St. Helena was Magnificent Today
Today we went on a drive up to St. Helena, one of our favorite little towns in wine country. Our target restaurant was the Farmstead Restaurant at Long Meadow Ranch. We visited Farmstead a couple of times last year, and both times were great.
We made reservations for Monday at noon. When we got there, it looked pretty empty, so I think we would have been OK without reservations. We requested a table along their "grapevine rows" on the side of the restaurant. Because restaurants are still dealing with coronavirus restrictions from the government, all dining is outdoors. That was fine with us today, because the weather was unusually warm - around 70F (22 degrees centigrade) when we arrived - magnificent! That is about 10 degrees warmer than the average temperature in February.
So what did we order? The wife ordered two starters. The SMOKED CHICKEN WINGS is something we always order. The flavorful wings and drumsticks are a combination of smoked chicken and spices, smothered in what they call "Alabama white sauce". Always delicious. The other starter was the SALAD OF GARDEN GREENS AND CHICORIES, which includes a variety of greens, apples, feta cheese, almonds, pomegranate seeds, and citrus dressing. A very tasty salad, but I was wondering, do people eat the whole pomegranate seed when they are served like this? Puzzling.
On the way home, we decided to drive on the backroads towards the northwest hillside of Napa Valley. There, we could see many vineyards, with beautiful yellow flowers growing amidst the rows of vines. On the hillside, we could see where trees had burned last year in the big fire that ravaged the area. It was sad to see that. I hope we can avoid a repeat of that this year.