BajaNomad

San Quintin tomatoes and depositos

Mexitron - 11-8-2018 at 06:10 PM

Had been a few years since my last trip to Baja. Last week Pappy and I noticed that most of the former tomato fields in the Colonet to San Quintin corridor are laying fallow and most crops were now in the greenhouses (the few I could peak into had blueberries). Has Los Pinos et al stopped mass production of tomatoes? Water issues?
Also noticed the lack of cerveza deposito stores. We've been bringing our own beer in cans for some years now but I found an old Corona carton when I was packing and made me reminisce:) so we decided to buy locally. Are the depositos a thing of the past? Ended up getting Tecate at the new supermercado in El Rosario. About the same price as US, which makes me wonder if the one liter alcohol per person law makes any sense anymore--as I understand it the liquor lobby pushed for that limit years ago when alcohol was really a deal in Mexico.

thebajarunner - 11-9-2018 at 02:01 PM

Good question on tomatoes. Our local very large fruit stand in Modesto gets lots of off-season tomatoes with the Los Pinos boxes prominent in sight. Will keep an eye on this after the first of the year when they usually flood in here.

Depositos..... always a total pain in the backside for us. This year we went to the big supermercado in Ensenada which has recently changed names. Bought all cans. Found the prices well below California prices, maybe El Rosario is not the most economical shopping spot on the road. As usual, Bud Light outnumbers every other brand- In Mexcio!!!
Many say that the annual celebration of Cinco de Mayo is really promoted in the US by Budweiser, cuz it sure ain't much of a holiday in Mexico.

shari - 11-9-2018 at 04:04 PM

Los Pinos has moved into our area in Vizcaino...rumour was due to water issues....I see alot of tomatoes being grown there.

thebajarunner - 11-9-2018 at 05:46 PM

Quote: Originally posted by shari  
Los Pinos has moved into our area in Vizcaino...rumour was due to water issues....I see alot of tomatoes being grown there.


Flying back from CSL last month I was shocked to see the extent of green houses just west of Vizcaino!! Miles and miles of shiny rooftops.
It had that certain "Pinos odor" to it, even from 30,000 feet.

BajaBlanca - 11-10-2018 at 07:07 AM

Los Pinos in Vizcaino? I had no idea!

Mexitron ~ be sure to stop by if you are coming this far south!

weebray - 11-10-2018 at 07:49 AM

Pain in the a$$ beer in recyclable bottles? Yes, it's true until about 10+ years ago you could only buy most drinks in recyclable bottles. The merchants and producers finally figgered out that it was a pain in the bolsa. Now you can buy non-recyclables all over Mexico. The evidence is everywhere. Also, picking up cans gives the car washers another profession and glass became construction material. BTW this change coincidentally occurred with the 3D printing of OXXO's. Eventually Mexico follows the US's path of progress.

Mexitron - 11-10-2018 at 08:16 AM

Yeah beer in glass was a pain but it did taste better IMHO...oh well Ballenas are still available. Heh, wish I had pic from the old days when we drove a particularly bad stretch of road particularly too fast---a case of broken Coronas mixed with a broken jar of mayonnaise, dozen eggs, and ripe tomatoes all in half melted ice. Let's just say that's when we started learning how to pack ice chests better, lol.

Blanca, for sure will stop by next time I'm down!

bajaric - 11-10-2018 at 01:03 PM

You can still find the old cardboard cases of returnable beer bottles at a few places but I think the sub agencias were phased out a while ago. Back in the day fueled a long trip down the peninsula on case after case of Pacifico that you could exchange for about fourteen dollars a case all the way from TJ to Cabo San Lucas. Now no more, you have to bring the bottles back to the same place you bought it.