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Photos from Farm to Fork Festival in Sacramento
Because this Sacramento Realtor had only one open house on Saturday in Arden Manor, it seemed fitting to take the afternoon off to attend the Farm to Fork Festival in Sacramento. September has many events around Farm to Fork, which is Sacramento’s new slogan. Forget City of Trees. Farm to Fork brings in more money, so Sacramento is going with Farm to Fork.
Here is a photo my husband shot of me at the Farm to Fork Festival in Sacramento. That thing that looks like a high tech helicopter behind me is actually a machine used in the fields for harvesting. Its cockpit is like your own private studio. Downright comfortable. Only thing it’s missing is a big screen TV in the window.
Unsure what this booth was about but it was labeled Rosemont High School Culinary Arts. This kid looks to me to be about 7 but all high schoolers seem that age to me, so I am the wrong person to comment. Although, I do not know why he is wearing a mask over his eyes. Looks like he is cutting up pasta noodles.
There wasn’t much food available at Farm to Fork unless you count the food trucks. Apples. Milk. Berries. And I don’t count the food trucks because the lines are way too long. In fact, the lines were way too long for almost everything. Fortunately, I found a short line before I starved to death and was able to score really BIG brats with onions and yellow mustard. Which I promptly dribbled down the front of my shirt. Will that stain come out or will I end up disposing of the garment? And then we met these incredible cute dogs. This guy in the photo has been making friends all day long due to those adorable pups.
And who doesn’t love a pig? Especially a pig who looks just like Arnold from Green Acres and snorts at all the appropriate moments. This pig almost ate the pants legs off a guy who was standing too close to the rail. He was oblivious that the pig was chewing on him. That’s when I realized, oh, yes, they serve beer at the Farm to Fork Festival in Sacramento. Except the lines for that were too long as well, so we opted for a craft cocktail in a can. Which seemed weird but beats standing in line.
Here, near the exit and past the 80-member brass band which seemed to take the crowd by storm, was a demonstration for table setting. I’m not sure what she was talking about specifically but I stopped because table setting display competitions at the Minnesota State Fair, for example, were always terribly interesting when I was a kid. I love setting tables. The creativity involved, evoking the senses, mix of materials, colors, fabrics, flowers, arrangements. This woman was doing something with carrots.
You can’t have a Farm to Fork Festival in Sacramento without animals. Soon as I spotted the little kids running around with plastic cows, I wanted one. Perhaps that’s because I never got a plastic cow on my first grade field trip to the farm. We got off the bus. I got a whiff of the farm and promptly threw up. They stuck me back on the bus, and I did not get to see the dairy farm nor the cows. Yup, city kid. But we found the display where you could win a plastic cow and my husband scored!
Photos of Towhee and Wildflowers at Mount Diablo Mitchell Creek
Spotted Towhee at Mount Diablo on the Mitchell Creek hiking trail, by Adam Weintraub
When we left our house in Land Park on Sunday with the intent of viewing wildflowers at Mount Diablo, I considered bringing my Canon PowerShot but then thought, oh, my cellphone will work just as well for flowers. Duh. It did not occur to me that we might find a spotted towhee singing away at the top of his lungs in the brush. Fortunately my husband had his Nikon and zoom lens. What a lovely buzzing sound. At first I thought of a rattlesnake because there are snakes there, but no, it was a bird.
We decided to go hiking at the north end of the park to see the early bloom of wildflowers at Mount Diablo after we met up last week with an interesting couple from Georgia / South Carolina. During a dinner conversation, I had invited ourselves to go along on a mission to dump a person’s ashes, but nobody took me up on that idea. Can’t say I blame them. It was a personal trip and these people were pretty much strangers to us, but that’s just how I am. Sometimes people say yes to such spur-of-the-moment self-invitations.
For example, a friend last week mentioned she planned to get her eyebrows tattooed. So I invited myself along since I’ve never witnessed such a thing, and let me tell you, as an old fart with hardly any eyebrows myself (they vanish when you get old), now I think I will do the same. Not to mention, I was present at the salon with my cellphone to record her entire experience. My attendance actually came in handy.
