Page 7 - Mid Valley Times 7-22-21 E-edition

Thursday, July 22, 2021
A sweet approach to local farming
The View From Here
I wasn’t quite sure where the location was, so I decided to ask my co-
worker. “Rose,
do you know
where Sweet Girl Farms is,?” I asked. “Yes! She said. “I took my mom there last week, we wanted to stop by and check out the fruit stand.”
It seemed like everyone had been to visit Sweet Girl Farms except me. So I want- ed to change that. I knew the face of Sweet Girl Farms, her name is Liset Garcia.
Liset is a familiar face on various social media sites. Tik Tok being one of them. For those not familiar with Tik Tok, it's a video making app. According to their web- site, they are a “social media platform is used to make a variety of short-form vid- eos, from genres like dance, comedy, and education, vid- eos have a duration from 15 seconds to three minutes.”
It exploded almost over- night in popularity during the pandemic because most people were home and had nothing to do, so producing these short video clips with music and captions became “the thing to do.” Lots of "creatives" were discovered during that time.
Liset has made a name for herself on Tik Tok. Post- ing videos of her gardening techniques, informational videos on various flowers and what climates they ex- cel in.
She’s gained a following of about 7,000 people and it continues to grow every day. She is also active on Instagram and Facebook and posts videos there regu- larly as well. Her personality transcends the camera lens. She is bright and cheery while showing off her vari- ety of locally grown fruits and vegetables, salsa, jams, and aguas frescas.
I was able to arrive at the location not long after Rose gave me directions. The day of course, being that we are currently in mid July, was hot. Sweet Girl Farms is located at 8358 S. Alta Ave. just outside of Reedley. As I approached, I could see the various flags out front. Some read, “Fresh fruit ahead”
I turned off my car and looked toward the fruit stand. Immediately I saw a familiar face. Tracy Ara- kaki. Tracy and I met a few months back during a Reed- ley Rotary meeting. Tracy is active in the community, vol- unteering and participating
SEE COLUMN on page A15
Juanita Adame
“For example at Christmas time I do wreaths,” she said. “It takes me a long time, bu I keep them super cheap, I keep them affordable.”
Her vision for the farm is always changing but always keeping customers at the fore- front of how its tailored.
“That’s pretty much how I do everything,” she said. “Do people want flowers ok yes or no has that been good?”
“As things progress, my plan and my vision changes,” Garcia continued. “So did I have an idea of what it was going to be was what it was going to be? Well, no and at the same time yes, I wanted something to be here situated at the farm and then we kind of just go with the communi- ty’s reaction.”
Juanita Adame / Mid Valley Times
From left, a local customer waited for her agua fresca at Sweet Girl Farms on the afternoon of July 16 as owner, Liset Garcia poured the ice cold fruit drink into a cup.
By Juanita Adame
Mid Valley Times
It was all about building connections and community relationships for Liset Gar- cia, the face and personality behind Sweet Girl Farms.
“I came to the farm a cou- ple years ago,” she said on the afternoon of July 16. “Differ- ent things brought me back to the farm, but just before life on the farm, it was city life.”
Garcia moved to the Cen-
tral Valley from the Los Ange- les area. She said the slowed down pace of Fresno County and the farm life really ap- pealed to her.
Aside from that, the suc- cess of her small farm stand, located just outside Reedley on Alta Avenue, she has at- tributed the farms popular- ity to simply listening to what people want.
“During the summertime, what do people want, the
peaches obviously and nec- tarines,” she said.
“Then in the winter time, it slows down and that’s where I’ve found the gap, and that’s the key point to Sweet Girl Farms because that’s where I do a whole bunch of other things.”
Garcia said in the off sea- son of gardening, she takes on winter themed projects and tries to keep the farm as ac- tive as possible.
"Different things brought me back to the farm, before that it was city life."
Liset Garcia Sweet Girl Farms
KRCD announces new general manager
Dinuba Chamber welcomes new board members
Photo Courtesy / Dinuba Chamber Facebook Page
The Dinuba Chamber of Commerce welcomed Trinidad Rodri- guez as the new vice chair and Octavio Montejano as the newest board member on the afternoon of July 15.
Photo of the week
David Merritt
Contributed
The Kings River Con- servation District board an- nounced the appointment of David M. Merritt as KRCD’s new general manager on the afternoon of July 13.
"I am very excited to lead this next chapter of KRCD and greatly appreciate the trust the Board of Directors has in me and look forward to working with and leading our team,” Merritt said.
According to informa- tion from the district, Mer- ritt started his tenure with KRCD in 2010 as the Deputy General Manager of Power Resources. further improved the long-term reliability of its Jeff L. Taylor Pine Flat Power Plant, which they said is a key KRCD asset.
In 2015, Merritt took over senior leadership of the Fed- eral Levee Project along the Lower Kings River.
In 2019, Merritt was pro- moted to Chief Operating Of- ficer, overseeing all KRCD activities, inclusive of Water Resources, Power Genera- tion, Flood Management, and Business Operations. Mer- ritt also has overseen the completion of several grant projects that have received numerous awards from the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Merritt succeeds Paul Pe- schel, who resigned as gener- al manager in February 2021.
"There are significant op- portunities ahead of us con- cerning power generation, water resources, and flood management. My vision is to build on our past successes, collaboratively working with all stakeholders finding com- mon ground that are proac- tive win:win solutions, on a long-term basis,” Merritt said.
Merritt also is the Vice President of Western Tur- bine Users, Inc., a nonprofit organization and worldwide membership organization founded in 1990.
Prior to working with KRCD, he worked for GWF Power Systems, an Indepen- dent Power Producer for al- most 20 years.
Merritt served in the U.S.
Navy and attended UC Irvine
with a focus on Business, Or-
Contributed
A photo of Greyson Davis Aniag, 2, of Dinuba, on his baptism day at the St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Cutler, and wearing the Traditional Barong Tagalog of the Philippines, was sent in by Jen- nifer Aniag. Have a photo you'd like featured? Email juanita@
ganizational Leadership, and
Communication. midvalleypublishing.com.