Food & Wine

Both Mrs C and I grew up in Southern California when Orange Juice was the de facto state beverage rather than wine. My local neighborhood was called Lemon Grove (now an actual city).  My uncle ran the largest frozen food warehouse in the Western United States, storing millions of gallons of frozen juice. So citrus is in our blood. 

Over the last 40 years we have watched sadly as Orange County's miles and miles of fragrant orange orchards turned into suburbs and urban sprawl, and Florida and Brazil became the premier suppliers of orange juice. Now young'uns shun fresh juice for other more industrial, less messy, and less "blood sugar enhancing" drinks.

So we were excited to be invited to Lodge Ranch, on the slopes of Palomar Mountain. Its 300-some acres overlook the Pala Indian Reservation. The family has been growing produce for over 100 years. 

 

A few items scattered around lent authenticity to the claim of 100+ years ranching on this mountain. Imagine how remote it must have been then!






We had it easy getting up there in our modern vehicles, although I heard one electric car owner say "I'm glad it's downhill going home; I didn't expect it to be so far and so high..."




It does seem remote - and that's probably why it hasn't been overrun by development. I was in awe at the amount of work involved in running such a place - and the rancher is a bit older than I am. Each little green spot below is a tree he has to care for... fortunately they have plenty of natural water supplies.


The eating, drinking, talking and singing went on for hours. As they say, A Good Time Was Had By All.



Thanks for joining us. We left as the sun was going down, not relishing the drive in the dark. 

As we came around a corner, we drove into the shade of the mountain, and the light was fantastic, revealing the high desert foliage.