Salad Bowl of the World

Because the Salinas Valley in California produces so many vital vegetable crops including celery, head lettuce, and broccoli, the city of Salinas bills itself as the Salad Bowl of the World. The valley supports a $3 billion agricultural industry.



Salinas was also the setting for John Steinbeck's classic novel, The Grapes of Wrath, about the 1930s dustbowl years. The novel was later made into a movie starring Henry Fonda.

A Nobel Prize-winning novelist, Steinbeck's boyhood home was in Salinas. In a personal letter he once wrote, "I think I would like to write the story of this whole valley, of all the little towns and all the farms and the ranches in the wider hills. I can see how I would like to do it so that it would be the valley of the world."

Address: Salinas Valley Chamber of Commerce, 119 E Alisal Street, Salinas, California 93901; 831-424-7611; Fax: 831-424-8639. Email: info@salinaschamber.com. Web: http://www.salinaschamber.com.