"All of the flowers of tomorrow are in the seeds of yesterday." ~ Proverb

Everything is in full bloom at the ranch and the year is filled with promise. The vines are bursting forth with growth and getting ready to flower. The olive trees are nearly groaning with the weight of the flowers. For now, the lavender is quiet, but that can only last so long.

While all that is planted is doing its part for this year's harvest, the ranchers are already looking toward harvest and attempting to devise some better grinding appartus to eliminate the nights in blinding rainstorms kicking the olive crushing equipment across the driveway; shoring up winemaking equations that vexed us in the prior year; researching better yeasts; tasting and racking last year's wine and standing watch over it, vowing that it will continue forward on a successfu path.

Along with springtime comes a crush of work -- excuse the pun -- in the vineyard. The Zinyard was rototilled and weeding was done between all vines and all lower shoots were removed. Some clusters were also removed to permit robust growth of those clusters that are in the correct position.

The report on the 2011 vintage remains good. What has been most interesting is the change in the wine's character on each visit. They are constantly growing and changing. We are optimistic that the 2011 vintage is one which we got right -- finally. Only been six years, right? Our goal is for improvement with each vintage.

Also with springtime comes the unpleasant reminder that that not only are the plants awakening from their winter hibernation, but so are the rattlesnakes. An encounter two weeks ago with two large snakes still sends chills up the spine of yours truly, but fortunately, our neighbor saved the day and a car full of friends, as well as myself, and to him, we are forever grateful. Another snake was discovered near the cattle corral yesterday and a turkey vulture was feasting on one in the road. The same brave neighbor reported a three-footer on the driveway. So while we are busy tending to all of this year's newbies, while remaining ever watchful of what is ahead of us and remembering what is behind and beneath us, we are headed out to enjoy the glorious springtime weather!
Cheers!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Central Coast Olive Oil Competition Results and Update

Image
We got word late last week that we received four awards from the Central Coast Olive Oil Competition.  We were awarded a Silver Medal for our Estate Extra Virgin Olive Oil, a Silver Medal for our Lemon-Infused Olive Oil, a Bronze Medal for our Orange-Infused Olive Oil, and a Bronze Medal for our Smoked Olive Oil. We are attempting, ourselves, to make sense out of the inconsistencies between the different judging panels.  The O/C member of our team reviews results with the plan of doing things better each year, and scrutinizes every fact provided but just cannot reconcile the results.  Some might suggest we ought to just celebrate the 12 awards we've received this year, with an additional two Best of Class Awards, but yet, we are left SOH (shaking our heads), as they say.  There are producers who submitted and did not win awards, so we are thrilled that, on the whole, all of our oils are award-winning. So, what mountain is left to scale this year?  One of the...
Read more

Butter to Olive Oil Conversion Chart for Recipes

You might be thinking, I'd like to use olive oil instead of butter more, but how would I possibly go about converting my recipes?  Voila! You're welcome! Butter to Olive Oil Conversion Chart for Recipes Butter EVOO 1 tsp. ¾ tsp. 2 tsp. 1 ½ tsp. 1 Tbsp. 2 ¼ tsp. ¼ cup 3 Tbsp. 1/3 cup ¼ cup ½ cup ¼ cup + 2 Tbsp. 2/3 cup ½ cup ¾ cup ½ cup + 1Tbsp. 1 cup ¾ cup
Read more

"The greatest test of courage on earth is to bear defeat without losing heart." Robert Green Ingersoll

Image
Last week, it seemed that we could barely contain all the happy, good news coming in to the Rancho, but Mother Nature has never been a lady who likes to take the back seat, so we were given a rather cruel reminder yesterday who is really in charge, and it is not the one writing this blog. With all olive trees in full blossom, warnings as to a storm began to trickle in at the beginning of the week.  We took notice, since April has not smiled down kindly upon us in the past.  All weather casts said there would be rain, but in the Bay area, they said wouldn't get this far south.  The predicted winds were checked, all below advisory level. Shouldn't worry, right? Needless to say, the weather people were again wrong again as winds over 50 mph ripped through the olive trees in full blossom and then rain pummeled our hill, just in case there were any blossoms left.  We could only stand and watch.  It was April of 2014 all over again.   There isn't anything...
Read more