Go Sox!

OK... my husband is a die-hard Red Sox fan. If we could spend part of the year in Boston ~ we would. Just so he could go to their home games. I surprised him with a ticket to the World Series last year. Big points for me... but then I had to endure weeks of "green monster" this & "Dustin Pedroia" that. OK - the Dustin thing is cool. I mean, he IS from Winters!! Anyway... it was especially fun because last year - around this time - we had about 100 people from Boston come to our farm for the wedding of Nicole & Tim!! What a lively & entertaining group! They had a blast and so did we!

Happy anniversary Nicole & Tim!!!

Sharing the Celebration

Ann & Major!!!!!!! Gorgeous people & a beautiful party!

A lot of people ask me why I decided to hold private events at our farm. When we bought this property, it never occured to me that I'd have weddings here. But... soon thereafter... it became very clear to me why small farms have to be creative to survive. It's not so easy selling produce at wholesale when you're up against HUGE farms that can deal in volume. Lesson quickly learned. So ~ one day ~ some friends of ours came to visit. These friends happen to be extraordinary couture wedding gown designers in Sacramento (http://www.miosacouture.com/).

Anyway - I was talking with them about my concerns with generating sufficient revenue to keep the farm self-sustaining (while trying to ascend the huge learning curve of being a new farmer). They looked at me as if I were completely blind and quite daft and asked if I realized how unique this place really is? Well. yeah, I knew it was special - that's why we wanted to live here! But I hadn't thought about sharing it others. I mean, besides my friends that come over to drink wine with me...

And here we are - going into our 4th season of having private events. And it's been an amazing journey. It has certainly helped us towards our goal of being a self sustaining farm - but I've gotten a tremendous amount more than I ever expected. I found joy. I know it might sound a little corney, but I mean it. Every couple, without exception, has brought a smile to my heart. Each time I share in the experience of watching two families merge - I realize there's a lot more going on here than just a wedding. It's a major life event. One of the most important ones.

I am honored that most of the couples who marry here continue to have a real connection with this place and with me. I receive emails, invitations, photos of new babies and sometimes a visit!

And I love it. It's a circle of friends that grows with each season as we celebrate new weddings and life cycle events. And to share just a peak of our last wedding....

Ann & Major are big into the outdoors. Their love of white water rafting (did I mention they're professional guides in their spare time?) and the rivers of California were reflected here and there throughout the reception.

VINEYARD HARVEST 2008!

We just finished our 2nd harvest of our Syrah grape vineyard. Very exciting! This was our vineyard's 4th leafing. We had originally anticipated a huge harvest... but... Mother Nature threw us a curve ball in April and we had a spring frost. This resulted in the loss of a lot of our foliage ~ which in turn caused some crop damage. Oh well... Que Sera, Sera... Atleast we'll have enough from the 2008 vintage to have a few dinner parties in 2010! In case you're interested.... here are some photos of the harvest process!

this is manuel! he is so great! i can't imagine running this farm without him. he's been so wonderful to work with!

This is Kevin! My very hard working husband... taking a few hours off of his real work as a political consultant to help with the harvest! He loves this stuff and it's fun to have him out in the vineyard! He's in charge of wine production and keeping an eye on what we have in the barrels!

this is zac... he supervised the harvest. the lack of opposable thumbs prevented him from any and all heavy lifting...

another successful harvest! our good friend robert smerling, owner of renwood winery, delivered a bunch of macro-bins for harvest. he's been at it a long time and we're the newbies.

our wonderful neighbor, peter moore, brought over his crusher/stemmer for processing. we are such lucky people to be surrounded by tons of great friends!

FIRST FEATURED WEDDING ON PROJECT WEDDING!

We are thrilled to have been selected as the first ever "Real Wedding" featured on Project Wedding! Follow the link and check out the beautiful images from the wedding celebration of aubrey & aaron!

A Fabulous Summer!

It's been a crazy summer! We've had so much going on EVERY DAY - that I've been a bit remiss in posting to my blog. For my friends who like to follow along with the happenings on the farm... I apologize for the time lapse! But... here's a brief overview!
We are now the proud owners of our own custom made essential oil distiller! It's really incredible! Talk about controlling the process! We plant it , we grow it, we harvest it and now... we distill it!! The lavender oil coming out of the distiller is fabulous. I'm loving every minute of working with this incredible machine and seeing the outcome of all the hard work! We are a certified organic grower and we are in the process of having CCOF add the processing for the essential oil to our certification! I'm really excited about it. There aren't a lot of us out there and I think it's really important to be able to demonstrate that every aspect of our production is organic.
I haven't come up with a name for the distiller yet. It has to be something grand - because it's a grand piece of equipment that produces the sweetest oils! So... we'll see as time goes on.
The heirloom tomato crop is our best ever! We've had quite a few wedding events already this season and the tomatoes have figured prominently on the menus! It's so fun (and gratifying) to harvest specifically for these important celebrations. It really makes me feel proud to see so many people enjoying the produce grown on this farm at these private events. It really is a field to table experience that has gotten rave reviews from the people who are invited as guests.
Without fail - the farm has gotten major kudos from the guests at each wedding. It makes all of our hard work soooo worthwhile. Here are a few shots of a beautiful wedding that took place here as the lavender fields were beginning to bloom!