The first Rain of the Season

We were over in the Bay Area for the first rain of the season in the Central Valley of California.

I knew it rained because when I picked up the paper in my driveway when we got home, it was drenched even through it was wrapped in a plastic sleeve.

I asked my friends at the coffee house what the rain was like. They said it was a very steady gentle rain. It lasted several hours.

These rains are great for everyone but those farmers with cotton still in the field, tomato farmers because it generates mold, and raisin farmers that have grape clusters on the ground. It looked to me like most of this activity was pretty well over. The trees have given up their almonds and the grapes have had a long Hot summer allowing them to turn to raisins. The almond harvest has left a cloud in the valley of its dust that just won't settle. This rain has settled the dust.

Almonds are a major crop. In the 30's through the 70's this area was known for its peach and apricot crops. Huge processing plants were set up in every valley city to can the produce and trucks and trains would haul the cans to warehouses for distribution throughout the country and throughout the year. As prices of labor and water and sewage have gone up, the peaches have been canned in other countries and the canneries have been disassembled for their metal. Almond trees have taken the place of peaches. Almonds do not require cans or distribution. They are an export rather than a product for domestic consumption. The decrease of canned fruit in the american diet can also be noted here. Fresh fruit could be airlifted in from Chile in the winter and Mexico on the shoulders of our fresh harvest. Canned fruit disappeared from our tables.

Almonds are harvested by very low riding tractors with enclosed drivers capsules. The tractors shake the trunk of the trees and all of the nuts fall to the ground. Other vehicles with weird shapes have nylon fingers on them and similar to a weed wacker.  They prowl the rows and line of the nuts and the leaves that have fallen with the nuts in a gigantic row. They scrape along the dirt line as they go and prepare the rows for another machine that scoops of the rows and sends them into 16wheel like trucks with bins on them that take the rows to the nut processors. This year the nut processors could not keep up with the huge piles that were brought to them. All around the nut yards are multiple piles of nut harvest material neatly labels and ready for processing. Many have tarps over them. This is the first year that I remember seeing so many piles of nuts waiting to be harvested. This was often done with the cotton crop as it lies in cased in plastic waiting for "gin" time. They look like big blue caterpillars, in the southern part of the county. Almonds in plies join these caterpillars.

So October is what it is in the Central Valley of California. Cool mornings and warm to hot afternoons. Snow.. once in 8 to 16years and usually in January.

: ) Pat