Marigold harvest a gift to workers who have kept Mellano blooming for 50 years
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PostedOctober 28, 2019
Noemi Molina tosses marigolds that she cut on to a pile that she will eventually carry to a truck as she and other workers harvest marigolds at the Mellano & Company farm on Friday, October 25, in Oceanside. The flowers were donated to the Mission San Luis Rey for its 19th annual Dia de los Muertos Festival on Oct. 27.(Hayne Palmour IV / The San Diego Union-Tribune) For 17 years, longtime Oceanside flower grower Mellano & Co. has donated all the altar flowers for city’s Dia de los Muertos celebration OCEANSIDE — Today, the Mission San Luis Rey in Oceanside hosts its 19th annual Dia de los Muertos Festival , where visitors can stroll past dozens of altars honoring the dead. Mexican families honor their departed loved ones with altar decorations like sugar skulls, candles and personal mementos. But one thing common to all the altars is fresh marigold blossoms, which are said to guide back loved ones’ spirits with their strong scent and bright orange color. Over the past 17 years, all of the festival’s blossoms have been grown and donated to the Mission by Mellano & Company , a family-owned cut-flower grower that operates from a 300-acre farm just five miles west of the Mission. The flowers are a gift of thanks to the Mexican families who have lived and worked on the Mellano property for decades. On Friday afternoon, a crew of Mellano farmworkers harvested thousands of marigold blossoms from a half-acre plot that was planted in August, just for the festival. Grower Ken Tamiguchi, who has worked at Mellano for 35 years, said most of the marigolds grown there each year are destined for the festival, but a small patch is reserved for Mellano employees to build their own altars on Nov. 2, which is Mexico’s traditional Day of the Dead. (Hayne Palmour IV / The San Diego Union-Tribune) Rosaria Hernandez and other workers harvest marigolds at the Mellano & Company farm on Friday, October 25, 2019 in Oceanside. Pausing briefly as he loaded the truck with buckets of fresh-cut flowers, crew chief Eleno Cervantes […]
