Patterson's Blossom Hill Orchard

We may no longer be the true apricot capital of the world... but before we grew tract homes, we grew multitudes upon multitudes of the tart orange fruit that helped give us the title that we base Patterson's biggest party around... the Apricot Fiesta.

We here at the Irrigator have been anticipating it as one of our busiest times of the year. Taking photos and writing stories in preparation. One of my pre-fiesta duties each year, is to photograph the many different processes that the apricot goes through each year here in Patterson.

Dave Santos, from the Santos-Lucich Blossom Hill farms off of Rogers Rd., has been extremely kind enough to allow me to follow along those who work to process the fruit from start to finish, and while we don't have the chance to publish all these photos in the newspaper or the Fiesta Issue, I'm glad that I get to share them here.

Above, Modesto's Jose Castillo carefully pours a bucket of Poppy Apricots into a bin that will be transported to the Lucich-Santos farms packing shed.

A Poppy Apricot tree, full of apricots in an orchard off of Zacharias rd. just west of Patterson.
Pickers carefully pour the apricots into bins that will be carted back to the packing shed for processing.
Absolutely beautiful, I love this assignment every year. I can't wait to walk through those orchards and smell the distinctive smell of the ripening apricots... the smell I and many others grew up with walking to or from our destinations around town. I used to love walking down 9th street on a warm summer evening, passing Mike Mahaffey's orchards and saving an apricot or two that may have fallen off the tree or rolled into the street. While those days are definitely over, I still hope I can buy some apricots that aren't from Turkey or Argentina from the Walgreens that will be going on his property.
3:00, quitting time in the orchard, but back at the packing shed, things are just about ready to get under way.
Here, a tractor is backing up the filled bins of Poppy Apricots at the packing shed, while stacks of organic Apriums (75% apricot, 25% plum) are first in line to go through the packing shed conveyors. According to Dave Santos, the organics have to be processed first because they have to go through the clean system, before any other non-organic fruits touch the conveyors.

The stacks of organic apriums are ready and waiting to go on the first day of operations at the Lucich-Santos farms on Thursday May 7th.

These two supervisors from the shed are so nice, they remember me every year I go back there, and I remember them.

Everything's just about prepped and ready.

Everybody's in their proper place and the only thing left to do is to flip the switch.

And here it goes.

The main switches and operations of the shed are controlled from this central elevated point, and the whole process can be stopped from here if it needs to be.
Here go the first organic apriums, poured into the system where they are rinsed and sent to the first conveyor.
Here's that first main line and the workers that begin hand sorting them based on quality.

Such a serious face from a seriously hard worker.

Sorting through the first organic apriums on the conveyor.

Some of them go onto these red plastic trays.
There's always some sort of glitch when starting things up again.

But, the kinks are worked out and things are up and rolling again.

After the fruit is sorted, some end up pouring into these boxes.
Gotta keep the boxes ready to be fed into the machine.

Some boxes are filled with the apriums on the sheet of plastic.

While the loose ones in the boxes are weighed out, then sent along to be shipped away somewhere.
Rolling along.
There's Dave Santos making sure that everything's running smoothly.

It's the end of the line for the organic apriums. They've been sorted, weighed, boxed, stacked on pallets and ready to be sent to their new owners.

Fiesta Issue Photos

The 39th annual Patterson Apricot Fiesta is nearing and is right around the corner.

Our annual Fiesta special issue is out and available at the Patterson Irrigator.

I'll have to say, that with all of the changes going on around the Irrigator here, sometimes changing on a day to day basis, the anticipation of the Fiesta that normally builds for me has been a little befuddled. I got a chance to go out treasure hunting with some of my friends one evening only once. My friends briefly checked the Carnegie building across the street from where the treasure was found next to the downtown fire department. I had no idea, but once again the treasure was hidden within view of my front porch. It was a complete change of mood to see Wendy Lopez and son Corey come into the Irrigator office Tuesday afternoon with beaming smiles from ear to ear, shaking as they told us where they found the treasure.

It hasn't quite hit me yet, but as soon as some of the booths start getting dropped off down town next week, and the stage begins to be assembled for the downtown pageants on Friday, then the fiesta fever will probably hit.

I can't wait to see what old friends will return this year to the fiesta, and which new ones I will make.

Anywho... the Fiesta special issue is out and here are this year's Miss Patterson contestants. The 14 finalists, photographed along the historic row of Canary Island Date Palms off of Old Las Palmas ave.

Alejandra Gonzalez-Hernandez

Andrea Silva

Breana White

Brittany McDermott

Catarina Lam

Chelsea Taylor

Chelsea White

Darlene Ruiz

Jessica Carranza

Kelly Cox

Kiana Weinzheimer

Lacey Nicholson

Stephanie Camacho

and Valeria Nunez

The judges are going to have a hard time choosing this year, good luck to all the finalists.

