This little country inn that Joe and I have created never ceases to amaze me.   Somehow we have pulled together a team of people that Oprah would envy.  Like I know anything about what Oprah would envy, but you probably get where I’m going.  They’re amazing.  So yesterday was the press lunch.  And, wow. 

Ellen, she’s a new friend who helps with marketing, flew in from LA (the flight on Horizon Air is just $138 round trip and the airport is only 10 minutes from us!), just for the lunch.  Myra and Gina, who did all of the interiors in the Barn and re did the cottages and restaurant, showed up at the crack of dawn (that’s farm-talk for early) to do all of the flowers property-wide “Myra style”.  The team from Glodow Nead Public Relations all came up.  Even my husband, Rod Smith, wanted to come (which was rather unusual- not that he’s one to miss a party-  but lunch doesn’t usually qualify…) It really was fun.  We had ten press people and actually about ten of us, and some incredibly beautiful weather. 

So, in talking with Steve, about the lunch, I said, “you know, just something simple.  Everyone has to get back to work, so let’s keep it to an hour or so at the table”.  Yeah, forget that.  We all gathered for bubbly and hors d’oeuvres up at the big farm table in the barn (it’s cool- it’s this huge old table on the second floor landing that has great views of the valley).  Remember, I told him, “just keep it simple”?  I was thinking one or two little nibbles, some tours of the rooms and then we head down for a  nice little lunch.  Really, no one ever listens to me.  Which sometimes works to my advantage…  Briny oysters from our friends, Hog Island Oysters, in Tomales Bay, Sonoma Coast Dungeness crab legs, shelled, skewered and suspended above a tiny cup of fresh, chilled pea soup, one bite fresh tuna tartare timbales on our beautiful sauce spoons, some little fried cod fish balls on a fava puree all set in Chinese soup spoons all laid out on really beautiful, antique platters that Myra loaned us. 

Everyone seemed to really like the barn- well, what were they going to say?  But it really is beautiful, so they’re probably sincere…  Then down to our simple, little lunch.  Which ended up being so totally not simple or little that it had us all laughing as each course after course came out.  Here’s the menu- but trust me, it doesn’t actually do the meal justice.

Welcome to Farmhouse
May 27^th, 2009

Grilled Delta Asparagus
Maine lobster, preserved lemon aioli, spring vegetable salsa

Buttered Early Summer Corn Soup
lemon grass, chili, popcorn dust

Pasta di Carcoffi a la Porcini 

housemade pasta, baby artichokes, parmesan cheese, braised Bartolomei Farm chard, sauce fonduta, mâche

La Bonne Terre Farms Organic Seasonal Greens 
spring radish, ricotta salata, asparagus-chardonnay vinaigrette

Artisinal Cheese Course

Assorted Petit Fours and Sorbet Tasting

Sorry for the funky formatting- but I haven’t done my “blog tutorial” yet and have a lot to learn.  Every bite was divine.  Geoff, our Wine Director and Sonoma County’s only Master Sommelier, was not thrilled to find out that the two most significant courses included asparagus and artichokes- two notoriously difficult foods to pair with wines.  But, thanks to the new direction that many West Sonoma County winemakers are now embracing, the bright flavors, crisp acidity and slightly bitter finish in both the Wind Gap Pinot Gris and the Ant Hill Pinot Noir paired beautifully with the food.  (If you haven’t heard of these wineries, seek them out!) The petit fours and sorbet tasting at the end, blew all of our minds.  Patti is our new pastry chef, and she just really showed us what she could do.  Sort of bite sized tarts, creams and bars in about six different flavors, shapes and textures, alongside these mini “ice cream cones”.  She took tuilles, rolled them into cones, dropped macerated fruit into the bottom and a scoop of matching fruit sorbet (wild strawberry, tart grapefruit and banana were the three flavors) and then planted them in an expresso cup filled with coarsely ground sugar that sort of adhered to the base of the cone.  Each bite was unique, delicious and unexpected.  The platters that came out were immense.  A few little bites went uneaten by our very satiated group.  But, the chefs tell me they never made it back to them in the kitchen….

All in all a wonderful day.  Anyone who wants more information about the selections or any recipes, just let me know.  I can probably get them. 

