A special section of The Healdsburg Tribune, The Cloverdale Reveille, The Windsor Times and Sonoma West Times & News
October 29, 2015
Vintage 2015: Dusty and difficult by Rollie Atkinson Staff Writer While everyone else was casting their eyes on the drought-stricken skies this past growing season, winegrape growers were keeping their heads down in their vineyard rows, closely monitoring their crop that had gotten off to a very uneven start back in the spring. Rain — and enough moisture in the soil — wasn’t going to be the big problem this year. A December deluge and a spate of late spring showers took care of that. Instead, figuring out the crazy patterns of “hens and chicks” fruit set, spotty ripening and incidents of cluster shatter is what now has many growers calling the 2015 harvest “a difficult one.” Although facing a fourth consecutive year of official drought conditions, Sonoma County winegrape growers also were coming off three tremendous years of high yields, solid prices and textbook late-summer harvest conditions. The skies may have been empty but most wine tanks were full and overflowing. All the news and talk about California’s historical drought focused more on wildfire dangers, brown lawns and mounting murmurs about “climate change.” Other farmers with crops like hay, grain, livestock, chickens and apples definitely took hits from the lousy weather and leaving everyone praying for the promise of an El Niño and a
Photo provided by Rafanelli Winery
EARLY GRAPES — Following a mild winter with another year of record high temperature averages, Sonoma County’s 2015 winegrape crop was one of the earliest on record. Crews for Rafanelli Winery (in photo) fininshed their Dry Creek Valley picking before the end of September.
wet winter. “We might be seeing a new pattern,” said Tony Linegar, the county’s agriculture commissioner. “We’ve definitely been having some very mild years, with warm winters and different rain patterns.” New statistics from recent growing years could lead to refinements of offical long range models. “I think it’s unclear right now,” Linegar said. Winegrape growers would prefer 2015 to not be a pattern that gets repeated anytime soon. Overall harvest yields were reported to be 40-50 per-
cent below last year’s nearrecord totals and 30 percent below what most growers would call an “average” crop. The 2015 winegrape harvest was one of the earliest on record, with the first grapes picked in mid-July and almost all growers and vineyard crews done by the end of September. Following the very mild winter, bud break and blooming started as much as two weeks early in March. That was followed by erratic temperatures and rains that messed up uniform fruit set and cast the fortune and final
outcomes of the 2015 harvest, now resting in winery tanks and being studied by winemakers. Ultimately, most vines and vineyards delivered wellripened fruit, with near-optimal colors and flavors, thanks to some extra patience from vineyard management teams and a stretched-out harvesting season. Most of the crop produced smaller berries with high tanins and acids. Growers actually backed-off their irrigation plans and let the vines get a little waterstressed, realizing early on
Grains go local
that the lighter crop might offer up some extra intense flavors. “Compared to recent years, this was a really difficult crop,” said Brad Petersen, vineyard manager for Silver Oak and Twomey. “It wasn’t as bad as 2010 or 2011 but we had really strange bloom weather and the vines didn’t know what to do. Thankfully, we had a really stretched-out harvest so we were never really pushed, and most of the sugars got to where we wanted them to be.” Nobody, except maybe
Cold spring a decisive factor
by Holly Fox Correspondent
by Stuart Tiffen Staff Writer
When customers enter Noble Folk Ice Cream and Pie Bar on the Healdsburg Plaza they might notice the unusual ice cream flavors. Think blackberry rosemary, Japanese purple yam and cardamom, with some flavor inspirations coming from Asia and Scandinavia. But the pies lined up next to the ice cream case might have an even more revolutionary ingredient: flour milled from heirloom grains, grown just minutes away. Noble Folk was opened by Christian Sullberg and Osvaldo Jimenez in 2014, four years after opening their popular bakery, Moustache Baked Goods. When they learned that Front Porch Farm, a small farm off Rio Lindo Avenue tucked in a sunny valley to the east of Fitch Mountain, was growing several kinds of heirloom grains, they got to work experimenting with flour from these grains for their pie crusts. “Once you start working with these things, you notice a huge difference,” Sullberg says. “I think it makes our crusts really good and it
The drought has been a major topic for several years. Governor Edmund G. Brown declared a State of Emergency in January, prompting municipal restrictions on water use. For the first time since 1977, wine industry professionals have been making wine under official drought conditions. While its effects have been seen in this harvest, winemakers remain optimistic in the quality of the 2015 vintage. “This is the first year that we’ve felt the effects of the drought significantly on the fruit that’s coming in,” Cartograph Wines winemaker Alan Baker said. Throughout the winegrowing area, the harvest is significantly reduced from years past. Vineyards are reporting shortfalls of anywhere from 20 to 50 percent and even higher. Baker, who pulls in grapes from Mendocino as well as the Russian River Valley, said the condition has been widespread, but pointed out that the drought wasn’t the only fac-
Photo provided
HARVESTING WHEAT — Locally grown wheat is harvested at Front Porch farm outside Healdsburg.
2010 by Mimi and Peter Buckley. He says no small farmer in the area would choose to grow grains purely for financial reasons, but that there are rewards. Diversity is one of them. Growing heirloom grain varieties alongside other fruits
VINTAGE continues on page 2
Lower grape yields due to more than just drought
A thriving local ‘grain shed’ supports diversity
makes it a little different than other pies.” And the customers? “They love it,” Sullberg says. “They’re definitely down with the grain.” Johnny Wilson is the general manager at Front Porch Farm, which was started in
Mother Nature, planned it this way, but the surplus of the past two years should now find increased buyer interest, with fewer tons coming off the vineyards this year. “The vines might have been tired this year,” said Linegar and were definitely impacted from four years of drought. “When it’s all said and done, we might see a harvest that gets back to our 10 year average of 3.5 tons per acre.” By comparison, 2014’s crop of 255,635 tons topped out at 4.39 tons per acre. That crop was worth $593 million, just slightly behind the biggest year ever in 2013 at $605 million. “This year was really tough,” Barry Hoffner of Silverwood Ranch in Cloverdale said. “We were 50 percent below last year and, I’d say, probably 40 percet below our average over the last 10 years. The lighter crop produced brighter sugars. Our biggest problem came during bloom. It was like the vines got stuck.” In a distant part of the county in Green Valley, west of the Russian River, grower Pamela Gunsalus saw the same big drop in yields. “There was some varation between the different varietals but we were down about 40 percent,” she said. Cluster shatter was prominent in some of her blocks, said Gunsalus, due to unruly weather right after bud break
and vegetables is another step away from monoculture, he says. “Everything is milled, harvested, handled locally so if you’re going to buy it,” he says, “it would be supporting GRAINS continues on page 6
tor in the smaller winegrape haul. “Across the board we’re seeing 20-40 percent lower yields out of vineyards, because the drought combined with an early start and really long bloom cycle because it cooled off, so the fruit wasn’t huge,” he said. “The number of clusters was about what we’d expect, but everything ended up weighing out a couple hundred pounds lighter.” Many experts are pointing to the cold spring as a major factor in the results of the harvest. Nick Frey, formerly president of the Winegrape Commission, was pouring for Balletto Winery at the Sonoma County Harvest Fair. “May of this year was colder than January,” Frey said. This caused vineyard conditions known as shatter, he added, referring to coulure, a condition when flowering vines don’t receive enough sunlight, and temperatures are lower than optimal. Shatter typically leads to lower yields in wine grapes. Tony Bugica of Bacchus YIELDS continues on page 13
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Besides arguing over water during the drought, some city-dwelling farm neighbors and critics of the county’s dominant wine industry questioned the impacts of “Big Wine” and called the Sonoma Winegrowers Sustainabily Practices Program “greenwashing.” Linegar, who has tightened enforcement of vineyard erosion and expansion in his first years on the job, said he “absolutely endorses” the Winegrowers Sustainability program. “It is not greenwashing. It is a very rigorous code and it requires a comprehensive third-party review.” Linegar said the better challenge for everyone on both sides of these current debates would be to “join the battle to hang on to our ag heritage. What do we want our county to look like in 20 years or longer? I don’t think winegrapes are going anywhere anytime soon. And, in the meantime we’re blessed with these great soils and climate.” Vineyard owner Gunsalus said one problem she sees is the loss of the meaning for the word ‘sustainable.’ “I think the word itself has been greenwashed.” Another often-discussed topic this harvest was climate change. The past two years (2014 and 2015) have been the hottest ever recorded in California. Linegar serves on a statewide study panel looking at recent years of climate records. “We’ve seen lots of things. With the Central Valley getting warmer, does that mean our coastal areas might get cooler with more drawn-in ocean air or something different? We know people are buying lands in Mendocino and Oregon and Washington for their grapes, thinking they need cooler climates.” “Whether it’s in people’s flower gardens or the vineyards,” said Gunsalus, “I think we’re seeing changes and different cycles.”
