In the last of this "series," I wanted to share a place, rather than a whole region. South Mountain itself is, well, a mountain, with lots of Sonoran Desert flora and fauna, and doesn't really look anything like these pictures. To be honest, I didn't visit South Mountain on this trip (though I hope to soon). However, Ed and I did make our way to the Farm on South Mountain for lunch on our last day, which is in the area of Phoenix just North of the mountain, and we were so glad we did!
Basically, the concept is this: this place is a working farm, growing delicious foods. They then make the food using their own, or other mainly local ingredients, and then sell this tasty food at one of their different "restaurants": they have a morning place, lunch, and dinner, all supposed to be quite good.
We could not have gotten luckier with the weather. Sitting on the picnic benches in the beautiful, not too hot sunlight, it was hard to believe that this was the desert.
I went with this delicious strawberry, pancetta, pecan and chicken salad, with a poppyseed dressing, that was fabulous.
Ed got an italian sandwich which he also raved about.
For dessert, we couldn't help but get a slice of this delicious coconut cake (that we excellent!).
Even better, though, was just spending time relaxing outside. We both commented that this trip felt so much more like a vacation than either of us had predicted. After we ate, we sat for a while and just read and rested.
Before we took off, we walked the property a little, admiring all the very cute buildings.
We also admired how green things were! It will be interesting to come back in a different season and compare.
We even got to check out the rows of some of their crops, and feel inspired to maybe try to grow some of our own this year (any Arizona locals try growing crops at home? Any recommendations?)
We appreciated how larger plants were shading smaller ones (like the lettuce in the picture below).
Even though we won't be living particularly close to this lovely spot, we'll definitely be back!
I love it there!! awesome pics
ReplyDeleteFun! We will have to take an adventure trip to visit! We love going to the little orchards around here.. Peach one is this month :)
ReplyDeletePhoenix in the springtime sure is lovely... I don't know much about gardening in the Valley, but I know if you wanted to try growing crops in your yard, you could visit a Warner's/Lowe's/Gardening type of store and ask a gazillion questions... My aunt grew gorgeous flowers in her yard in Scottsdale. One thing Phx has lots of is sunshine!
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