Harvest 2021

2021

HARVEST A special publication of The Healdsburg Tribune, Cloverdale Reveille, The Windsor Times and Sonoma West Times & News

October 28, 2021

A ‘calm,’ but too dry harvest

Photo Brandon McCapes

GRAPES GALORE — Vineyard workers pick grapes for Balletto Vineyards on Oct. 11.

By Rollie Atkinson SoCoNews Staff Sonoma County’s 2021 harvest may be defined more by what didn’t happen versus what did. There were no late season dry lightning strikes and the region’s long growing season stretched from early spring through the end of summer with no terrible heat spells. And, there was no rain — at least not enough to break the spell of the ongoing drought.

Unlike the past two years, there were no large wildfires in August and September to interrupt crop picking. Winery owners and workers did not have to mass evacuate or shield from smoke-filled skies. And, there was no end to the coronavirus pandemic that shuttered big chunks of the local economy beginning in March 2020, keeping almost all work shifts under extra precautions and other limitations.

Most of what did happen during the growing season and harvest of 2021 is welcomed by vineyard owners and other farmers.

“I don’t think anyone, really, has much to complain about with this year,” said Anthony Beckman, winemaker at Balletto Vineyards.

“We had average to slightly above average yields and the overall quality of the fruit is very high.”

WHAT’S INSIDE

When local farmers look back at followed by dairy, poultry, livestock, this 2021 harvest, most nursery will remember it for ornamentals, the lack of rain and the quality historical low water vegetables, levels in regional apples and reservoirs including silage crops.

Lake Mendocino and The wildfires Lake Sonoma. But, and smoke they might also damage remember the vintage curtailed most of 2021 as a crop totals in surprisingly great one, 2020 and the if some early lack of rains winemaker predictions this year will prove true in a few keep many years. yields below “Overall, it was very past harvests. calm — especially with (Official crop no wildfires,” said totals are not Karissa Kruse, recorded until president of Sonoma late next year County Winegrowers. when the “The crop might have county’s been a little light (in agricultural yield), but it feels like commissioner our growers are going delivers his to experience a very official report to balanced market the state and the without too much price County Karissa Kruse, Sonoma pressure and good Board of demand (for grape President of Sonoma Supervisors.) purchases.)”

“I’m feeling County Winegrowers optimistic,” Sonoma County said farmers produce Kruse as the almost $1 billion in winegrape annual crops, with winegrapes harvest was winding down in midrepresenting two-thirds of that total, October. “And that’s really different

“We’re being safer and our growers are looking in new ways at all of their farming practices. We’re also looking at a next generation of farmers coming along with some new models and approaches.

That’s exciting.”

PICKERS DEMAND IMPROVED HEALTH AND SAFETY CONDITIONS An effort is underway to get vineyards to agree to better working conditions for workers.

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from how we all felt just a year ago.

Sonoma County is still in the forefront of our industry with so much.” She said the wildfire, pandemic and drought are just the latest challenges all farmers face in most years. “We’re being safer and our growers are looking in new ways at all of their farming practices. We’re also looking at a next generation of farmers coming along with some new models and approaches. That’s exciting.”

A critical dry year

A normal beginning Without floods or frost, Sonoma County’s growing season usually begins in mid-March when the grapevines awaken and send out early green shoots. This year’s bud break was right on time. But it didn’t take long for farmers to start noticing their pastures and hillsides were not their usual emerald green.

A lack of rain painted yellow and brown streaks through their plantings. Dairy and livestock operators took extra caution and began tight water management early in the season.

Vineyard crews did extra pruning on thirsty vines and some livestock owners culled back on their herd sizes and breeding schedules.

Nursery and vegetable farmers watched their well levels and canceled some crop plantings.

Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic

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was keeping many restaurants and other Sonoma County crop customers on limited business hours and they decreased purchases for local farmers’ vegetables, cheeses and other agriculture products.

On Aug. 2, the drought became official when the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) issued a blanket curtailment order to all upper Russian River property owners’ pumping activities. Lake Mendocino, which supplies water to Potter and Alexander valley vineyards and farmers, fell to a historical low level for that time of year at less than 30% capacity. Lake Sonoma was only a bit better at 40% and on Aug. 10 the SWRCB issued full curtailment orders to lower Russian River water users in Dry Creek and lower Russian River valleys.

Vineyard owners invested in extra monitoring and soil probe technology to squeeze as much value out of each drop of irrigated water as possible. Other growers made decisions over which vineyards or varietals to irrigate and which ones to let go thirsty. Almost all vineyard owners “dropped” fruit on the ground to reduce stress on the semiparched vines.

See Harvest page 2

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Harvest edition

www.soconews.org

October 28, 2021

HARVEST: Plagued by drought instead of fire Continued from page 1 Smaller clusters and berries, but bigger flavors “We’re seeing lighter clusters and smaller berries, but the flavors are really sharp,” said Balletto’s Beckman. “Our chardonnay is outstanding, with great chemistry and good acidity.”

Kruse said many growers this year picked their fruit at lower brix (sugar) levels and a bit earlier than usual which will result in lower alcohol levels in the finished wines.

The 2021 winegrape harvest started in mid-August with grapes destined for sparkling wines and the season was 95% completed by the first week of October, with just some hearty cabernet sauvignon, syrah and other red varietals waiting for some late picking.

“We are excited about our 2021 harvest,” said Michael Haney, executive director of Sonoma County Vintners, an association for winery owners. He said the season was “very smooth” and found overall weather conditions “very cooperative with cool evenings and foggy mornings.”

No such thing as ‘dry farming’ Almost half of the rainfall, river flow and groundwater within the Russian River basin is used by agriculture and shared with 600,000 domestic, municipal and industrial customers of the Sonoma County Water Agency and incorporated cities. All classes of water users this year were put on mandatory water use restrictions that many fear will tighten in 2022 if the dry winter predictions hold true.

Homeowners forced to see their lawns turn brown have complained at the sight of lush green, irrigated vineyards. Demands that farmers

Photo Rollie Atkinson

THROUGH IT ALL — Workers at Balletto Vineyards sort through grapes. cease irrigating and revert to ‘dry farming’ techniques are slightly misdirected. There is no such thing as ‘dry farming.’ There is farming with irrigation or farming with no irrigation. Dry farming (no irrigation) can only work when there is at least minimal amounts of rain. No rain, no water, no crops.

However, an Alexander Valley vineyard owner recently confessed to SoCoNews that “we’ve probably been over-watering in lots of past

years because we’ve had the water.”

A vineyard of premium grape vines could grow and mature very well on a very limited amount of rainfall — if that rain fell during a perfect time like late winter when the vineyard soils are most receptive to absorb and retain the life-giving moisture. A torrential storm with lots of run-off into the river or Pacific as occurred in 2019 doesn’t help that much.

On the road again Members of Sonoma County Winegrowers will be in Houston, Texas on Nov. 13, pouring their wines for 1,000 attendees of the Houston Food Fest. This follows a similar marketing excursion by the Winegrowers in June to San Antonio. Grape farmers can grow all the fruit they want and sell it to wineries but if consumers don’t buy and drink the wine, it doesn’t matter if there’s a drought or not.

