The Salad Bowl

No wonder Salinas is called the Salad Bowl of America. It is claimed that over three-fourth of all the lettuce is grown in the Salinas Valley which is located in Monterey County, California. Driving from Monterrey Bay toward Salinas, one can see large tracts of farm lands growing lettuce, fresh fruits, vegetables and vineyards. Farming is largely mechanized and it was interesting to see a few farmers ably managing large fields through automation and technology.

We enjoyed watching the sprinklers programmed to start watering specific patches of the farm on rotation and my husband could not get enough pictures of these. After going around downtown Salinas and checking out the National Steinbeck Centre and Steinbeck House where the author once lived, we decided to experience the farm life and headed towards The Farm. 

Cutouts outside The Farm

Strawberry farm

Lettuce Farm

In fact, while driving on Highway 68, we had spotted the large sculptures/ cut-outs of farmers erected outside The Farm and this had really made us curious. We reached the place just as it had started pouring so we could neither go on a farm tour nor do anything in the petting area which had a few farm animals. We were bound indoors- mainly in the area where fresh produce was on sale. Suddenly, a few more families with children trickled in and the entire place got ready to stage a puppet theatre show. It was magical to see the place transform completely and recreate the life which was actually being lived outside. The story was simple and revolved around the farmer’s life. Our daughter was completely immersed in the make-believe world created by the puppets and somewhere along the line I actually felt disappointed because I thought I had lost the child-like ability to get immersed in make-believe worlds. At the end of the show, fresh-cut fruit was offered to all on the house. Being a small town, most people who had assembled there knew each other and they quickly started socializing and were quite surprised to hear how far we had come from. The heavy downpour by then had reduced to just a drizzle and we went out for a walk on the slushy farm. For dinner, we picked up a veggie sub and without thinking too much just ordered for LOTS and LOTS of lettuce. Could we get enough?