New CRC Blog- Wild and Wonderful

By Jim Morris


Always game for a new adventure, our family spent Saturday in Willows at the 75th birthday celebration for the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge.

Wife Leslie went on the photo tour and pursued one of her favorite activities – capturing beautiful images of wildlife.

This is only the beginning of scenes like this, as the bird populations will be dramatically increasing in the coming weeks.Son RJ and I tried our hand at bird bingo. After finding all of the birds on our bingo sheet each child had to ask the event organizer a question to get their prize.  His question: “What’s the most important crop in Sacramento?” (That’s my boy!)  Their immediate reply: “Rice.”

Next we visited with two extraordinary artists from the valley – bird carvers Donald Hovie and Chester Wilcox, who had many magnificent creations on display.

We were also entertained and enlightened by a variety of displays, including Ducks Unlimited, California Waterfowl and the Altacal Audubon Society.  RJ spent a long time learning to draw a Bald Eagle from his kind and patient tutor – biologist Jennifer Isola, who’s also a wonderful bird artist.  Here’s the finished art, which now proudly resides on our refrigerator.

There was much excitement as Kateryna Elson unveiled a fantastic painting honoring the 75th anniversary of the refuge.  Kateryna is seen here with Refuge Manager Dan Frisk and “Puddles.”

The serenity of the morning was occasionally broken up by airboat demonstrations, which were fascinating and worth the decibels.

As we visited with fellow wildlife lovers, it became abundantly clear that this celebration was well attended by many people charged with working in refuges, preserves and conservation organizations.  It’s so encouraging to see that their job is much more than a nine-to-five, that protecting wildlife is truly a passion.

The refuge system works in concert with Sacramento Valley rice farmers whose fields provide habitat for nearly 230 wildlife species.  Viewing the rice fields and the refuge system – viewing our natural world firsthand – is well worth your time.

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Jim Morris is Communications Manager for the California Rice Commission. Jim has worked in communications for more than 20 years. When he’s not on the job, he enjoys his family, faith, football, outrageous monster stories and running marathons.

New— Armstrong & Getty harvest California Rice

Joe Getty, followed up by Jack Armstrong, take a break from their radio duties to harvest rice in the Sacramento Valley.

 

New CRC Blog- Scarlet Waters

By Julie Cader

Julie is Finance & Administration Manager for the California Rice Commission, and a big proponent of trying new recipes- especially if they feature California rice.

Mention salmon to me and instantly you have my complete, full, entire and exclusive attention. So when Nate and Jaime invited me to their home for fresh King Salmon caught on the American River in Sacramento, I was on it like a duck on a June bug!

Growing up in Alaska, we were raised on salmon. Salmon patties, salmon roasts, salmon steaks, salmon spread, smoked salmon and squaw candy -- you name it, we ate it. I fondly remember driving down the scenic Seward Highway from Anchorage towards the Kenai Peninsula visiting Portage River, Ptarmigan Creek and Moose Creek to view the glistening scarlet bodies of spawning salmon that would make the waters look a brilliant bright red. An amazing feat of nature, to say the least.

Now back to dinner, as usual I willingly offered to prepare a rice dish. My choice was Lundberg’s unique Black Japonica rice with a nutty and sweet spiciness that fully complemented the maple-infused salmon. Adding red peppers, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, garlic and onion to the rice made the pilaf really pop!You might say we simply cleaned out the refrigerator vegetable drawer!

The evening was a fabulous way to reminisce about our adventures in Alaska, and like salmon, we keep coming home, home to our family and friends.

New video from Sandy Denn- Family

Rice grower Sandy Denn in Glenn County describes the importance of a family legacy on the farm.

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Sandy Denn and her husband Wally own and operate Snow Goose Farms near Willows in Glenn County. She holds a law degree and has served on numerous boards and committees dealing with water in the North State. Sandy and Wally have six grown children. Her passions include hunting and fishing, and she used to fly a hot air balloon and a stunt plane for relaxation.

