Young Oak Vineyards - Volume 29: First Year Anniversary Edition

        WELL, WE DID IT !!!

WE SURVIVED OUR 1ST YEAR  !!!

And the vineyard has survived ... voracious deer, gol' darn gophers, defective water system assembly (code for my stupid plumbing mistakes) and monster weeds that overwhelmed the trellises.  But the job at hand, pruning, is rapidly nearing the critical period.  So, today we started to clear the weeds that the goats have not managed to eat.  Notice the "goats' exodus" of the vineyard due to the noise of the weed wacker™.

That's "mi amigo, Leo" wacking™ away at the weeds.  We used the small sheet of plywood propped up against the grapevine to protect the plant as well as the drip-lines during the wacking process™

This year's pruning is a little different from that of an established vineyard.  In this first and second year's pruning we are establishing the trunk & cordons of the grapevine.  From the description of most sources, including The Backyard Vintner by Jim Law, it seems like we got the equivalent of "two years worth of growth" on most of our grapevine as you can see in the photo of one of the grapevines with the white poster board background.

So, from all the shoots that have grown out from the clone, we will choose the straightest & most upright cane, then prune away all the others.  That remaining cane we will tie off to a "grape stake" with some of that green gardening elastic tie or use "growtubes".  We will also top (cut-off) this cane at the level of the trellis wire to stimulate lateral growth.

Hey, its starting to rain and I hear its going to rain all week, so we will probably take a couple of weeks to tame these weeds as we dance around the rain storms.  So we will be actually pruning in the last weeks of winter or the first week or so of spring!

Wishing you happy anniversary from down in the vineyard,

John

Young Oak Vineyards - Volume 28: Valentine's Day Edition!

Hi all:

Hope you all are enjoying the weekend.  We are having a very wet & rainy Valentine's Day here.  Over two days of heavy rain and two more fore-casted for Monday & Tuesday.  Well, all this rain is a good thing for California.  The rain here means snowfall in the Sierra Nevada mountains.  Which means no drought this summer!

Is my picture out of focus you ask?  Actually, it is raining so hard that my camera is focusing on the close in rain drops, which can be seen upon very close inspection (see the white streak by the corner of the old deck beams) and the background vineyard falls out of that focal range!

Well, as you can kind of see, the goats have valiantly tried to eat the weeds in the vineyard.  At least now you can see the trellis posts!  Before the goats started, the weeds had overgrown the trellis posts.  We had six foot tall mustard grass!  Big Mac, Ellie & their little crew of four have spent a great deal of time down there eating the weeds, but the time has come to prune.  And so, I will have to intervene and whack down the rest of the weeds as soon as we get a dry spell!

Hope you are all well and staying dry & out of the weather!

From down in the very wet vineyard,

John

Young Oak Vineyards - Vol. 27: Goat Powered Lawn Mowers!!!

Hi all:

The vineyard is truly in fallow with only a couple of dry leaves left on the grapevines.  In the cold of our California winter [ah, ... wait a second ... you know, taken from my own personal experiences, ... we Californians are really wimps when it comes to the cold.  It's not cold here!  Its a bloomin' 70 degrees (that's 22 for you metric folk)!  Notice I am in a tee-shirt!  You could live in Finland!  Now that would be cold!!]... So, here in the "relative" cold of our Californian winter, the weeds have grown up, choking the vines.  Some of the weeds are taller than the vines themselves!

We had a nice visit from one of my oldest, longest (?) friends, Duncan MacKenzie & members of his clan, notably his son, daughter & the boyfriend, sister Ann & husband Doug (who took the pictures in this post!  Thanks, Doug!)  After an inspection of the goats, we adjourned to the vineyard where you can see my very healthy weeds.

I have attempted to let the goats wander down to the tall green grass of the vineyard, but they really want to stay in the northern pasture we have created for them.  I think Ellie, the mom, is being a little protective of her little ones.  So I will have to coax them down to the vineyard everyday until Mom is more comfortable with the new local!

