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 Yolo County, just east of Napa County, has been quietly fueling the San Francisco Bay Area's food revolution since the 1970s when pioneer organic farmers started growing fresh market crops for the Bay Area's restaurants and selling seasonal produce at the emerging farmers' markets. Now Yolo County, founded in 1850 and long an agricultural powerhouse, is beginning to claim its own place in the Northern California stratosphere of food, wine, and the good life.
The county has long been known for its commodity crops like processing tomatoes, alfalfa, and seed crops, but now wine grapes, almonds, and walnuts are among the top crops as well, many grown by family farmers who settled the land five and six generations ago. The thousands of Community Supported Agriculture boxes of food that are prepared each week by local farmers, plus farmers' market sales, make Yolo County first in the nation in direct sales.
A drive through the county is a rural experience, with a sprinkling of towns and cities. Bounded on the west by the Coast Range and its foothills, the land then flattens out into the westernmost reaches of California's Great Central Valley until it reaches the Sacramento River. Along the foothills you'll find almond orchards, olive groves and vineyards, grazing cattle and the bucolic Capay Valley, home to some of the nation's premier organic growers and the Capay Valley appellation.
On the valley floor is what Yolo County Agricultural Commissioner Rick Landon has called some of the best soil to be found anywhere in the world. Here, thousands of acres of tomatoes, walnut trees, grain, rice, and alfalfa fill the landscape. Romantic names like Hungry Hollow, Knight's Landing, Zamora, Plainfield and Cache Creek, where the Rumsey Band of Wintun Indians has built its casino, reflect the past.
At the far southeastern edge of the county where it abuts the Sacramento River, lies Clarksburg, where the cooling climate of the river delta breezes has enticed farmers to plant thousands of acres of vineyards on land that was once dedicated to sugar beets and tomatoes. At the northern edge is Dunnigan, where undulating hills formerly hosted wheat fields and sheep, vineyards and olive groves have taken root all giving a flavor to wines from the Dunnigan Hills appellation.
The towns and cities are few. The largest, Davis, once called Davisville, is home to the world-famous University of California, where more than 30,000 students fill the campus. You’ll find ethnic restaurants of every kind, coffee shops, a lively Saturday morning and Wednesday evening farmers' market, one of the oldest in California, and the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, plus galleries, and one of a kind boutiques.
Winters, located on the southwestern edge of the county, against the foothills, is Yolo County's quirky, slightly counterculture town. It has been an orchard and farming center since its founding in the early 1850s, and with a population of just over 6,000, still continues to be. Here you'll find the popular Palms Theatre, located in the renovated Winters Opera House, where nationally known acts, the same ones that play Bay Area clubs can be seen several nights a week. You'll find a destination, award-winning steakhouse, restaurants and cafes that feature locally grown food, taco trucks, and Mexican Restaurants, all just a long stone's throw from prune, walnut, and almond orchards.
Woodland, the county seat and the heart of the county's farming community boasts the agricultural infrastructure that fuels the county’s economy – rice mills, tomato processing plants, seed companies, and farm equipment sales. It also has restaurants featuring locally grown food, a vibrant bookstore and coffee shop, white tablecloth restaurants, barbeque and live music, and a Saturday farmers' market, as well as being home to the Yolo County Fair and its highly regarded California Olive Oil Competition.
West Sacramento, mistakenly thought of as part of Sacramento, lies on the east side of the Sacramento River and is home to the Port of Sacramento, the River Cats baseball team, and is the gateway to the tiny town of Clarksburg and the county's largest wine growing region, the Clarksburg appellation. Enjoy the cool, refreshing breezes along the river as you wind through this gentle corner of the county that appears untouched by time.
Home to 170,000 people, Yolo County encompasses 661,760 thousand acres and 550, 407 thousand of those acres are in farmland.
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