This is the the time to reap the harvest of our winter garden and replant the beds with summer veggies. Green garlic, spring onions, the first of the snow peas, the last of the chard, lettuce, spinach, and kale reward our table before the hot weather comes and they wilt in the sun. In California, especially, we have the added bonus of the Three A’s – artichokes, avocados and asparagus, which keeps us happy and healthy all spring long. Friends always generously drop off a crate of asparagus from their fields nearby in the Delta, which we gladly eat and share and then pickle for those inevitable Sunday morning Bloody Marys – it doesn’t get much better! While we plant our summer garden and await all the excitement that future plantings might reward, we relish the abundance of the spring vegetables planted months ago.

It’s also time for the first of a new blossoms and the last of the winter citrus. With our Mediterranean climate, we are able to grow a plethora of different varieties of citrus; dwarfs in pots (mostly Meyer lemons), commercial sized oranges and Mexican limes on the edge of the vineyards and others placed throughout the garden and hillside. We have over 24 citrus trees of 7 different varieties, and the juice and fruit keeps us happily in citrus for months at a time!

One of our most favorite recipes featuring citrus this time of year comes from our good friend, local chef and restauranteur Cindy Pawlcyn. With three fine restaurants in the Napa Valley; Mustard’s Grill, Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen and Cindy Pawlcyn’s Wood Grill and Wine Bar (where you will find our Two Old Dogs Sauvignon Blanc by the glass), as well as her new Cafe and Cindy’s Waterfront Restaurant at The Monterey Bay Aquarium , she has all the credentials and experience as one of the finest fresh and sustainable food chefs in northern California. Enjoy this lovely Citrus Celebration Salad with the 2012 Two Old Dogs Sauvignon Blanc.

Citrus Celebration Salad

Citrus season brings us blood oranges, mandarins, tangerines and more! So many wonderful citrus fruits to play with, I thought you’d like this simple salad. In Brazil a version of this is served with fejoada, the national dish. Try to use at least three different kinds of citrus; a sharp knife or serrated blade will help you make nice even circles.It’s a bright refreshing side to a roasted chicken dinner, great as a contrast to legumes like ham hocks and beans or lentil stew, black beans and rice, or with roasted pork. Enjoy!  - Cindy Pawlcyn

6 to 8 servings

6 of a selection of the above oranges peeled just beneath the membrane and sliced in 1/3″ thick slices (circles).
6 thin slices of red onion cut in rings and separated
6-8 lengthwise slices of avocado (optional)
6 or so mint leaves finely shredded
sea salt
fresh ground pepper
juice of one lime or Meyer lemon
drizzle of extra virgin olive oil (optional)

Arrange the orange slices (alternate variety) on an attractive platter as you would for a carpaccio, sprinkle with the mint, salt, pepper and olive oil. Place the avocado spears and the red onion rings on top, sprinkle with lime or lemon juice, and serve chilled.

Winter vineyards

Winters are pretty much quiet in the vineyards, very much like the dormant vines waiting for spring. As it’s impossible to get into the fields with a tractor because of the wet soil, only minimal activity, mostly involving manual labor, is done until the weather warms.

But when the truck with the port-a-potty arrives, we know there is a crew following close by and there will be work to do!

The first big job of the season, the one that really requires skilled laborers and knowledgeable managers, is the pruning. This is the first step to assure a balanced crop of just the right proportion for the vintage. Our crews pre-prune in February or early March, making sure the cordon (or arm) length is equal on both sides of the trunk and spaced correctly with the adjoining vine. They tie the cordons several times to the trellising wires and make sure the stakes and end posts are solid and can support the row of vines.

March Pruning

Cabernet Sauvignon is one of the last varieties to bloom, set and ripen at harvest, so we have the luxury of waiting until just before bud-break to prune, usually mid-March, while the earlier ripening varieties may already have been pruned a month earlier and may even be budding out. The crew will cut off the 5-7 foot canes from last years’ growth right down to the main cordon, leaving only 2 buds on each spur or the knuckle-like growth from last year’s cane on the cordon. Here we try to equally balance the vine with corresponding buds and spurs (and growth) on either side of the main trunk to support the vine.

Like a massive hair-cut, the vines go from sprawling, leafless masses to neatly trimmed, skeletal structures overnight! The piles of canes are stacked at the ends of the rows, to be dealt with at a later date.

Shortly after the vines are pruned, the sap begins to flow and the vines  finally come to life after having slumbered all winter. Within weeks, as the weather warms and the daylight lengthens, tiny buds develop on each spur – sometimes called Q-Tips or popcorn in vineyard jargon – the beginnings of a new vintage.

