Born-again

It's 2am. It's been over 100°F during the past few days, but it cools off at night so the air is pleasant and still. I love the wee hours when the town is sleeping and quiet. At times like this you can sense a Midsummer's Night Dream dancing all around you.

Wine country is pretty spectacular this time of year. The vineyards are in full leaf and clusters of young grape berries are beginning to peek out beneath the foliage. You can practically hear them growing. And the green is just so, well, GREEN! Driving around this time of year is intoxicating, on so many levels.

Last weekend we went to one of our favorite small-producing wineries, DaVero, to pick up our club allotment. DaVero is actually more than a winery. It's a full-fledged Biodynamic farm that also grows olive trees (their olive oil is a Mario Batali favorite), Meyer lemons, all kinds of fruits and vegetables, as well as pigs, sheep and chickens. Ridge and Colleen are the big-hearted owners and self-proclaimed "born-again Italians". They go to Italy whenever they can and have modeled their farm and wines after those in Tuscany. Most of you know enough about Ted to know that he considers himself a "born-again Italian" too, so in a very real way, he's found his Italian roots here.

We arrived at DaVero and sat down for a tasting. (Check out their website for a full description of their wines and their farm: http://www.davero.com) Along with the wines, we were offered succulent skewers of farm-raised lamb and pork, and just-picked peach salsa — talk about intoxicating! Feeling relaxed (wine will do that to ya...) and well sated, we strolled through the gardens and went out back where the pigs and chickens are kept.

Okay. Any philosophical vegetarians out there, please close your eyes and skip to the last paragraph. Before we went to see the animals, we were told that little piglets had just been born. As we nibbled on skewered meat we looked at each other, then at the wine barista and asked, "Is this meat from one of your pig pals in the back?" She said, "Probably." We stopped for a beat, but continued eating with the reverence that Lil Abner had for his shmoos. (Read about shmoos - second bullet point online: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shmoo)

When we asked about the piglets, she said matter-of-factly, "Oh, you mean the bacon seeds?" Farm-to-table is for real here. For sure.

I am forever grateful to people like Ridge and Colleen who create a lifestyle and love sharing it with their fellow "born-agains". With so much beauty and generosity of spirit, after living here for over four years now, I still pinch myself with amazement, "Do we really live here?"