Harvest Time in Brentwood is a nonprofit organization that aims to educate people about farming and promote agritourism in Brentwood.
The organization dates back to the 1970s when farmers decided to do more than sell their produce to packers. In 1976, Harvest Time Inc. was formed and welcomed any farm or ranch in Contra Costa County to join them.
It eventually grew its membership and developed a trail map, which is produced annually. We spoke to Board President Jessica Enos about Harvest Time in Brentwood. Her responses have been edited for brevity and clarity.
Q Tell us about Harvest Time in Brentwood and U-pick.
A Harvest Time was started in the late 70s and originally had 10 farm members. U-pick actually began out here (in Brentwood) in the 1940s during World War II, when some rations were given out, and part of the rations were sugar. The women did not want to waste the rations, so they (started) canning using sugar, but they needed fruit. So, they came from Fremont to Brentwood.
This is the story (that) was told to me. So, they discovered Brentwood and came out to the farmers and bought apricots and peaches, and they were able to buy a lot, and it showed the farmer, “Hey, these women would rather just get the product directly from us, and they wanted to come out and pick.” So that’s how U-pick got started. We worked with a historian, and we found out that we do have the oldest U-pick west of the Appalachian Mountains that’s still in operation today. We also have the most U-picks within a small radius in the nation.
Q Harvest Time in Brentwood produces an educational farm trail map. What is this trail map, and how has it helped the local farms?
A In the late 70s, several farmers had U-picks and they thought, how can we get the word out to get more people to come and to visit our farms and to continue having this U-pick tradition? There were 10 participating farms, they got together, and they created the trail map, a physical map that we still produce today. And they (farmers) sent that out and took it to all places to promote their farms.
So that same idea carries through today. We now have over 60 farm members. We have some of the people who originally started Harvest Time in Brentwood — their grandchildren or nieces or nephews on our board. Part of the map has evolved from the physical map. Now, we produce a real-time map on our website so you can see what farms are open in real-time during the U-pick season. We’ve created a way for the members (to update) from their phones to indicate if they’re open or closed, what their times are, what produce they have, etc.
Q After the pandemic, have you seen an increase in U-pick farms?
A We’ve had a huge growth spurt in participating farms. The nice thing about a U-pick farm is you don’t have to be a large operation. You can have 10 acres and have a U-pick on it. We have had a big increase in members. We started a fall season (U-pick), which we didn’t previously have here.
Harvest Time partnered with some other farmers, along with the city of Brentwood, and we brought pumpkins (patches during the) fall season, which was fantastic. We have multiple pumpkin patches now. I think once you see a proven business model, it gives other people permission to sort of take the leap of hope. We had never had mulberries here before, so we’ve added mulberries.
If you want to look at the pandemic, U-pick was sort of the perfect pandemic activity. The spacing for a proper cherry tree (for example) is 6 feet, and it’s outdoors. I think within the food or nutritional movement, there’s been a lot of conversation about knowing where your food comes from. People are looking at healthy options.
The other thing that we’re seeing is a lot more people coming. We’ve always had families that come out (here), but we’re starting to see a lot more people in their 20s that are coming. They’re coming from San Francisco for a day trip with their friends, take all the Instagram pictures, and they’re picking and buying for their parents. That’s something that we’ve seen over the last five years.
Q How does Harvest Time help connect local farms and the community?
A When Harvest Time originally started, it was one farmer who didn’t have the marketing budget to print a map, but 10 farmers did. It’s the exact same principle. Over 60 members have the ability to reach a lot more people than one farming member does. We work as a community, which is great.
A lot of our outreach is via social media and our online presence, and we have people who come here for generations. Most of the U-picks hire local youth, so it is sort of a little bit of a rite of passage. The U-pick season is usually from April, and it runs through fall.
Overall, for agritourism, we guesstimate that we bring in roughly 200,000 people into the area between April to November. Being declared the U-pick capital in 2023 was a big deal. We have great parks and restaurants you can visit afterward. What is also unique about U-pick is there are all kinds of produce that may not ship well, for example, rainier cherries. They’re very sweet and, in general, bruise very easily. So, when you get them in the store there, they might not look that great.
Q How does Harvest Time help educate children about agriculture?
A Part of how we ended up with a fall season was a few of us on the board had young kids and a few of us were getting notifications (for) field trips to farms outside of Brentwood. And we thought, why outside? We’re in the business of farming, so that’s how we started the fall program. Many of our farms will host different schools for field trips where they’ll discuss farming and farming practices and things like that. All you have to do is email them.
Jessica Enos Bio
Age: 44
Position: Harvest Time in Brentwood Board President,
Education: Business degree with an emphasis in marketing from University of the Pacific
Residence: Brentwood
Hometown: Brentwood
Family: Husband and three kids
Five things about Jessica Enos:
1. I volunteer as the board president of Harvest Time in Brentwood. I joined the board in 2018 and was voted in as president in 2021.
2. My career has always been in the building and real estate sector, I am the broker and CEO of Enos Company, a real estate brokerage specializing in residential and land transactions.
3. I also work at and market for our family cherry U-pick stands — 5 Star Cherries and Enos Family Orchards.
4. Most of our family orchards were planted in the same year as the birth of either one of my children or my nephews. That’s how I remember the age of each orchard.
5. The Coral Champagne is my absolute favorite variety of cherries.