Grapes in the Coachella Valley?

Who knew that you could grow grapes in the Coachella Valley. I certainly didn't until I drove out to photograph the date farms and stumbled among grape farms in between the tall date trees.

Mind you, these aren't grapes that are used for making wine like those in Napa Valley and Temecula, these are table grapes that you can eat right off the vine, and, yes, I tried a few and they were deliciously sweet.

The biggest surprise I found that some of the grapes had dried into raisins on the same vine, which were also very tasty.

In Coachella Valley the grapes are dried into raisins during the hot summer. They are harvested as a process known as gunny sacking, which is in process right now.