We were very busy Señoritas on our first full day in Santa Barbara, so much to see, do, enjoy, experience…
and plenty of sunshine.
We decided to start the day exploring the natural beauty of Santa Barbara with a power hike up The Cold Springs Trail.
One of my hiking friends, a quintessential California Girl, was thrilled to be greeted by a bouquet of “California Sour Grass”at the start of the trail. She did not hesitate to pick a flower and nibble on the stem. We all followed suit, and enjoyed the seriously sour nectar in the stem of the flower.
The plant is, in fact, not a grass. It is related to the sorrel family, varieties of which grow wild around the globe. Growing up in the Northwest, we used to love to nosh on a low, purple sorrel on hot summer afternoons, it was similar in size to a small clover
The only variety I have ever seen for sale is a French Sorrel, plants can be found in gardening stores and the spear-like leaves are at markets in the Spring. French Sorrel makes a lovely fresh green soup, I love to serve it with Salmon. You can click on sorrel to read my favorite recipe from The New Basics Cookbook.
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| Sour Grass, Cold Springs Trail, Santa Barbara |
Santa Barbara had experienced quite a spell of rains just before we arrived, so the hills were green and lush and the streams were a~flowing!
Lining the trail were leggy hedges of fragrant, woody, wild lavender in bloom,
tree trunks, gorgeously intertwined,
and Madronas, healthier than I have ever seen. We have Madrona trees in the PNW, particularly in the San Juan Islands.
But, when I see a Madrona tree up north, I always feel like I should be pleading with it to stay alive.
Our berries are more on the scale of woody red currants…
Fruits such as these are never seen on the PNW Madrona.
A little green, green moss that reminded me of home.
So, the reason we had to power through our hike, was to make it to Cava on time for lunch!!
{A Señorita must prioritize!}
As charming as Cava was, I must say I was most enchanted with La Cavita ~ the seperate little dining room available for private dinner parties.
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| La Cavita, Santa Barbara, CA |
On the patio, I fell in love with the planters of oranges.
Inside the restaurant, we found more displays of oranges.
We also found a refreshing carafe of sangria.
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| Sangria, Cava Restaurant, Santa Barbara |
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| Sangria, Cava Restaurant, Santa Barbara |
We loved all of the healthy botany on the patio,
the halibut ceviche,
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| Halibut Ceviche, Cava Restaurant, Santa Barbara |
and the best margaritas in town.
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| Margarita Cava, Santa Barbara |
What a FABULOUS day!! Beautiful AND delicious. Must check out your soup some time! Have a wonderful weekend!