Our Almonds

Environmental stewardship is an integral part of how we farm our almonds. Our philosophy is to leave our land in better condition than we received it, so that the next generation can continue farming and caring for the land. We farm just over 1000 acres of almonds and farm many different varieties including Nonpareil, Independence, Sweetheart, Butte, Padre, and others. Our almond farms work in symbiosis with our chicken farms and each one benefits from the other.

Water Resources

Water is our most precious resource in the Central Valley and this shows in how we use water on our farms. Water use in almonds has received a lot of attention of late and it is important to use water conservation in farming. Bottom line, it takes water to grow food. Our farm uses sound science based methods to ensure optimal water conservation.

How we schedule our irrigation:

We use soil moisture sensors to know how much moisture is in our soils. We also track Evapotranspiration data to measure water-use by the trees. Knowing how much water is in the soil and how much water is being used by the trees, means that we can apply exactly the amount of water needed by the trees using micro-irrigation as efficiently as possible.

Groundwater recharge is another important aspect of managing our water resources. We are implementing projects to take excess water during wet times and percolate it down into the groundwater basin to manage the resource more sustainably.

Soil Health

Our soil health program involves many sustainability practices and relies on our symbiotic relationship with our chicken farms. Our soil fertility comes almost exclusively from composted chicken manure from our farms. This means that we do not rely on fossil-fuel-based synthetic fertilizers. We also chip any prunings that come from the orchard and add the carbon to the soils as well. We use minimal tillage, tilling only 25% of the orchard, in order to incorporate these soil-building materials for efficiency and food safety. Cover cropping also is part of our soil health system to add organic matter and carbon to our soils. These practices foster a living soil environment teaming with microorganisms that make our soil healthy.

Pest Management

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is a crucial part of our sustainable pest control. The philosophy of IPM is that chemicals are not the basis for pest control, but instead used only as a last resort and used in ways to avoid potential problems of toxicity and resistance. This means that we manage our orchards to prevent problems before they happen and find natural ways to control pest populations. Monitoring is an integral aspect of IPM and ensures that presence of pests are monitored along with whether thresholds are reached and whether predators or beneficial insects are present. Using nature to control potential pests is a win-win for us and the natural community we are a part of. A great example of IPM is installing barn owl boxes to encourage barn owls to live in our orchards. They then patrol our orchards at night preying on any rodents that may be damaging the orchard. Hedgerows and cover cropping are other important parts of pest management by creating habitat for beneficial insects.

Pollinator Program

Solar Energy

To help the transition to renewable energy we have installed a field of photovoltaic solar panels to provide energy for our farm. The sun provides the energy to grow our almond trees and grow the almonds and now it can provide the electricity as well.

Regenerative Farming/Carbon Farming

Regenerative farming is an incredibly important part of our answer to climate change. There is huge potential for our working lands to become part of the solution to climate change. Too much carbon is a problem in the atmosphere and our oceans, but adding carbon to our soils has positive benefits! This means we can fight climate change while benefitting our soils and our farming operation. We employ many regenerative practices including Whole Orchard Incorporation (WOI) or Whole Orchard Recycling (WOR), adding compost to our orchards, incorporating woody biomass annually, cover cropping, minimal tillage, planting woody plants in hedgerows and habitat on our farms.

We have had a Carbon Farm Plan created alongside the Carbon Cycle Institute and the East Stanislaus Resource Conservation District, which was put in place to create a plan to store more carbon on our farm.

Organic Certification

While all of our almonds are produced using sustainable practices, we have some orchards that have been certified organic and certified transitional organic through CCOF (California Certified Organic Farmers).

Caring for Our Farming Team

Where Are We Going? Whats Next?

Sustainability is a continuum and not something you achieve. While we think we have come a long way, we will keep implementing new practices and creating a more sustainable farming system as we go. Part of this intention means working with many researchers. Often, these sustainability practices do not have as much research supporting them and their implementation. Working with different partners is part of our goal to promote these practices. Our plans for the future include implementing groundwater recharge projects, working to integrate livestock into our orchards, and diversifying our operation among other goals.

Research Collaboration

Our philosophy: We believe in science based sustainable farming. We collaborate as much as possible on research projects to improve farming to sustain a healthy environment for future generations. We have research orchards and land available for future projects, and look forward to more opportunities to collaborate. …………

Gemperle Farms has participated in research projects with:

East Stanislaus Resource Conservation District
California Climate and Agriculture Network (CalCAN)
California Association for Family Farms (CAFF)
Project Apis m.
Monarch Joint Venture
American Farmland Trust (view our farmer research profile)
Carbon Cycle Institute
Sustainable Stanislaus

Researchers from: USDA, UC Davis, UC Berkeley, UC Merced, CSU Stanislaus