For the past few years we have been talking about making a citrus-infused olive oil, but we never felt we had the right combination of fruit ripeness and availability.  We also wanted to wait until the end of the season just in case something went wrong with our new process.  Well, we are at the end of the olive harvest and we will only be making some soap oil tomorrow.

So, today we are midway through processing our first batch of citrus olive oil.  The frantoio smells simply fantastic with all of the lemon zest in the air.

Courtney and Marilu picked about 175 pounds of our own Bearss limes from a tree at our residence yesterday afternoon.  And, we added about 50 pounds of Meyer lemons from Frank and Beth Leed's ranch.  All organic, of course.   

Bearss limes are unusual in that they are yellow when ripe and contain very few seeds. (They originated in Tahiti.)  Yet, while they look like lemons, the distinctive smell and taste of lime is extraordinary.  Meyer lemons are similarly intensely flavorful.  So, we are expecting a very wonderful oil. 

The fruit was cut in half and then added to the olives just prior to going on the crushing stone.  We doubled our crush time on the stones until the citrus became very well mixed with the olive paste.   Then, it was on to the malixer where the paste was kneaded and lightly warmed prior to going through the decanter.

Out the other end of the decanter our newest product is now arriving.

Wow! We have just created a wonderfully zesty, fresh new oil.   Imagine LMR Citrus Olive Oil drizzled on wood oven-roasted asparagus. . . and whatever else Sheamus dreams up.

Can't wait.

And, what an unusual season it has been.  Our yields are more than double the yields from our previous highest year. And, we are still harvesting in January (only twice before have we harvested this late).  Furthermore, we may be only halfway through our crop at Long Meadow Ranch.  So, another ten days of picking are probably required. 

We started picking in our oldest olive orchard yesterday, which has traditionally been the source of our exclusive Prato Lungo oil.  The oil is just amazing: soft, almost sweet, with hints of tropical fruits and even honeydew melon. 

We are blessed to have inherited this orchard from our original pioneer, E.J. Church.  Imagine planting these hillside orchards with cuttings from around the Horn in the early 1870s.  The trees were lost in the forest for more than sixty years and then we restored them to health over the past fifteen years.  Incredibly, the trees (still an unidentified culitvar despite multiple DNA test) make truly world-class olive oil.  We are the very lucky benefactors indeed. 

Sean McEntire, our olive oil maker, and I are immensely enjoying every afternoon as we sample the lots of freshly made oil.   Yesterday the oil seemed more like an elegant drink than a condiment.  We can't wait to share it with our family, friends, and fans.  

Our philosophy has always been to let our wines speak for themselves.  Raters can be very fickle and we believe that our customers should enjoy our wines because they like the wines, as opposed to being told to like them by a high rating.  Our balanced, elegant, moderate-alcohol style has also been difficult for some comparative tasters to recognize - especially when a wine is evaluated in a flight of 8 wines where the other 7 have been made to be "gladiators in sniff-spit contests."  Usually the high-alcohol, highly extracted wines prevail because they attract more attention in the noisy "wine coliseum."

We believe that wine should be presented (and thought of) as food and that the appropriate wine tasting protocol should always include an appropriate food pairing.  After all, that is how the wine will likely be consumed.  (A very prominent wine critic mentioned at a meeting with Napa Valley winemakers last month that he never tasted wine with food.  Hmmm.  Most of us never consume wine without food. . .)

In any case, we are very pleased to have been chosen by the Wine Enthusiast for this honor.  Even better, we actually agree with the tasting notes.  We are starting to see a trend where wine (and food) critics are taking seriously the role a wine will play when it is poured, namely as part of a meal and paired with a particular food.  After all, caviar is probably not the pairing for a top cabernet any more than champagne is a proper pairing for a New York steak.  In that context a number (e.g., "96") cannot capture the whole picture.  It can, however, call attention to the intrinsically attractive qualities of the wine.

Maybe I am getting wiser in my old age.  We like getting a "96" and, even better, like being on the Top 100 list.  We really do appreciate having attention drawn to our wines.  After all, unless someone tries our wine they'll never know what it stands for.  

Many thanks to Wine Enthusiast Magazine.

This vintage is our 15th commercial olive harvest at Long Meadow Ranch and we are very excited.  After the smallest harvest ever last year, we are now expecting our largest harvest in LMR history.  Of course, over 1000 of our trees were planted in the 1870s.  So, the record may have occurred during their storied past.

While the 2010 growing season was long and cool, we had excellent conditions at bloom in late May.  Olives need ample moisture to keep blossoms hydrated at the crucial moment of bloom in late May. This year we had a cool, moist spring without the sudden heat spikes and high winds that were so damaging last year. 