Our bee man, Alan, checked out our hive this weekend and things are looking good.  The queen is working away laying eggs.  Alan thinks there are 80,000 bees plus in our hive with lots of new honeycomb.  I got to sample the honey, which was as clear as light corn syrup, but had a wonderful flavor.  Alan said that the clear color was due to only one flower being pollinated right now, although my rosemary, my neighbor's lavender and the mustard grass in the fields are all in bloom.

Hope you are enjoying the beautiful weather, at least those of you in California.  The rest of you guys, put another log on the fire and bundle up!

Happy winter, John

Young Oak Vineyards - Vol. 26: Happy New YOV !!!

Hi all:

We hope you have had a wonderful holiday season!  The vineyard is entering its dormaint period, so before the leaves all drop and the pruning begins, we have little more time to socialize & play a bit.

Our family's holiday season started with a Thanksgiving visit to my brother Mike's new place in Nevada, west of Lake Tahoe, opposite the Kingsbury Grade, in the Minden Valley.  We had a wonderful time visiting with my sister-in-law Monica, my niece Melissa, her husband Luke & their three children who live in Truckee, while Uncle Mike and my son Scott planned a January sailing trip from Puerto Rico to the Virgin Islands.  The mountain scene above is the view to the southwest of Job's Peak at sunrise from my brother's place.

In mid-December, fulfilling my Aunt Doris's annual family tradition that she started some 50 years ago, Kristen, Scott, the girls & I all dressed up and attended the San Francisco Nutcracker Ballet.  Afterwards we had a fine dinner and enjoyed some nice French wine at Jardiniere  [http://www.jardiniere.com/], right behind the San Francisco Opera House on Grove Street.  Wonderful food and great service!  They have consistently maintained a great menu and are so convenient for the SF opera, ballet, symphony or the civic center.

With the beginning of the winter school break, we began our adventure northward for an old-fashion Christmas family reunion!  Taking the RV, we proceeded north along old haunts of John's near the University of California - Davis past Winters, California to Interstate Highway 5.   The next day after a great breakfast at Oasis Grill at "Exit 8" (town unknown?), we headed northward past Mount Shasta and made for Ashland, Oregon to visit a friend of son Scott's, Mark (an ex-pat of Palo Alto!) who with his wife and their two horses have a beautiful home in the hills overlooking Ashland.  After a nice cup of tea and some good conversation we headed northward again.

Shortly thereafter, we arrived at the Remote Outpost RV Park & Lodgings, which is Kristen's sister's husband's mother's place (Wow - that's a mouthful!).  Its is located south of Eugene on the Coquille River, half way between Roseberg & Coos Bay on Oregon State Highway 42.  Uncle Steve's mom, Charlotte & her husband Gary have made a wonderful place next to the river with woodsy cabins, RV facilities, campgrounds, a colorful common room & grounds.  Additionally, Gary has installed very nice facility for dressing deer & elk for those who are inclined to hunting.   If you are interested in staying there, call ahead for reservations as the lodgings book up really quick.  [phone (541) 572-5105 or email:  remoteoutpost@hughes.net] 

As you can see we had a wonderful White Christmas (See my RV parked behind the main pavilion where we grilled oysters & roasted prime rib in the open air kitchen!)  It was great re-visiting with family & friends, enjoying good conversations after our last get together some eight years back! Charlotte shared with me a picture of my son, Scott when he visited one summer 16 years ago!  We had wonderful meals, featuring the fantastic cooking of the Jones family (Kristen's sister's husband Steve & brother Tim), including those grilled oysters fresh from Coos Bay (Yow, they were good!), steamed clams, prime rib, Christmas ham, garlic mashed potatoes, Grandma Karen's roasted asparagus, etc., etc., etc!  And not to mention the great wines!   Boy, I am salivating just thinking about it all!  Man, those Jones boys sure can cook.  Almost as good as their mom!!

The trip home was quite a long adventure as we went along the coastal route to avoid the snows of a severe winter storm inland.  But we were still buffeted by the winds and rain along the beautiful Oregon coast.  Scott missed out on the excitement as he ditched us early and flew back to attend his 10th high school reunion back in Palo Alto and then prepare for his trip to the Caribbean.  

As we approached Santa Rosa, we got word from Scott back home that our pregnant goat, Ellie, had giving birth to not two, but four baby kid goats on the evening of the December 27th!  Fortunately, our Los Altos Hills neighbor, Laney Harney, is a goat herder from way back and after several phone calls back & forth and much advise, we found a feed store in Petaluma that was open, stocked up on goat nursing supplies and made for home lickety-split!  Here are some pictures of the little ones with our daughter Suzie & her friend Caroline:

I was probably pushing my luck, but we decided to hit the slopes & do a little skiing for New Years.  So we headed for our cabin in the Sierra Nevada Mountains near Pincecrest Lake & Dodge Ridge.  The weather in the mountains was absolutely beautiful with clear blues skies, perfect snow conditions and crowds that were non-exsistent!  I had a great day skiing on New Year Eve, but in the afternoon I misstepped coming off a ski lift, fell down and in a fluke accident, sprained/strained both my right hip and my knees! OUCH!!  Good thing Katie was along to drive me back to the cabin!

I am OK and healing quickly, but I think I have to hang up my skis for the season until after my hip surgery in the summer.  Here's a picture of the view from our cabin of Mt. Cooper (the central peak) and to the right you can make out the upper runs cut through the trees of Chair #7, where I met my demise!  Actually, we can't see this view from our deck anymore as we have a cabin that was built in front of us some years back.  (Should have bought that lot back in 1970 when they wanted the outrageous price of $4,500 for it!)

So, now I am hobbling around at home, getting out some last minute holiday cards, correcting papers for my students and trying to help Kris with house cleaning, as much as one can do with crutches.  And even though my holiday ended on a painful note, we had some wonderful experiences and cherished memories that we will remember for a long time to come.

We hope that your holidays were special and that your families are all well and in good health or at least like me, on the mend!  We are all looking forward to an exciting, peaceful & productive 2009 tending the vineyard and fixin' up our old house!  And we look forward to visiting you all soon!

Our best wishes to you all from down in the vineyard,

Kristen, John, Scott, Katie & Suzie

Disco Mania!

Young Oak Vineyards - Vol. 25: Holiday Greetings From YOV!

Hey, thank you!  We have had over 1000 visits to YOV Blog!  But what to talk about now to keep you coming back!?  Grapevines?  Bees?   Our newly installed energy efficient tank-less/soon to be solar hot-water heater?  Baby goats!?!!

Well, no baby goats yet!  But we have big plans for these guys and very soon.  As soon as the all the leaves have dropped from the grapevines, we are going to let the goats graze in the vineyard to control the weed growth!  They have done an excellent job in their own pasture manicuring the grass.  And without the grape leaves to attract them, we think that they will not bother the dormant, bare grapevines and help trim back the winter growth of weeds.  No more weed wacking, YEAH!  Additionally, we will get a bit of natural fertilizer deposited, thank Big Mac, Ellie & future little crew!

Since it is a presidential year and with  the enormity of electing our first African-American president, I couldn't help but mention that East Bay Congressman George Miller had a lottery of his constituents for a couple of tickets to the Obama's inauguration.  And one of the winners was a UCD wine making student from Vallejo by the name of Jeff Baccus.  I note this as whichever winery hires this young man, they will have a perfect built in marketing campaign:  "Their wine is made by Baccus, the living god of wine!", otherwise known as Jeff!

Well, we will be firing up the old RV for an adventurous trek to the hamlet of Remote, Oregon which is a little town halfway between Roseburg and Coos Bay for an old fashion Christmas Family Reunion!  Let me tell you, Remote is really in a remote part of southern Oregon, where Kristen's brother-in-law's mother has an Inn with cute little woodsy cabins, an RV park and camping facilities.  They primarily cater to hunters, who frequent the local woods for elk, deer & alike, but they let a tree hugger like me visit 'cuz I'm family.

