Wine grapes are fabulous.  Heaven knows we love what they turn into.  Wine!  (Ok, that’s stating the obvious…)  But, one of the many things that makes our lovely Russian River Valley, and Sonoma County as a whole, unique, is our incredible diversity of agriculture and artisan produce.  We farm- and our farming really speaks to the old world traditions of using the land for a variety of different crops, livestock and native habitats.  More and more, we’re seeing the farmers and ranchers expand from one crop or one animal on the land to a variety of uses on one property.

On our ranch, where we’ve farmed for five generations, we have chickens for eggs and meat, antique apple trees, vegetable gardens, bee hives for honey and polination, prunes, plums, cherries, peaches and berries scattered about the property and lovely creeks with riparian habitats.   

Lettuces and Heirloom Shelling Beans

This kind of farming is wonderful, because it’s year-round.  We have produce, eggs and meat every month of the year.  But, I have to admit that this month and the next few months are just amazing and so incredibly bountiful! 

An heirloom squash and its delicious blossoms

Doesn’t eveyone just love the idea of a Wine Country picnic?  You and your sweetheart tucked  in amid the vineyards and the rolling hills of Sonoma Wine Country, or out on the Sonoma Coast, toasting your everlasting love with Russian River Valley sparkling wine (or maybe pinot noir), nibbling bites of locally made Laura Chenel cabecou cheese, hand-crafted salumi and Farmhouse cured olives…  Well I do.   Throw in some lovely Russian River Valley spring or summer weather and nothing to do for the rest of the afternoon and I don’t think there’s much that can beat it.

For some time now, I’ve been asking our fabulous team of chefs to come up with the “Perfect Wine Country Picnic”.  Which, now that I look back, is sort of a lot of pressure.  Not just the “Ok” or “Fine Wine Country Picnic”, but perfect.  Definitive.  A brown tote bag filled with a lovely selection of delectable foods, all prepared by us or our friends.   And, easy to prepare, maintain, tote and enjoy.  So, ok, a little pressure.

We’ll they’ve finally pulled it together.  We offered our first picnics to guests about two weeks ago.  And, the feedback’s been worth the wait.  I’ve even packed one off to the beach myself- and loved it!  The picnic changes with the whims of the chef, but always includes salumi, olives, local cheese, house-made hummus or something similar, fresh greens and a vinaigrette, seasonal fruit from our ranch or a neighbor, flatbread and the most amazing desserts from Patti (right now it’s a decadent chocolate brownie).  We offer some great wines that you can purchase to take along, or, if you’ll be picnicking at a winery, pick up wine there.

Copain Winery

Our concierge team is equipped with a list of our very favorite spots.  From Copain Winery, up on a hill overlooking the Russian River Valley, to Quivira Winery, deep in Dry Creek Valley, where you can picnic in the biodynamic vegetable garden overlooking their vineyards, to the Armstrong Redwood Forest

Armstrong Woods, Redwood Forest

or, my favorite, out on the Sonoma Coast… we can send you in a million great directions.  Oh, last Monday, we packed up and headed down to Marshall to Hog Island Oyster Company where we added briny, fresh sweet water oysters to the mix. 

Oysters at Hog Island

 (If you visit their website, download their clam chowder recipe.  I brought home 5# of clams and made their chowder with carrots and celery from my garden….So crazy good!  But that’s another post…) 

Summer’s heating up, the produce coming in from our farm is incredible, the winery gardens are in full bloom or full swing, and, doesn’t a picnic just evoke magical images of timeless, laid back, romance and good old fashioned fun? 

I’d love to know some of your favorite picnic ideas and locations- around here, where you are now, or around the world. 

When you look Farmhouse up on  Trip Advisor, or visit us on Facebook, you’ll find a common thread among many of the posts.  Why are guests loving Farmhouse?  Our location in the heart of Sonoma County’s Russian River Valley?  Sure.  Great Michelin starred food and comfy rooms?  Definitely.  But, the thing that keeps guests raving about their stay (check, they really are…) is the incredible level of service that our team provides.  Through every department, we absolutely love to exceed expectation.  From the delightful young men who will escort you to your room and provide a little property information on the way, to our amazing team of concierges (six of them, on staff to arrange anything your heart desires) to our restaurant team and its devotion to creating not just meals, but incredible experiences, to our spa, filled with passionate therapists and all the season’s bounty, Farmhouse strives to evolve and improve constantly.

