TBA
Bakersfield
Esther and Jerry invited us back up for fruit tasting, only this year we managed to rope in Mike and his kids to come. Everyone coming up from Los Angeles was a bit early due to surprisingly light traffic, so we gawked at how large the nearby FoodMaxx was before Jerry joined us for lunch. Heck even Jerry stopped by FoodMaxx while we were all still inside-- it's massive.
Thai food for lunch at Bangkok Street Food was so-so, the shrimp spring rolls were overly stuffed with veggies (and who adds sliced apples?), and Jason's fried chicken was a bit overcooked. The seafood salads (both with cabbage as well as som thum (papaya salad)) were pretty good tho, and appropriate satiated, we packed off to Sun World HQ for their last grape tasting of the season. 14 varieties awaited us, and while most were not crazy sweet, all were quite good. Varying levels of crisp in terms of bite and texture, a bit of tart in the skin in some, not so in others, and I think two varieties present that were actually fully commericalized - Sugranineteen (Scarlotta Seedless) and Sugrathirtyfour (Adora Seedless) were still the best; although there were also some green grapes that were also damned good.
Appropriately full of sugar, Esther then gave us the full tour of Sun World HQ's fruit breeding process-- the science is fascinating, and with such a big group we also got additional time in more of the production areas, not just the labs.
Wrapped up the rest of the day with some pickleball, walking Corgi Tacoco, and Jerry's excellent cooking. Chicken feet and pork knuckle were definitely the highlights!