Rancho Azul y Oro ~ Surviving the Dream

 During a recent marketing discussion, a person asked me how we got into the condiment business.  The condiment business???  I must have missed the point with my marketing approach. "No," I replied, "we're in the olive oil business."  The conversation continued.  "You produce oil, right?"  Yes. "You're producing flavored oils, right?"  Yes. "You produce vinegar, right?"  Yes.  "You produce specialty seasonings, right?"  Yes.  "You produce jams and jellies, right?"  Yes.  "So you're in the condiment business."   As we are preparing to roll out -- yes, you guessed it -- an entire line of specialty seasonings and flavored oils, that thought has been reverberating in my head repeatedly.  Are we in the condiment business?  I suppose we are.  We hadn't intended to be.  How did this happen? Here in wine country, the first thing the dreamers start with, of course, is wine grapes.   Very quickl...

We're taking Walt Disney's advice to heart and have begun doing.  What is it that we're doing?  Well, after three months of diligent effort attempting to obtain our Construction Permit for the renovation of the ranch house, it was finally received on Friday, March 21.  Couldn't you hear the shouts for joy from there? While we waited all winter for rain, it seemed the rain waited until the construction permit was issued. Progress has been swift, though.  The entire two ends of the home have been deconstructed, about 21,000 pounds of concrete and stucco have been removed, and numerous architectural, construction, and decorative details have commenced. One might wonder, "Isn't it awful for the ranchers to reside there during the construction?"  The simple answer is yes -- but we are ranchers, so like all ranchers accustomed to adverse conditions, we have moved to The Barn (did you really expect me to say we were living on the Range or Prairie?).  We then...

Today is the day to celebrate all things Irish, so in that spirit, I thought I'd add a modern spin on a recipe made in my family for probably over 100 years.  True, this Irish lass has reverted back to her farming roots, although we may be farming a different crop and drinking wine, not beer.  My ancestors would find the humor in the solid limestone rock in which our grapes and olive trees are planted.  However, we do honor our heritage daily and are extremely proud of the strides made by generation after generation.  So without further adieu, here is our take on an Irish favorite: Irish SODA BREAD featuring oLIVE OIL Ingredients: ·         1.5   cups flour ·         1 cup buttermilk ·         1.5   tsp of baking soda ·         1 tsp salt ·         1 spr...

It was just two weeks ago that we could not walk from the house to the barn due to a severe storm that came through.  Even last evening, as we awaited sleep (one of us waited longer than the other), and the winds were so strong, it shook our interim residential quarters.  This author could not help but wonder, will anything grow this year?  And as morning broke and the sun rose, all of a sudden, it seemed as if the rancho was resplendent, courtesy of Spring. Due to the current remodel construction at the ranch, the grounds manager and the product manager are both severely behind.  But didn't you get everything done during your niece's visit, when you powered through so much?  That was then, this is now. So what's on tap, you ask?  Labeling the 2011 Cabernet, racking all of the 2013 and 2012 wines, bottling the 2013 olive oil, fine tuning and introducing some new and exciting rancho products -- which also need labeling and packaging, restocking all the...

2014 has started out with a bang -- and not a great bang, more like a devastating explosion.  It's been a month of a great many challenges, leaving us feeling dusty and worn out, much like the boots in the photo. The plan is to remain focused and positive and to correct and resolve the issues.  That is one easy sentence to write, but not always easy to execute.  Needless to say, with respect to this blog's quote, we are feeling highly educated. In an optimistic spirit, however, there are a great deal of positive things going on, such as a banner holiday season for the ranch online, our first entree into e-commerce, and at year-end, we were nearly sold out of everything.  A serious bout with the flu also provided the opportunity to get to work making more soap, sachets, bath salts, and there is great resolve to get back to work on the Tequila Pepper Grape Jelly.  My trusty companion spent a good portion of January traveling far, far away, came back, got in ...

This is one of those very demoralizing days of being a farmer.  Most people publish their blog posts when history is being made, when awards are being given, milestones met -- and we've done that, as well -- but very few publish posts when everything that could go wrong does go wrong.  It is probably because one doesn't want to actually put it down in writing, so that it's out there for the world to see.  It could be that their very soul feels crushed and they just can't go there.  We have chronicled our good, bad, and ugly throughout our adventure, so since we're having an extreme moment of coyote ugly currently, it seems to be somewhat cathartic to post on a day when it seems as if we've worked so very hard to get it right, yet every email, phone call, and piece of mail brings bad news.  Maybe it will just help another realize they're not the only ones having bad days and feel better about things. We do have things in perspective, we st...

Before we receive a barrage of emails, no, this is not our vineyard.  We cannot even get all the lights to work on our Christmas tree yearly.  One cannot even imagine how much bad language might occur attempting to light up an entire vineyard or the size of the tangled ball of lights. Amidst all the excitement in preparing for Thanksgiving, Hanukah, and Christmas, we are taking a moment to say a big Thank You to everyone who has helped us out at the rancho this year, from neighbors and neighboring vineyards, to Custom Vineyard for their very professional crews who harvested our lavender and our olives; I would also like to thank all my friends who journeyed out for Girls' Trip 2013, only to find out they were really going to be picking figs, debudding lavender, picking table grapes, and destemming and crushing thousands of grapes and learning to make jams and jellies.  Not only did it get the job done quickly, perhaps it passed down some preserving skills to the Next ...