Our trees are laden with fruit and many of our orchards are also now reaching full maturity. Several of our orchards were planted by our son, Chris, during the summer of 1998 and the promise he helped create twelve long years ago is now finally coming to bear.  So, we have had great conditions coupled with maturing tree; hence, the record crop.

Over the years we have almost always started harvest before Thanksgiving.  So, we are about two weeks late.  We expect to be harvesting over the next three weeks (at least fifteen processing days in the frantoio).  If we're lucky we'll finish by Christmas, but the weather will be the key determinant.  While rain doesn't hurt the olives, we can't safely harvest in the rain. We can wait out the rain.  We just don't want high winds to blow the fruit to the ground.  We won't be surprised to be harvesting during the first week in January.

We tasted the first oil of the season a couple of hours ago (unlike wine we can experience immediate gratification).  The oil was clean, had beautiful aromas, and offered sharp pungency.  We're excited.  Stay tuned.

For those of you receiving our This Week at Long Meadow Ranch newsletter, you knew that we were featuring the wine at our farm stand this week, too.  

Previously, the Star had highlighted Ranch House Red on a list of "Best Picnic Wines under $25." So, now we have been upgraded to Thanksgiving dinner as well.

We love the local recognition.  After all, the St. Helena Star has been "Published In The Heart of the Napa Valley since 1874."

Take a look: St. Helena Star Wine of the Week

The winery crew is busily cleaning our crush equipment today as we prepare to return it to storage.  All of our red wines were "pressed out" ten days ago (i.e., taken off the skins). And, we have already completed moving the reds into barrels in the cave to begin the aging process. 

Our Sauvignon Blanc has already been racked (i.e., taken off the lees) several times and we are close to assembling the final blend for bottling.  It is hard to believe that we started our harvest just twelve weeks ago with the first pick of Sauvgnon Blanc (on August 30th).

The season's weather was unusual with long periods of cool temperatures punctuated with two very sharp heat spikes.  As is often the case during cool growing seasons, our grapes had the opportunity to fully develop deep, rich flavors.  The first Fall rains did not come before we were completely harvested.  While the heat caused some problems elsewhere, our vineyards were well protected and we did not suffer any significant problems, like sunburn or raisining.  In most of our vineyards, we have never seen more beautiful fruit.

This harvest was our 17th vintage.  We are very pleased with the early results. 

We've learned a lot over the years, but every harvest is unique.  This year is no exception. 

Our unusually cool summer has most of our grapes ripening very slowly and the standard forecast among Napa Valley winemakers is "two to three weeks late."  

In the case of the Sauvignon Blanc grapes, we didn't expect to be harvesting for another week to ten days. Last year our first pick was on August 17th.  Well, last week we had temperatures of about 111 degrees in our San Mateo Vineyard over a three day hot spell.  So, the Sauvignon Blanc grapes were suddenly ready to go.

We started at dawn this morning and picked almost 14 tons of beautiful cold fruit.  Bin temperature was about 45 degrees, which reflects our very cool nights, and is great for wine quality.  Then, it was off to the winery to get it into a tank while still cool.

We "whole cluster" pressed the grapes in a gigantic press this afternoon - all 14 tons at once.   So, now the juice is safely in a tank (sparged with CO2 to protect it from oxygen) and will soon be ready to ferment.  Tomorrow it will be back the vineyards for more grapes. 

There is nothing like the anticipation of the new vintage.  We are all looking forward to seeing what this season brings us.  Right now, we're fresh and excited.  But, we'll be harvesting from now until late October.  Then, we'll be tired and, hopefully, very pleased.  

We'll see.

Posted by Ted Hall

Chef Sheamus made the grant presentation of $3000 to FFA chapter president, Rachel White, at Farmstead restaurant in front a collection of smiling faces in the distinctive FFA blue jackets.

In response, the students honored Sheamus and Farmstead restaurant with an autographed magnum of Zinfandel wine made in the school's enology class. (Yes, the same wine sold for many thousands of dollars at the annual FFA auction!)

And, after the presentation, every table with a FFA jacket or 4-H uniform received a 25 percent discount on their table’s dinner check.  We filled the dining room with students and families.  It was a great feeling for all of us.

As Sheamus pointed out in his presentation, the initiative demonstrated by these young men and women to raise animals, learn the craft of agriculture, and demonstrate personal leadership is very inspiring. 

These "kids" are the future of agriculture in our community and we are thrilled that the St. Helena FFA program is so strong (more than half of all high school students participate and the program has been named "Best in California").

The St. Helena FFA program is led by a extraordinary faculty (Randy Mendes, Laura Mendes, and Sarah Herdell), has an active and effective Ag Boosters support group, and has enjoyed the support of the district's administration and school board.

