In the next few days, everyone walked along the most beautiful Route 1 and came to Los Angeles slowly. Xiao Yifei is not only beautiful because of its beauty, but also because it passes through California's Central Coast.

In general, there are three major wine regions in California, including Napa's North Coast, Central Coast, and Central Valley. Xiao Yifei visited the Central Valley region when he walked back and forth on Highway 5, which is a mixed area of table grapes, raisins and wine grapes.

The Central Coast, in addition to being one of the most important wine producing regions in the United States, is also one of the most important vegetable and fruit growing regions in the United States. One of the Salinas Valleys, known as the salad bowl of the world.

As we all know, salads are made up of fresh vegetables such as lettuce and kale, and this place can be called the world's salad bowl, which shows how much lettuce and other vegetables can be provided.

Just arrived at Monterey Bay, Xiao Yifei turned the steering wheel and turned onto Highway 101.

Shirley hurriedly reminded:

"Hey, where are you going, you're on the wrong track."

"Anyway, we're not in a hurry, so let's stop by and inspect the agriculture here."

Wang Nan muttered:

"You're in a winery, and there are vegetable fields on both sides, what are you inspecting?"

"I want to change careers, okay?"

A research report at the Davis campus pointed out that growing organic vegetables here can earn tens of thousands of yuan in profits per acre, and Xiao Yifei certainly wanted to come and see it.

found a plot where people were working, Xiao Yifei got out of the car and talked to people to understand the situation. This vegetable farmer named Thomas is also very reefed, and Xiao Yifei learned a lot from him.

"Thomas, is this land yours?"

"No, I'm renting."

"How much rent that year?"

Thomas gestured with a finger. Xiao Yifei thought to himself, he just said that this land is 6 acres, and that should not be 1,000 dollars.

"10,000?"

Thomas nodded. Annual rents are as high as $1,500 per acre. Xiao Yifei was indeed frightened by this price, looking at the rent, it is indeed possible to make a profit of 10,000 US dollars from growing vegetables.

"Thomas, what kind of dish are you doing?"

"It's roma lettuce."

Don't blame Xiao Yifei for his lack of knowledge, he really doesn't know the name of this dish. Because on the research materials, lettuce is written. There are many classifications under this item, such as romaine lettuce, oily lettuce, Roman lettuce, they are all lettuce, and more excessively a kind of western lettuce, also known as garden lettuce, from the shape, it is clearly the lotus white and cabbage we are talking about. The cabbage, which is known by its scientific name, has leaves that form a spherical shape. But round lettuce is a genus of lettuce of the Asteraceae family from the plant classification, while cabbage is a genus of Brassica of the cruciferous family, which is not a plant at all.

According to the classification of plants, lettuce and lettuce are basically close relatives, one leaf and one stem.

The harvest here is all by hand, and I saw the workers chopping the lettuce one by one. Peel off the old leaves on the outside and put the fresh young leaves into the basket. After waiting for a basket, it will be delivered to the vegetable patch. The next step is to pack the lettuce in a plastic bag for every 3 lettuces, then a cardboard box for 12 bags, and finally a few boxes will be loaded into the refrigerated truck next to it.

Next, it's time to inquire about the profits of farming, but Xiao Yifei can't ask directly. It can only be asked in a roundabout way. He picked up a plastic bag and packed it, and there was not a pound of it.

"Thomas, how much does this bag weigh?"

Thomas is clearly familiar with his own cuisine:

"It's about 13 ounces."

This is how depressed the United States is, always using the British standard. Wouldn't it be better to use international standards of grams and kilograms, but you have to use ounces and pounds. Xiao Yifei can only mentally calculate, 13 ounces is about 7 taels more.

"That box is almost more than 4 kilograms?"

Thomas, apparently blind to the metric unit as well, blinked his eyes and replied:

"Well, a box is about 10 pounds."

"How many boxes does an average acre produce?"

"My yield here is not bad, with an output of more than 800 boxes."

Xiao Yifei has been next to the refrigerated truck:

"And the logo printed on it is the name of the company?"

"Yes, yes, it's the name of the vegetable company."

"They're in charge of transporting them to the ground?"

"Yes."

"How much did they buy?"

Thomas is clearly sensitive to this issue.

Xiao Yifei went on to explain:

"I think your dish is of good quality."

"That's it, look at it, how fresh and tender, these guys are only willing to pay $12, it's too much, obviously my food is above average, at least I should give a higher price."

Xiao Yifei easily got the average price, $12 a box. In this way, the income per acre is indeed 10,000 US dollars, and after deducting the land lease fee, there can be more than 8,000 US dollars per acre, and 6 acres is 50,000 US dollars. He couldn't help but say what was in his heart:

"Looks pretty good."