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flowering.) “We saw lots of chicks and hens” (clusters with partially matured berries.) Sean Carroll, of the Sonoma County Winegrowers, said despite the challenging ripening conditions and lower yields, he’s heard very encouraging reports on the 2015 crop’s quality and winemaking promise. “The colors and tanins were good and the smaller crop allowed for some better maturing and harvest selecting.” “The cool nights and morning fog slowed the ripening and allowed nice flavor development,” said John Balletto, owner of Balletto Vineyards and Winery in Sebastopol. Dry Creek Valley winemaker Steve Rued said his family’s grapes looked excellent and “came off the vineyard really clean. We’ll have lots of flavor to work with.” A few vineyards away, Shelly Rafanelli-Fehlman, winemaker at her family’s Rafanelli Winery, called the 2015 harvest a “decent crop. After you consider we had three years of drought, some tired vines and a real short dormant season last winter, we could have had worse.” She said her merlot grapes look especially good this year and she liked her cabernet sauvignon and zinfandel fruit as well, even though the crops were lighter than expected. Winegrapes dominate Sonoma County’s agriculture production, equalling 67 percent of the county’s total $900 million ag production. Dairy and milk, poultry, livestock and miscellaneous vegetables are the next biggest crops. Like last year, hay, silage, pasture and rangeland suffered the most drought impacts, greatly increasing the prices farmers paid to import feeds and grains. Many ranchers also reduced their cow, cattle and sheep herd sizes. At the same time, prices for organic, grain-fed and
free range livestock and poultry continued to increase along with growing consumer demands. “We’re in a good position here in the North Bay,” said Linegar about the many new niche-marketing and value-added ag products. “More and more people care how their food is being grown and produced. Sonoma County always has had an active livestock industry. We don’t have as many head (size of herds) as in older days, but total sales went up 30 percent just last year.” Sonoma County’s ag landscape is dominated by 60,000 acres of planted vineyards. But it is also home to 4 million chickens, 30,000 cows and 37,000 sheep. There is 325,067 acres of pasture, rangeland and field crops that totalled $11 million in production in 2014. For all that farmland, there are only 500 acres registered as vegetable or table crop production. “It’s true we have the climate and soils to grow our own vegetables and food,” said Linegar, “but we can’t expect everyone to do that. But we are growing enough to support 27 local certified farmers’ markets.” While encouraging more support for the county’s many speciality ag products like organics, free range and heritage species, Linegar also said “farmers have to grow and produce what helps them pay for their land. Right now that’s mostly winegrapes.” Successful farmers keep their lands producing but they also provide wildlife habitat, open space, urban boundaries and environmental protection, the ag commissioner said. “Protecting agriculture and the environment are not mutually exclusive,” Linegar said. “Where do you think our aquifers get re-charged when it rains? Yes, ag can stink; it’s dirty and sometimes it’s noisy. But that’s the reality of farming and sometimes I worry some of the urban people moving here don’t understand that.”
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Harvest edition
October 29, 2015
| H3 |
Dry Creek Valley’s Richard Rued A wannabe cowboy who stayed at home to grow winegrapes instead by Rollie Atkinson Staff Writer A very special type of wisdom can come from farming the same piece of land for almost 60 years. After that much time and that many harvests, the man, the soil and the crops share parts of the same identity. Dry Creek Valley’s Richard Rued knows all about that. He knows the different sounds that nearby Dry Creek makes when the weather changes. He can guage his vineyard’s soil moisture through his workboots. He charts each year by the stages of his vines and the weight of his fruit clusters. He knows it takes more than one great or terrible harvest to make or break a farmer’s spirit. Now age 72, Rued has been working on the family farm since his high school days in the 1950s, when he would jump off the school bus after school and start work in the prune orchard or round-up sheep by horseback. Since the mid-1970s Rued has been growing winegrapes. With his wife Dee and sons Steve and Tom, he built a small winery in 2006. But before that the Rueds had prunes, suffolk sheep, cattle, pears, apples, dairy cows and hay. “For a long time prunes were very good to us but we started converting more to grapes when the prices got better. We just had to find out what the land would produce to pay for itself,” said Richard, relaxing after his most recent harvest. Originally, all the Rued’s grapes were sold to Frei Brothers and Gallo, all dumped into big vats for sauterne or “burgundy” wine. The price was just $60 to $75 a ton, but even that was better than prunes. “We would pick and just show up at the winery like everybody else. They didn’t know we were coming,” said Rued. “Gallo was big and they (brothers Ernest and Julio) were tough businessmen, but we sold to them for quite a long time.” Today, Richard and his
Photo by Sarah Bradbury
GRAND — Rancher, winegrape grower, and winery owner since 2006, Richard Rued and his wife Dee were honored this past year as Grand Marshalls in the Healdsburg Future Farmers Country Fair Twilight Parade.