I can’t believe that we’ve lived in Sacramento for 15 years and have never been to Mount Diablo. This is what selling Sacramento real estate will do to you. Keep you too focused on work. Some people say it’s just always there and they don’t think about it because the mountain is simply part of their horizon. One cannot really see Mount Diablo from most places in Sacramento but is is very visible from the hills, like from El Dorado Hills.
We never made it to the summit, which offers splendid panoramic views, I hear, all the way to San Francisco Bay in one direction and the Delta in the other. That’s because I had to make it back to my home office in time to deal with a flood of offers from the results of two open houses in Sacramento. Both are pending today. Next time, though. I will definitely go back. If you go, take the back way on 160. Very scenic. About 90 minutes.
Below are photos of our hike to see the wildflowers at Mount Diablo along the Mitchell Creek hiking trail from yesterday:
Elizabeth Weintraub below Mitchell Rock (from Jurassic period) at Mount Diablo, by Adam Weintraub
Fairy lanterns, a kind of yellow tulip, endemic to Mount Diablo, along the Mitchell Creek trail.
Ithuriel’s Spear is a triplet lily found along the Mitchell Creek trail at Mount Diablo.
California Gilia found along the Mitchell Creek trail at Mount Diablo
View of the entrance to Mitchell Creek hiking trail at Mount Diablo, basalt and red chert rocks.
The pine cones from the Coulter pine trees are enormous at Mount Diablo, by Adam Weintraub
Tiger Moth caterpillar found along the Mitchell Creek trail at Mount Diablo
Mystery flowers emerging from a green flying saucer at Mitchell Creek Trail on Mount Diablo
California golden poppies hug the banks of Mitchell Creek on Mount Diablo
Native grape vines wind through coyote bush along Mitchell Creek trail at Mount Diablo
This look like a mint to me but I cannot identify the white flower.
View of Mount Diablo during lunch at La Veranda Cafe in Clayton, before our hike.
Photos of wildflowers at Mount Diablo by Sacramento Realtor, Elizabeth Weintraub, iPhone7, unless otherwise noted.
Legends of Wine at State Capitol in Sacramento
2016 Farm-to-Fork Legends of Wine at State Capitol in Sacramento.
You cannot say there is nothing going on at the State Capitol after spotting the crowds mobbing the west steps for the 2016 Farm-to-Fork Legends of Wine event in Sacramento. As we drove down 10th Street, heading for the parking garage, the lines of people were more than a block long. Event planners hurried to shove trash cans at the exit to try to prevent guests from entering at that spot. Once my husband and I joined the line, it moved quickly.
The Legends of Wine event is part of Farm-to-Fork month in Sacramento, having started in a big way in 2013. It seems like every year the Farm-to-Fork movement grows bigger, and it’s not just in Sacramento that this is happening. You’ll find back-to-the-kitchen stuff is across the board in the United States. The hottest restaurants in Minneapolis, for example, are “craft kitchens,” sourcing local produce.
Dawn Herlache and Elizabeth Weintraub at 2016 Farm-to-Fork Legends of Wine in Sacramento
Soon as we slipped through the gate, grabbed a wine glass and bag of bread, I noticed my #1 favorite escrow officer, Dawn Herlache, chatting with her associates from Placer Title Company near a wine booth. We hardly ever see each other but we communicate pretty much daily during the week through email. Dawn has the patience of a saint, decades of experience, and it shows in her work. To say I have high expectations is putting it mildly, and I don’t know why she puts up with me, but my real estate clients and I love her to pieces.
Wine expert David Berkley speaks at 2016 Farm-to-Fork Legends of Wine in Sacramento.
We sampled a huge variety of wines at Legends of Wine, stuff that I ordinarily might never get to taste unless I stumbled across the winery by accident. Although I did purposely visit the Ripken Winery in Lodi last year seeking a petite sirah. Most of our wine tastings take place in Sonoma or Napa, or I find a new wine at The Kitchen I can’t live without, or my husband brings home something new and exciting from the Sacramento Co-Op, and we buy several cases. Don’t get me started on the wine clubs in Oregon or Calistoga or Trenton-Healdsburg.
