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Grape Stomping Parties in Santa Ynez Valley

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One of the best things about Harvest time is all the fun harvest festivals and street fairs in Santa Ynez valley and Santa Barbara wine country. The other is stomping grapes!

Several wineries in the area have grape stomping parties, some of which you can race through the vineyard, wear a toga, or see what Pinot Noir grapes taste like off the vine. Read below to find out where…

Solvang Stomp: Grape Stomp Street Festival

Visit downtown Solvang on Saturday, October 19, 2019, 2-5pm for the Solvang Grape Stomp harvest street festival! Celebrate the annual wine harvest in the Santa Ynez Valley with a traditional grape stomp, sip from dozens of Santa Barbara County’s best wineries, savor locally prepared food, drink pink in the I Love Rosé lounge and dance the afternoon away.

Grape Stomp in Solvang, Santa Ynez Valley, Santa Barbara County

Kalyra Winery: the Great Grape Stomp

This is one of the oldest grape stomp parties in Santa Ynez valley, and I do mean a party. You can show up in anything from a Lucy Grape Stomp outfit to a toga. Any grape-related costume is encouraged, as well as drinking as much wine as possible, then jumping on a drunken tractor winery tour, plus eating and dancing to live music on the front porch. Get a first-hand account and find details here.

Sunstone Winery: Harvest Stomp Party for members

This yearly event over two weekends in September is a favorite grape stomp event in the area. It’s an all-day affair in the gorgeous Provençal-style vineyard and winery. It begins with a special bubbly cocktail made just for the event, then picking grapes in the vineyard. After being educated by the winemaker and Rice family on winemaking, you’ll climb into the grape vats and stomp to your heart’s content. A gourmet picnic lunch is also included, as well as the family’s line of wines, including some from the underground, dusty library. Get details here.

Sevtap Winery: Grape Stomp Party

Sevtap in Buellton also has an annual grape stomp party, where you can get in bins of cold grapes and crush to your heart’s content. Will also have food, music and ridiculous amounts of fun. Read more here.

Summer Recipe: White Peach Blueberry Sangria with Buttonwood Semi-Semi

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Ok, so I’m on a Sangria kick now. Living and working on a microfarm is more work than I thought it would be! Sangria is helping me keep it together: some days you just need a light, fruity, slightly sweet pitcher of deliciousness to counter all that chicken poop. Buttonwood Farm & Winery helps me with that.

On a recent trip there to buy peaches and taste wine, I came across 2 great wines for Sangria: the dry Rosé of Syrah (great for a Bloody Rosé Sangria) and the Semi-Semi (semi-sweet Semillon). Semillon is actually the world’s most-oft grown grape, but is typically used for blending. I love to find a Semillon varietal wine, and this one is a special treat!

Here are the tasting notes:

“Light, flavorful and slightly sweet, Semillon shows its delicate side in a sipper of a wine. . A taste delivers a burst of sugarcane-like sweetness, white peach and apple cider notes that are lifted with bright key-lime acidity. Semi-Semi finishes with hints of almond and spun honey.”

Semi-semi, you can be my spun honey.

Buttonwood Semillon Peach Blueberry Sangria

 

White Peach Blueberry Sangria recipe

  • Fresh juice of 1 large lemon
  • Fresh juice of 1 large peach (or 2 small ones)
  • 10 blueberries
  • Sugar, to taste
  • Pineapple sage + blueberry for garnish
  • Buttonwood Semi-Semi

Note: you can skip the lemon and sugar, and replace with San Pellegrino Lemon sparkling soda for some bubbles!

  1. Muddle the blueberries and the peach and lemon pulp together with all the juices and sugar.
  2. Divide this mixture into 2 glasses.
  3. Top with Buttonwood Semi-Semi and garnish with pineapple sage + a blueberry in each glass. You can add sparkling water or soda as well.
  4. Drink and be delicious! And sweet.

Bloody Rosé Sangria – Buttonwood Syrah Rosé

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If you live near the Santa Ynez Valley in Santa Barbara’s wine country, then you’ve heard of Buttonwood Farm & Winery‘s peaches. As you drive up Alamo Pintado between the charming towns of Los Olivos and Solvang (where we’re known for both wine tasting and Danish kitsch) you can’t miss the sign on the side of the road as it calls your name: “Peaches!”