I love that about this place!  Almost ten years into Farmhouse and the guest experience gets better every single day.  Our newest, and perhaps most exciting, program has just launched.  So far, the feedback is incredible. You know how we’re always talking about a Farmhouse stay being “experiental”?  Well this new program really speaks to that goal.

We call it our “Winery Friends” program.  Clever, huh?  We’ll, if you have a better name, send it our way…  But, here’s how it works.  We’ve collected information, over the last year or so, on the Russian River Valley wineries that our guests just rave about.  Then, we polled Geoff, our MS, and Megan, our sommelier, on their favorite local wines.  Then Joe and I sat down and thought about the actual people that we like the best at the tons of wineries around us.  Where all of those criteria converged- great experience, great wine, great people- we circled the winery.  Then, we made a bunch of calls. 

Basically, the premise was simple.  When Joe and I and our staff show up in your tasting room, you roll out the red carpet.  We want you to do the same for our guests.  That reserve wine you open for us, open for them.  That impromptu tour, or grape tasting, or sample from the barrel, offer it to them.  And, just about everyone we approached was incredibly enthusiastic.  So, you might be asking, “What do the wineries get in return?”.   Ha! Another win, win.  They get to come over a couple of times a year and have their wines featured during a private tasting for our guests.  Plus, we promote their events and promotions to our guests.  So, we send them our fabulous guests to taste and maybe buy their wine, and then they get to come over to Farmhouse to meet them again. 

These wineries are all open to the public.  No appointments required (that was another critical point in being chosen to participate)  They’re all nearby.  And they’re all treating Farmhouse guests like old friends.  Just like we think it oughta’ be. 

Here’s the list of wineries.  You night like to peruse them before you visit.  Some are little,  some are bigger, some are in their second or third generation, some are quite new, but they’re all really  special. 

Arista… C. Donatiello…Copain… Hartford Winery…Iron Horse… J Vineyards… Lynmar…Porter Creek… Russian Hill Estate…Thomas George… Woodenhead

A year ago today, we opened The Barn (whew!), and I started this blog.  What a day!   And what a year!  I consistently look back and marvel at just how naive Joe and I were- over and over and over… after every phase of expansion…  from the day we bought Farmhouse until today.  We always think we have it all figured out… lucky we’re quick adapters.  Farmhouse really is the “University of Farmhouse”.  We continue to grow and to learn.  Fortunately, we also continue to meet and recruit excellent mentors and team members who rise to the challenge and help us keep charging forward.

While construction and interior remodel during a recession was truly an excellent experience (the contractors and designers were both on time and under budget… )  selling that new room inventory was a whole different ball of string.  Joe, I and our team, have had to really adjust our thinking to move from a high-end inn to a small hotel (which has actually been unbelievably fun!).  Instead of just sitting back and waiting for the phone to ring (which is what we always did), we had to come up with strategies to get Farmhouse out to new markets and create and expand a new guest/customer base.  We’ve historically been really fortunate with the press and accolades that we’ve gotten, and that’s just driven people to us- oh, and it doesn’t hurt that we’re smack in the middle of the Russian River Valley… Then we could just concentrate on providing an excellent experience for them once they got here…  But at eighteen rooms, rather than just ten, and in a recession to boot, some tactical changes needed to happen. 

So this past year has been truly event filled.  We’ve tried some new things that have been aces and we’ve come up with some really bad ideas (oh well!) We’ve taken our reputation on the road and introduced Farmhouse to some incredible new people-

We’ve reached out to new markets through donations to and participation in various charitable events around the country.  Just last weekend Joe and I attended both the Croquet Tournament for Make a Wish, held at Sonoma Cutrer winery and the Gala for Meals on Wheels at the Fort Mason in San Francisco.  We donated weekend packages to the auctions and our chefs participated in preparing the incredible food served.  We had a great time, met some amazing people and got the word out about Farmhouse to a brand new group of folks. We’ve been getting out and doing a lot more of that sort of thing- turns out it’s nice to get out now and then…

Our trip to New York was insanely cool- we’ve gotten such amazing response from editors.  Just about everyone we met with has committed to a story over the next six months!  I’ll keep you in the loop, but we did get a little  spa story in the May Vogue Magazine already!

Farmhouse in Vogue, May 2010.

