The Coachella Valley: Palms to Pines Golf holes to Polo fields Hiking boots to Stilettos Date trees to Dance floors Swimming pools to Concerts Ginger and Nutmeg are ‘relative’ newbies to the Palm Springs area and want to thank their friends for the locals’ tips. Nutmeg has created one of her ABC lists to provide all G&N readers a snapshot of the valley.
In classic Ginger and Nutmeg fashion, a planned 11:00 departure with a leisurely lunch on the beach was in reality 13:30 before the car was loaded and they were headed to a one-time secret cove.
Ginger and Nutmeg have done many road trips over the years. There is something exciting about planning any trip, the thrill of discovering a new destination or reaching a well-known endpoint. Packing for a car journey is much less hassle than air travel – no weight restrictions, no security lines, baggage limits are somewhat relaxed and there is no requirement to “undress” your laptop.
Flawless green lawns, vivid crayon-coloured annuals, miniature potted palms and manicured golf courses all exist on land that was once desert scrub. Nutmeg disgusted with her golf game and not a dedicated shopper decided that it would be time well spent to understand more about their natural surroundings.
Good news – she found Desert Adventures. Not knowing much about the company she asked Kimberly Nilsson one of the co-owners for a bit of background. (more…)
“Did you know that nutmeg is used in cookies in Croatia”? That was near the end of a two-hour discussion with the man who turned the wine world on its head. Miljenko “Mike” Grgich turns ninety on this day April 1, 2013. He describes his life as happy, blessed and filled with opportunity. It was that attitude that carried him through his early days in a remote Croatian village, through a period of communist threats, to West Germany and then eventually to California.
El Paseo in Palm Desert, California gets high marks from well-heeled fashionistas for its array of retail stores. Like “sister” streets around the world iconic, exclusive, name-brand boutiques grace the roadway where gleaming automobiles some more expensive than the average house, are parked close by. It is so customary to see fancy cars that a roaring motor is hardly extraordinary – until there are 300 of them!
Nutmeg was curious, in December she and Ginger had fresh squeezed orange juice every morning from the tree outside the door in Palm Desert. However, in June no decent oranges, lemons or grapefruits for any juice. The trees are still very healthy and there are signs of fruit to come, although not anytime soon… So Nutmeg wondered: do the trees only bare fruit once a year? The answer is yes, unfortunately. Is California really the place for citrus? The answer is yes although it is not the leader in US production. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) publishes monthly results and forecasts by state and by type of produce; oranges “non-Valencia”, oranges “Valencia”, grapefruit, tangerines, tangelos, lemons etc. Florida by far has the largest production (131 million boxes – forecast for 2010), followed by California (59 million), Texas (1,6 million) and Arizona weighs in with some minor production. Total US production forecast for 2010 is 192 million boxes. Interesting to…
