North Dakota, home to not a single almond orchard, matters to growers of the nut. It is the summer home of many of the honeybee colonies that pollinate California almond crops each year. Growers met in Modesto to discuss how to help a struggling bee population rebound.

Shake an almond tree and money rains down for growers and many other people. That was evident Wednesday at the annual conference of the Almond Board of California, which celebrated the nut's remarkable run over the past decade.

Modesto-area nut grower Paul Wenger won a second term as president of the California Farm Bureau Federation on Wednesday.

Silkwood Wines of Modesto won the Best of Show award for red wines at the Denver International Wine Festival. The company topped the competition with its Satin and Silk VSPS, a 2007 petite sirah made from Stanislaus County grapes. Silkwood, owned by John Monnich, produces syrah, petite sirah and cabernet sauvignon.

Diamond Foods Inc. faces complaints from stockholders about how it accounted for payments to walnut growers in the Central Valley.

A report suggests that California agriculture already uses water efficiently and disputes the notion that conservation could free large amounts of water for other uses.

In a room in the Minturn Nut processing plant in Le Grand, 26 women wearing masks and hairnets stood over conveyor belts, sifting through almonds. The company has been able to cut back on its employee hours recently since it installed new mechanical laser sorters that presort the nuts.

Livestock farmers are demanding a change in the nation's ethanol policy, claiming current rules could lead to spikes in meat prices and shortages at supermarkets if corn growers have a bad year.

Sonia Desikan has found a bounty in Modesto unlike anything she knew in New York City. Persimmons and pistachios and pomegranates beckoned as she browsed the Modesto Certified Farmers Market on Thursday morning. She is not alone in enjoying locally grown food. A report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated that sales were $4.8 billion in 2008 and could reach $7 billion this year.

Connie Ollis heard from her grandmother that a pomegranate is ripe when its skin starts to crack. Later, the Modesto resident learned that a little drying at the crown is key. Whatever the indicator, it's clear that pomegranate season has arrived, closing the year's fruit harvests in distinctive style.

Joseph Gallo, head of the largest family-owned winery in the world, reinforced his commitment to California's wine industry Friday with a pledge to enter into new grower contracts worth thousands of acres of grapes. The president of the Modesto-based E.&J. Gallo Winery made a rare public appearance in Fresno.

Second graders from Sisk Elementary School in Salida get a look at Nicholas Broad Breasted White turkeys on Thursday morning at Wellsford Ranch in Modesto.

As U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack talks trade in Vietnam and China this week, he's hoping to build on one of the few bright spots in the struggling American economy: ag exports.

Blue Diamond Growers revealed a few details Wednesday about the almond processing plant it plans to build in Turlock, though the number of jobs is still unknown. The plant is scheduled to open at about 200,000 square feet in May 2013.

California's wine grape crop is down this year, but quality is predicted to be exceptional, thanks to Mother Nature delivering a mild summer.