Nearly 90 citrus trees in the Bakersfield College agricultural laboratory still have no planned harvest in sight.
“We need to do something,” said Bill Kelly, BC Agriculture Department chair.
The Agriculture Department organized a pick-your-own event during finals week of the fall 2004 semester but had a low turnout because of inadequate promotion for the event. Agriculture students and staff were able to purchase self-picked citrus at a price of $2 for a grocery-sized bag. The sale drew in a few hundred dollars for the department, but nearly half of the fruit still remains on the trees.
Agriculture and economics professor Keith Haycock hinted at some kind of citrus sale in the future but said that the purpose of the agriculture lab is for education not profit.
Haycock planted the trees roughly 25 years ago.
The mature orchard contains Washington Navel orange trees, two varieties of grapefruit trees as well as lemon trees.
The main costs for maintaining the trees are fertilizing, which runs about $100 per application three times a year; pruning, which costs $400 to $500 every few years; and insecticides, which cost $300 per application when needed. Students are used for other labor, which costs the school nothing.
The agriculture department had previously tried to sell the citrus at the BC farmers market on Saturday mornings. Kelly said that it is hard to find students to work on Saturday or Sunday because of their busy schedules away from school. The department discontinued selling at the farmers market, though, after upsetting regular sellers who could not compete with the low prices.
BC food service manager Alex Gomez said that he has toyed with the idea of receiving citrus from the agriculture department to sell as whole fruit or to use for making orange juice or marmalade to sell in the Panorama Grill.
“I don’t know if I could sell them directly,” Gomez said. The produce would have to be inspected and graded by the Health Department in order to sell fruit from the Agriculture Department. Gomez said that he doesn’t want to get sidetracked on a project like that because he is already short on staff.
“It would be fun and good for the college, but I don’t know if it would serve the students best,” Gomez said.
Panorama Grill currently purchases produce four to five days a week from Alpha Produce. The Bakersfield company transports the produce to town from wholesale markets in Los Angeles. Prior to the arrival to the markets in Los Angeles, the citrus can travel from as far away as Florida or even Chile.
The Agriculture Department has explored other options for the fruit. The Golden Empire Gleaners, a local charity organization, has offered to take the fruit and distribute it to needy Kern County residents; however, the organization will not harvest the fruit.
Haycock said that in order for the fruit to become available to the Golden Empire Gleaners, the Agriculture Department would have to sign on a labor contractor to come and pick the citrus before it could be donated. With the approval of Dean of Economic and Work Force Development Ed Knudson, the department would make the harvested fruit available to students and staff for purchase and then donate what is left to the Gleaners.
The department cannot hold another pick-your-own event because the fruit available from standing level was picked in the first sale.
“We picked the easy ones already,” Kelly said.
A pick-your-own sale at this point would require the use of ladders. Kelly said that if someone were to fall and get hurt, the school would be held liable. Before proceeding with any of the plans, the department needs approval from Knudson.