Winter Rains = Chemical Herbicides

This time of year Phillip and I drive around with blinders on our eyes. Even to the point where we've declared to each other we need to leave our area during this time. Just the 5 mile drive to our favorite farm stand, Nature's Touch, in Templeton creates anxiety, bewilderment and frustration. Yes--we, as a collective group of ranchers/farmers/landowners/residents, welcome with outstretched and up stretched arms rain, yet we hasten to then don our sprayers to apply chemical herbicides to our fence lines, to the grasses growing under the rows of vines, to the 3 feet around our fruit trees, under our olive trees, around road signs, barns, sidewalks (public and private), trees in our parks, and the list goes on and on. With the advent of rain, California transforms overnight from our dried and burned landscape to lush, green, ripe fields--burgeoning with native grasses, wheat, weeds, wildflowers. But how dare such wonders grow in unwanted places! So herbicides are applied, to kill. And indeed, the vibrant green changes to yellow and red as the growth is dying. Whatever pollinators (honey bees, bumble bees, native bees, butterflies, moths, birds) have happened to land also reap the herbicides. I often wonder if the earthworms, too, die as quickly as the grasses and weeds. And take a look at the people applying herbicides--they are wearing gloves, masks, some even wear full body suits. How ironic--unsafe to breathe, but okay to eat the fruit from that sprayed tree?

This is a time for you, too, to look around and perhaps apply the blinders--are your favorite vineyards, orchards, gardens and farms also spraying? The telltale sign is yellow and red and death amidst vibrant, natural green. And if you care, then apply the "blinders" where necessary.

What's Blooming in the Winter Garden?

Isn't it wonderful the garden gives us magical, colorful treasures in the grey cloud, cold of Winter? Phillip and I have enjoyed looking out our bedroom window every morning to see California wildflowers and irises blooming around our patio. And walking through the garden opens daily discoveries of plants showing their most incredible beauties.

In the previous post, I mentioned the baby plants of Borage that have started themselves by seed in the garden. Borage is a lovely plant to have in any garden: the leaves are edible and offer a taste of cucumber, adding a spike of freshness to salads and soups, and the lovely purple/blue flowers are edible as well--I use them to adorn desserts, soups and salads. Just imagine a rustic orange colored butternut squash soup garnished with a single, lovely borage flower (I think this is on the menu for tonight...). Borage is also a fantastic plant for bees and other pollinators (as you will see in the photo--double click on the photo and it enlarges beautifully, there is a bee in midflight approaching a flower).



This is our first year to have an asparagus crop! Isn't this photo so cool? This past summer I planted 2 rows of tomato plants with a row of asparagus in between (my planters are 4' x 20', so I can fit quite a bit of vegetables/fruits per planter). Asparagus and tomatoes are "companion plants", they help to repel one another's pests, as well as promote each other's growth. Tomatoes grow in the summer, and asparagus in the winter/spring; hence no space or water competition. The asparagus spears just shoot right out of the soil and continue to spread throughout the bed, with years and years worth of growth. Yesterday, I snipped off a small bit of spear and there is NOTHING like the taste of fresh asparagus! A couple of years ago, Phillip & I were vacationing in Tuscany just as the wild asparagus was growing near his sister's (Penelope) house. She took us on a walk to help us be able to find them growing amongst the thickets and stone walls, we picked handfuls to eat with pasta that night--I thought nothing would ever compare again. But here we go, we, too can have this underground gift arrive just in time for the spring--anyone up for some pasta tossed with just picked asparagus and local olive oil?!



Irises, and any other bulb flower for that matter, are my favorite flowers to have in the garden. Courtesy of my friend Tony, I dug out of his garden (while he wasn't looking, I might add) 2 large boxes of overcrowded iris plants (Phillip kept him busy while I madly pulled and hid them). I transplanted them all around the house, under our olive trees and lining our walking paths. Irises have the most amazing depth of color, and color pairings. I've often thought every room in our house should mirror these combinations: deep rust-red with bright orange or soft purple with an even softer yellow, etc. Bulbs are a no-effort plant, they just keep themselves going in our gardens (we are blessed to not have to dig them up in this area) and produce magnificent displays even on the coldest days of January!








