Who Made the Salad?

We had planned to go from Anza Borrego to Picacho State Park but when we got to Yuma and turned up the dirt road to go to the campground, we decided against it.  The road was extremely bumpy and we were only able to go about 5 miles an hour.  The campground was 18 miles up this road, so we turned around.  The great thing about this failed journey was that we got to see salad vegetable fields being harvested.  We have never seen the process and it was interesting.

Of course when you are in the middle of the desert, the most important thing to have to grow vegetables is water.  The plants growing next to this aqua duct look happy and healthy.  It's a lot more lush than the mountains in the distance.  Right next to this aqua duct, on both sides of the road, were fields and fields of salad.

There was kale

and iceberg lettuce

and broccoli

and romaine lettuce

People were harvesting lettuce and packing it up and putting it into boxes.  The boxes were stacked on a flat bed ready to be transported to market.

A field away, this group of people were harvesting broccoli.  

And when it's time to go home, this bus will take the workers home.  I wonder if it takes the outhouses too?

This reminded me of a couple of things from my childhood.  I worked in salmon canneries processing fish.  I might rather process salad vegies.  It's an outdoor activity and doesn't smell as bad.  I also remember the crummies, which is what we called the busses that brought loggers to and from their work. It was fun to see how the food for my favorite dish is processed for the market.