Beginning Broccoli — June's Veggies Today

The Salinas Valley of California, with its rich, dark soil and ideal growing conditions, is called “America's Salad Bowl”, and rightly so — growing and packaging vegetables accounts for two-thirds of Monterey County's $3.2 billion agricultural industry.

Broccoli ranks in the top six of the valley's crops, with an annual market value of almost a quarter billion dollars. Tiny gray-green leaves are just starting to show here in the double rows of this pristine field in front of the elegant headquarters of Tanimura & Antle. Just planted, this field should be ready to pick by May 23.

Tanimura & Antle is an industry leader, both in crops grown and in innovative and environmentally-conscious growing and packaging techniques. In the 1950s, the Tanimura brothers combined their skill at lettuce farming with the packing and marketing prowess of Bud Antle. Officially incorporated in 1982, T&A now employs nearly 7,000 people annually, and grows more than 30 crops on 60,000 acres (24,000 hectares) in five states, Mexico, and Peru; and ships an average of 150,000 cartons of produce each day.

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USA-Canada / USA-California

Lat: 36° 37' 6.6" N
Long: 122° 39' 32.28" W

Elevation: 20 meters

→ maps.google.com [EXT]

Precision is: High. Pinpoints the exact spot.

Shot with Nikon D40x with Sigma 8mm f.4 fisheye, mounted on homemade pano head on Impact 10ft light stand, and triggered with the gentLED infrared trigger. Four RAW images stitched in PTGui 7.5, and processed in Photoshop CS3, Noise Ninja, and CubicConverter, on an iMac 24.