pick grapefruit and oranges.
Bakersfield College student Adriana Hurtado, animal science major, said that she has participated the last two or three years, and that the agriculture students have jobs at the farm laboratory, and picking is just a part of the maintenance.