San Benito County Agriculture, Food & Gardening Digest

The San Juan Bautista City Council considered a draft ordinance reducing restrictions on food trucks operating in the city.

The University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources advisors has published a new website with information resources for small acreage landowners raising livestock.

One of the biggest properties on Cannery Row has a new identity, after several years dark. Tipsy Putt soft opened in the former Cannery Row Brewing Company.

Commercial beekeeper Andrew Strehlow estimates he’s had 1,000 hives stolen over the years. The latest theft, of 96 hives from a Fresno County orchard, was his last straw.

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.

Beehives, tractors and more are getting stolen from farmers.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Like the redwoods that survived the devastating CZU fire of 2020, the McHenry family is resilient. That fateful August conflagration ruined a promising crop at Beauregard Vineyards.

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.

It’s nice to have a little something to look forward to. Or in this case, a dozen somethings, starting with three special cases.

Lisa Knutson never envisioned herself running a ranch—until 15 years ago, when the San Juan Bautista native purchased another “slimy, yellow, Costco chicken.”

An outbreak of the avian flu that began in California in October has killed 5.5 million birds throughout the Golden State. About 20% of the deaths have come in Sonoma County.

Bright blue waves have been spotted in Long Beach, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach and Seal Beach. The bioluminescence is caused by organisms known as dinoflagellates and can impact fish populations.

Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing has been acquired by Adair Paterno of Sante Adairius Rustic Ales and Brad Clark of Private Press Brewing, which focuses on malt-forward and barrel-aged craft beer.

The pandemic threw a wrench in Katherine Stern’s plans, but on Dec. 29, the chef’s long-awaited first restaurant opened on Soquel Avenue, two doors down from the Rio Theater.

The Chico-based brewer has taken a more traditional approach to creating its non-alcoholic beer.

Bring on the cute Nepalese dumplings and deli sandwiches the size of a suitcase. Give me all the caviar in Carmel and hotdogs at the dump.