New Farmer’s Biggest Challenge: Finding the land
by Jonathan Kauffman, SF Chronicle 11/26/17
Gillyflower Farm in Capay (Yolo County) is so new that owner Laura Reynolds has no tractors, employees or spare cash…
Capay Valley Farmers
Insight with Beth Ruyack 9/19/17
Author Elvira Di’Brigit shares her new book “Why We Farm: Farmers’ Stories Of Growing Food And Sustaining Their Business, Featuring Farmers Of the Capay Valley.”
Federal Funding Helps Capay Farmers
The Davis Enterprise 11/2/16
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Rural Development has picked two Capay Valley farms for value-added producer grants.
Read Entire Article Here
Organic Farm Serves up Life Lessons for UC Students
By Alec Rosenberg, UC Newsroom 4/12/16
The Full Belly visit showed the complicated nature of agriculture, said Tara Benesch, a graduate student in the UC Berkeley-UC San Francisco Joint Medical Program, who is working to connect research to policy in such topics as soda taxes.
After a tough year of drought, almonds still celebrated in Capay Valley
The Sacramento Bee, 2/28/16
California almonds were maligned over this past year as prime water guzzlers during a devastating drought, but that didn’t take the bloom off several thousand fragrant acres of white and pink almond blossoms highlighting the 101st annual Capay Valley Almond Festival on Sunday.
Returning to the Farm
by Martin K. Barnes, The Davis Enterprise, 2/12/2016
Returning from self-exile in France, l am visiting Capay Organic, the farm that my ex-wife Kathy and I started in 1976, where we raised our four sons. But I have been absent for 26 years!
I am amazed at what my boys have done with the place.
The Agony and the Eggstasy
The New Yorker, 11/24/15
I’m referring to eggs from Riverdog Farm, which, all of us in line agree, are of a different order. Technically they come from the Capay Valley, forty miles northwest of Sacramento, but as far as we’re concerned their origin is APIAU: A Pre-Industrial Agrarian Utopia…
Sheep keep weeds in check at Cache Creek Preserve
Daily Democrat, 10/7/15
Under the oaks at the Cache Creek Nature Preserve, a small herd of Navajo-Churro sheep quietly graze on restored native grasses and noxious weeds…
Tasting Tours Delve into Olive Oil
Marin Independent Journal, 9/1/15
You’re sitting in an olive oil tasting room, just a few hundred yards from where the liquid gold was grown and even closer to where it was milled…
What’s the Buzz About Wild Bees
New York Times, Opinion Page, 8/4/2015
This video (filmed at Full Belly Farm) explores Claire Kremen’s research at the University of California, Berkeley, which looks at diverse pollinators — not just bees, but also birds, moths and many insects — and the issues affecting them as emblematic of the broader problems of the food system.
Summer in the olive orchard at Grumpy Goats Farm
Good Day, Sacramento CBS channel 13, 7/13/2015
Watch Grumpy Goats Farm being interviewed on Sacramento TV about their award-winning olive oil and how they produce it. Big shout-out for Capay Valley too.
Seka Hills Tasting Room Draws a Crowd
The Daily Democrat, 5/18/15
The Séka Hills Tasting Room held a Grand Opening that included tours of an olive oil press, orchards and novel ways to use one the county’s most rapidly growing niche products.
Gov. Brown Directs First Ever Statewide Mandatory Water Reductions
Office of the Governor, 4/1/15
Whereas on January 17, 2014, I proclaimed a State of Emergency to exist throughout the State of California due to severe drought conditions; and…
Read Summary and Find Link to Full Order Here
Almond Festival Showcases Capay Valley’s Cash Crop
Full Belly Farm Honored for its Commitment to Sustainability
Full Belly Farm in Yolo County’s Capay Valley, is the recipient of the prestigious 2014 California Leopold Conservation Award. The award honors private landowner achievement in the voluntary stewardship and management of natural resources.
Seka Hills Tasting Room Opens in Capay Valley
Sacramento Business Journal, 12/18/14, By Mark Anderson
The Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation this week opened its Capay Valley tasting room for olive oil, wine and honey. The Seka Hills tasting room, meeting area and gift store is inside the olive mill that manufactures Seka Hills olive oil. The building is surrounded acres of fields planted in young olive trees.
California Foodways: Native American Tribe Bets on Olive Oil
KQED news, 12/7/14, By
The Capay Valley in Yolo County is bucolic, with ranches, alfalfa fields and small, organic produce farms that have earned this valley a reputation as an agricultural gem. It’s pretty serene, except for the cacophony inside its most lucrative business: the Cache Creek Casino.
