Workers at Scully Packing in Finley sort pears on Tuesday. The shed began packing pears from the Sacramento Valley on Monday. Photo by Elizabeth Larson.

FINLEY – The summer pear packing season officially arrived this week.

On Monday, Scully Packing Co.'s Finley shed began packing the first Bartlett pears of the summer, which shed owner Toni Scully said are coming in from the area along the Sacramento River. the first truckload of pears arrived Saturday.

The California Pear Advisory Board reports that the “Early District” or “River Bartletts” such as Scully is now packing come from Sacramento and San Joaquin counties. “Late District” pears are grown in Mendocino, Lake and El Dorado counties.

The University of California Cooperative Extension's Sacramento County office reports that area produces the most pear tonnage in the state. The California Farm Bureau reports that Sacramento County's 2005 pear crop was valued at $19.4 million.

Next is Lake County, whose 2005 crop value was $11.5 million; and Mendocino, with a $10 million crop value, according to the Farm Bureau. San Joaquin's crop value for 2005 was $1.4 million, according to that county's crop report; El Dorado County reported its 2005 crop was worth $139,000.

Scully said the river pears are the first to become ripe, be harvested and arrive for packing. The harvest then moves north, to Mendocino County and then Lake County, usually around the start of August.

Adobe Creek Packing, the only other packing house, has not yet begun packing for the season, although they also will pack the Sacramento River pears, staff there confirmed.

So far this year the local crop is looking good. “Lake County will have a very nice product this year,” she said, adding that the pears are clean, plentiful and have good sizes.

Last year's local harvest was late, said Scully, which overlapped with over crop harvests. The result was farmers competing for labor in an already limited labor pool and tons of pears left rotting on the trees and in piles in fields. County Agriculture Commissioner Steve Hajik has estimated that 25-percent of the local crop was lost due to lack of labor.

Scully said it's still too soon to tell how much labor they'll have, but she's optimistic that this will be a better year than the last. Local growers are reporting they have more labor this time around.

“I think that all the publicity that Lake County has gotten is going to get us more workers,” she said.

Pictures of Scully standing over the rotting heaps of pears appeared in publications nationwide, and helped draw attention to the issues of immigration and labor.

“We desperately need immigration reform, we desperately need guest workers,” said Scully.

She said that many local people who don't normally take packing house jobs have been coming in to help with the harvest. Scully said the community's support has been both touching and gratifying.

They're also seeing a lot of teen workers, who by law are allowed to work longer hours during the summer harvest season, as well as college students who worked at the sheds while in high school.

When Scully's Scotts Valley packing house gets going in August, said Scully, “We are going to need a lot more workers than we have now.”

Packing for Bartlett pears ends around Labor Day, said Scully, and then they'll transition into packing later pear varieties, such as Boscs, Comices and Red Crimsons.

Scully said it's also too early to estimate pear prices for the coming season.

With the disaster of 2006 now past, Scully is looking ahead.

“Farmers are always optimistic and we are, too, which is one reason we keep doing this,” Scully said.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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