Tanaka Farms Strawberry Tour - Irvine, CA

Happy Flag Day Eve! Or would it be Merry Flay Day Eve? Regardless, I hope you have yourself a great Flag Day tomorrow. Personally it’s one of my favorite holidays as the Post Office still has to work just like me.

Anyhow, this week’s entry is going to be short and sweet, no pun intended. Since I gave you two (yes, two!) entries last week I figured you’d forgive me. This past weekend I went to Tanaka Farms in Irvine, CA. I found Tanaka Farms on Local Harvest.org from a link from Neat-o-rama. Let it never be said that I don’t link my sources (when I have them available).

Since it’s a week and a day from officially being summer (… oh hey, since our lovely president felt the need to change daylight savings on us (which honestly, I don’t mind a bit save for all the asinine calls I had to field at work, “is your software compatible with Daylight Savings?”) I say we petition summer to officially start on June 1st every year. Summer Solstice be damned!) it kind of felt appropriate to go to a farm to get some fresh fruit.

Tanaka Farms is currently holding their Strawberry Tours right now, which according to the website is:

• A guided Wagon Ride around the farm
  


• See how different fruits and vegetables grow
  


• Taste different fruits and vegetables
  


• Pick and eat your very own STRAWBERRIES

I got there just in time for their 11 AM tour Saturday morning. It cost $13. I debated whether or not to spend $13.00 on a strawberry tour that obviously would be containing a bunch of young crying kids but decided that purchasing a couple strawberries from their store would not a good blog entry make. I plunked my $13 dollars down and waited patiently on the hay bails for the tour to start.

At 11:05, they rounded us up like cattle (it is a farm after all) onto two wagons pulled by a mean looking tractor. I immediately knew that I would be uncomfortable for the next hour as the bench seats in the wagon are only about 7 inches deep and give you 2 feet of leg room that must be shared with the person sitting across from you. They also shove you in like those chickens I see on semi trucks. Did I mention that there were a lot of children? Young children? Like the oldest child was maybe 7? Yeah, I know. It was a farm, I should have expected it. I dropped a comment card with, “Adults Only tours please” on the way out.

The tour started and we learned about how a fruit is classified as anything that begins as a flower and has seeds on the inside or outside. This of course means that cucumbers and green beans are fruits, which I refuse to believe. I’m still trying to wrap my head around tomatoes being a fruit. I personally believe that anything that I put on my salad is a vegetable (except the eggs, cheese, and sunflower seeds of course). Keep in mind that I’m not into putting not-suppose-to-be-covered-in-Ranch-dressing items in my salad like mandarin oranges or pineapple. That’s just nasty.

After the whole ‘everything you thought about vegetables is wrong wrong wrong’, the tour stopped at a patch of green beans and passed them around for us all to taste. Still a bit freaked out about where all those little children hands have been that were passing me beans, I didn’t try one. The tour guide explained that since the farm was 100% organic, the beans were very safe to eat. She obviously did not see small child with jam face pick his nose earlier.

Banana trees with scarecrow.

The next stop was the onion patch. My favorite! I was actually looking forward to the onion patch as I wanted to see the screwed up faces of little children biting into a big smelly onion for the first time. HAHA! I ended up saving a couple onions for Kevin because I wanted to see the same face on him.

mmmmm....onions. (ick! yuck! gross!)

We then rolled over to the carrot patch. I couldn’t resist a yummy fresh from the ground carrot. I made sure to grab one straight from the guide before the little booger hands got to it. The carrot was very good, and I’m pleased to announce no one made the ‘What’s Up Doc?” joke.

Finally we got to the Strawberry field where we were released from wagon hell. We were allowed to eat as many strawberries as we wanted, but we couldn’t take any with us. This was really the best part of the whole tour, picking off the strawberries straight from the vine, warmed from the sun, and popping it in your mouth. I really don’t know how many strawberries I ate in those 15 minutes, but it was enough to give me a bit of a stomach ache. When we did get loaded back in the wagon, it was pretty cute to see all those kids with red stained hands and smeared strawberries across their cheeks.

At the end of the tour, they gave us each a pint of fresh strawberries to take home. Kevin and I polished those off in about 10 minutes the next day.

We did not taste the port-o-pots on this particular tour. They are all organic though.

All in all, the tour was OK. I would say it was a $10 tour, rather than $13, and their produce for sale is a bit on the pricey side, but it’s really tasty. I guess I wouldn’t mind doing it again for their July Watermelon tour. I just hope by then they have reviewed and implemented my comment card suggestion.

