We all need some good news, and we are counting on Oregon's Wine Month to bring us some! As many of you are aware, beginning on FRIDAY, APRIL 30TH, a number of Oregon counties will no longer be allowed to offer indoor service. Those include the state's most populous Multnomah County and, unfortunately, our own Polk County, among others. May these restrictions again revert soon.
The blossoms of the Yoshino Cherry trees, of which I wrote in late March, are now but a lovely, photographic memory. The GOOD NEWS is what you see here, beyond the branches, the expansive lay of the land of our nearly 500 acre Estate. The warm spring into summer weather awaits us all, and we eagerly look forward to YOU, spreading across our Oak Savanna, relaxing at our outdoor tables, and basking in the sunshine with your loved ones. If you can't do that, just call or email, we are ready and able to get wine to you!
We continue to offer seated tastings on our patio areas, with culinary offerings that vary with the season. PLEASE MAKE SURE TO RESERVE FOR THIS TABLE SERVICE BY CALLING US AT (503) 831-4916 or email hospitality@leftcoastwine.com. Gardener Bob and the Patriarch of our family farm is just now completing the planting of our on-site greenhouse. It is full of the promise of heirloom tomatoes, lettuces of all kinds, bok choy, basil, peppers, carrots, early, mid summer, and late potatoes and more. We can hardly wait to begin those daily harvests.
Bringing such fresh, Left Coast ingredients into Chef Mike's imaginative hands is a special pleasure. He has recently added a surprising and wonderfully delicious beet pizza to our FRIDAY THROUGH SUNDAY PIZZA ONLY food menu. Another favorite has been the addition of sweet peppers to his Seasonal Margarita pie, and you will find the mushroom with made in-house sausage pizza a more traditional and very popular choice as well. All, of course, to be paired beautifully with our family's wines. A weekday menu is also available.
We have ducks and chickens on property for our egg needs. We call this building, photographed from the front of the Greenhouse, our Chick (and Duck) Mahal that replaced the lesser homes the flocks earlier occupied. Our multitalented Winemaker, Joe Wright, did the design, and the Vineyard and Winery Crews joined him in the construction process. Never have we seen our ducks and chickens so happy! We do not eat our feathered friends and seek to source other protein and cheeses locally.
We have three gardens at Left Coast that supply our Tasting Room Kitchen, the smallest, of herbs, to the back of the Tasting Room. Behind the Greenhouse, you will find a series of raised beds where our earlier, Founding Winemaker, Luke McCollom, experimented with propagating self rooted stock. One of our Wine Club members, among others, purchased enough of those vines from us to plant a lovely vineyard on his family's property. We look forward, especially, to tasting his successive vintages. Cheers to the Hay clan❤
This season the raised beds will be devoted largely to a collection of berries. Along with a cutting garden, we are refocusing this area in honor of my mother, Marcella Larson, and the Girard Berry Estate where she grew up, north of Seattle. My mother was born in 1918, the year of the Great or Spanish, despite that misnomer, Influenza. I learned recently that two of five children, born in that year, did not survive to the age of five. Mother Larson beat those odds significantly. She left us two years ago on May Day, spunky and spirited to an otherwise unexpected close of a life at 101. She was spared this second pandemic by less than a year. She loved the Zinnias my father planted for her, in abundance last summer in these raised beds.
Like many, in 1939, my Grandparents lost everything except the farm. I found this newspaper clipping in with my mother's things and another, inadvertently tossed, that spoke of the farm feeding the town of Stanwood, Washington, during those trying times. The joys and challenges of farming are perennial, the "fair" years and the truly memorable ones, in our world, of great vintages. I will be in Stanwood, this May Day, where my parents were married, in 1944, on land that my Grandfather gifted to the Lutheran Church, remembering Mom’s life well, and very long lived.
Being a welcoming gathering place has been, from our beginnings, a central part of our vision for Left Coast. We regard ourselves as grateful Stewards of this land. The entire Left Coast Team contributes mightily and daily, in their combined passions, to care for our special spot in the Willamette Valley, to coax the best possible results from what nature gives to us in each vintage. Then, to present those wines to you, here on property, or wherever you might find them. Ever, we are thankful for your support of our wines.
I close today with a special tribute to our Vineyard Crew and, also, to Joe who wears at least a double hat for Left Coast of Winemaker and Viticulturist. The Vineyard Team, now with the second generation of the Garcia Family in its lead, not only meticulously cares for the vines but for the overall property and gardens as well.The unexpected ice storm in February added extra weeks of unanticipated needed attention. As Cinco de Mayo approaches, may we all raise a glass to the hardworking agricultural workers, here, to our own of the Willamette Valley and across this nation, to their talent, dedication, and hard, hard work. They keep us fed AND supplied with the grapes for this toast!
Drink Wine! May is Oregon Wine Month!
Cheers and thanks,
❤Suzanne and All of Us at Left Coast❤
All the better photographs here are from Lisa Fahrner's wondrous eye. This writer has provided those lesser. Thank you, Lisa!
