They need to have a small quantity of several varieties of fruit to take to the markets each and every week. That calls for orchards composed of many tiny blocks of trees with staggered harvests. But the diversity also yields many fringe benefits, not all of which are readily apparent to outsiders. One is providing stable employment for workers, quite in contrast to the conventional farming operations that depend on having a large pool of workers sitting around waiting for work that comes in short, intense but widely spaced bursts. This pervasive large-scale style of farming accounts for the fact that the unemployment rate in the major agricultural counties of the Central Valley is permanently stuck in double digits.
Diversified farms geared for farmers markets have different labor needs.
Richard Burkart's family farm near Dinuba is a case in point. It has gradually evolved in recent decades from a commercial citrus operation to a producer of a wide array of fruit for farmers markets. The farm now constantly needs the full attention of the Burkarts and members of two other families who live and work on the farm full-time. Another advantage of diversity, as the Langes learned anew each spring, is some protection from a knockout blow by the weather. To be sure, even a farm as diversified as the Langes' can't dodge weather as atrocious as that which descended upon the farm in the winter of 1995.