Sweetness and Color

Cherries from nearby valley

Fruits and greens salad

   head lettuce

   wild rice

   cherries

   apricots

   carrots

   cilantro

   red cabbage

   honey mustard vinaigrette

Hi Winnie and Steve,

We've had such great warm weather on the coast this week --- aaaah.  While this week was lovely, we do not get enough warmth right here on the ranch to grow the really sweet fruits.  I can grow apples and pears easily, but the fruits that love warmth like apricots and cherries need real heat to bring about their sweetness.  I went to the roadside barn at Pie Ranch in Pescadero today since they are open on weekends.  In addition to their usual berries,  farmer friends from one of the warmer valleys had brought over apricots and cherries -- what a treat.  Of course Blue House Farm had wonderful vegetables and flowers in the barn as they always do.  I really like to include these juicy fruits in salads at this time of year.

We are starting to see some wild blackberries when we are on our hike.  You cannot believe how tiny they are -- they are not anything like blackberries at the market.  But no matter how tiny, we cannot resist ambling ever so slowly to see if we can spot some and pick them along the way.  They are small but incredibly full of flavor.  We don't even pretend to gather; we just pop them in our mouths immediately.  Even Jake, remember the stray cattle dog, ever so carefully puts his muzzle up to the berries and plucks them off in his teeth.  This shouldn't be a surprise as we see lots of berries in the coyote scat -- somehow Jake is the one dog of our three that most reminds us of a coyote.

Thinking of you.  Love, Donna