Face Time with Santa Ynez Valley Farmers

Agriculture is life for Mary Maranville, who grew up on her family’s dairy farm in the Adirondacks of upstate New York. “On my dad’s days off, he’d want to tour other farms,” explained Maranville, who’s been meeting the people and visiting the places that grow our food since she was 5 years old. “I’ve been touring farms my whole life. I love it, and I know people will love it.”

After 16 years of running the nonprofit Students for Eco-Educaiton and Agriculture — which was also the driving force behind the annual Farm Days in both Santa Barbara and Ventura counties — Maranville recently launched Heritage Farmland Touring Company to bring us all a bit closer to the farm. Offering four-hour tours that currently feature three stops — including lunch by Bob’s Well Bread, charcuterie, and wine tasting — Maranville hopes to expand her educational reach into a much more regular affair. 

“Farm Day is only one day of the year,” she said. “We hope this grows into 365 days a year.” 

Along with other writers and hospitality professionals, I was invited by Maranville to check out a test-run of these tours. The morning began in Los Olivos with detailed talks about the region’s farming history by Russell Chamberlin and about the Land Trust for Santa Barbara County’s agricultural conservation efforts by Alison Petro. 

Maranville plans to share the essence of those stories during her public tours, and was very excited to give her company’s first-ever nonprofit donation to the Land Trust, which was an early supporter of Farm Day. With that, the crowd settled into the air-conditioned van and took off for the first stop.  

Tours are every Friday and cost $325 per person; to book one, see heritagefarmlandtours.com. 

Ballard Walnut Grove

I’ve driven Alamo Pintado Road between Solvang and Los Olivos for more than two decades without ever realizing that there was a walnut grove tucked in between the town of Ballard and vineyards of Rideau and Buttonwood. Ballard Walnut Grove is the domain of Rich and Kerry Morgantini, whose dad, Dick Kieding, stumbled upon this ranch the day it was put up for sale in 1976. 

With Kerry and her siblings quarantined over Christmas due to chicken pox, Kieding got bored and headed from their Santa Barbara home up to the Santa Ynez Valley. “He took a drive, came home, and we had a walnut ranch,” laughed his daughter, who was 17 and in the midst of her junior year of high school. 

Not wanting to move to the country, she properly freaked out and asked her dad, “Do you even know what a walnut is?” He barely did but pledged to figure it out. “That taught me that you can learn anything at any stage of life,” said Morgantini. 

“Walnuts were huge in Santa Barbara County, and now we’re one of the last few remaining,” she explained as we sniffed the tree’s surprisingly aromatic blossoms. “Do I think the next generation would take it on? I do not. We are probably the last.”

The orchard, which includes about 900 walnut trees, struggles against various challenges, from the usual hassles of ground squirrels, crows, and unpredictable weather to a disease called crown gall, which chokes the trunks out and slowly kills the trees. They’re hoping for another decent decade of harvesting walnuts before the gall wins out but have planted about 600 Christmas trees as a secondary crop (jackrabbits are their biggest foe, but those trees are far more profitable than nuts.) There’s also a very popular Hip Camp on the property, where people can sleep in their RVs amid the trees. 

They process the walnuts on-site, with all family hands on deck, which Morgantini said looks like the infamous chocolate-packing episode of I Love Lucy. The majority are still sold to Diamond Nuts for about 40 cents per pound. “When they’re on Alamo Pintado, we all breathe,” she said of when that Diamond truck wheels away.

The remaining third of the harvest is sold out of their roadside farmstand, which is where we learned how to crack walnuts by squeezing two of them in one hand. Said her husband, Rick, as we bought our own bags and got ready to leave, “We’re just trying to keep Kerry’s family tradition going.” 

See ballardwalnutgrove.com.

Zaca Creek Ranch

After years of working telecom and government jobs in Washington, D.C. — including as chair of the Federal Communications Commission under President Reagan — Dennis Patrick decided to become a cowboy, buying a 1,600-acre cattle ranch just north of Buellton right off of Highway 101. “I knew absolutely nothing about ranching,” said Patrick during our tour of Zaca Creek Ranch “I look back on those days and wonder how I wasn’t killed.”

At least he fell in with the right crowd, marrying Hayley Firestone, daughter of pioneering vintners Brooks and Kate Firestone and considered Santa Ynez Valley royalty. Together, Patrick and Hayley built a visitor-friendly farm full of llamas, alpacas, chickens, pigs, goats, and cows for all ages to check out. They also make Zaca Coffee, rent out the main barn for overnight guests, and host events on the property.

Patrick, meanwhile, continues to learn about ranching, and is tuned into the regenerative movement, which he sees as a return to the vaquero ways of old. “When you’re a cattle ranch, you’re basically a farm, and what you’re farming is grass,” he said, explaining that their beef will soon be ready to sell straight to consumers. 

Patrick, who recently penned the modern-ranch-life-inspired novel Santa Ynez, a Novel, is still dealing with some of his early foibles as well, like the couple thousand dollars’ worth of fencing that he tore out for mostly aesthetic reasons. “Now I’m putting it all back,” he said.

Hayley regaled us with stories of moving in 1973 from London, where her dad was part of the Firestone Tire operations, to Santa Ynez, where he decided to grow wine grapes. She was just 13 years old, fresh off an appendectomy, and vividly recalled meeting various characters like Ted Chamberlin and watching her parents be served Rocky Mountain oysters — a k a bull testicles — during their first couple weeks here. 

Her dream is to pass on that passion for the land to others. “Our whole goal is educating people,” said Firestone. 

See zacacreekranch.com.

Zaca Mesa Winery

Heritage Farmland’s final stop was for sips and lunch at Zaca Mesa Winery, whose 1973 founding makes it one of the oldest and most important brands in Santa Barbara County. It’s home to the county’s original planting of syrah, where the Black Bear Block has existed since 1978, and was also where winemaker Ken Brown trained a whole fleet of modern legends like the late Jim Clendenen, Bod Lindquist, Adam Tolmach, Lane Tanner, and many others in what became known as Zaca U.  

With glasses of grenache blanc in hand, the winery’s Hilary Key took us down to the vineyard where those exact grapes were grown. She explained the grape-growing cycle and then took us into the cellar for a look at their barrels as well as the amphora that winemaker Kristin Bryden has been using more each vintage. 

We finished the visit with sandwiches and charcuterie as more conversations unfolded about how much farming means for Santa Barbara County. That’s exactly what Maranville is hoping to trigger with these tours, which will add more stops as additional partners come on board. 

See zacamesa.com.

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The next Santa Barbara County Farm Day is on Saturday, August 24 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in multiple locations across Santa Barbara County. The event is free but registration is required. See https://bit.ly/3WJKOKS for details.