What do we do with all the grapefruit? Borrego Mojitos!

Our house is on a half acre lot with several mature citrus trees. We planted a couple more small trees recently to supplement the oranges/grapefruit - a lemon (zest for me) and a lime (margaritas for my husband).  Both trees are getting lots of water and doing great. 

We are taking a risk planting a Mexican lime in Borrego Springs.  It needs protection from temperatures below 40 degrees, which Borrego Springs can hit in the winter months.  Record low temperatures are in the 20's so wish me luck!

Something I learned... citrus tree trunks need to be protected.  If a trunk gets too much sun, the tree can die.  Letting the branches grow low to the ground serves two purposes.  It protects the tree trunk and also keeps water from evaporating from under the tree.  When branches are trimmed and trunks exposed, I've seen them painted white, which must help reflect the heat. 

I read that over 2,000 acres of citrus (mostly grapefruit) are grown in Borrego Springs and shipped all over the world.  When you visit, you'll notice a few grapefruit stands around town where you can buy inexpensive bags of Borrego Pink Grapefruit, introduced in Borrego Springs with other fruits in the 1950's.  At least one of the stands operates "on your honor".  You grab a bag of fruit in exchange for putting a few bucks in a money slot.  

Our new favorite drink:

The Borrego Mojito (makes four generous drinks)
Juice of four limes
Two cups of fresh squeezed Borrego Pink Grapefruit juice
Six ounces rum - light or dark
1/4 cup mint simple syrup (recipe below)
Soda water
Ice
Fresh mint leaves for garnish

Mix lime juice, grapefruit juice, simple syrup and rum in a small pitcher
Fill four tall glasses with ice then fill glasses 3/4 full with juice mixture
Top off with soda water
Garnish with mint

Mint Simple Syrup
1 cup sugar, 1 cup water and 1 cup mint leaves
Heat in saucepan on medium high heat until sugar is dissolved
Add mint leaves, cover and let seep for 30 minutes to 1 hour
Strain out mint
Store syrup in refrigerator (keeps for several weeks)

Desert Gardening Books

I need all the help I can get regarding gardening in the desert.  It is so completely different than gardening in Seattle!  A couple of books are really helping and both are available at Amazon.com:

Palm Springs-Style Gardening (Maureen Gilmer).  Beautiful pictures, author favorites lists.  Great design ideas.




Desert Gardening (Brookbank)
All the practical things you need to know.  Info on irrigation systems, soil amendments, finishing touches like decomposed granite that keep the sandy soil from blowing out of your beds! 

Desert gardening tip of the day:  Wear sunscreen and a hat and stay hydrated!

Under the heading "Good to Know / Things I'm Learning"

When you live in a small town, you appreciate the resources you have - a gas station, the hardware store, a couple of restaurants with tasty food.  Procuring what you need becomes part of the fun of living "off the grid".  Cost, although on my mind, isn't as big a consideration as availability and convenience.  People in Borrego Springs appreciate the businesses that choose to serve its small population and they appreciate visitors that help support Borrego's businesses too!    

What would we do without the local Center Market grocery store?  The nearest "real" grocery store to Borrego Springs is at least an hour away. But you can get everything you need for gourmet home cooked meals at the Center Market.  Timing your shopping can be important. 

• The rotisserie chicken from the Center Market is finished at 10:30 a.m.  If you want rotisserie chicken, get there at 10:30 a.m.
• Bread and chips are delivered on Monday or Wednesday (I can't remember because I'm watching carbs).  They will probably run out before the next delivery.
• They do not carry sun-dried tomatoes.  Neither does the market in San Ysidro, but after asking there, the clerk stuffed a baggie of them for me from the meat department's private stock and sent me on my way - no charge.
• The farmer's market is every Friday a.m. during "the season" (not during the summer).  A great place to buy your produce and some specialty items.  The Greek pesto/feta/sun-dried tomato "dip" is great tossed with pasta.

A shout out to the waitress (daughter of the owner) at Kendall's Cafe.  The first night we stayed in Borrego Springs, we rented a house on http://www.vrbo.com/.  We arrived after dark and didn't realize there wouldn't be a grocery store open to buy coffee for the next morning.  After finishing a somewhat surreal dinner at Kendel's (think a two-top eating meatloaf and a BLT at 8:00 p.m. in a 1970's otherwise empty diner in the middle of the desert), we mentioned to the waitress that we didn't realize the grocery "stores" would be closed.  When we left, she presented us with a coffee filter and a generous portion of ground coffee "on the house".  Good 'ol Borrego.

Settling In... the last six months

I thought it was a "cosmetic fixer", but my husband felt our new casita needed more than a little makeup.  So we have been busy, with the help of a great local contractor, remodeling the kitchen (new cooktop, dishwasher, counters and tile backsplash...oh, and a new floor, sink/faucet and a coat of paint), gutting and re-doing the master bath (with a beautiful freestanding tub), putting new counters, fixtures and floor in the main bath and adding a solar swimming pool heating system on the roof.

We furnished the place with "extras" from our Seattle home and on-line purchases (thanks Amazon.com and Overstock.com).  The bulk of these goodies went into a U-haul trailer that we rented in Seattle and pulled behind our Subaru Tribeca.  Two 10-hour days of driving and *POOF* the "house in a box" was in Borrego Springs. 

Some would say this feat would not have been possible had it not been for my obsessive compulsive tendencies (that's an understatement).  For three months before the closing I gathered items for a house 1) we did not yet own and 2) that we might never own.  When Tom told my brother, Gary, what I was doing, Gary said "Tom, if you and I were married, I'd be doing the same thing".  Clearly the OCD tendencies run in the family! (We'll save that for another blog.)

If you've been to Borrego Springs, you know why we needed to bring our own stuff.  Borrego Springs has about 2,500 year-round residents.  I think the biggest retail store in town is the True Value Hardware.  Borrego Springs doesn't have a stop light, a Starbucks, or even a Chinese restaurant.  Doc (one of our contractors) said the Chinese restaurant in town closed and the locals really miss it.  I asked when it closed and he said "about 15 years ago".   

What Borrego Springs does have is magic.  A vast desert full of life, swaying palms, space to breath and star-filled night skys.

How this all started...

Rancho la Puerta in Tecate Mexico

How did a couple from Seattle end up buying a 1970's pueblo style home in the small desert town of Borrego Springs? 

Seattle's overcast skys can really get to you after 25+ years, so my husband, Tom, and I started looking at vacation homes in warmer climates a few years ago.  We have been vacationing at Rancho la Puerta (http://www.rancholapuerta.com/), a destination spa in Tecate Mexico, for years (about 50 minutes inland and south of San Diego, barely across the Mexican border).  We enjoy RLP's mountain desert climate, the early morning hikes and beautiful grounds.  So I started a web search for homes in inland San Diego, realizing the area was a "stretch" for us.  Requirement was a house on a golf course with a pool.  Did I mention the budget was "under $200,000"? 

Using the web, we expanded our search outward until we discovered a "short sale" house northeast of San Diego in the town of Borrego Springs, an unincorporated area of San Diego County.  Borrego Springs is a "donut hole" town carved out of the middle of the largest state park in California - the Anza Borrego Desert State Park. I convinced the husband to fly from our home in Seattle to Palm Springs, drive to Borrego Springs and stay a couple of nights.  On that trip, we fell in love - with the house and with Borrego Springs.  Six months later, through failed short sale offers, a bank foreclosure on the house and a few weeks of uncertainty, we owned the house. 

It's on the Deanza Country Club golf course (http://www.deanzacountryclub.com/) and has a 20' by 40' swimming pool.  Purchase price:  $195,000.