"It's good, I almost lost money on this price."

"No, it won't."

"How not, do you know how much this box costs?"

"How much?"

"$1.7."

Xiao Yifei was a little dumbfounded, is the carton so expensive? It looks like an ordinary fruit carton, does it cost more than 10 yuan?

"It is said to be an environmentally friendly, biodegradable material."

Sweat, the carton is made of pulp, isn't the pulp just wood fiber, the wood fiber itself can be degraded. Our domestic cardboard box is less than 5 yuan. Is there anything wrong with this?

"Isn't there a labor cost?"

To be honest, Xiao Yifei thought that this would be a mechanized harvest before he came, but when he arrived here, he saw that it was actually harvested by hand, which made him instantly understand why organic lettuce in the supermarket was so expensive.

"I have a winery in Napa, and I harvest it by hand, and I'm sure you also have old black workers here, how much do they pay?"

Thomas was vigilant:

"I don't have any black jobs here."

Khan, open his eyes and talk nonsense.

"You don't believe it, forget it, let's not talk about black jobs, how about your wages here, you see that my posture is definitely not an investigator or a reporter, right?"

Thomas had a lot of Xiao Yifei and the two ladies, and they were indeed like ordinary tourists.

"Why are you asking so carefully?"

"I just wanted to find out. Growing vegetables should make money. ”

"Making money is making money, but it can only make 20,000 yuan."

The amount of 20,000 is obviously not one acre, but should be the total profit of 6 acres.

"Is labor so expensive?"

"The average cost per box is $3.5 anyway."

The cost of harvesting that acre is 25,000 to 3,000, plus the costs of water, electricity, and various depreciation, the profit per acre is really not that high. in the research materials. In the case of the highest output and the highest price, the profit is less than 5 thousand.

"In this way, you can't make much money."

"yes, I'm going to plant romaine lettuce next year."

Longleaf lettuce is also a kind of lettuce, Xiao Yifei recalled, it seems that the highest yield and highest price profit of more than 10,000 yuan is it, it is not the most profitable vegetable and fruit in the data, the highest profit is strawberry, the two highest selling price, the highest yield profit can reach more than 60,000 acres. Of course, everybody knows that. That's basically impossible, and the general income of more than 20,000 acres can still be guaranteed. However, the difficulty of growing strawberries and the energy and labor required are definitely much higher than those of these vegetables. In fact, in addition to sowing and harvesting, these vegetable farmers are very easy to manage in the field, and if they grow strawberries, they basically smell the strawberries every day.

Wang Nan and Shirley were swaying around, and finally came back. Wang Nan pointed to the lettuce in the field next to him and asked:

"Is that cabbage over there?"

Xiao Yifei rolled his eyes, although he was far away. But he guessed that it was planted in this "world salad bowl". It must not be cabbage, but lettuce.

"No, that's iceberg."

"Iceberg?"

Wang Nan was obviously confused by the name.

"It's a type of round lettuce. You're all in front of you, won't you see the difference between it and cabbage? ”

Xiao Yifei explained the difference between round lettuce and cabbage, and said embarrassedly:

"I thought it was American modified kale."

"You haven't had lettuce salad in Canada?"

"I've eaten it, but it's usually Roman lettuce and another kind of long-leafed one. I haven't really eaten this round lettuce. ”

Say goodbye to this Thomas vegetable farmer. Xiao Yifei and his team visited several vegetable farmers and found that the profits of growing lettuce were roughly the same as Thomas's, two or three thousand dollars per acre.

The vegetables in the Salinas Valley are basically sub-regional, and along Highway 101, they pass through spinach, tomatoes, and strawberry growing areas. These three things, together with lettuce, are the main products of the valley, and broccoli, cauliflower, celery, etc. also have a large planting area, and their profits are also much the same.

They all arrived at Jincheng at the top of the valley, and they would have continued to drive along Highway 101 and would soon be able to reach Big Arroyo, but in this way, they would miss the most beautiful section of Big Sur on Highway 1. Xiao Yifei could only surrender and turn the head of the car to drive back and forth.

In order to retaliate against her, Xiao Yifei secretly made a mistake when ordering food. The general order of serving here in the United States is appetizer, salad, main course, and dessert. When the appetizer comes up, it's a fist-sized choy sum. The round cabbage sum is placed on a plate, and on top of it are layers of scales like lotus lanterns in the temple. A more vivid description should be basically the same as a lotus flower that has not opened.

"What the hell is this?"

Shirley was surprised:

"Haven't you seen it?"

She reached out and touched the head of the vegetable in front of her.