family farm about 160 acres of vineyards. Besides the home ranch in Dry Creek Valley, they also have acreage in Alexander Valley and in the Olivet Road area of the Russian River Valley. Only a small portion of their grapes are kept for their own winery and label. They sell most of their crop under long-term contracts to Constellation Brands, Michael Draxton, Ferrari Carano, Rutherford Ranch and others. “People who visit the winery tell me I’m living a dream,” said Richard. “I just tell them all I’m doing is farming ... I’m just a grumpy old farmer.” Tasting room visitors only see the more romantic side of the local wine industry. They weren’t here when Rued’s Dry Creek Valley was all ranches and farms and just a few preProhibition wineries without tasting rooms. Now Rued has many new winery neighbors. “I still love Dry Creek Valley but it sure has
ACORN HILL
become a high-rent district. It’s astronomical what some places are selling for nowadays,” he said. “Most of the new people I meet are nice, but they seem to stay to themselves for the most part.” He said he gets asked a lot about “how he made his money” to build a winery. “When I tell them I made it farming they don’t seem to always believe me,” he said because he gets compared to the many newcomers who have moved into the Valley after high-tech, corporate or professional careers elsewhere. At one time, Rued wanted to be a “cowboy.” After graduating from Healdsburg High School he went to Cal Poly to be a cattle rancher, but like many from his generation, he was called back to help his father on the home ranch. Besides farming the two men shared a love for flying airplanes and working on machinery. His father, Paul, was a licensed civilian
instructor and they had a landing strip at the earlier homestead on Soda Rock Lane in Alexander Valley. For a time, Paul also worked as a charter pilot and owned a Piper Comanche. Richard only
an officer or board member at the Sonoma County Farm Bureau, Sonoma County Grape Commission (now Winegrape Growers) and the Healdsburg Future Farmers Country Fair. With his property that includes a long stretch of Dry Creek, he has been a very active voice in the protection and management of the waterway. He long ago lost track of how many public hearings and meetings he’s attended with the Sonoma County Water Agency, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, state water boards and county planners. Richard’s sons are the sixth generation of Rueds to farm in Sonoma County. Richard’s great-great grandfather, Henry, emigrated here from Switzerland in 1876 and worked for Beringer Brothers in Napa Valley. In 1905, Richard’s grandfather, also named Henry, bought a ranch in Alexander Valley and Richard’s father, Paul, expanded the land ownership and bought a small ranch in Dry Creek Valley, the site of Rued Winery today. Originally, the ranch had just two acres of winegrapes, 14 acres of prunes and two rows of apple trees. As part of a high school agriculture class project, Richard started expanding
He said he gets asked a lot about “how he made his money” to build a winery. “When I tell them I made it farming they don’t seem to always believe me.” recently quit flying and gave up his instrument license. Instead of a life of cowpoking, Richard has helped lead a new era of agriculture here when winegrapes became the dominant crop over prunes, dairy and apples. He helped start the Winegrowers of Dry Creek Valley that now has 150 grower members and 60 wineries. He has served as
the family’s vineyard plantings. These days Richard and his wife Dee share ownership of the land with sons Tom and Steve. Steve and his wife Sonia, a native of South Africa, are the winemaking team and Tom serves as the main vineyard manager. The Rueds also have five year-round vineyard workers, plus tasting
room staff. Steve attended U.C. Davis and trained and worked at Kenwood Vineyards, Valley of the Moon and Rutherford Ranch Winery. Sonia first came to the valley as an apprentice at David Stare’s Dry Creek Vineyards. After almost a half century of just being a farmer, Richard sought some advice from his neighbor Joe Rochioli about building a winery. “Joe told me if I put a winery on Dry Creek Road that I should be able to take a lot of money to the bank,” said Richard. It’s been successful, Rued reports, but says he wasn’t expecting all the extra competition from other new wineries along the busy road. “The tourists have more choices now. Where we used to sell a case of wine at a time, we’re not doing as much of that now.” All the same, the Rued wines made by Steve, Sonia and the family consistently fetch excellent reviews. All the grapes are carefully selected from the family vineyards and produced in small lots. The Rued label is well known for its sauvignon blancs (a wine style Steve learned from Mike Lee at Kenwood), as well as its chardonnays, cabernet sauvignons and zinfandels, among a few others. Richard still savors a 2005 Rued Zinfandel and his 2010 cabernet sauvignon. He said the 2014 cabernet sauvignon will be a “nice wine” and has great character and structure. Dee works in the tasting room most days and granddaughters, Allyssa and Nadya, often visit the winery, keeping themselves busy with small chores or visitor welcomes. Richard isn’t slowing down much and is in the vineyards every day, but he admits he’s started thinking about retirement. “I’m trying,” he said about any retirement plans. “I’d like to see more of our country, especially drive across the Great Plains and to the east. I’m ready to see the boys take it over.”
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| H4 | A Commentary
Our Farming Future by Lou Preston
F
rank McClain was a hardworking gentleman of the soil from Oklahoma. With bib overalls, a sweat-stained fedora and gap-toothed grin, he tirelessly tended the gardens at my parents’ home at our family dairy on the Russian River south of town when I was a kid. But Frank’s true love and passion was onions. Big, juicy, Stockton Reds they were, and he Lou Preston snuck them into the loamy soil around our house wherever they were hidden from view. Once a week during the season, he would load up the cavernous trunk of his old post-war Buick and drive to town, parking along Healdsburg Avenue where the fancy hotel is today. Opening the trunk lid released a symphony of sights and smells that drew townsfolk from across the Plaza, out of the bars and coffee shops. In a couple of hours he was sold out, richer in so many ways. For me, he was the first farmer’s market in our town. I was thinking of Frank this morning as I drove from our farm in Dry Creek Valley to the Saturday Farmers Market in Healdsburg. It isn’t a big market this time of year, back-to-school after Labor Day slows it down, tomatoes and peppers and cucumbers are past their peak, visitors to the wine country stay in bed later with the
Harvest edition delayed sun cycle. But for me it’s personal and fun and an important connection with my community. My thoughts also strayed to the old days because I had been asked to write this piece for the harvest issue of the local newspaper on “The Future of Farming in Sonoma County.” Of course, the contrarian in me wants to make the future to be about our past, hence my backward musing. My early experience with farming was a horse of a different color from Frank’s and today’s farmers’ markets. On the old family farm we grew calves for the Sonoma County Auction, milk for the Petaluma Cooperative Creamery, prunes for Sunsweet, walnuts for Diamond Walnut, grapes for Italian Swiss Colony — commodities for a broad market. When I began making wine for myself in the 70s and 80s it was the same thing. You had to sell into the three-tiered market system: first to a distributor, then to stores and restaurants with the involvement of a broker, ultimately to the end consumer whose choices had been drastically filtered by that system. There was no passion, little individuation, no direct contact with customers; just business. But then there is Frank, and Frank is our future. He learned to work around the system by doing what he loved, selling direct, responding to local preferences. Today we have the Internet and farmers markets and wine clubs and CSAs and FarmTrails, and we too are building the personal bonds that connect farmers and artisan food producers with customers and fans. As with food, so with wine. Contrast today’s wine lounge, sporting couches and personal table service, with the former anonymity of a big-box wine warehouse. Think also of the controversial but inevitable wine events that bring visitors out to the country in an atmosphere of conviviality instead of the rigid taste-and-
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run of a traditional tasting room. The future of farming in Sonoma County will be built on a supportive web of relationships connecting everyone with an interest in wholesome and healthy local food. As Carlo Petrini, the founder of Slow Food, tells us, we are all “co-producers.” We have a close friend in the restaurant business here in Healdsburg who is a visionary about food and farming. Jil Hales of Barndiva Restaurant conceived of a computer program a few years ago to connect farmers and chefs linking food availability and needs. “Fork and Shovel” it was called, and it generated a lot of buzz and excitement, but it was a little ahead of its time. Potential users simply couldn’t be burdened or bothered with carrying around a laptop in the kitchen or the field. Now enter the cellphone and another visionary, Nick Papadopolous. His clever and handy app and website CropMobster uses social media and instant alerts “to spread the word about local food excesses, to get healthy food to those in need, help farmers recover costs, prevent food waste, and connect our community in new and fun ways”. Sounds to me like a modern Frank McClain. Getting back to my task of writing a piece for the local paper. One of my pet peeves as you have probably gathered from
Wineries will get to know their local farmers, not just through the services of a caterer, but directly, personally and collaboratively.
