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We are growing orange safflowers that will be processed into natural dyes. Natural dyes are being used more and more in food products as well as by the clothing industry. The crop is in full bloom right now and as the plants mature, the flowers will turn reddish orange. In past years, we have grown safflowers with yellow flowers for oilseed production.
Our processing tomatoes are growing in the fields in various locations in western Yolo County. Some varieties are at the flowering stage while others are already producing fruit. We are optimistic that growing conditions will be conducive to yielding a great crop this year!
John Rominger makes his debut as The Wildlife Guy with a close look at a wild animal that he found on our farm: a Pacific ringneck snake.
 Students from the Culinary Institute of America visited Rominger Brothers Farms for a farm tour. They are attending the CIA in Hyde Park, New York, and spending three months at the CIA campus in St. Helena, California, studying aspects of the farm-to-table movement. Bruce Rominger, right, hosted the group and led a detailed discussion about California food production.
 The sun rises over the ewes and lambs as they graze the forage on the back forty.
 Our wheat crop is looking great as it starts heading out. This crop will be harvested then milled into flour.
Tomato seedlings are going into the ground at Rominger Brothers Farms as planting season gets underway in Northern California. These are canning tomatoes that are processed into tomato soup, pizza sauce and other delicious foods.
It's the time of year when the sheep at Rominger Brothers Farms get their wool sheared. Clockwise from upper left, wooly sheep are lined up to enter the sheep-shearing trailer. The shearing crew works quickly and efficiently to shear all the sheep. A freshly sheared Rambouillet sheep is ready to rejoin the flock. Ernie Fairchild, owner of the Buhl, Idaho-based Fairchildshearing LLC, and his crew travel throughout a half-dozen Western states to shear commercial sheep flocks and load up the fleeces for processing. The wool shorn from sheep at Rominger Brothers Farms will be milled at the Oregon-based Pendleton Woolen Mills and made into shirts, blankets and other wool products.
German farmers visited Rominger Brothers Farms where they learned about almond production from grower Bruce Rominger. During their visit, which was sponsored by Yolo 365 Tours, a truckload of sheep was delivered, and the group watched livestock producer John Oligary and his crew unload the flock at the Rominger ranch to graze on the grass-covered foothills.
 As this year's growing season gets underway at Rominger Brothers Farms, a crop duster applies fertilizer to a winter wheat field near the Coast Range Mountains.
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