My Town Monday: Tea Time in Julian, CA

Yesterday, my friend Christina, our BFF daughters and I headed about 50 miles northeast to Julian, CA for a tea party. We've been planning this day trip for a while now, but life kept getting in the way. When we set off this morning, we almost couldn't believe we'd managed to pull it off. Our reservation was for 11:30 a.m. And, yes, you definitely want to make a reservation. Here's the phone number: 866-765-0832

Here's an outside shot of the Julian Tea and Cottage Arts, 2124 Third Street, Julian, CA. This house was built in 1898 for Clarence King, the son of one of our famous gold miners, George Valentine King.

Here's the motely crew. Christina and I shared a bottomless pot of Yorkshire Gold tea while the girls sipped on Mango Ceylon black tea. We munched on a variety of finger sandwiches (my fave was the chicken curry), scones with cream and apricot marmelade or lemon curd, shortbread cookies and toffees.


The house is crammed with all kinds of items for sale (kitchen knickknacks, stationery supplies, tea paraphernalia, etc). I bought a box of PG Tips Special Blend tea bags, which I cracked open at breakfast time.

Of course, no trip to Julian is complete without a visit to the Julian Book House at 2230 Main Street. I picked up two mysteries by Rex Stout: TOO MANY COOKS and THE MOUNTAIN CAT MURDERS, pubbed 1938, 1939 respectively. I also picked up the owner's business card. Although primarily a rare and used bookstore, they'll often stock new books by local authors. I'll give him a call this week. Especially because I SO DON'T DO MYSTERIES takes place about 35 miles east of the bookstore at the Wild Animal Park.

On the way back home, we stopped at Dudley's Bakery in Santa Ysabel where I picked up a couple of loaves of bread and an apple-peach pie. The latter purchase thrilled Mr. Summy no end.

Click here for links to more My Town Monday posts. (Thanks Clare2e for hosting this week) Also, if you're even marginally thinking about writing a My-Town-Monday post, please do! Fair warning, though, it's addictive! Write your post, then leave a comment here. You'll be linked to.

Happy Monday!

My Town Monday: Dudley's Bakery, Santa Ysabel

I've written a couple of My Town Monday posts about Julian, CA. The posts have been about the Julian gold mine and the Observers Inn Planetarium.

If you're in the vicinity of Julian, you'll definitely want to hit Dudley's Bakery.



Dudley's Bakery was started in 1963 by a man named Mr. Dudley (big surprise there!) Pratt who'd owned a bakery in the town next door to me, El Cajon. Dudley's Bakery is located in Santa Ysabel, about 50 miles northeast of downtown San Diego.

Mr. Pratt used to close Dudley's Bakery for a couple of months each year so that he could take off for Europe in search of new bread recipes. He didn't wite these recipes down, but memorized them. Which seems a little dicey to me, but presumably Mr. Pratt's memory was better than mine. He was also on the lookout for new ovens and other baking paraphernalia.

This is one of my favorite breads from Dudley's. It's Baja Jalapeno. The top seller, though, is the date, nut and raisin bread. There are about 15 different varieties of bread. There was a time when the bakery offered over 40 varieties!

Yes, for you sweet-toothed people, there are fresh pastries.

Some trivia: About 5,000 loaves are baked a day. The bakers start at midnight and work all night long, filling the four large ovens (each oven holds as many as 120 loaves, if I've done my math right!). Dudley's bread is a common school fundraiser in these parts. There has been talk of Mr. Pratt as a friendly ghost who hung around the bakery. But he hasn't been "seen" in about 15 years.

Here's a link to Dudley's famous bread pudding.

And here's contact info for Dudley's Bakery:
30218 Highway 78 (Julian Road)
Santa Ysabel, CA 92070
Phone: (760) 765-0488
Dudley's Bakery website

Oh great. Now I'm hungry and have nothing decent to nibble on!


Click here for links to more My Town Monday posts. (Thanks Clair for hosting) Also, if you're even mariginally thinking about writing a My-Town-Monday post, please do! Fair warning, though, it's addictive! Write your post, then leave a comment here and we'll link to you.

Sources:
http://www.dudleysbakery.com/history.html
http://entertainment.signonsandiego.com/places/dudleys-bakery/http://www.dudleysbakery.com/images/calfarmer_article.pdf