What's in season at the farmers market this week:
- Basil
- Eggplant
- Tomatoes
After 97 years of farming rice in California, the owners of Koda Farms have decided to retire. Ross and Robin Koda carried on the legacy of their grandfather who arrived in California in 1908 from Japan. Dabbling in other ventures including tuna fishing and processing, canning fruits and vegetables, wildcatting for oil, and laundering clothes, Keisaburo Koda began farming rice. Robin Koda tells market correspondent Gillian Ferguson there is no cause for panic — Western Foods will still carry Koda's rice products.
"Rice in California has been grown north of the delta since the mid-1800s," says Robin Koda. "It has historically been Japonica, Japanese-style rice." Her great-grandmother's side of the family had a history of farming rice in the Fukushima prefecture, so she was familiar with the product. The Alien Land Law of 1913 made her grandfather ineligible for citizenship to buy land so he moved south toward the Central Valley, where he found someone willing to sell him several thousand contiguous acres. By fluke, Koda Farms ended up being the southernmost rice farm in California.
By the time World War II arrived, the government mandated the farm stay open to produce food and fiber and sign over power of attorney to non-Asian owners. When the family returned to California from Colorado, the business had been sold off and her grandfather was left with a thousand acres of land with alkaline and adobe soil. He started over again.
In the 1950s, Keisaburo decided he wanted his own proprietary grain of rice. Through traditional breeding methods, Kokuho Rose was developed specifically for the microclimates. Chef Minh Phan describes the fragrant rice as smelling like the top of a baby's head.
Koda says Western's president, Miguel Reyna, is evocative of her grandfather — young, energetic, and with a big vision.