“It’s great to be back on the road again,” said Kruse, following almost two years of cancelled wine showcases. “I think we are seeing a true renaissance among wine consumers. They really want to know where their wine comes from and what’s the story behind it. Our Sonoma County members excel at that and we’re happy we will able to travel and share their stories once again.”

Second forecasted short crop may help balance grape market

By Brandon McCapes SoCoNews Staff Not enough water and too much heat will result in a second short grape crop across California this harvest, according to forecasts by the Ciatti Brokerage Company, a global wine and grape brokerage firm. That short crop, however, may help to balance a grape market that faced excessive supply in 2018, leading growers to pull out vines to plant different varietals.

California is expected to produce 3.6 million tons of grapes this year, up slightly from the 3.4 million tons harvested in 2020, but down from the average crop of 4.1 million tons.

Sonoma County, however, was forecasted to come in a little closer than normal, when compared to other North Coast wine growing regions like Lake and Mendocino counties and Napa Valley.

“The severe statewide drought has inevitably played a big part in the quick ripening: Water curtailment mandates are in place up and down the state’s rivers, and there have been drought stress issues visible on some vines, including lack of berry sizing and desiccated foliage,” according to the firm’s September edition of the monthly California Report.

Despite enormous wildfires in Central California and the Sierra Nevadas, smoke damage played less of a factor in stunted crop size this

year.

“The Caldor Fire has perhaps caused some smoke exposure issues that are very limited in extent in terms of grape-growing area, so too the Dixie Fire. In many areas across the state, smoke is sometimes evident high up in the atmosphere, too distant to have much — if any — effects. Wineries remain largely unconcerned to date,” the report reads.

Drought-related water curtailments, however, resulted in water shortages that limited growers’ ability to slow quickening crops. Because of that, many red grapes, generally picked later in the harvest months, were ripe around the same time as white grapes.

According to Glenn Proctor, partner at Ciatti, 2020’s was the lightest crop seen in 10 years.

However, reductions caused by adverse weather and drought began to occur at a time of supply and demand imbalance. ”In some ways the lighter crops are creating balance in supply and demand,” Proctor said.

In 2016 and 2017, wine consumption in the U.S. began to flatten, and a larger than usual crop in 2018 led to excess supply. Since then, the variables of the wildfires, extreme heat and changes in supply lines and consumer habits during the pandemic have added additional unstable variables to the wine market.

“I think the wine market in general has held up okay. But it’s definitely a challenging environment,” Proctor said.

Wineries, Proctor said, have been hesitant to buy grapes aggressively, as revenue has been affected by the pandemic. With people periodically unable or unwilling to congregate at establishments to engage in wine tastings and such activities, wineries saw a big decrease in “onpremise sales,” with a corresponding increase in “offpremise sales” — or sales from groceries stores or other markets.

Off-premise sales, which increased dramatically during the pandemic, are less lucrative for wineries, that make more money charging customers premium prices to sample fine wines in tasting rooms adjacent to scenic vineyards.

Wineries being uncertain that they will be able to fetch the higher price have been less eager to buy up grape stock.

While the two short crops in a row (in addition to increased buyer hesitation over decreased onpremise sales) may help to re-establish balance between supply and demand in the grape market, Proctor said the biggest challenge in predicting the future market is water curtailment issues.

“I think our balance at this time is tenuous until we really understand water issues,” Proctor said.

Photo Brandon McCapes

UP CLOSE — A vineyard worker gets in a bucket of picked grapes on Oct. 11.

Interest in farms, farmers and farming practices among 2021 consumer trends The effects of COVID-19 on drinking habits, increased demand for sustainable practices and virtual tastings are among the changing consumer trends seen over the past year, as noted by Karissa Kruse, president of Sonoma County Winegrowers and executive director of Sonoma County Grape Growers Foundation.

According to Kruse, COVID-19 lockdowns led to more people eating and drinking at home, and a bigger focus on wine with meals eaten at home with family or “pods.” Consumers have also been drinking better on, say, a Tuesday night. Rather than saving a good bottle for a special occasion, they are “celebrating little things or all

things.”

COVID-19 lockdowns also led to more virtual and digital experiences with wine consumption. While virtual tastings became a trend during the pandemic, they are also helping to expand access to wine tastings and education.

“More virtual tastings and education (are) making wine more accessible and removing barriers for folks around the world and for people to learn,” Kruse said.

Kruse also said virtual and digital marketing trends are appealing to younger wine customers.

2021 saw wine being sold in smaller bottles — and in cans — at

P R O T E C T I N G T H A T

a greater rate, Kruse said, partly to do with the advent of virtual tastings and wineries sending wine to customers to pour themselves.

“Half bottles were especially popular for individuals living alone, and also for wineries to be able to share wines in smaller formats for virtual tastings,” Kruse said.

Conscious consumerism is affecting consumer choice in regards to the wine industry, as customers care more about how the wine they purchase is produced.

“Sustainability is now the new ‘normal’ for wine, and vineyards and consumers are caring more about sustainability in all things, including wine,” Kruse said. There

T H E

N O U R I S H

is also a “focus on climate farming and agriculture’s role in sequestering carbon, as part of the climate solution.”

This is part of a larger trend Kruse identified in which customers across the board care more about understanding where their food and drink come from, including learning about the source and farming practices.

The increased interest in the source of wine and how its production is in part due to more people becoming micro-farmers and home gardeners, Kruse said.

As people pay more attention to where their wine comes from, there’s been a corresponding increased interest in American

W O R K I N G &

I N S P I R E

S O N O M A O P E N S P A C E . O R G

L A N D S U S .

Viticultural Areas (AVAs), which are “delimited grape-growing regions with specific geographic or climatic features that distinguish it from the surrounding regions and affect how grapes are grown,” according to Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB).

In addition to AVAs and vineyard-designated wines, consumers are also interested in family farms and opportunities to know about the farmer and/or grape grower.

Finally, Kruse remarked on the hard seltzer and wine seltzer craze, which she said became a large category “almost overnight.”

— Brandon McCapes

October 28, 2021

www.soconews.org

Harvest edition

Page 3

Harvest pickers demand improved health and safety conditions amid smoke and fire

By Brandon McCapes SoCoNews Staff Sonoma County’s wine industry rakes in $1.9 billion each year, but the farmworkers who pick the grapes each harvest for about $25 per hour face unique health and safety challenges, and local organizers are demanding change.

With the unprecedented wildfires in recent years, harvest pickers might be working in conditions of dangerous air quality, excessive heat, unsanitary conditions or even in evacuation zones, as they scramble to pick as many grapes as possible as quickly as possible.

These conditions, complicated further by language barriers and lack of representation for undocumented workers, have spurred Sonoma County labor reform organization North Bay Jobs With Justice (NBJWJ) to release its “5 for Farmworkers in Fires” petition.

NBJWJ is a coalition of over 30 different labor and community organizations “with a real focus on working on the intersection of economic, racial and climate justice,” according to Executive Director Max Alper.

