escondido


Little Barn Bakery is hidden pleasure

The answer is — drum roll, please — Little Barn Bakery. The question on a special edition North County “Jeopardy hosted by Alex Trebek: What is Valley Center’s best-kept secret. It’s a humble and healthy combination of Valley Center resident Diana Sourbeer’s Diana’s Granola and Valley Center’s Belen artisan breads at 29277C Valley Center Road. “We want to provide the community with  healthier food that…



First mention of 2016 as in Welk Theater announces the 2016 season

Hello 2016. Welk Theater producers this week announced the 2016 line-up. “Meet Me In St Louis” will run through January 31, 2016. Look for the classic “Fiddler in the Roof” in February. Vista’s Kathy Brombacher directs. It’s time for “Jesus Christ Superstar,” directed and choreographed by Ray Limon in May, followed by “Sweet Charity” in September, also directed etc. by Limon. The holiday show brings back…


A good egg is a little harder to find due to new state chicken cage law

Egg-laying chickens at Armstrong Egg Farms off N. Lake Wohlford Road “have less friends in their cage,” said a wry Ryan Armstrong this week, and egg prices have doubled since California’s Proposition 2 went into effect on January 1. That proposition approved by state voters in 2008 calls for 25 percent more room in chicken cages, effectively cutting the number of hens per cage in…


Taking agricultural education to a whole ‘nother level

  SAN PASQUAL VALLEY — Organic farming pioneer and consultant, resource conservation leader, and now agricultural educator, Scott Murray hoped his back-to-the-future efforts will keep farming viable in California and the nation.  Murray was doing it, in part, at a groundbreaking venue, the San Pasqual Academy. Located in the San Diego Agricultural Preserve about 35 miles northeast of downtown San Diego, it’s a first-in-the-nation residential education…


A Drive North — Smokey’s Lake Wohlford Cafe, an appreciation and review

Thought I’d get out my East County posting “rut” and still stay within San Diego County, which is about 4,200-square-miles. I had a long story about how we got here, but will leave that for another time. Let’s just say “The Mister” and I drove through Escondido to Valley Center, picked up some meat by the side of the road, still $35, and then stopped at Bates Nut Farm…