Cannabis Will Soon be Sonoma's prime crop.

Annual Sonoma County crop reports over the past decades have chronicled one primary story: The rise of the wine grape as our most prized crop.

The fruit overtook milk production in 1987 and has since increased in cash value by 607% to $540 million in value in 2021.

Over the years, the reports have told many other tales, such as the demise of once-coveted crops — namely, prunes and pears — and the persistence of apples from its heyday of the beloved Gravenstein to a niche crop now surviving in its use in hard cider and apple cider vinegar.

Agriculture, after all, is always evolving and changing — including the rise locally of plant-based food manufacturing. That was especially the case over the past year.

In 2021, cannabis was included as part of the tally for the first time in the report and it showed a remarkable $123 million in cash value ― not including hemp, which is legal under federal law. The figure included about $1.6 million in such nursery products as seedlings and plants.

That makes marijuana the third most valuable crop in Sonoma County. Weed was barely edged out by milk production for second place by a difference of less than $2 million.