Sonoma County, as is often the case with coastal counties in
California, has a great degree of climatic variation and numerous, often very different, micro climates. Santa Rosa has a Mediterranean climate with cool, wet winters and warm, mostly dry summers. The area has strong agricultural roots. Luther Burbank, a famous botanist, lived in the area for most of his life. His home, greenhouse, an gardens where he lived and experimented with plants for most of his 50-year career is now a museum. It is a great place to visit year round.
Coming from The Netherlands I was and am still impressed with the abundance of fruit and veggies that grow year round. Besides the long growing season in the summer, the colder seasons still have plenty to offer. It’s the end of December and when you walk around in the neighborhoods or look at rural properties, you will see lemon trees with an abundance of lemons and persimmon trees missing leaves but loaded with persimmons. And these are just 2 examples…
Sonoma County is known for the vineyards/wine. However historically it was known for dairy, produce and orchards. Over the last 20 years, vineyards slowly replaced the orchards with apples, prunes, pears… Someone once told me: even if you don’t have a green thumb, you can have a veggie garden in Sonoma County…
The pictures shown are from lemons and persimmons I received from friends, the avocados I bought on a local fruit stand.
Mirjam
