Last weekend at the South Coast Research and Extension Center’s annual Pumpkin U-Pick event, families combed the rows of mature, naturally grown pumpkin fields in Irvine in search of the perfect gourd.
“Normally, we do a pumpkin patch every year, but this year we did things a little differently and invited all programs headquartered here,” said Jason Supes, regional education specialist for South Coast REC. Told.
These programs include the Orange County Farm Bureau as well as University of California Cooperative Extension programs such as Master Food Preserver, Master Gardener, Master Beekeeper, and 4-H Youth Development. On Saturday, Oct. 7, various programs set up booths to educate families visiting the center about their programs.
“Our ultimate goal is to conduct research, but to expand on that information,” said South Coast REC Director Darren Haver. “These are community support programs to ensure we engage with the public.”
South Coast REC, 7601 Irvine Blvd., is one of nine research and extension centers in the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources REC System. South Coast REC was established by the University of California in 1956 as a center for agricultural and horticultural research in the state’s southern coastal plain temperate climate zone.
“This facility was created to provide researchers on campus with a coastal location to test their research, giving us the name South Coast,” Haver said. “We also have locations in the desert, the central valley, and along the Oregon-California border.”
South Coast REC is essentially a community living laboratory for University of California scientists to conduct agricultural and natural resource management research. Even though the facility is spread over more than 200 acres, most Orange County residents don’t know about its existence, making it one of the county’s best-kept secrets. But Suppes and Haver are working to uncover the secret.
“There’s a big research component, but there’s also a public service component. Our goal is to make sure people understand the work that the University of California does in every department, campus, and research center in the state. ” said Professor Haver. . “He has nine of these, and he’s lucky to have one here in Orange County.”
On one area of ​​the property, the University of California, Riverside is conducting research on the incorporation of biosolids, a product of wastewater treatment, into crop vegetables.
“The relationship here at the farm is that once a proposal is submitted, we take over the bulk of the land, labor and water,” Suppes said during a tour of the facility Tuesday. “So we are responsible for watering and they will give us a prescription, in this case a prescription for how to siphon the biosolids into fertilizer.”
The South Coast REC team is on site every day, but researcher visits vary depending on project demands.
“We have a 20-year climate tree project. I think we’ve seen them here three times in 12 years,” Sapeth said of the researchers involved in the biosolids study. “With this project, they come here every other day.”
Directors have the option to maintain certain fruitful projects, resulting in the property growing 150 varieties of citrus, 300 varieties of avocado, and 25 varieties of cherimoya.
“This is another small farm project from 25 years ago, and Orange County has had an interest in growing Chemoya since the 1920s,” Sapeth said at South Coast REC’s large Chemoya grove.
Cherimoya, which has a starchy texture like a banana but a sweet, tropical flavor like a pineapple, has been in the region for 100 years. Sapeth believes the collection of varieties grown at his South Coast REC are a cultural portal of sorts because they taste different than the cherimoya sold in grocery stores.
“Cherimoya in this region typically comes from South America, Ecuador,” Suppes says. “It has to be transported refrigerated, and fruit doesn’t like that.”
South Coast REC also has some unique partnerships within the community. We are partnering with Second Harvest Food Bank and Solutions for Urban Ag to deliver fruits and vegetables to food insecure families in Orange County. It is also home to Bee Canyon Farm, a space dedicated to hosting youth education programs that teach the basics of hand-grown food production, irrigation, integrated pest management, food safety, and more. Suppes has also cultivated relationships with local chefs and entrepreneurs like Derek Bracho, who sourced ingredients such as garlic, onions, jalapeños and basil for his focaccia pizza pop-up shop, Focaccia Boi.
The pumpkin patch is part of South Coast REC’s efforts to get the word out to the community. This family-friendly event offered a unique experience with the chance to pick your own pumpkin from the vine for $5. There was a limit of 5 items per paying customer to ensure there was enough for everyone.
“Usually when you go to a farm, you harvest pumpkins, weed the fields, and then you put everything back together,” Sapeth said. “We are proud to be able to facilitate an experience where people can come pick from the vines and see how they grow naturally on the farm.”
At the end of each row, the pumpkin varieties were identified on small place cards. The sign said “Solid Gold Farmour F1 Decoration, Engraving.” “It’s a ‘Jack O’Lantern’ sculpture,” said another.
“For the most part, we lean toward pumpkin carving. Those are the things that most people want,” Sapeth said. “So generally we have orange-style carved pumpkins, but we also have some pumpkins with stripes and patterns. But it’s a family event, so people come out for the Halloween pumpkins.”
South Coast REC also hosts events such as persimmon U-pick, potato U-pick, and avocado and cherimoya pop-up sales.
Haver said he hopes events like Pumpkin U-Pick help families think differently about how they eat.
“We want to bring a real agricultural experience to people who wouldn’t normally go into an agricultural setting,” Haver said. “I hope this experience will help them learn more about where their food comes from. We don’t want people in urban areas to forget.”