Scents of SpringWhen Elizabeth Billet’s grandfather, George...
Scents of Spring
When Elizabeth Billet’s grandfather, George Blum, came to the United States from Switzerland, one of his goals was to own property in his adopted land.
After a series of adventures, he and his wife, Magdalena, ended up, in the late 1800s, in Antelope Valley where they homesteaded about 40 acres.
This is why Elizabeth Billet and her high school sweetheart-husband, Ray, now live on what has grown to be a 150-acre fruit farm--and why every April it is lilac time.
People drive from all over Los Angeles and surrounding counties to buy armloads of the fragrant flowers from Blum Ranch in Palmdale. They also like to walk around the 100-year-old barn and main house, and maybe have a picnic on tables the Billets provide for family groups.
Billet says that most of her lilac customers are big buyers, like supermarkets and florist chains, but that she has a mailing list of 2,600 individuals she puts on alert when the lilacs are about to bloom.
“I sent the cards out recently, and people have started coming, many of them grew up in the Midwest and East and have nice memories of these flowers every spring,” she said.
When her grandparents came to the area in 1898, they planted mostly pears and peaches, but somewhere along the line, Billet’s grandfather looked at the rows of lilacs of his neighbor, Christopher Colombo Brevidoro, and decided that lilacs were a crop he, too, would like to grow.
Lilacs can be tricky, says Billet. It takes a cold winter and a warm, temperate spring to bring the blooms to flower. A violent storm in the springtime can wipe out the entire crop, she says. “When we talk about the weather we aren’t just passing time.”
She says she and her husband, and four or five other flower farms in the Antelope and Santa Clarita valleys, are the only ones willing to risk the odds.
Sensible Spring
It’s that time of year when there’s danger driving through the Antelope Valley.
Both domesticated and wild flowers are in bloom, turning otherwise sensible motorists into blooming fools.
They hang out of windows, run off roads and bring their cars to a sudden stop for what seems like no reason.
They dart in front of other automobiles and let their cars roll down hills while they skip merrily away, camera in hand.
Every spring the high desert turns into a botanical wonderland, and drivers go bonkers. There is a way, however, to see the flowers without taking your life in your hands.
The California Poppy Reserve, about 15 miles west of Lancaster, is a 1,745-acre area dedicated to growing the state flower.
A whole bouquet of other flowers also grow in this beautiful garden, which is crisscrossed with walking trails. You may walk and look but may not pick the flowers.
Entrance to the reserve is free, but there is a $5 fee for parking. The area is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily.
Roll ‘Em
For the past eight years, Chabad Matzoh Bakery in Westwood has been inviting schoolchildren to come to the bakery for a lesson just before Passover, which this year will be observed April 17-25.
The children learn to make traditional matzo while Rabbi Chaim Mentz talks about the observance. Mentz says he has shown more than 30,000 youngsters how to make the traditional dish.
Last week more than 2,500 Valley youngsters joined those from all over the city in this exercise in hands-on history, as classes from public and private schools spent an hour each on the baking exercise.
Mentz said that the bakery is part of Chabad House, a non-sectarian international organization dedicated to promoting education, awareness and community assistance, and that the matzo baking project is one way the organization has of reaching out to children.
The rabbi oversees the organization’s entire educational process as well as appearing on a weekly Century Cable comedy show. “I think children learn better, if you give them something to smile about,” Mentz said.
Bedside Manner
You’ve got a doctor for yourself, your mate, your dog, your car, your plumbing and your lawn.
Now, meet the guy who wants to take care of your bed.
The Mattress Doctor, Michael Markowitz, owner of the Boulevard Sleep Center in Studio City, has a selling technique that extends to making free house calls.
What Markowitz is selling at his store, in addition to beds, he says, is service. Many sleep disorders are health related and need a physician’s attention, he says, adding that his home examination can contribute to a lessening of even a medical problem.
He says he can tell by looking at a bed if the mattress and/or box springs have gone soft and are not providing enough support, or, as sometimes happens, have worn out prematurely.
He recommends the proper bed for a person’s size, age and special needs. The bed you need at 40 isn’t the same one you used at 20, he says.
What happens if you need one thing and your spouse needs another?
Markowitz says, no problem, that he has all kinds of tricks up his sleeve including different box springs under a common mattress.
That’s one novel way to market a mattress.
Overheard
“He’s the perfect man; he’s got a sense of humor, intelligence, bank account, perfect manners, even a sailboat. Unfortunately his wife thinks he is perfect too.”
--Woman to friend at Gaetano’s in Calabasas
