Dennis Tamura never set out to be a bird-watcher. He's been a farmer for over 35 years, and he and his wife grow organic vegetables and flowers on Blue Heron Farms outside Watsonville. But, with more than 30 bird boxes around the perimeter, birds have become a part of the farm's ecosystem. New research shows just how much those birds help agriculture.

Owls, Swallows, and Bluebirds: Farmers' Secret Allies

Former farmworker Rosa Hernandez co-owns Colectivo Sabor a Mi Tierra in the back of a market in the town of Madera. She cooks food from her native Oaxaca, and says, the key to cooking mole is patience and love. "You can’t make mole in a rush."

Providing a Taste of Oaxaca to the Central Valley

On the edge of the town of Marysville in Yuba County, there’s market. It’s shelves are bursting with ingredients for all kinds of Asian foods, an inventory that would rival Asian grocery stories in  big cities: 4 shelves of coconut milk, 4 more of hot sauces, specialty vegetables and herbs from local Hmong farmers, whole corner of the store dedicated to rice, an entire aisle of noodles…

If you wind your way through the candy aisle, next to the water filling station, you’ll find a small, bustling kitchen in the back corner. That’s where I became a fan of the dishes made here, and the woman behind them.

How a Hmong Market in Yuba County Became 'Everybody's Store'

Ojai’s main street is charming, boasting tile roofs and Spanish-revival architecture. On weekends, crowds of the bohemian chic spill out of restaurants, boutiques and art galleries in the picturesque Ventura County town surrounded by orchards. The valley’s climate has been ideal for citrus, but it’s changing—getting windier, drier, and hotter. Some farmers are questioning whether agriculture even has a future in the Ojai Valley.

Hot temperatures, and a hot real estate market, threaten the Ojai Pixie tangerine

For California Foodways, I've been traveling the state, interviewing farmers, restaurant owners, people who deliver food to the hungry, make frozen burritos, and grow coffee. But I realized that, even though there are so many cafeterias in our state -- at tech companies and prisons and hospitals -- I'd never reported on one. So in this story, I profile Brennan Temol…a guy who never takes his apron off. He spends all week cooking at the cafeteria, and all weekend cooking with family and friends. And in both kitchens, he draws on his culinary school training, and the flavors of his childhood–in the Pacific Island nation of Palau.

Cafeteria Cook Makes Gourmet Dishes Inspired by Palauan Childhood

On his family’s organic peach, nectarine and grape farm south of Fresno, California, David "Mas" Masumoto points out pruning scars from long-time workers, and walks down rows of trees he planted with his father. He says the labor and lessons of his ancestors are in the soil and the grapevines and orchards, and he’s passing these on to the next generations. Mas is an author, too, who has delved into the stories of his farm and family in more than 10 books. In his latest, Secret Harvests, Mas writes about the shock of a newly uncovered family secret. I've visited the Masumoto farm for years, picking luscious peaches and nectarines in summer. This time, I returned to hear what Mas learned about this hidden story, and how he rediscovered just how resilient his farming family is.

Farming with ghosts: Mas Masumoto and an uncovered family secret

Hollywood writers and actors are on strike, asking for transparency, fair pay, and protection from AI. They're not the only ones impacted by labor disputes. In the latest story for California Foodways, I share the reporting I did with a Hollywood food stylist (before the strikes began).

The Invisible Work of a Hollywood Food Stylist

The Mitla Cafe in San Bernardino is proof that sometimes a restaurant is more than just a restaurant.  It’s the first stop in this new series: California Foodways.  I'll be travelling county by county, reporting on people and places at the intersection of food and culture and history and economy.  Places like the Mitla Cafe. Since the 30s, it’s borne witness to  -- and played a role in -- political change.  It also happens to be an unlikely inspiration for how mainstream America sees – and eats -- Mexican food. 

The Mitla Cafe: So Much More Than Tacos

So what do baseball, a little-known religious group and a land-use fight have in common? If you’re in Stanislaus County, the answer is: nuts. Almonds are the county’s top crop, bringing in a record-breaking $1.125 billion in gross income in 2013. Walnuts came in third (after the county’s other powerhouse, dairy). Nuts aren’t just an economic driver, though. They’re also key to the story of this region’s past, and future.  


