Organically .

Grown from the beginning ...

CCOF Certified Organic

since 1986

Sierra Foothills'

Pioneer Organic Winery

Our Vineyards

The word 'Organic', 'Organically Grown', etc. gets applause from a growing some, boos from others and little reaction from the majority who claim to know very little about the subject except for maybe the perception of higher prices. I embraced the 'Organic  Movement' over 40 years ago and have built our family farm business on the commitment to organic farming methods and overall sustainable practices. I'm a gr4aduate of UCDavis in Soil &Water Science and I believe there are benefits to organic farming.

The saying "Feed the Soil and the Soil will feed the plant" is basis of organic farming. The soil is home to millions, actually billions, of microbes who have various jobs with one thing in common - organic matter. Life is based on a giant scheme of recycling organic matter. Organic matter is both plant and animal in origin and this incredible microbiology found in living soils breaks down this organic matter, each type of microbe taking its turn at different stages, into reusable forms supplying plants with the nutrients they need. So by feeding the soil with organic matter the soil hosting all those microbes will decompose that matter into soluble forms of plant nutrients.

Chemical farming (you may refer to it as conventional farming) chooses to synthesize in factories highly soluble plant nutrients in forms the plant can directly absorb. Sounds like a good idea until you realize that you are bypassing the soil's complex microbiology by not feeding it organic matter as if all that chain of microbiology doesn't matter and the soil is little more than a place to anchor the roots of the plants. Another concern is the highly soluble chemical nutrients move rapidly through the soil in some cases into our waterways and groundwater systems. And as time goes by chemical farming creates soils with less diversity of microbiological life forms and therefore become more vulnerable to disease and insect imbalances. Diversity is so important in nature to find balance among what may seem like chaos.

So what do we do as organic viticulturalists to provide nutrients to our vineyards? We start with feeding the soil organic matter. Each fall after harvest and the first good rains we plant nitrogen fixing cover crop seeds in every other row over at least one third of the vineyard. These seeds are legumes like vetch, bell beans, field peas, clovers, etc. which grow massive amounts of organic matter both above and below the ground and at the same time fix nitrogen from the atmosphere through a bacteria called Rhizobium which lives in nodules on the roots of these legumes. In a good winter and spring cover crops can add 100+pounds of soluble nitrogen and 20+ tons of organic matter per acre to the soil. And all this comes from planting about 100 pounds of seed at the right time and letting these plants and bacteria create and harvest the fruits of the sun, the air and the water without any chemicals. We can also add finished compost brought in from off farm and/or made on farm from farm wastes and from the waste stream of society. Properly done farming could recycle an incredible amount of societies organic wastes. Organic farming does not allow the use of sewage sludge however.

Life isn't so perfect that nothing else is needed from off farm. Sometimes the mineral makeup of the soil may be lacking some element(s) which needs to be brought in and properly applied like in our case Phosphorus in the powdered form of phosphate rock mined as nearby as Idaho or calcium mined within the Sierra Foothills. Harvest after harvest is a form of mining nutrients from your soil and they have to be replaced one way or another. But with a living biologically active soil these minerals can be added successfully in their raw forms saving lots of manufacturing energy too.

Old fashion 'Organic Farming' was stereo-typed as what you don't do but modern 'Organic Agriculture is all about what you do do and how well you understand and work with your soil on your farm. Healthy vines start with healthy soil.

Folks ask if we get less yields than other vineyards. Well the answer is that we do the best we can with the water we have available. Water is the determining factor for us and yield. In average or better rainfall years (40 inches) we produce all the yield we want. But in drought years our well pumping capacity is not endless enough to provide all that the rainfall may not have delivered but we try with drip irrigation. We're flavor farmers not tonnage farmers so quality is number one and quantity is always modest by design.

I'll be back soon

to write about how we deal

with plant disease and pests organically...