Kern County Grower Talks About Harvest
With a Rain Storm in the Late Afternoon
By Patrick Cavanaugh, Editor
TODAY, Ed Camp a third generation farmer in Kern County was on his last day of his almond harvest. And he was feeling good about it. But was feeling any better was the rainstorm that came up at the end of the day. “It’s a reminder of what can happen and hopefully we will get a lot of rain in near future,” he said.
He noted that he was also in the middle of mechanical wine grape harvest, which mainly consists of Muscat of Alexandria, which is destined to fill the Moscato wine demand. “We have had them forever and it has been interesting to see what has happened with the Moscato craze,” said Camp, whose family has been farming the area since 1936.
He’s also in the middle of table grape harvest with late varieties such as Red Globe and Autumn Royal.
Camp also has carrots in the ground with harvests scheduled for December, January and February and they all for the local Kern County packers. He is also about to start planting garlic for harvest next year.
He farms in several water district that bank wet year water, so he is optimistic of his water needs being met next season.
“Labor this year was noticeably tighter especially if you did not have your crews set and kept busy,” said Camp. “Trying to get back crews with any kind of a lull has been extremely difficult.”
