Sunday Post: Plains

Jakesprinter has a Sunday Post challenge on Plains. My interpretation, the closest I can come, are the fields of my little corner of the world. Northern California’s Central Valley encompasses some of the most fertile lands, providing the United States with vegetables and fruit unsurpassed in goodness. A little Wikipedia info:

The Central Valley is one of the world’s most productive agricultural regions and is the largest patch of Class 1 soil in the world.^[1] More than 230 crops are grown there.^[1] On less than 1 percent of the total farmland in the United States, the Central Valley produces 8 percent of the nation’s agricultural output by value: 17 billion USD in 2002. Its agricultural productivity relies on irrigation from both surface water diversions and groundwater pumping from wells. About one-sixth of the irrigated land in the U.S. is in the Central Valley.^[25]

Virtually all non-tropical crops are grown in the Central Valley, which is the primary source for a number of food products throughout the United States, including tomatoes, almonds, grapes, cotton, apricots, and asparagus.^[26]

There are 6,000 almond growers that produce more than 600 million pounds a year, about 70 percent of the world’s supply.

And don’t forget California’s happy cows…..or California wines (is that why the cows are happy?)

And here are just a few photos I’ve taken