Just a hop, skip, and a jump from the exit to our home off Dry Creek, bulldozers, trucks, and a slew of workers are playing in a lot of newly graded dirt. One cannot help but speculate. A new vineyard? A cut-across to West Dry Creek? A new weekender home with an intimidating but artfully designed gate? It doesn't look good. I may not be a native but I've lived here long enough to recognize I have 'protectionitis', an inevitable condition after being exposed to one too many mornings when fog wraps its way around the hills, the sun shimmers through golden leaves late on a Fall day or rouses one's retina with the intensity of new green in the Spring. Or, in the words of my alarmist husband, "Is this the end of Dry Creek as we know it? Could it be — a SUBDIVISION?

Clearly, call me a snoop or just a concerned Valley resident but I think you would agree that such questions need to be addressed. So nicely, but expecting the worst, I dropped by the forlorn building (soon to be replaced) that was previously the Martin Family Winery's tasting room. Sue Straight was on duty that day and up to the task of allaying neighborhood fears and of purging rumors. She spoke of organic gardens, farm animals, a vista along the waters of Dry Creek, bio-dynamics, and threw around the word of the day-green. Whew! I could hardly contain myself, the news was good.

Turns out all that equipment is the first step in an exciting new project by a former winemaker and President at Fetzer Winery, Paul Dolan, in partnership with Heath Dolan, Phil and Sylvia Hurst and Mark DeMeulenare. The Martin Family Winery will now be known as Truett/Hurst and focus on production of Zinfandel and Petite Sirah "the old fashioned way" depending on how you look at it. And how you look at it can be controversial.

Bio-dynamic farming is considered by some a colossal waste of time, however, to Paul Dolan and his partners, "BD" farmed wines, are increasingly grown throughout the world and California for good reason.  Advocates site enhanced taste in wines as well as improved soil fertility, crop nutrition, and pest, weed, and disease control. But wait, you say, aren't we talking organic farming here? Not so, say the purists. Bio-dynamics takes an even grander view, considering the total ecology of the land and even the health and welfare of those who work it. One might say that it includes the part they likely left out in the typical Agricultural curriculum---like the observation most of us have made in our backyard gardens that a plant needs more than nutrients to grow and it just might make more sense to feed the soil than feed the plant.

Paul Dolan makes it simple, "Bio-dynamic is just good farming." (The Press Democrat, February 20, 08) Hmmm. No subdivision. Respect for the land. No pesticides wafting my way. I can live with that. What do you think?

Curious about bio-dynamic farming? Stay tuned, we will explore it in greater detail on the website.