Farming in The Valley

The Rio Grande Valley was originally very arid, dusty, and covered with scrub growth and cactus. It was called the "Wild Longhorn Desert" and was the source of wild cattle roundups to drive cattle North to rail heads in Denver and Kansas City where they were shipped to markets back East. But not anymore!

With the construction of pumphouses along the Rio Grande River and the construction of irrigation canals in the early 1900's, water from the river made farming possible. The Valley is very flat and, with all of the irrigation canals, reminds me of the San Joaquin Valley in California. Without irrigation, both areas would be still be desert.

It's fun and educational . . . as well as scenic . . . to drive through the country side here in The Valley and see the variety of crops.


Most people think of Texas Ruby Red grapefruit as the primary crop in The Valley, and there are a lot of citrus groves including oranges, lemons, and grapefruit. Freshly picked Texas Ruby Reds are so sweet and tasty, they're pretty hard to beat!








But there is a large variety of other crops grown in The Valley . . .


cabbage . . .













cauliflower . . .















carrots . . .













spinach . . .

. . . and, as you can see, farm workers were harvesting the spinach at the time. It was interesting to watch the way they picked it, shook it, removed any bad leaves, and then wrapped each bundle with a twist tie. When they were done, it was obviously ready for market except for the probable step of washing (hopefully).





I also saw fields of onions and radishes as well as many fields recently planted or being prepared for planting. It appears that they raise vegetables year-round here in "The Valley".

I saw a few small fields of corn, but the most common crop appears to be sugar cane.


It was really interesting to see these fields of sugar cane . . . we don't have anything like this back in Kansas. When the sugar cane is ready to harvest, they burn the field to get rid of the dried leaves as well as spiders and other bugs so that it's easier to harvest when just the stalks are standing. I guess the fire doesn't hurt the sugar content of the stalks.

I was also told that the sugar cane farmers use bull horns to announce the burning of the field in Spanish just before they light it to give any illegals who may be hiding in the sugar cane a chance to get out. Before the farmers began announcing the burn, some illegals were caught in the fields and killed or seriously injured.

When the wind is in our direction during a "burn", we get a lot of black sugar cane ash deposited on our patio. But it isn't a serious problem as the wind soon blows it all off into the grass.

Seeing the type of "Farming in The Valley" is certainly an interesting and educational experience. To coin a phrase, "We're not in Kansas anymore"!