Saturday, May 1, 2010

Olivenhain Grove Sale

Friday and Saturday French Basketeer was at the Olivenhain Grove Sale, in northern San Diego County. Olivenhain is what I would call a hamlet, part of the greater Encinitas area; a rural and heavily equestrian area; it was settled in the 1890's by a German colony; the story is a weave of community, trust and deceit; it's a very interesting history. The original meeting hall dating from the 19th C is still there today; this is a drive-by shot on Saturday:

The vendors were heavy on Shabby Chic style, and many of the women had dresses, white cotton bloomers peeking out underneath, and Western boots or Wellies for shoes. I piled the baskets into our booth in between two Ponderosa lemon trees in the grove; the Ponderosa is the same lemon tree we have at home; it is thick skinned and mild; you will find it at farmer's markets but never for sale commercially.
Shades of citrus...
I liked the hot fuchsia set off by the yellow lemons....
I got a sweet little pink lustre berry bowl from Lynn Russell, one of the vendors; she handles her antique silver, porcelain and china like a curator; it's all very detailed; I wanted the set of ivory tusk napkin rings as well as her polychrome platter....but I settled for a little piece, which I immediately used for tags:
The other side of the booth: pink and yellows; sold all these pink baskets immediately:
Gail, our hostess, and her garden house; lovely....inspiring me for the garden house I am planning...
It's open on one side, but charming nonetheless...
The vendors were all fabulous, and I particulary loved Rita's burlap bags which were fashioned into pillows; more on this later....but isn't this sweet?
We had apples too, btw, in addition to lemons:
I was really happy to have met Jean-Claude, "just like Killy" Crepe-Master extraordinaire at several local farmers markets, whom Gail had convinced to cook for us. I looked over the menu, but asked him en Francais if he couldn't make something more basic, like au beurre et sucre; he confessed in French that he too doesn't like his menu; the sweet and savory crepes loaded with "stuff" are made for Americans but not for the French....

Tomorrow we are back to San Diego for Rancho Santa Fe. Stay tuned....

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