The Poomacha Fire

On the afternoon of the October 23rd. the Poomacha Fire burned through a canyon on the north edge of Ellis Farms on Highway 76 below Mt. Palomar. Flames burned a vehicle, some 140 avocado trees, and some nursery material. Our only colleague on the farm when the fire hit thankfully was able to evacuate safely. Compared to the devastating losses suffered by so many others, our scrape with the fire was minor.

As of this writing, the Poomacha Fire has burned some 50,000 acres and is now 95 percent contained. As most of us know by now, this fire was one front of the great firestorm that raged across southern California during the last three weeks. The Poomacha fire alone burned 138 homes, 1 commercial property, and 77 outbuildings—just a portion of the thousands of homes and businesses lost to the fires. Unlike in other areas, no lives were lost to the Poomacha. Fifteen of the some 1500 firefighters who fought the blaze were injured. The cost of this fire alone has been estimated at $15.8 million.

The overall impact of the recent fires on agriculture will not be sorted out for months. Some 5000 acres of avocados have probably been lost, in addition to citrus groves, egg farms, and plant and tree nurseries. The number of jobs lost has not, to my knowledge, been calculated.

On behalf of Ellis Farms, I would like to express my gratitude to the firefighters and other emergency workers who battled the recent fires, including the volunteers who helped in the shelter at the high school here in Borrego. I send my condolences to all those who suffered loss during the disaster. At Ellis Farms, we are both very thankful and humbled by the fires.

Thanks to Our Loyal Workers

A man from a cooler part of the country had just returned home from a July vacation in Borrego Springs.

“How did you find the hot desert weather?” a friend asked the tourist.

“It was easy,” the tourist replied. “I just went outside, and there it was.”

Well, when the mercury goes up in Borrego, we have to keep laughing somehow… The extreme heat of a Borrego summer is part of our valley’s signature identity, a source of good stories, even a matter of stoic, or perhaps ironic, pride for local people who weather the May-October dog days.

Of course, air conditioning and swamp coolers have made Borrego a much more habitable place during the summers, but I often imagine what it must have been like during indigenous times and later during the early ranching and farming days when very little came between people and the heat.

On Borrego’s farms, of course, not everything has changed. Farming, like all outdoor work, is still a challenging undertaking during the summer. We start the day early to avoid the heat as long as possible, and as the heat index goes through the roof, we look out for each other, limiting exposure to the sun, making sure everyone stays hydrated, and watching for any early signs of heat illness.

American farm workers have to adapt to some pretty harsh conditions in order to provide us with food and maintain the health of our nation’s agricultural economy. This is a good time of year to remember these folks with appreciation.

Ellis Farms says thanks to our employees and all farm workers for the great work they do, especially during the long hot summer months.

Friends Visit the Farm

We had a nice visit at Ellis Farms a couple of weeks ago from an old friend of mine.

Isabel and her husband Chuck have been farming and ranching their entire lives. When I first started farming on my own, back in 1977, they took me under their wing and taught me a great deal about caretaking the most precious resource America has, productive farm land.

Chuck and Isabel taught me the kinds of practical skills you can’t learn from books. With characteristically good humor, they burst the bubble of some of my naive and dogmatic environmentalist ideas. Perhaps most importantly, they demonstrated what it means to be good neighbors. That kind of mentoring is why talking about the “farming community” is far more than a cliché.

Through careful management over the course of decades, Chuck and Isabel have left their farm in better shape than when they started on it. Theirs is an example of true conservation conducted by individuals, and done according to the constraints and opportunities of the marketplace not the bureaucrat’s regulatory manual.

As we all know, the amount of farmland in this country is declining as farms are converted into housing developments. When farmland disappears, it doesn’t come back. These two friends have done their part to stand in the way of that kind of “progress.”