Swanton Berry Farm

I had heard from friends about the variety of local farms that offer pick-your-own fruit and was dying to do it myself. Step one was deciding what fruit I wanted. We're lucky to live in a region that has just about every fruit you could want, fresh and ready to pick. I decided on strawberries. Next I chose the place, Swanton Berry Farm in Davenport, CA because it's on the coast and also because they are organic. The last step was to make a call to my friend Megan who I knew would love to check it out with us.

We picked up Megan and her hubby, Todd, on Saturday morning to join us. The strawberries were amazingly fun and easy to pick. I had imagined it being a hunt of reaching into bushes to try and find a ripe berry that was suitable to pick, and it being a long process to find the amount I was wanting to bring home with me. Instead, the strawberry plants were in raised rows and the dirt was covered in plastic. The strawberries grow and lie on the plastic, so the ripe ones are easily identified.

This picture cracks me up. It is reminiscent of one of my favorite King of Queens episodes where Doug and Carrie are given a terrible painting of themselves as a gift. Doug has beaver teeth and Carrie has a huge hand. Lesson learned... Keep my strawberry-chowing hand far enough away from the camera lens to help it look not-so-enormous.

Carrie: Look at this. I got one tiny arm and one huge arm.

Doug: I think it's just the angle.

Carrie: Doug, look at my hands. That's a chicken foot and that's a catcher's mitt, are you serious?

Show clip can be seen here.

We picked our way up and down a few rows until we had enough to take home with us (and we may or may not have done a bit of taste-testing in the fields!). The guys were nice enough to carry our boxes while Megan and I went to town pulling off the ripe berries. The view of the coast from the fields was so beautiful. But being along the coast also meant battling with the wind (excuse the windblown hair in the pictures)! When we were finished, we walked up to the store, weighed our delicious treasure, and paid the honor till. Yep, you pay and make your own change. We sampled some of the farm's jellies and jams and looked at the amazing homemade baked goods. I couldn't resist getting a strawberry truffle. It was incredible!

We headed back to the car and decided that, although Swanton Farms had other U-Pick stands up the coast (olallieberries, blackberries, and kiwi), we wanted to continue on to Pescadero and stop in Harley Goat Farm for some goat cheese. Megan and Todd had not yet been to Harley's, so we were psyched to show them this little piece of heaven! We munched on some goat cheese and bread and then were ready to head back to the city.

Andy and I didn't do anything creative with our strawberries. We loved them so much just the way they were that we only accompanied them with some homemade whipped cream. Megan and Todd resorted to making these drinks.

Hopefully there will be another fruit picking date to happen shortly in the future! Maybe cherries or peaches?!

Hank's New Home

It wasn’t long ago that we brought Hank in as our new family member. Unfortunately, things weren’t working out and Andrew and I decided that it would be best for Hank to have a new home. We took some time finding his new owner and we are so pleased with the family that adopted him. They have a lot of land so he will get plenty of time and exercise outdoors. He even has a doggy door so he can go in and out whenever he’d like. Making the decision to let him go was tough, and we went back and forth with it several times, but seeing the following pictures that his new mom sent us confirmed we made the right choice.

photos taken by his new owner

He loved being outside and there were plenty of times I would have to peel him up off the grass to come inside. He loved chasing squirrels in the yard, too. We know he really is a country dog at heart so knowing he is back to his “outdoors” lifestyle is wonderful. When he wasn’t outside, Hank and Hazel would find the sunny spots in the house, wherever the sun would shine through a window. The two of them got along well and it was adorable to see them side by side.

I already miss looking down and seeing two dogs at my feet. It’s funny how quickly an animal can attach itself to your heart. I’ll really miss evenings with Hank. After dinner the four of us would cuddle on the couch. It was the time of day Hank was most mellow, and he was just such a sweetheart when he’d doze off in your lap. He’d lick his lips a lot when he slept which would often make me wonder what he dreamt about…bacon, liver treats, maybe salmon (the first night with us I turned my back on my dinner for just a moment and he ate half my salmon!)? I think Andrew is going to miss having his sidekick around. Hank would follow Andrew around the house and even wait outside the restroom for him while he showered.

The last night with us he got a Frosty Paws ice cream treat and slept in bed with us (Hazel did, too…the whole clan in one bed!). Before his adopter came the next day we spoiled him with another doggy ice cream.

He’s definitely missed but we know he is in wonderful hands. We couldn’t have found a better home for him.

Alum Rock Park

This is a catch-up post for our visit to Alum Rock Park in San Jose about a month ago. I had heard of a “must-do” hike in the area with a gorgeous view and I wanted to tackle it. Turns out (and lucky for us) it wasn’t the long, grueling hike we thought it was going to be. It was a quick walk along the North Rim Trail to Eagle Rock. Along the way, we saw a giant rattlesnake. It was just a couple feet away from us as we were walking. Andrew was chatting away and I don’t think he even would have noticed it had I not come to a dead stop, basically unable to move from shock. It was so big, and slithering up from a small dip on the side of the trail. Andrew fumbled for the camera and I thought he had at least got a picture of its tail before it slid into the brush. Unfortunately, our blurry photos only show how flustered and unsteady we can be when trying to photograph deadly animals. Nature photographers we will never be!

We made it to the top (bite-free!) and the view was nice, even though we had quite a bit of afternoon smog. With a clear sky, the Santa Clara Valley and the south end of the San Francisco Bay can be seen from the overlook, but for Andy and I the best part of it was that the hills were green. Spring is supposed to be the rainy season for us where the hills turn bright green and stay so for several months. But this spring was an odd one for the Bay area in terms of weather. The rain came and was gone within a week so while the hills were green for our trip to Alum Rock and Eagle Rock, they turned brown again way too quickly. It was a bummer for us because we love the green hills. We fell in love with them when we moved here last spring and were so sad to see them turn dry and brown within our first months here. Since then, we had been anticipating their return. Unbelievable that this spring was for the Bay area was the driest in 35 years!

Enough of my rant with Mother Nature. We headed back down to the park and grabbed our picnic gear from the car. We walked to a little area where Andy grilled some chicken.  We ate chicken sandwiches and pasta salad at a table, then took our picnic blanket and spread it out under a tree. I read for awhile and Andrew napped a perfect ending for our Sunday at the park!