San Benito County Local News: Agriculture, Food & Gardening

02/13/2024
Beehives, tractors and more are getting stolen from farmers.

02/13/2024
The new downtown Santa Cruz restaurant from Sugo partners Marco Paoletti and Andrea Loporcaro has opened in the space that used to be Café Mare.

02/08/2024
There’s a new face and ethos driving the wine program at Mentone these days. Wine director Emma Bavera has been here only a few months, but she’s already bringing many welcome additions to the wine experience.

02/07/2024
State lawmakers grill Cal/OSHA officials, with allegations that employers get tipped off to inspections. The chairperson of the Assembly Labor Committee is seeking an audit.

02/06/2024
History has a way of repeating itself. Not this time around. On the docks of Moss Landing, history has a real chance of reinventing itself.

02/05/2024
The custom wood-fired oven will be blasting out pizzas with the char, bubbles and caramelization only 800 degrees can bring.  The Emiliomiti pasta extruder will be squeezing out strozzapreti, rigatoni and bucatini.

02/04/2024
Anchoring San Juan Bautista’s Third Street, JJ’s Homemade Burgers is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Home of the “JJ’s Challenge,” it is a prime gathering spot in town.

01/29/2024
State Sen. Scott Wiener wants to allow California cities and counties to designate “entertainment zones” where bars and restaurants could serve alcoholic drinks that people can consume on public streets and sidewalks.

01/28/2024
To mark the anniversary, Fran and Sean Fitzharris of Brewery Twenty-Five are mixing the old with the new, including a collaboration with 650 brewers on a beer to benefit the victims of the Lahaina wildfires.

01/24/2024
For months, the California Department of Food and Agriculture has been waging war on the oriental fruit fly, a voracious pest that can attack hundreds of types of fruits and vegetables.

01/24/2024
Groundwater depletion is worsening in many of the world’s farming regions. But a global study also found that some efforts are helping to boost aquifers.

01/24/2024
In a sign of the ongoing threats to its precious groundwater stores, half a dozen regions in California rank among the world’s most rapidly declining aquifers.

01/23/2024
Rain romped. Mushrooms rose. Delirium descended. So it went for the first in-person edition of the Fungus Face-Off in several years, as part of Big Sur Foragers Fest.

01/22/2024
Fast food lives in a consumer sweet spot: demand, convenience and relative affordability. And this pay hike—equal to minimum wage increases during the past five years—will create grand economic unknowns.

01/21/2024
Adam Jones has been adjusting to being the new owner of Hollister’s Harvest Time Roadhouse, since taking over the business from Grillin & Chillin Alehouse’s Chuck Frowein and opening on Jan. 4, 2023.

01/18/2024
Ian Brand, who owns the I. Brand custom crush facility in Salinas, was looking for room to grow. So he has leased the Dorcich winery in a major expansion.

01/17/2024
The San Benito County Board of Supervisors proposed changes to the county’s 2035 General Plan’s agriculture policy, as well as its land use element, housing element and circulation element.

01/16/2024
The Big Sur Food & Wine Foundation has awarded 17 grants worth a record $225,000 to local organizations with funds raised in 2023. Activities included the Big Sur Fashion Show, the Ferrari Event at the Barnyard, and more.

01/10/2024
California farmers face challenges posed by multiple types of fruit flies. Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed spending just over $22 million to combat the spread of these flies.