Catalina Island on Golf Carts, Padre's Game - Catalina Island\San Diego, CA

SO! As you may have remembered-many many moons ago before my computer up and got itself sick- that my best friend, Bethhead, came out to visit me over Memorial Day weekend. I have known Beth since I was 5 years old and have been best friends with Beth since 8th grade, after both our reported best friends at the time up and decided to ditch us for each other so that they could go off and discuss the G.I. Joe cartoon for hours on end. No, we didn’t get it either, neither then or now (though I do happen to know that knowing is half the battle*) (*G.I. Joe reference. G.I. Joe strongly urges you not to play in construction sites. **) (**OK, so you would have really had to have watched the cartoon to get that obscure reference. And I’m really going off topic here.) I have known Beth since she was known as Beth Ann. I have known Beth long enough to give her the Bethhead sigma that she carries to this day (sophomore year Powder Puff game, saw her head poke out above of a bunch of cars in the lot and yelled, “BETHHEAD!”). We have discussed more boyfriends than I care to remember and we have only had one major fight that comes to mind. And I think it was about office supplies. The very best thing about Beth is that we haven’t lived in the same state for the majority of our friendship yet when we see each other again it’s like she’s been living next door all this time.

Bethhead Rocks.

Beth was really excited to join me on the new this weekend event. I think it may be because every time she does come out I usually take her to the same places – the beach, the Harp, the mall, Mother India. A couple of weeks before she got here she already had an idea.

“How about seeing the Padres play down in San Diego?”

“Like baseball?”

“Yeah, the Brewers are playing.”

“Well, San Diego is pretty cool.”

Little did she know that I also had another idea for the weekend, which was to go out to Catalina Island and ride in a golf cart. You may think it’s pretty stupid to pay $60 for a round trip ticket out to a tiny island to ride in a golf cart, but then you probably have never been to Catalina. Catalina in itself is awesome. Catalina in a golf cart (what a great band name) will knock your socks off.

Feeling ambitious with the three day weekend ahead of us, we decided to do both. This will be known hence forth as Why Moe Didn’t Get Any Sleep Memorial Day Weekend.

After a night of cocktails at the Harp (old habits die hard) we woke up early as to go to the bank, get gas, get snacks, and return her rental car all before catching the 11:55 AM Dana Point Catalina Express out to Catalina. We figured we were doing OK on time, that is, before we hit Saturday traffic on I-5 and got a bit lost finding the right dock. By the time it was all said and done, I found myself running like I was being chased by a big surly monster with 4 heads to catch the boat as we had approximately 18 seconds before it left. But we did indeed make it. The Catalina Express is great and will get you to the island in an hour and 15 minutes. We saw a pod of dolphins along the way and even a quick sighting of a whale.

Landing in Avalon

Once we got to Catalina, we went straight to the golf cart rental place. We were immediately saddened by the fact that it cost $70 for three hours of golf cart joy. Not wanted to fork out so much money for a golf cart, we walked away and headed downtown. We weren’t a block in before Beth turned to me,

“How much are you willing to spend for the golf cart?”

“I don’t know, maybe $20?”

“I’ll cover the rest, let’s get a golf cart.”

I think I might have skipped back to the golf cart rental place. Bethhead Rocks.

That's right. Tell Bethhead how much she rocks.

Catalina in a golf cart is AWESOME. I really can’t believe the first time I was there I didn’t get a golf cart. Renting the golf cart made me want to BUY a golf cart even if the only place I could use it back home was to cart to my driveway and back. We drove that cart everywhere. We saw the horse ranch, the old Casino, the burned out areas (Catalina had a major forest fire last month), the big ole bell, and some incredible views. Beth, I’m sure, is telling stories at home about me attempting to parallel park the golf cart; think Austin Powers style when he’s stuck between the two walls.

View from the top

Burnt areas of Catalina

I was really bummed when we had to return the golf cart. Three hours went way too fast. I drowned my sorrows in a Lava Flow at the cantina to feel better. We caught the 7:00 PM boat back to Dana Point with both of us a bit sad to leave. This nerdy kid and the group of drunken Texans trying to smoke on a non-smoking boat eased the pain a bit.

Beth has a better picture of this kid. Freakin' hysterical.

The next day we woke up early to head down to San Diego to see the Padres\Brewers game at 1 PM. While there wasn’t much traffic getting down there, we got completely lost trying to find the stadium. Hey San Diego! Good job putting your gigantic stadium right in the frickin’ middle of downtown! Yeah, we probably could of seen it if it wasn’t for all the tall frickin’ buildings you put in the way. And parking? At the convention center? Are non-San Diegians suppose to know this? And your signs San Diego! Don’t have a sign for Petco Park with an error pointing left when Petco Park is straight ahead. That’s the up arrow just so you know. Pointing UP. Not LEFT. Dumb asses.

I am sorry to say that I did not bring my camera to the game. San Diego won, Brewers lost, beer too expensive, Beth bummed. Also San Diego? That monk looking mascot of yours? Totally creepy. Just saying.

The rest of the weekend was a lot of fun, but not new, so I will leave it at that. I want to thank Bethhead for gracing us with her presence and for being as Bethhead as always. Come back soon!