I never like calling August the end of summer. In Boonville, summer weather always extends into September (100 degree heat waves are normal then!) and my mid-August birthday feels distinctly summer-y, not at all like a transition to fall. I feel like as long as there’s tomatoes growing in the garden, it’s still summer.
Which is why I’m still eating very summer inspired food! Keep scrolling for a new late summer recipe, a dessert that I’m bringing to any BBQ I get invited to in August, and for info about a fire that burned a bit too close to us recently.
Spicy Herby Ranch Dressing for a Chunky Salad
Gideon and I have a list of meals we make when it's too hot to cook and big salads are on the top (specifically Cobb Salads that you make with a store bought rotisserie chicken!). I love a good summer salad, especially one with big chunks of vegetables and different textures.
This salad hits all the key components for me. And it's deliciously unpretentious when topped with Cheez-its.
The Ranch recipe is designed for you to make it with whatever chile powder of ours your have on hand. In this photo, I used Classic Piment d'Ville, but it is delicious with any chile. I'm guessing my friend Lindsay is going to make it with Guajillo chile powder and my other friend Antoinette is going to make it with Sugar Rush!
This is also a great salad to bring to a summer BBQ. Don't feel like making a salad? Make the Spicy Herby Ranch and cut up a bunch of crunchy veggies to dip in it!
Note: This dressing tastes best if you let it sit in the fridge for about 10 hours (or overnight!) in order to let the chile powder bloom and make the flavors really shine. It gets more flavorful the longer you let it rest.
Grange Fire in Boonville
If we’re being honest, the past 2 weeks have not been my favorite. On Thursday July 25th, a 90 acre fire was very close to burning down our farm, our infrastructure, our home, and our employees’ and family’s homes. The fire burned on both sides of the 2-lane highway that meanders through Anderson Valley, and inconveniently cuts our farm in two.
Gideon was with the rest of the Anderson Valley Volunteer Fire Department putting out flames and protecting nearby homes. When I evacuated and headed into Boonville with all of our saved chile seeds in tow, I stopped and chatted with a friend who lives further up on our road who informed me that the edge of one of our chile fields was on fire. Gideon and I had independent moments of “Oh. Our entire livelihood is in the path of this fire.”
I spent the rest of the evening with friends who also had to evacuate, hanging out at a safe spot in town while Gideon called with updates as to how close the fire was to everything and what was seemingly safe.
For us, the damage could have been SO much worse and we are so grateful to the AV Fire Department, CalFire, and all of the other local volunteer fire departments that showed up to help. One section of peppers and beans burned and burned fence lines have already been replaced. My dad’s vineyard right next to our barn suffered damage but acted as a barrier to slowing the fire from spreading. One Boonville family unfortunately lost everything as the fire department wasn’t able to save their home. I really cannot imagine.
As a community, I think a lot of people were pretty shaken up by this fire since evacuation orders were in place for a large section of Boonville. I think we’ll all be looking forward to the rains when the hot pink fire retardant on the hillsides and our homes will hopefully be washed away and there’s regrowth in the charred black swaths of land. Thanks to folks who reached out to make sure we were okay and apologies if we didn’t get back to you. It’s been a lot!
Here's an aerial shot of the fire. Our farm sits between the 2 vineyards on the left (if you look close you can see the barn next to the road as well as our single circular irrigation pond.) and also on the right side of the road we've got our greenhouse, some beans, olive trees, and a strip of chiles near to road. In the photo on the right, you can see how the fire took out some of the chile plants along the road. The bright orange is fire retardant that was dropped by aircraft to slow the fire.
We had to repair a lot of fence lines that were either burned or cut down in order to bring a bulldozer through to stop the fire. There was also damage to our irrigation lines and the generator that powered the irrigation system in this block.
All in all, we were very lucky. If you live anywhere close to a volunteer department we encourage you to reach out and extend your gratitude - a card in the mail, volunteering some time with their support organizations, or joining the department.
These organizations are critical to the health and safety of residents and visitors alike. Gideon sent an email to his department shortly after the fire with the subject line 'I often think we don't get thanked enough'. We encourage you to reach out and support your local volunteer department in any way you can.