The peaches at this working farm are big, beautiful and flavorful. And they go fast…make sure to get your peaches before checking out the tasting room, or you might be out of luck for the day! You also might want to pick up a freshly baked peach pie as well, then head into the winery’s tasting room, peaches-in-hand.

Some of my favorite Buttonwood wines are the very Zingy Sauvignon Blanc, done in a style with freshness and bite, and the Cabernet Franc, a spicy and earthy varietal that’s not always easy to find. And summer is the perfect time for the Semi-Semi (Semi-dry Semillon), a slightly sweet light white wine (great for a White Peach Blueberry Sangria), and the Rosé of Syrah, powerhouse of summer.

In fact, the peaches and Rosé inspired me to come up with a garden-fresh summer Sangria concoction to help beat the heat this August. If your August is as dry and dusty as mine, this will quench your thirst, slip you some nutrients and make you happy to do your farming.

Buttonwood Syrah Rose SangriaBloody Rosé Sangria Recipe

  • Fresh juice of 1 large tomato
  • Fresh juice of 1 large peach (or 2 small ones)
  • Fresh juice of 1 tangerine or half a large orange
  • Sugar, to taste
  • Sage or basil for garnish
  • Buttonwood Syrah Rosé

Note: you can skip the tangerine/orange and sugar, and replace with San Pellegrino Blood Orange sparkling soda for some bubbles!

  1. Muddle the tomato, peach and tangerine pulp together with all the juices and sugar.
  2. Divide this mixture into 2 glasses.
  3. Top with Buttonwood Syrah Rosé and garnish with herbs. You can add sparkling water or soda as well.
  4. Drink and be refreshed! And go forth and farm…

If you like sweeter sangria, check out my White Peach Blueberry Sangria!
Buttonwood Farm & Winery peaches

House Maltagliati with Fava Beans, Smoked Guanciale & Garlic Soubise at Root 246

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Spring  |

House Spring Maltagliati with Fava Beans at root 246 in SolvangNew roots. Spring brings them every year, along with some delicacies that can only be enjoyed during these warming days…like fresh fava beans. Spring is the time these legumes behave, and taste, more like fresh new peas than later in the year after they mature, when they firmly join the bean clan (mostly dried or canned).

New roots are also springing up for Chef Crystal DeLongpre (known as Chef Pink for her hair color preference) as she takes over the reins at the Corque Hotel’s root 246 in Solvang. After stints at top kitchens of Los Angeles, the Food Network and running her own restaurant, she knew she could only go where her food philosophy would be shared: hyper-local ingredients, responsible sourcing via close relationships with farmers, stewards of the land. Now, Chef Pink is rejuvenating the kitchen at root 246, with 95% of its produce coming from local farms, as she moves the restaurant firmly towards its own rebirth. The dinner and bar menus have already been refreshed (but check for chef’s specials to appear anytime). In coming months, look for more casual, family-friendly dining, with a love for locals and a re-design focused on comfort.

To make this spring comfort dish at home, remove the large outer pods from the fava beans, then take each bean and remove the thin skin covering the split bean.

House Spring Maltagliati with Fava Beans at root 246 in SolvangNext, hard-boil an egg, cool it down, peel it and set aside (or cure it by cracking an egg in a boil over salt, then cover it with salt and plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 week). Tear lasagna noodles roughly (or use any other “badly cut” pasta) and boil per directions in a pot with enough salt to taste like the sea.

Sauté thinly sliced and diced guanciale or bacon over medium-high heat, until it is crispy. Remove the bacon, then add 1/2 cup cut spring onion to the bacon fat and cook over low heat until translucent. Add 1 cup chicken stock and simmer until reduced by half, than add a handful of fresh fava beans to the pan, season with salt and turn down the heat. Add cooked pasta along with 1 tablespoon of butter and a healthy squeeze of lemon. After simmering for 2-3 minutes, sprinkle with bacon and grate the egg yolk over over the top. Chef Pink also adds locally foraged kombu – the “king of seaweed” used to make Dashi – which adds umami richness to the dish.