I discovered this little delicate flower yesterday. As I was pruning the dead stalks from last year's asparagus, I could hear a very definite hum of bees, I searched to see what they were being attracted to and I was so pleased to see this California native flowering! (Our landscaping is dedicated to natives--when I planted them a year ago, none of them were bigger then 8" from the ground. Phillip and I have been amazed to see the tremendous amount of growth in these plants without ANY water from our last rains in March of '09 until October of the same year. Why more gardens aren't dedicated to California natives, when we have drought years, I don't know...). I'm not sure what this particular native is (anyone?), but growing from the base up, it has these precious little flowers dangling from it's branches. And there are all sorts of pollinators enjoying the flowers--native bees, honeybees, even some butterflies were visiting yesterday.

Today I'm planting broad beans from seed and then I'm starting the 2 month task of hand-weeding...Help!!!

Cold Stabilization, Miniature Highland Dairy Cows, Merry Christmas!

Have you ever pulled a bottle of rose or white wine from the fridge only to behold a beautiful cloudy appearance inside the bottle? Or, on a much less harmful (in fact, completely harmless) state, found titrates (colorless crystals) clinging to the cork? If so, it probably was a result of the wine not being stabilized.

Someone mentioned to me the other day that our '08 Viognier blend was cloudy--it isn't, and it won't be. It does, however, throw a sediment--like a quality red wine. I know our white is not cloudy because we cold stabilize. We have jacketed tanks that would allow us to run glycol around them, thus reducing the temperature inside the tanks to below freezing--28 degrees seems to be the magic number. At AmByth, we take a simpler approach: when the weather is going to drop below freezing over night, we move the whites and rose out into the breezeway between the winery and the little house. And we have a trend this week--every night the forecast calls for lows between 23-30. So we just move the tanks, barrels and carboys outside for the night! Typically, the wind is funneled down this breezeway, bringing the temperatures down even more. And viola! cold stabilization occurs naturally. You'll see the photo above of the wine outside--you see here about 200 cases of wine total. Before bottling, we further check by taking samples and putting them in the fridge for a week (I know, geniuses at work here!). If there is a problem, they will cloud with the cold. Red wines also need to stabilize, but they do this with extended oak barrel aging (which we do here at AmByth).

Other methods of stabilizing wines are fining and/or very fine filtering. At AmByth, we do neither. We belong to the camp that believes this is stripping the wine of some of those finer, more delicate elements. Then of course, with fining and filtering, there are large sulfite additions that are necessary--well, by now you should our stance on that!

So enjoy our stabilized yet still sedimented white and red wines. The 07's are just now starting to throw a more solid sediment. As with all fine wines, decanting is a good idea (and fun)!

We are so very happy to have Dutchess and Fiona on the farm. They are our miniature Highland cows, delivered last week. Dutchess is 3 years old, she is the mother of Fiona (5 months) with another calf due in March. We plan on keeping them at AmByth as dairy cows. And of course we plan on composting their manure. Phillip and I specifically looked for dairy cows with horns, as we believe they are a "perfect" cow--in their complete fullness, without any body parts removed, thus making their manure more potent and unadulterated. We believe they are "unstressed" and that this will show in their manure.


We would like to wish you all a very merry and blessed Christmas. This is a special time of the year, full of celebrations and traditions, as well as a time of reflection and renewal. May peace be upon you, and may you know ultimate Love this season.

The Fall Vineyard

Perhaps there is nothing more gorgeous than the 60 tons of aged manure we apply to the vineyard every October/November. This compost, which had the Biodynamic preparations inserted last October, has been aging under our oaks, in a shady location, for a year. At the point of application, it has a moist, fluffy crumble that sits lightly in your hand--as if it is made of air. It is not dense, hard or stony. Really, it is the most pure and beautiful form of "dirt", or soil, I've ever seen. And the aroma carries none of the manure qualities that were present a year ago: it is now sweet and earthy. It is an amazing part of "life" that is formed, and nothing you buy from the garden shop labeled as "compost" compares.

