Nut Harvest Time in Merced County

Growers are pleased with the production, concerned about prices and water

Workers pruning nut orchards in Merced County following a successful harvest. Photo: Steve Newvine

It’s been a good season for almonds and other nut crops in Merced County.  With most of the harvest on the way to processing, growers are back in the orchards pruning to give the trees a better shot for a more productive season next year.

While the official numbers are not in on the harvest of 2019, current trends point to another good season for almond growers.

According to the Merced County Agriculture Commissioner’s 2018 report, the almond harvest including hulls was valued at about $460 million.  Over one-hundred thousand acres were in use that year.

Pistachios and walnuts came in at $27 and $16 million respectively.

Tractors and nut harvesting equipment on display at the Merced County Nut Festival held at the County Fairgrounds in October. Photo: Steve Newvine

There was even a Nut Festival in October

This first-of-its-kind event was organized to celebrate the nut industry in Merced County, to educate the community on just how big the business is, and to establish a mechanism to give back to area non-profits that help young people.

“We are a major player on the world stage with these commodities,” said Necola Adams who headed up the Festival.  “We needed to celebrate this!”

In a report to the Board of Supervisors, and available to the public at the county’s website (https://www.co.merced.ca.us/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/810) Agricultural Commissioner David A. Robinson stated the 2018 almond acreage was down a little over one-percent by about six thousand acres. 

That decrease is part of an overall decrease in farm acreage in the year attributed primarily to falling commodity prices

Still, overall agriculture in Merced County had a gross value of three-and-a-quarter billion dollars according to the report.

The Merced County Nut Festival was started in 2019 to celebrate the large nut growing and processing industry. Over 100,000 acres of farmland produced almonds, pistachios, and walnuts in 2018. Photo: Steve Newvine

Nuts, particularly almonds, are a big piece of Merced County’s agricultural market.  

Commissioner Robinson’s report to the Board of Supervisors makes it clear that while almond acreage and prices are down, the crop remains number two in the County’s top fifteen commodity rankings. 

Milk continues to be the County’s top commodity.

“Commodity prices are affected by trade and are linked together,” Commissioner Robinson says. 

Merced County almonds and walnuts are exported all over the world. 

The Commission report states that phytosanitary certificates, relating to the health of plants with respect to the requirements of international trade, have been issued worldwide. 

Japan, India, and Mexico are the top three countries in terms of the number of certificates issued.

Children enjoy a mini-train ride as part of the Merced County Nut Festival. Photo: Steve Newvine

The greatest threat to the burgeoning nut industry in Merced County is water. 

But prices, trade regulations, and urban growth will continue to inflict pressure in the sector.  

“Commodity prices and water availability are an ongoing concern for growers of all commodities including almonds,” Commissioner Robinson said.

Necola Adams with the Nut Festival says that’s exactly why informing the community about this important part of agriculture is necessary.  “We also needed to educate the community on who we are, and the process it takes from tree to table.”

The County’s first Nut Festival program speaks to growing the now one-day event into a three-day affair with attendance crossing over the 100,000 mark over the next several years. 

The Festival’s challenge, like most of the nut industry in the region, puts a lot of hope in maintaining the Central Valley’s role as a leader in the world markets.

Steve Newvine lives in Merced. 

He will release Course Correction, a book about golf, in December.

Returning from the “You Can Never Go Home” Tour

A visit to the place where I first worked forty years ago.

Standing in front of station WICZ, from 1980 and in 2019. Photos: Newvine Personal Collection

Someone once told me the house where you grew up stops being your home once you get your own place.

Those words rang true during my recent visit to my native upstate New York. Since leaving my childhood home after graduating from college, there have been more than a half-dozen places I have lived and worked.

The first of those places I would call home was a ten-unit apartment building in Johnson City, New York, a suburb of Binghamton where I started my television news career four-decades ago.

I paid $120 a month. It was ten minutes from work, five minutes from the shopping mall, and three hours from the small town I called home.

On this lot stood a three story apartment building where I lived in 1979 and 1980. The building was torn down more than ten years ago. Photo: Newvine Personal Collection.

On my recent visit back to upstate New York to visit family and friends, I made a detour to get another view of that apartment, the place where I started work, and the familiar surroundings that were part of my life four decades ago.

The first surprise I experienced upon crossing the Johnson City limits was finding that the apartment building no longer existed.

Someone in the neighborhood saw me peering out my rental car window and asked me what I was doing.

I explained how I once lived in the building that sat on the property. This person explained that the apartment building was torn down many years ago.

A discount store that was less than one-hundred yards from the rear of the building was also gone.

The former store property was converted to a parking lot.

I then drove to the Catholic Church that was off a traffic circle less than a mile away.

I remembered walking to Mass on many occasions, even for Midnight Mass at Christmas. The building remains, but another faith community occupies the space.

Someone explained to me that after a flood a few years ago, the building was sold to a Christian college next door so the college could expand.

The next stop on my “you can never go home again” tour was the television station where I worked for two years.

The call letters and building remain the same, but a lot has changed in forty years. For starters, the station changed affiliations from NBC to Fox more than twenty years ago.

I reconnected with the station manager who was working at the station as an advertising sales representative when I worked there forty years ago. Another department head I worked with was out of the office while I was visiting.

A microphone flag that attaches to the top of a hand held microphone from WICZ Fox 40 in Binghamton.

The news team I was part of numbered about five in 1979. Today, there are over a dozen working journalists.

The set where I anchored the late news is gone, replaced by a green wall and floor. The set is now electronically generated so that it looks like a contemporary and colorful background.

News Director Suh Neubauer took me around the facility. I met some members of her news team. Other staffers were either out in the field gathering news or coming in later in the day for the evening shift.

She gave me a microphone flag; a plastic covering that fits over the top of a hand held microphone to identify the station.

I was surprised when I realized that with over thirteen years in the television news business, I never collected even one mike flag.

My Fox 40-HD NEWS flag sits proudly on a shelf in my den.

Gone was the desk and clock from the set where I read the news four decades ago. The area in the WICZ studio is now painted green with an image imposed over it for broadcast. Picture: Newvine Personal Collection

Thanks to the invitation of a local Rotary Club, I was able to share some of my reflections from my day back to where it all began.

The Vestal Rotary Club welcomed me as I recounted my connection to their community.

Rotary Clubs do a lot of good in their communities and worldwide through the Rotary Foundation. As a former Club President, I have seen the power of an energized club like the one in Vestal, New York.

My last stop was the Vestal Public Library, where I donated a copy of my book Stand By, Camera One.

Head librarian Carol Boyce is adding the book about my experiences in the area to the Library’s local author collection.

Carol was also a great source of local history and caught me up on some of the changes in the community over the years.

As I left the Binghamton community on that rainy fall afternoon, I was satisfied that I made the detour.

The community gave a lot to me back in the late seventies and early eighties.

A lot has changed, just like a lot has changed in my life.

I think you can go home again, but I suggest my low impact version.

My effort was deliberate: stay just a few hours, enjoy the memories, and don’t be surprised as you learn how the rest of the community has moved on.

Remember, you’re now just a visitor.

I was glad to be their guest for a few hours on a rainy October day.

Steve Newvine lives in Merced.

He is working on a new book to be published in December.

Steve Newvine lives in Merced.

He is working on a new book to be published in December.