Nut: the other dead meat

So, Tuesday was my birthday (woot!) and I told my bf that for my bday I wanted to go to the San Joaquin Valley, someplace I'd never been before.

The reason for this choice was almonds. See last year the California Almond Board decided that raw almonds should be pasteurized, BUT they don't need to be labeled as pasteurized. So you go to the store, pick up a package of raw California almonds (and more almonds come from California than anywhere else in the world) or maybe some raw almond butter or something like that and you think you're getting all these livings enzymes in a live, raw food, but because they don't have to LABEL these pasteurized almonds, you are unknowingly purchasing dead almonds instead.

So I found a farm in the San Joaquin Valley that lets you purchase raw almonds directly from them (but no shipping allowed, you have to come and get them) and we booked a B&B room right above a wine tasting room and made plans to follow the San Joaquin "Fruit Trail" and I was really looking forward to coming home with a car full of fruit and almonds.

This was not meant to be, because the almonds are still being harvested right now on that farm, so they aren't quite ready. Also, the "Fruit Trail" is kind of a joke...I'd say you're better off at the local farmer's market (although I did have an AMAZING peach from Sanger, CA. this morning) and the B&B was a little weird with the owner (who when we first met her launched into a tirade about how dumb organic farming and biodynamics are and how the guy with the grapes at the next vineyard over should spray his crops but he doesn't because he's a jerk and he doesn't care) seemingly poking around in our room while we were out to dinner. (She also seemed distressed that we were actually "hanging around" until the official checkout time of 11am, and after ascertaining that we are completely vegan and eat no meat, cheese, eggs or anything like that suggested we go to a pizza place or another restaurant that makes cheese ravioli.)

So that was my birthday. I'm not complaining, though. I got to take a road trip (woo hoo!) to someplace I've never been before AND spend over 30 continuous hours almost totally uninterrupted by phone calls, emails, or anything like that with my bf (okay, so we cheated a little, he checked work email a few times, I paid some sales transactions and sent a few emails myself...but for US we were amazingly unconnected.) Who cares where we go or what we do? Oh, and I did get a 25 pound bag of oranges, some fresh figs and some dried nectarines, and we finished off our trip at our favorite wine bar and then we even went and had a papusa.

I'm now going to be looking for raw almonds at farmer's markets or maybe with a group buy or "tree share" through localforage.com

Tomorrow maybe I'll tell you all about who can go to hell!