October 29, 2015 earlier letters is the monoculture of viticulture. Setting aside the environmental damage caused by the ubiquity of a single crop, the presence of grapes everywhere is a bit boring, don’t you think? Those out of town guests staying in that fancy hotel will only visit so many wineries before looking around for something else to do. And what better in this nirvana of soil riches that is Sonoma than to experience the culture of farming. Pick up a FarmTrails map, introduce yourself to a local steward of the land, pet his lambs, taste her strawberries, kick their dirt, breathe the air. As our friend Jil would say, “Eat the View” . So my reading of the oft-clouded crystal ball has me betting on a dynamic network and community of small farm producers, growing what they love and sharing what they do in a very responsive and personal way. Whether cheeses, bread, eggs or eggplant, their products will be integrated with our famed wines as an attraction and reward for visitors from around the world. Wineries will get to know their local farmers, not just through the services of a caterer, but directly, personally and collaboratively. More and more they will become true neighbors, sharing their soils and their stories. The slogan “Food and Wine” will become more than a subtext in a tourist magazine; it will be a way of life. Thank you Frank. Lou and Susan Preston are the owners of Preston of Dry Creek, a diversified, organic and biodynamic farm and winery in Dry Creek Valley. Lou writes a quarterly letter to their Wineclub membership on the life and lore, times and traditions of their valley and the town of Healdsburg; it’s his take on social media. This is the first ever public peek at one of those storied letters. You can contact Lou at lou@lousmusings.com with comments and questions.
Harvest edition
October 29, 2015
| H5 |
The hippest chicks around Hip Chick Farms focuses on transparency, quality by Krista Sherer Staff Writer Hip Chick Farms certainly has something to crow about. With Chef Jen Johnson and co-founder Serafina Palandech recently voted as two of the “Most Innovative Women in Food & Drink” by Food and Wine Magazine, you might say Hip Chicks are looking at life sunny side up. Located in Sebastopol, Hip Chick Farms is the brainchild of Chef Johnson. Formerly the sous chef at Chez Panisse, Johnson found her love of cooking farm fresh locally sourced food while working with Alice Waters for 10 years. After a quick stint in Montana working as a chef at a dude ranch, she skedaddled her way back to the Bay Area and began working as a private chef for Ann and Gordon Getty. Johnson has been working for the Gettys for the last 15 years. Hip Chicks live on their farm, the Rambling Rose and house two horses, two donkeys, two dogs, two cats and lots of chickens. Both women worked on ranches in the past and their love of animals is apparent. “One of the ways I feel I can be authentic in creating this business is by shoveling manure in the morning and then feeding billionaires in the afternoon,” Johnson said. “It’s good to keep it real.” It was while cooking for the Getty’s Montessori school that Johnson found her chicken fingers and other recipes were a hit with kids and their moms. Johnson and Palandech both thought it would be a good idea to start their own family business after settling down. Their relationship is a traditional one, with one partner (Johnson) handling the creative side of the business and bringing home the bacon, while Palandech stays home, controls the marketing side of the business and attends to their daughter’s developing needs. Johnson is proud to say their products have no added hormones, artificial preservatives or fillers.
western Sonoma nuggets, just pure County is a good chopped chicken fit for their family and seasonings. and their philosoPalandech said phies. many companies “West County brine their chicken is so thriving and or use rice starchhas so many small es with the hope of farms that are decreasing yield doing very interloss in their prodesting things uct. based in sustain“Jen is a purist able agriculture,” and we wanted to Johnson said. represent what “There are people real chicken tastes here in agricullike. It speaks to ture that are realthe artisan maker ly trying to make versus the mass a difference in the produced,” world and we love Palandech said. — Jen Johnson that.” Both partners Johnson said agree that they the community love local efforts has supported and want to apply them in their process of starting a the foundation of sustainable organnew business. It was also very ic practices in their product. They important to both Johnson and also want to build a national brand. Palandech to be in an environment They say there is nothing small with their daughter where they felt about their ideas or personalities. safe as a queer family. Although “Particularly in Sonoma County, Johnson said they are a transparent the natural food industry is on fire,” company, it was never her goal to be Palandech said “We’ve seen the phethe face of an LGBTQ company for nomenal rise in people really caring frozen foods, but she is happy to and wanting to know where their wear that hat as well as the many food is coming from and we are just others they both wear. a tiny little company in the tide There is no doubt that Johnson is change across the country.” committed to quality – her life and Many times brands will grow business partner Palandech said she quickly and face a challenge to susis authentic in everyway. As a chef, tain quality. Johnson was taught to never use Palandech said Hip Chicks is frozen foods but she feels that this committed to not only offer the best perception is changing. product on the market but also be Because Hip Chicks makes its the most widely distributed. “I think products in small, handmade, hand the differentiator is that we are cut batches, cooked and immediately determined to do both things,” she frozen, their product is instantly said. suspended and protected in its qualiHip Chicks’ three core values are ty. “All of our ingredients are very trust, transparency and compassion. highly sourced and I won’t settle for Palandech said they are a small anything less. I won’t add anything I family living simply and wanting to can’t stand behind,” Johnson said. create a beautiful product that peo“What I love about our product is ple can enjoy, feel good eating and that you can see it, read it and know that is compassionately made. exactly who is behind it 100 per“Everyone should have the right cent.” to eat healthy natural food that is There is no filler in Hip Chicks made with love,” Palandech said.
“One of the ways I feel I can be authentic in creating this business is by shoveling manure in the morning and then feeding billionaires in the afternoon. It’s good to keep it real.”
Photo by Krista Sherer
HIP FAMILY — Jen Johnson and Serafina Palendech with their daughter Rubyrose and two of family pets, Pepper the Percheron horse and Franny the Sicilian donkey.
The chicken used for Hip Chicks products is from Mary’s Free Range Chicken, which is known for natural and organic chickens raised without antibiotics. With Johnson as a chef and both women advocates for humane treatment of animals, Hip Chick Farms stands by their products being transparently sourced and truly natural.
