Enjoyed this. After living and working in the Bay Area, I retired to the northern part of the Valley. It is indeed quite a place. I grew up in rolling farmland back in the Midwest. This is not that.
Our food costs would be astronomical if not for the incredible output of the area. One percent of the country produces a quarter of our food. Pistachios, table grapes, tomatoes, almonds, and olives. Water is an issue, but the country is dependent on this region.
A lesser known bit of the story? Occasionally we get such monstrous winter storms that historically the Central Valley will become a series of huge ephemeral lakes. The landscape is hyper-engineered for ag uses now, but so flat a big enough rain year can still create a lake.
Leland Stanford - yes, that Stanford - was inaugurated as Gov in 1862 after he took a row boat to the Capitol in Sacramento since the city was flooded and the Capitol was on a little island of higher ground in the lake created by the Sacramento River spreading out into a vast lake from a series of huge storms.
Enjoyed this. After living and working in the Bay Area, I retired to the northern part of the Valley. It is indeed quite a place. I grew up in rolling farmland back in the Midwest. This is not that.
Our food costs would be astronomical if not for the incredible output of the area. One percent of the country produces a quarter of our food. Pistachios, table grapes, tomatoes, almonds, and olives. Water is an issue, but the country is dependent on this region.
A lesser known bit of the story? Occasionally we get such monstrous winter storms that historically the Central Valley will become a series of huge ephemeral lakes. The landscape is hyper-engineered for ag uses now, but so flat a big enough rain year can still create a lake.
Leland Stanford - yes, that Stanford - was inaugurated as Gov in 1862 after he took a row boat to the Capitol in Sacramento since the city was flooded and the Capitol was on a little island of higher ground in the lake created by the Sacramento River spreading out into a vast lake from a series of huge storms.
Is there any comparable condition on any other continent?