Stephens Farmhouse

Turkey feast just a day away

cgrima — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 19:57:59 +0000

Early Tuesday morning, chef Ernie Reyes helped chop and clean 26 fat turkeys — more than 700 pounds of meat — to prepare for the Thanksgiving feast at the Bonanza Inn in Yuba City.

Across town at the Stephens Farmhouse, owner Cherie Stephens led a small brigade of pastry chefs baking more than 1,000 pies — and counting.

Recology Yuba Sutter: Stephens Farmhouse

cgrima — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 22:11:08 +0000

We’re surrounded by recycling opportunities, but we often just don’t know how to go about it. Take Cherie Stephens of Stephens Farmhouse, on Route 99. With six flavors of scrumptious cookie dough, she knew that they were helping schools and churches with their much appreciated fundraisers. Cherie suspected, though, that the thousands of plastic clamshells in which their product was packed were not the best for the environment.

Family Orchards

dkoszka — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 03:03:49 +0000

Long, long time ago in the early 1960’s my husband, Jeff, had a friend named Frank Willard. He lived on the adjoining ranch to the Stephens family. Mr. Willard was an older man, in his 70’s, when he became friends with the little boy Jeff Stephens. Jeff would walk up the street to play croquet with his friend.

Walnuts

dkoszka — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 02:58:32 +0000

Homemade Jams

dkoszka — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 02:53:58 +0000

Melons

dkoszka — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 02:44:26 +0000

Mr. Willard

cgrima — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 21:49:45 +0000

In 1967 Mr. Willard decided to sell his ranch and the Stephens decided to buy it. In those days, as most farm parcels were sold, the house and the equipment usually sold with the farm. So, Jeff’s family took possession of one 1936 Ford flatbed truck. In 1979, Jeff and his brother Dan started farming Stephens Ranch separate from their dad and uncle. Soon it would be time for the older Stephens to retire and as they did the purchase of their land and equipment was made available to the Stephens boys. The old 1936 Ford flatbed truck made its way to Jeff and Dan and was turned into a water truck keeping the dust down on the orchard roads. By this time the old truck was worn and had seen many better days.

Dave Johnson the past owner of our store offered Jeff $100 to buy the 1936 truck. Jeff took the crisp cash and handed over the original pink slip. (This was all unbeknown to me, Cherie Stephens, the history lover and preservationist.)

One day Jeff took me to see the truck that Dave Johnson had restored and told me the story of how it had been Mr. Willard’s, Jeff’s Dads, ours and now the Johnson’s. The truck was beautiful and I couldn’t believe we had owned it, he had sold it for $100 and it was no longer in our family!

In 2000, the Johnson family asked Jeff and me if we would be interested in buying their fruit stand here on Hyw 99. After some discussion there was only ONE question to ask? “Does the truck come with the deal?”

I won’t go into the details but the truck cost a little more than $100 to get back…with the 1936 pink slip. We had some additional work done on the old truck and added the name Mr. Willard to his left front fender in honor of Jeff’s childhood companion and friend.

We enjoy and treasure Mr. Willard and hope you will too.

Uzbek Farmers Record US Best Practices

cgrima — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 21:07:25 +0000

7-14-11

USAID’s Community Connections program and AgLinks Project collaborated on a three-week training program on contemporary agro-technology in fruit cultivation in California during summer 2010. The Uzbek “community” consisted of 10 people from Uzbekistan’s Ferghana Valley, including farmers, public sector agricultural pro-fessionals, food safety professionals, agricultural research institute managers and researchers, plus private sector actors in fruit processing.

Foreign students soak up U.S. culture

cgrima — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 21:01:37 +0000

3-5-11
Appeal Democrat

On Aadil Fahim’s first day of American high school, he found it a little strange and awkward that in between subjects, students crowd hallways and slam locker doors, moving from class to class as they leave their teachers behind.

In his hometown of New Delhi, India, students stay put and teachers move. The style means bare walls instead of the newspaper clippings and alma matter banners that personalize American classrooms, and the same small group of students often spend all their educational years together.

Noorliza Abdullah says it was the same at her school in Penang, Malaysia.

“It’s like day and night,” she said of how the high school experiences compare.

Laugh out loud for philanthropy

cgrima — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 19:58:17 +0000

2-27-11

The Marysville-Yuba City Soroptimists are hosting their annual fundraiser, “Laughlines Comedy Club,” on Saturday, March 5, at the Bonanza Inn Convention Center.

Doors open at 7 p.m. for pre-show roving appetizers and raffle giveaways, followed at 8 p.m. by three hilarious comedians: Sacramento-based Mike Betancourt; Cheryl “The Soccer Mom” Anderson; and headliner Michael Winslow of the “Police Academy” films, also known as “the man of 10,000 sound effects.” Local dentist and personality Jimmy Earll will emcee.