The Bakersfield College Agriculture Department hosted its annual Orange Harvest sale on Jan. 24-25 at the Agriculture Farm across from the Grace Van Dyke Bird Library.
Kelan Rockholt was one of many students in professor Bill Kelly’s class that were given the assignment to work the event as a chance to earn mandatory and extra credit points in the class.
“We’re supposed to pick the oranges with the stems, then bag and sell them. The oranges that are split or bruised are throwaways,” said Rockholt. “The oranges that don’t have a stem but are still in decent shape, we juice.”
Professors also joined the event by passing out ladders and shears to the orange pickers.
Kelly, a current member of the California Agriculture Teachers Association and a forestry professor, arrived with a smile on his face and encouraging everyone, including students outside of class, to participate in picking and buying oranges.
“Keith Haycock, who is now retired, was the one who originally came up with the idea of the Orange Harvest back in 1970,” said Kelly. “The types of oranges we grow here on the farm are Navel oranges and if we don’t sell all of them, then we usually donate the rest.”
The bags of oranges that were self-picked were sold for $3 and the bags that were pre-picked were sold for $5.
“The money made from the sale of the oranges usually goes to support field trips, farm equipment, plants, and any other expenses needed to help the agriculture department,” said Kelly.