Dreams, Moments, Travels
I don’t really like this photo at all, but it’s all I have. I felt it was significant enough of an event today that some reminder to myself needed to be made. The event was our weather. Just two days ago it was 109 degrees Fahrenheit here in Phoenix, Arizona, then a low-pressure system moved in and dropped the temperature 40 degrees. This is unheard of. That Phoenix, after climbing into the 100s, should turn this cold and rainy had everyone talking how strange this all was.
So the flowers may last forever, I am posting today’s photo to let us look back and remember the surprise and appreciate the beauty of finding these flowers in bloom on one of the cacti that manage to survive the blistering heat on our balcony.
Teaching old dogs new tricks could be one of our motto’s. Caroline is seen here in front of her very own Navajo loom at the Fiber Factory in Mesa, Arizona where she and I are taking a Navajo Weaving class. Caroline took this class in early April with her mom, but there is so much to learn that taking the class a second and maybe even a third time is in order. The loom on the left is the one I’ve borrowed from Fiber Factory and the dark band of yarn at the bottom is my attempt so far at making a Navajo rug. Sharie Monsam leads our class and is a patient, well-knowledged instructor. Sharie is joined by her friend Mary Walker of Weaving in Beauty, together they are making the class and the difficulty in learning this skill a truly wonderful way to spend a Tuesday evening.
Went down south today to Brown’s Orchard in Willcox, Arizona, to help June draw up a site plan. June operates a U-pick apple farm, but she also makes fresh-pressed apple juice and hard cider. Living under the apple trees is a large flock of sheep that, come September, will gorge themselves on fallen apples. The site plan is a layout of the farm property and where buildings are located, along with the location of wells, septic, gates, and the parking area. The county needs this type of information for granting permits to allow a change in how a particularly zoned property conducts business. In this case, June wants to sell her hard cider and offer tastings, but to offer alcoholic beverages for sale, the county and state require that all things are in order and that the business is in regulatory compliance. Oh yeah, in the fall, Caroline and I will be down here picking apples for ourselves and pressing our own apple juice. Life’s little luxuries are, oh, so awesome.
Made a batch of panch phoran today. What exactly is panch phoran you might ask? This spice blend is a Bengali mixture consisting of equal parts fennel seed, cumin seed, black or brown mustard seed, fenugreek seed, and kalonji. The first three ingredients are easy enough to find, the last two can be found if you know where to look. Indian grocery stores are where you will find the fenugreek seed. Ask for kalonji at any other store and you’ll get an odd look. Even at Indian groceries, it is not uncommon to find the wrong seed packaged as kalonji. This exotic spice is also known as charnushka, nigella, black caraway, and of course kalonji can easily be purchased through Penzeys Spices online.
If you would like to know more about the flavors and find a few recipes using this aromatic blend, step on over to Barbara Fisher’s excellent food blog Tigers & Strawberries for some truly inspired words regarding panch phoran.
One-hundred ninety miles southwest of Phoenix in Somerton, Arizona, next door to Yuma is the Silva’s Farm, where Caroline and I went blackberry picking today. The drive took about three hours, but we got started shortly after 5:30 in the morning so we’d arrive before the heat of the day did. That didn’t actually work out as it took more than two hours to pick the 16 pounds of berries that we left with, and by then, the heat was quickly bearing down. Sneaky us, we actually left with about 17 pounds of blackberries, but the Silvas couldn’t measure what was in our stomachs. The berry vines are thriving in the desert, much to our disbelieving eyes. The patch is nestled within a citrus orchard, and the picking was great. Nothing like a sun-warmed, fat, ripe blackberry picked and eaten on the spot – yum.
We have often been asked if these long drives to pick fruit and vegetables are worth it with exclamations that it must be cheaper to just go around the corner and buy them at the store. Well, here’s the math for you doubters. Frozen organic blackberries cost about $6.88 a pound or $110 for 16 pounds. Fresh organic blackberries from Whole Foods cost $5.99 per 6 ounces or $15.99 per pound for a total of $256 for 16 pounds. Picking the berries ourselves costs $3.50 per pound or $56 for 16 pounds, plus gasoline. We drove 420 miles with a couple of short detours to pick up an ice chest from my mom, coffee, and a stop at an ATM. Our Hyundai gets 32 miles per gallon on the highway; at $3.60 per gallon we spent $47 for gas. Our grand total was $102, and our experience was priceless. For those of you who are still doubtful, you should have seen the fun the ‘other’ kids were having running through the berry patch and yelling back at their parents about the giant berry they found and, oh, how sweet it was.
What the hell was I thinking, pulling up so close to a gas tanker so I could pay attention to my camera as I wanted to shoot a car selfie?
Roadside ruins will always pull me in.
Last stop for air before finishing our drive back home…another grand day out in the beautiful life of John and Caroline.