We’ve learned, through our new and wonderful friends at Kurtz-Ahlers and Associates that the travel agencies are alive and thriving- if you can connect with the right ones!  We’ve travelled to LA, where we met an extraordinary group of Virtuoso and American Express Centurian Agents.  Talk about incredible knowledge- these agents plan the most exotic and complicated trips for people who really know how to travel!  Luckily they’ve been interested in us and many have visited and are now sending clients our way!  Joe and I are off to Dallas next week to meet with agencies there!

Social Media is King (or Queen, or something).  We’re still totally clueless about how it really works (thank you almost 1200 Facebook Fans for bearing with our lame posts) but we’ve hired an Expert to come in and set us straight (fingers crossed!).

And that all just scratches the surface of our new initiatives and ideas.  We’ve also done something that we’re VERY excited about.  We’ve promoted our amazing Guest Services Manager, Meilani Naranjo into a brand new Revenue Manager position and we’ve hired Tamera Shaw as our  new Guest Services Manager.  Tamera is charged with implementing a host of new programs, all designed to better serve you.  She’s already got a Bell Team in place so we will now offer Bell Service, Room Orientation and Turn Down (starting early June!), She’s expanding retail to offer picnics and a host of cool Farmhouse-style retail items for you and she’s working with our team to bump or level of service to the next level (stuff like this is what I live for!)

The home ranch continues to expand.  We’ve budded some pinot noir grapes to an interesting varietal called trousseau and will be selling that to one of our very favorite wineries, Arnot-Roberts- we’re looking forward to seeing that on Farmhouse’s wine list one day!  We’ve expanded our garden from one acre to two- and have added a whole slew of new vegetables and fruits, all of which will end up on our guests plates.  Our flock of chickens has expanded from 10 to 250.  Yes, that’s a big jump!  We have a good friend, Marc Felton of Felton Acres, who’s brought his flock of Heirloom Breed layers to our orchard.  They’re happily munching grasses, bugs and whatever else they’re finding out there, and the eggs are fabulous!  They’re also nicely fertilizing our apple orchard…

And the very best news it that naive but lucky, we’ve come out of our first year as a grown-up “hotel” stronger, more polished and better than ever.  And, shockng, but true, we had a great time figuring it all out.  Farmhouse has always been, and continues to be, one fantastic adventure.   Joe and I come in every day, excited and enthusiastic about what the day will bring.   And we’re rarely disappointed.  Farmhouse is such an exciting collaboration between our extraordinary team and the new mix of guests that every day brings- It’s a continually evolving entity, and sitting at the helm of the whole thing is one fantastic place to be!

Joe and I both spend a lot of time entertaining press, visiting our little Russian River Valley and Wine Country Inn.  We take them around the area, introduce them to our friends and show them around our ranch.  And we love it.  It’s always such fun.  We adore bringing people in and showing them how wonderful and diverse this area actually is.  And we make life-long friends.  Well, this time, we decided to take our little show on the road.  To New York City!

Joe and me in front of the Conde Nast Building.

Susie Dobson, our fabulous PR person, put the word out that we’d be there introducing our new spa.  We gave her a “wish list” of editors and publications- O Magazine, Elle Magazine, Vogue, Travel and Leisure, Conde Nast Traveller, Town and Country, Departures… You get the gist.  And Joe and I were astounded by the response we got.  They ALL agreed to meet us.  Plus, Susie set up loads of meetings with freelance writers and tucked them in everywhere.

Then we got nervous.  Showing them around Wine Country is one thing- it’s easy to get how beautiful, friendly and delicious it is when you can actually see, experience and taste it.  But bringing the Farmhouse to them?  What to do?  So, after much pondering, we came up with a cool little gift bag.  The concept was Farm-to-Table.  And the bag included the makings for an afternoon tea and a mini facial.  Using the same ingredients- carrots, chamomile and honey- all from our ranch.  We offered the chamomile as a tea, the honey as a sweetener and the carrots baked, by Pattie, into gorgeous little white chocolate dipped madeleines.  Then, for the spa/facial component, the chamomile as a bath addition, the honey as a “honey pat” skin treatment (see below for technique) and the carrot tops as a facial spritz (our Spa Partners, Peggy and Loma actually made a carrot-top infusion that we packed and brought.)  We hand stamped some recycled cotton bags, tucked the goodies in with a bottle of Fred Scherrer’s fabulous RRV Pinot and a bunch of fresh carrots (those were interesting to manage- I was obsessed with the tops staying fresh and crisp throughout the trip.  They actually ended up living in the bathtub, slathered with ice.) and volia!  Farmhouse in a sack.   Or something like that…

So, we spent three days, dashing around the city from amazing office to amazing office talking about our incredible new spa and our recent expansions and our never ending plans for what’s next.  We ate to-die-for food in extraordinary environments with great new friends and really lived it up.  But, boy were we glad to get home!

