Juan told us to pick as many ripe lemons as we wanted from his tree in the yard. I gently liberated three. This was an extra kindness since we’d just said that the house wasn’t quite right for us.

Moving from Colorado to Northern California has been wrenching at times, but the fresh lemons represented a silver lining. Amid the delightful food mashups — a taco truck that sells boba tea, curryritos, Indian pizza — we’ve discovered several eateries that offer avgolemono soup.

When prepared well, this Greek chicken and lemon soup is like a cozy sweater.