Nuts for Modesto: Baseball, Religion and a Land-Use Fight

Making license plates is the stereotypical job for a prisoner, but there's a group of inmates in the Central Valley have very different work.  They supply milk to almost all the prisons in the state system.  The low hourly wages may shock some people on the outside, but for this story I talked to inmates who say the job gives them something else.

Dairies...in Prison?

Along the southern end of Stockton's Angel Cruz Park the air is filled with wafts of smoke, the smell of grilled meats and karaoke tracks booming out of speakers. For more than 30 years, this has been a destination for made-to-order dishes created by local food vendors, many of whom are Hmong and Cambodian immigrants. Locals argue over who has the best beef sticks or papaya salad.

The Rich Food Traditions at Stockton's Angel Cruz Park

Hundreds of miles from the ocean, divers don wetsuits, helmets, communication lines, and four air supply systems, and submerge into the Sacramento River. They're here to do annual maintenance at an irrigation pump. I never knew this kind of work existed but I've learned that commercial divers are everywhere. Picture contractors and construction workers, just under water. Anywhere there are lakes and rivers, anywhere we've manipulated water, like dams and canals, commercial divers work on the infrastructure -- cleaning, maintaining, building, repairing. 

In this story we meet the team behind Big Valley Divers, and learn how guys who grew up in the Sacramento Valley end up spending their days under water, keeping water flowing into farmland.

Divers keep ag water flowing

Cheese wasn’t part of Soyoung Scanlan's early life, growing up in South Korea. Now, she's one of California's most celebrated cheese makers. Part of her inspiration? Classical music. Every cheese Soyoung has made for 25 years has a musical name and connection.

A temple for cheese, inspired by music

There's a town in the Owens Valley, in the Eastern Sierra, called Independence. Population: 600. It's home to a destination restaurant, the Still Life Cafe. It's been a local favorite for nearly 30 years, and hikers heading down Mt. Whitney or skiers on their way to Mammoth tell their friends about the French Bistro and North African dishes they can look forward to. 

A destination restaurant in the Eastern Sierra

A lot of California kids learn about the transcontinental railroad in 4th grade, about the "Big Four" tycoons, and the mostly Chinese laborers who laid track through the rugged Sierra Nevada. But some of this history can get overlooked, like how the railroad – and its connection to food – shaped much of California’s story.

The railroad's surprising impact on food and civil rights in California

simonton baptism

When most of California is asleep, a few square blocks on the edge of Oakland’s Jack London Square come alive with people, produce and machinery. It’s the Oakland Produce Market, and it’s been supplying grocers and restaurants for more than 100 years, despite fears that it might not survive.

While the Bay Area sleeps, the Oakland Produce Market bustles with life

During the holy month of Ramadan, while fasting is important, so is food. And during Ramadan, all across the state, markets are central. Not only do they supply the ingredients for the holiday, they also connect people from all ethnicities who follow Islam. 

One such place is Besan’s International Market in San Bruno, right under the flight path of San Francisco International Airport. It’s essentially three businesses in one: a Halal butcher in the back, a kitchen for take-out and catering and a market that carries Arab, Middle Eastern and South Asian goods, from staples to snacks.

In San Mateo County, This Market Is a Community Destination for Food, Faith and Ramadan Staples

Grange halls have been around for more than 150 years — the Grange began as a fraternal organization for farmers. Even though farming — and Grange membership — are down to a fraction of what they were decades ago, many rural towns still rely on Grange halls as community centers. In the Anderson Valley, many people credit this place for bringing together groups of people that were once really divided.

Home on the Grange: In Anderson Valley, a story of how hippies, old-timers connected

If you fit the public media stereotype, you probably pride yourself on caring about the environment, right? Maybe you’re letting your lawn go brown, or trying to drive less. Some experts say there’s another way you can be environmentally friendly: Stop wasting food. From the farm to the fridge, it’s estimated that 40 percent of what could be eaten just isn’t, and that can impact climate change. But there's a new partnership addressing food waste by selling "imperfect" produce at the grocery store.