“What has been happening over the last few years is we as a community have been dealing with devastating wildfires. Climate change has made our wildfire season start earlier, last longer and burn longer. For farmworkers — the vast majority of whom work in wine grapes — the harvest season now coincides with wildfire season,” Alper said.

The demands focus on the wine industry, which employs 90% of the county’s 11,060 farmworkers. A ton of grapes picked over six or seven hours by one worker can earn them about $165 and net $2,700 for the vineyard owner — nearly double the statewide average, according to Alper.

After hearing about the scope of the issues of health, safety and the lack of visibility that seasonal farmworkers often deal with during their most lucrative months of the year, NBJWJ planned 30 indepth surveys on farmworkers’ lived experiences. Because of the positive response, Alper said, the organization interviewed 100 farmworkers.

Alper said the interviewers were also farmworkers trained by the organization, who were able to conduct the interviews in Spanish and establish a rapport based on shared culture.

“Oftentimes their experiences are very traumatic — to work in the extreme heat, sometimes alone in evacuation zones. These are troubling stories, so we take the time to hear them,” Alper said.

After processing the surveys, which were conducted in April, NBJWJ put out the priorities at the end of June. They hope to get businesses responsible for harvesting grapes to sign on to the “5 for Farmworkers in Fires” demands, and for the county to apply pressure to help improve workers’ conditions where possible.

Photo Brandon McCapes

MARCHING FOR FARMWORKERS — On Sept. 26, people marched 12 miles from north Santa Rosa to the Healdsburg Plaza in support of undocumented workers’ rights.

Peninsula as four Indigenous languages that have been passed down for generations among farmworkers.

when workers call them. This requires consent from the owners of the vineyards, something Alper said the county could help them get.

2. Disaster insurance According to NBJWJ, when smoke or fire damage the grape crop, the wine industry is covered by insurance with “significant assistance” from the federal government. In 2019, for instance, Sonoma County wineries received $63 million for fire damage, and 60% of that sum was covered by taxpayer funded federal crop insurance premiums.

Farmworkers, many of whom depend on the income from harvest to last throughout the year, received nothing for lost income.

Alper said governments and private industry should work together to ensure that farmworkers receive support when they lose out on income as a result of natural disaster, the same way wineries do when they lose out on grapes.

“When the smoke and the fires are so bad, it often means they are unable to work. The harvest is a time when farmworkers can make a significant amount of their yearly income. When you don’t work the harvest that can affect your family for the whole year,” Alper said.

3. Community Safety Observers Of the 10 Cal/OSHA inspectors covering a fivecounty district that includes Sonoma County, only one speaks Spanish. Not a single one speaks an Indigenous language.

“What we heard over and over was that workers felt isolated and alone and there weren’t enough checks on their safety — that nobody knows what they’re going through,” Alper said.

NBJWJ has been training health and safety workers to go out into the vineyards during red flag warnings or

4. Premium hazard pay

Looking forward

“It feels like running up Taylor Mountain with a mask on five times,” one farmworker said about working the harvest during heavy wildfire smoke. Harvest pickers are paid by yield, not hour, so workers often push themselves physically, even in dangerous air quality.

NBJWJ proposes that vineyard workers should receive hazard pay while exposed to dangerous wildfire smoke. The law states that employers must offer masks when the air quality reaches 151 AQI, but Alper said people should be compensated for putting their bodies at risk.

“A lot of people have come to know about hazard pay during COVID-19 as we’ve started to identify certain workers as essential.

Agricultural workers in our county have never received hazard pay. We think there’s no doubt that working in extreme heat, smoke and sometimes evacuation zones is hazardous,” Alper said.

Everyone knows that a significant portion of the farmworkers harvest the grapes that make Sonoma County wealthy are undocumented, Alper said.

These workers, who lack representation and are further marginalized through language barriers and a lack of visibility, provide labor and pay taxes, but don’t receive benefits. So community organizations like NBJWJ step in to help fill the gaps.

During the 2017 fires, for

instance, undocumented residents impacted by wildfires weren’t entitled to public benefits, so NBJWJ started Undocufund — a donation-based, private resource.

Alper said the main sign things are changing is that farmworkers feel comfortable coming forward. He said the rapid deterioration of conditions amid the rise in wildfires prompted the renewed activism.

“Ag workers coming forward with these priorities this year makes it all the more significant. We really see that as bravery. This year the workers decided they need to come forward and make these issues clear because it’s

WILSON ARTISAN

5. Clean bathroom and water The fifth demand may seem basic, but Alper said clean bathrooms and cold water are harder to come by in past years as the industry has grown.

“We were surprised to hear that was an issue,” Alper said.

“Workers were really bringing up this concern, especially women workers. In the last few years there’s been an increase in the number of women workers in the fields, and with increased ash and soot and the number of people working during harvest, it’s made it so that the bathrooms are getting really dirty.

Alper said that it was a

When you think of water, think of Weeks!

1. Language justice In addition to Spanish, Sonoma County’s farmworker population speaks a variety of Indigenous languages. In the surveys, which themselves were conducted only in Spanish, Alper said they found translation of safety trainings into Spanish wasn’t sufficient.

To achieve language justice, private and public organizations should incorporate trainings and educational material published in each of the diverse primary languages spoken among the often seasonal or migratory workers picking Sonoma County’s grapes, Alper said.

“Trainings were not done in their primary languages, and this was especially concerning about how to stay safe during evacuations,” he said.

The “5 for Farmworkers in Fires” lists Mixteco, Triqui and Chatino, of southern Mexico, and the Maya language of the Yucatán

question of dignity that women of color were provided sanitary bathroom access in an industry dominated by white men.

become such a desperate situation,” he said.

While the “5 for Farmworkers in Fires” has no legal authority, the movement hopes that, with enough public attention, private wine industry companies and local government agencies will sign on to help improve the conditions outlined.

“We’ve started to have some businesses in the wine industry reach out to us. We believe in listening to the workers and this is really urgent. We are going to continue to take this to the public and the industry,” Alper said.

NBJWJ sends “delegations” of activists and farmworkers out to businesses, including tasting rooms, to try and win business support. For some of the farmworkers who work year after year picking grapes, these trips to tasting rooms were their first time witnessing the luxurious — and expensive — consumer side of the industry. Alper said they were consistently astonished with how much people were charged for wine tastings.

Some businesses and county leaders have started to express support with public attention. A protest on Sept. 26 supporting undocumented workers’ rights made headlines, bringing the “5 for Farmworkers in Fires” platform more into the public eye. Another event, held on Oct. 10 in the Healdsburg Plaza, aimed to raise awareness among tourists who visit Wine Country.

Alper said he has hope that, with continued organization, farmers in Sonoma County can improve their working conditions.

“We’re moving in the right direction because more and more workers and families are getting involved, and more and more people in the community are supporting them,” he said.

