Autumn Comes to the Salinas Valley

Another handful of fall photos, this time spotlighting Northern California’s other famous valley of technology—the Salinas Valley!

So as you may know, yesterday we spotlighted Carmel Valley and touted it as one of the better places to experience autumn, at least in our opinion. We took a road trip to collect the photos you can view in that post, but on the way back over Laureles Grade descending down into the Salinas Valley to the SSCS offices, we were motivated to snap a few more photos.

Yes, believe it or not, the Salinas Valley (don’t go confusing it with Silicon Valley!) is known for more than its technology! All kidding aside, the city’s association with agriculture is indelible enough that it functions, for all intents and purposes, as a symbol of California farming. So we figured it would be a shame if we didn’t give it a little run.

The photos in this post, except for the introductory photo, were all shot at the Farm (yes, that’s its name, just “The Farm”) in Salinas. This is what it looks like as you approach it:

This working organic farm, much like its counterpart, Earthbound Farm in Carmel Valley, is visitor-, and especially, kid-friendly. They have educational programs, a comfortable and attractive visitor center and environs, and a cowtrain that a child can ride for just five bucks. As you might expect, they see a lot of action this time of year. In fact, when I was there yesterday, our grandson’s first grade class was there learning all sorts of things, like how a pumpkin is a fruit. Now that’s some good knowledge!

Part of the charm of the Farm is the way they attractively lay out their pumpkins and gourds. In one of the photos pictured below, the one with the truck, you’ll notice the large sculpture of the Ag worker that we featured front and center in the tweet we sent out Tuesday. You find these sculptures scattered throughout Salinas, but the Farm has more than its fair share.

Created by local artist John Cerney (he calls it “giant cut-out art”, who is occasionally assisted by Dong Sun Kim, they celebrate the individuals that are employed in the area’s farming community. You can read more about the sculptures here, on the Farm’s website.

Well, we certainly hope readers of this blog have gotten their fill of pumpkins for the week, but we also hope you aren’t totally satiated. See, next week’s blog post in celebration of Halloween features an exclusive short story with original art. It takes place at everyone’s favorite fictional C-store, go-go’s, and the working title is “1000 pumpkins for 1000 princesses.” See you then.

Special thanks to Michael A. for the nice photo leading off this post.