We are also pleased by the response to our "Corkage for Community" program. Instead of the typical $10 to $20 corkage fee charged for opening a bottle of wine brought to the restaurant, Farmstead collects a $2 fee for every guest's bottle. The unusually low corkage fee is donated to a different community-based not-for-profit organization each month.

Its our way of promoting a community meeting place and supporting our neighboring community at the same time. We want vintners, growers, and wine enthusiasts to come to Farmstead to show off their wines while at the same time contributing to our community.

Future grant recipients include Rutherford Grange, St. Helena Community Swimming Pool, and Rianda House.  We're going to designate the first Monday of each month as "Corkage for Community" Night when we will make presentations and toast recipient organizations. 

FFA Night was great.  Hope you'll come to the next one.

My blog posting from last Mother's Day is reprinted below, along with a photo I took that day.

Today is the day to celebrate the root of it all: Mom.

Anybody who has been on a tour of the ranch has heard me start the narrative with: "My mother was an organic gardening pioneer in the 1940s."

Today I am back in Pennsylvania spending the day with the source, my mother. Although our small family farm is long gone (we left in 1961), Mom is still going strong (at least in terms of her ability to tell me what to do).

Today we reminisced about her early start with gardening. Her father and mother (my grandparents) operated a small grocery store in Beaver. It was a neighborhood store with a confectionary and sandwich shop. Mom isn't sure about its proper name because everyone called it "the little store." But, we think it was officially known as DeHass Grocery.

The family provided fresh produce for the store from its own gardens just a few blocks away. As children, my mother and her two brothers and sister worked in that garden. There was always a compost pile and my grandfather mixed a variety of potions, including soapy water and tobacco juice, for pest control.

Sadly, my grandfather lost the store to bankruptcy in 1936 when he could no longer pay his own bills after providing credit to so many of his customers. But, the traditions and skills of growing for the market were already in place.

When my mother and father were married, they soon acquired a small rural property and, as they say, the rest is history. The bible, according to Mom, was "Five Acres and Independence," a book first published in 1935 which became popular with young couples following World War II. One of my most prized possessions is my mother and father's copy of the book, which Mom presented to me a few years ago.

Mom reminded me this afternoon that I turned the compost pile for the first time when I was five years old.

Thank you, Mom.

Edith D. Hall Obituary

This is another "big deal" for us. As I wrote in February when we won a gold medal at the California Olive Oil Council annual meeting, these evaluations by our peers in the industry are very gratifying. Winning another gold medal is very pleasing, but Best in Category means even more.

Napa Valley Select Extra Virgin Olive Oil is our "mixing and blending" oil made from a blend of cultivars, primarily Frantoio, Leccino, Morialo, and Pendolino. It is our favorite for salads, pesto, and Tuscan beans.

We are very proud to receive this additional recognition for our organic farming and oil production practices. Bravo to Jason, Frank, Pilo, Todd, Lauren, Sean, and all of the crew.

Farmstead is doing really well.  We opened the outdoor bar earlier in the week and our dining patio for the first time on Friday.  We have enjoyed a rousing reception from the local community.

As the weather improves the trajectory is clearly up.  And, the 'buzz' has been really great. We have had numerous positive references in print, online, and on-air media.  We have moved into the top 10 of "Most Booked in Wine Country" on Open Table.

Most importantly, we have been very highly rated by our guests.  We strive to respond objectively and professionally to comments and criticism.  So, we look hard at the facts.   Consider this: over 125 diners (an ample sample size) who made their reservation through Open Table have written a review of Farmstead.

Our Overall Rating on Open Table is four stars (out of five) and fully 76 percent of the reviewers have rated Farmstead four stars or higher.  Further, Farmstead is rated fours stars in all three subcategories: Food, Ambiance, and Service. Take a look.  Similarly, Yelp! has consistently rated Farmstead at four and a half stars (out of five).  

Farmstead has also enjoyed repeat visits by the who's who of the local culinary community (hardly a group of hicks from a backwater).  We respect their opinions and have appreciated the many compliments and occasional suggestions. 

So, imagine our surprise when a food critic from the San Francisco Chronicle writes a story in today's paper that paints a substantially different picture about Farmstead's food.  He writes ". . .the combinations are among the strangest I've encountered. . ."   Hmmm.

Of course, we will take the story seriously and will treat it as an important piece of data. But, funny how the three dishes most criticised - the hamburger, short-rib hash, and carmelized beet salad - are the three highest selling dishes. And, funny how our customers use descriptions (documented in their reviews) like "the best burger of my life" as opposed to "screwed up."  (They even understand that the substitution of cauliflower dill pickles for cucumber dill pickles is an inventive seasonal twist.)