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Harvest edition

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October 28, 2021

Looking back at Sonoma County’s wine industry pioneers Celebrating the wine women who paved the way in Sonoma County

By Katherine MinkiewiczMartine SoCoNews Staff One of the hallmarks of Sonoma County is its wine industry, with its rolling hills and rugged coastlines of various grape varietals, however, another hallmark is the many women who were pioneers in their field, who stood as pillars in supporting and shaping the industry in its early days.

As harvest season for the 2021 vintage winds down, SoCoNews is taking a look back at some of the industry’s notable women, Isabelle Simi, Zelma Long, Merry Edwards and MaryAnn Graf.

Isabelle Isabelle Simi was a fixture at Simi Winery, which was founded by her father and uncle, Giuseppe and Pietro Simi, in 1876.

Simi worked at the winery for nearly seven decades and was known as a tenacious, hardworking and hospitable woman, who even in her old age worked in the tasting room.

Her father and uncle immigrated from Italy to the United States during the California Gold Rush and in 1876, they founded Simi Winery in San Francisco.

In 1881, they moved their operations to Healdsburg.

According to the Simi Winery website, 1890 marked the first harvest in Simi’s stone cellars at their winery location on Healdsburg Avenue.

“That Isabelle began assisting her father at a very early age must have been true (as claimed in the interview) for she learned the operation of the winery in all respects. She rode with her father in his buggy when purchasing grapes. She operated the scales and must have sampled the rough new wine as well,” William Heintz wrote in a forward to his oral history of Simi.

In 1904, Simi’s father and uncle died from influenza just weeks apart from each other and Simi — who was only 18 at the time — was put in charge of the winery.

In an interview with Heintz in June of 1972, Simi told of how she worked with her dad at the winery from an early age.

“I was with my dad most of the time when he was up here. I weighed grapes when I was 12 years old,” Simi said in the interview.

The interview was transcribed

by Gail Ryan and was published by

IN THE LAB — Marty Banister and MaryAnn Graf at their oenology consulting firm Vinquiry in 1989. the Wine Library Associates of Sonoma County Oral History Series.

In 1908, Simi married a Healdsburg banker, Fred Haigh, who later left the bank to run the winery. While Haigh took over a lot of the duties, Simi was still always actively involved in the winery.

Simi traveled across the country to promote the family business and saw the winery through many turbulent events such as the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and the prohibition era of the 1920s.

When Prohibition started in January of 1920, Simi made specially licensed sacramental wine and wine for medicinal purposes.

She also sold all of the vineyard holdings in order to keep possession of the cellars where she had stored many gallons of wine.

During that time, she also continued to work the vineyards and crush grapes.

When the 18th Amendment was repealed in 1933, the winery was prepared to sell 500,000 gallons of wine. In 1934, Simi’s first retail outlet and tasting room was opened to the public.

In an interview with SoCoNews,

Zelma Long — who became president and CEO of the winery in 1989 — said of Simi, “Isabelle Simi, who I met only briefly, was a character. She I think as a woman was very unusual in the sense that she took up responsibility for the winery very young and carried it through to her old age.”

Long said she wished she knew Simi’s whole history. “She had one oral history, but that’s such a small part of the life she must have lived.”

Zelma Long was the first woman to assume senior management of a California winery and among other things, is known for her own winery work and for her role in modernizing Simi’s fermentation and barrel rooms and expanding their cabernet sauvignon program.

Long graduated from Oregon State University in 1965 with the intent of working in the dietitian field. She moved back to the Bay Area and got married.

“Ultimately I went back to school at UC Davis in their masters program because my parents-in-law

had purchased some land on Pritchard Hill on the east side of Napa Valley and wanted to plant a vineyard. That was in 1966. It was very early in the modern wine industry in Northern California,” Long said. “I had been working as a dietitian. Funnily enough at that time, no one thought it was that important for health so it wasn’t a very satisfying occupation, so I thought, ‘Well if they are going to plant a vineyard and they want to make wine I’ll just go back to UC Davis and study winemaking,’ which is what I did.”

When she was at UC Davis, there were only five students in her class.

“Then, when I was about half way through my program just prior to harvest in 1970, Mike Grgich called me from Robert Mondavi and he wanted me to come work with him,” Long said.

Miljenko “Mike” Grgich, a Croatian immigrant, is the man who crafted the winning chardonnay for Chateau Montelena for the Judgment of Paris in 1976.

The Judgement of Paris was the first ever blind taste testing of American wines against French

Photo courtesy Sonoma County Library Digital Collections

AT THE WINERY — Isabelle Simi Haigh at the Simi Winery tasting room in Healdsburg in 1952.

A special supplement to the Oct. 28 edition of The Healdsburg Tribune, Cloverdale Reveille, The Windsor Times and Sonoma West Times & News

Photo courtesy Sonoma County Library Digital Collections

wine. All nine judges were French and gave top honors to cabernet sauvignon and to Montelena’s chardonnay. Some judges even mistook the California wines for French wines and the event put California wines on the map in a big way.

After her internship with Grgich, she was recruited to work as the winemaker at Simi Winery in 1979.

“I was particularly interested in the vineyards and being responsible for the grapes, whether it was growing or acquiring. The companies that owned Simi at the time had committed to build a new fermenting cellar. For me, it was a great opportunity. I could help design and oversee the construction of the building and that added to the old winery, which had wonderful areas for barrels and wood tanks, but this new section was for the fermentation and pressing … It was really exciting to be able to plan and implement and work in the new cellar,” Long said.

At the time, Simi was primarily making red wine with grapes from

See Looking Back page 5

Photo courtesy Sonoma County Library Digital Collections

AT THE VINEYARD — Merry Edwards (left) standing with the Matanzas Creek Winery owners in 1983.

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Harvest edition

October 28, 2021

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Page 5

LOOKING BACK: County women were the first in their field Continued from page 4 the heart of Alexander Valley. Long was instrumental in helping the winery acquire a large parcel of land in southern Alexander Valley near Chalk Hill Road and Highway 128 in order to enhance their cabernet program.

“Probably the highlight (of

my wine career) for me is the vineyard and winery that my husband Philip Freese, who is a winegrower, and I developed from the ground up with a South African partner and built a brand, Vilafonte,” Long said.

Vilafonte Wine Estate, which is known for its two bordeaux blends, is based in Paarl, South Africa.

“Our vision was to make a

red wine, a bordeaux blend, that could compete with the best wines in the world. We accomplished what we set out to do, and as part of that, we also brought in new techniques and new thinking about fine wines to South Africa,” Long said.

Long was also the founder and president of the American Vineyard Foundation. She was named California Wine Pioneer by the Wine Spectator in 1993 and was the recipient of the James Beard Award for wine professional of the year in 1997.

In 2009, her alma mater honored her with the UC Davis Outstanding Alumni Award.

Merry

Photo courtesy Sonoma County Library Digital Collections

ANOTHER SIMI PIONEER — Zelma Long, shown here in 1990, started working at Simi Winery in 1979 and later became president of the winery.

Long called Edwards “a super achiever,” and indeed she is. Edwards was the first woman to earn a masters degree in Fermentation Sciences at UC Davis in 1973.

