Its's a new year in the vineyard!

Lupe Prunes a Merlot Vine

After harvest, November and December were pretty low key in the vineyard. Mostly weed work, erosion control and lots of ranch maintenance. All very important but last week we started my favorite work: Pruning! Pruning is the most important thing we do in the vineyard. Pruning determines the form and balance of the vine. When you prune you decide how many buds to leave where. The buds will start growing in late March or early April and become the green shoots which will bear fruit. If you leave too many buds at pruning time you could have a vine with lots of short shoots which can't ripen their grape clusters. Leaving too few buds could result in a vine with really vigorous shoots and not enough fruit. We want to have a vine that is balanced - the right amount of vegetative growth to the right amount of fruit.

My crew began pruning last Tuesday. We have 138,000 vines to prune over the next two months. That's a lot of cuts and a lot of brush to pull from the trellis wires. Today was a beautiful day to spend out in the vineyard pruning. A warm 70 degrees, Mexican music playing in the background, guys singing, the dog yelping and chasing rabbits - 2011 is looking pretty nice right now.

Salad From The Fields of Home

Chanterelle and Miner's Lettuce Salad

Sauteed chanterelles (I found them under an oak tree here on the property), miner's lettuce (Ashley found it growing wild in the vineyard), soft poached egg (from our chickens, of course), Hobbs bacon and a whole grain mustard dressing. How's that for eating locally?!

Chanterelle Season: It's ON!

A Giant Basket of Chanterelles or a Basket of Giant Chanterelles?

We've found a few over the last couple of months, but now I can tell you that it is officially ON!

More Where these Came From!

More Wild Mushrooms: Yellowfeet!

Ashley Cleans Mushrooms 

Last week we made our annual (well, second year in a row) New Years trip to Mendocino county. On the way up highway 1 we stopped at a state park to look for mushrooms. We didn't have much daylight left by the time we got there, but we did manage to find a basket full of Yellowfoot Mushrooms (Cantharellus lutescens). We cleaned them up on the bed at the hotel that night and carted them home the next day, along with a few cases of Anderson Valley wine!
Ashley got me a great new book for Christmas called "The Wild Table". It It has sections on all sorts of foraged foods, and a bunch of great mushroom recipes. The book is written by Connie "The Mushroom Lady" Green, proprietress of Wine Forest Wild Foods, and Sarah Scott, a celebrated local Chef.

The Wild Table: Seasonal Foraged Food and Recipes

I made a milk braised pork stew with yellowfoot mushrooms inspired by a recipe in the book. It was delicious served with soft polenta and braised greens, and the perfect dish to serve guests on a chilly January evening.

The Beginnings of Milk Braised Pork Stew with Yellowfoot Mushrooms