Showing posts with label San Benito County. Show all posts
Showing posts with label San Benito County. Show all posts

Sunday, July 26, 2015

Walnuts of San Benito County


Walnuts have been produced in San Benito County for many, many years. Although there are fewer acreage of walnut orchards, walnuts ranked third in the fruit and nut crops category in 2014 in terms of their value. Last year, the walnut crop was worth over $5.5 million, according to the San Benito County 2014 Annual Crop Report.



Saturday, July 18, 2015

Wine grapes

Wine grapes at Leal Vineyards, off of Fairview Road

In 2013, wine grapes made the top 10 crops grown in San Benito County, according to the annual crop report. The local vineyards produced 15,733 tons of wine grapes on 3,885 acres. The combined gross value of their wine grape production was $21,771,500.

Vineyards are growing all over the county, on widespread acreage as well as on small estates. Click here for a list of local vineyards—and wineries.

Saturday, June 27, 2015

Illusions in Santa Ana Valley


Doesn't it look like the mountain is fenced off? And, that the mountain is quite nearby? For that matter, are those really mountain peaks?

I'm on Santa Ana Valley Road looking up at the Diablo Range through a fence, on which the other side rows of corn are growing.

See you tomorrow.

Saturday, June 6, 2015

Best Road


Best Road is a short country lane outside of Hollister that connects John Smith Road to Airline Highway, also known as Highway 25. It's a fun loop of a bicycle ride.

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Branch without a Tree


I like to take photos from the car while the Husband is driving. This one was from Highway 156, heading west, as we were nearing the 101 exit. The naked hills captured my interest. So, I was quite surprised when I opened this image on the computer to see the wind in the dry grass and a branch caught in the wires above the grass. Lucky me!

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Morning


I took this photo from John Smith Road. That's the Diablo Range in the near distance. I can't recall what steps I did in Photoshop to get this transformed image. I wanted to pop out the dried grass and barbed wire, and as I was doing that the lighting on the mountains became apparent. So, I decided to spotlight that area.

Here's the original image:


Today, I'm participating in Nature Footstep's Digital Art Meme. To check out other participants or to take part, please click here.

Thursday, May 7, 2015

From the Archives -- Resting Places


Another post from the archives. Enjoy!

Now We Lay Ourselves Down to Rest
(originally published November 13, 2008)
It was bound to happen. I would take a photograph or two of one of my favorite local haunts as a kid—the Calvary Cemetery.

We moved next to the cemetery when I was a fourth grader. We lived on El Camino Paraiso. The English translation: The Heavenly Road or The Road to Paradise. I always thought whoever named the street had a wonderful sense of humor. Or, he was just perverse.

Since my deceased sisters were buried in the cemetery, my family visited it often. As I got older, I found myself pedaling my bike through the cemetery on my own. Where else could I find peace and quiet to think? Today, the remains of my dad and a few other relatives and friends of the family are also there. So, I continue to pop over now and then. I no longer live next to the cemetery, but it’s still only a few minutes away.

San Benito County has several cemeteries. Not such a big deal until I consider that the population was about 18,000 when I was a teenager, many years ago. Currently the population is around 56,000. Only three cemeteries may actually be in use, but what do I know. If you want to know more about some of the other cemeteries in this county, check out these links. Those interested in genealogy will be happy to know that some of these web sites provide a listing or database of the deceased.
Check out these sites for a list of cemeteries in San Benito County, including some not mentioned above.




Thursday, April 9, 2015

H is for . . .

Hollister, California.
A no-brainer for the letter H, right? Instead of reinventing the wheel for this post, I thought let me just republish something I wrote on October, 15, 2014 about my hometown. So, here you go.
Methinks it's time again to say that Hollister, California, the store, is not the same as Hollister, California, the city.

Yup.

Abercrombie & Fitch began selling apparel with the Hollister brand in 2000, which is weaved around the fictional beach town of Hollister in Southern California where the made-up Hollister Company is located. Either the fantasy town or company was established in 1922 by an imaginary  Dutch East Indies immigrant named John Hollister. The marketing team must've had fun dreaming up the fanciful, fake Hollister, California story.

