Summertime Chanterelles

Posted on August 1, 2011 by Jack Elliott

Here is a tiny sampler showing just a few of the clean and pristine gems harvested in July this year. If not rare, then it’s certainly uncommon to find chanterelles in summertime in this corner of California. It happens, but not often.

After abundant rainfall this season, and a mild spring and early summer with dewy nights and weepy marine layers, the conditions came together just right to force an off-season flush of mushrooms in select locations.

Should temperatures remain mild and relatively cool, and the forestland receive any more rain or misty, drippy weather during the next several months, then it very well may be a near year round mushroom harvest this season. The soil still holds a remarkable amount of water for this late in the year and, amazingly, is even moist to the touch in some spots.

As of 7-28-2011, Santa Barbara County normal-to-date rainfall percentages for the season (September 1 through August 31).

Buellton 122%
Cachuma 160%
Carpinteria 125%
Cuyama 138%
Figueroa Mtn 149%
Gibraltar Dam 144%
Goleta 167%
Lompoc 173%
Los Alamos 141%
San Marcos Pass 137%
Santa Barbara 158%
Santa Maria 177%
Santa Ynez 162%
Sisquoc 179%

County-wide normal-to-date rainfall percentage 152%

Santa Barbara County – Flood Control District: Rainfall and Reservoir Summary

I was tramping around picking in poison oak in a t-shirt, shorts and a flip-flops.

Related Post:

Chanterelle Mushrooms

Jack O’Lanterns and Chanterelles

Baby’s First Chanterelle

Santa Barbara County 163% of Normal For Rainfall (3-27-2011)

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Corpse Flower at El Capitan Beach

Posted on July 30, 2011 by Jack Elliott

There is a patch of these bizarre looking flowers growing on the point at El Capitan State Beach. They caught my eye once as I was walking by and, recognizing the bloom, I walked over to take a whiff. It reeked like a dead animal. Bingo. The corpse flower. It’s apparently some sort of Amorphophallus.

The plants grow about knee high, the flowers themselves about a foot long. And although the first time I sniffed one awhile back it had a strong odor of death, the last time I checked, the flower I smelled had no scent.

I wonder how the plant got there. When I used to live up in the canyon there was an old cabin that stood on El Capitan point against the hill just below the creek. Perhaps a ranger or somebody planted them many years ago just in front of the beachfront quarters.

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Santa Barbara at Dusk From East Camino Cielo

Posted on July 27, 2011 by Jack Elliott

Santa Barbara, edge of the continent, as seen from the Santa Ynez Mountains above Flores Flats on East Camino Cielo.

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Goat Buttes and Century Lake, Santa Monica Mountains

Posted on July 25, 2011 by Jack Elliott

Overlooking Malibu Creek winding through the grassy valley with the Goat Buttes outcrop rising beyond. The creek flows through the gorge between the two peaks, where a dam was built long ago creating a small lake.

Goat Buttes and Century Lake as seen from Lookout Trail in Malibu Creek State Park.

“Seeking a rural setting in which to enjoy the outdoors, a group of wealthy Los Angeles businessmen formed the Crags Country Club in 1900 and bought 2,000 acres along Malibu Creek that would later become Malibu Creek State Park.

Around 1903, the club constructed a 50-foot high dam, creating a seven-acre lake that attracted waterfowl and was stocked with trout giving club members a private duck hunting and fishing preserve. This dam and lake would later be named Century Dam and Century Lake by 20th Century Fox Studios after they bought the property.”

–Malibu Creek State Park Docents

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Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing: A Santa Barbara Original

Posted on July 23, 2011 by Jack Elliott

“Enough! I grow weary of your sexually suggestive dancing. Bring me my ranch dressing hose!”

-Homer Simpson

It’s a nutritionist’s nightmare, a glutton’s godsend. It’s the king of salad dressings and a cornerstone of the condiment world. Ranch dressing is a key component behind a slew of popular exercises in cardiotoxic consumption, such as sopping hot cheesy slices of pizza through chilled puddles of it. Plunging spicy Buffalo wings and golden fried onion rings into pools of it, like a fat guy doing a cannonball into a Seven Falls swimming hole. Baboosh! If it wasn’t a favorite food it’d make a popular pastime.

In 1954, Steve and Gayle Henson purchased a 120-acre parcel of land in Santa Barbara County called Sweetwater Ranch. It lay amid oak shrouded San Jose Creek Canyon on the south slope of the Santa Ynez Mountains. (Jack’s Map)

Henson promptly renamed his slice of paradise “Hidden Valley.” He began serving guests at Hidden Valley Ranch his own signature salad dressing using a recipe he had put together while working in Alaska.

Recalls Audrey Ovington, the flamboyant and colorful owner of the Cold Spring Tavern, a fabulously funky eatery near Hidden Valley: “The first I knew of the dressing was one day when he [Henson] came in the tavern’s family entrance and headed straight for the kitchen and said, `Gotta mix something up.’ He came out with a little white bowl. Handing me a spoon, he said, `Taste it. What do you think?’ It took off in my mouth like a freight train.

“`What was that?’ I asked.”

“`That,’ he said, smiling, `is Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing.'”

Immediately Ovington put it on the menu, and that’s how it all began.

Steve and Gayle Henson

And from there, Steve Henson’s creamy herbed concoction went from a little known backwoods treat whipped up on a Santa Barbara County ranch, to a national bestselling dressing and a household name.

The story behind Hidden Valley Ranch dressing:

Sergio Ortiz, Houston Chronicle 02/24/1999, “Hidden Valley founder whips buttermilk, mayo into legend”

Related Post:

McDonald’s Egg McMuffin Born in Santa Barbara

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