Monterey, monarchs and meanderings

An inch of hail fell during my stay in Asilomar on the Monterey Peninsula one morning recently and the little kernels of ice actually stuck on my car's windshield for a few hours. The record-breaking cold, however, didn't stop a small group of us shiver-prone Californians from enjoying our overnight stay here in what is one of the most beloved of state's old lodges. Asilomar, created in 1913 as a YWCA retreat, contains the largest collection of Julia Morgan's architecture in one location and the buildings and grounds are tenderly looked after by a state park and concession crew that includes long-term employees. One is Pat Cosio, a raconteur and 50-year dining room server who is a repository of all kinds of Asilomar lore (he can tell you about being there the day John F. Kennedy had breakfast in the hall). To get the official background on the place, however, call ahead and reserve a spot on the park service's tours of the grounds. The one I joined was led by Andrea Bates (left), a ranger with an deep knowledge and enthusiasm for Morgan's architecture, the local micro-habitats and Asilomar's history. The tour takes visitors inside many of the grand Arts and Crafts-style buildings designed by Morgan, the first architect to practice in California, and around the sprawling grounds with views of the crashing surf and the lush fairways of Pebble Beach. (If you don't catch a ranger-led tour, there are new self-guided walking audio tours available any time).
Later, my group hopped on three-speed beach cruiser bikes (for rent at Asilomar) for an easy four-mile ride loop ride stopping at a number of local sites, including the quaint old Point Pinos Lighthouse (above, right), the oldest continuously operating lighthouse on the west coast, Asilomar State Beach and the Pacific Grove Monarch Sanctuary. I'd always heard about the 40,000 monarch butterflies that migrate to this town every year but never visited between October and early February when they hunker down in the pine and eucalyptus trees. Bring some binoculars to see the clusters of butterflies up close, or plan to stop by when a docent is on hand with a telescope. Even without those aids, however, look close and soon you'll be aware of dozens of the colorful little insects circling around you. That evening, as the temperatures fell to near freezing, we warmed ourselves with a delicious Mediterranean-style dinner (rack of lamb was a highlight) at a long-time favorite Pacific Grove restaurant, Fandango.
Winter is a terrific time to visit the Monterey Peninsula: bundle up, bring an umbrella and you'll find much lower hotel rates, cozy spots by fireplaces and fewer crowds at the Monterey Bay Aquarium (which, by the way, recently released a wallet-sized sustainable seafood guide to sushi, part of its free Seafood Watch series of little folding guides that easily fit into pockets books).

Olio nuovo californiano

On a visit to my uncle in Italy a few years ago he took me to his local frantoio, an olive oil press, where anyone who has a few buckets of olives from their own trees can drop them off. The owners of the frantoio, in this case a co-op of local farmers, then press the olives, produce the oil, and a few days later you return to pick up bottles filled with an amount of olive oil equivalent to the weight of olives you left. Before leaving that morning, I had a discussion that I often have with my relatives who can't understand why something so routine to them is so interesting to me. Don't you have frantoios in California, asked my 80-year old uncle, who has rarely stepped outside of his corner of Tuscany? At that point, I had to say no.
Now, I can tell him that we do have frantoios here in California and they are working much like they do in Italy. And, the olive oil is pretty darned good. A couple of weeks ago, some friends invited me to join them on McEvoy Ranch's annual harvest open house, a day when regular clients and guests make their way to the rolling hills along the Marin and Sonoma border where 18,000 olive trees of Italian origin cover about 80 acres. Just like at my uncle's local frantoio, on this day anyone is invited to bring their own olives to press. And, you pick up an equivalent amount of olive oil later on.
McEvoy, which was founded in 1991 by Nan McEvoy, conducts regular ranch tours, but the harvest open house has a bit more to offer: a chance to show off the season's luscious and deep green, freshly pressed oil. There's also opportunities to buy a tree from dozens laid out in the beautiful grounds and consult with Samantha Dorsey (see above) who patiently fields all kinds of questions about types of olives, curing them, and taking care of trees. Judging from the number of people happily carting away the leafy trees more frantoios will be springing up all over California. Check out the McEvoy shop at the San Francisco Ferry Building for more information on olive oils and tree planting. Or, make a note to visit McEvoy web site in March, when they start their public tour program for 2009.

Goldsworthy in the Presidio

I walk in in the Presidio almost every day but, somehow, I missed the new Andy Goldsworthy sculpture until a couple of weeks ago when a friend led me to the new clearing just past the Arguello Gate where the work -- called simply, the Spire -- now towers over everything around it. I was speechless for a few minutes. If you've seen the documentary, "Rivers and Tides," you know how Goldsworthy works: he draws inspiration from materals he finds around him. Twigs, leaves, stones and reeds are used to create art from nature. Here, he's made a piece from cypress trees that were planted in the Presidio more than 100 years ago. Apparently very quietly, Goldsworthy has been spending quite a bit of time in the forests and groves of the Presidio the last three years. Thanks to funds from an anonymous sponsor, he set about creating a new work, deciding to use 35 trees that were felled as part of the Presidio's reforestation project. During a two-week period this October, Presidio workers dug a 14-foot hole on the site Goldsworthy chose just above the Inspiration Point overlook. A 350-ton crane lowered in the trees, which are anchored in concrete. Eventually, as new young trees grow, 90-foot high Spire will disappear in the forest. All this is described in a wonderful exhibit on the Presidio's Main Parade Ground in Building 49, a restored officer's home from 1873 that has been turned into a temporary Goldsworthy museum. There's a history of the Presidio forest, background on Goldsworthy, the drawings he did for Spire, and even another, smaller spire that he created inside one of the house's cabinets. Admission is free. Meanwhile, the Spire is just beyond the Arguello Gate and the Presidio Golf Course's clubhouse. Walk a few hundred yards up the Bay Area Ridge Trail. If you park at the the Inspiration Point Overlook look west and you'll see it poking up above the hill.

