now that goatio is in charge around here things are really rolling!!

 

Goatio tells me the forms for the footings are going in tomorrow... she seems to have everything under control... whew! I'm so happy to see things are finally moving under her watchful eye... 

  

 

on another note... 

 

 

We have 4 each of the Rose and 'Writz Garden' Edelwicker in magnums!

these are the PERFECT summer bottles!

the Rose is $65 and 'Wirtz Garden' Edelwicker is $70

(ps no shipping or discounts or industry pricing avail on these special bottles - 

you can pick them up next time you come by btf)
e-mail me if you'd like one these are first come first serve! : ) cheers!

Deep Thanks!!

The memorial day wine weekend was a huge success!! Thank you to all that came out and took big table farm wine home to your tables!!! It was an amazing weekend and we feel deeply grateful and a little tired... : ) thanks also to all you that came out and helped wash glasses and run credit cards and pack wine : )

unrelated -  I dug up these beautiful photos that a wonderful photographer took last summer for a magazine article -- and I wanted to share them... http://www.browncannon3.com/

 

Come out to btf this weekend!

A couple fun things -- This weekend is the memorial-weekend-in-the-wine-country !! May 24-26, 2014 Big Table Farm will be open all three days 11-5pm!

as many of you know big table farm is by appointment only so this is your chance to come out and taste our spring wines and take some home with you.

We are excited to introduce you to our newly released wines. The Laughing Pig rosé is back along with a new white – the Wirtz Garden – and don’t miss the 2012 Chardonnay!

If you haven't been out before please see our website for directions.

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Super excited to announce that Big Table Farm and Ayres Creek will be teaming up with Outstanding in the field this year!  For a super fabulous meal hosted at Ayres Creek! Tickets just went on sale so don't miss out.

http://www.outstandinginthefield.com/event/ayer-creek-farm/

We love Carol and Anthony of Ayres Creek and their farm is just stunning! We are also excited to be working with the super interesting line up of chefs for this meal! the charge is being lead by Joshua McFadden, Ava Genes with Jessica Daniels, Roman Candle Baking Co., John Leach, Clyde Common, Andrew Gregory, The Woodsman Tavern & Karl Holl & James Serlin, Project Grace, Portland  - An amazing line up of chefs.

finally painting again!!

 

 went for a walk this morning and picked wild flowers from the ditch and got my self into the studio at long last!

on the way out to sketch the ditch flowers ... I watched one of my two active hives swarm which is really amazing... they landed on a near by tree to high to catch the swarm... so lucky for me I had just finished up my hives last night!! so I put them out in hopes that the swarm will decide one of the two is a worthy  home -- cross your fingers ; )

 

when Laura and I put new boxes on the hives we oepned it up and saw a bunch of queen cells and miss laura called it she said watch for your hive to swarm in the next week.... yup !!  : ) 

 

these next shots are just fun shots around the farm of the animals enjoying the grass!!  

 

 

running the smoker this past weekend for our bacon party for our customers - thank you to all that come out it was a BIG day for us!! thank you for taking so much wine back to your tables!! cheers! 

 

The Big Table!!

At long last we get to retire the ply wood table we've had for so many years 

(we get to keep the memories!)

So as most of you know we de-constructed our old barn in December 2013 and salvaged all the old wood - (with the help of Duane and Chuck !) and when I say barn it was hardly a barn... it was a building with very little holding it together in fact 1/2 of it fell down in the snow of 2008 and Brian rebuilt one entire side of with the help our one of my oldest and dearest friends kevin!! (artist and  one of those friends game for most any thing including holding up the dangerous end of a barn while brian put a jack under it) and then they replaced the main posts on the other side so we were able to continue using it into this past winter!  - the cool thing about this circa 1950's barn was the wood that was used in it was as far as our best guess from the original barn on the farm circa 1890 - 1900.

 

This is from an email from our table builder re the age of the wood...

"Based on the circular saw marks and the square nails, I would say this lumber can be dated sometime between 1860 and 1880, although some of it may be newer than that from when they built the second barn from the first. I'm sure they would have salvaged as much as they could from the first, but still needed to use newer wood as well to complete the barn. Still, even the "new" wood that was used is considered old to us now!"
 

So needless to say after painstakingly pulling every last nail and stacking stickering and re-staking the salvaged wood - we worked with a great couple in Vancouver (Sam and Cheryl) to build us our big table.

Cheryl and Sam picked through the boards and found the perfect ones for our big table and benches and did beautiful work! - we are so happy with this amazing piece of history in our home!!  They are also working on a picnic table and if any of you have been sitting at the old table or - or tried to move it ever will know why this is necessary!!'  it's had more than one repair job.

 

 (curtsey of Joe Rut : )  

 

I just love before and after shots! : ) 

 

 

the nails!  

the table is a VERY siple design based on the origianl plywood table brian made all those years ago...

 

the proud craftsmen!  

They have the remainder of the wood so if anyone would like to also have a table made from big table farm's old barn.  They do have a website www.lakeshorehouseandhome.com.

 

I'm finishing the table with tung oil which will take a few coats but is really beautiful! 

thanks also goes out to Jon Basile for helping us to look over the wood in the very beginning to understand what we had...

nothin like nice scores to lift a girls spirits on a rainy day in may... : )

 

this is from the april issue of wine and spirits - the years best pinot noirs : ) 

 

this goes along with some SUPER nice reviews from allen meadows - aka the burghound 

including this one...  2011 Pinot Noir – Sunnyside Vineyard: (Willamette Valley, 143 cases, SRP $45, 12.5%).

.... a pretty mélange of various red berry fruit, plum and floral aromas; I would advise decanting this as it definitely helped bring out the nose. There is good volume and intensity to the delicious and relatively fine medium-bodied flavors that possess a beguiling mouth feel, all wrapped in a dusty, complex, balanced and lingering finish. This is lovely and I very much like the style. 91/2018+

Family time

We've had some lovely visits from Brian's family - this past week there have been some really sweet family moments - thanks to all that came to visit Roisin...

 

Eveleen and I went out on her last day here on horseback to gather nettles for dinner... and Walter helped brian prepare them and all three of dara's boys ate some.. : )