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South Coast REC studies pesto profitability for small-scale basil growers
UC ANR advisors, staff research methods in conserving highly perishable product
If you visited the greenhouse at the University of California South Coast Research and Extension Center in early fall, you would have smelled a sweet aroma with notes of lemon, pepper and licorice.
In one of the conservatories, a team of UC Cooperative Extension advisors and staff grew seven varieties of basil and by the end of October, the plants stretched nearly two feet tall with leaves large enough to warrant a closer look. The wonderful smell would soon become delightful tastes, as the team planned to turn the basil into pesto.
“The rationale was to provide a high-value crop and a value-added solution for urban horticulture, transforming a highly perishable product into something that can be conserved,” said Gerardo “Gerry” Spinelli, UC Cooperative Extension production horticulture advisor for San Diego County, who initiated the passion project.
After noticing a sign at South Coast REC asking consumers to use produce grown onsite in their everyday cooking, Spinelli felt inspired. The sign also requested photos of homemade dishes be sent to South Coast REC's interim director, Lindsey Pedroncelli, to generate content for the REC's Instagram account.
Envisioning a “bigger picture” for this effort, Spinelli turned to Pedroncelli for support. The two agreed that the basil project demonstrates a viable pathway for urban growers who have limited space, and positions South Coast REC as an ideal partner for such endeavors. Uniquely located in urban Irvine, South Coast REC has nearly 200 acres of land reserved for agricultural research and is one of nine RECs housed under UC Agriculture and Natural Resources.
“Urban growers are constantly looking for new ways to grow food and market their products. Growing plants using the Kratky hydroponic system is a low-input method that is simple to establish and easy to maintain,” said Pedroncelli.
Aside from its research purposes, the project was the perfect opportunity to engage other advisors and staff at South Coast REC. The extra hands and taste buds that helped with this effort would later be known as the South Coast REC Pesto Task Force.
Growing in hydroponics
Given Spinelli and Pedroncelli's Italian ancestry, it was no question that the basil would be used to make pesto – a traditional sauce originating from Genoa, Italy that's commonly consumed on pasta. In just about two months, the following basil varieties flourished in a hydroponic system: cinnamon, Mrs. Burns' Lemon, Kapoor Tulsi, Thai Towers, Amethyst Improved, Red Rubin and the traditional Genovese. With these varieties, Spinelli and Pedroncelli were also interested in testing how taste and color affect the pesto.
Since learning about the Kratky method, a passive hydroponic technique developed by Bernard Kratky at the University of Hawai'i, Spinelli has championed it as an easy and affordable way to grow food. He has produced several videos in English and Spanish about the technique on his YouTube Channel and created a fact sheet that can be downloaded from his website.
Some of its advantages are the low initial capital investment, excellent water and nitrogen use efficiency, short cycle of production and the fact that it is modular and easy to set up, move and store – a major advantage for growers who only have access to space for a limited time and investments on immobile structures are not justifiable.
For the setup, eight 2'-by-3' tubs were used, and each was filled with 20 gallons of water before adding a fertilizer mix that contains one ounce of calcium nitrate, one ounce of magnesium sulfate or Epson salt and 0.6 ounces of lettuce formula. With the additional steps of seeding, drilling holes into the Styrofoam, and placing the net cups with seedlings into each hole, Spinelli estimated about 30 minutes of setup for each tub.
Estimating potential profit for urban growers
Although prices per quantity vary, he also estimated about $25 for the 20-gallon tub, a panel of Styrofoam and net baskets, which can all be reused. In addition, the fertilizer and propagation materials, including seeds and pellets, will cost roughly $68. When breaking these materials down according to the number of growing cycles, about one to two months each, the cost amounts to approximately $5 per tub for 25 cycles.
Using basil sold at Trader Joe's for reference, Spinelli estimated that each ounce of basil grown is worth about 70 cents. The “million-dollar question,” as Spinelli puts it, is how much profit one can earn from this endeavor. Because the Amethyst Improved and Red Rubin varieties had the lowest yields of 12 and 18 ounces, they were combined to make 40 ounces of pesto. In contrast, Genovese had the highest yield of 51 ounces of basil – which produced 64 ounces of pesto.
