(I’m sure they loathe it when people say that. But it’s just too tempting to resist!) Though short, our first trip to Ojai was delightful-- it’s just far enough away from home to feel like a real escape, and the whole town has this permeating free-spirit vibe that makes all your worries melt away… I mean, what worries? All in favor of feeling like your whole body is made of sunshine, go to Ojai!
I believe the Sunday morning Farmer’s Market is where all of this hippie energy is radiating from. A bluegrass band plays as you wander down aisles of fresh flowers, hand-picked citrus, organic vegetables, artisan breads, Ghanaian picnic baskets, gluten-free vendors, rustic cheeses, and more, and more, and more. While I could have easily walked out with something from every stall, I limited myself to what I could fit into my newly-acquired Ghanaian picnic basket: purple haze carrots, a loaf of buckwheat bread, goat cheese, fresh-squeezed apple cider, a sage-scented beeswax candle. The real highlight was sampling the loquats and chatting with the grower (behind me in the photo, with a T-shirt to match his produce!).
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Loquats, as I’m finding, are winter fruits distantly related to apples. They’ve got a nice mellow flavor that reminded me of apricot and mango, while Jed was transported back to his childhood—it was his first encounter with a loquat in quite some time. Delicious! After so much grazing, we were ready for a walk. So we headed to Meditation Mount, a serene garden overlooking the Ojai Valley. Here we admired the view and took in our peaceful surroundings.
