"Huh? Wha? I don't see 'em."
My head jerked in all directions looking for naked girls and wondering if Ted had finally gone insane, or what in the world those women were doing sky-clad along side of the road.
"Right THERE!" He pointed.
I saw something pink. It took me a beat to shift my POV and sure enough. There they were. Yeh, you guessed it, not nubile wood nymphs, but nubile pink Daylily-looking flowers. Ted had read an article in that morning's paper about "Naked Ladies" popping out this time of year, and there they were, lighting up the highway everywhere.
Well, the Naked Lady sighting happened as we were driving towards Sonoma to go to the Oak Hill Farm Red Barn Store. The vineyards this time of year are just LOADED with plump clusters just ripe for the pickin' as Crush season gets well under way.
After Ted and I left Southern California, we'd been feeling a bit homesick for the long drives we used to take along the Pacific Coast Highway. We loved to drive along the beach, smelling the sea air and enjoying the expansiveness of the ocean. Up here in Northern California we realized we have a different kind of ocean. A rolling sea of vineyards and the fresh scent of trees and grasses warmed by the sun give us a similar sense of calm and beauty as we drive along finding new discoveries at every turn.
Oak Hill Farm Red Barn Store is our current favorite place of culinary worship. We found out about it from Rancho Viejo restauranteurs, Jenny and Antonio. Jenny grew up in the Yucatan and Antonio is from Zacatecas, Mexico and they have this wonderful little restaurant that borders Agua Caliente and Sonoma, and serves up Yucatán cuisine with a Zacatecas flair. (Thank you Dennis for turning us on to this!)
What does Yucatán cuisine with a Zacatecas flair taste like? Hispanic Heaven for sure. Cactus salad with perslane (a watercress-like green), melt-in-your-mouth pork and chicken, and piquant Tacos al Pastor all savored on the restaurant's outdoor covered porch.
Jenny told us when she first met Antonio, she went to visit his family in the Zacatecas desert, looked around at the barren landscape and said, "What do you guys EAT around here?" Antonio replied, "Cactus, of course!" So steamed cactus punctuates their menu and it's really surprisingly (surprise to a gringo's palate) good.
While schmoozing with Jenny about her food, we asked where they get their perslane, and she told us about Oak Hill Farms. She said Antonio's cousins work there, providing them with the freshest in-season vegetables for their restaurant menu. So after lunch we had to go check it out.
Our first visit to Oak Hill Farms Red Barn Store was transcendent. The building is a beautiful barn-red color and, OMG, inside is a paradise of fresh and dried flowers, and just-out-of-the-garden fruits and vegetables.
http://oakhillfarm.sonoma-sky.com/
We saw things in that lovely barn that we'd never seen before. Agrostemma for one. The epitome of charming, tall arching stems of purple petaled blossoms pull you right into a Beatrix Potter dream. And how 'bout those Padrone peppers? Small, green and slightly twisted morsels, get very soft when you sauté them in oil and sprinkle them with salt.
Padrones fry up whispery crisp, then you pull them off the stem with your teeth (seeds n' all), and they just dissolve in your mouth like "buddah".Then you wait.
Most of the peppers are sweet, but every now and then there's the errant HOT one that plays Russian Roulette with your tongue, giving it a good "zetz".
Who knew that peppers could be even more thrilling than Naked Ladies?!
(p.s. Ted wanted to say that he didn't take any of these photos except for the crispy peppers shot at the end.)
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