This year we added dandelion seeds to the compost as it was being broadcast throughout the vineyard. We hope to have them growing wildly throughout the vineyard, to once again aide in regulating the relationship between silica and potassium in the vines. Perhaps we'll be able to have enough dandelion flower heads to pick them, dry them and use them for various teas when needed. We are very happy so far this season, we had an early 4" of rain in October, but Phillip was able to get in the vineyard to chisel to prepare the soil before the rain. We had no
run-off whatsoever throughout the vineyards, the earth was so ready to receive this rain! Then we were able to get into the vineyards again to broadcast the manure...to apply our natural fertilizer (compost) to the earth. As of this typing, the weather forecast for this week is rain/snow and more rain! Needless to say, bring it on El Nino!

Our family took a two week sabbatical to our favorite place of rest after harvest, only to return to another harvest: olives! As we turned into our vineyard, the olive trees lining the road were full of beautiful black olives. We harvested the Picuals and Lechen de Sevillas: the olives themselves are plump and big, nearly double the size of last year's crop. We have yet to harvest the newer trees, especially the Arbequinas--we anticipate a major crop from these prolific trees! They are still ripening, making the change from green to black (FYI, all olives begin green). All said, again this year we did not get enough olives to make olive oil due to the June winds knocking off the flowers before fruit was able to set, but we do have enough to brine. We prick each olive, one-by-one, with a toothpick before submerging them in a saltwater bath. The olives remain in a saltwater brine for up to 4 weeks before we jar them and perserve them in olive oil. For the recipe, shoot us an email!

In our home garden we've set out seed for our lettuces and hard greens (kale and chard) as well as onions, fennel, leeks, carrots, radishes, cilantro and dill. As a novice gardener, I let quite a few things go to seed last year, and this Fall, after our rainfall, all of those lovely seeds have set themselves and I have wild dill and fennel and lettuces growing everywhere, as well as sweet peas and borage. I love it! I love that as I walk through our landscaping and gardens, I see these little leaf forms growing voluntarily, placed there by the wind and pollinators. I check on them all daily, I feel as though they are my special babies. Yes, this year I'll be a bit more diligent when I let my plants go to seed, but I also appreciate so much the cycles life goes through: seed to plant to flower, back to seed in the form of another/new plant--amazing!

Right now, we look out at the vineyards and have the beautiful Autumn display of golds and reds throughout the Grenache and Grenache Blanc blocks. All of the other varietals have shed their leaves for the year. You can see from the photo above the stunning leaves of Grenache in Mark's Vineyard and our lovely, lovely blue Paso Robles sky. This will all change tomorrow, as we have a rainy week ahead, with lows in the 20's. Our citrus and avocado trees have Christmas lights strung on them to protect the leaves against frost. The dogs will be sleeping inside, begging to be let out to run and carry-on with their daily routines. The fires are lit, I think it's time for a glass of red wine...

Our 10 Year Celebration

10 years ago today, this passage was read to us, by our best man, at our wedding:

"Think: What if the sky doesn't fall? What if it's glorious? What if the house is transformed in three years? There will be by then hand-printed labels for the house's olive oil, thin linen curtains pulled across the shutters for siesta, jars of plum jam on the shelves, a long table for feasts under the linden trees, baskets piled by the door for picking tomatoes, arugula, wild fennel, roses and rosemary. And who are we in that strange new life?" Taken from 'Under the Tuscan Sun' by Frances Mayes, pg.20

I must confess, 10 years ago, listening to Paul read this to us I had no clue why he would have chosen this particular passage...

Recently Phillip and I watched our wedding video, and when we watched Paul read this, we both looked at each other in amazement...as this is our life NOW! But who would have thought this 10 years ago? Truly, we had no idea that our lives would be so transformed: permanently moving from Orange County to Templeton, planting our vineyard, producing wine with our own label, making plum jam (which I have made quite a bit this year), having full baskets of produce grown outside our very doors, growing olive trees, rearing animals, having tables full of friends and family feasting and fellowshipping.

And this "strange new life" now consists of having 3 sons, Gelert (24), Morgan (22) and our 3 year old, Bede, who was and is a total surprise and joy!

Amidst our decade, we have suffered the tragic loss of Phillip's brother, Mark. But he lives on with us, through our farming and Phillip's memories of growing up on a farm with him in Wales.

We feel blessed, we are happy and we are together doing what we love! May God heap many, many more decades upon us...