Reprinted with permission of the Wine Growers of Dry Creek                                                                                                                             

DRY CREEK VALLEY OVERCOMES CHALLENGING 2008 GROWING SEASON

The worst frost in decades, a dry spring, heat spikes and wind at bloom,

smoke from wild fires and lower crop still yield high fruit quality

HEALDSBURG, CA, September 18, 2008 — The Winegrowers of Dry Creek Valley (WDCV) are about mid-way through the 2008 harvest. From all accounts, it’s been a wild but ultimately rewarding ride through a challenging growing season. “We experienced the worst frost season in many decades and a very dry spring,” said Duff Bevill, past president of the WDCV and owner of Bevill Vineyard Management LLC. After the rains stopped in March, the ground warmed quickly and the vine shoots were branching out when the extended frosts hit in April, affecting many vineyards that had never experienced frost before. “The damage hit some blocks, burning the fruit and diminishing the yield, whereas others went unscathed,” said Bevill.

 Dear Gardeners and Cooks,

          Though the tomato crop is not as abundant as last year, the recent heat wave has hastened ripening of plants that got a late start.  This is the perfect time to make Caprese Salad (sliced tomatoes and mozzarella garnished with basil), BLT’s , and the following recipes, which are some of my favorites.  The soup can be served cold with a garnish of finely chopped cucumber, red onion, and avocado, a variation of gazpacho.

          At the end of the growing season, if you have room in your garage, you can follow an Italian tradition and pull up the whole tomato plant and hang it upside down from the rafters.  The green tomatoes will ripen slowly and you can enjoy them for weeks.  Last March, I was astounded to find a tomato branch from a San Marzano vine behind a table downstairs. The tomatoes were firm, red, and moderately flavorful, after hanging there all winter long.

          When you prepare your soil for next year’s planting, dig deeply and amend with chicken manure and compost.  Do not plant tomatoes in the same bed each year as they will be susceptible to verticilium wilt.  This is especially a problem with the wonderful heirloom varieties.  Check your seed catalogues for disease-resistant varieties.  Plant young seedling plants deep because they will also send out roots along any buried plant stem.  Be sure to water consistently as a way to prevent blossom end rot.

          Enjoy the bounty of our beautiful valley as long as possible.

Barbara Micallef, the author of this article, combines a love of color, flowers, and produce for the kitchen in her Dry Creek garden.  A watercolor painter who enrolled in the U.C. Davis Master Gardener program in 2004, she now feels she “paints with flowers” in her garden.  She encourages flowers that reseed and can be transplanted for color and texture.

She finds she can grow lettuce all year round, using shade cloths in the summer.  She always looks forward to her tomatoes which, she says, would almost make gardening worthwhile if they were the only crop, but then, you can’t leave out herbs, garlic, and a few zucchini plants mainly for the blossoms.

Recipes using the Tomato

Summer Tomato Soup

3 Tbs. butter

1 cup diced shallots, 8-10

5 pounds ripe, red, juicy tomatoes, rinsed and cut into big pieces

Salt and freshly milled pepper

Melt the butter in a wide soup pot over low heat.  Add the shallots and let them cook while you prepare the tomatoes.  Add the tomatoes to the pot along with 1 teas. salt and ½ cup water.  Cover and cook for 3 to 4 hours.  Give the pot a stir every now and then, checking the liquid.  Pass the tomatoes through a food mill into a clean pot.  You should have about a quart of soup.  Taste for salt and season with freshly milled pepper. Serves 4-6

At this point you can do several things:  1. serve as is, 2. freeze, 3. add a few Tbs. of cream 4. swirl in a Tbs. of butter seasoned with shallots, dill, pesto or basil puree.  5. Chill and serve with crème fraiche, diced avocado and lime juice.

Thanks to Debra Madison via Donna McFetridge.

End-of-Season Tomato Coulis for Pasta

2 Tbs. olive oil

1 clove garlic, crushed and minced

5 lbs. very ripe tomatoes, peeled

½ teas. salt

½ teas. pepper, freshly ground

½ to 1 Tbs. sugar (optional)

1 Tbs. minced fresh Thyme

Heat olive oil in a pan large enough to hold all the tomatoes at one time.  Add garlic and sauté for 2 or 3 minutes.  Add tomatoes and cook for 30 minutes.

Taste the sauce and add salt, pepper, and sugar if needed.  Continue cooking another 30 minutes to an hour until the sauce thickens.  Skim any remaining clear liquid off the sauce.  Stir in the thyme and cook for another 10 minutes. 

Let the coulis cool, then bottle it and keep it refrigerated.  In France, coulis is usually stored in wine bottles with corks.  Makes about 3 cups.   

 Thanks to "Tomatoes"   

I’ll meet you at “The Best Deli by a Dam Site” I declared to my friend.  “Where?,” he asked.  “You know,” I replied, “the deli, the deli on Dry Creek.”  “Oh,” he responded, looking uncertain.  I tried again, “The store on Dry Creek at Lambert Bridge Road.”

It turns out my companion had never seen the sign that had once declared the Dry Creek General Store to be “The Best Deli by a Dam Site”.  He had moved to the valley sometime after 2001 when Gina Gallo acquired what was a rapidly deteriorating property crying out for the paint job that did away with that picturesque bit of nomenclature.  I hadn’t noticed its absence, probably because the necessary primping and preservation that Gina has done left the structure pretty much like it was in 1881 when it was the local Dry Goods Store for valley farmers.  Necessary restoration has been carefully and slowly accomplished to insure the almost 128 year old store retains its historical roots.  The “Dam Site” reference would have been added in the late 1970’s after construction of the Warm Springs Dam. 

 by John Clendenen*

Summertime and I suppose the livin’ should be easy, but we still seem to find lots to do in the vineyards. Our work cycle does slow as we approach harvest, with the crews working less hours and some taking vacations as time allows. At this writing, verasion (berry softening) is evident in all vineyards now and we are almost to the end of our mildew sprays. Mildew pressure seemed to be lower than some years, but we can still find a little in places were control was less than perfect.

After the extreme weather of the spring, the summer has been more tolerable. We had a few heat spikes, but even these were moderated a bit by the smoke  from the many forest fires. Some have commented on the effect the smoke might have on the flavors of the wine from this vintage. There may be some small detectable flavor nuance in some areas that were constantly smokey, but I suspect the effect, if any, will be negligible. One of the better parts of this kind of agriculture is the opportunity to speculate on these kinds of things.

This more moderate weather has allowed the smaller crop to mature and ripen well. Some varieties, such as Chardonnay, still look very light, but others like Cabernet and Zinfandel look good in some settings. We are removing a few more leaves in some blocks and thinning or evening out the crop in the heavier areas. We are planting our last green vines (didn’t we use to plant only in the springtime!) that were ordered late from the nurseries.

Soon, it will be time to get out the gondolas and bins and polish up the trucks. The long hours and sticky hands are not far away.

*John Clendenen has spent his life farming and has owned Clendenen Vineyard Management with his wife Kathy for the last 16 years.  They live in Dry Creek Valley and manage vineyards in the valley and surrounding areas.