Autumn has caught us in our summer wear. - Philip Larkin, British poet (1922-1986)
On this first day of the Autumnal equinox, enjoy a fall-themed excerpt from my soon to be published book "Fog Valley Crush". I'm over half way to goal on my Kickstarter campaign for pre-sales. Please do take a few minutes to order your copy, a holiday four-pack or even a 10 pack, today. Click here for pre-ordering.
"I first met Kathy Tresch, matriarch of the Straus partner farm during an Apple Pie Orchard-to-Oven fall workshop produced by dynamic duo Mel and Free Range Provisions and Eats and collaborative dinner party host, Suzanne a few weeks before Thanksgiving. A little slice of heaven on earth transformed a misty November Sunday morning, out at the family’s rustic Two Rock Ranch, a few miles west of Petaluma, where Olympia’s Apple Orchard is tucked away on the farthest reach of rolling Tresch Dairy land.
I couldn’t help but feel that Kathy’s enthusiasm coupled with Mel and Suzanne’s sumptuously crafted workshop evoked the spirit of the area’s early pioneer energy and resourcefulness. This was one of a series of meticulously envisioned Orchard-to-Oven workshops taking place out at the ranch, expertly blended with a modern sensibility for celebrating the land and its seasonal offerings, in one its tastiest of traditional American dishes, the apple pie.
Husband and wife team, Joe and Kathy typically work side by side along with their own adult children in the style of the staunchest homesteaders of this historic farming region, but it was Kathy who led the workshop series’ apple picking expeditions off road, by tractor and trailer, into the enchanting realm of an heirloom orchard at harvest.
Olympia’s apple orchard grows more than 50 heirloom varietals of apples including old favorites such as Jonathon (used in the workshops), Wickson, Kidds Orange Red, Cinnamon Spice, Fuji, Honeycrisp and Gravenstein. The orchard was named after the farm’s first homesteader, Olympia Tresch, Kathy’s husband Joe’s grandmother.
Her maiden name was Olympia Nonella and Olympia’s parents were part of the mass Swiss-Italian immigration at the turn of the twentieth-century. Their homeland had been Canton Ticino in Switzerland. “They first lived in Cayucas (a sleepy little California seaside town), then came to this ranch in 1905,” said Kathy.
Olympia loved the land on which she was raised. She had often spoken to the family of her memories of the great 1906 earthquake, first thought to be epicentered in nearby Point Reyes that struck the Bay Area when she was a small girl. “Agriculture and her work ethic were very influential to her grandson, Joe, my husband,” said Kathy, as we moved around the orchard, selecting apples for our pies. Olympia passed away on the ranch in her little house in her 90s, as it seems, has been the fortuitous trend amongst her contemporaries. “Our children are the fifth generation to live and farm here,” said Kathy. The home ranch was originally 320 acres, nowadays spanning over 2,000 acres.
Kathy continues to plant more apples. Most recently she introduced Crown Prince Rudolph and several other rare, heirloom varieties that she sells at Sebastopol and Occidental farmers markets and at an honor stand at the gate to the farm. "
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