3-min read
It could be that Spring is in the air, but stepping onto Gemperle Orchards is like being transported to another era. The almond trees are generously spaced and everywhere you look there are patches of color. Mustard yellows, vetch purples. Bees are buzzing and ladybugs crawling. The air is dewy and smells of fresh dirt – no, soil – the kind that’s soft beneath your feet. The 1900s farmhouse is nestled on the property surrounded by citrus trees, a greenhouse, (a weird but cool Star Wars tie fighter art installment 🤷🏻♀️), and you are greeted by friendly dogs, chickens, and a parrot.
Gemperle Orchards is run by Christine Gemperle and her brother Erich. And when I say run, I mean they farm it themselves. If you were an almond tree you’d want to live here.
I wanted to know about the Gemperle’s almond practices and what motivates them to farm the way they do. I also wanted to know if an operation like theirs (139 almond acres in Merced and Stanislaus Counties) could scale.
Cover cropping
Christine is part of Project Apis.m, a non-profit which supplies pollinator friendly seeds and offers grants to help growers get started with bee habitats. There are two plantings of cover crops a season, one in fall after harvest and the other in early winter.
The first thing the Gemperles do is spread seeds between and around the orchard, then run a roto-tiller over them to a few inches deep. A larger operation would have to buy a no-till seeder to be more efficient, says Gemperle. If rain is not in the forecast they have to irrigate to get the seeds going.
How to apply the water
Water is applied through micro-sprinklers and drip, but Christine admits if you can flood that is the best for cover cropping. In most irrigation districts you can’t flood, it’s too expensive. Drip irrigation alone does not work because it doesn’t get to the center of the rows.
Water retention
Some studies show there is no loss of water in the winter when you have a cover crop. How far into the season does moisture remain is the question. You have to mow in the summer but the cuttings keep the ground cooler which seems to help prevent water loss. Christine notes that they don’t have to water as much. Christine drives clean tractors (electric) and only mows when the ground is moist to keep dust down. The Gemperles are currently part of a study with a UC Davis climatologist on soil moisture to determine how much water cover crops use and how much they give back. Soil measurements are taken down to 5 feet. Several years of data on their soil is still being gathered.
Christine says the biggest obstacle to farming this way for most farmers is water.
The Gemperles are in the Turlock Irrigation District, so they have good water access. Additionally, there is increased labor with these methods; the Gemperles do not have a farm manager or crew – they do it all themselves. I asked Christine when she last took a vacation – she laughed and said she and Erich have to take turns.
Can money solve the scalability problem?
Christine sits on The Almond Board of California and is on various committees there. She is currently on assignment helping with their USDA Climate Smart Ag Grant application - the USDA has committed $1 billion to support farmer sustainability activities. Christine believes through grants and other opportunities, growers can finance the investment in cover crops, collect the data on soil, water, fertilizer, and pesticides and learn for themselves. Christine is setting an example.
Gemperle Orchards, and Christine personally, are involved in a host of studies around sustainability in almond farming ranging from biomass for the petro-chemical industry, rootstock for salt tolerance, irrigation modeling, new types of herbicides, Monarch butterflies and more. Christine is also a co-founder of Women in Almonds, a support group.
Why do they do it?
Gemperle Orchards is an ideal. To be deemed “regenerative” is not a motivation. For Christine, it’s a way of life. In fact the extended Gemperle family recently released their first ever sustainability report which includes their egg production operations.
I left Gemperle Orchards with a sack of Meyer lemons, several heirloom tomatoes from their greenhouse, a couple dozen pastel colored eggs from the chickens and a penchant for spending more time in my yard.
All my best,
Jennifer
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