As we sit by the warmth of our fire decorating our Christmas tree and toasting with a bit of eggnog, our whole family is wishing the very best to you this holiday season and hope you have an enjoyable & restful time with family & friends!

Best regards,

John 

Young Oak Vineyards - Vol. 24: Autumn Turns To Winter

Hi all:

Down here in the vineyard, the leaves are turning from their bright summer green, to a brilliant yellow & finally to a dark, rich maroon.  Indian Summer, our California Autumn, is slowly slipping away and the cold afternoons are upon us.  Winter is approaching in only a month .... and it is time to think about pruning.

After all the leaves have fallen, probably late in  January, we will plan to prune all the growth down to one main cane, which will become the trunk of these first year vines.  In my spare time, I have been reading all the "How To's" from agricultural extensions and alike, but the best source for pruning that I have found, so far, is a book (and a DVD!) from a UC-Davis trained horticulturalist, Lon Rombough, who now resides in Oregon.

Hey, following up with our little friends, the gophers (not!), Landscape Pest Control, who specializes in small vineyard and landscape pest control, has treated the vineyard for our little problem.  So now we are on the watch for any intrusion back into the vineyard over the next 30 days by these burrowing demons!  We have one mole living in the vineyard, but moles are beneficial as they are insectivores, so he gets to stay!  The rest of you guys, stay out!!

Wishing you well from down in the vineyard,

John

Young Oak Vineyards - Vol. 23: Our Bountiful Horn 'O Plenty

Well, the Autumn harvest has come and gone at Young Oak Vineyards.  In our first "crush", we picked our 2008 crop (in less than five minutes).  Yes, that is our entire 2008 grape harvest in my left hand!   At least we had a few grapes to get a taste of what is to come!

Notice the more purplish grapes toward the middle of the cluster, which are fully ripe, as opposed to the darker blues ones, which could have stayed on the vine a bit longer.  But both are very sweet.  My neighbor, Mark Vernon showed me another indicator as to the grape's ripeness by looking at the color of the seeds, which were still a bit green in shade on the dark blue grapes indicating not fully ripened.

In other harvest news, our bee man, Alan, came by the other weekend and we got a chance to see how our hive is fairing.  As we have just had our hive installed this late summer, we are not going to be able to harvest any honey until next spring.  But just to be sure that the bees are doing well and have enough food for the winter, we checked it out recently.  After my youngest daughter, Suzie and my son, Scott, suited up, we were ready to open the hive and see how things are going!  I stood about 10-12 feet away and amazingly the bees were not riled up by our intrusion. 

 

Alan showed us the different frames where honey was being stored or eggs were being laid for new bees.  The hive was in pretty good shape considering its move from Roseville to our house, about 150 miles (240 km).

In goat news, our female, Ellie Mae, is now confirmed pregnant, as we took her down to our local vet, Adobe Animal Hospital.  She was quite a hit with the staff and the patrons, with everyone petting, poking and prodding her belly.  But the ultra-sound confirmed at least two beating hearts (other than Ellie's) and an X-ray showed two distinct fetal skeletons and possibly a third.  At any rate, we are going to have the best Christmas Nativity manger scene in the neighborhood!  We just have to find a newborn baby!

All in all, things are going pretty well at the vineyard.  The Autumn rains have allowed us to stop our weekly watering.  But our constant vigil against the gophers continues.  With the colder weather, the vine canes have turned color from their bright green to a rich red-brown as the older green leaves are starting to turn color as well.  I am staying warm by the fire this weekend and wishing you well from down in the vineyard.

John

Young Oak Vineyards - Vol. 22: Greasy, Grimy Gopher Guts!

Well, those dastardly little devils have taken down five more beautiful, mature grapevines!!!!  I can only think of the old Boy Scout Song that I mention in the title.  Fortunately, I talked with a neighbor who had a similar problem when they were starting their vineyard.  In fact, they lost their entire vineyard to gophers and had to replant the next year.  Hopefully, we can avoid that when my neighbor's Gopher Guy, "Landscape Pest Control", recommends a treatment for my vineyard!  I will keep you posted!

