oodland isn't just parties and night-clubs you know. We have other stuff too. In fact, this town wasn't always such a hotbed of night-life, it started out as a farming town. I went around the outskirts of town and took some pictures of farms and fields - take a look and tell me what you think.

Barn out near Plainfield Station

Why are barns traditionally red?
Well, according to the 'Barn Journal' (yes, there is such thing) red started out as a popular color because it was cheap. Why was it cheap? Because they used ferric-oxide (rust!) as a pigment. So the barns were red.

Ahhh...isn't this a pretty picture? Nice logo on the storage unit and everything. Those tanks hold anhydrous ammonia, which is basically ammonia gas. It is usually stored under a lot of pressure (250 psi). The interesting thing about anhydrous ammonia is not that it is harmful (it is) but HOW it is harmful. This chemical will literally suck the moisture out of your skin (causing burns) out of your eyes (ouch!) or even your lungs (wheeze!). Also, this is one of the ingredients in making methamphetamines, so a bunch of meth-addicts drive around to farmers fields stealing the stuff. Just what we need- junkies with a truck load of dangerous chemicals. We have almost 400,000 pounds near us, making it the 7th largest concentration of hazardous chemicals in California

The Good News: According to the Environmental Protection Agency, this facility is a 'model of safety' for an operation of this type. So Agriform is dealing with some dangerous stuff, but they are doing it in the safest way possible.

These plants are just to the West of Pioneer High School. My vast knowledge of farming
tells me that they have yellow flowers- but not much else. Possibly a form of mustard?

According to Mimi Jenkins, who wrote her doctoral thesis on Yolo County water, only about
5% of the water in Yolo County goes to residential and industrial uses. The other 95% goes to irrigation of farms.
Canals like this one run all through the farmland areas. If it weren't for these canals, we wouldn't have farms. Without farms...we would be too close to Davis.

These are cumulus clouds - sometimes known as 'fair weather clouds.'
The word 'cumulus' comes from the Latin word for a 'heap or a pile.'

One of the nicest things about Woodland is the open space around town.
I used to live in Southern California, and I had to drive 20 miles to get to ANY open space.
I really, really appreciate the open space that farms provide for us.
It makes our community a better place to live.

These goats were actually being walked down Roosevelt Drive.
When I drove up to them, the goats were happily munching away at the pile of grass.
The lady walking them (notice the leashes on the goats) said that she was just 'goat sitting' for a little while-
they are her sister's goats.
Notice the woman's dress - I don't think she does a lot of goat sitting in that outfit.

At least I hope we'll have strawberry fields forever...

Okay, pictures of fields, farms, granaries and barns don't really mean too much too me. I probably won't eat anything from those fields until it goes into a box - the only thing I know about granaries I learned from 'Age of Empires' - and I don't smoke meth so I don't care about the ammonia. So I wanted to find something a little closer to me on the food chain.

Straw-eff'n-berries.

Back when I was a kid, I lived near a strawberry field (which they eventually built houses on). My friends and I would ride our bikes over to the far part of the field, and sneak in to steal a few berries. There was always a vague rumor that some kid got a butt full of salt from a shotgun once, so we were pretty careful not to get caught. Now as an adult, I can actually afford to buy strawberries...and surprisingly they taste almost as sweet.

This is the stand over on East and Kentucky. There were two women working inside. I asked them if I could take their picture and they said "Ohhhh nooo...we are tooooo ugly- no picture!" But they said I could photograph the stand. I backed up and took this shot of the building. When I went back to the counter, they were huddled down on the ground, still hiding from my camera. But their strawberries were very good. The ladies were very nice, and no they did NOT need to hide from the camera.

On the other hand, we have Patrick. Patrick was at the stand out on Main Street, about a mile West of town. I had asked two other people working at the stand if they wanted their pictures taken and they said, "No." But Patrick came up from the back, happy as heck to pose. Their strawberries were also very good- fantastic even.

I bought a basket from each stand, and they were $1.50 at each place.

A week ago, some friends brought over some store bought strawberries. There was a big 'Dole Fruit' sticker proudly slapped on the clear plastic container they came in. The strawberries looked beautiful. I eagerly opened up the container and took out a berry. I held it up, thinking 'wow this is perfect' and then I took a bite. Holy crap that was a bad strawberry- as crunchy as an apple- not sweet, and not juicy. The berries from the two stands in Woodland were not like that at all- they were absolutely fantastic.

Dole should stick to Pineapples- we don't grow those here.

I took my berries home, and went out in the backyard to slice them up.

I ended up with a bowl that looked like this - I probably ate about a third of the berries as I
was slicing them. Seriously, these berries were absolutely fantastic. Totally sweet and juicy.

These next three pictures can be used as backgrounds on your computer. Click on the picture, and a new window will open, with a very large picture. Click your right mouse button on the picture, and choose 'Set as Background.' These pictures are 1024x768 - if you want one larger, please let me know!

	From:  juan Vitela - Date: 22-Apr-05
	i am the texas 2hour late phs teen that you interviewed on the street, and those strawberries look delicious. My dad was also around the fruit world, although he was incharge of doing the grapes.
	From:  Cory - Date: 19-Dec-05
	Lifelong resident - don't blink, if we don't watch out we're going to cover up all this wonderful farmland & the separation between Woodland & Davis will only be a memory in those of us who will have lived long enough to remember it.
	From:  Greg - Date: 27-Jun-06
	Tomatoes, Sunnies, Wheat, Grapes, there is a whole lot more to woodland Ag.
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