Central Valley
— — a quarter of the country's food, grown under fog.
Not only on a wall.
“Four hundred and fifty miles of flat ground laid between two mountain ranges, the Sierra Nevada to the east and the Coast Range to the west. The Sacramento River drains the north half, the San Joaquin the south, and almonds, tomatoes, grapes and rice cover almost everything in between. In winter the tule fog settles low over the orchards and the world ends at the next row. In August the heat sits at 100. The valley feeds a quarter of the United States and is best seen, oddly, from the air or from the climb up either flank. from the studio
Central Valley, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The Central Valley is a long structural trough roughly 720 kilometres north to south and averaging about 65 kilometres wide, bounded by the Sierra Nevada on the east and the Coast Range on the west. Its northern half, the Sacramento Valley, drains south through the Sacramento River; its southern half, the San Joaquin Valley, drains north through the San Joaquin. The two meet at the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and pass to the Pacific through the Carquinez Strait. The floor sits near sea level and dips below it in places south of Stockton.
The valley runs on two weathers. From November through February tule fog forms in the cool, damp nights and can hold visibility under 50 metres for days on end, an effect that breaks orchards into rows that simply stop. From June through September the air dries out and afternoon temperatures hold above 35 °C from Redding to Bakersfield. Almond bloom in mid-February briefly turns half the southern valley white. Rice harvest in the Sacramento Valley runs September into October.
Most travel through the valley is end-to-end on Interstate 5 or California State Route 99. The two roads run a parallel hour apart, with I-5 holding the dry west side and Route 99 threading the older agricultural towns: Chico, Modesto, Fresno, Tulare, Bakersfield. State Route 132 west of Modesto and State Route 198 east of Visalia climb into the foothills and reach Yosemite and Sequoia. The best months for a slow drive are late February for almond bloom and mid-October for clear air after harvest.