Pescadero Wanderings

I've driven around the San Mateo County coast for years, ever since I was a little kid and my parents would head south from our house in Pacifica to visit friends and family in Half Moon Bay, Pescadero and San Gregorio, where my father had an artichoke farm before I was born. There are lots of memories and nostalgia associated with a trip "down the coast" and it doesn't take much to get me interested in spending a day there. So, I couldn't resist an the invitation to visit what has become a must stop for northern California foodies -- Harley Farms Goat Dairy in Pescadero. With friends a couple of weeks ago, we set out on a stunning fall day, a bright sun shining on the glittering Pacific Ocean to the west. In the fields, pumpkins were still scattered about and late-season artichokes were sprouting.
It seems like nothing changes in small town Pescadero. Norm's Arcangeli General Store still bakes artichoke-studded sourdough bread each morning. We were there at 10 a.m when Don Benedetti was getting ready to take a batch out of the big ovens in the back of the store. Across the street, Duarte's was getting ready to open. The case of pies that used to take up room in the waiting area is now gone: if you want to come in and buy a pie you ask the hostess to get you one, Ron Duarte told us: they needed to get rid of the pie case to make more space for waiting customers. But everything else is the same: the funky bar from 1894 and, best of all, the menu, with cream of artichoke soup, cream of chile soup (or the favorite for many, half of one and half of the other), the warm bread and butter, and the ollalieberry pie, of course. This is one of the few U.S. restaurants named an "American Classic" by the James Beard Foundation.
Harley Farms Goat Dairy is just a few of blocks east of Duarte's. It was founded by an Englishwoman, Dee Harley, who settled in Pescadero and married into the Duarte family. Her husband, Tim, runs the tavern and restaurant with Ron. The two are the fourth generation of Duartes to operate the old roadhouse.
Dee took over a dilapidated 1910 ranch (photo above) once run by two brothers from Portugal a few years ago. Without any dairy experience, she got a few goats, thinking it was a convenient side family business while she stayed home to raise her son. Well, it's become much more than a side business. Today, Harley Farms has 200 American alpine goats and the milk that they produce is transformed into much-sought-after, award-winning cheese.
They do a terrific tour that's fun and informative. Who knew that goats could be so adorable? The goats are milked twice a day, 5:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., times when the tours aren't run. But it's so entertaining to watch that Harley set it up so that you can stop by and watch through a glass window. People stand along the road, we were told, at 5:30 p.m. sharp, to wait for the milking event. There's also a charming retail shop, open daily 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., in the old ranch barn where you can buy several kinds of fresh goat cheese. There are "milk pipes" that run through the shop from the milking shed to the cheese-making room where 200 pounds of cheese (photo, above left) is made each day.
I loved the cheese topped with dried apricots and another mixed with herbs, which I spread on toasted Norm's artichoke bread the next day.
It was a day full of lots of adventures, but Harley was a highlight along with lunch at Pasta Moon in Half Moon Bay. If you go, don't miss the to-die-for pizza with their homemade sausage and the delicious porcini pappardelle.

Sebastopol 'shrooms

The town of Sebastopol in Sonoma County is known for Gravensteins, the pretty yellow-green apples with red stripes. Even though many of the century-old apple orchards were uprooted in the last 25 years and replanted with vineyards you still come across plenty of old, gnarled Gravenstein trees when you're driving around the quiet roads here.
Besides apples and grapes a bounty of other fruit is grown around Sebastopol. It was, after all, the place where Luther Burbank operated his experimental farm and developed more than 800 new varieties of fruits and vegetables.
So, it's not surprising that Sebastopol became one of the leading producers of mushrooms a few years back when shitake, oyster, chanterelles and other exotic varieties started to pop up in supermarkets alongside the old standby white button mushrooms.
Sebastopol-based Gourmet Mushrooms produces more specialty organic mushrooms than any other company in the U.S. One of its most popular mushrooms is the delicate, earthy Velvet Pioppini, which has dark caps and an intense forest flavor. (Look for the Mycopia brand at Whole Foods and other fine markets). Gourmet is not open to the public but, just south of Sebastopol there's a small mushroom operation -- New Carpati Farm -- where you can visit, talk to the mushroom grower and pick your own funghi.
Steve Schwartz, the owner (photo above), named the company for the Carpathian Mountains in Eastern Europe where his father was born. His company is a simple operation consisting of a small cave-like hut. Inside, shelves are lined with bricks made of oak saw dust, where he plants fungus spores. A wild assortment of fungi emerge, mostly varieties of shitake and oyster. Schwartz sells them at the Sebastopol farmer's market on Sundays but you can also call him (707-829-2978) and set up an appointment to visit the little hut. There, in the damp and quiet, you do as chefs sometimes do and pick your own mushrooms, the freshest you've tasted.