“We say our chickens only have one bad day,” Johnson said. Both women are city transplants who wanted to live in the country. After getting married in 2009 and having their daughter Rubyrose, Johnson said they wanted her to have a country upbringing, know how to grow food and raise animals humanely. Both women agree that
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hArvESt 2015 is a special supplement to the October 29, 2015 edition of:
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| H6 |
Harvest edition
October 29, 2015
Sourcing and using local grains is a hands-on labor of love ... Healdsburg’s SHED, a farm stand, restaurant, home the local economy and a goods shop and community center rolled into one, and reduced carbon footprint.” For Wilson, flour milled they are deeply committed to from Front Porch Farm is supporting local agriculture. There’s a lot going on at incomparable with what most customers have access to at SHED, but tucked in one corner is a small room labeled the grocery store. “We do 100-percent whole “mill.” Indeed inside is a grain and that’s a big deal. A wooden mill. It’s about the lot of the shelf-bought flours, size a small bakery would even though they’re whole need, Daniel says. SHED also buys grain grain, aren’t 100-percent from Front Porch Farm and whole grain,” he says. “In the process of milling, they mill it and use a percentthey take the bran and the age of it in their pastries, germ and separate it and cookies and crackers. They sell wholesale flour to then they add it back and they only use a certain per- a few small bakeries in the centage, but with ours the area and anyone can buy bags whole grain is just milled of freshly milled flour from fresh, put in a bag and put on their refrigerated section. Recently miller and grain a shelf. There’s no additional processing involved. And that farmer Mai Nguyen started makes a much healthier prod- coming to SHED every Friday to mill grain purchased from uct.” When Sullberg first got the Front Porch Farm as well as idea to use local flour for his some of her own grain. HANDCRAFTED — Osvaldo Jimenez makes pie crust at Noble Folk using flour made from locally grown grain. She fills the hopper of the pie crusts, he turned to Cindy Daniel and Doug Lipton for little pine mill with grains of 12-inch diameter stones pretty “rudimentary technolo- says. and they filter down into the grind them into flour. help and advice. gy” and the key is to maintain “We want to be part of that Daniel and Lipton own body of the mill where a pair Nguyen says the mill is the correct speed. conversation and we want to “You could easily get a be helping it along and see superfine grain if you’re where it can go.” pumping a ton in and grindFor Sulberg, it’s about voting it really hard,” she says, ing with his dollar. He knows “but then you’re increasing that a recurring order from the temperature, and you’re his business can provide basically destroying all of steady income for the farms those enzymes and stuff that he works with. people are looking for and He says that his pies have that are making it actually a narrow profit margin, but healthy and easy to digest.” that his ice creams are more For Daniel, the high cost profitable, which is why they of using local grains and the work well together. technical issues of incorpo“This is how I do it. Any rating the flour into recipes business class that I’ve been are major challenges that to, they would probably think prevent local grains from that I’m an idiot. But you pick being grown and widely used. your battles,” he says. “I She hopes that by working would rather maybe not make cooperatively, local farmers, a ton of money off of the pie millers and bakers can over- but have this thing that I can come them. really stand behind and feel “What we want to do is good about.” continue to work with farmWilson hopes small deciers and be part of this kind of sions by local farmers to grow coalition or this loose group grains, by bakers to use them Photo by Holly Fox of people who are seeing and by customers to purchase OLD SCHOOL — Mai Nguyen grinds her own flour using the small wooden mill at Healdsburg’s SHED. where we can go with it,” she products made from them, GRAINS from page 1
Photo by Holly Fox
could have large long-term effects. “We’re working cooperatively and if as a community we can build more of a local grain shed, it becomes more viable for smaller farmers on smaller pieces of land,” he says. “If we think on a more macro scale, the more people that are buying locally grown, locally raised products, it will give farmers more viability, which will get people back on the land, more farmers, more food and healthier rural economies.” Customers inspired by the pastries at Noble Folk and SHED can buy freshly milled Front Porch Farm grains at both locations to take home and turn into bread, pancakes or muffins. It might take a little experimenting. For pie crust, Sullberg recommends using a little more butter and ice-cold apple cider vinegar for tenderness.
Harvest edition
October 29, 2015
| H7 |
SRJC’s Shone Farm experiment Cultivating ag producers and leaders for the future by Krista Sherer Staff Writer Shone Farm, a 365-acre outdoor learning lab operated by Santa Rosa Junior College, is cultivating agricultural leaders who care about a sustainable future. As one of the first community colleges in the state to receive a National Science Foundation grant to promote sustainability and sustainable agriculture education, the students of Shone Farm are the cream of the crop. In a county where farming is woven into history, one could see why a program like Shone Farm is so vital. Santa Rosa Junior College’s (SRJC) Agriculture/Natural Resources Department is the only community college certificate program in sustainable agriculture and is the fastest growing program in the school. Shone Farms manager Leonard Diggs believes in the wisdom of farming practices that are native to the area. Diggs said accessing this information is essential for those who are not connected to a farming background as well as those wanting to be a part of the changing face of agriculture. “It can be difficult to find places to learn farming because it’s a provincial occupation,” Diggs said. “Many times the knowledge and extensive resources are lost with the lineages that have passed on.” Diggs said Shone Farm is also important for the community because not only does it foster old practices of farming, the programs create new farmers in rapidly
Photo by Krista Sherer
TINY HOUSES — SRJC students are building their own houses in a new program at the college’s Shone Farm.
changing food systems. “It’s a key issue that as the majority of farmers are getting older, we need a whole new generation of people involved in the food system,” Diggs said. There are six specified areas of study at Shone Farm. The SRJC Agriculture Department offers programs in sustainable agriculture, viticulture, wine studies, equine studies, animal science and environmental conservation. Diggs said he is excited about all of the programs and the support they give to students in expanding their knowledge. He said he is always focused on the basics and tries to avoid being distracted by trends. “It’s a vocational training program,” Diggs said.
“People need to start from the bottom up and learn the basics really well. Because if they don’t learn the basics really well, then it’s harder to develop the management and ownership skills that many of them want.” A new concept at SRJC is the Tiny House Club,
The club’s vision is to create a sustainable housing system for students enrolled in SRJC and enrolled in programs at Shone Farm. formed by a handful of students at Shone Farm. With the goal of addressing student equity issues associated with reasonable housing in Sonoma County, the
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group of students created the club this year. The forestry section provides the lumber for the club. With the Natural Resources Management Program recently adding a sawmill to its program, lumber is milled from the 120 acres of forest at Shone Farm and given to the club to build small, sustainable houses. “It’s an opportunity to use the lumber on the farm, to take down trees that may need to be thinned out a bit and actually put the lumber to use,” Diggs said. “It helps the students see the aspect of production in natural resource management paired with the recreational component they are also learning,” Diggs said. The club’s vision is to create a sustainable housing system for students enrolled in SRJC and enrolled in programs at Shone Farm. The club hopes to build tiny homes for students who can trade sweat equity at the farm towards a tiny house and also take out a small loan with a goal of taking the house with them when they graduate the program. Sustainable agriculture student and Tiny House
Club president Alan Hamilton said he had always been interested in tiny houses because of their sustainability and low resource footprint. With a
shortage of hands to help in the sustainable agriculture department with producing, harvesting and maintaining the farm’s gardens, Hamilton suggested tiny houses to help with student housing for the farm. “I thought it would be a good idea to build more student houses so that students could stay out here and work together on the farm,” Hamilton said. “We need more students to be as efficient as possible in what we do out here.” Because many students enrolled in Shone Farm are interested in finding housing that is not only low cost but also environmentally friendly, Hamilton said the student-built tiny house project is a great fit for the campus. The club hopes to keep the cost of building each home around $25,000. “We will be using the lumber from the forest here, and we’re going to re-purpose as much materials as possible from places like Habitat for Humanity or construction companies.” Hamilton said. The club recently created a tiny house mock-up for the farm’s harvest fair. Hamilton said the club is still working on a prototype, which will be ready to go after the first tiny house is finished. “I’m really attracted to the idea that students can attend a program here and then leave with their own tiny house when they are done,” Hamilton said. “They can actually leave here and take their tiny house and go and start their own farm and not be in such debt.” Tiny House Club member
and sustainable agriculture student Robin Galbraith said the club can also teach students skills such as construction practices and creative sustainable designs. These additional skills provide tangible life experience on top of academic learning in the program, Galbraith said. “This is not just about housing, it’s also about learning,” Galbraith said. “We’re not only hoping to help people get homes, but we want to teach them how to build a home as well.”