"Of course I haven't seen it, what is this? Is this food? So hard? ”

Xiao Yifei was worried that if she didn't answer her again, she would smash people with this thing:

"This is an artichoke, I see that you don't often eat Western food in Toronto."

"There is Chinese food near the school, and I cook my own food."

After saying that, she poked the scales of the artichoke with her hand, which were actually flower petals.

"Is this food? How do you eat it? ”

Next, she peeled off the petals in the same way as Yaxiao Yifei and Shirley, bit the skin off with her teeth, and then scraped off the flesh in the petals with her teeth.

"It tastes so fresh."

When Xiao Yifei heard her say this, he was very depressed≡ after finishing the petals, he shaved off the hair of the receptacle, the receptacle part was the essence, and it looked like a chestnut when eaten raw.

Xiao Yifei let out a long sigh. Finally finished eating. He himself is not used to eating raw vegetables, and although artichokes can be eaten raw, they are still steamed or salted into canned food. Xiao Yifei deliberately chose raw food in order to trick Wang Nan, and it was also in the production area, because it was fresh enough∨ some people would eat it alive, or the restaurant would not give it to it.

After the salad came up, Wang Nan pointed to the plate and asked:

"That's the kind of round lettuce, right? It's quite crispy, the moisture is good, and the mustard is good. ”

Xiao Yifei was depressed again, and pushed his share of salad in front of her:

"It's okay, eat my one."

Wang Nan blinked his eyes:

"You don't like salads?"

"I love meat."

Fortunately, Xiao Yifei, the main dish in the back, did not continue to make trouble, and he was able to eat the food he was satisfied with.

When the car was back on Highway No. 1, Wang Nan reacted:

"Did you just try to fix me?"

Shirley laughed at once:

"You're only now reacting,' I'll know as soon as the fresh thistle is served."

Now Wang Nan was furious:

"You know you didn't remind me, I fought with you, you bad guy."

While scuffling with Shirley, he screamed:

"You're still a classmate with me, and you're actually playing with him to trick me, you guy who forgets your friends."

Shirley could only laugh and hide, and the black nose crouched in the passenger seat, turning his head to watch them play. From time to time, he also roared two voices to cheer. Xiao Yifei couldn't stand their hustle and bustle in front, so he could only divert her attention:

"It's going to Big Sur soon. You're not ready to take pictures? ”

Da Sur immediately diverted Wang Nan's attention, and after a while, she asked Xiao Yifei to pull over and steal, and then click to take a bunch of photos.

In the winter of Big Sur, the temperature can reach 18 degrees, and most of the vegetation is still lush, but there is a little more golden yellow than two months ago⊥ and it is this added golden yellow that makes the picture even more magnificent.

"It's beautiful, it's beautiful. Much better than Toronto. ”

Xiao Yifei only dared to complain in his heart: Please, Toronto at this time, in addition to snow⊥ it is snow, of course it is beautiful here, but it is cold, forget it.

When visiting Big Sur, you can't avoid going to Hearst Castle. The luxurious and magnificent Hearst Castle is Xiao Yifei's second visit.

This Hearst Castle can be said to be very similar to our domestic attractions, that is, tourists' vehicles can only be parked at the foot of the mountain, buy a ticket and take the bus of the castle up the mountain to visit, this is not like our domestic attractions?

As we all know, basically all scenic spots, including our domestic scenic spots, are everywhere, and when you get to the place, you can visit them casually. But here is different, you can travel freely outside the castle, but when you enter the interior, you can't visit at will, you can only follow the tour guide and follow the prescribed route. There are a total of 4 routes to the castle, most of them are the first, this route is an overview route, you can visit almost every place, but it is not in-depth.

As soon as you enter the castle, there are a bunch of rules, no smoking, no leaving, no flashing lights, etc., in the introduction of the tour guide, the first route indoor tour takes one and a half oblique ends, and the three of them sit on the sun loungers of the outdoor swimming pool "Poseidon Pool" to bask in the sun and rest.

Wang Nan was completely shocked by the ancient castle:

"This castle is gorgeous."

"Yes, it would be nice if only this place were Nengzong."

Xiao Yifei asked curiously:

"Shirley, aren't you from California? Isn't it your first time here? ”

"It was the second time, but the first time my father brought us here, I was only 6 years old, so I was too young to have any idea."

"How do you feel when you look at the furnishings inside?"

"I think I can understand why we have a guided tour and follow the prescribed route."

"Oh, why? Think you're going to get lost? ”

"No, I'm afraid I'll take those things away from me, they're so beautiful."

"It's, yes, I want to bring them all home."

