Willcox peach season starts now

Everything is just peachy at Apple Annie’s Orchard in Willcox. If you are a peach lover and hungry for sweet, tree-ripened peaches grown locally in Southern Arizona, mouth-watering peach pies and peach ice cream, peach fudge (really?), or pancakes topped with peaches, then the 15th Annual Peach Mania at Apple Annie’s is where you want to be.

This year’s Peach Mania runs for six peachy weekends:
July 14-15
July 21-22
July 28-29
August 4-5
August 11-12
August 18-19

During the first two weekends, you can also you-pick sweet corn on the cob as well as other vegetables. Enjoy hot roasted sweet corn and a great day of family fun. Let your kids learn that vegetables grow on the farm not in a can or a freezer box. Also on August 4-5, the Country Craft Fair weekend happens bringing vendors from all over Arizona to set up with their crafts.

Peach Mania features tree-ripened peaches, picked for you at the peak of the season, homemade peach pies and family fun. This year’s crop of peaches is the best seen in the past couple years.  “We spent many nights fighting frost this spring, but it paid off and the trees are loaded with beautiful peaches.” says John Holcomb, owner.

The delicious “All-You-Can-Eat” peaches and pancakes breakfast will be served from 7 to 10:30 a.m. and Apple Annie’s famous apple-smoked burger lunches will be served 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.  each day of the event.  There is something very special about sitting out in the orchard on a picnic table eating one of those juicy apple smoked burgers. From past experience, it’s the kind of moment that memories are built on.

Not just for apples – family fun

Apple Annie’s is open daily through October 31. Parking and admission are free. Take I-10 to Willcox exit 340, turn onto Ft. Grant Rd. for 5.5 miles, turn right on Nickels Rd. and follow signs. For more information visit the website  or call 520-384-2084.

A portion of the proceeds from all of Apple Annie’s events is donated to March of Dimes, Lupus Foundation of Southern AZ, Andrea’s Closet and Youth Haven Ranches. In recent years Apple Annie’s has donated more than $65,000 to worthy charities!  (Now that is super peachy.)

If you haven’t been to Willcox recently, now is the time to go because during the summer the temps are a few degrees cooler than Tucson. After the peach fest, you can sample wines along Railroad Avenue and poke into the funky shops.

Tucson Tacotopia

This Saturday Tucsonans will take part in the first ever Tucson Taco Festival at Rillito Downs from 11 am to 7 pm. The Festival got its beginnings in Scottsdale but I think Tucson will show them a thing or two about tacos. Don’t you?

I was fortunate to be chosen as one the taco judges and tonight went for an orientation at Sir Veza’s. As I perused through the materials and listened to the instructions, I almost felt like I was preparing to take the SATs.

Here’s some information about the National Taco Association.  The NTA is an organization dedicated to promoting and enjoying tacos of all types and from all cultures. The NTA is the world’s first organization of its kind promoting all things taco, all the time.

Teams – restaurants, resorts, food trucks, amateurs – compete for prizes ($$$) and the judges will judge anonymously, be serious about the judging, and score fairly. I will be judging chicken tacos, beef tacos, pork tacos, seafood tacos, and wild cards – tacos that don’t fit into the above (chocolate tacos, perhaps?) and well as the side cart. I will probably be taco’d out by Saturday night.

Judges will be sequestered and perhaps shackled to the table for 3 or 4 hours until they have judged everything based on taste, presentation, and texture. Then they are free to roam the rest of the event and enter the tequila tent, watch the lucha libre wresting, bartender throw down, and mingle. I’m hoping the judges can have cerveza in the tent or it’s going to be a long 3 or 4 hours and a near riot.

There’s going to be a kids’ zone plus hot chile pepper eating contest and macho taco eating contest. Oh, my.  You won’t want to miss any of this as you’ll have more than enough fodder around the water cooler on Monday.

Admission is $10 (kids under 12 free) and tacos cost $2/each. How many tacos can you eat?

Here are the specifics about parking, pets, etc.

A portion of the proceeds benefits the Anne Rita Monahan Foundation (ARM Yourself Against Ovarian Cancer).

I have two free tickets. Who wants them? Post a comment here as to why you want to go to the Tucson Taco Festival. Update: I awarded the two tickets to Soozi (see comments below). I chose her because she said she was giving blood. I just met up with her now at Sunflower on Speedway/Swan. She told me she gives platelets because she has a niece with kidney disease. Soozi is my hero. She also recommended that I take TUMS with me — what a great idea!

Jewish Food Festival - October 25

Jewish food is my comfort food. When I crave comfort food — I crave chopped liver with schmaltz (chicken fat), matzo ball soup, sweet kugel, and toasted challah with peanut butter.

My maternal grandmother even made her own challah without a recipe. I would watch and say, “Bubbie, where’s your recipe?” And she would say that she made the challah so many times that she didn’t need a recipe which always frustrated my mother. Unfortunately, when bubbie’s dementia came, she couldn’t remember the recipe. It was not the challah that every bakery makes but had an entirely different shape and texture.

If you love Jewish food or want to try Jewish food, the  Jewish Food Festival & Family Fun Fair will be held at Brandi Fenton Memorial Park, Sunday October 25 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Cooking contests will be judged. Jewish food will be for sale. Sample the culinary wares of 19 participating restaurants including Chompies from Phoenix. Enjoy family entertainment. Shop. Seize the delicious day.

Proceeds benefit Congregation Or Chadash, Community Food Bank, and Interfaith Community Services.

You don’t have to be Jewish to eat Jewish food.