Photo by Krista Sherer
SWEET —Shone Farm hosted a family day recently where visitors got to pick some of the fruits of labor grown this year by SRJC students.
Harvest edition
| H8 |
October 29, 2015
Heirlooms welcomed here by Patricia M. Roth Staff Writer Seeds are our history and our future—and since 2011, thousands of small farmers, home gardeners, students, food activists and enthusiasts have converged upon the Santa Rosa Fairgrounds to attend the National Heirloom Exposition, known also as the “World’s Fair of Pure Food.” Paul Wallace of Sebastopol organizes the expo for Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company, and in five years the event’s attendance has doubled, reaching 20,000 this past September. He also manages the Petaluma Seed Bank, a retail store that opened in an historic bank building in downtown Petaluma in 2009, drawing on the region’s strong interest in heirloom seeds. Heirloom seeds are those
which are open-pollinated, non-treated and non-patented. “An heirloom in the seed industry is like an antique in the furniture world. It’s been handed down from generation to generation because it had a quality worth saving,” Wallace said. Educating the public about pure food is the driving force behind both enterprises—and the success of the retail store and the annual event has been phenomenal, Wallace said. “We are helping to educate on all issues surrounding pure food, which is food that grows seasonally and locally. We encourage people to know their farmer, to eat locally and to know where their food comes from,” Wallace said. That food philosophy could well be Sonoma County’s hallmark. “At this point in time, you have an enormous amount of
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mindful farmers in the area. At farmers markets, where those tomatoes were just harvested the night before, the nutritional content of that food is so much more dense, so Sonoma County is known for that, absolutely,” Wallace said. Originally from Cork, Ireland, Wallace sold a successful hardware store enterprise that he and a partner grew in San Francisco, and he moved to Sebastopol. Though his family always grew their own chemical-free vegetables and raised their own hormone-free meat for their children, who had food sensitivities, it wasn’t until Wallace traveled to Africa with one of his home-schooled sons, whose passion was gardening and permaculture, that he had a transformative experience about the importance of seeds. “My son and I hiked Mount
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Kilimanjaro, and after we got off the mountain, my son’s project was to meet farmers and growers in Tanzania. That was an eye-opener for me. A lot of poorer nations are conditioned to growing genetically modified crops. Farmers can’t save their own seed and have to buy more seed because they are patented,” Wallace said. When Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company was searching for a seed store location in California, Wallace came on board. “Baker Creek has consciously steered away from genetically modified seed. Since the seed bank opened in June 2009, it’s been phenomenal, not only as an educational experience but also as a viable business,” Wallace said. Homeowners and farmers market gardeners and growers comprise the bulk of the Petaluma Seed Bank’s business. The store offers 1,700 varieties of heirloom seeds. “Not all varieties are money makers, and we acquire them and sell them to preserve diversity. If you look at our tomato selection, we have 200 varieties of tomatoes and these are seeds that could become extinct. I liken it to the potato famine in Ireland, when there were limited varieties being grown and [one disease] wiped out the country. If you have
diversity, you have diversity in taste and flavor but also in disease-resistance.” Wallace said that more than 90 percent of the corn and 90 percent of the soy that is grown in the US is genetically modified and controlled by chemical companies. “That means no less than 10 percent of the crop can be like Mother Nature intended. With patented crops, you cannot save those seeds, and that’s why a lot of farmers were being sued for patent infringement. That’s not the way Mother Nature intended our food supply to be, controlled by monopolies.” The demand for the Petaluma Seed Bank’s $2.50 packets of seeds has been brisk, particularly for families and schools growing their own gardens. Customers come from “all over the map,” Wallace said. “It surprises me how Petaluma attracts so many visitors and tourists.” The seed store also sells tools, books, homesteading supplies and other off-season products and holds free classes nearly weekly that are open to the general public. “We like to think we are facilitators and educators. People are coming here in thirst of knowledge and seed varieties. There is no pressure selling. We get a lot of school
tours coming to the seed bank. It’s so rewarding to see kids walk off with packets of seeds to plant in their backyards, and they are helping to educate their parents,” Wallace said. Two years after the Petaluma store opened, the first National Heirloom Exposition debuted at the Santa Rosa Fairgrounds to showcase diversity, the heirloom movement and pure food. “We piggybacked with the Slow Food movement and the non-GMO world,” Wallace explained. Attendees couldn’t seem to get enough of the heirloom produce displays, speakers, contests, educational trade show, workshops, the poultry and livestock show and garden art. Seed company representatives shared the benefits of organic, locally grown, non-GMO foods, which is in line with the expo’s mission. “The most important part of the National Heirloom Festival is education. We are giving back to the community and helping to educate. It’s exciting to see the caliber of not only the attendees but the speakers that come from all over the world for the good of the industry to educate people surrounding pure food,” Wallace said.
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Harvest edition
October 29, 2015
| H9 |
Let’s Preserve
PRESERVING THE HARVEST — On a recent Saturday, Healdsburg High School was a bustling setting for canning the last of the tomato abundance. Let’s Preserve, an event sponsored by the local chapter of Soroptimist
International and coordinated by Food to Pantry, hosted two shifts of volunteers. Tomatoes gleaned by Farm to Pantry were washed, sliced, roasted, blended, simmered, canned, labeled and delivered to Healdsburg’s Food Pantry for distribution. – Photos by Sarah Bradbury
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| H10 |
Harvest edition
October 29, 2015
Diseases infiltrate grapevines New and old viruses, diseases showing up this year by Kat Gore Staff Writer According to those in the wine industry, the biggest factors affecting the grape harvest in Sonoma County have been the drought and temperature fluctuations. However, another harmful influence is the handful of diseases that spread throughout vineyards. This year, powdery mildew, Red Blotch and Pierce’s Disease are key players. The interviews for this story were conducted in late September, prior to the conclusion of harvest. Powdery mildew is temperature dependent for the Photo by Kat Gore rate in which it grows and PRETTY, BUT DEADLY — Red Blotch is a newly discovered grapevine virus that appears to reduce the sugar spreads by spores. The fungus accumulation in infected vines. Above is the virus in an Alexander Valley vineyard.