Fighting Food Waste and Climate Change By Selling Ugly Produce

What do Jimmy Buffett, Jay-Z and Kenny Rogers have in common? They've all parlayed their fame to sell food, in restaurants and chains. But how many celebrity restaurateurs can actually cook? That's another story. But in Orange County, there's a banh mi sandwich shop run by Lynda Trang Dai, a Vietnamese pop star who's as comfortable behind the stove as she is behind the microphone.

From Pop Star to Sandwich Maven

Californians have made whiskey since the Gold Rush. Craft bourbon has been taking off in the last couple decades -- with as many as 150 distilleries in the state. I stumbled upon a distillery’s new home in the North Bay that’s producing whiskey at a location where people used to make something really different: massive objects that changed the course of world events.

Distillery moves to site of West Coast's first Naval base

Fifty years ago, one of the most significant movements in modern day labor history -- the Farmworker Movement -- began in California's Central Valley. You’ve probably heard of the United Farm Workers and know the name Cesar Chavez, but before he became the embodiment of the strike and international boycott, a small group of Filipino farmworkers walked off the fields. Now people in the small town of Delano and across California are determined to share this rarely-told history.

The Forgotten Filipino Pioneers of the Delano Grape Strike

On a corner in Richmond, California, there’s a business that has celebrated the city’s Black history and Southern roots for 30 years.

Richmond's 'Minister of Food' Serves Southern BBQ, California Style

For more than ten years, I’ve been traveling all over California, reporting stories about food and farming from every county. Now, for the 58th and very last story in the series, I went back to where I grew up — Santa Clara County, to a special-occasion restaurant from my childhood: Chef Chu’s.

Chef Chu’s, the family-owned restaurant that grew up with Silicon Valley

Recently, I visited a factory, a kind of factory I'd never seen before. I got suited up in safety gear -- smock, rubber gloves, a hair net -- not to protect me, but to protect the product made here. It's in almost every convenience store, college dorm, school cafeteria, and in thousands of family freezers around the country: the frozen burrito. I went to Dinuba, in the Central Valley, to meet the family behind the biggest business in frozen Mexican food.

A Frozen Burrito Legacy in the Central Valley

Over 90%. That's how much native wetland California has lost due to agriculture and other development. That dramatic change in the landscape may sound  grim, but in California’s rice country, some strange bedfellows are working together to address the historic loss of wildlife habitat, and to insure rice farming is part of the solution.

Can Ag and Wildlife Co-Exist? Rice Farmers Think So.

When you camp in Yosemite and other parks with bears, you can’t just leave your food out on the picnic table or in your car overnight. Anything with a scent has to be stored in bear-proof containers. Reporter Marissa Ortega-Welch joins me to report on this problem of bears wanting to eat human food, a problem we humans created.

In Yosemite, Going From Bear Feeding Shows to Bear-Proof Containers

Merced County is California’s sweet potato capital.  In this story, co-reporter Angela Johnston and I meet a sweet potato farming family that’s facing a crisis that could wreak havoc on the entire agricultural industry. It weighs 20-pounds, has orange bucked teeth, and can eat a quarter of its body weight a day.

Invasive 20-Pound Rodents Could Wreak Havoc On Agriculture

When cannabis was 100% illegal, the price per pound was high. Since 2016, when Californians passed Prop 64 legalizing the recreational use of marijuana, the economy in the northern part of the state has been in limbo, impacting far more than the cannabis industry.

Legalizing Cannabis Impacts Food, Farming in Humboldt

The coronavirus  brings back memories of another public health crisis, where the federal government was slow to respond and communities had to take care of each other: the AIDS epidemic.
One woman who became an unexpected caregiver is Meridy Volz. Starting in the 1970s, she ran a bakery called Sticky Fingers Brownies. "The business changed," Meridy says. "It went from something fun and lightweight to something that was a lifeline." This is her story, told by her daughter Alia Volz.

Home Baked: One Woman's Subversive Response to the AIDS Crisis

Trinity County is mountainous, and remote, and when I visited in 2017 I learned that it’s also one of the state’s most food insecure places. Many people don’t know where their next meal is coming from, even in the best of times. But the spring of 2020, with the state under prolonged shelter-at-home orders because of the coronavirus pandemic, is clearly not the best of times. I decided to check in with Jeffry England at the county's food bank.

Lisa Morehouse

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