She began her career in 1974 in the Santa Cruz mountains working in the cellars at Mount Eden Vineyards. Edwards went on to be the founding winemaker at Matanzas Creek Winery in 1977 and worked at the winery until 1984.

In 2007, Edwards opened her own winery, Merry Edwards Winery, near Sebastopol. The winery specializes in pinot noir made with Russian River Valley grapes.

“I have tremendous respect for her,” Long said of Edwards. “Merry was someone who made wonderful wines and then moved and built her own winery and vineyard and created great success with her wines. She took a long road. She started about the same time I did, persevered and really set the tone from my standpoint for a woman not only making wine, but making her own wine and making fine wines that were recognized.”

Edwards is cited in “Women Winemakers, Personal Odysseys,” as being known to many in the wine industry as “The Queen of Pinot.” According to the

same book, Edwards, who has two sons, is also known as one of the few women winemakers willing to talk openly about the need for childcare for working moms.

In 2013, Edwards was just the third woman to be inducted into the Culinary Institute of America’s Vinter Hall of Fame. That same year, she also received the James Beard Wine, Beer, or Spirits Professional Award.

MaryAnn “MaryAnn was the first woman to graduate in oenology and viticulture at UC Davis and I knew Mary very well,” Long said.

Graf, who grew up in the Central Valley of California, graduated from Davis in 1965 and as told in a 2019

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Healdsburg Tribune “Wine Words” column by Marie Gewirtz, was the only woman to have signed up for wine microbiology and viticulture classes.

Graf was hired by the famous wine consultant André Tchelistcheff in 1973 to work as Simi Winery’s head winemaker, a role that until that point had been male dominated.

She was the first woman winemaker in California since Prohibition.

Graf left Simi in 1979 and partnered up with winemaker Marty Bannister to start her own business, Vinquiry, which was based in Healdsburg.

According to the same column, “This service of providing wine analysis and

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consulting to wineries was a novel concept at this time. It was so successful they established several satellite labs throughout California.”

“She was interested in laboratory work in the technical aspects of wine so she just powered through and came out, worked at Simi continuing the tradition and then started her own business. Another fine example to me of a woman who moved up through skill development and business knowledge development and ends up with her own business. MaryAnn loved her lab work,” Long said.

Graf was one of three industry pioneers chosen to receive the prestigious California State Fair Lifetime Achievement award in 2008.

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Harvest edition

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October 28, 2021

TO OUR LOCAL COMMUNITY:

THANK YOU! The 2021 harvest season was blessed by Mother Nature here in Sonoma County after the past few challenging years. As the season winds down and cooler weather approaches, we send a word of thanks to all of you. Thank you for your continued support of our ag and wine community. Thank you to our farmers and vineyard workers for your continued tenacity, hard work, and love of the land. Thank you to all our community partners near and far. And a special thank you to all our fearless essential workers who continue to work with pure heart and commitment in helping our food, wine, and hospitality industries re-open its doors so that we can continue to be a vibrant world class community. As we enter the holiday season, we hope you are able to safely gather with friends and family and 昀nd peace in the season, all the while enjoying some of your favorite wines from your community of growers and vintners of Sonoma County.

Cheers to you all. Cheers to a reset.

SONOMAWINEGRAPE.ORG

October 28, 2021

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Harvest edition

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In the classroom:

Cloverdale rekindling FFA program, offering ag classes

By Zoë Strickland SoCoNews Staff As Sonoma County’s agriculture industry grows, the agriculture classes available to students in the county are also growing. For some students in Cloverdale, these classes offer them an opportunity to both think more critically about the agriculture industry that surrounds them and learn more about sustainable farming practices.

Over the past two years, Cloverdale High School has offered two new classes for students that focus on agriculture — biology and sustainable agriculture, and agriculture and natural resources.

The high school’s farm to table course is also taking on a more agricultural focus than it had when it was more of a culinary course, teacher Angelica Fernandes said, with students working in the high school garden and learning more about sustainable farming practices.

“All three tie in with being sustainable and how farmers are taking on sustainable practices,” Fernandes said.

“With the world changing, climate change, all of those things, farmers are having to deal with that just as much as everyone else.”

ROUND UP — Cloverdale FFA students gather for Cloverdale High Fernandes is in her second year teaching at Cloverdale High School and, to her agriculture industry winegrapes, but that’s it. I knowledge, 2020 was the first somehow, or because they think finally them taking a year that the high school had grew up around it,” course and teaching them multiple classes focusing on Fernandes said. “I also have about Sonoma County areas in agriculture. kids who never grew up agriculture, California Students have the option around the ag industry but agriculture and how that ties to take biology and are interested in my classes in with that, a lot of sustainable agriculture or because (students) were surprised.” regular they’re biology, since different Incorporating hands-on the courses that education agricultureCloverdale’s One of the things that sets reared course never offered these classes apart from the was recently before.” normal core of classes that approved to The school students can take is that the count toward did have an ag nature of them being college credit, and natural electives means that students Fernandes resources might have more said. The other class before opportunities to learn two classes are she started outdoors, applying their offered as working classroom knowledge to realelectives. there, world situations.

In her Fernandes One way Fernandes does agriculture said, but she this is by having her classes and natural isn’t sure how work in the school garden. resources similar it was “They learn different tools course, to the class and what to do — we’re about Fernandes she’s to start learning about drip teaches “just a currently systems — that’s all the kids little bit of teaching. doing,” Fernandes said. “I everything “I feel like provide the supplies, we talk within the ag with any about what each item is, what industry to elective it does and then they learn kind of get course, how to put in drip irrigation, kids learning students are what kind of soil is best for a about different getting hands- certain plant and then just industry on learning whatever we’re learning, if it sectors,” she experience is related to anything outside said. through those of the classroom, we go The courses. With outside.” subjects taught the ag courses The garden also serves as in the class that I’m a tool to help teach the range from Angelica Fernandes, offering, school’s farm to table plant and especially in students what crops are best Cloverdale teacher Sonoma natural for what seasons and other science to County as a practices. sustainable practices to very ag-oriented community, Cloverdale High School California agriculture. a lot of students don’t really junior Agjes Nerguti said “I have a lot of kids who know that,” Fernandes said. that, of the agriculture specifically want to take my “They don’t realize where classes he’s taken at the high classes because they have an they live — they know that school, his favorite was farm interest in working in the there’s grapes and there’s to table because it gave him the chance to see the food grow from planting it to picking it, culminating in the class making salsa using tomatoes and peppers form the garden.

Gracie Bunting, a junior currently enrolled in the class, echoed Nerguti, noting that going out in the garden and using the grown produce to cook is also her favorite part of the class.

“I think this class is really beneficial to anyone that would take it, because you’re going to learn about things that you can use every day — from cooking to how to grow vegetables and things like that — it can really spark interest in students that might not have an interest in a traditional class,” Nerguti said.

“They don’t realize where they live — they know that there’s grapes and there’s winegrapes, but that’s it. I think finally them taking a course and teaching them about Sonoma County agriculture ... a lot of (students) were surprised.”

