Gold Country: Eve had it Right: Indigeny Reserve in Sonora

Oh, the perfume of ripening apples! In an Orion magazine article*, writer Gary Paul Naban describes a trip to the Eden-like birthplace of Malus sieversii in Kazakhstan, where researchers catalogued more than fifty-six wild forms of apples. Fortunately, fifty-one varieties of these fragrant beauties can be found in Sonora, California, considerably closer to home, and in forms just about anyone can appreciate year-round: hard cider, brandy and vodka.

The bottling plant (photo: Bonnie Kamin Morrissey)

The Watson family purchased the original 80-acre orchard in 2005 to keep the land from development, and expanded since then to 160 acres. Some of the trees date back to the early 1900s; it's the oldest stand of apple trees in Tuolumne County. After going through a three-year process for organic certification, they determined that nearly half the apples were not suitable for eating--hence the hard cider and other products (though there are plenty of sweet and juicy Honeycrisps during harvest time in early autumn).

The orchards, renamed the Indigeny Reserve in 2007, now offer a beautiful park-like setting for picnickers and a tasting room that’s open every day after 10AM. The reserve couldn’t be more attractive, from the entry road winding through a shady forest under a covered bridge to the tasting rooms, and a cidery and distilling plant built from locally harvested and re-purposed oak and cedar.

Speaking of distilleries, that isn't a giant flute on the left--it's the distilling unit, chugging away.

The grounds are gorgeous even in the rain

The view from the bridge

I can’t fail to mention the “extra-crisp” cider, which is my new favorite thing—made from Granny Smith apples, fermented with champagne yeast and served in aluminum bottles, this stuff is killer! There’s also a blackberry-flavored extra-crisp, and a cider made from all varieties of apples in the orchards. And brandy. And vodka. And a two-and-a-half-mile hiking trail to work it off. Even Adam couldn’t ask for anything more.

Lifting a cool one...(Photo: Bonnie Kamin Morrissey)

(Photo: Bonnie Kamin Morrissey)

Indigeny Reserve, 14679 Summers Lane, Sonora, CA

https://indigenyreserve.com/

Indigeny Reserve on Google Maps

*https://orionmagazine.org/article/the-fatherland-of-apples/

 All photos by Joanne Orion Miller unless otherwise noted. www.joanneorionmiller.com

MY TRAVEL PLANS FOR 2016

  

I have been in many places, but I've never been in Kahoots. Apparently, you can't go alone. You have to be in Kahoots with someone.

I've also never been in Cognito. I hear no one recognizes you there.

I have, however, been in Sane. They don't have an airport;

you have to be driven there. I have made several trips there,

thanks to my children, friends, family and work.

I would like to go to Conclusions, but you have to jump, and I'm not too much on physical activity anymore.

I have also been in Doubt. That is a sad place to go, and I try not to visit there too often.

I've been in Flexible, but only when it was very important to

stand firm.

Sometimes I'm in Capable, and I go there more often as I'm

getting older.

One of my favourite places to be is in Suspense! It really gets

the adrenaline flowing and pumps up the old heart!  At my age need all the stimuli I can get! 

I may have been in Continent, but I don't remember what country I was in. It's an age thing. They tell me it is very wet and damp there.

(Many thanks to Jerry L. for passing this on...)

Avant-Art for Free!

Fort Mason Center for Art and Culture put on an exhibit featuring the work of 22 artists on Saturday, March 26. These were BIG works--one multimedia piece took up the entire firehouse, while a neon sculpture covered a large part of the hangar floor. The overall effect was quite stunning--even better that it all was free! Fort Mason periodically puts on events and exhibits that should be on everyone's list--http://fortmason.org/events/.
See my two-minute video of the event on Vimeo: vimeo.com/160569507

Mindblown Art in Menlo Park

teamLab, a Japanese digital art collective is currently exhibiting at Pace Gallery in Menlo Park, CA. This show stretches the limits of digital art combined with physical constructs and music. One of the first pieces is a six-foot-square suspended "cube" made of strings of lights, programmed to appear to have a magenta-colored fire blazing inside it--and that's just the beginning. Favorite pieces included the ballroom-sized dark room with butterflies and  blowing flowers that cover the walls, floor, and visitors--it even smelled like flowers! Another wall of art "bloomed" when a visitor stood next to it. But don't stop at the exhibits--included in the price of admission ($20 for adults) is entry to the "kidzone", which has billboard-sized play areas, including a wall of symbols that, when touched, turn into near-life sized rainbow-hued elephants, coyotes, mountains and other objects which then amble across the board. Don't miss this show! Still photos can't come close to capturing the sheer beauty of these works; to see a 3-minute video review featuring a few of the pieces, go to: vimeo.com/156793566

The Ability to Read Opens Doors