Hollister is in the far distance, at the foot of the mountain range

The real city of Hollister is located in San Benito County, the only landlocked county of the Central Coast region of California, which is about 45 miles east of the Pacific Ocean. The ocean breeze, as well as the fog, comes through the low mountain passes on most days. Thank goodness for that, otherwise the temperatures, especially in the summer, would be unbearably hot.



Hollister was founded in 1868 and, until it incorporated as a city in 1872, the town was part of Monterey County. Two years later, Hollister became the county seat of the newly formed San Benito County.



The main industry in our county is agriculture. It has been from the start and unless all the ranchers and farmers sell their land to housing developers and oil companies, we shall always be an agricultural community. Something for which we, locals, ought to be proud. The number of local farmers and ranchers choosing to follow sustainable and organic farming practices continues to increase, which I think is good for both our health and the environment.


The mascot for our local high school is the Haybaler, also called Baler. Not a machine, but a young farmer. Everyone who goes--and went--to San Benito High School, also known as Hollister High School, is a Haybaler, regardless of whether the person played a sport or not. Once a Haybaler, always a Haybaler.



I don't know about the history of the mascot, but in the late 19th century, our area was known for the quality and quantity of its Hollister Hay. During the summer of 1892, for example, 5,412 tons of hay was shipped from Hollister to Seattle, San Diego, Chicago, New York, and other parts of the United States.  In fact, the Lathrop Hay Company, owned by Hollister pioneer resident Levi B. Lathrop, constructed some of the largest hay warehouses in the world back then. Lathrop built the first hay warehouse to have a railroad track running through it and to have railroad track scales. That's rather impressive.

Hey! How did I end up talking about hay?


Click here to find other A to Z challenge participants.







Wednesday, April 8, 2015

G is for . . .


Gateway.

The eastern gateway to the Pinnacles National Park, that is. It's a not-to-well-known park (yet) about 30 miles south of Hollister. Formerly the Pinnacles National Monument, which was established in 1908, it was redesignated a national park in January 2013.


Once upon a time, millions of years ago, the park was part of a volcano that once stood in present-day Lancaster in Southern California. The beautiful, towering rock formations in the Pinnacles National Park are what it was named after. Those who hike the High Peaks Trail find themselves weaving among some of those majestic spires.


The park has various easy to strenuous trails for hikers. Visitors also have the opportunity to hike through talus caves when they are open. Rangers close the caves when the bats that live there are roosting. One cave houses a colony of Townsend's Big-eared Bats, while the other is home to a colony of Western Mastiff Bats.


Want a chance to see a California Condor flying free in the sky? Head for this park. It's the only one in the National Park Service that participates in the California Condor Recovery Program.  More than 30 condors, which were born and raised in zoos, have been released into the wilds of the Pinnacles over the last decade.


There are two gateways to the park. No road connects the two. The eastern entrance is via Hollister, while the western entrance is via Soledad. Each side is gorgeous. I'm partial, of course, and like to go through the eastern gateway.

For more information about the Pinnacles National Park, visit its website.



Click here to find other A to Z challenge participants.






Friday, April 3, 2015

C is for. . .


County seat.

Hollister is the county seat of San Benito County, which is part of the California Central Coast. Wait, now. Don't jump to the conclusion that my city is the one being blasted on the expensive tee-shirts people buy in that big box store I shall not name. The tee-shirt is all about a fictional beach town in Southern California. This Hollister, the real city, is about a 40 minute, more or less, drive away from the coast.

When California was established as a state in 1850, Monterey County ruled the area. Due to political this's and that's, a big interior chunk of Monterey became San Benito County in 1874. Hollister was made the county seat, rather than San Juan Bautista, which was a bustling mission town and had been for many years back then. Hollister was only incorporated in 1869. No doubt it helped that the Southern Pacific Railroad built a station there.

The former courthouse that now houses many county offices.



The new county courthouse



The county library



Click here to check out other A to Z participants.





Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Driving the Back Road Home


Yesterday, the Husband and I took San Juan Grade Road back from Salinas. We figured the scenic route was the best way to get back home during the evening commute. I drove the wiggly road at an old fogey's pace, but it seemed like we got to San Juan Bautista just as fast as if we took the highway.


Saturday, March 21, 2015

Online Resources about San Benito County



Are you looking for online resources to help you plan for a visit to Hollister, San Juan Bautista, the Pinnacles National Park, or somewhere else in San Benito County? The websites below are a good place to start. Click on the headings to go to the sites. And, if you want to learn about some upcoming 2015 events in San Benito County, check out this link on Take 25 to Hollister.

Hollister Downtown Association


San Benito County Chamber of Commerce


The Chamber of Commerce also has a website, but it was being redesigned when I wrote this post.  It may be up now. Click here for its website.

San Juan Bautista


Pinnacles National Park


A definite must-do is a visit to the Pinnacles National Park. Although it is the newest park in the U.S. National Park Service, it has been part of the system since 1908 as the former Pinnacles National Monument.


Thursday, March 12, 2015

November – December 2015 Annual Events in San Benito County


Here are some annual events taking place in November and December of this year in San Benito County. Click the following links to find out about events in other months.

NOVEMBER 2015


November 11: Veterans Day Parade  

November 28: 25th Annual Lights On Celebration  For its Facebook page, click here

DECEMBER 2015


To Be Announced: 4th Annual Holiday Stroll Through Time in San Juan Bautista

To Be Announced: 10th Annual Holiday in Lights Parade in San Juan Bautista 

December 18: Annual Holiday Bonfire/Hayden Christmas Celebration in San Juan Bautista

December 21: Winter Solstice at the Old Mission San Juan Bautista



Wednesday, March 11, 2015

August – October 2015 Annual Events in San Benito County

Here are some annual events taking place in August through October this year in San Benito County. Click the following links to find out about events in other months.

AUGUST 2015


August 6 - 8: The Good Old Fashioned Blue Grass Festival  at Bolado Park

August 9: 51st Annual Antique and Collectibles Fair sponsored by the Rotary Club of San Juan Bautista  

To Be Announced: Vaquero Heritage Days in San Juan Bautista

To Be Announced: 2nd Annual Boots and Brews Family Fest   at Jardines de San Juan in San Juan Bautista

SEPTEMBER 2015


September 13: Mexican Independence Day Parade in Downtown Hollister

September 19 - October 18: Northern California Renaissance Faire at Casa de Fruta (weekends only)

September 26 - 27: Annual Cactus and Succulent Show Fall Sale in San Juan Bautista  

September 25: Double Road Race in San Juan Bautista

OCTOBER 2015


October 1 - 4: San Benito County Fair 

October 1 - 31: Pumpkin Junction at Casa de Fruta

October 17: 3rd Annual San Benito Olive Festival


October 23: San Benito High School Homecoming Parade Downtown Hollister

To Be Announced: 7th Annual San Juan Bautista Ghost Walk  sponsored by the Rotary Club of San Juan Bautista

To Be Announced: Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo Day" at San Juan Bautista State Historic Park

To Be Announced: Swank Farms Corn Maze & Pumpkin Patch



Tuesday, March 10, 2015

June – July 2015 Annual Events in San Benito County


Here are some annual events taking place in June and July of this year in San Benito County. Click the following links to find out about events in other months.

JUNE  2015


June 20 and 21: Hollister Airshow  

June 20 - 21: Annual Early Days at San Juan Bautista State Park 

June 6 - 28: San Benito County Saddle Horse Show & Rodeo is a month-long event. Some events are free.
  • June 6: Miss Rodeo Contest 
  • June 20: Memorial Ranch Rodeo
  • June 21: Roping competition 
  • June 25: Saddle Horse Parade and Fiesta in Downtown Hollister
  • June 26–28: San Benito County Saddle Horse Show and Rodeo 

June 28: Old Mission San Juan Bautista Fiesta  Update: The fiesta for the public has been cancelled. But, the parish will still hold a parish gathering in the grove.



JULY 2015






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