About 50 members of the Garden Club of America recently toured the Nunes Co. Inc.’s facilities in Salinas, CA, to learn about the company’s family farming operation and agriculture production in the Salinas Valley.

On the evening of June 5, parts of the expansive San Joaquin Valley were deluged with an inch-and-a-half of rain. This unusually large amount of rain this late in the spring has put an exclamation point on the cold, wet spring that California has experienced.

“In 1995, it hailed on June 15,” said Wayne Brandt, president of Brandt Farms Inc. in Reedley, CA, discussing the last time June produced such a weather abnormality. “Some dates just stick with you.”

Two of New Jersey agriculture’s more influential annual gatherings are joining forces for the first time to create a formidable showcase of the Garden State’s agrarian advances.

WEATHER

Salinas, CA: Daytime highs will range from the mid-60s to low 70s through June 14 with overnight lows in the low 50s. Dry skies are expected into mid-June.

Fresno, CA: Daytime highs will be in the mid-80s through June 14 with overnight lows in the upper 50s to low 60s. Dry skies are expected into mid-June.

DEMAND

TRENTON, NJ -- A cold winter and a normal, wet spring have provided growing conditions that should result in a great crop of large, exceptional quality New Jersey blueberries.

As the branches of Washington and Oregon's pear trees continue to grow heavy with fruit, the Northwest pear industry is projecting a 2011 harvest of approximately 19.2 million standard 44-pound box equivalents, or 422,166 tons, of pears. This estimate is approximately 5 percent larger than the five-year average, and 8 percent larger than last year's short crop.