A note from pig 1

Hello pig 1 here - I'd love to see all you local folks this weekend at art harvest open studio weekend! It's Friday, Sat and Sunday and next weekend too!! two weekends of opportunity to come visit Clare in her studio here on the farm and get one of her paintings for your home and most importantly feed me an apple!!



Thanks Pig 1 - she's pretty darn cute no?? --- sooo It's been a freggin' full week !!! design work, getting the animals moved out of the lower field to get ready for the final pass with the disc and seeder, getting ready for Art Harvest THIS WEEKEND!!! holy shazam! and oh and the grape harvest just a little bit going on... I'll have about 20 paintings for sale and be doing some art and some canning on both weekends - nothing like multi tasking ; )


We had our first fire of the season fall is here for sure!


some homemade soup was in order - those stewing hens sure are nice combined with squash from the garden


our little dog gurading the grapes!

'Fall' swing around here

The beautiful Resonance Vineyard and our '09 Pinot!!
this is the vineyard of Kevin and Carla Chambers friends and amazing farmers


getting ready to can!

After my trip to Ca for my brothers wedding -- which was beautiful!
I came home to a overflowing garden and harvest getting rolling...





Couldn't resist this beautiful 'love' tomato!


Brian and I walked the resonance vineyard yesterday - walking sounds romantic actually Brian walks way faster than I do with and with a very intent concentration. Brian grabs grapes side to side as he walks/runs through the rows... I try to catch up, taste and learn as much as I can. Brian is tasting for when to pick - brian dosn't test and pick when the lab tells him to... his theory is it's like picking a peach off a tree when you bite into the perfect peach you just 'know' I love this about him... It gives me so much respect for those 13 years of 'putting in his time' with great growers and winemakers to get the feel down... so the vineyard must have tasted good to him (it did to me) this morning we are picking resonance vineyard and I'm sitting here blogging - but before you think I'm a lazy bad wife as soon as I'm done I'm gonna feed the animals and then hop in the car and get my ass to the winery where Brian and I will sort grapes for the day - more photos of that too! : ) -









Katie came out yesterday and we moved the pigs (photos of them soon too they are sooo cute) and we harvested about 2/3rds of the ripe tomatoes and boy what a harvest!!! thank you Katie as always!!



good stuff... ok off to work for me... I just heard the horses whinny they know I'm up.

oh and now it's truly fall as our heard of elk came back a few days ago - oh how I love seeing them...

On trade secrets -

"The departure of winemaker Anthony Rynders from the Domaine Serene Vineyards and Winery is being closely watched by an industry that relies heavily on trade secrets."

- this the lead line on the news story! "an industry that relies heavily on trade secretes"!! what the f---k this industry relies on friendships, collaboration, and great wine.

I couldn't disagree more and neither could brian - we are in full support of Anthony and a winemakers freedom to grow learn collaborate and make the best wine he possibly can unrestricted by people thinking they own the craft! - how the heck do we expect to be a serious and respected wine region with that kind of attitude! that's not what put the early oregon winemakers on the map and does us NO service as a whole.

long silence here but not on the radio

I was silent here but the last week or so have been very full - more news soon but in the mean time - Check it out I was on an interview with the Mayor of Portland Sam Adams and Jill Kuehler from Zenger farms - it's a 45 min interview so have something else to do while you listen if you do ... : )

here's the link to the pod cast to listen
(scroll to the bottom of the page for the audio files)

On this segment of Locus Focus, host Barbara Bernstein talks with Mayor Sam Adams, Zenger Farm's Jill Kuehler and Clare Carver with Big Table Farm in Gaston, about why we need to protect local farms close to and inside our city. We look at the connections between land use policies that preserve small family farms and the growing movement to eat local food, and maybe even grow our own. Find out why eating and farming sustainably is a revolutionary act.

I love my new garden site!!

This year is our most productive garden to date! - I was disparaging of our napa garden and paltry 7 chickens (that ones for you porter) Brian reminded me that with out that time of learning and being inspired on a very tiny scale we wouldn't be here now ... he's so good at seeing the process and me well give me the bottom line baby ... I guess that's why he's a winemaker and I stick the labels on.. : ) at the end of the process...



Brian made some more sausage from our roosters! - less noise more yum : ) It goes really well with our Pinot (which is a big fat tease because it's not released yet - Brian wants to give in a bit more time to -recover from bottling and get the labels glued on - but the release letter will comming very soon!!

happy girls!!

My best friend porter came to town on a bit of a last minnute trip to my delight! and we had a fantastic time - ate at EVO and pok pok we got pedicures and massages and shopped for undies - even a farmer needs good undies (I told edward the lama I was wearing pink lacies this morning and he winked at me) and baked shortbread cookies from some rendered pork fat I had in my freezor! - yummm - it was a really super visit gotta love girl friends!!! (these fab photos at evo are by her) -thanks for coming porter!! xo c

For you Portland'ers - I've said it before but GO TO EVO!! it's fabulous and they have wonderful wines and Kevin is very talented in the kitchen that happens to be right there in front of you - he also shared some great wines with us!!

June Nancy and the State Fair

Our Friends June and Nancy came to visit - and we made a stop at the state fair to see duane and the crew there - we caught them collecting a blue ribbon with Willie! - and enjoyed the livestock shows -







it was a nice visit with June and Nancy we picked berries, harvested in the garden and made pies and generally just enjoyed big table...