Yuma is the winter vegetable capital of the world.  There are miles and miles of different varieties of lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli, spinach, cabbage, and more.  There are also fields of wheat and cotton, and groves of oranges and grapefruit.  Oh yes, and dates!

Date Palms

Rain is in the forecast so we did our exploring this morning.  We stopped at a date farm and bought some fresh dates and shared a scoop of date ice cream.

There are farm stands along the side of the road that sell locally grown produce as well as some items that are imported in from other areas.  There is everything here you can imagine.  We stopped at this one and picked up a few things.

Roadside Farm Stand

Lettuce Fields

THIS is why there are trains going by every 15 minutes.  The produce is continually being picked and processed.  Lettuce that is picked in the morning can be in Phoenix by the afternoon.  The fields are in all different stages of use, and replanted right away, each field can yield several crops in one season.

This lettuce field has just been picked

And then the rain came.  Not a lot, but just enough to be annoying, so went home.  Yuma gets only 2.75 inches of rain a year, so this rain is a blessing.  Usually all the fields are irrigated by a sophisticated system of canals and pipes bringing in water from the Colorado River.

Our travel expenses for today:  $37 gas for the Jeep at $3.15 per gallon.  Camping: free