Here’s the Honey Pat Technique:

Autumn honey from the Bartolomei Ranch

The Honey Pat from The Spa at Farmhouse Dip your fingers into a bit of honey and apply it to your face in an upward revolving motion.  Now pat your face with your fingertips as if you were typing a letter on your face.  Once the mask is very tacky, rinse your face with tepid water or mineral water.  Honey is a natural rejuvenator and humectants and leaves you feeling refreshed and invigorated.  Skin ages not because it loses its ability to hold oil, but because it loses its ability to retain moisture.  Honey is a natural hydrator, that is, it seems to have the capacity to maintain or restore the normal proportion of water in the skin.   The Honey Pat feels smooth and leaves the skin lightly tight and firm with a warm feeling and light, pleasant smell.  Because the honey is acid, it helps to rid the face of blemishes and blackheads.

My own naivete continues to amaze me.  I could be talking about any number of weird little things that come up during the course of a day- but, in this instance, I’m talking about a little conversation my brother and I had, sitting in this very cramped, little office, about a year ago.  It went something like this, “Cath, this construction project is really a lot of work”.  “True, Joe, but once the building’s up and we have all of the interior work done, then we can really relax for a while.”  “Yeah, wow, what are we going to do with all of our time??”  “Well, Joe, I hadn’t thought about that.  Probably take some vacations?  And I’ll have time to blog all the time!”…

Needless to say, once we finished building the building and expanding the property, we had to learn how to run the thing.  And, while it’s been challenging in a number of ways, to go from a tidy little ten room country inn to what really amounts to a small hotel, in a recession to boot,  I don’t think we’d change a thing. 

So, this is a long way of saying that I really thought I’d have more time to write blog entries.  But, I spend all of my time working on sales, marketing and public relations programs, plus all of the wonderful fun day-to-day stuff that still goes on everyday.  Joe and I have brought on some amazing, incredibly talented consultants to help us brand and position Farmhouse, and now we have a lot of meetings.  But, boy, have we learned a lot.  And it has actually been so much fun!

But, here it is, a super-rainy day.  Joe’s gone on an actual vacation (Nevada to take the kids to see the in-laws, but I’m calling it a vacation…)  My meetings are done for the day.  The river is rising, and I’m drinking a fabulous cup of cocoa and thinking about how lucky I am. 

Here’s the recipe for the cocoa and marshmallows- in case you’re in the mood for something cozy.  (This is a great rainy day project with kids, too).

Cocoa Mix

2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup cocoa (we use Valhrona)
2 1/2 cups powdered milk
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 pinch cayenne pepper, or more to taste
Homemade marshmallows
Hot water or millk
Preparation:

Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl and incorporate evenly. In a small pot, heat 4 to 6 cups of water.Fill your mug half full with the mixture and pour in hot water or milk. Stir to combine. Add marshmallows to taste. Seal the rest in an airtight container, keeps indefinitely in the pantry.

Vanilla or Peppermint Marshmallows       
 
3 envelopes of unflavored gelatin ·        
1/2 cup cold water ·        
2 cups granulated sugar ·        
2/3 cups corn syrup ·        
1/4 cup water ·        
1/4 teaspoon salt ·        
1 Tablespoon pure vanilla or peppermint extract ·        
Confectioners’ sugar for dredging
Preparation:
In the bowl of an electric mixer, sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup cold water. Soak for 10 minutes.
Combine sugar, corn syrup, and 1/4 cup water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and boil hard for 1 minute. Pour boiling syrup into gelatin and mix at high speed. Add the salt and beat for 12 minutes. Add extract and incorporate into mixture.
 Scrape into a 9 x 9-inch pan lined with oiled plastic wrap and spread evenly.
(Note: Lightly oil hands and spatula or bowl scraper).
After pouring marshmallow mixture into the pan, take another piece of plastic wrap and press mixture into the pan.
Let mixture sit for a few hours. Remove from pan, dredge the marshmallow slab with confectioners’ sugar and cut into 12 equal pieces with scissors (the best tool for the job) or a chef’s knife. Dredge each piece of marshmallow in confectioners’ sugar.

