Farming to Market

We drove across the valley and back today to see a park located west of us just beyond Interstate 5.  It was about a 120 mile round trip to see just one park but Tulare is the closest stopover to this particular park.  In the process we saw extensive farmlands covering the perfectly flat landscape of the California Central Valley situated between two mountain ranges here, the larger being the Sierra Nevada range to our east.

We were surprised to see potatoes growing in some of the fields, discerning what the plants are after seeing other fields with harvested bags of potatoes left in rows across adjacent fields.  Unfortunately we did not grab a photo of the bagged potatoes.  We would have enjoyed seeing how that bagging process works.  We suspect that the rows of potato bags are created by machine and subsequently gathered by machine.  On the Web it looks like the potatoes are dug up and left in rows on the ground but I could not find a photo of how the bagging process works.  Of course the mysteries of farming fuel our  continuing fascination with farming here in Central California. 

We also saw pistachio trees (my first encounter with them) bearing their nuts along with almond trees and pecan trees, which are also starting to have visible nuts.  Grape vines continue here and tiny clusters of grapes are now starting to appear.  We passed a Sun Maid Raisin factory and wondered if the produce of these grape vines is destined to become raisins?  I would have liked to check on whether or not there was a tour available, but we saw it from the RV traveling down from Fresno to Tulare.

Corn, apricots and tomatoes are other crops close to harvest now along the roads in addition to rows of hay bales already gathered across the fields we pass.  This area has huge dairy cattle yards.  Horses, goats and beef cattle are also mixed in here and there in separate fields.  It is amazing to see such vast agriculture for miles in all directions.  The only thing holding back this area is the lack of water.  If winter rains don’t come this year, it may well be disastrous for the farmers along with those depending on jobs or businesses here that the farming industry supports.

I had the interesting and pleasurable experience of grocery shopping in the Hispanic grocery store near the RV Park where we are staying today.  It was fascinating to see so many different cooking options and I found myself wishing I knew more about the ethnic cooking traditions of the Hispanic culture.  I purchased some Mole sauce to experiment with on chicken.  The vegetable displays and the extensive butcher section of the meat department were impressive.  The store merchandise and produce were so nicely displayed and the people were so friendly (shoppers and staff alike) that I quickly forgot my anxiety over being in a store where I could not understand the predominant language.  It fostered the idea of living in a foreign land, where learning a new language and becoming familiar with their culture would be fascinating.  Fear of the unknown would be replaced with the joy of expanding one’s knowledge of the world.  And that is a good thing.  Maybe I will add that to my bucket list when we truly are retired?