New- Calrose Rice harvest underway

Watch as two harvesters are working this field of Calrose rice in Williams, Colusa County.

New Chris Crutchfield Blog- Family Field Trip to Rice Country

Recently I had the opportunity to take a day off from work and show my wife and little girl around the California Rice Industry.  We started the day off at our home in Sacramento, and headed north to our rice farm in Robbins.  After a short 30-minute drive we were there.  We drove around the outside of the field, and took a couple of opportunities to stop, take pictures, and check out the crop.  I'm going to be giving a presentation about California Rice to my daughter's class soon, so we took this opportunity to "harvest" a few rice plants so we can show all the kids how rice looks growing in the field.  My daughter Chase walked out into the field to find that the standing rice plants are as tall as she is!

After checking out our own rice and determining that it is at least a week away from harvest, we headed over to Montna Farms where they are almost finished with harvesting their entire ranch.  We met up with the operations manager, Jon Munger, who was nice enough to let my wife Laurie and Chase take their first ever ride in a harvester.  They rode all the way around the check of Koshihikari rice that was being harvested.

From Alex, the combine driver, they learned several interesting things.  The harvester is operated by a GPS auto-steering control system that allows Alex to "drive" the machine in a perfectly straight line.  They got to see all of the analytical computer systems inside which give the operator real time readouts about the crop being harvested including yield per acre, moisture content, and many other useful pieces of information.  This information can all be uploaded to the head office while the harvester is in the field.  They also learned that the brand new Case International with the 30-foot header on it can hold 10,000 pounds of rice before it has to empty its hopper.  When it does dump a load, it never stops moving.  The bank-out wagon drives right alongside the combine, and can receive the entire load in 58 seconds while in full motion so they can continue without stopping.  Alex said at this time of year, they are cutting rice for 11 hours per day seven days per week!

After loading up on fresh veggies at a stand on Highway 99 and lunch in Yuba City at In-N-Out Burger, the final stop of the day was at the ACC rice mill and warehouse in Williams.  While at daddy's office, Chase renewed her friendship with everyone who works there and has been watching her grow up since she was born three and a half years ago.  We also picked out a bunch of things to take with us to her school for our big presentation.  Chase and Laurie got to see the drying and storage operation where we are receiving as many as 100 loads of green rice from growers per day during the peak of harvest season.  We also checked out the 11-acre one megawatt solar array that powers the whole operation at ACC.

The chance to take a day off from work doesn't come often.  My job requires a lot of travel and many nights away from the house even when I am at home.  This opportunity to spend the entire day with Laurie and Chase and to show them around the industry that has supported the Crutchfield family for three generations is one that I will remember and cherish for a long time.  I'm pretty sure they will too!

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Chris Crutchfield
President and CEO -- American Commodity Company

Chris Crutchfield is very proud to represent the third generation of his family to be involved in the rice industry. Currently Chris is involved in all aspects of California rice from production all the way to the grocery store shelf.

Shortly after graduating from the University of Missouri in 1996, Chris moved back to California and joined with his father Paul Crutchfield in the formation of a rough rice pool for direct marketing to Turkey. Chris was responsible for the day-to-day management of the pool. That partnership developed into the formation of American Commodity Company (ACC) in 2000, and Chris assumed all direct management responsibilities for ACC.

Prior to establishing himself in the California rice industry, Chris worked in the press offices of Governor Pete Wilson as his Assistant Press Secretary. He also briefly taught secondary education in the California public school system.

New CRC Blog- Turkish Foodies take in the California Experience

By Paul Buttner

I recently had the pleasure of being the tour guide for a wonderful group of food media professionals from Turkey.  I had a great time watching them both learn a lot about California rice and take in that special essence of our surroundings that we Californian’s often take for granted—“the California experience.”  They helped me to remember what it’s all about around here:  sunshine, delicious cuisine, beautiful scenery, fine wine, Hollywood and the Apple Store.