Harvest time for chestnuts

Up on Skyline Boulevard above Palo Alto, hidden inside the MidPeninsula Open Space District, is a little-known orchard full of old chestnut trees. No one really knows their origin, but the most reliable story seems to be that the trees were planted by a Spaniard about 100 years ago, says Hans Josens, who with his wife, Donna, runs the orchard under an agreement with the district. The grove consists of about 120 trees, including what Johsens calls the "honey tree" where the largest of the green, golf-ball-sized nuts grows.
For only a few weeks in the fall, the orchard is open to the public as a u-pick operation. For certain ethnic groups, particularly Koreans, French and Italians, gathering chestnuts off the ground in the chill of the fall is a nostalgic event that usually culminates later in the evening with roasting the nuts over a fire. For those new to the whole process, the ranch provides gloves, buckets and tongs. For sale are roasting pans and special knives to pry open the pods. The orchard will be open Oct. 11-Nov. 23 this year. The price is $5.25 per pound. Call (408) 395-0337 (no Web site at press time).
The only other chestnut orchard that I could find in the region is in western Sonoma County -- at Green Valley Chestnut Ranch, which is only open two weekends this fall. The first was this weekend and the second will be Oct. 11-12.
The ranch, outside the town of Graton, covers several acres containing about 800 chestnut trees that grew from seeds from a Gold Rush-era tree planted by Italian immigrants in Nevada City. The variety is called Colossal, a type that produces large and sweet nuts.
A friend and I on a foodie jaunt of the area passed by Green Valley (a lovely drive from Graton) the other day and, although the ranch was closed, I took some photos (including the one above) of the lush, gorgeous groves of trees, sagging with the weight of the pods, the ground covered with the nuts ready for the taking. For more information, check out the ranch's Web site.
Before heading out to see the chestnut trees, we had a terrific lunch at a new restaurant, Eloise, in Sebastopol (reviewed recently in the San Francisco Chronicle), and, after seeing the ranch, stopped by another eatery that specializes in local ingredients, the lively pub, Ace-in-the-Hole, in Graton. Ace makes the first hard cider produced in the U.S. , much of it from local apples, including the beloved Gravenstein. The results are delicious.

Academy of Sciences in photos

Photos from a preview tour of the new California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. Frank Almeda, an academy scientist, shows the biodegradable trays used for the two million plants on the undulating hills of the roof. "Claude," the albino alligator in the "swamp' tank in the main hall is expected to draw big crowds.

Golden Gate Park is humming

The new California Academy of Sciences is opening with a weekend-long celebration on Saturday, Sept. 27, one of the most anticipated events in San Francisco in years, especially if you've been watching it being painstakingly rebuilt the least three years. On a preview tour this week with a group of reporters and other press people there was no doubt that the building was worth waiting for. We visited the planetarium, galleries, the aquarium and took the elevator to the roof. When the doors, we all gasped. There before us was 197,000 square feet of undulating hills, the "Living Roof" lined with native plants, all tightly packed in biodegradable trays to keep them from slipping off the slopes, which make up one of the largest roofs of its kind in the world. Renzo Piano, the noted Italian architect who designed the museum, was inspired by the dome-like Grand View Park from the nearby Sunset district hilltop, said museum staffer Frank Almeda. The large deck will be a popular spot for visitors. There isn't the view that's afforded by the deYoung Museum's twisting tower, but it's a peaceful spot where birds, inculding the park's resident hawks, are already flying about. Docents will be stationed on the roof to describe the plant life and Piano's design. Of course, the real destination is under the roof. The institution's mission is to answer two questions and the exhibits are designed with those in mind, said Gregg Ferrington, executive director. "It's to ask 'How did we get here?' and 'How are we going to find a way to stay?" The Academy of Sciences is home to the Steinhart Aquarium, Morrison Planetarium, the Kimball Natural History Museum and a myriad of research programs. The new aquarium houses the world's largest coral reef -- a 25-foot high tank modeled after a reef in the Philippines -- with 500 species of fish. Several galleries highlight how animals have evolved and adapted to their environments. Some of the exhibits will be familiar to Steinhart visitors: the giant sea bass (see photo above) that weighs about 165 pounds, is now 30 years old. A four-story, glass-enclosed rainforest contains hundreds of plants, 40 birds and a tiny, red bromeliad frog. The vegetation is expected to grow into a dense canopy in the next three to four years. There's also the 87-foot long blue whale skeleton, the African Hall with its 1930s-era dioramas (now containing a live exhibit, South African penguins), and, of course, one of the academy's most famous inhabitants, Claude, the albino alligator, who lives in the "swamp" tank just inside the entrance hall.