Photo courtesy Angelica Fernandes

School’s Homecoming Week parade on Oct. 8.

“We’ve gotten a lot of good community feedback from people who are happy that FFA is finally here,” she said.

FFA runs alongside Fernandes’ classes, which also follow FFA’s three circlemodel, which incorporates FFA, supervised agricultural experience and classroom time.

According to Fernandes, the FFA portion involves conferences, teaching leadership skills; the agricultural experience is covered in her classes by student projects that have to be agricultural based; and the classroom portion is covered

in the day-to-day work that students do while in Fernandes’ class.

“My mom did FFA when she was in high school and she told me about it and I thought it was really interesting,” said Nerguti, who is serving as Cloverdale FFA vice president this year.

“I’ve done smaller things like raise chickens and rabbits.

I’ve had gardens and stuff like that, and I heard that if you join FFA you can raise animals like pigs, sheep, goats, cows for the fair, so I thought that would be interesting.”

For Bunting, FFA

president, she joined FFA because it builds on the interest she already had in farming and agriculture.

While Cloverdale’s FFA program is still young, Fernandes said she hopes to see it grow over the next three to five years.

“It’s been a slow start, but kids are catching on to it and enjoying it,” she said.

“It’s another outlet for students. FFA is a place for everyone. It’s not just for the ag kids or the kids who want to go straight into the workforce, everyone has a place in FFA,” Fernandes said.

We Build The Tools You Craft the Wine

Reintroducing FFA

Photo courtesy Angelica Fernandes

TEAMWORK — FFA students work on team-building activities during the first day of school.

Running alongside Cloverdale’s agriculturefocused classes is a new FFA program, introduced last year by Fernandes.

“Cloverdale used to have an FFA program, from 1953 to 1954, and that was the last time they ever had it,” Fernandes said.

Other communities in Sonoma County like Healdsburg and Sebastopol have FFA, and Fernandes said that community members are happy that they now have a hometown program.

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Harvest edition

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October 28, 2021

Feeding Sonoma County:

Helping create a foundation for local farmers

Photo courtesy Kelsey Murphey

FRESH FOR DELIVERY — F.E.E.D. Cooperative offers subscriptions for food boxes called F.E.E.D. Bins, assembled with fresh vegetables harvested from multiple farms to deliver to homes and designated food hubs.

By Camille Escovedo SoCoNews Staff Defining a food system can be a bit of a mouthful considering how immediate the need for food is in a human’s body, but away from the eyes of the general public are numerous organizations and efforts committed to figuring out how to feed communities near and far in a way that’s responsible to the environment and for farmworkers.

It gets expensive sometimes, as some people who try to buy fresh, organic local produce have found out. While the question of how exactly to offer affordable, locallyproduced food to sustain one’s community and one’s farmers seems yet to be answered, people are giving it their best shots in Sonoma County, where it’s especially challenging to afford land.

A food system encompasses just about everything to do with feeding people and moving along the supply chain, from growing and harvesting to delivering and marketing goods to their intake and waste management and involving relationships with the environment, humans and policies that run how it’s to be done.

One notable mover and shaker of the Sonoma County food system is F.E.E.D. Cooperative, an organic food hub of over 70 local farms and the first farmer and employeeowned fresh produce cooperative in the state.

After working 10 years as an institutional stock broker in finance, F.E.E.D. co-founder Tim Page learned more about food systems and wanted to create a real-time exchange between farmers and consumers. F.E.E.D. stands for Farmers Exchange of Earthly Delights, a project that began in his garage and grew into “literally the physical manifestation of that exchange,” with its own cold storage and trucks.

Business itself is not so idyllic, however. Page stated that only a small percentage of food purchased in Sonoma County is actually locally-produced and he wasn’t shy about discussing the complexity of “affordability” for consumers and farmers alike.

Customers and small farmers are living in the same Sonoma County, “with the rising cost of everything,” he said. Local farmers “live hanging by our fingernails,” Page said.

“People don’t farm because their first motivation is capital riches.

They’re farmers because they’re passionate and they’re driven and they’re artistic and they like to take care of people.”

But they’re raising prices in

Photo courtesy Kelsey Murphey

BARRIERS TO BREAK — Improving access to fresh food isn’t just about affordability, but awareness of of existing opportunities to get a better deal on food in the first place, according to Julia Van Soelen, who leads an ongoing study on farm market accessibility for low-income and Latinx consumers in Sonoma County. order to bare-minimum cover their bills and pay their employees, while also accounting for the cost of leasehold land in the county, water in the drought and other aspects of operation, he said.

Page later added, “It doesn’t take rocket science to surmise that the cost of food grown in Sonoma County is going to be higher than it might be coming out of the Central Valley, simply due to the cost of land, for one.”

These are some of the reasons why F.E.E.D. is working to develop a foundation for a local farm-centric food system. Page said the food system is currently very consumercentric, “meaning you can go to any market, any day of the year and get a banana, you know what I’m saying?”

The co-founder advocates for greater value and regard for farmers, especially considering F.E.E.D. depends on their earth stewardship, water management and organic practices. Still, the pricing that keeps farms going is not so realistic for poorer people.

Just very real.

“Really, when it comes down to designing food systems that are

‘affordable for the general public,’ meaning we don’t supply enough to we cannot look to the farmers to meet demands, and yet, sometimes, answer that question. Because if we we cannot even sell all that supply.” look to the farmers to answer that Reflecting on his years in Maui question, it’s and time with Native like trying to Hawaiian elders, Page put a Bandsaid “we tend to look Aid on an axe at food as something wound,” Page we want to be able to said. “It’s up forget about,” in the to society to capitalist society of decide if we the U.S. Even though want to invest everyone needs to eat, in what people are socialized they’re to make food and doing.” other fundamentals One way “obsolete from an forward is for economic standpoint,” those who can he said, which afford to buy undermines attempts locally to do to create a foundation so and thus that honors food invest in local systems as Indigenous food systems societies have and secure achieved. business for About weekly, the Tim Page, cooperative farmers to a sells point that F.E.E.D. Sonoma between 600 and 700 appeals to fresh multi-farm more farmers veggie boxes called and land access, he said. “Because F.E.E.D. Bins, much like CSA right now, we have this greatly boxes, about half as much as it did imbalanced economic equation, last year, according to Page. But the

“Right now, we have this greatly imbalanced economic equation, meaning we don’t supply enough to meet demands, and yet, sometimes, we cannot even sell all that supply.”

cooperative’s continued survival since 2011, the F.E.E.D. Bins and “giving the armers an opportunity to own their own bioregional food system” have been the highlights for Page, who maintains the vision of developing a dynamic, powerful food system for one’s children and future generations of farmers.

Whose responsibility it is exactly to ensure accessibility and affordability for both consumers and farmers is one of the most complex, crucial questions to ask, “but it’s also one we should be asking,” according to Evan Wiig, Director of Membership & Communications for Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF), who also founded the Farmers Guild.

A difficult reality is that society doesn’t understand the true cost of cheap food, like produce at a grocery store, Wiig said. “The ability for food to be cheap is a result of cutting costs elsewhere,” he said.

