San Jose/Santa Clara/Silly-Con Valley, Californication....
San Jose calls itself the “capitol of Silly-Con Valley”
but it used to be known as “the Garden City” and it was a huge producer of oranges, bing cherries, and other kinds of produce
not every change is necessarily for the better
The Olson family cherry stand in Sunnyvale is shutting down. They used to have big cherry orchards right along El Camino. One of the last orchards in the area just got torn out in Los Gatos.
Sacramento’s Orangevale was just that - orange orchards. Now they just grow houses.
It’s been said that without fresh water irrigation flowing into the ground to keep the salt water table down where it belongs, the salt water table leaches up and kills the trees and grapevines. Produce can still be grown because vegetable roots only go down a few inches and with short growing cycles not the ground long enough to be harmed. There’s probably a better scientific explanation for it. But it seems to boil down to imposed water shortages plus cyclical droughts.