Adventure throughout America is easy, cause we’re awesome and so is our landscape. Having some fun in the Southwest was a great, quick getaway.
Took a little mini vacation to Arizona.
Pit tickets to Bruce Springsteen in Phoenix. Then up to Sedona for a couple days of hiking and no kids. Sedona is known for having Energy Vortexes around specific areas that are supposed to bring the feels. Although we did not feel anything this time, the landscape is breathtaking and the hiking is phenomenal. After hiking almost 10 miles, we were looking forward to relaxing and seeing some live music in Jerome. Jerome is a cool, old, haunted little copper mining town north of Cornville. Which was where the yard the housed our tiny camper trailer Air bnb. As we were getting ready, I saw an add on the back of our canyon map for Puscifer the Store. “I had forgotten about Maynards winery!” (read like a Cathy AACK!)
The Winery
One of my all time bands is Tool. The singer (Maynard), became a wine enthusiast and started making his own wine. He sought out grapes suited to the dry Arizona climate and set up shop in Jerome under the name Caduceus Cellars and Merkin Vineyards Tasting Room. Merkin is the more affordable offering but still very high quality. We settled on the Chupacabra Rosa, which was outstanding. The Caduceus wines were the most interesting wines I’ve ever had. The first blew me away, the rest were…challenging. If you can picture licking a Werewolf right before mornings first light. A werewolf that’s been running, hunting and killing all night. Funky hairy beast…although the wine merchants described it as sweaty man, it was just so different, and so perfectly Maynard, that the experience was the memory.
As we settled in with our Chupacabra, Primus is simmering over the speaker system and the ambiance takes over and settles our tired bodies, life is good.
Unexpected treats
As we were perusing the shop before leaving, I stumbled upon a tiny little baggy of weird. This little baggy was $18 :-| The merchants didn’t know much but they knew it was edible, so, of course I had to buy it. After using the power of the Googlez, I read they are cactus buds. An old school southwest food staple that hasn’t quite made it out of the region. Labor intensive to harvest but nutritionally packed and mellow enough to flavor any way you see fit. Once re-hydrated, they become texturally interesting chameleons. I threw ’em into a steak dish with mushrooms and sunchokes. Turned out great and got me excited about using them for parties this summer.