The thing that startled me when I moved here was the variety of cherries! I guess I figured the options were red, tart, and maybe I’d seen Rainer by then?

My local farmers market (Civic Center, as opposed to the very pricey Ferry Building where the apples are) had a vendor that, if you were in the know, sold sour cherries, which I love. But they stopped coming at some point. So sad. Almost as tragic as when the berry lady stopped selling secret black raspberries because they plowed up the field where they were growing wild.

For people that are close to Sonoma or might one day find themselves in Sebastopol (home of the Gravenstein), the orchard is Devoto. You can see their many varieties here: [link]

Holy Cow! Who even knew that so many varieties of apple exist?! Is it weird that I want to come to Sebastopol to tour the orchards?

Holy Cow! Who even knew that so many varieties of apple exist?!

This is why I keep a list of what I like. I've tried so many at this point and they all get jumbled together in my brain.

Is it weird that I want to come to Sebastopol to tour the orchards?

If you can, go during the Gravenstein Apple Fair (August?). Amazing.

when the berry lady stopped selling secret black raspberries

Black raspberries (which I always defensively tell people are not the same as blackberries) are my favorite. And they make my favorite jam, which I hoard when I find it.

I assume there's a thriving subreddit for apples, since there's subreddits for people who are obsessed with anything and everything. (This comment brought to you by my discovery of the sparkling water subreddit, which Google offered up when I was looking for information on the new fizzy water I bought yesterday [lime/ginger Nixie]. The people in that subreddit are bonkers for sparkling water. But in a good way.) (When I say stuff like that, I try to remember I'm posting on a board that started because we all watched the same TV back in the day, so: respect for people's obsessions.)

Black raspberries (which I always defensively tell people are not the same as blackberries) are my favorite.

I'm honestly surprised that someone at the Ferry Building doesn't sell them, but you don't really see them here at all. I think they're more common in Oregon and I found some in Montana when I was going cross-country. I wish I had known about the secret stuff at my market sooner, but you have to really become a regular first.

Mmm, black raspberry ice cream is my New England summer treat. I miss it.

As for college, I started by going to a school 6 hours from home, had to transfer to a school 2 hours from home (which means I got to bring my laundry home occasionally), and then when to law school at the far end of the country. Some of that was to get away from my folks, but also just to go somewhere! Far away!

I moved 1500 miles away for college. From San Diego to Spokane. Pretty much as far as I could go while still remaining on the west side of the country.

Then it was to Los Angeles to start grad school, and finally out to Cincinnati for the last two years of grad.

finally out to Cincinnati for the last two years of grad.

My kneejerk response is "Why would you come here?" before I remember, right, CCM, which is actually a fantastic reason to come here.

I’m fond of snapdragon apples when I can get them, for eating from hand. Granny Smith apples are my go-to for cooking,

I went to college about an hour and a half from my parents. Mostly because it was a good college at the time, but also I didn’t hate getting a little distance.

So, as I watched the Trump horror show roll out I kept saying, "Well, we just have to see if he's going to completely disobey the courts, because that's a Constitutional Crisis and that's what dictators do."

Dictators, of course, also disappear people to concentration camps.

I wonder what we do next. I have been idly thinking on how to booby trap my front steps in a Home Alone fashion should ICE come knocking but that that's only satisfying to contemplate in a slapstick way.