After Aron and I found ourselves among the trees at the peak of their bloom the other night, we decided to drive out into nearby Capay Valley on Saturday afternoon and follow the “Blossom trail”—on which we passed orchard after orchard.
And on which we snapped photo after photo. Here are a few…
Did you know that California is the only state in the country that produces almonds? I recently learned that California’s Mediterranean climate (cold winter, mild spring, and hot, dry summer) is ideal for the crop and that the state grows over 80 percent of the world’s almonds. More than 2 billion pounds! No wonder the fields around us are filled with flowering almond trees.
They’re part of the plum family–and are closely related to peaches and apricots–so you may notice a resemblance.
The whole field smelled sweet, almost like honey. And Hudson couldn’t stop smelling the flowers.
In fact sometimes he’d nosedive straight into them.
The blooms that are on the trees now are being pollinated (one could hear the buzzing throughout the orchards), but it will be seven or eight months before the almond harvest begins.
Here’s the route we followed. The season is brief, so if you’re in the area, be sure to check for when locals are predicting is peak.
Hudson stayed overnight with his grandparents on Saturday while Aron and I ran off to San Francisco for our very first weekend alone since he was born! We missed him, but we had such a great time! And we felt relieved knowing that he would be having a lot of fun without us. We were told he did ask about us occasionally, but I got the impression he asked about this guy even more. Hudson loves Sawyer so much. I think the first thing he asks about, nearly every morning is the “doh-ggy” or “suh-weeeeee” (Sawyer).
I’m looking forward to sharing some family photos this week: from our weekend in SF—as well as more Almond Blossoms and some scenes from last weekend’s Farmer’s Market (which included an unusual but long-runningDavis tradition).
Hope you had a great weekend. I’m so excited about the longer days!
. I think they’d look amazing hung in a pair, at large scale. I actually first came to find the print shop by way of her silk scarves, printed with the same images. Aren’t they incredible?
Students at Columbia University are stealing Nutella! A lot of it! (But apparently less than the NY Times first reported.)
One of the New Yorker’smost-read articles last year was about Paul Haggis’ departure from the Church of Scientology. (It was crazy!) I’m going to read Lawrence Wright’s novel about the Scientology, Going Clear, for a book club. Has anyone read it?