These ladies were truly a classy group of fashionistas!  Although I scheduled the time to drag them through all the essential components of our industry—rice fields, rice mills, and the Port of Sacramento—they also found plenty of time for the shopping malls and Apple Store to gather up all those cool essentials of today’s modern woman.

As much as they loved California, we appreciate Turkey as well.  Their appetite for California rice helps keep our export markets healthy.  On average, Turkey imports about 30-40,000 metric tons of our rice each year.  It is an important existing market with room to grow.  This is why we brought several of their best food writers here to come see all aspects of the industry, all the way from the beautiful wildlife living in our fields to the state-of-the-art technology operating in our mills.

We hope that their excitement of our industry here amongst that legendary “California experience” will provide great material for more articles, recipes and Turkish television segments to ignite even more excitement for California rice being an important part of the Turkish culinary experience.

Turkish visitors and USA Rice Federation reps along with Fred Klose of the CA Wild   Rice Advisory Board (2nd from left),  farmer Jack DeWit (center) and myself (right).

I had great fun with my new friends from Turkey.  I loved their zest for life, which, at least for right now, has helped to freshen up my own.

Here are comments from one of the participants after driving a rice harvester in a field near Marysville:

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Paul Buttner is Environmental Affairs Manager for the California Rice Commission.

New Guest Blog— Raptor in the Rice

By Phil Robertson

The electronics in my new Canon EOS 7D camera had been fried and I just got it back from the repair shop.  Time to test it out!

Grabbing the camera with my 100-400mm zoom lens I headed out to West Wise Road just a few miles from downtown Lincoln; not far from home and a place where there is always some photo-worthy wildlife.

Driving west on West Wise from Hwy-65 I was soon in Rice Country--one of the most bird-friendly land uses we have.  The beautiful fields of light green were, as always, soothing to the eye.

Soon I was seeing the expected: Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets, White-faced Ibis and a few soaring hawks.  Although expected-always a delight!

But then, I was shocked.  Did I see what I thought I saw so late in the morning (about 9:00am)?  Yes!  It was a Barn Owl (Tyto alba) sitting on a fence post between the dirt road and the rice field.  Barn owls are nocturnal hunters.  They are supposed to be fast asleep by this time.

I watched in amazement as it moved its head from side to side examining the ground around it.  (Note: owls cannot move their huge eyes but they have 14 vertebrae which allow the owl to look 270 degrees from side to side.)  Then it dove into a weedy ditch running between the road and the rice field.  The owl flew out of the ditch with no vole or mouse but did get wet in the process.  After I photographed the bird, it continued flying, perching, and hunting along West Wise between two rice fields.

I hope it eventually got its breakfast.

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Phil Robertson is a photographer and nature enthusiast from Lincoln. He provides travel, scenic and wildlife photos to private collectors, wildlife artists, various non-profits, environmental consulting companies, travel companies and local and regional publications and corporations.

New CRC Blog- Appreciating the Masters

By Julie Cader

Julie is Finance & Administration Manager for the California Rice Commission, and a big proponent of trying new recipes- especially if they feature California rice. 

At a recent lunch with the Rice Leadership Class, we enjoyed a delightful meal at Mikuni in downtown Sacramento.

When the platters of sushi were brought out, Jim Morris, our Communications Manager, and I remarked how seeing the beautiful display of rolls reminded us of SushiMasters, a series of competitions the California Rice Commission managed from 2005 to 2009. We started SushiMasters as a modest regional event that expanded into a series of competitions from coast to coast. It was a lot of fun and a lot of hard work from dedicated folks in the rice industry and those behind the scenes that made it all happen.

The curtain may be closed on SushiMasters, but the amazing talent of Sushi Chefs continues on.

New video- Sacramento Valley Rice Harvest

View footage of harvesting short grain rice at a family farm in Sutter County.