sets up shop on grape leaves, shoots, berries and inside clusters. It reproduces and spreads more spores. From Geyserville to Graton, June and July were in the perfect temperature zone of daily highs for powdery mildew to reproduce at the fastest rate possible. Certain parts of the county even saw the fungus back in March, April and May. Redwood Empire Vineyard Management Viticulturist Dan Rotlisberger said that powdery mildew infections can cause almost complete crop loss if left unchecked. “Eventually, it turns the fruit to unpalatable mush. Because of that, most wineries have a zero tolerance for any pow-
dery mildew infection,� Rotlisberger said. Dr. Mark Greenspan, viticulturist at Advanced Viticulture, said that powdery mildew has been a problem this year, like every other year. Advanced Viticulture is a winegrowing consulting and vineyard management company that covers ground all over the state, focusing primarily on Sonoma, Napa and Mendocino Counties. Greenspan said that although the mildew was a problem earlier in the season, it hasn’t had much of a carryover effect into harvest. Eva Bartlett, associate vineyard manager for VIRUS continues on page 15
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Harvest edition
October 29, 2015
| H11 |
Apples finding a new niche Organics selling well as heyday of commercial crop fades by Frank Robertson Staff Writer The guy from Healdsburg’s Dry Creek Peach & Produce was nearly sold out of fruit by the time we got to the Santa Rosa farmers’ market on a recent fall Saturday morning. Dry Creek Peach & Produce owner Brian Sullivan and his wife Gayle Okumura Sullivan are renowned for their peaches and other stone fruit crops, but they know about apples too. It wasn’t such a good year for apples, said Brian Sullivan, who looks like the new foodie entrepreneurs, young, well-groomed and easy with a manner that suggests a college grad with a business plan and dirt on his hands. He wore a nice pair of sturdy shoes, utilitarian leather laceups. It isn’t a big year for apples, he said, because the nights haven’t been cold enough. Weather that’s not cold enough? When do we hear growers complaining about the weather not being cold? That’s the word this year. Growers are seeing “Fewer winter nights that freeze,” according to a report this year entitled “Climate Ready Sonoma County: Climate Hazards and Vulnerabilities” prepared for the Sonoma County Regional Climate Protection Authority (RCPA). The report notes that freezing evening temperatures are “an important aspect of healthy plant communities and pest control.” Without those cold nights, “Warm-climate pathogens and disease vectors, as well as invasive species may thrive under increasing winter minimum
Photo by Ray Holley
SMALL BATCHES — Locally grown, locally sold apples are a mainstay of farmers’ markets.
temperatures.” What growers can expect going forward are “projected increases in winter low temperatures,” which will be “greater than projected increases in summer high temperatures,” says the report. In other words, California’s nights are getting warmer. “The state’s temperatures (high, low, average) are rising,” said the RCPA report. “Extreme heat events have increased in duration and frequency and the rate of warming has accelerated since the mid-1970s. Nighttime minimum temperatures have increased almost two times as fast as maximum daytime temperatures.” This year’s apple crop may be continuing the trend. Last year, “Apples experienced their lowest yield per acre in recent history,” Sonoma
County Agriculture Commissioner Tony Linegar wrote in the 2014 crop report. “The lack of adequate winter chill hours had a severe impact on the crop. This pattern of insufficient winter chill has caused concern for tree fruit producers across the state.” Other growers agree the apple harvest was a little meager this year, owing to what Bella Ridge Farm owner Ted Richardson called “weird weather.” “We’re down about a third” in total production, said Richardson, who grows rare varietals of apples at his Bella Ridge Farm in Occidental and sells at the farmers’ market too, one of the few local apple vendors there. The crop may be small, but how’d it taste? I bought several rare varieties from Bella Ridge;
Gingergold, for example. “A little tart,” I thought, tasting the Gingergold. It occurred to me that some of these varieties may be rare for a good reason — they don’t taste so hot. The once-mighty Gravenstein apple, offering possibly the county’s greatest apple-tasting experience, was still a million-dollar crop last year, worth $1,079,800, according to the county crop report, but the trend was downward from the year before. At Sebastopol’s 100-yearold Hale’s Apple Farm stand on Gravenstein Highway North, a cashier said this year’s Gravenstein crop was “pretty good,” but everything else, “pretty light.” A customer buying Jonagolds paid $1.50 for two apples. It may have been a fair price. The Jonagold, a
cross between Golden Delicious and Jonathan apples, is an old American variety that tends to grow large and has what’s been called “excellent dessert flavor.” But it can be an apple you may take a raw bite out of and wonder, “Who thought this fusion would be a good idea?” Hale’s is on Gravenstein Highway, named for the famed apple that once defined Sebastopol’s agricultural epicenter. The Gravenstein now may reign as more of a loving memory of the fresh tasting goodness from an apple whose commercial rap was “tastes great but has no shelf life.” It’s still nurtured, praised and produced by a coterie of devoted loyalists such as Sebastopol’s Dutton and Walker families, whose apples
are in demand as organic varietals. Slow Food Russian River lists 23 apple growers such as Bella Ridge where you can buy fresh organically grown apples in Sonoma County. A bright spot for apple growers now is the organic market and the good prices apples bring at the county’s last remaining commercial apple processor, Manzana Products in Graton. Tom Noble of Guerneville’s Armstrong Valley Farm said his Gravenstein crop was nothing to write home about. His family’s been farming here since 1906. How was his apple crop this year? “OK,” said Noble, a regular vendor at the Santa Rosa farmers’ market. “I’d say just OK.” In late summer and early fall, when the Santa Rosa farmers’ market is full of promise and prosperity, you have to admire the bountiful exuberance radiating from all the young vendors selling locally grown greens, eggs, garlic and parsley, not to mention beef, pork, fish — even apples. Among such glorious bounty it may seem like there’s little to fear from a few warmer nights. We were standing somewhere near the mob in front of Cazadero-based Raymond’s Bakery stall at the market one Sunday this September, a few yards away from the Occidental mushroom vendor and only a short walk to the young woman cranking a roasting basket of Romano beans that she douses with sauce and sells like orders of French fries to a line of waiting customers. “We are so lucky to have this,” I heard a woman say.
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Harvest edition
October 29, 2015 YIELDS from page 1
Vineyard Management also pointed to the cold temperatures as a large factor in the harvest, but didn’t discount the impacts of the decreased rainfall entirely. “I think the greatest effect of multiple years of drought is that the vines repeatedly utilized the same small patch of wetted soil under our micro-drip emitters for their water and nutrient uptake, leaving the dry surrounding soil underutilized,� Bugica said. “That means their demands for additional fertilizers are higher and the likelihood of nutrient imbalance is far higher. We do our best to offset that with costly fertilizers and foliar nutrients, but there is only so much you can do on an agricultural scale to make up for the depredations of drought.� Bugica said the drought was also leading vineyard managers and grape growers to use irrigation sparingly. “They want to do their part to reduce water use,� he said. “Unfortunately, repeated droughts make irrigation that much more critical and the impacts of reduced water availability can have a lasting impact on perennial crops like grapes. You
can’t just let them suffer during a drought year and expect them to turn around and provide you with good crops again in the next normal year.� The variety of climates within the county also means that some winegrape growers aren’t feeling the drought whatsoever, but suffered regardless due to the cold spring. Ross Cobb of Cobb Wines said his 2015 harvest was 80 percent below previous years, despite his vines getting plenty of rain. “We had 48 inches of rain on the coast this winter,� said Cobb, whose family’s Coastal Vineyard overlooks the Pacific Ocean four miles to the west. “This is a temperate rainforest. We get over 100 inches of rain on a heavy year and very rarely do we get less than 50 inches.� By comparison, Healdsburg saw only 22 inches of rain last winter. Rain had little to do with Cobb’s grape harvest results, he said. “People are saying the light crop is drought-related but it’s not so on the coast,� he said, calling May one of the coldest in 85 years. “It was wet, cold and foggy for 21 days of May and that cold weather coincided with our flowering so most of our crop loss was related to that, not the lack of water.�
Despite the smaller harvest, whether due to the ongoing droughts effects on the vines or the cold spring, winemakers are vociferous in their excitement for upcoming 2015 vintages. “I am extremely excited about the wines we have in barrel because I think they’re very intense and really high quality. I just wish we had a little bit more of it,â€? said Michael Zardo, winemaker at Ten Acre Winery, which produces pinot noir and chardonnay. “The smaller the berries you have, the less juice per berry and that gives you more intense wines, more tannins and deeper color. With red wines, everything you get that makes red wine come out is in the skins. So with more skin-to-juice you get more of those qualities.â€? As Californians reduced statewide water usage a cumulative 28.7 percent between June and August of this year, the possibility of a wet El NiĂąo winter brings a hopeful glimmer to the eye as well as concerns about flooding. Meteorologist Matt Wanink of the Western Weather Group said a “fairly strongâ€? El NiĂąo has developed, but that doesn’t necessarily mean rain.
