Harvest festival on the plains of California.

As we rode from Mariposa through the San Joaquin Valley and over the Coastal Sierras many scenes reminded me of Marlborough.
Sun dried golden hills reminded me of the Wither hills in summer. Vast areas of grape vines lucerne crops, apple and cherry orchards.

Tomatoes, garlic, salad greens, onions and corn we being harvested. Huge articulated trucks laden with tomatoes, garlic, and cartons of celery sticks roared up the highway.

Great use is made of storing the snow melt in lakes and using it for irrigation.

As a farmer's daughter I was especially interested to see the variety of crops being grown, the huge acreages and the cattle on what seemed to be very dry land.
The background photograph on this blog is of the hills of 'Oakleigh Farm' where I was raised - along with crops, sheep and cattle - in Havelock, Marlborough.

I played this traditional harvest hymn at Harvest Festival when I was the teenaged organist at St Peter's Anglican Church in Havelock.


We plough the fields and scatter
The good seed on the land,








But it is fed and watered
By God’s almighty hand;
He sends the snow in winter,








The warmth to swell the grain,




The breezes and the sunshine,




And soft refreshing rain.




All good gifts around us
Are sent from heaven above,
Then thank the Lord, O thank the Lord
For all His love.
He only is the maker of all things near and far;




He paints the wayside flower,




He lights the evening star;
The winds and waves obey Him, by Him the birds are fed;




Much more to us, His children, He gives our daily bread.
All good gifts around us
Are sent from heaven above,
Then thank the Lord, O thank the Lord
For all His love
Author Matthias Claudius 1782 Trans. J M Campbell.

Location:San Joaquin valley, California. Chowchilla, Los Banos: Salinas. En route Monterey.