Finally Fall Weather

Fall weather in the great central valley of California is something special.
Its still a "no coats needed" sort of experience.

Its a kind of weather that some days you want to hang out in the shade and others you want to basque in the bucolically warm sun.

Our city of Merced is an 80,000 plus city surrounded by agriculture fields of almonds,pistachios, dairy, peaches and nectarines. We even have some cotton fields within our city borders.

This year great piles of almonds are gather on the ground and swept into rows and dragged to processing plants. The hulls are whacked off and constitute the vast majority of the tree's product and reason for existence for the year. This year is a another great year. The trees were burdened with branches almost touching the ground. It is the first year that I can remember that there are giant piles of almonds in their hulls neatly labeled and waiting for processing. In most of the years the processing plants have kept up with harvest.

I have been told that there is no fear the price will ravage the farmers because of the quantity. The market place for most of these nuts is not domestic. We export most of these gems to Asia. They are high prized in their consumption. Can you imagine if we got fancy with our Chinese tariffs? Our valley depends on exporting these goods.

Get out there and enjoy some fall if you have any left. The folks in the mountains will not have to water or mow their lawns much longer.  We wait for the first serious rainfall. Here in the valley it may be after Halloween.

: ) Pat