Piles of Prunings

Each vineyard creates an awful lot of excess canes at pruning, which the industry used to just pile up and burn. To see the valley shrouded in smoke that hangs over us like a fog at pruning season is never a pretty site, so we were thrilled when our vineyard manager initiated a shredding program several years ago, and the huge pile of shredded canes that is created is used all year to mulch the vines, our landscaping and garden.

Spring has just arrived – the vines are neatly pruned and now budding out, the fruit trees have flowered and the soil is almost warm enough to plant our summer garden. Another season, another crop, and all we can try to do is farm the best we possibly can and hope that Mother Nature is on our side.

Let the vintage begin!

Vintage 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon

But while taking end of year/first of year inventory in our tiny Home/Library cellar of older vintages, we had to laugh at the idea that we would ever need more than a few dozen labels of each vintage, as that’s all the wine we ever have left! 4 bottles of the 2001 E II Cabernet Sauvignon (our first release of another wine besides the HL from our vineyard), 6 bottles of the 2001, etc.; 11 bottles of the 2005 E II Sauvignon Blanc (our first white wine release), 8 bottles of the 2006, etc.; 12 bottles of the 1997 HL Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon (our first release and only 50 cases produced!), 14 of the next vintage, 18 of the next! Not enough to even collect dust!

Jennifer once worked, in the late 1970’s, for a tiny local winery whose owner was ecstatic when the last bottle of each vintage was finally sold, thrilled to be rid of the wine and have it sold out! My how times have changed. We have since learned, after our production finally grew to over 200 cases, to save 20 to 30 cases of each vintage (if we can catch it in time), so that we could have enough to re-release and create three or six bottle mini-verticals, years later, to offer to our best clients. It’s also fun to gather with other winemakers, as we did last summer, and taste through the last 8-10 vintages to see the effects of climate changes and the small tweaks made in winemaking which, with the underlying similarities from the same vineyard grape source, make each vintage truly unique.

So now we are happy to collect more wine and less labels, and, instead of paper memories collected in a box on the shelf, remember the vintage in a glass. Here’s to a New Year with less clutter and more wine!

December storm at HL Vineyards

We awake at what should be the crack of dawn and a sunny fall morning, but instead we are engulfed by darkness and heavy fog on the third day of a non-stop winter storm – constant buckets of rain and occasional mighty gust of wind that shakes the house, some up to 60 miles an hour. There are trees down and flood warnings for the Napa River. Power and phones are out for thousands in the North Bay, and streets are closed and traffic has been re-routed as storm drains fill and are unable to handle the constant deluge and rising tidewaters.

Flooded stream

The weather report states that we’ve had over 7 “ from this series of storms, with more rain on the way, but locals’ accounts vary from 8.5 to 11″ in rain gauges throughout the valley. Our little stream at the bottom of the vineyard, which was dry last week, has become a rushing torrent and can be heard easily from our deck. The vines are quickly losing their fall-colored leaves and will be soon only be naked, dormant skeletons of the previous vintage.

Sunrise on the Sea of Cortez

However, this storm is really not that unusual for the Napa Valley, nor is it disastrous as it sounds, but has only become annoying to us because of our recent memories – this time last week we awoke to the sounds of the warm breeze in the palms and the gentle lapping of the Sea of Cortez on the beach at Los Barriles, a small “ex-patriot” village on the East Cape of Baja California, Mexico.  From our vacation home on the beach, we watched as the sun rose over the sea, showing brilliant colors that only a tropical paradise could offer. The waters were calm and warm, and the amazing variety and colors of fish seen snorkeling just offshore became a validation of Jacques Cousteau’s claim that the Sea of Cortez is “the earth’s aquarium”.

Snorkeling in the Sea of Cortez

Fishing cruisers and local pangas left the harbor every morning, returning with catches of wahoo and tuna, grouper and game fish, and when the afternoon wind picked up, the wind and kite surfers flocked to the shore and rode the air all day. The temperatures ranged from 60 to 85, and bathing suits, beach towels and flip-flops were the dress of the day.

So, as we hear threats about the rising tides of the Napa River and bundle up to go out and do our chores and re-route the overflowing gullies coming off of the vineyard, we keep remembering the words to the song Everybody’s Talking at Me and relive recent memories of “going where the weather suits my clothes”. We could re-pack our carry-on vacation bags at a moment’s notice, if anyone wants to invite us back . . .

5 month-old hens – almost ready to lay?

Anyone who has ever had chickens knows the joys, and trials, of raising a flock of hens for eggs. People ask “Do you name them all?” No – they are not pets; they are chickens. “Are they free-range? Do you let them out in the vineyard?”  No – if we did, they would all become Black Lab dinner in a manner of minutes – they are caged for their own protection.

