The weather up in the Sierra Nevada Mountains where Sequoia National Park is nestled, was forecasted to have a ‘Winter Weather Advisory’ that had anywhere from three to nine inches of snow attached to it. As wonderful as that sight would have been if we had already been up there, we decided that a day “off” was not the worst thing that we could do.
So, discretion being the better part of valor, we stayed down in the Valley and did practically nothing of consequence. We did watch a few more episodes of Madam Secretary and I had the opportunity to work a bit more on my ship model of “Old Ironsides” which needs to be finished by mid-summer because it will stay behind in Manchester-by-the-Sea in Massachusetts with my son Donny and his family. That, some wash, and a venture to the Visalia Farmers Market rounded out the day.
Visalia is the largest town at the base of Sequoia. The Park is still about forty miles away, so there’s still a little traveling to do in the Honda. Visalia is also one of the larger towns in the San Joaquin Valley which is one of the largest growing areas for produce in the United States. Over twelve percent of our fruits and vegetables come from this area which produces year-round.
If you have ever been down to the Vineland region of New Jersey you can grasp the vastness of what it looks like here. Mile after mile of rows upon rows of neatly planted crops slip by your windshield. That paints an accurate picture of what it looks like here. What it doesn’t give you is the scale of these plantings.
In Vineland (which happens to be the world’s best Eggplant growing region, sixty-six percent of the worlds eggplant comes from the Garden State!) your windshield visage remains that of farms for maybe an hour or so. Imagine a place that is three -times the size of the entire state planted with an endless variety of produce. The Valley is about fifty miles wide and about four-hundred miles long. It was once an inland sea which left behind some awesomely fertile land. So, couple that with a fantastic growing climate and you can see why plants love this place!
(Here is a list of what is grown here, in no particular order, Grapes, Lettuce (71% of the nations supply) Walnuts, Almonds, Pistachios, Oranges, Lemons, Strawberries, Peaches, Nectarines, Tomatoes, Carrots, Cotton, Winter Wheat, and Cows, for milking. Yup, California leads the nation in milk production)
Now, mind you, not every square mile of this is planted, they needed to leave some room for cities, towns, and roads and some areas are better suited than others for planting, but I hope that you can grasp the seemingly limitless vastness of this Region.
Oh, I almost forgot,
This stuff is really good too!
