Craig Underwood

To the untrained eye, they all could have looked the same: orange, plump, bumpy. But 7-year-old Brandi Beck could tell almost instantly a good pumpkin from a bad one as she searched row after row at the Tierra Rejada Family Farm's Fall Harvest Festival on Saturday. The Simi Valley resident, along with her aunt Mary Diegel, came across dozens of potential candidates. Some were too small, others too oblong. Some lacked the necessary stem, and still others were scarred with dirt marks or gouges.

ON A recent Sunday, a friend and I watched as our kids pulled a wooden wagon through a Ventura County field, pausing to gather black-eyed peas and sun-ripened heirloom tomatoes. They ran down rows of raspberry bushes, filling their hats with the ripe fruit. The air rustled the leaves of a row of peach trees; bees hummed on the periphery. Two hours later, the contents of our wagon (weighed out and paid for at the market stand) held enough produce for dinner, for dinners all week. The kids, faces browned by dirt and sunlight, were eating tomatoes as if they were apples; they didn't want to leave.

Just off the Ventura Freeway, a row of eucalyptus trees, as unevenly spaced as a gaptoothed smile, stands guard over a patch of bare earth that is Craig Underwood's big gamble. Over the years, this field has nurtured white-faced cattle, a mountain lion family and an architect's blueprint for hundreds of trim suburban homes. But mostly it has been neglected, allowed to grow thick with brush and willows.

To the untrained eye, they all could have looked the same: orange, plump, bumpy. But 7-year-old Brandi Beck could tell almost instantly a good pumpkin from a bad one as she searched row after row at the Tierra Rejada Family Farm's Fall Harvest Festival on Saturday. The Simi Valley resident, along with her aunt Mary Diegel, came across dozens of potential candidates. Some were too small, others too oblong. Some lacked the necessary stem, and still others were scarred with dirt marks or gouges.

The field lies fallow now, a rectangular patch a shade north of the Conejo Grade, bare but for neatly spaced sprinkler heads and a few remaining patches of stubborn weeds. Every motorist scooting west over the grade can spot the field's flat drabness off to the right, just beyond the expanse of glossy, dark green lemon groves. Seventy-three tufted eucalyptus trees, unevenly spaced as a gap-tooth smile, stand guard over the waiting dirt.

ON A recent Sunday, a friend and I watched as our kids pulled a wooden wagon through a Ventura County field, pausing to gather black-eyed peas and sun-ripened heirloom tomatoes. They ran down rows of raspberry bushes, filling their hats with the ripe fruit. The air rustled the leaves of a row of peach trees; bees hummed on the periphery. Two hours later, the contents of our wagon (weighed out and paid for at the market stand) held enough produce for dinner, for dinners all week. The kids, faces browned by dirt and sunlight, were eating tomatoes as if they were apples; they didn't want to leave.

Caltrans officials will meet tonight on two road projects that some Somis residents fear could lead to the expansion of highways near their community. The 7 p.m. meeting at the Somis School auditorium, 5268 North St., will include presentations from Caltrans and members of Save Our Somis, who have expressed concerns about the projects scheduled for construction in 2001. One project calls for the realignment of Donlon Road near the intersection of Highway 118 and Highway 34.

Las Posas Valley residents won't have to worry about getting the attention of their county supervisors any longer. Supervisors Judy Mikels and Kathy Long have nominated seven area residents to serve on a citizens advisory committee to review issues related to the communities. Mikels is recommending that the board appoint David Donlon, Samuel McIntyre, Barbara Kerkhoff and Craig Underwood.

A U.S. Forest Service firefighter has pleaded not guilty to charges that he started a fire in Los Padres National Forest last summer. Craig Matthew Underwood, 31, of Greenfield is charged with causing three fires that burned 800 acres and cost $2.5 million to extinguish. He is being held in the Santa Clara County Jail on $150,000 bail.

County officials may require a Camarillo-area farming operation to move several compost heaps from a 60-acre farm unless the company can control the strong odor from the compost before the end of the week. Fairfield housing tract residents, whose homes are near the 300-foot-long compost piles at Conejo Ranch, have complained that the piles have created an overwhelming stench and have attracted thousands of flies. The farm is situated north of the Ventura Freeway at the base of the Conejo Grade.

The field lies fallow now, a rectangular patch a shade north of the Conejo Grade, bare but for neatly spaced sprinkler heads and a few remaining patches of stubborn weeds. Every motorist scooting west over the grade can spot the field's flat drabness off to the right, just beyond the expanse of glossy, dark green lemon groves. Seventy-three tufted eucalyptus trees, unevenly spaced as a gap-tooth smile, stand guard over the waiting dirt.

Just off the Ventura Freeway, a row of eucalyptus trees, as unevenly spaced as a gaptoothed smile, stands guard over a patch of bare earth that is Craig Underwood's big gamble. Over the years, this field has nurtured white-faced cattle, a mountain lion family and an architect's blueprint for hundreds of trim suburban homes. But mostly it has been neglected, allowed to grow thick with brush and willows.

After a dozen residents protested, Ventura County supervisors Tuesday told county staff to study whether two road improvement projects in Los Posas Valley conform to the recently passed SOAR growth-control measure. Residents are concerned that the projects along a stretch of California 118, scheduled to begin in the summer of 2001, are just the beginning of a more extensive plan to eventually widen a 16-mile stretch of the highway.

The water rates for Camarillo growers will be based on annual consumption under a resolution passed by the City Council. Under the previous system, farmers were allocated a certain amount of water each month based on how much they had used in the base year of 1989-90. Many faced penalties for not cutting their consumption, said John Elwell, community services director. Farmers now may adjust their water use, which varies throughout the year, to correspond with planting.