Perhaps a city-slicker thinks "locals and tourists" (his words) lack the sophistication and broad palate exposure to understand fresh, local ingredients prepared using truly authentic American farmhouse recipes. Funny, too, how a major national magazine is doing an exclusive story on Farmstead and is setting up tomorrow for a major photo shoot over the next three days.  And, after extensive tasting and research, the editors have asked to feature up to six of Sheamus Feeley's recipes.  

Makes you wonder. 

The only explanation is that there is always 10 percent. . .  

One of the biggest challenges early in the growing season is the damage that sucking insects, primarily aphids, can cause to tender new growth. For the past twenty years we have been creating habitat and fostering large populations of lady bugs to help maintain our vineyards' health.  

Lady bugs, praying mantises, leafy winged scavengers, and other "beneficial insects" are a key component of our organic farming systems at Long Meadow Ranch.  Mantises, in particular, are aggressive hunters and will eat a wide range of garden insects including aphids, mosquitoes, caterpillars, beetles, flies, grasshoppers, crickets, leaf hoppers, moths and many others. 

Now home gardeners can get a head start by purchasing some of these beneficial insects for release in their home garden. Of course, there is no substitute for creating the right long-term habitat for the insects (otherwise they'll either just fly away or won't properly reproduce), but that is a longer story than a blog posting.   

Whiting Nursery, a core element of our farm-to-table offering at Long Meadow Ranch & Farmstead in St. Helena, is now a wonderful resource for the home organic gardner and small scale grower.  All of the new vegetable starter plants are organically raised, a wide array of organic fertilizers is in stock, Kevin Twohey is a rich source of horticultural knowledge, and, of course, we now have beneficial bugs.  You can even buy organic chicken feed, too.

Our "big" idea is really starting to take shape.  Explore, see, learn, eat, enjoy,  and take-it-home.  These "full cycle" experiences are all part of what we hope to provide to our community and to visitors at Long Meadow Ranch Winery & Farmstead.   

We are very honored to have our olive oil blessed as Chrism. Our olive oil has been used for this special purpose since 2003.

Bishop Daniel F. Walsh consecrated our olive oil last Tuesday in a centuries-old Holy Week tradition (moved up a few days to accommodate a busy schedule for the clergy). So, this seemed to be an appropriate posting for Palm Sunday.

Laddie and Marina Costabile (family friend and new member of our LMR team) attended the Mass of the Oils at the Cathedral of St. Eugene, which was also attended by all of the clergy from the Diocese.

Throughout the Catholic Church for centuries, the bishop of each diocese has distributed oil to each member of the clergy at this annual ritual Mass. The Chrism oils are used to annoint the sick in what most laymen call "last rights" and are also used at baptisms, confirmations, ordinations, and other Church sacraments.

In our case, the oil will be used throughout the six-county area covered by the Diocese of Santa Rosa. The priests in all 42 parishes and 22 missions will use the sacramental oil throughout the coming year. This means our oil will potentially touch the lives of more than 150,000 people.

The opportunity to provide continuity to a centuries-old sacred tradition and to be recognized for the integrity of our traditional, sustainable approach to farming is a very special honor for our family and for our team at Long Meadow Ranch.  

We feel truly blessed.

While the rest of the world was focused on medal contests at the Winter Olympics, we were similarly engaged.

The California Olive Oil Council is the industry trade association for olive oil production in the United States. An annual competition was initiated last year to acknowledge the best producers in the domestic olive oil industry.  The oils are judged by a jury of our most significant peers.

These same tasters apply their skills to accredit extra virgin olive oils that receive the COOC seal. And, they have received many hours of training and have tasted hundreds of oils in structured blind settings.  As a result, their judgment means even more to us than a review from a "civilian" food writer or critic.

So, for us, this award is a "really big deal."

Oiive oil maker for Long Meadow Ranch, Jason Moulton, was in attendance to receive the award. (Regretably, the award ceremony overlapped with the Napa Valley Premier barrel auction which prevented Laddie and me from being there, too.) He returned home with a grin that will last for a few more days.

Napa Valley Select Extra Virgin Olive Oil is our "mixing and blending" oil made from a blend of Italian and Spanish cultivars.  It is our favorite for salads, pesto, and Tuscan beans.   Unfortunately, the 2010 harvest was very light because of severe weather during flower set last May.  So, while we have just completed bottling, there will not be much to go around.  In fact, we did not make any Prato Lungo oil for first time since 1995 because we had no crop from the historic orchards.

While the medal is not exactly "Olympic" in its importance, we are very proud to receive this recognition for our organic farming and oil production practices.   Bravo to Jason, Frank, Pilo, Todd, Lauren, Sean, and all of the crew.