It's not fall without apple pie!

Part of the Fall season means taking a trip to Julian for apple pie. Now add to the list of apple pies places I've tried: Apple Alley Bakery. Apple Alley is located in a small alley sandwiched between the Julian Drug Store and the Julian Cafe. It is a small shop serving lunch and pies. They also have a selection of other pastries, turnovers, tarts, and cookies. We got the lunch special which included your choice of 1/2 sandwich, soup or salad, chips, and a slice of pie for $8.95. The sandwich was just meh (I got the vegetarian) but it was just enough food so that I was still hungry for pie. They have several different types but these were the two we chose:

Apple Boysenberry


Caramel Pecan Apple


They were good, but I can't compare them to the others since they weren't traditional apple pies and it's been so long since I've had actual pie from Julian Pie Company or Mom's. This may call for a blind taste test in the future... you know, for "research purposes."

Persimmon Pickin'

I've recently been eating a lot of persimmons. It all started while I was having a conversation with a coworker in the kitchen at work. I was lamenting the loss of delicious summer fruits.

"But persimmons!" she said. "It's persimmons season!"

Another coworker overheard us, and told us you can go picking for persimmons here in San Diego. He sent me a link and we went this afternoon.

The place is called Bar 2 Ranch and it's in Pauma Valley near the base of Palomar Mountain. They hand you a large kitty litter container for use, shears, then off you go!



There are many rows of trees and plenty of fruit when we went. It wasn't too bad for a shorty like me to pick them either.



All the persimmons were Fuyu persimmons but the stand also sold the Hachiya type as well. We picked about half a bucket's worth which was almost 12 pounds. It was 70 cents per pound.

The stand also sold pomegranates ($1/lb!), limes, and these mysterious-looking things:



Can you guess what it is???

If you smelled it you would guess that it's a ...

L E M O N ! ! ! ! !

Yep. Never seen a lemon like THAT before. Crazy, right?