Using a ratio of 0.7 to 0.9 ounces of basil for every liquid ounce of pesto, and calculating projected value based on Trader Joe's pricing, the Amethyst Improved and Red Rubin combined pesto had a projected value of $21, whereas Genovese had a projected value of $36. Without being combined with any other variety, however, the smallest projected value was the Kapoor Tulsi variety which had a yield of 22.5 ounces, making 28 ounces of pesto and resulting in a $16 projected value.
There are a few costs that Spinelli and Pedroncelli could not account for, such as hypothetical transportation to the market for sale, and the various prices of ingredients used to make pesto – almonds and walnuts, for instance, could be used as a cheaper alternative to the traditional pine nuts.
“With a traditional recipe you spend $5 for the basil and $25 for the other ingredients to produce eight 8-ounce jars of pesto. If you can sell each jar for $10 at the farmers market, there are $50 for profit – maybe more if you can sell one jar for $15, or you can save with non-traditional ingredients,” Spinelli explained.
An additional advantage, which may come with additional expenses, is that pesto can be conserved. The business model could be that the grower sells basil at the farmers market and transforms the unsold product into pesto before it goes bad.
“Getting involved in agriculture can be intimidating and costly, so researching and showcasing inexpensive methods that can easily be scaled to fit your needs is incredibly helpful for both new and seasoned growers,” Pedroncelli said.
South Coast REC staff offer taste buds at ‘pesto party'
Following their harvests in October, Spinelli and Pedroncelli hosted two “pesto parties” for staff at South Coast REC. Although traditional pesto is made with Genovese basil, pine nuts, garlic, Pecorino cheese and olive oil, Spinelli and Pedroncelli experimented with different cheeses and nuts across the seven varieties of basil. Staff offered their taste buds and critical review of each pesto, advising the two chefs to add more or less of a particular ingredient.
Eager to share their progress and vision with UC ANR's senior leadership, Spinelli and Pedroncelli carefully preserved and packaged eight jars of homemade pesto and had it specially delivered to Vice President Glenda Humiston.
“This is a creative way to demonstrate innovation and a fantastic opportunity to support our urban communities. It's not just practical, but economically feasible,” said Humiston, who was pleasantly surprised by the pesto delivery. “Plus, I love pesto!” she added.
What started out as a passion project quickly turned into an opportunity to show how a resource hub like South Coast REC can empower its urban clientele both educationally and economically. It was also the perfect opportunity to engage South Coast REC staff in an activity outside of their day-to-day responsibilities, making for excellent photo ops and social media posts.
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Ask a rancher: Surveys draw on hard-won wisdom for surviving drought
Roche team lands $1 million to help ranchers stay strong
California ranchers benefit when they plan ahead for extreme weather variability, according to rancher surveys and interviews conducted by a team headed by Leslie Roche, a professor of Cooperative Extension in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences.
But while wise planning and climate-smart adaptations helped ranchers survive the state's record-breaking 2012-2016 drought, those strategies by themselves were not enough, ranchers reported. Nearly 50 ranchers shared their experiences, and their collective wisdom is summarized in a paper written by Grace Woodmansee. She completed her master's degree with Roche and is now a UC Cooperative Extension livestock and natural resources advisor for UC Agriculture and Natural Resources in Siskiyou County.
Building on that work, Roche and members of the statewide team have landed a $990,000 federal grant to help ranchers stay strong. The team includes colleagues from the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources and partner organizations. The project draws on members' diverse expertise and regional knowledge rooted in UC Cooperative Extension, while at the same time linking up with trusted networks at the local level.
Both Woodmansee's paper and the new grant are based on more than a decade of surveys and interviews with ranchers and other agriculturalists. That work all points to the economic and social barriers that hinder producers from adopting the climate-smart practices that could help them stay profitable amid the changes to come.