The reality is that we raise vegetables, and fruit in the garden, and animals to eat and for eggs only because we then know the source, and the wonderfully fresh flavors, of what we are eating. It is NOT a time or money saving venture,  but more a matter of pride in having fresh food on the table that we have raised from scratch.

We ordered our last batch of day-old chicks in April, and were counting the days until mid-summer when they actually started to lay. Those first tiny eggs we raised  were probably $60.00/each when you add up the time to build the pen; clean the pen each week; purchase the chicks, automated water and food containers, high protein chick starter, laying crumbles, scratch, oyster-shell for firm shells, shavings for the laying boxes and straw for the pen. We sort scraps in the kitchen and weeds in the garden to give the hens something different and tasty each day, even to the point of saying “Oh, you don’t want that French-Fry? Can I take it home to my chickens?” when we’re out with friends in a restaurant. It gets obsessive!

Our first (tiny) eggs!

The joys, ah the joys, of fresh, tasty, brilliant orange-yolked eggs whenever you want! Make a cake and need 4 eggs – no problem. Want a quick gift to offer friends – take an 18 pack of eggs!

But what to do when the daily dozens of eggs fills your refrigerator and doesn’t stop coming? Make an Egg Bake – have a Frittata with friends for brunch – or Roast Eggs in Tomato Sauce. Here are a few of our favorite Dozens of  Eggs recipes.

Eggs Baked in Roasted Tomato Sauce

Food & Wine - Contributed by Marisa May

Related Recipes

1. 1 1/2 pounds plum tomatoes, halved lengthwise
2. 2 garlic cloves, smashed
3. 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4. Salt and freshly ground pepper
5. 1 teaspoon chopped oregano and other fresh herbs
6. 8 large eggs
7. 2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

1. Preheat the oven to 400°. In a roasting pan, toss the tomatoes and garlic with the oil and season with salt and pepper. Arrange the tomatoes cut side up and roast for 15 minutes; turn and roast until soft, 20 minutes. Let cool, then scrape the mixture into a blender and puree. Add the oregano and other herbs.
2. Set 4 shallow ovenproof bowls on a baking sheet. Strain the pureed sauce into the bowls, pressing on the solids. Crack 2 eggs into each bowl and season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle the cheese over the eggs and bake the eggs for about 15 minutes, until the whites are just set. Serve hot. As a cold-weather luncheon or dinner dish it pairs beautifully with the Two Old Dogs Cabernet Sauvignon.

                                                           Terry's Egg Bake

Similar to a large frittata, you can add vegetables and herbs to this dish to give it more flavor, but it is delicious as is! Serve with a fresh garden salad and Two Old Dogs Sauvignon Blanc for a great brunch menu.

26 eggs

4 c. half & half

1/2 c. chopped green onion

1  1/2 c. cooked crumbled bacon

1 c. grated Swiss Cheese

1 c. grated Monterey Jack Cheese

salt & pepper to taste

Beat eggs well, season with salt & pepper and mix all ingredients together. Bake in a 350 oven in a greased oven-proof dish (or 9" x 12" roasting pan, and cut into squares) until slightly browned and it bounces back to the touch.

Garden 2012

We are always grateful for the tasty crop of grapes we raise, but this year, especially, we include the abundance of many “fruits of our labor” from our garden and orchard – a spectacular Padron pepper crop and when cooked quickly on a hot skillet and sprinkled with Baja sea salt only one in 10 are hot; rows of healthy, leafy basil for pesto-making and freezing; and we are even on our third planting and second month of daily fresh green beans (Alicante bush beans from the Forni-Brown Nursery). With the last few weeks of warm-to-hot weather, the tomatoes are finally all ripening, and after we have our fill of Bruschetta and BLT’s, we can see a tomato-sauce canning party coming soon.

Even the hens that we purchased as day-old chicks in April have finally matured and are starting to lay baby eggs. Soon they will be giving up full-sized eggs and we’ll scramble to find recipes for using 8 eggs at a time! Want to come to an omelet party?

But the biggest surprise, and greatest reward, has been from our fruit trees – especially the peaches and nectarines. We have always had a good crop of stone fruit,  but have had to fight with the squirrels, birds and even our dogs to pick enough for our own meals. We’ve tried netting the trees,  hanging old CD’s from the branches to catch the sun and scare the birds and even sprinkling disgusting-smelling powders on the ground under the tree to keep animals away, with only marginal luck. After the last few year’s cool and wet summer and fall growing seasons, our trees have finally decided to reward us for all our efforts!

