Madera Community College preparing to launch an agave distillery program

MADERA, Calif. (KFSN) -- Along the roadworthy erstwhile you thrust onto the Madera Community College campus, and adjacent the medication building, you'll find agave plants.

While they were planted to adhd to the landscaping, they besides served a bigger purpose.

"The main crushed we planted this is truthful we tin make the buzz and commencement to get the consciousness and the look that we bash agave present astatine Madera Community College," President Ángel Reyna, Ed.D. said.

Reyna has been researching the spiky Mexican plants that lucifer a cactus and distilling agave for the past 2 and a fractional years.

"We're being thoughtful, and that's wherefore it's taking this long, due to the fact that we privation to beryllium intentional and strategical connected however we rotation this out," Reyna said.

In Mexico, the agave plants are cooked and fermented.

Its foodstuff is past distilled to make tequila.

Reyna has taken aggregate trips to Mexico to spot it firsthand and is moving to replicate that process astatine Madera College.

"We spot it besides arsenic an economical motor for our region and the portion arsenic well, to beryllium capable to supply a programme that's going to beryllium beneficial socially, economically and culturally," Reyna said.

In May, the assemblage signed a five-year lease with a erstwhile winery successful Madera County.

A full of $300,000 worthy of instrumentality has been purchased done the state's Strong Workforce backing to get the "Madera College Agave Distillery" up and running.

Reyna believes the programme volition assistance abstracted them from different colleges.

"I deliberation we volition be, to our knowledge, the archetypal successful the federation to really distill the plant," Reyna said.

By adjacent spring, they volition works 10 acres of agave northbound of field wherever there's presently a grape vineyard.

He says section farmers person taken an involvement due to the fact that agave plants necessitate minimal water.

He says successful the adjacent 10 to 20 years, the extremity is to person a hotel, bar, edifice and distillery managed by students to hole them for the workforce.

"We privation to pb the research, beryllium capable to assistance our section community, truthful we instrumentality the hazard for them, they don't, but astatine the aforesaid time, we supply an educated workforce during that process," Reyna said.

By this clip adjacent year, Reyna expects to person a moving programme successful place.

For quality updates, travel Jessica Harrington connected Facebook, X and Instagram.