I know Mr_Mechanic enjoys it as much as me so say it ain't so??

[theking]

‘It’s a disaster’: California farmer faces ordeal as pistachio farm sits underwater

CORCORAN, Calif. — A few years ago, Makram Hanna took his savings from years of work in real estate and decided to make a big investment together with relatives and two other families. They bought 1,270 acres of farmland in Kings County, and in 2021 they planted pistachio trees.

Many of those trees, which have yet to produce a crop, now sit under 2 feet of water.

“It’s a disaster,” Hanna said, standing with arms crossed beside rows of inundated pistachio trees. “Huge losses.”

The floodwaters cover hundreds of acres on the farm. Hanna fears that many of the trees will not survive.

The return of Tulare Lake after this year’s major storms has left Hanna and his family with a costly ordeal — and many questions about how they might be able to recover from the loss.

“To see everything we worked for going down the drain, it’s very hard,” he said. “We have to think about the future, and where we get funds to rebuild our farm. It’s very difficult.”

The lake has reappeared previously in wet years, such as 1969, 1983 and 1997. And many of the fields that have flooded were planted with seasonal row crops such as tomatoes, cotton and safflower. For these types of crops, growers can simply evacuate sprinklers and other equipment to wait out the flooding.

Tree crops, however, sustain more costly damage. And in recent years, landowners have planted more pistachio orchards around the Tulare Basin as well as other parts of the San Joaquin Valley. Some of those orchards turned out to be vulnerable when rivers swollen with runoff broke through levees and inundated farmlands.

For Hanna, who commutes to the farm each week from his home in San Diego County, dealing with the flooding and trying to save the remaining trees presents a stressful challenge.

The 68-year-old immigrated to the United States from Egypt in 1979, and he said overseeing the pistachio farm often reminds him of his childhood, when he worked during summers on his grandmother’s small cotton farm.

Months ago, he would enjoy walking through the rows and inspecting the trees. But lately, he is intent on finding ways to limit the damage.

“My focus is to find a solution for this disaster,” Hanna said. “What do we need to do not to lose everything? Because right now, it seems like we are about to lose everything.”

Here's my bag and like Mr_Mechanic said, "once you start, you don't want to stop"... :

[theking]

I like the Costco brand more than other brands and it's cheaper in terms of unit pricing so a win/win  :

[theking]

Despite the crowds at Costco at times, I've been there to just buy one item if I like it enough: