Like the end of an epic movie making endeavor, or the last
few seconds of the Super Bowl, the end of the navel orange season signals the
end of something fantastic that “was”.
I know some of you are saying…”OK, Farmer Tony has been in the sun a
little too long”, but bare with me a moment and see why I can make the
comparison.
With both making a movie or pulling off a Super Bowl, there
is a lot of planning that needs to be done in order to make all the “magic” happen. All the right players are needed to fill all
the parts and positions. The right support staff has to be in place to cover
all the details. Funding for the project has to be in order or nothing even
gets started…And of course there must be a director and script to be followed,
lest the project go adrift with no direction. Believe it or not, so too are the
needs of any successful farming operation.
Without the help of my “team” Javier and Daniel, our farm
would just not operate the same. These
guys know the trees, the ground, the water and the weather that affect our
farm. I know that if I miss something,
they will be there to catch it. They tend to the trees with such
professionalism and pride that they would be hard to replace. They are my “star
players”.
As far as support staff, I have some of the best local
people on my cell phone contact list that you can find in our industry. If I have a need like topping the trees or
someone to work on our pump, they are just a phone call away!
Funding for our project…well, that can sometime get a little
“dicey” for any farming outfit. Just ask
any farmer or rancher and they can tell you all about the good, the bad, and
the ugly times of trying to finance the business in our world.
And finally, for a director and a script, well I guess
that’s where I and “Mother Nature” come in.
Mother Nature hands me the script and I try to direct how it all
happens. Of course we don’t always see
eye to eye. Sometimes I want to do one
thing and she wants to do another…like rain when I need to spray weeds or disc.
What would Francis Ford Coppola do?
So now that we are coming to the end of the navel orange
season, it’s bitter sweet. The crop this year was smaller in volume, but the
flavor was incredible and the fruit was sweet.
It’s sad to know that we are just about out of navels, but it was good
to know how great the crop really was and we were so pleased to be able to
share it with so many people. But like a
great movie, there will always be a sequel and like a great sports team who
wins it all, they will always try to repeat the following season…and so too
will we. In fact we are already raising this fall’s crop of navel oranges. Right now they are the size of a marble, but
in a few months they will once again be ready for the “spotlight” of your table
or lunchbox.
But in the mean time (to once again use another sports
analogy), the Pearson Ranch team is getting ready to “kick off” the season for
Valencia Oranges, or as they are also known… the “summer orange”. So be sure to watch our facebook page and
e-mail for more information on Valencias.
And for now…I guess “that’s a wrap!”
As always, thanks for reading.
I’ll see you in the groves.
-Tony