A bounty of peaches

We’ve skinned and cut over 100 lbs of peaches so far, and still have a couple of young trees to pick. Sometime this fall, when it’s cold and wet, we will can and jam them for gifts and for the pantry. But for now, they just keep coming! You can always serve a freshly sliced nectarine or peach (especially the white strain) on a fruit and cheese tray to pair with our Two Old Dogs Sauvignon Blanc, but that only gets rid of one or two! The easiest, and best crowd-pleaser, recipe we have found is for a simple Peach/Nectarine cobbler. It takes little or no skill and uses dozens of peaches (and is equally delicious the next morning for breakfast)! As Julia Child would say “Bon Appetite!”

Nectarines

Easy Peach/Nectarine Cobbler

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup (one stick) unsalted butter
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar, divided in half
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 1 cup milk
• 4 cups fresh peach slices
• Juice of one lemon
• Ground cinnamon or nutmeg (optional)

Preparation

1. Melt the stick of butter into in a 13 x 9 inch baking dish (or other similar sized container that is oven proof) in the oven, warmed to 350-375°. ( the smaller the container, the higher the cobbler will grow)
2. Combine flour, 1 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt in a mixing bowl; add milk, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened. Pour batter over hot, melted butter but do not stir.
3. Bring the remaining 1 cup sugar, peach slices, cinnamon and lemon juice to a boil in a pot over high heat, stirring constantly; then simmer for 5-10 minutes. Pour the peaches over the batter, but again, do not stir. Sprinkle with more cinnamon or nutmeg, if desired.
4. Bake at 375° for 40 to 45 minutes or until golden brown. The peaches will sink to the bottom and reward you when you dig in. Serve cobbler warm or cool.

But as a rural farming community, the most indelible part of our local 4^th of July celebration always includes a morning watching the annual Silverado Parade on the main street of Calistoga, where we know half the participants on the floats and wave to our neighbors the Fire Chief and the Mayor. After the parade, we walk down the street to spend the rest of the day at the Napa County Fair at the Calistoga Fairgrounds. For days before hand, we try to be the first one to see the Cotton Candy or Corn Dog trailers driving through town, followed closely by the huge trucks hauling the “Tilt-A-Whirl” rides and trailers for the carneys. 4-H children prepare their animals for the show ring, grandmas bake their award-winning pies and the teenagers make dates to sit in the race-track grandstands and listen to featured 2^nd string fair-circuit bands. Rivaling drinking habits at “crush” throughout the Napa Valley, much more beer than wine is enjoyed during the fair. Through the years our children won dozens of goldfish in the ping-pong ball toss, all of which were named Jaws and by week’s end were floating in their make-shift bowls.

Our favorite memory was of Jennifer’s participation in the parade as part of a local entry of women calling themselves “Moms Gone Mad”, many years ago. In the late 1970′s, when fewer than 80 wineries existed in the Napa Valley, about a dozen young wine-industry moms worked for weeks to perfect their marching routine, wielding mops and brooms and buckets, pushing strollers and carrying babes in arms. In the same vein as Pasadena’s Do-Dah Parade (a spoof on the Rose Parade) it was a hilarious, finely choreographed marching routine that took far too long to move along the main street between fire trucks with their sirens blaring and the Girl Scout float, but was the hit of the parade. And in the lead, eight months pregnant, was Jennifer with a mop, being pushed in a wheel chair and guiding the band of misfit moms. Thirty-three years later, we are celebrating our daughter’s birthday next month. Happy birthday, Meg!

Rooster Emeril

On either side of our work day, the earlier sunrise and warmer evening temperatures have allowed us to work into a fairly regular summer schedule – walking with the dogs to the chicken pen at the end of the driveway each morning with a bowl of table scraps for the young hens, turning on separate blocks of water in the vineyards, and trudging up and down the hill to the vegetable garden on longer walks in the evening when it starts to cool. Lately we’ve been busy picking raspberries, boysenberries and now a plethora of blackberries, along with squash, beans, peas, lettuce, carrots, radishes and herbs of all kinds. All these fresh vegetables have gotten us into the cooking mode recently, making something new with our home-grown veggies almost nightly.

With the warmer weather, our Two Old Dogs Sauvignon Blanc is our “go-to” wine with al fresco dinners on the deck over-looking the vines and watching the sun set behind Mt. St. Helena. A chilled glass or two highlights the herbs and green vegetables that become a focus of our meals this time of year.

