My week in sunny CA was filled with hiking and sailing. Two of my favorite hikes were Shiloh Mountain in Sonoma and of course, I jumped at the opportunity to walk the Dish, which was my regular exercise place when we lived in Menlo Park. Both hikes featured steeps to reach amazing vistas and Heidi and I in crazy workout gear, since we were never fully prepared for any of our many activities. We also saw one of the largest Oaks I’ve ever seen. Sadly, I didn’t think to shoot it with Heidi in it for scale, so you’ll just have to take my word for it. It’s a good thing we kept hiking, because we also kept dining.
Since I was visiting friends down the Peninsula, I warned Heidi that I wanted to make a pilgrimage to Applewood Pizza. Marc and I lived in Menlo Park for years and our apartment was dangerously close to Applewood. It’s a strange and wonderful Pizza, sort of halfway in between thick and thin, but not in the it doesn’t know what it is sort of way, rather in the best of both worlds sort of way. I fell in love with their pizza at a time when I didn’t really like pizza. I definitely didn’t make it often, they way I do now, and I haven’t really found a pizza like it as we’ve moved around the United States. I always ordered the Milano, with its roasted portabella mushrooms and red peppers, fresh basil, and goat cheese, it was kind of my pizza utopia, and I haven’t had it since I graduated from law school in 2008. My mission, determine if the pizza still lived up to my pizza dreams or if it’s not all that my memory made it out to be and I should move on. The conclusion? It’s just as good as I can remember, especially when served with Heidi’s rosé which we carted around the bay all day in a cooler we kept having to fill with ice. Talk about commitment. Now I just need to work on replicating that crust. I have a feeling you might not see that post for awhile, I think it could take some time.

At this point, you’re probably thinking, Barrett, you should move your flight up and head home early, there’s no way you’re going to think of anything to do tomorrow to top your amazing Sunday. But have no fear, at this point in the trip, we were invited sailing on San Francisco Bay. We got up early, had breakfast at Spinster Sisters (again), and stopped about bought wine at Safeway. Funny, right? Two winemakers and me wine shopping at Safeway… but that’s the dream for those of us in Philadelphia. We even found a bottle of Chandon blanc de noirs that featured a nautical label. So, of course we bought that. The was some serious wind on the Bay and we even had to reef the mainsail. We sailed from San Francisco Yacht Club to the city, then down under the new and old Bay Bridges, around Treasure Island, and then finally back into the harbor. The new bridge was gorgeous and it was cool to see the old bridge being disassembled. When we finished cleaning up the boat and packing up our cars we made at pit stop at the club. The SFYC had MacRostie chardonnay on tap, so we obviously had to stop and have a glass before meeting up with the rest of the family for a BBQ in Larkspur. We enjoyed the warm day, cooked out, played on the trampoline with the little cousins and headed home for movie night.

On my last day, Heidi had to work, so I decided to tag along with her for the morning. After a week of learning new varietals and feeling a little melancholy nostalgia about living in a place where farm to table is so easy: the ocean is right there, the farms are year ’round, it was important to also think about how dry and brown thing were considering it was only late may. There’s been a serious water shortage for a few years now, and it was startling to see up close farmer’s making choices about what to water and what to let wither on the vine. Almonds and avocados are surviving because they’re money crops, but plenty of others weren’t fairing so well. All of the vineyards that source for Heidi have good plans in place for water, because she’s careful. Even so, she spends plenty of time checking on the grapes to make sure they’re being taken care of properly and that everything is on schedule. I got to ride along with her to several of the vineyards. We checked the grapes for shatter, which is shaking the mini clusters and seeing that most of them stay on the vine. You don’t want a lot of shatter, and where we were in really old chardonnay vines, everything looked good. We also looked to make sure that the clusterless vines with big leaf growth were being cut away, so the plant was spending most of its energy on fruit production. We checked to see that the wines were being trellised properly- when they grow tall, more wire needs to be added higher up to support them. I noticed lots of rose bushes all over the vineyards- some even have a bush at the end of each row. I’ve noticed this at lots of other vineyards over the years and it was nice to finally have the right expert to ask about it. Like so many traditions that accompany really old industries, of course it was no coincidence, but rather a very purposeful decision. Roses are susceptible to disease, so French and Italian farmers used them like the canary in the mine. If the roses start showing signs of disease, they know to be prepared and start treating the vines as well. Cool, huh? Once we’d checked in with the vineyards, I dropped Heidi at the office and went in search of lunch.

I took myself to The Fremont Diner, conveniently located near MacRostie Winery and Watmaugh Strawberry stand. It definitely inspired a lot of great Summer cooking ideas. It was Southern food but ratcheted up with local foods and flavors. I had a butterbean salad with fennel and golden beets that you’re going to see a variation of on Dirty Laundry Kitchen really soon. I had an Oyster Po’ Boy made with Drake’s Bay oysters that I couldn’t resist. I was so excited that our oyster tasting was already useful. I remembered the Drake’s Bay notes and was feeling certain they would be great for Po’ Boys. It was served with quick pickled onions and of course I had to try their rosé. I mean, it was my last day after all. The place was funky, and I ate outside in the sun at a picnic table with chickens underfoot. It was really fun.      On my bittersweet last night in town, we managed to follow up my amazing lunch at the Fremont Diner with more rosé (are you sensing a theme here?) and the famous Watmaugh strawberries that everyone who’s anyone buys from a stand at the corner of Watmaugh and Arnold in Sonoma. In fact, while we were eating the strawberries a teenage skateboarder stopped me and asked, “Are those Watmaugh?” California, where even the skateboard punks won’t eat just any vine fresh strawberries. That said, they were the best I’ve had in recent memory. You know, aside from the French countryside. All in all, the trip was divine and I can’t wait to share all my new CA inspired recipes with you in the next few months. First up? Updated Southern Supper, just in time for Pennsylvania’s first strawberries and Fresh Strawberry Pie season.