Farms can strive for efficiency, “but cheap food comes at the cost of ecological degradation, which costs

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FARMERS: Study looks at farmers market accessibility in county Continued from page 8 all of us in the long term, cheap food comes at the cost of labor practices and the inability for farmworkers and those along the supply chain to have a living wage. Cheap food comes at the cost of local food sovereignty and the ability for a local economy to compete against monopolies who are able to cut corners, bribe governments and do everything they possibly can to destroy competition in the marketplace,” Wiig stated.

In the big picture, Wiig said he believes the telling question would be asking why agricultural workers can’t afford housing, why societies need to pay trillions to take the edge off climate change for future decades since “unsustainable practices,” including from agriculture, damaged the ecosystems.

“When you have a farm that’s growing locally, that provides a living wage to its employees, when that farm is practicing in ways that are in line with our values when it comes to preserving our natural resources — making sure that our groundwater is safe to drink, making sure that those downstream are taken care of, that at the end of that river where that water eventually leads is not creating a deadzone in the middle of the ocean destroying fishing economies, ecologies and entire communities — these are the costs, what you don’t see when you go to the grocery store, the farmers market or anywhere else,” he said.

Wiig added, “I guess I would sort of flip the question and say, ‘What is the cost of cheap food and who’s paying for it?’”

Market Match is a standout program for connecting people with their local farmers and their yields, according to Phina Borgeson, a founding member of the Sonoma County Food System Alliance (SCFSA).

The program matches funds with a customer’s federal benefits like WIC and CalFresh so the customer can buy more produce and boost small farmers’ businesses at certain farm-direct locations and farmers’ markets, per its website.

It’s a “win-win,” Borgeson said, by increasing low-income customers’ access to fresh, local food and supporting small farmers who are also under financial

pressure. An SCFSA member in particular helped provide this opportunity in Sonoma County through Petaluma Bounty, she said.

Meanwhile, UC Cooperative Extension has partnered with Petaluma Bounty to study the accessibility of farmers markets for low-income and Latinx consumers in Sonoma County, led by researcher Julia Van Soelen.

“One of our most clear findings from our research is just lack of awareness,” she said, though the study isn’t complete yet. People with limited incomes, older adults and Latinx community members especially, often don’t know they can qualify for CalFresh, Van Soelen said, “so the program itself is under-utilized.”

There’s even less awareness that CalFresh benefits can be spent at farmers markets or that Market

Match offers a dollar-for-dollar match, she said, and then there are the technical challenges, like going to the market manager’s booth to swipe one’s EBT card and getting wooden tokens and paper script to spend only at specific produce vendors.

“So, just sort of streamlining the program and making those communication points more clear is the work of our project right now.

It’s really trying to make the experience at the farmers market really smooth for any customers who are using CalFresh and Market Match,” Van Soelen said.

Not all markets are certified and not all certified markets take CalFresh or offer Market Match, but most in Sonoma County do, the researcher said. The online Farmers’ Market Finder is a project by the nonprofit Ecology Center in

Berkeley, California where people can search when and where farmers markets are held and whether they offer Market Match or EBT benefits.

SCFSA meets for hours on a monthly basis and has hosted forums in person on the pillars of the Food Action Plan and the food system itself in the past years, Borgeson said. Nowadays, policy work has become more of a main focus for the alliance, she said.

A key goal for SCFSA is how to effectively influence revisions to the county’s general plan and the plans of its cities guiding decades of action that impact the food system economically, ecologically and socially, and how to do so with the alliance’s all-voluntary membership, according to Borgeson.

Van Soelen said the effort is to

PACKAGES OF PRODUCE — Workers move fresh food in a F.E.E.D. Cooperative warehouse.

“ensure that the groups work around a food action plan and (that) our vision for a sustainable local food system is incorporated in the foundational planning document for the county,” finding opportunities to get community food production, community gardening and urban agriculture in county and municipal general plans.

The plans are mandated by the state to consider environmental justice, “and part of environmental justice is involving people in all neighborhoods and communities in decision making about what happens in their community,” Borgeson said. Creating a more participatory system means “we all need to be participants in our food system and not just as eaters, but as decision makers and, in some instances, producers.”

Photo courtesy Kelsey Murphey

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October 28, 2021

Harvest edition

For dairy farms, the drought goes beyond water concerns Local dairies struggle to feed their cows as pasture feed dries up

By Katherine MinkiewiczMartine SoCoNews Staff How is the drought impacting local dairy farms? For most of Sonoma County, the main issue isn’t with providing cows something to drink, but something to eat.

Due to the exceptional drought in California and dry conditions across much of the west, the food that many farmers rely on for their cattle is dwindling and even alternative food supplies like almond hulls, oat and wheat hay are decreasing as demand outstrips supply.

“It’s almost like gold right now,” said Tawny Tesconi, the executive director of the Sonoma County Farm Bureau.

Less water means less grass and hay and some local dairymen are having to purchase feed all the way from the midwest in order to feed their herds.

“The feed that is grown across the west coast has been reduced this year just simply by the amount of water, so our farms not only have to pay a bit more for that feed, but they’re having to bring some of it from farther away in order to get sufficient feed for the animals,” said Clover Sonoma President Ken Gott. “That is one of the most significant factors impacting dairies in Sonoma County.”

John Bucher, whose family has run a dairy farm on Westside Road since the 1950s, said the drought “is actually more impactful on organic dairy farming than in conventional dairy farming because we have certain organic rules that we need to abide by. The animals have to get a certain amount of their diet from pasture and we depend on mother nature for our irrigation. And when we don’t have that, it means we have to purchase more feed from outside sources.”

Photo Katherine Minkiewicz-Martine

MOO — Dairyman John Bucher’s cows. Due to drought complications, Bucher’s farm is producing about 5% to 10% less milk than what they normally produce.

In order to be a certified organic dairy, the cows must eat pasture grass 128 days a year, according to Tesconi.

Bucher’s parents started the dairy farm just outside of Healdsburg in 1958 and in the mid-2000s they converted to organic farming.

Bucher’s farm is one of 30 farms in the area that produces milk for the Clover Sonoma brand.

He said when there’s a regional drought it can be difficult to find

“Our farms not only have to pay a bit more for that feed, but they’re having to bring some of it from farther away in order to get sufficient feed for the animals.”

Ken Gott, President, Clover Sonoma

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alternative feed resources.

“Unfortunately, it’s not just California that’s suffering through this drought, it’s actually all of the western U.S. and southwestern U.S..

Some of the grains that we purchase for our organic grains that are sourced in California, those are all lost this year. Our our protein sources for the livestock and our grain sources are in real short supply and it’s driving prices extremely high,” he said.

Bucher said he started noticing shortages and higher prices in April.

“Once April came and went and we didn’t have any additional rain you could see a real shift in feed purchases and what was available,” Bucher said.

He noted that the farm has had to purchase hay all the way from Idaho. His cows typically get a combination of feed, hay, grain and almond hulls.

