E. Waldo Ward & Son

Several weekends ago, N and I had an eventful Saturday at a orange grove/marmalade factory. Sounds random, right? Well--it was amazing.

I had heard about E. Waldo Ward & Son through LA Mag and a couple other places like LA Weekly--LA Mag listed it as the best free tour in Los Angeles. It wasn't too far from us, and seemed like it would be interesting (at the very least). N and I both really didn't know what to expect. I guessed it would be lots of orange trees, and maybe some historical photos. It turned out to be much, much more!

I called beforehand to reserve a place for me and N on the next Saturday tour. The person on the phone seemed pretty confused, which made me *very* confused. They asked me what time I wanted to come, which caught me off guard since I assumed there were a few set tour times I could choose from. I suggested 10am, and they seemed fine with it and didn't take my name or anything. After I hung up, I wasn't 100% sure if I had made an actual reservation or not! The whole thing seemed pretty disorganized, but we went for it anyway.


Sierra Madre is less than an hour's drive northeast of us. It was a very charming town--it had a combination wine country/tropical feel to it. Everything was quaint and old without any modern polish to it, which I appreciated.


E. Waldo Ward & Son actually is just a large house (it kind of reminded me of those Southern white houses you see in paintings) with a couple smaller buildings behind it--we drove past it the first time and completely missed it. Their orange trees are very few; over the years they sold off the majority of their land and are now a very small operation. Most of their business actually comes from packaging and canning other companies' products although they have their own line of marmalades and gourmet foods.

A picture of some trees with the mountains in the background...

The person who gave us the tour (and I really mean "us"--N and I were the only ones in it!) was actually Jeff Ward, the great-grandson of the original owner of the company. He was very approachable and knowledgeable about the entire production process and history of the company. And since it was just us two, we got to ask lots of questions about everything!


Some shots of the big vats/containers the jams/jellies are cooked in...

Aside from the marmalade-making process, the house and barn were just a treasure trove of old machines and all kinds of rusty but definitely charming farming/factory tools. The most exciting thing I saw was a really old manual printing press that still had plates on it! You could actually read the backwards letters and see that they once printed labels for the products they sold! I thought that was amazing.

Couldn't resist taking a picture of their shiny green truck, which is mostly just used to lead town parades:

Everything about the tour was really fascinating. They operate a tiny gift shop, and with the free tour and everything, I did not hold back when buying a sampling of their products:

I think a couple jars are missing from that photo, but we got a few marmalades (including a lime one), pumpkin butter, brandied cherries, and olives. We're slowly making our way through trying them all. And they are t-a-s-t-y.

my christmas present from N

There's a cute little cheese shop in Manhattan called Murray's. It supplies all the fancy-shmancy NYC restaurants with their artisanal cheeses. Even though the store is in SoHo, they manage to have a small network of underground cheese caves that you can tour. I went on the tour with my brother a few years ago--you get to see huge wheels of cheese, and each is tagged with the celebrity chef they're awaiting delivery for. Pretty neat.

Anyway, back to the point. And that point is, I LOVE CHEESE. But there's so many kinds, and I never feel like I get a good sampling of what's out there. So N got me a Pair of the Month subscription from Murray's! Each month I get a cheese and something else paired with it (preserves, honey, or something else that goes well with that specific cheese). The first month I got a super stinky cheese and a peach pear preserve, which was fantastic. The second month I finally remembered to take some photos:

This delivery was of Sapore del Piave, which is similar to Parmigiano Reggiano but a little less nutty, and a jar of marcona almonds in rosemary honey. Sounds tasty, right? Well..it definitely IS.

I had to take a couple photos of the awesome looking jar and packaging. Aren't those marcona almonds mouthwatering??

Anyway, I love getting these deliveries. I love being surprised by what I get and being able to try lots of different and weird cheeses. And it's the gift that keeps on giving! For as long as the membership lasts, at least.

a neeeeeew car!

I think everyone who reads this blog already knows, but...I got a new car! I held off on writing about it so I could spend some time actually owning/driving it and formulating real thoughts about it. That is, real thoughts besides my initial reaction of "O-M-G I have a MINI COOPER! YEAH!!" Also, in case you couldn't tell, I am just really, really behind in my posts.

I wasn't even sure if I could afford a new car at all, and I spent a lot of time agonizing over used vs new, loan rates, how much of a down payment to put down, what kind of monthly payment I could afford, how much my insurance premiums would go up, etc., etc. I also knew nothing about buying cars before this experience, so I had to learn everything from scratch. I applied for a couple of auto loans through UCLA's credit union and Capital One. At first I was all worried because I thought all these credit inquiries on the loan applications might affect my credit score, but there's some kind of rule that all inquiries made within a two-week period do not bring your score down. After all that, though, it turned out MINI was having a a far better deal on loan rates though, so I ended up financing at the dealership. 

A few random observations on the mini cooper:

• Right after I got the car, I kept feeling like everyone was tailgating me and I kept getting all pissed off about it. Then I realized that my car now ends right at the rear windshield and doesn't have that extra trunk space sticking out beyond it. Who's an idiot? Me.
• They say that the mini cooper drives like a go-kart, and it seriously does. You feel every tap on the accelerator and the brake. In the wrong hands, this car could be a real car-sickness inducing machine. But it's also what makes driving it FUN.
• Owning a mini is like being part of a member of a club...those marketing and design folks really know what they're doing. My user manual came on a specially branded MINI USB stick that looked really nice. More forms came in the mail that were held together with a paper clip shaped like a mini cooper. Everything written about it has a light and fun tone.
• The roof of the mini cooper is really, really flat. I guess that sounds obvious. But I've noticed small and strange things...like when it's dewy outside and I drive the car out in the morning, once I hit the brakes a ton of water comes pouring down the front windshield from the roof. The water really collects up there. And one time on a rainy day, N and I pulled into a Burger King drive thru and when I rolled my window down to pay, water POURED into the car and onto my seat from the roof. I guess that also has to do with how the mini gets wide at the bottom (the "wide bulldog stance" as they call it). Luckily it doesn't rain much here, or else I'd be more annoyed.
• You can buy mini-branded EVERYTHING. Trench coats, dog collars, cuff links, towels, galoshes, and pillows. I can't say I'm not tempted to get some of it.