Hey, one of the great things I get to do as a science teacher is experience a lot of wonderful displays & events involving science.  So, two weeks ago I was able to fly on the "Vomit Comet" with three other fellow science teachers from my school, along with a group of math & science teachers from all around California to experience weightlessness just like the astronauts!  We invited news reporter Bob Redell from NBC channel 11 along and he got alot of great footage of my fellow teachers and our department chair, Joe, with some great sound bits (sic joke!).  You get to see me fly like "Superman" and one of our chemistry instructors, Pat, eats M&M while floating in "Zero G" weightlessness, not to mention Joe's minor stomach problem.

I recommend everyone go do this!  The company "Zero G" flies out of Las Vegas where you too can experience it too.  It only costs $5,000 per person.  And for $15,000 you can fly on the "Platinum Plan" with Astronaut Buzz Aldrin and have dinner with him afterwards!  Or you can do what Martha Stewart did and charter the entire jet for $150,000 and take 35 of your friends along for "the most incredible birthday party ever"!

I went a cheaper route and didn't pay anything, by becoming a teacher and applying for a grant with the Northrup-Gruman Foundation, who pays for science & math teachers to experience weightlessness to enhance their teaching and get their students excited about careers in science & math !  I have already used some of our weightlessness experiments that we did in "Zero G" in my classes and I am planning on many more this year!

Hope you are enjoying our beautiful fall weather.  The crush is on and it would be time to pick my grapes if the birds hadn't eaten all 40 of them.  Oh well, we are hoping for many, many more next year!  (Note to self:  get bird netting before next year!)

Wishing you a most wonderful "Indian Summer" from down here in the vineyard,

John

Young Oak Vineyards - Vol. 21: What's The Buzz?

Our featured artist today is the enigmatic "Sade" (pronounced shaw-day). Born in London, her father, a Nigerian Economics Professor and mother, a British Nurse, she was raised briefly in West Africa and then in the U.K., Sade started out in the fashion business, tried modeling and finally landed in the music industry. She was is several groups before getting a record contract as "Sade" (the band), comprising of herself & her great backup band. This cut, "The Sweetest Taboo" is from their second album and is one of my favorites!

05 The Sweetest Taboo.mp3

We're going to take a break from summer music until sometime in the future. Thanks for taking the time to listen. Hope you enjoyed it!

What's buzzing at Young Oak Vineyards? Well, we found a great beeman who is trying to re-populate bees in Northern California, one backyard at a time! Allen Larson will bring a beehive to your backyard, service your hive and give you a minimum of 24 pounds of honey a year, but more like 40 - 50 pounds typically. So, we purchased a hive and had it installed by the southeast upper corner of our vineyard (that's the very front of our place, down the hill to the left of our driveway above the vineyard).

Although, I have often thought about building hives and doing bees, this is a quick & easy way to get started to help your allergies by eating local honey, help your grapevines or other flowering plants assure pollination, help our bee population recover from the "Colony Collapse Disorder" by spreading hives to new territories, and (and this is the big one) you don't have to do the dangerous stuff! But for the daring, Allen will suit you up, so you can assist him when he is servicing your own hive(s)! Check out Allen's website at: www.getbees.net

Hope you get the buzz,

John

Young Oak Vineyards - Vol. 20: Back To School!?

Hi all:

This post's featured musical artist is the consummate "Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks".  Dan went to high school in Santa Rosa and hit the San Francisco music scene in the late 60's. This cut, "I Scare Myself", is his signature piece, although I like his original "The Walkin' One & Only" when I want to tap my foot a bit!