“There are a lot of byproducts out there that animals can eat, so our main source of feed when we don’t have pasture is just alfalfa and purchased grain hay like an oat or wheat hay and a protein source, which would be either soy beal meal or canola, and the problem is all of those protein sources are in short supply. What’s happening now is, since it is such a vast drought area in all of the western U.S., there’s livestock that

used to to be grazing on the hillsides, but just like here the grasses are all dried up and didn’t grow. Anyone that has livestock, and not just cattle, has to purchase more feed,” Bucher said.

He said now it’s the grains and the proteins that are especially escalating in price.

“We’re seeing it across the board and there’s only so much you can substitute and everyone else is doing the same substitution,” he said. Essentially, even the alternative feed sources are in short supply.

Nutrition provided by grass from the pasture is the main source of feed for Clover cows, but when the grass dries up, farmers have to bring in additional nutritional sources.

Alternative feed sources include corn, wheat or barley and

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DAIRY FARMS: Farms are reducing herd numbers, producing less milk Continued from page 10 byproducts such as almond hulls, rice bran, cottonseed, soybean meal, distiller’s grains and beet pulp. Clover dairies also harvest their grasses when they are growing rapidly in the spring and turn them into silage and hay. The hay and silage can be stored and fed to the cows during other parts of the year.

Bucher said his biggest concern is running out of all types of feed.

“If we get into a third year of dry conditions and if we don’t get enough green grass, then the biggest fear I have is that we’re going to run out of feed …That’s never even crossed my mind before,” he said.“There are businesses that are on the cusp of whether they’re going to survive.”

Bucher said not many of the county’s dairies are located in wine country like his is, but one of the advantages of his dairy location is that they currently have adequate well water resources.

“Our supply is OK right now.

We’ve been monitoring our wells, looking at the drawdown and the water tables are definitely lower,” he said.

He said they’ve been monitoring their wells with their pump and well company since February in order to keep an eye on water levels and make sure they have adequate supply.

“Whereas, some of my peers in the dairy business — a lot of the dairies are in Petaluma, west country and Marin County — the further west you get you have better pasture, but you have less reliable water sources,” he said.

In areas such as south west Petaluma and Two Rock where well and spring water is more scarce, farmers are facing not only a feed challenge, but are also facing a water challenge and are having to sell off cows just to have less mouths to feed and water.

“All of our dairymen are facing some sort of water scarcity challenge and it’s causing them to have to sell off cows just to have less mouths to feed and some of them are hauling water and have been for almost a year now,” Tesconi said.

She said the City of Petaluma has worked with Sonoma Water to allow farmers to pay to tap into the water being provided to urban users in the city, yet, a cow drinks

about 40 gallons of water a day in the summer. That’s a lot of water that some farmers have to haul in.

Tesconi said some dairymen in the Santa Rosa area are trying to get their wells back in order and add new pumps, but the issue is that well-related work is severely backlogged as others rush to do the same thing.

Tesconi added that the drought will probably impact the bureau’s crop report since less milk will be produced if farmers continue to sell off cows.

“If we see another year of drought and without additional water storage and infrastructure provided in the county I think it really could be detrimental to a few of our dairies,” she said.

Bucher said they’ve had to keep their herd number small this year.

“We have been keeping our numbers relatively low, just keeping the animals that we really need to operate the farm,” he said.

Bucher Farms normally has around 700 cows and 700 replacement heifers as well as 50 bulls, a total of around 1,500 animals. This time around, he said they’re probably down about 10% to 15% of their overall figures.

Bucher said they don’t have extra wiggle room to keep lowerproducing animals and animals that don’t have the same rate of gain.

He said the drought is already impacting his production levels.

“With less animals we’re producing less milk. Our numbers have been lower than previous.

We’re probably down anywhere from 200 to 300 gallons a day, about 5% to 10%,” Bucher said.

Photo Katherine Minkiewicz-Martine

ON THE FARM — John Bucher says “Hi” to a young calf at his dairy farm on Westside Road just outside of Healdsburg.

Saving water and looking at drought solutions At Clover Sonoma, which sources its milk from 30 farms across Sonoma County, there are various measures its farmers and facility are taking to try to conserve water.

“All of them have different conservation efforts going on, whether that’s a combination of how they farm, to things such as no till farming. A lot of compost applications help retain the moisture in the soil,” said Clover Sonoma President Ken Gott.

Additionally, “Some of the dairies will actually do (water) recycling of some sort and always looking for ways to reuse and minimize the use of water, whether that’s in the

application of fertilizer onto the fields, to how they clean their equipment and the internal parts of the facility,” he said.

At Clover’s main facility in Petaluma where the milk is delivered and packaged, Gott said they make the tank cleaning process as efficient as possible in order to save water.

In terms of ways dairy farms can save more water, Sonoma County Farm Bureau Executive Director Tawny Tesconi said creating more water storage options and lining ponds to increase efficiency can be viable options.

Although the cost to do so is “extremely expensive,” she said, “ and so we’re really

pushing for more funding from the U.S. Department of Food and Agriculture or from the state of California to really help all farmers in our county, not just dairy farmers, stay in business.”

Tesconi said it would be good to find a way to store more water during floods or when more water is coming into the county.

“That would make such a difference I think for all of us. The more we can all push towards either upgrading and improving the reservoirs and ponds that we have already, or building more, I think the better off we are in protecting our ag industry in Sonoma County,” she said.

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Photo Jan Todd

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Page 12

Harvest edition

www.soconews.org

October 28, 2021

CONSULT WITH THE EXPERT WHO KNOWS YOUR LOCAL MARKET

SOLD | Healdsburg Estate | $6,500,000 | Seller/Buyer

SOLD | Downtown Healdsburg | $2,875,000 | Seller

SOLD | Dry Creek Valley | Healdsburg | $4,800,000 | Seller SOLD | Russian River Valley | Healdsburg | $2,960,000 | Seller

SOLD | Healdsburg Cottages | $2,750,000 | Seller/Buyer

SOLD | Dry Creek Valley | Healdsburg | $2,800,000 | Seller

OTHER RECENT SALES

PENDING SALE | Dry Creek Valley | $14,995,000 | Seller

SOLD | West Dry Creek | Healdsburg | $4,200,000 | Seller

Flax Ranch, Healdsburg | $15,000,000 | Buyer Big River Ranch, Healdsburg | $7,500,000 | Seller Alexander Valley, Healdsburg | $6,600,000| Buyer Kick Ranch, Rincon Valley | $6,600,000 | Seller Dry Creek, Healdsburg | $3,550,000 | Seller/Buyer Downtown Healdsburg | $3,300,000 | Buyer Dry Creek Valley, Healdsburg | $3,000,000 | Buyer Chalk Hill Road, Healdsburg | $1,900,000 | Seller The Vineyard Club, Geyserville | $1,850,000 | Seller Downtown Healdsburg | $1,200,000 | Buyer Dry Creek Valley, Healdsburg | $3,100,000 | Buyer Asti Highlands, Cloverdale | $1,965,000 | Seller

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