By Judith Redmond

One of my first jobs when I finished graduate school was as a researcher with the California Institute for Rural Studies. We were trying to describe cropping patterns, land ownership and farm labor in California’s agricultural valleys. The greatness and abundance of California agriculture were the first lesson: Here we are in the home of some of the most productive land in the country — soil and farms that produce more than 400 crops and half of the fruits, nuts and vegetables grown in the U.S.

We learned that the crops grown in California were changing as the costs of land and production increased. And we observed historical shifts from one valley to the next as processing plants moved towards cheaper labor, or as urbanization displaced agriculture.

During the research, I made a trip south to the great San Fernando Valley, once the state’s number one producing region, now still home to many farms, but also Burbank, Glendale and Los Angeles. I pondered the story of the Santa Clara Valley, known once as “the Valley of Heart’s Delight” because of acres of orchards, flowering trees and plants. Until the 1960s the Santa Clara Valley was the largest fruit production and packing region in the world, with 39 canneries. It is now largely urbanized and is better known as the Silicon Valley.

In 1989 I moved to the Capay Valley — the source of the fruits and vegetables in your CSA boxes. Here, agricultural fortunes have also gone up and down, but agriculture remains the primary land use. Recreational activities are very important — hikers, rafters, birdwatchers and campers — but the small-farm backdrop gives the Capay Valley a lot of its present character. Cache Creek, too, makes the Valley a jewel. Cache Creek was the watershed home of several Native American tribes for centuries and Cache Creek is now one of the last primarily natural channels in California.

At the turn of the century Southern Pacific Railway tracks picked up fruit from the Valley and delivered it to the Bay Area every day during the summer season. Hardware stores, schools, post offices, lumber mills, banks and gas stations have all come and gone with changing economics.

Traffic on the 2-lane rural highway up the Valley — the only access from either the north or south — is busy, especially until you pass Cache Creek Casino, now the largest employer and landowner in the Valley. Continued population growth is expected in Esparto, and land prices in the Valley are relatively high given our proximity to the Bay Area and Sacramento.

But unlike the Valley of Heart’s Delight, perhaps the Capay Valley’s agricultural heritage will endure? In 1995 Yolo County started reporting receipts from the dozens of organic farms that were thriving in the County, and the Commissioner’s reports continue to show those numbers increasing annually. Vineyards were planted and a Capay Valley appellation was established. After a tremendous community fundraising effort the Esparto Regional Library opened in 1999. Historic community halls in Rumsey and Guinda have been renovated.

I don’t think that the Capay Valley will go the way of so many of California’s other great agricultural treasures. The rich relationships between farms in the Valley and thousands of people in the Bay Area and Sacramento regions are what give me this confidence. “You don’t miss the water until the well runs dry” — at least that’s what they’re saying about local dairies and farms that used to supply the Santa Clara Valley. But here in the Capay Valley we just say, “Eat Your Veggies!” as we deliver the weekly veggie boxes.

Judith is a partner at Full Belly Farm and a commissioner of the Capay Valley Fire Department.

Related posts:

• Capay Valley Chautauqua, Sunday, May 3rd, 2009
• Capay Valley Grown EVOO Strikes Gold