Virtually doubling the size of the inn, and then opening on a holiday weekend was, in hind-sight, maybe not a recipe for relaxing holiday weekend for our staff…. But our guests were happy.
Saturday night, our first Saturday with the Barn open, we had not only a full house, but two rooms brought children! So our usually serene environment was just a little more, shall we say energetic? than we’re used to. But, we survived, and on Tuesday got to work on all the little glitches that come with new construction. Loose handles, backwards fans, nothing serious, but it’s all fixed now.
And now this week is all about press. I spent the day yesterday with an editor from Sunset Magazine, showing her around our beautiful little valley. She was great- she didn’t even flinch when, on a vineyard tour with Alex, the owner/winemaker at Porter Creek (one of our very favorite little wineries) he dug his truck into some really soft soil, on a straight uphill slope through the vineyard, and I swear we were within seconds of having to get out and push him out. But, what a beautiful vineyard, and spectacular views from the top!  He’s farming biodynamically- familiar with that?  It’s incredible.  A method of farming that is not only organic, but intended to actually nourish the earth and restore or enhance her “cosmic balance”.  Ok, don’t quote me exactly, but it’s amazing, I’m learning more, and I hope someday to implement more biodynamic practices on our own ranch.  If you’re interested, this is a good place to start, http://www.biodynamics.com/biodynamics.html.  We have more and more biodynamic farming being implemented in Sonoma County.  Our great friends, Paul and Kathryn Sloan at Small Vines (they both farm vineyards and make wine biodynamically) now farm almost entirely biodynamically.  If you ever talk with them, ask them about their gopher control, it requires one gopher, a barbeque, a full moon, and about ten other steps.  But they don’t have gophers in their vineyards…
My favorite part of the day, though, was a simple lunch out in the garden at Copain Winery. They’ve recently built an incredbile barn-style (yeah, we’re all about barns out here) winery and tasting room overlooking the river and valley. They focus entirely on making wines with virtually no manipulation- meaning no acid, no water, no nothing.  We’re all about that kind of winemaking- honest, balanced, and hard as heck (isn’t heck a funny word?) to do well.  We had a great little lunch of grilled local grass fed beef (are you on to that one yet?  Grass fed is just the best stuff around-check out www.eelriverorganicbeef.com) on local soudough, a salad with the first wild blackberries (I don’t have any yet on the ranch) and a wild shrimp salad, all brought in by a the Windsor Green Grocer  who’s doing amazing things with local/organic/sustainable produce. The strawberry shortcake with these incredible, tiny, ambrosial strawberries really was insanely good.
Today is our Press Luncheon. We’re bringing ten or so writers in from all over Sonoma County and the Bay Area and showing them what we’re up to. It should be a lot of fun. The menu’s fantastic- Steve’s using produce from our garden and the honey we just harvested yesterday on the menu. Our new pastry chef, Patti, who just joined us after several years at the Dry Creek Kitchen, has whipped up some really special petit fours that I’m really curious to try…

Whew – - well here I go. I’ve been talking about starting a blog for months now. So I guess now’s as good a time as any to get going (especially since our web designer has created a link on our site). Today we officially open our new Barn, the landscape is virtually all in, the restaurant and cottages are renovated, my PR team and chef’s have got our “press launch lunch” all pulled together for Wednesday, and I find myself sitting in front of the computer with all my emails answered and phone calls returned. Our interior designer, Myra Hoefer,  and seamstress are frantically fixing some window coverings that came in too short- but I’m going to let them take care of that.
So, this is it. The first weekend as an 18 room property. I’ve posted some photos that I took of the Barn today.

http://picasaweb.google.com/catherinebartolomei/TheBarnAtFarmhouse?authkey=Gv1sRgCPLI-5isrYitpAE#

I’m really excited- in a couple of weeks I have a fantastic photographer, Tai Power Seeff - who we met when she came out to shoot us for Brides Magazine – coming out to shoot the whole property. But these will give you an idea of what they look like. As soon as I have the new stuff, I’ll get it all posted on our rooms page.
So, wish us luck. We’re fully booked for the weekend- I’m sure it’s going to be interesting.
Catherine