| H13 |
Photo by Alan Baker
SHATTER — This cluster of Mendocino Ridge Riesling shows the effects of ‘shatter,’ resulting from low temperatures and insufficient sunlight.
“There’s a good chance we could see above normal rainfall,â€? Wanink said. “In El NiĂąo years, Northern California typically sees wetter conditions, but in some cases in the past it has been just as dry.â€? Wanink said the result of the El NiĂąo weather pattern would not be apparent until the county’s usual rainy season, November through April.
With the drought’s end not yet in sight, winemakers are busy putting 2015 wines together, some of them wary of another dry winter. “This was probably the last year that we can go about winemaking as usual without the normal rainfall,� Cartograph’s Alan Baker said. “The wells are not infinitely deep and if we get cheated this winter, I think next summer’s going to be very difficult.�
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Sure, there are other adult beverages made here in Sonoma County, but only hard cider Ad title/slug: 3X2 color smalluses bannerour beloved Gravenstein apple. Returned approval due by: 9-25-14 Sonoma Cider’s tree-ripened Gravensteins (like all our ingredients) are certified organic, hand-selected, and pressed with Scheduled to run in: Harvest 2014 loving care, always without concentrates or preservatives. Locally made, award-winning, and ridiculously delicious. Please check this proof carefully for errors and omissions. Your signature below constitutes acceptance of
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THANK YOU, SONOMA COUNTY, FOR ANOTHER OUTSTANDING HARVEST.
P R E S E R V I N G LO CA L AG R I C U LT U R E
It’s a busy and exciting time here in Sonoma County. The late nights. The early mornings. The extra trucks and tractors on the road. But we also recognize that harvest season can be a little extra hectic for everyone here. Which is why, as the season winds down, the Sonoma County Winegrowers would like to extend our sincere appreciation to the entire community for your patience and support. Thank you for making Sonoma County such a welcoming, beautiful and bountiful place to live. And, as we enter the holiday season, we hope you toast family and friends with a local Sonoma County wine. Cheers! Relive the excitement and energy of this year’s season with our harvest tracker at SonomaWineGrape.org/harvest
Harvest edition
October 29, 2015
| H15 |
Red leaves usually indicate a virus that affects yield ... VIRUS from page 10
Constellation Brands, said that this year was the worst she’s seen powdery mildew, since she began working for Constellation in 2006. “Once you get an infection, it’s extremely difficult to eradicate. It’s much easier on everyone if you can prevent it, but the weather and early growing season made the pressure high for mildew growth,� she said. Bartlett added that her team, which grows grapes in Sonoma and Mendocino Counties, was lucky this year in catching the disease early and the crop looks healthy. An aspect of living in this area is watching the grape leaves change color. Greenspan said that grape leaves turn yellow when they age during the fall or under water stress. Sometimes physical and gopher damage can cause vine leaves to turn red, but those are usually isolated vines. Leaves do not normally turn red unless a virus is present.
There are other viruses that can cause red leaves, but most of the time the change in color is due to grapevine leafroll disease or Red Blotch virus diseases. “The sea of red leaves you see is due to a virus,� Greenspan said. The newly discovered Red Blotch virus has a profound effect on ripening and it is unknown what spreads it. Greenspan said that this year, harvest began early and temperatures were warm, so in most cases, the grapes have been ripening anyway. “It’s hard to get away from Red Blotch, that seems to be the most prevalent and troublesome problem out there,� Greenspan said. “It’s systemic in the plant. Later in the season, after ripening starts, the leaves start turning red and they reduce their capacity to produce sugar and the whole process of ripening gets slowed down,� Greenspan said. Eventually, the fruit stops accumulating sugar altogether, which can
be accompanied by a stalling out in flavor development. Over time, Red Blotch reduces yields, Greenspan said. Bartlett mentioned that a couple of blocks at a high-end ranch in Alexander Valley are being pulled out due to Red Blotch and the disease has popped up in other vineyards as well. Greenspan said Pierce’s Disease has been worse this year than he’s seen in a number of years. He said the disease stunts vines, can render them useless and even kill them, thus affecting crop yields. This year, he’s seen the disease affect vines inside and on the edges of blocks, and both close to and away from riparian zones, which the disease used to be restricted to. Insects spread the bacterium that causes Pierce’s Disease. “We think maybe in 2012 they (the insects) were flying more and affected a lot of vines and now we’re starting to see the symptoms of the disease,� Greenspan said. He said
Pierce’s Disease tends to work in cycles. Bartlett said that it’s odd where the disease is expressing itself this year. “This spring, I’ve never seen symptoms so severe, in a couple ranches,� she said. Bartlett estimated that one vineyard where Russian River and Dry Creek meet has lost over an acre to Pierce’s Disease over the last few years. Consultant Dr. James Stamp of Stamp Associates Viticulture in Sebastopol said that with viruses, like Red Blotch and grapevine leafroll disease, wine quality is reduced. “Growers aren’t able to perhaps harvest the levels of sugars they’d like to harvest at, or with the ripeness component they’d like to achieve. In the bigger scale of things, it means that growers have had to replant and tear vineyards out when they’ve only been planted for maybe three or four years,� Stamp said. When taking the drought, tem-
perature fluctuations and diseases into account, Greenspan, Bartlett and Stamp agreed that harvest is progressing well, albeit crop yields are low this year. Greenspan said, “The obvious problem has been heat waves late in the season. The diseases haven’t been as problematic for harvest this year.� He said that the water supply has been limited and vines are showing the effects. Barlett said that harvest is going well. “The crop is light, so that’s a little bit of a negative. We probably aren’t as impacted as people on the Central Coast or Sonoma Coast, but our estimates this year are very low compared to average,� she said. Stamp said harvest is going along faster than it has in awhile. “The limited availability of water affects everything that impacts grapevine plants,� Stamp said. “There is less quality than there has been in the last three or four years and the yield is down.�
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