We were in Yuma Arizona March 2 to 23rd. We came to the area because of the weather. We were looking for a place to hang out in the warmth of the sun and hopefully find some fun things to do and see. Yuma did not disappoint.
I had expected the Yuma area to have a very desolate, desert type landscape.
There were certainly a lot of areas that were the dry desert land. But there was a surprising amount of agriculture. We loved watching the fields being harvesting. In the time we were in the area, we were able to see most of the fields being harvested and cultivated for the next crop.
Yuma is the winter lettuce capital of the world. If you eat lettuce in the winter, it was likely grown in Yuma. We saw fields of head lettuce, romaine lettuce, green and purple leaf lettuce, onions, cauliflower and broccoli.
All of the fields have elaborate irrigation systems.
We loved driving around the area watching the fields being harvested.
After a field is harvested large trucks with canopies are brought in for processing. Workers stand under the shade of the canopies cutting off the outside leaves and roots.
The vegetables are then put in some form of plastic wrap or boxes and put on conveyor belts that move the produce onto semi-truck beds.
Some of the workers are brought in on buses pulling a trailer. The trailers have 2 to 3 Porta-Pots on them for the workers.
Many of the fields also have food trucks providing food for the workers.
At some of the fields, in addition to the buses, there were long rows of cars. The surprising thing to us about the cars was that they were all very nice cars. There were none of the stereotype junk cars.
Although we drove by regularly, we never saw anyone taking a break. Every person in the fields were working hard. It made me appreciate every salad I’ve eaten and the hard work it took to get me the lettuce.
