t o m a t o e s & t e q u i l a: August 2010

Roasted Tomato Macaroni & Cheese

7:44 PM

Philo...And I Don't Mean The Dough

12:45 PM

This past weekend the hubby and I headed north to Anderson Valley and Hendy Woods State Park in the town of Philo. We are moving to Colorado in about a month and I am leaving my home state of California. We are trying to see (and eat) the last few things on our "must-do-in-California" list before embarking on our new adventure.

I am very excited for our move. Any change to experience something new sounds good to me. And though I have loved California and it will always be home, there are drawbacks to living here...housing prices come to mind.

So - we packed the car for a weekend of camping and headed to Philo, CA. And what's the verdict on Philo, you ask? Glorious. I cannot say enough about this little know region of California wine country.

There were so many things I enjoyed about this area. To keep this brief, I'll just mention a couple.

Lazy Creek Vineyards - This is the second oldest winery in Anderson Valley and such a gem. First, the wine tasting is free, as it used to be in Napa before it became like Disneyland for adults and way over priced. But more than that, the tasting room is small and intimate.

The winery has only a few employees and as such, you really get to talk to someone who knows about the wine and the region and has poured their heart and soul into it. Frankly, it makes the wine taste better. Second, the winery was quaint (as many of them are in this area) so wandering the grounds is encouraged. There are no behemoth villa's here, and Lazy Creek was a perfect example of this. The grounds were, shall we say, rough - but lovely, and real. They had a huge vegetable garden and after two hours of lingering, the hubby and I were offered a boat-load of fresh veggies to take home. "We can't eat all of these!" we were told, though we didn't really need a reason to take a bag full of home grown zucchini.

The Apple Farm - This is a foodie's dream. The original owners of The French Laundry (yes, the one in Yountville) moved up here in 1984 to start this farm and cooking school. Though I probably would have given my first born child to take one of the cooking classes, I opted instead to take the time explore Anderson Valley and since we were only there for a short weekend, choices had to be made. I do genuinely intend to go back someday and take a class there.

In lieu of sharpening my culinary skills, I bought some of their renowned preserves. There is a self serve fruit stand outside operating totally on the honor system - you write down your selections on a clip-board and drop the appropriate amount of money in a bin. We also wandered the grounds here and again, they were rough in areas but lovely and quaint. It was a place that you could tell they grew things to use them, not to stare at them.