Full Belly Farm continues to feed Capay Valley
For more than two decades Judith Redmond has made it her mission to feed Capay Valley residents quality organic produce. The story of Full Belly Farm begins in 1989 when Redmond and three friends purchased 100 acres of farmland in Guinda. Since then, Redmond along with co-owners Andrew Brait, Dru Rivers, and Paul Muller have seen the business grow from humble beginnings to the 350-acre operation it is today.
Rosés of Summer: Casey Flat Ranch, past and present
In land far away, on a hill steeply above the valley, lies a secret place in Capay Valley called Casey Flat Ranch. Located at 2000 feet above sea level in the Vaca Mountains, between Napa Valley and the Central Valley, the area was originally settled in the late 1850s during the Gold Rush. Now, a new rush is on – both for sustainable organic produce, and wine.
Women-Run Meat Co-op Bands Ranchers Together
Civil Eats, 6/30/14, By
If farmers are known for their independent streak, four women in Yolo County, California are challenging the assumption that going at it alone is always better. Starting this summer they will join forces to offer customers premium pastured meats through the new Capay Valley Meat Co-op.
Teens’ foreign exchange experience in Capay Valley comes full circle
Daily Democrat News 06/28/2014 , By Katherine Jarvis
Ella Rose Eldon’s last two years of high school were a little bit international, despite coming from the small town of Brooks. The 17-year-old recent graduate spent a semester of her junior year in New Zealand and when she returned to Esparto High School for her senior year, she knew she wanted to host an exchange student. Wilma Hjerppe, 18 and from Finland, became like family for Eldon during her year in the Capay Valley.
California Olive Oil Goes Head to Head w/ Old World Producers and Comes Out on Top
The Olive Press, 05/09 2014, Posted by Olivia
Awards season is increasingly more exciting for California olive oil millers and farmers as they go head to head with old world producers and come out on top. In a marketplace that is trained to adore European producers, Californian artisans are given the recognition they deserve. And in an age of fresh, farm to table, local food… why shouldn’t olive oil be included?
Capay Valley Almond Festival continues long tradition
Daily Democrat News, 02/25/2014, By Elizabeth Kalfsbeek
What began as a dinky community gathering to pay homage to the Capay Valley almond harvest has blossomed into a regional jubilee drawing thousands. However, it’s unlikely that the pioneers of the Capay Valley Almond Festival would have predicted that nearly a century after its beginnings in 1915 it would morph into a magnet for motorcycle enthusiasts, among others.
California getaway: Capay Valley is a rural paradise
San Jose Mercury 01/28/2014, By Martha Rossmross
Hidden gem may be an accolade bestowed on a lot of destinations, but it definitely applies to Capay Valley, a narrow slice of farmland heaven nestled in the mountains of western Yolo County. Quiet, picturesque Capay (pronounced CAY-pay) Valley takes you back to times when rural California was a patchwork of small family farms and tiny towns. For outdoor enthusiasts, the valley also offers access to camping, hiking and whitewater rafting along scenic Cache Creek.
Spotlight on Spud’s – Capay Valley Olive Oil
Thurston Talk, 01/23, 2014, By Jennifer Crain
Several years ago, lifelong farmer and California native Chris Steele bought land in the Capay Valley, returning to the place where he grew up. Steele tells me it’s hard to find land in the area, at least enough to do any farming. Much of it is still held by the descendants of an influx of farmers who settled in the area in the mid-1800s. Before Steele purchased his land, it had been in the same family since 1856.
Yocha Dehe Greases its Impressive Business Wheels With Olive Oil
Indian Country Today Media Network.com, 07/24/2013, by Lynn Armitage
After you build a profitable casino, luxurious hotel and championship golf course, create an award-winning wine label, manage more than 11,000 acres of farm and ranch land—including 300 heads of cattle—and on top of it all, buy back your original tribal lands, what on earth do you do for an encore?
Oil Boom! Séka Hills Marketing Great Extra Virgin Olive Oil Nationwide
Indian Country Today Media Network.com, 07/05/2013, by ICTMN Staff
On the first day of the Summer Fancy Food Show in New York, June 30-July 2, Nancy Ash lifted a blue-tinted sifter to her nose. She inhaled the scent of the olive oil in the glass, and then took a small sip, coating her tongue in the oil and swirling it in her mouth to decipher its retro-nasal aroma. Finally, she swallowed, paying close attention to its affect on the back of her throat—one of the ways she measures the pungency of the oil.
What’s for Dinner?
The New York Times, 06/07, 2006, by Michael Pollan
I’ve spent the last two months mostly on the road, talking to audiences around the country about my book, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” and the questions it raises about how and what we eat. Most of the posts here on TimesSelect represent my thoughts in response to questions put to me by those audiences as well as readers of this site. Complicated as they may seem, many of the questions — Local or organic? Carnivore or vegetarian? — boil down to variations on the most basic question of all: What should we have for dinner?
