I'm back in Yuma temporarily - the Winter Lettuce Capital of the World. This area grows 90% of the lettuce eaten in the US!Mexican day workers enter the US legally to pick the lettuce. (None of us snowbirds want to work this hard...)
Last weekend was Yuma Lettuce Days. Sally and I went to check it out. First, we went on a bus tour of the local fields and learned all kinds of interesting stuff.
The winter vegetable crops are just about all picked. For the summer, mostly wheat and cotton will be planted.
All of it is irrigated with water from the Colorado River.
I hope this guy is not going to try to go boating in the canal!
Celery is a hard crop to grow, because each plant has to be individually transplanted.
Watermelon and muskmelons are starting out here.
There are also lots of date farms in the Yuma area. We learned a lot about them. There are male and female palms, and the females are hand pollinated, so that you only need one male palm for every 100 females.
Back from the bus tour, we saw lots of big shiny machines. This cotton picker can pick 4 acres of cotton in one hour!
Also an award-winning fruit and vegetable carver. Who knew there was such a thing?
We also saw lots of these t-shirts - "Ask me why I am not naked or hungry." I guess the answer is all the vegetables and cotton that is grown here.
Cute t-shirt, good conversation starter.
ReplyDeleteWent to the festival several years ago, but didn't take the tour. Sounds very interesting. Did you buy lots of lettuce at the festival? I remember I did.
ReplyDeleteI love to grow things it makes me feel so good...WHY are Americans so lazy? I used to pull Johnson Grass outta the soy bean fileds for 50C an hr when I was kid and helped bail hay and worked hard, kids dont do anything these days...
ReplyDeleteCOOL post!!!
Wow, that is a tour I would have enjoyed. And those carved fruits and vegetables! What an interesting artform.
ReplyDelete" so that you only need one male palm for every 100 females".
ReplyDeleteI'm a male Palm but I think a 100 females would kill me.
I love the way the melons are carved. They look beautiful and delicious.
ReplyDeleteKevin and Ruth
www.travelwithkevinandruth.com
Lots of agriculture around Yuma. Those carved melons look to good to eat. Funny shirt.
ReplyDeleteOnce again you've found something very intersting and out of the ordinary to post about. Now I have to go and see these farms for myself.
ReplyDeleteAlways have been amazed at agriculture and the big machines used to harvest the crops. :c)
An interesting tour. I always remember reading in one of Steinbecks books about the migrant workers picking lettuce.
ReplyDeleteGreat pictures as always, interesting descriptions, cute comments. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteVery cool fruit and vegetable art.
ReplyDeleteI really like Yuma. We use to go there in winter from Tucson for a break. Neat tour.
ReplyDeleteI'm always impressed how you find the wonderful things to do and see at each place you visit. Perhaps a post on how you manage this?
ReplyDelete