Hong Yang says his father knows methyl bromide can harm the environment. My father feels better knowing that he's helping. In 1999, Yang's lease expired on his high-traffic Clovis farm, forcing a move to a more remote parcel east of Fresno. But Molinar and Michael Yang are encouraged by Howard's willingness to experiment with the new procedure and hold hope the Yang farm has now seen its last methyl bromide fumigation. Chuck and Jennifer Lenet never expected blueberry farming to be so tough.
Blueberries are finicky plants.
I'm not sure it's worth it. But the very challenges of growing blueberries, says UC Small Farm Program farm advisor Mark Gaskell, may be the secret to the Lenets' eventual success. Chili peppers, snow peas and summer squash are chronically in oversupply. That's the market we're after. In the late 1980s, the Lenets were running a successful Morro Bay landscaping business when they began a search for their dream farm.