Our final adventure on March 22^nd took place in Aromas and Watsonville at the largest berry producer in the United States, Driscoll’s. At Driscoll’s we had the pleasure to meet with Lisa Beatty and Sam Silva. They kicked off our tour by showing us around their largest distribution center and explaining how the operation works. Sam informed us that Driscoll’s began selling exclusively domestic strawberries, and since has expanded to growing and selling blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries internationally.

Today our ACE 292 class got to visit E & J Gallo Winery located in Modesto, California. We got off to a bumpy start with our bus breaking down in the early morning, but once we got on the road the entire class was ecstatic to head out to Modesto and tour the winery. E & J Winery was founded in September 1933 by the brothers of Ernest and Julio Gallo. When we first got there, we met with Alan Reynolds who is the Director Central Valley Vineyards. Mr. Reynolds hosted and sponsored our amazing lunch for the day, and we wanted to personally thank him for his hospitality.

As we entered another day of our California trip, the class was excited to finally experience some actual California farms. We had visited a couple of farming operations in Central Illinois earlier in the semester, but we soon realized the farms that surround the University of Illinois’s campus are much different than those in California, which sometimes operate year-round, grow dozens of different crops at a time, and face a lot of different issues than Illinois farmers.