Arroyo Grande farm welcomes nearly two inches of rain

Puddles of mud decorate farmer Tom Ikdea’s property in Arroyo Grande after getting doused with rain Thursday night.

“We think it’s a good start, we’re hoping for more but we need to prepare just in case it doesn’t come like last year,” Ikeda explains.

Ikeda says last year they had a damp start to the rainy season but it ended pretty quickly, leading them to cut production to save water.

“So basically instead of growing 100 acres of something, maybe we’re only growing 60 so since we don’t have as much water, we need to cut back on where that water goes,” he tells us.

Now he says if there’s more rain like what hit the Central Coast on Thursday, the aquifer they use to water his property will begin to fill back up.

“If we get more rain on a fairly regular basis, that first moisture is gonna work its way down into the underground aquifer and help replenish that aquifer and hopefully ease the drought a little bit,” Ikedda says.

It’s currently unsure when the next rainfall will be, but there are certainly a lot of people like the farmers here that are looking forward to it.