“It's really important to listen to agricultural producers – the people who live and work on the land – and draw on their experiences to develop practical solutions,” Roche said. “Extension can play a key role in sharing this valuable knowledge statewide, so others can learn from it and, hopefully, apply it to navigate their own challenges.”
Partners on the project include individual livestock producers, statewide livestock organizations, local conservation organizations and local agencies. Programs like this could become an example for ranch managers across the American West.
Cattle is California's No. 3 agricultural commodity, with cattle and other livestock worth about $3 billion in 2021, the state Department of Food and Agriculture reported. In addition to facing climate change, the sector is beset by rising costs, high interest rates, wildfire impacts and land use pressures. These additional challenges make it crucial for people managing the state's 14,000 livestock operations – counting beef, sheep and goats – to take steps now to survive future droughts.
Rangeland drought strategy: Mix up the livestock
In the past 12 years, ranchers have increasingly adopted sustainable agriculture practices to cope with drought and other threats, Woodmansee and colleagues found.
A key finding from the surveys is the enormous benefit amid drought of grazing more than one kind of animal on rangelands, Woodmansee wrote. Although most ranchers interviewed grazed only one species during the drought, typically cattle, the few who mixed up their livestock reported doing better economically. Because they have different grazing habits, stock such as sheep and goats can take advantage of different kinds of forage and broaden a rancher's economic base.
In addition, ranchers who used genetic information to think ahead about culling their herds, when that step became necessary, were left with a stronger remainder, Woodmansee wrote.
Ranchers also found it was important to have plans both for preventing problems and reacting to them, Woodmansee added. But surveys done ahead of the 2012-2016 drought, and interviews done four years in, also revealed that only a little more than half of ranchers had planned ahead.
“There is a substantial opportunity to increase preparedness by aiding ranchers in developing drought management plans,” Woodmansee wrote. But she advised, “drought plans are not ‘one size fits all,' and policy must be designed to support drought adaptation and mitigation strategies at the ranch level.”
Grant part of nationwide effort
Roche and team's $990,000 grant comes from the United States Department of Agriculture through the National Resources Conservation Service. It's part of a $22-million, nationwide effort to help American ranchers overcome these and other barriers they face to adapting. Based on all they've learned through the surveys and interviews, the team is now launching a comprehensive education, outreach and training program. Their own wide range of expertise and networks reach deep into ranching communities, and they'll leverage those, too. 
UC Cooperative Extension will have an important role in that work, as a trusted source of information. Training also will embrace conservation planners and technical service providers who work with ranchers.
“Activities will include workshops, field tours and demonstrations on conservation practices to address local natural resource concerns,” the team wrote in their proposal. Their work also “will target opportunities to support underserved communities, including new and beginning ranchers.”
They'll also add resources specifically about the state's grazing lands to the California Climate Hub, a website developed by USDA to provide the latest information to help producers statewide adapt to new climate realities.
People trained in all these areas must be brought up in the ranks: The project calls for networking, mentoring and hands-on learning to spark career choices among young people, and grow skills among beginning ranchers and early career natural resource professionals.
Scientists co-leading the project are Tracy Schohr and Dan Macon of UC Cooperative Extension; Roselle Bush and Gabriele Maier, both UC Davis assistant professors of Cooperative Extension; and Steven Ostoja, California Climate Hub director. The project will provide opportunities for a broad range of UC ANR colleagues as well, Roche said.
Partnering organizations include the Sierra Valley Resource Conservation District, the California Cattlemen's Association, the California Wool Growers Association, the California Rangeland Trust and the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.
Read the science
Woodmansee's paper, "Building Ranch Resilience to Drought: Management Capacity, Planning, and Adaptive Learning During California's 2012–2016 Drought," is online now. It's set for print publication in the January edition of Rangeland Ecology & Management.
An earlier paper that laid the foundation for the subsequent research: "On-ranch adaptation to California's historic 2012-2016 drought, Woodmansee et al., 2021."