View from the deck

We recently picked a bushel (bigger than a bread box?) of fresh tarragon, and decided to try to make a pesto for summer sandwiches, pasta and chicken dishes. Although there are dozens of pesto recipes on the internet, none of them felt as familiar as the one we use with basil, so we just substituted ½ of the basil with tarragon leaves. Pesto can be used as a spread for sandwiches or blended with pasta at the last minute and served with freshly grated Parmesan cheese. It’s easy to freeze in small containers and use again when it turns cold and the garden is only a memory. See Lamb’s Basil/Tarragon* Pesto.

Grilled chicken with herbs

Our taste buds got excited with another recipe we found in the New York Times last week, “Pork with Green Garlic Salsa Verde.” Although we just dug over 100 beautiful red torpedo onions, we didn’t plant any garlic. But fortunately there is a vendor in our local Friday Farmer’s Market, so we stocked up on the young “green” bulbs of immature garlic. The combination of garlic, mint, parsley and red pepper flakes was a hit! Although the recipe called for seared pork cutlets, we had a delicious roasted bone-in pork roast with the salsa verde one night, and even made the salsa again with chicken that Herb splayed on the grill and dressed with herbs a few nights later. The salsa was great on a leftover chicken and fresh arugula sandwich, and we are looking forward to using it once again on grilled seafood before the window for harvesting green garlic closes.

We’d love to hear from you about your favorite recipes or foods that pair with our wines.

Two Old Dogs Sauvignon Blanc on the deck

Send photos and we’ll share them too!

½ cup pine nuts

1 whole garlic head, cleaned into cloves (about 9-11)

3 cups fresh basil leaves

3 cups fresh tarragon leaves

½ tsp. kosher salt

½ tsp. cracked pepper

1 ½ cups good quality olive oil

1 cup freshly grated Parmesan or Pecorino cheese

In a Cuisinart/food processor with a steel blade, combine the basil and tarragon with the pine nuts and garlic and pulse several times in the food processor. Slowly add the olive oil in a constant stream while the food processor is on. Stop to scrape down the sides of the food processor with a rubber spatula. The pesto should be a deep green color. Add enough oil for your own favorite consistency (baby food mush, or crunchy pieces?), and garlic for your taste.  If you are using the pesto immediately, then add the grated cheese and pulse again until blended, scraping the bowl. Add a pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. If making more batches for the freezer, do not add the cheese until immediately before serving, and then fold it into the defrosted pesto.

We know that tarragon works well with the basil, but you might want to experiments with other herbs; parsley, sage, chives, thyme?

Green Garlic Salsa Verde

(by Melissa Clark) in “A Good Appetite”, NY Times

¼ cup chopped parsley

3 tablespoons chopped mint

2 tablespoons finely chopped garlic chives or regular chives

2 tablespoons finely chopped green garlic

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon kosher salt, more as needed

¼ teaspoon chile flakes

½ cup extra virgin olive oil

Chop and combine the herbs, garlic, lemon juice, salt and chile flakes. Stir in ½ cup oil and let stand. Serve salsa verde on meat or seafood dish, and accompany the meal with a chilled glass of Sauvignon Blanc.

Each team claims a picnic table and fills it with the bounty of our backyards. Out comes the huge platter of local artisan cheese, remnants of opened wines from dozens of local tasting rooms, an extra plate of deserts from the demonstration kitchen of the CIA, strawberry and raspberry shortcake from the garden and curried hard-boiled eggs from our backyard hens. Portable BBQs are set up and hot-dog cooking commences, the pop of a sparkling wine bottle is heard, a birthday cake appears and singing surrounds the courts, with 5 gallon buckets of ice-cream in huge ice-chests from the local “Big Dipper” shop, pulled in on a little red flyer wagon. Towards the end of the summer, crates of zucchini and tomatoes are passed around hoping to rid ourselves of our excess under the guise of sharing.

But for now, we are making simple dishes from our garden, like Kori’s Salsa Verde Chicken Salad – a delicious way to incorporate the arugula and parsley from the garden with a spicy dressing and nourishing chicken and white beans. Kori is a friend and client, and a CIA (Culinary Institute of America) graduate working as the creative chef at Karen-Ginger Gifts in Los Angeles. (We love their gifts, especially the K-G Krunch!) We are honored and grateful that she has created this recipe for us to pair specifically with our Two Old Dogs Sauvignon Blanc, (and it only took her three bottles to perfect!).

We’d love to hear from you, too, if you have menu or pairing suggestions that you find go beautifully with our wines . . . like grilled Wagyu beef from Hirsch’s Specialty Meats in Plano TX, or a special BBQ sauce from Kansas City for Herb’s spicy ribs, or even blueberries and chocolate mint from your garden with the Two Old Dogs Cabernet Sauvignon  . . . try it – you’ll love the flavors!