Khan, two female bandits, in fact, Xiao Yifei himself wants to receive these things into the space and keep them for himself' can talk about this topic again, if someone next to him calls the police, it will be troublesome. He even encoded the Poseidon Pool in front of him to change the topic:

"Do you know how big this pool is?"

"I don't know, it's pretty big anyway."

"yes, there are more than 340,000 gallons of water in it, which is more than 1,300 cubic meters of water in the pool. It is half the volume of an Olympic-sized swimming pool. ”

"Wow. Such a big private pool. If you know this castle so well, tell us about it, and the tour guide will know what to say about the largest private zoo, indoor swimming pool, and who guests are coming. ”

"Then I'll tell you a story first. You all know about the California Gold Rush. ”

The two nodded.

"There was a man named George, who heard about the discovery of gold in California, so he hurried to California, and after a winter of tossing and turning on the American River near the capital, he found that he had gained very little."

Then he heard about what was then the Western Utah area. Silver was discovered in Virginia City, now Storey County, Nevada, and he rushed to buy a sixth-owned stake for $3,000. This silver mine later became the famous Stocklode of Constac. ”

Eventually, George and his partners mined a pile of ore, but there were no local conditions for refining it, so they carried the 38 tons of ore on mules over the Sierra Nevada Mountains and over snow-covered mountain trails to San Francisco. There was no transportation at the time, and the 300-mile journey took several weeks. ”

"After inspection, these ores are rich in silver. After smelting at $500 a tonne, they made a profit of more than $90,000, which is equivalent to $3 million today. ”

"So George started buying a lot of land, and the first piece of land was 30,000 acres, which was part of the 48,000-acre White Rock ranch ranchopiedrablanca, and in the following years he bought some ranches from nearby to build the largest ranch in California."

Wang Nan was impatient:

"I'm talking about Hearst Castle or the story of William Hurst. What are you talking about George? ”

Shirley is a Californian after all, so she still knows a little bit. She laughs and explains:

"He's talking about William's father, George Hirst's fortune."

Wang Nan was embarrassed all of a sudden:

"Really?"

"Yes, don't worry, the story will be told to William soon."

"George's wife was a teacher and she was 19 years old when she married George. The outside world was so big, she always wanted to see it. Now George is developed. So in 1873, when William was 10 years old, the mother and son embarked on a one-and-a-half-year trip to Europe, which they called a magnificent trip. ”

"They went to England, Germany, Switzerland, Venice, Spain, etc. The castle at the top of the hill, the great stonework, the paradise of paintings and mosaics, the intricately carved paintings, marble and glass works of art, left a deep imprint on William's young heart. ”

As an adult, William gradually became a newspaper tycoon and the king of the publishing industry. After turning to politics, he became a member of the House of Representatives for two terms, and then ran for the party's presidential nomination, running for mayor of New York City and governor of New York, but unfortunately failed. ”

"By the time his mother died in 1919, the family's pastoral land had grown to more than 250,000 acres, or about 1,000 square kilometers."

Both ladies were stunned by the sheer size:

"250,000 acres?"

"1,000 square kilometers?"

Xiao Yifei pointed to the location of the castle and said:

"You all know the rest of the story, this place was originally the first plot of land that George bought, William often came to this mountain to camp, he thought the scenery here was very beautiful, after inheriting it from his mother, plus the taro who traveled to Europe with his mother when he was young, he wanted to build a castle here, so there was this Hearst Castle."

"Construction continued until 1948, and there were several changes in the middle, such as the main building Lacasagrande, which originally had only one tower, and now we see two. The Poseidon Pond in front of me was originally only a family size, but it was expanded several times and became the current size. The gate we just saw was also something he wanted to build later, but it wasn't completed until his death. ”

It's a pity that his huge media empire was hit hard by the economic crisis, and his subsequent renovation and expansion were intermittent, otherwise the gate would have been completed. It was because of the huge loss of his property that his descendants could not afford to pay enough inheritance tax, so the castle was handed over to the California government. The state government has developed the castle for tourists to visit, so that this luxurious castle can be seen not only by William's friends, but also by ordinary people. ”

Wang Nan asked curiously:

"How do you know so much?"

"Don't you know there's something called the Internet? Don't know there's a search engine? Are you from Mars? Or did you just go from primitive to modern yesterday? ”

"I'm so angry, I wanted to fix me for lunch yesterday, I haven't settled accounts with you yet, and you are laughing at me now, I will definitely give you a good look."

Xiao Yifei hurriedly got up and ran.

In fact, these things were really searched on the Internet by Xiao Yifei after Xiao Yifei accompanied Xiao Ya and them for the first time. The most profound lesson from this story is that it is important to leave enough wealth for future generations to be able to pay the high inheritance tax.

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