The person I wanted to talk with was David Berkley, and we seized that opportunity when it presented itself. Berkley got his start at Corti Brothers in 1973, mentored by Darrell Corti himself, who also partnered with him for this event. This is a guy who worked at the White House selecting wines and choosing pairings. He is now 72 and retired. We asked if he indeed personally selected each of the 35 award-winning wineries present at Legends of Wine, wondering, of course, if they just paid a fee for the booth, but Berkley assured us he did.
Elizabeth Weintraub met a Rendezvous 2014 Barbera she likes.
We sampled sausages, artisan cheeses, chocolate, specialty desserts, and many varieties of local Sacramento wines at Legends of Wine. We explored a plethora of wines from Capay Valley, Acampo, Davis, Clarksburg, Lodi, Walnut Grove and, of course, Amador County, just to name a few, and tasted a huge selection of wines, ranging from Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc and Viognier to Tempranillo, Zinfandel and Barbera.
Two of my favorites were a 2013 Sparkling Viognier from Capay Valley Vineyards and the robust 2014 Barbera from Rendezvous Winery in Clarksburg.
Photos from the Effie Yeaw Nature Center in Carmichael
American River at Effie Yeaw Nature Center shows off a strong current in March 2016.
Through the process of elimination, it seemed like a good idea yesterday to visit Effie Yeaw Nature Center in Carmichael. It’s one of those places you know is there, and maybe you’ve been there before, but it slips out of your memory banks. Then, after a visit you’re kicking yourself as to why you don’t go there more often. Even a busy Sacramento Realtor needs to get in touch with nature every so often, just to stay grounded, in touch with what’s really important in life, which I’ve come to understand is life itself.
We first had planned to drive up to Daffodil Hill. We called and they said all the flowers were crushed by our recent rainstorms. Well, Daffodil Hill is 50 miles away, more than an hour from Land Park in the foothills. A closer spot to observe nature would be the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area, between Davis and West Sacramento. Also closed, due to flooding. Although that’s not from rain. That’s from opening the weirs and allowing excess water to flow into it because it is a . . . Bypass.
I list and sell a lot of homes in Carmichael, but I never stop by the Effie Yeaw Nature Center. It’s so close, too. It took me forever to print out the trail map, for some reason, and then I left it at home on my printer. It’s emblem is the acorn woodpecker, which is an interesting looking bird (oh, aren’t they all?). Big round eyeballs, with a bandit mask around its face, white stripes on its black wings and a red Yarmulkeh on its head. We found many acorn woodpeckers but since I also left my Canon Sureshot at home, I didn’t capture any photos of those.
What did startle me was a deer who appeared out of nowhere on our trail, then hopped off like a rabbit through the fields to meet up with the rest of the deer off yonder by the Valley Oak trees. Butterflies flitting about. There are rattlesnakes, a poisonous type, so the signs caution that you should not go off the path, like rattlesnakes know where to go, but they do tend to stay away from people. Wild turkeys also run free, gobbling and chit-chatting as they tromp about so defiantly.
Below are photos I shot with my iPhone during our journey on the trails and to the American River at Effie Yeaw Nature Center. Some, obviously, were taken indoors in the education center. I tried to get the kestrel and owl in photos but they were not cooperating, and it’s tough shooting through glass.
Otter with Crab at Effie Yeaw Nature Center in Carmichael, California
Wild turkey at Effie Yeaw Nature Center in Carmichael, California
Beaver chipping away at wood at Effie Yeaw Nature Center in Carmichael, California
Deer running through the grass at Effie Yeaw Nature Center in Carmichael.
Male mallard duck on the American River banks of the Effie Yeaw Nature Center in Carmichael, California
Hiking path, one of many, at Effie Yeaw Nature Center in Carmichael, California, features acorn woodpeckers.
