Archive for san joaquin valley

California 99

Posted in Food, Travel with tags , , , , , , , , on October 9, 2013 by David McInerny

IMG_3054The San Gabriel mountains separate the marvelous unreality of Los Angeles from Bakersfield. No vacation spot, Bakersfield has no aspirations other than to anchor the agricultural juggernaut that is the San Joaquin Valley. Three hundred and fifty miles long by fifty miles wide, the SJV is the most fertile growing region in the world, bread-basket to America. The growing season is remarkably consistent – 95 degrees during the day, cool at night. Receiving very little rain, irrigation canals tap into water from as far away as the upper Midwest, creating near perfect growing conditions, day after day after day.

Bakersfield is a dusty, hard-working town that serves as the agricultural engine to the valley. Pipefitting, trucking, and refining dominate its industries. Located on California state road 99 at the south end of the valley, Bakersfield does the heavy lifting in manufacturing the hardware needed to coax crops from the ground. CA 99 runs straight up through the San Joaquin Valley, from Bakersfield past, Tulare, Fresno, Modesto, and ultimately to Sacramento in the north. A short, ten miles stretch anywhere along the highway reveals a stunning cornucopia of crops: walnuts, grapes (for raisins), cotton, onion, garlic, oranges, parsley, on and on. John Steinbeck grew up in California and was fascinated by its industries needed to feed the country (and wrote about in Cannery Row). He’s be mighty impressed by the valley today, though he did see and describe its emergence late in his life through his travel journal, Travels with Charley.

Fresno is Bakersfield’s polar opposite. It’s the epicenter of the valley, and the highest concentration of agricultural wealth in California. Of all of California’s crops, almond growing is king. It’s an industry that has grown from 800 million lbs. per year to over 2 billion lbs. in the last two decades, with the nut being internationally popular due to its mild flavor and high concentration of antioxidants. Almond grove owners are easy to spot in Fresno – they are the big bellied gents in the nicer restaurants, wearing new jeans and dust-free, fine leather boots, unsuccessfully hiding their smiles. Fresno has no sprawling suburbs. The real estate is just too valuable. Almonds orchards butt up against every edge of the town. Pretty but small row houses are the norm, with fruit trees packed in the tiny backyards. If ever I could be convinced to move to California, I would live in Fresno.

Sacramento is the state capital, and the northern crown of the valley. Ironically, the no-nonsense fiscal conservatives of the SJV feed the country as well as the state coffers and prevent California from succeeding in committing economic suicide. It’s a gorgeous city nonetheless, with the most beautiful capital complex in the U.S. It is also home for some of the behemoth nut companies we see on the retail shelves.

If you are looking for an unusual but beautiful long-weekend vacation, fly into LA, and drive California 99 to Sacramento, and fly home. You’ll see from where an astonishing percentage of the food in your grocery store comes.

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Sacramento

Posted in Food, Travel with tags , , , on October 9, 2012 by David McInerny

I guess Sacramento is a dividing line of sorts.  South of the city is the San Joaquin Valley which straddles each side of U.S. 99, irrigated flatland with one season – growing season. The Valley is the the most agriculturally productive place on the planet – the breadbasket to the world. A partial list of its bounty include, tomatoes, almonds, grapes, dairy products, asparagus, herbs of every variety, peaches, lettuce, and on and on. Today my attention was on walnut orchards just below Modesto. The crop this year is a little smaller than anyone would want it to be, but the quality is excellent, and soon these tree nuts will be shipped all over the globe as the best available.

North of Sacramento begins the green rolling precursor to the Pacific Northwest; non-deciduous forestation that houses black bears, condors, all manner of outdoorsman and the occasional medicinal hemp farmer. South of Sacramento is nature tamed for the use of man; north of Sacramento is nature left alone, it can be said without making any judgement regarding the relative value of either region.

Sacramento is also the capital of the state, and host for that special type of human called the California politician. Actually, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and every other burg of any size in the state is teeming with the species. California politicians generally frown upon the concept of limited government, but rather see themselves as, not just America’s, but Earth’s last, best chance to save mankind from itself. Bless their confused but well-meaning hearts. There must be an unspoken understanding among politicians here that you haven’t arrived politically until you’ve sponsored a bill that has put a warning declaration on a consumer package.

Meanwhile, in the rural parts of the state, agriculture carries on in global style, not with the help of the machinations of the state, but in spite of them. In many ways, little has changed since Steinbeck observed the hard-working crop industries here four generations ago. Self-sufficiency is the name of the game if you want to survive the assistance of the California government. Food processors of any magnitude would never dream of not generating their own electricity, or fail to have overlapping contingency plans to keep the crops irrigated, for to rely on an uninterrupted supply of these basic services from the State of California would spell certain doom. Still, the quality of the goods grown here are the benchmark for every other country, and the agricultural industry quietly plods along, keeping grocery produce shelves stocked and revenue coffers jingling so that California politicians can continue to have the ever-diminishing resources required to heap further regulation and taxation on the hand that feeds it. If you ever have the opportunity to drive U.S. 99 between Modesto and Bakersfield, take the time to list the number of food items you see growing. You’ll be impressed.

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