Well, the grapevines are continuing to do well.  I noticed the Pinot Noir vineyard on Concepcíon Road, about a mile or two from my house, is now fully laden with grapes.  Last year, the vineyard master there told me that they typically pick in late August to early September, because the Pinot Noir grapes mature earlier here in Los Altos Hills due to the warmer climate, compared with some of the other coastal valley regions known for Pinot Noir (Remember the movie "Sideways"!). Mark Vernon, Ridge COO, mentioned that they usually pick 4-6 weeks after the grape turn to their dark color.  Well, we only have a couple of handfuls of grapes on our vines this first season as you can see in the picture below!  Maybe I will make a couple of glasses of grape juice for Kristen and I to toast you all!

I found a great description of the laboratory equipment & techniques from the Hardy Wine Company in Australia, used for the measuring sugar content of grapes and determining when to pick.  I have been exposed to this information in the past, but it will be interesting to re-learn about these methods.  By the way, the Hardy Wine Company, founded in 1850's, is now the largest winemaker in the world.  Through mergers and acquisitions, they recently changed their name to Constellation Wines Australia.

On a related note, Ron Mosely, the owner of Vinescape and the installer of my neighbor Mark's vineyard, will be teaching in the new Viticulture Program at Foothill College starting this Fall '08 term.  The "Establishing A Vineyard" class, which I would love to take, is on Fridays, so, unfortunately, I won't be able to attend.  I think I will try to sit in on at least one class, though.  Additionally, Foothill is offering a winemaking class on two Saturdays this Fall (Sept. 27th & Oct. 4th), which I am planning to register for!  Check it out and maybe we can take it together!!

See you after class,
John

Young Oak Vineyards - Vol. 19: Here's My Card!

Hi all:

This post features the music of our famous, local Menlo Park residents & internationally known performers, "Tuck & Patti". Tuck is originally from Oklahoma, went to Stanford and performed in the LA music/TV scene. Patti, from San Francisco, is classically trained and met Tuck in 1978 while auditioning for a band he was in. The band didn't happen, but Tuck & Patti did and they have been making beautiful music ever since! This cut is "Time After Time", popularized by Cindy Lauper, but I like Patti's soulful version best with Tuck's great guitar work!

On a personal connection, we last saw Tuck & Patti perform at the Peninsula School Benefit a couple of years back with a tremendous improvised "scat" by Patti on "Tears of Joy". After the performance, as we walked to our car, my youngest daughter, Suzie tripped, fell & skinned her knee. As I helped Suzie up, Patti came running over the driveway with a folding chair for Suzie, helping her up & consoling her about her skinned knee! Thank you, Patti!!

What's going on at the vineyard, you ask? Well, ..., I got new business cards!!!

Otherwise, the plants just keep growing & growing! The grapevine that my daughter, Suzie was holding in my post of July 27, 2008 is now taller than me! I just have to watch the watering, not too much nor too little. And finally, there is the possibility of mold causing August rains! If it gets damp, I am told I need to dust the grapevine leaves with sulfur powder.

Hey, the new August 2008 issue of the "Wine Spectator" has their annual "world's best restaurants for wine" review. Seventy three restaurants received their top accolade and the nearest ones to Young Oak Vineyards are in San Francisco: Fifth Floor in the Hotel Palomar on Fourth Street, Michael Mina in The Westin St. Francis Hotel on Powell and Restaurant Gary Danko on Point Street.

Several peninsula local restaurants received the "Award of Excellence" or the higher mark "Best of Award of Excellence", including:

John Bentley's in Redwood City,

Bella Vista and The Village Pub in Woodside,

Marché in Menlo Park,

Fleming's Prime Rib Steakhouse & Wine Bar,

Il Fornio, La Strada, Lavanda Restaurant & Wine Bar,

Mantra Restaurant & Lounge, Quattro Restaurant & Bar,

Sundance The Steakhouse and Zibibbo all in Palo Alto!

One aspect of their listing is restaurants featuring "inexpensive pricing" with one local restaurants noted, Woodside Bakery & Café!

You can go to WineSpectator.com select the Dining & Travel tab and press the Free Restaurant Search button to search for restaurants all around the world. Here's to the enjoyment of the rest of your summer!

Saluté!

John