eat your greens!

(an ode to fruits and veggies)

i am so not on vacation now, but it's fun to recap the glory days of two weeks ago...and i have been sloooow to upload photos, so here we go: belated blog posts. 

on our way out of san diego, we stopped at not one, but two, fantastic spots! 

first, we stopped off for breakfast with xuchi, a friend of mine from art school. (xuchi and her husband josh are artists and in addition to being great people, both make absolutely beautiful work.) 

we got to hang out in her overflowing garden + even got to sneak a peek at her mom's garden next door, which, if we are being honest, is more like a farm.

(the largest basil leaves i have ever encountered)

m made friends with mingus, one of their dogs

i think xuchi slips steroids into her water supply (oh wait, there's a word for plant steroids- it's called fertilizer), because her veggies are out of freaking control huge and beautiful. (matt was very jealous, although he contained his envy well.) i guess that's what a garden looks like if you get sun all day long and have really good soil. 

little m happily chows on fresh green beans.

we harvested some stuff to take home with us

mingus lazing in the sunshine. 

my poor animal loving little m; 

this is the closest our daughter will ever get to having a pet - visiting one at a friends' house!

i love succulents now and forever

like i said, xuchi's mom's garden is like a farm. i'm not kidding. 

i think you could practically order a csa box from her.

m continued with her grazing.

eventually we parted ways with our friend, her dogs, her garden, and her cute little bungalow.

we headed north...

and on the way stopped off at chino family farms... an epic farm stand which supplies fruits and veggies for restaurants such as berkeley's very own chez pannise and for commonfolk like us.

we perused the produce which is laid out like little treasures (and priced accordingly!) and picked at the height of ripeness daily. it's almost too pretty to eat! but eat we did, laying it all out on the hood of our car and snacking away. little m popped cherry tomatoes and strawberries like they were candy nuggets. she charmed the workers so much that they gave us some other vegetables for her to try. our brief visit was pretty delicious and nutritious.

there really isn't much better than fruits and veggies that have just been picked and that are still warm from the sun! 

it was absolutely perfect.