A Weekend of Outstanding in the Field

Last weekend, I tagged along with J for a weekend of Outstanding in the Field dinners. On Saturday while she worked in Sunol, I drove around the area and killed time admiring the industrial sights of Newark and Milpitas and the rural scenery around the dinner site.

Having forgot my book, I found it hard to pass ten hours. But at least two hours were killed in a shady hammock that smelled of migrant BO. Another was spent watching a large colony of ground squirrels.

The salt ponds of Newark near Cargil/Morton Salt.

Police dog training facility.

Electrified shadow cows.

Overgrown farm field.

Hot house with wasp nest.

The road to the Sunol Water Temple.

Inside the temple.

Yellow hills.

Abandoned house.

Yellow valley.

Massive pile of salt outside the Morton Salt Factory.

On Sunday, we drove to rural Brentwood for a pleasant dinner in the middle of an organic fig orchard.

Rosemary separating the fruit trees. Apparently the farm sells 300 pounds a week to ACME Bakery.

Apricots.

Greenhouse.

Sprouts.

A fig alley.

All the fresh figs you can poop.

The fig tunnel.

Looking up.

Flowering artichoke and fig wood.

Non organic farmland plowed flat.

Onions left to rot.

More artichokes.

Bees.

Japanese cock.

Our vegetarian dinner table.

The first course.

Third course.

Dessert.

Peaches at sunset.

Moon over figs.

For two days I forgot the city and entertained dreams of farming.