Hope you enjoy it.  I sure am.

Having Geoff on the team these past four or so years has been a great experience.  When Joe and I bought Farmhouse, there was literally no wine program.   Steve, our chef, would actually tell anyone who asked to bring their own wines- there was nothing on the list that went with his food.  The food was amazing, the rest of the restaurant was a train wreck.  The previous owner just didn’t care about the wine program, and didn’t have the finances or staff to allow anything to change.

So, Joe and I had nowhere to go but up.  In the beginning, I did the list.   But, tasting, ordering, updating the menu, training the staff on the wines, is really time consuming.  And plus, I wasn’t that good at it.  So I passed it off to our Maitre d’, who got things rolling along a little more swiftly, but still, it was miles from what it should have been to complement the quality of Steve’s food. 

Finally, after a few more stabs at sort of pasting a wine program onto the restaurant, the person who was running it, while maintaining a full server position, decided to move on.  It was time to give wine at Farmhouse some serious thought.  We were still really small, and money was still really tight, and the thought of hiring someone just to manage wine seemed impossible- we weren’t selling a whole lot of wine, and profits weren’t very good.

But, timing and luck have seemed to be in our favor over the last eight years (I probably just jinxed that one), and as luck would have it the person we were seeking was also seeking us.  Joe placed an ad in Craig’s List of all places, for someone to come in and I’m not sure what- basically take over the program, cost us little and make us tons. 

Within a day or so, Joe got a call from this “great sounding guy in New York”.  Geoff was working as Sommelier for Balthazarin the city, and helping to manage the programs for their other restaurants as well.  His girlfriend had been offered an opportunity to come out and work harvest at Williams Selyem, and so he was looking for something fun in Sonoma County, while he prepared to take the Master Sommelier exam.  We got together, struck a bargain and it’s been great for both of us.  Geoff passed the Master’s almost two years ago- and now finds himself on a short list of top young American wine professionals.  Which is, of course, great for us!

So, things like the StarChef award, while not uncommon for our Farmhouse Crew, provide great opportunities for us to get out, attend the events planned around the awards and see what’s really going on out here.  As we already knew, Wine Country is amazing.  Joe and I attended the “Gala Awards Party,” at Charles Krug Winery in Napa, last night. 

Charles Krug Winery at Sunset

What an incredible collection of talented people.  Visit the StarChef link above- it takes you to the list of winners, with their bios and the “Dish That Cinched It” for each of them.  Each chef prepared that dish last night, and Geoff paired all of the wines to go with each dish.  So, the Barrel Room at Charles Krug was transformed into a series of stations, where they were preparing and serving these incredible little morsels paired with wines or beers from around the world.  Two of the dishes that really stood out were Restaurant Eloise’s Egg Yolk Ravioli with Sweet Peas, Local Butter and Black Truffles and Bouchon’sTrumpet Mushroom and Sunchoke Salad.  John and Duskie, from our favorite neighbor,  Zazu, did housemade salumi and antipasti that were some of the best I’ve ever had.   I have all of the recipes- actually all of the recipes listed on the StarChef site- let me know if you’d like any of them.  And, Scott Beattie’s Bella Ruffinas and Bellinis

Scott's Bellini

were incredible.  He has a beautiful book out with all of the seasonal and ground breaking cocktails that he invented/created while he was at Cyrus.  A few of the wines that, had I not been driving, I’d have gone back for more of were the 2007 Pinot Gris, RRV, from Wind Gap (a new producer, right here in Forestville-we can make you an appointment to visit when you come to Farmhouse) and the Sheldon Wines 2005 “Vinolocity”, cooincidently the owner/winemaker, Dylan Sheldon, is part of our Farmhouse Team in his “spare” time. 

