About our family and farm

I can sum up my childhood with one story. I once had a sweater that my mom made for me when I was about 12. It was made of mohair, which was sheared from our pet Angora goat, Lilly. After it was sheared, the wool was "carded" ( the process of gently pulling the wool with wire brushes into soft long strands). The wool was then dyed in boiled cabbage leaves to get a soft purple color. Mom then spun it into yarn on her spinning wheel, and after she had several balls of yarn, she knit the sweater ( a bulky, super-soft, long sleeve giant of a thing). creating my lilac "Lilly" sweater. 

It was not a "normal" childhood. 

We didn't know it at the time, but we were incredibly lucky. We were living a pioneer life at a time when everyone around us was enjoying the pleasures of convenience food such as foil wrapped ding dongs, and TV Dinners. We had homemade bread (for which Mom ground her own wheat), and ate walnut butter sandwiches, and spoonful's of fresh honey from our bee hives. We ate our own meat, as in, the chickens, rabbits, ducks, pigs, and even a cow that our parents butchered and then froze in our always-stocked freezer. We ate from our garden year-round, and enjoyed mom's canned preserves and applesauce when the garden was lean. We had goat milk and fresh eggs every day. We ate carob instead of chocolate (yuck), and we never even saw a loaf of white bread or pre-packaged anything. Our parents were hard workers and devoted themselves to the farm and to a  certain way of life for their family.

Things have changed this last year and they have both moved off the farm. It has now  passed to the next generation, consisting of three children with their spouses, eight grandchildren, and six great grandchildren, most of whom live here in the Santa Ynez Valley, and several right here on the farm. 

We are adjusting. 

Follow our journey as we navigate sharing the farm together, reinventing our focus to more than just walnuts, and holding true to our parent's vision when they bought a little farm some 42 years ago.