When you think of vineyards, do you picture cattle grazing next door to them? Paso Robles Wine Country attracts thousands tourists every year. I wonder how many of them realize they will also be in cattle country?
We know there were cattle in Paso Robles as early as 1857. During World War I Ignace Jan Paderewski purchased land in Paso Robles for orchards and vineyards. (See Paso Robles History Timeline) Before that the mission fathers grew grapes for their wine, but most local vineyards are fairly recent. I'd guess the cattle ranches were here first. That's why my topic for this third day of the AtoZchallenge is C is for Cattle in Wine Country. You will often see cattle grazing right next to a vineyard or between vineyards. The mama cow and her calf are part of a herd of cattle I saw grazing next to Venteux Vineyards on Las Tablas Road in Templeton, California. This is technically part of the Paso Robles Wine County, since Templeton is not incorporated and the boundaries between Templeton and Paso Robles are such that I'm in Templeton and the neighboring vineyard and tasting room across the fence from me has a Paso Robles address.
You can see more of the cattle below, as well as the context of the first photo. The tasting room is the gray building in the center in the middle of the vineyard. I had to use a zoom on these photos because there was a fence between me and the cattle. I enjoyed my photo walk Exploring Venteux Vineyards in Templeton and took lots of photos of places most tourists never see. Click the link to see some of them.
Venteux is just one winery here with cattle next door. You will see some others in the related article below. There are many more that I see when driving on 46 West between 101 and Vineyard Drive. Continue west toward Cambria and you will see more cattle and fewer vineyards. You cannot drive very far in this area without realizing this is as much cattle country as wine county.
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This is the iconic Paso Robles "Acorn" building -- except it isn't. The real Acorn Building was built in 1892 for one of the Paso Robles founders, Daniel D. Blackburn. It was his wife Cecelia's idea to make the clock tower in an acorn shape. The building had been a home to many organizations and businesses until the building collapsed in the 2003 earthquake which killed two people when the tower fell.
The building you see here is the resurrected version, rebuilt to look like the original in 2006. To me it represents the determination of the people of Paso Robles to put their city back together after the closure of many downtown buildings after the 6.5 earthquake. For years the view from the park included many construction fences and wooden sidewalks as the city rebuilt. Now our visitors see the "new" city and may not even know about its short "ugly" period. It's beautiful once again.
Were you in Paso Robles on the day the earthquake happened in December, 2003, as people were finishing up their Christmas shopping?
Now you can put the Acorn Building back together again by working this puzzle available on Zazzle.
Part of Sycamore Herb Farm Herb Garden after the fire before it reopened,
Fat Cat Farm used to be Sycamore Herb Farm, owned by Bruce and Sandy Shomler. When I first moved to Templeton, California in 1993, it was one of my first discoveries, only a mile east of my new home. I started my first garden with the herbs I bought from them. I loved the herb farm. There were animals to look at, a lush herb garden that let you know what the herbs you bought might grow into, and a marvelous gift shop full of fresh herbs, herbal gifts, books about herbs, and other wonderful things. There was also an antique car right in the gift shop. It was the kind of place I could easily get lost in. I often would go there on Sunday afternoons just to look around and relax because they had made it a beautiful place.
Then, in 2004, a terrible thing happened. A fire burned down the main building and I'm not sure what else, but Sycamore Farm closed. When it reopened, it had become a tasting room for Lone Madrone Winery, which radically changed the atmosphere of what used to be the old gift shop, but the herb farm also reopened in 2007. I was glad to see it back and continued my herb-buying trips. Then one day when I went in, I found that the herb farm had closed once again. I bought a couple of left-over plants for half price, sorry that they were no longer loved and cared for. In 2009 I returned to Lone Madrome to take pictures of what remained of the old Sycamore Herb Farm. I was delighted when Rhoda Chute revived the herb farm and renamed it Fat Cat Farm in 2010. Unfortunately, it, too, is now gone, but it was a beautiful place that deserves to be remembered as a part of Paso Robles history. We will tour it was it was in 2010.
Isn't this entrance inviting? My real tours of Fat Cat Farm will be in video a bit farther down, but here's an idea of what's ahead. As we enter, we will pass the goats to our right. You will probably hear them before you will see them. Then the restrooms are just a bit farther on. Look ahead and to the left and you will see the herb gardens and a picnic area nestled under the trees. Continue straight ahead past the tasting room and you will find the herb farm. Its long tables were beginning to fill up again with herbs of all kinds.
Fat Cat Farm did not just offer the usual herbs you might find at a regular nursery or large garden center. In those places you normally find the most common varieties of the most common herbs. You are able to come home with a lavender, a sage or two, oregano, curly parsley, flat leaf parsley, dill, basil, chives, thyme, basil, and maybe a couple of others I may have forgotten.
At Fat Cat Farm you could find many varieties of lavender, sage, oregano, mint, thyme, basil, scented geraniums, and maybe some I've forgotten. On this visit I came home with tansy, which I had wanted for years. I got some pink grapefruit yarrow and some bronze fennel. Rhoda Chute, the owner of Fat Cat Farm, also recommended some plants I'd never heard of before to meet some of my needs. These were a silver germander and variegated sweet myrtle. I was also able to get some German chamomile that I needed.
