Yesterday I was totally thrilled because I got to visit a GIANT fig farm in San Diego!! It was marvelous, way out in the mountains. Baking hot, dry, dusty, and beautiful. I was overheated, yet astounded. Ha!!!
This amazing farmer, who has a doctorate in plant ecology, specializes in gourmet Figs, rare plants, extra special Passion Fruit, Prickly Pears and french Grapes.
He’s cultivating a new kind of Passion Fruit which will taste sweeter than the usual Fredericks purple ones, which he had tons of also, almost ripe, and soooo heavy on the vine.
His special Passion Fruit, which has this spectacular crimson and purple flower, is very exciting and I can’t wait to taste it. The fragrance from the flower is heavenly! I would love a perfume from that flower.
He’s growing so many glorious grapes! Rows and rows of small and delicate french grapes, plus over 60 varieties of fabulous fig trees, acres of the best tasting and sweetest prickly pears, special exotic plants and herbs.
My friend took me to visit this wonderful place and we got to go on a Tasting Tour of everything! We wandered through the orchard and sampled all kinds of figs, then relaxed beneath the grapes, eating them off the vine. I liked the black Muskat a lot.
The farmer gave me a fresh sprig of a brand new Spicy Hot Oregano herb and I would eat a grape, then nibble the oregano. Divine!! I am in LOVE with spicy hot oregano now.
The whole farm was a buzz with rowdy and rambunctious bees. They had eaten tons of the grapes! Sucked the sweet juice right out of them and left a withered brown skin. So naughty!
The prickly pear orchards (I guess you call them orchards?) were gorgeous, with all different kinds of fruit, green, pink, purple, hot pink. We got to sample all the sweetest kinds! Do you know you need tongs to pick the cactus fruit and then you need to knock the prickles off of it? It’s a delicate business! And it can get painful if you’re not super careful. Ha!!
Cactus fruit is so good for you, but it’s not in most grocery stores. Maybe because of all the large hard seeds it has. Yikes. So many seeds! I like to make smoothies from them and strain the seeds out.
On the way home, we stopped and got an enormous bag of my FAVORITE avocados, Reeds. Yay!! The season is just starting. They’re SO creamy and buttery tasting!! Fat and heavy. Omg, I’m SO excited and I hope they hurry up and ripen.
After the avos, driving home at sunset, way out in the country, we passed a bunch of loose goats on the side of a dirt road. It was so funny to see them all! Little baby goats, big furry goats, all climbing around in the ditch chewing on weeds.
We drove past, and saw even more goats on the loose, followed by a goat herder. An actual goat herder!! Taking his herd of goats for a sunset walk! It was SO CUTE. I was very impressed. That the goats would all go on a walk with him!! And stay with him?? And follow him home again! I wish I’d taken a picture. I was driving….and too surprised to even reach for my camera. Ha!!
