Track 17: In Praise of Pesto

On Saturday night, we had pasta with pesto made from freshly-picked basil. YUM. Enough said.

Picture me this morning, harvesting tomatoes: it is like a tomato FOREST. Just when you think you've got all the little cherry tomatoes, you squat down (carefully, as there's another tomato plant about 3 inches behind you), push aside some branches, and jackpot! There's a cluster of bright red ones, juicy and perfect. I gather them in the hem of my t-shirt, humming a song, and suddenly I feel like someone else. There are chickens hiding out amongst the plants, waiting for me to drop something. All you hear is a slow, quiet "boc, boc", and maybe you see a flash of feathers, but you know they're there. Stalking.

This afternoon I finally got around to washing all the dead bugs off the front of my car. They were nice and petrified, so it was lots of fun. The chickens would not let me alone, and I can't figure out why. They pecked at the bubbles on the ground, or maybe they were drinking the water. Were they smart enough to know that I was washing BUGS off the car? One of them started to peck at my bumper, and that was the last straw. I really do find chickens quite annoying, especially when I can look forward to cleaning out the coop again on Thursday. (And there was much rejoicing. Yaaaaaaaay.)

I feel a bit sheepish telling you this, but I drove into Sacramento again on Sunday just to go to the farmers' market. It's about 40 miles away. Yes, the fuel I burned probably negated the fact that I was buying local food, but I just couldn't help it. I needed more persimmons and mandarin oranges! And strawberries!! Oh, those strawberries. When I got home, I had the best salad EVER for lunch: lettuce, orange sections, thinly-sliced persimmon, cucumber, and onion, pomegranate seeds, and balsamic vinaigrette. Oh. My. God. I had the same thing for lunch today, but I added walnuts and spinach. It felt so good to be eating a salad. Steve is a great cook, but he doesn't do much in the way of raw, leafy greens. I needed some roughage.

Here's the REAL news: on Friday, I'm leaving Fiddletown to do some more exploring before heading back to Minnesota. I plan to spend the weekend at Yosemite (I'm staying at a hostel about 25 miles outside the park), and then I'm heading up north to start a tour of the coast. On the 17th, Angie (of Denver fame) is flying out to meet up with me, and we're going to spend the next couple days exploring the Bay Area. Then we're driving back to Denver for Thanksgiving, where I'll probably hang out for another few days, and then it's back to the Twin Cities! So yes, I'm cutting the trip a little short. I have many reasons, which I won't get into in this post, because it's almost 10:00 p.m. and I'm still sitting in my car in front of the post office.

If anyone has any suggestions for things to see and do along the CA coast, let me know! So far, I only have a few things in mind. Also, remind me not to take I-80 across Wyoming on the way back...