Rhoda herself is a treasure. When I go to places like Home Depot and other garden centers, I'm on my own. They have few people who can make recommendations on what will meet your needs. Rhoda knows her stuff and can answer questions even about what she doesn't have yet. She patiently helped me find what I needed. She was planning big things for the future of Fat Cat Farm. Once all the herb beds were full again, she planned to move on to providing fresh-cut flowers and newly harvested herbs. She also planned to have heirloom cottage flowers and vegetables and plants that are hard to find anywhere else.
Just as Sycamore Herb Farm before it, Fat Cat used organic methods. I knew that the plants I bought would not have seen chemicals or poisons. Since I also avoid those things, I was very pleased to buy anything I could at Fat Cat Farm. I really miss having it a mile east of me.
That's Rhoda you see walking across the screen as we enter Fat Cat Farm. We'll pay a brief visit to the goat and her kid and then look around the herbs near the entrance for a bit. As we approach the Lone Madrone Tasting Room on the way to the Fat Cat Farm, Rhoda walks by again and I threaten to come back and interview her someday soon. We walk past the tasting room and out to the area where the herbs are sold and take a brief look at the butterfly garden behind that area, the growing beds for the herbs, and a new planting area. Another video will take a closer look at the butterfly garden.
A closer look at the Butterfly Garden at Fat Cat Farm, June 15, 2010
This video focuses on just the Butterfly Garden and a more extensive look at the herb store area as they were in 2010.
A Closer Look at Fat Cat Farm's Growing Beds
This very short video records my conversation with Rhoda, the owner, about the plants in this bed and her history with the farm.
Ok. I like to watch animals because I don't have any. This video is just goats talking to each other and me talking to the goats. These are the animals your children might like to watch if you visit. You met them briefly on the way in on the first video.
We all know that an organic farm needs a lot of manure, and it has to come from somewhere. I suspect that the chickens and goats helped provide it. So let's meet the chickens that lived at Fat Cat Farm. Your children might also like to watch them.
It breaks my heart that the gardens are gone. You can click any photo to make it larger for a more detailed view.
Since Fat Cat Farm closed, I now rely on Serena Wyatt at Grown from the Heart to supply me with herb and vegetable seedlings. She is very helpful and I like doing business with her at the Templeton Farmers Market.
Do you remember Sycamore Herb Farm or Fat Cat Farm? Do you miss having a local herb farm as much as I do? Do you have a local herb farm where you live?
Today is Humpday, and I'm taking a break from writing about my garden and taking you back to downtown Paso Robles. Today I will show you The Granary, a three-story historic building that now houses several businesses and the Cool Hand Luke's Steak House.
In the middle of the last century, instead of being known for wine, Paso Robles was known as the Almond Capital of the World. Almond crops were stored here in the granary and then loaded onto the trains on the nearby railroad to be shipped across the country. Before that, it stored grain. Now Paso Robles does not grow much grain or many almonds, so the historic granary has become a great place to locate a business.
St. James Episcopal Church got its start in 1891, just one year after the city of Paso Robles itself was founded. Unlike most Episcopal churches at the time, it was started by local demand rather than because the Department of Missions wanted to establish a church there. Six women were instrumental in bringing the need to the attention of the Diocese of California.
In the early 1900's when there was much anti-Asian prejudice, St. James supported full citizenship for American Asians. During the depression, the church resisted demands from local authorities for segregation and integrated its soup kitchen. These were both historic stands during that period.
St. James made history in other ways, as well. In 1921, the Rev. Charles Thackeray, then vicar of the church, started a social event to bridge a developing division between the residents who lived in town and those who lived in the surrounding countryside. Everyone was welcome to participate, commercial activity ceased on that day, and money wasn't needed. This was a forerunner to the first Pioneer Day celebration in 1931.
St. James has the oldest pipe organ on the West Coast still in regular use-- a Stevens organ dating from 1863. My brother used to like to go to church with Mom when he was visiting just to hear that organ.
In the 1980's St. James began the ministry we now know as Loaves and Fishes to distribute food to those in need. Today other churches also support this ministry, but St. James deacon the Rev. Jacqueline Sebro is still its director. For further details on the church's history visit the St. James website, which is where I gathered these facts.
I have a special fondness for this church, because my mother was a member there for the last years of her life after moving to Paso Robles. They made her feel welcome and she made most of her local friends there.
One of the most famous of Paso Robles' repeat visitors was Ignacy Jan Paderewski. His birth and background were Polish, but Paso Robles was his American "home." He first visited Paso Robles, then known for its healing hot springs, in 1914, to try to relieve his arthritis pain. He often stayed at the Paso Robles Inn, and even bought land here. He had two ranches on which he had almond orchards and vineyards, and he had hoped to retire here.
Every year Paso Robles honors Paderewski with the Paderewski Festival, a musical festival which features both internationally famous pianists and promising young pianists from the Central Coast. The wineries also join in the fun, and there are many other activities. The festival lasted four days in November, 2014. It began on November 6, which was Paderewski's birthday.
To honor its most famous visitor and part-time resident, the Paderewski Festival Board of Directors raised the money to erect this 790-pound bronze statue, created by artist Jessie Corsaut. The statue is situated near the entrance of the historic Carnegie Library in the center of City Park downtown. It was dedicated on November 10, 2012. This photo shows a close-up of the plaque at the base of the statue. You can click on the photos to enlarge them so that you can read the print.