Check back within the next week for another blog posting on the start-to-finish process of one of Patterson's most famous crops.

the 'Path of the Padres'

I've always been interested in California history. It being a relatively new state in a relatively new country, a lot can be learned by looking back to our recent past. So I try to involve myself in whatever resources that come available that help facilitate learning about our historic area.

One such opportunity is that of the 'Path of the Padres', a moderately strenuous day hike that takes you along the original path that the Franciscan Priests (Padres) used to travel over Pacheco Pass from Mission San Juan Bautista on their way into the central valley. I had heard about the guided hike a few years ago and figured that it was about time to inquire about it, so after googling 'Path of the Padres', a telephone number listed on the city of Los Banos' website came up and I called it. After talking to a ranger I was informed that reservations for the hike (which begin in February) had been all reserved... all except for the day of the 21st of March, which was only two days after I had called. So I told them to hold me a spot. I met the ranger and the group of hikers selected to make the 5 mile round trip, at the boat launch of the Los Banos Creek reservoir at 8:00 a.m. There we boarded a small pontoon boat (The Arroyo Queen) that took us across the small lake where Los Banos Creek flows into the reservoir and our hike would begin. Along the ride we made stops, admired the numerous native waterfowl, and were pulled into a marshy area where the tules had grown and provided areas for animals to hide in.
After the boat ride, we began our hike up along the flood plain of the Los Banos Creek bed. Ranger Richard Ranc, leading the hike, informed us that we were about to cross the site where a sizeable Yokuts Indian village once stood.
Here's that site looking back towards the central valley.

Along the way, Ranger Richard pointed out the various plants and animals along the way. He showed us which ones were edible and were used by the Native Americans, and which ones were poisonous. Above he points to a poisonous plant called locoweed. Apparently, the Spanish named it that after they watched their cows eat it and then watched them go crazy. Now the cows stay away from it and it grows taller than the grass that surrounds it.

It was a beautiful day, the second official day of spring. It started out bright and sunny, then got kind of overcast and spotty through out the rest of the day. The constantly shifting light made it a little more frustrating to photograph considering the bright sunlight makes for a much more vibrant color photograph than does one with diffused grayish light.

Like some of the colors in these lichens on the rock and the petals of the poppy... they would have really popped out if the sun were shining... but being part of a guided hike, I couldn't be having the ranger waiting for me, waiting for the sun to come out... at least not for too long.

The trail started out relatively flat, but we soon entered the narrows of Menjoulet Canyon, formed by the erosion of the layers and layers of uprighted sediments that form the eastern edges of California's coastal mountain range.

This is the area where the creek makes large natural pools and was noted as the area where Padre Arroyo would stop to bathe during his travels between Mission San Juan Bautista and the central valley. These pools in the creek , referred to as 'Los Banos' by the Spanish, is what led to the name of the city of Los Banos. Another poisonous plant, this one some sort of Hemlock, is potentially deadly to humans.A ranger shows off a horsehair worm found inside a pool of standing water. It looks really tangled up right now, but as soon as it was put back in the water it quickly started to untangle itself.
On up Menjoulet Canyon were some really interesting rock formations, like this natural overhang.

Before reaching the terminus of our hike and breaking for lunch, Ranger Richard gave us the option of following him on a side hike up to the tops of the hills overlooking Menjoulet Canyon where we could see the largest grove of Sycamore trees in the entire state.
It was a rough hike straight up 600 ft, especially with my camera gear, but totally worth it. From there we could see the central valley, but we could also see a considerable amount to our west. From the west end of Menjoulet Canyon starts the huge Sycamore tree grove that snakes west towards the coast range.

Here's a Sycamore tree up close. The white bark really stands out, as do the green new growth leaves glistening in the sun.

So look closely at this map below. The ranger passed it around along the trail. The black area shows the existing waterways, the San Luis Reservoir, and the Los Banos Detention Dam and reservoir both constructed in 1967. In blue is a separately proposed off-stream reservoir approved in 1980.

The proposed Los Banos Grandes Reservoir would essentially dam up Menjoulet Canyon and flood the entire Sycamore grove shown above. Ranger Ranc informed us that neither the funding nor the water has become available to move this project forward since it's approval in 1980, so they continue to do hikes up here every spring, walking the same path as the natives and California's first European explorers did.

Hiking up steep means you have to hike down steep. If you ever explore this area, I recommend good sturdy shoes that you don't mind getting dirty.
A rope helped out with some of the steep slippery stuff. Then we were on our way back up the Los Banos Creek bed to meet up with the rest of the group, eat a quick lunch, then begin the hike back to the boat and back to the boat dock by 3:30. I recommend it for everyone. And while I went along with the ranger's tour, he said that people can hike back to that area with out the boat ride across the reservoir and with out reservations. He said not many people do though because it would require an extensive hike around the reservoir to the other side. So if you missed it this year, you've got something to think about for next spring.