So, all in all, a wonderful evening under a spectacular Napa summer sky, celebrating tributes to well deserving industry professionals.  So, it’s not all hard work for me and Joe…

Photo shoots are intensely intimate.  A one day shoot is like an entire relationship crammed into 8 hours if you’re lucky, but generally more like 12 or 14 by the time it’s all said and done.  You’d think that after eight years with Farmhouse, and with all of the experience accumulated in the years leading up to Farmhouse (I ran a winery and handled all of the PR and marketing, but that’s another story), that I’d remember from shoot to shoot what always end up to be the pit falls.  Well, somehow I never do. 

Ideally, in a perfect world, you’d fine one photographer, whose work you love, and work with them exclusively.  But, I can’t do that.  I can commit to one husband, happily, but one photographer?  Forget it.  They’re too tempting, too seductive.  Great and even really good photographers have a unique voice.  They see your property in their own way- whether they’re intrigued by the architecture, the story behind the property, the interiors, the people themselves.  Each one, if they’re passionate about what they do, falls a little in love with the place for the time they’re here.  If you’re lucky.  And, they make me fall in love with it all over again. 

I meet photographers everywhere-  sometimes I meet them on assignment for publications doing stories on Farmhouse, or at parties, or through designers.  When it comes time for a shoot, I’m nuts for days trying to decide who is just perfect for this particular shoot.  Do I use the person I used last time?  Rarely- I’m always chasing the next exciting voice. 

For this shoot I decided to use Tai Power Seeff.  She’s an incredible photographer who I met when she came to do a two day shoot for Brides Magazine (The story she shot comes out this month sometime).  She sent me a link to the images she’d shot and I was hooked.  She sees Farmhouse like I do.  A little bit traditional, kind of sexy, but really fresh and bright and happy.  She’s basically famous, and travels all over the world, but she and I hit it off while she was here, and she agreed to come back once we’d finished the Barn and do the images for me.  

We picked a date- two days after she got home from Paris and two days before she leaves again for South Africa- and I started working on my ever-too-ambitious shot list.  It’s always a challenge to distill it down to what I really need- not what I want, but what I need.  Right?  What I want is every new flower, the new breakfast dishes, that really cute little caterpillar we’ve all 

been watching (got that one).  But, what I needed, in this shoot anyway,  is several shots of each new room, the renovated pool area, new gardens and, if we’re really quick and efficient, shots of our new Winemaker Wednesday Picnic Basket and some Holiday shots.  I sent the list to Tai and got the thumbs up- with the caveat, “that’s pretty ambitious…”  Well, I already knew that.

The day before the shoot is all about pulling props together, hiding electrical cords and getting ready to be super-efficient.  I scour all of our wholesale flower marts, our gardens and even our neighbor’s gardens collecting enough flowers and plant material to turn into just a few subtle arrangements for each shot. I’m compulsive about not using the same arrangement twice (but as everyone asks, “who even notices?”  Well, I do…).

Tai and her assistant, McNair, arrived the night before, we walked the property and planned the day. Then they headed up to Healdsburg for dinner and a little socializing at Scopa, a terriffic little modern Italian place that’s always filled with locals and visitors alike. 

The morning of, I set up a station for cutting and arranging flowers, my stock of books, glasses, magazines and props and lots and lots of bottles of water.   Then we met for breakfast and got cracking.

First pit fall.  Models.  Somehow we never arrange enough of them, or someone can’t make it.  Tai’s roommate was scheduled to come and couldn’t- so we were lucky enough to get Kate, one of our absolutely darling restaurant servers to stand in.  And, since Tai’s assistant, McNair is great-looking, we decided to pull him in too.  So, models in hand, we headed up for some tub shots.

Now, here’s how the relationship goes.  First you’re kind of flirting.  “Oh, I love your stuff, want to get  together?”, sort of stuff.  Then you set a date.  The actual shoot.  But, you don’t know one another very well, and so things start off rather tentatively.  Translation: slowly.  Every single shoot- every single one- we get about two hours in, we have about one of fifty shots done, and I start to freak out.  So we ramp it up a little and I start collaborating a little more.  Until finally, by the end of the day, we’re averaging about ten really good shots an hour and we’re humming along. 

Kate and McNair, cute huh?

At the end of the day, I had literally 167 tub shots of Kate and McNair (many of them breathtakingly good) and 600 shots total.

Tai was amazing to work with.  She gets Farmhouse and her voice really tells our story.  I think I may have found my “steady” photographer.  As long as she doesn’t marry the guy in South Africa…

Keep an eye on our website, we’ll be filling the new images into the Barn pages soon…

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. 

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