Steve Long grew up on a farm in Ceres, CA, where he attended elementary through high school. Being raised on a farm, Steve learned lots of practical lessons doing things like raising and selling vegetables, and he learned to cut fruit for a dehydrator operation. His talk was about some of the history of the Superior Fruit Ranch which has been in continual operation in Stanislaus County, CA for over 100 years.  The ranch started with 320 acres of land purchased by a partnership of Steve's grandfather and some investors from the Midwest.

Steve organized his talk around the four ingredients of any type of successful farming: good soil, sunshine, water and labor.  The Central Valley location of the ranch had good soil and sunshine in ample supply.  Water was more of a concern until the Turlock Irrigation District and Modesto Irrigation District together built a dam on the Tuolomne River to create Lake Don Pedro.  Before the existence of dams and irrigation canals, the Central Valley was planted mainly wheat and other crops that could survive with dryland farming techniques.  After Turlock Cooperative Growers, Allied Grape Growers, Pacific Coast Cooperative and Blue Diamond Almonds (a cooperative).