Do you remember my interview with John Schoustra? He is – I thought about this for a while to make sure I wasn’t forgetting anyone or exaggerating – the most innovative, open-minded, and experimental avocado farmer I know.
(Please refresh your memory by checking this post with the interview.)
Schoustra doesn’t just hear new ideas about pruning or learn something about soil microbiology and then continue farming as he always has. Schoustra puts his elbow grease and his own money into testing and applying any technique that might make his trees and the surrounding ecology healthier.
Last week on Wednesday, November 6, during the Santa Ana winds that roared through Southern California, I heard that a fire had started in Ventura County so I checked the Cal Fire incident map and found that it showed the “Mountain Fire” burning part of Schoustra’s property. Oh no.
I texted John to see if he and his wife and their house were okay. Being down in San Diego County, I couldn’t think of any way to help except by letting him know that my best thoughts and prayers were being sent his way.
I’ve only known John for a couple years, but in that time he has been very generous with his time and teaching. He has given me two lengthy tours of his grove, lots of phone conversations and email and text discussions. And John really has no time to spare on entertaining my curiosities about his avocado growing practices, for he also has a fulltime job at another farm, larger than his own, growing many other species of fruit trees.
John is the orchard manager at Apricot Lane Farms. There he oversees the planting, pruning, pests, etc. of peaches, figs, olives, citrus, feijoa, cherimoya, apples, and much more. Apricot Lane covers more than 200 acres in Moorpark, only about two miles from John’s home farm (called Greenwood Daylily Gardens, as John also breeds and sells daylillies).
But John, this March, even made time to give me a tour of the fruit trees he cares for at Apricot Lane. And I met the folks who grow the vegetables there and do their composting and organize farming classes. They were all as nice and seemed as competent as John.
So I almost cried, but I wasn’t so surprised, when John called and told me a story today. While his farm had been burning and Apricot Lane remained barely spared, just beyond the flames, John got a call.
“What’s your address?” he was asked.
John gave his address, wondering why he’d been asked.
“Yeah, we’re at the right place!” was the reply.
The Apricot Lane folks (John’s employers, coworkers, neighbors) had shown up unsolicited with their own fire truck to help save John’s farm.
Now, Friday, November 15, the flames are out. The damage is being assessed. Burned trees, burned irrigation lines, burned outbuildings, burned containers and plants.
John told me that he initially refused the offer of donations because some of his neighbors have suffered worse in the fire. One neighbor lost all of her avocado trees and her dog. Other neighbors lost their houses. But John Chester, owner of Apricot Lane Farms with his wife Molly, encouraged him to allow a GoFundMe to be set up. People want to help you, John, and this will make it easy for them to do so, he said.
People are what matter. You get back what you give. Neighbors help neighbors.
I’m reminded to try to be as generous with others as John has been with me, with us, and to have my neighbors’ backs like Apricot Lane Farms had his.
I haven’t asked him yet. It’s too early, but I look forward to hearing John’s plans for how he will replant his avocado grove. You know it won’t be conventional, and you know he’ll carve out time to share about it with us so that we can continue to learn from him.
Again, see my interview with John here.
And if you’d like to support John’s recovery from the fire, see the GoFundMe page here.
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