Sunday, October 19, 2008

Grove Adventure



You just cannot appreciate 16,000 acres of trees.  Even when you are walking down the long endless rows of them.  Its the whole "forest for the trees" thing quite literally.  Jay and Ilene's house is in the middle of the pistachio orchard.  I don't think I have ever seen a pistachio tree before this trip-  I have seen thousands now.  We went on a walk Sunday evening; the weather is so beautiful here.  Something about long symetric rows always makes me want to run (is it to reach the "end" where the trees meet which of course doesn't exist?).  Anyway... we walked.

Do you know what these are?  Pistachios of course.  Aren't they pretty?  They grow in clumps like grapes and the hulls are a beautiful burgundy red.  When they ripen and are ready to harvest they lighten up to an almost white and then the split open (which is how you buy them from the store). 

We reached our destination- an irrigation reserviour.  The perfect place to dig in and fling mud.  Jason tucked Luke's pants into his new socks for some reason.
Look what else we found growing on the side of the reservoir!




2 comments:

Ranch Mom said...

How Fun -- to see what you guys are doing down there! We have to live your trip vicariously. I was very interested to see the picture of how the pistacios grow on the trees - amazing!! Do you guys ever get sick of eating nuts, or are you like us, living on a citrus producer and never eating citrus (of course, they are kind of quaranteed to keep them from getting a citrus disease, so we never go into the groves). Keep the pictures coming. When do you guys leave for home?

Princess Muhmah and The Clan: said...

Now, that is true love...kissing a face like that. Well, the face is darling, but I still have a hard time kissing the kids without wiping their noses first!