Local Nettle Pasta with Mushrooms & Spot Prawns at S.Y. Kitchen

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Spring |

Living in Santa Barbara County all but guarantees us locally grown produce year-round, but spring can bring surprises depending on rain. This year, fields are bursting with growth – green hills and abundant vegetation are everywhere. And that gets chef Francesco Crestanelli of S.Y. Kitchen excited.

“The quantity of food available here in spring is so great; it feels like a treasure hunt,” he says. “I just love creating dishes out of what we can find.”

Plentiful rain is causing chanterelle mushrooms – large, fleshy and meaty – and wild nettles – leafy and vibrant green – to pop up in fields all over the County. Crestanelli, brother and partner of chef Luca Crestanelli, loves to gather the nettles and chanterelles himself for dishes in the restaurant, sometimes in a field across from the restaurant in Santa Ynez. Nettles, which have a ton of vitamins, are considered an old, classic ingredient in his native Verona, Italy, and lend a beautiful green color to S.Y. Kitchen’s daily handmade pasta. Crestanelli also adds Santa Barbara spot prawns, which are sweet and so fresh they are sometimes just hours out of the ocean.

To make this Italian “Surf & Turf,” blanch the nettle leaves and drain (make sure to handle raw leaves with gloves). Then blend them with a farm egg, and combine with flour and salt. Knead and rest the dough, then roll out and cut. Sautée garlic, Italian parsley and red chile flakes in extra virgin olive oil (preferably from Italy) over med-high heat. Add the cut mushrooms and prawns (cleaned and shelled) and cook for 2-3 minutes. Boil the fresh pasta in water and salt for 2-3 minutes, then drain and add to the pan along with cherry tomatoes. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute and add salt and pepper to taste.

Wine pairing: 2015 Storm Sauvignon Blanc

Fried Brussels Sprouts at Sides Hardware & Shoes

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Sides Hardware & Shoes, a Brothers restaurant in Los Olivos

Of the many Los Olivos restaurants, Sides is one of the best. There are many reasons to eat lunch at Sides Hardware & Shoes: the bright location right off Grand Ave in Los Olivos, the great fresh and local ingredients in the dishes, the ever-changing menu, the brothers Matt & Jeff Nichols (longtime chefs in the Santa Ynez Valley, known for the now-closed Brothers’ Restaurant at Mattei’s Tavern and The Red Barn in Santa Ynez). But the two biggest reasons are the house-cured bacon steak and the fried Brussels Sprouts.

Sides Hardware & Shoes, a Brothers restaurant in Los Olivos

Named for the building’s original shop name (a man named Milburn Sides sold shoes and hardware to townsfolk in the early 1900s), Sides retains its historical charm, just a block off the main flagpole intersection in Los Olivos. And yes, they serve bacon the size of a steak that they cure here in their kitchen. It’s a 4-day process involving maple syrup, sugar, salt, applewood smoke and more, and the meat comes from 
Salmon Creek family farms, which raise natural, sustainable pork.

Sides Hardware & Shoes, a Brothers restaurant in Los Olivos

Don’t miss their daily lunch, and try to get a spot on the outdoor patio on a sunny day (preferably with some girlfriends who don’t have to  go back to work). Then you can really enjoy the fennel and goat cheese crostini, beef carpaccio with arugula and shaved Parmesan and any of the market salads you see on the menu.

Sides Hardware & Shoes, a Brothers restaurant in Los Olivos

Any burger on this on this menu is a must – the Mexicali burger was topped with guacamole with a crispy tostada slid between the burger and bun. Also not to be missed is the sandwich list: thick grilled cheese, hammered pork with mustard seed slaw and roasted turkey with avocado – I take mine with sweet potato fries. The soups, market salads and fish tacos are all fresh and satisfying.

And don’t forget the fried Brussels sprouts with sherry vinegar & capers; if you order one serving per person it won’t be enough! The kitchen team buys as much organic ingredients as they can with much produce coming from local farmers such as Finley Farms, Jacob Grant and Paul Palmer. Beef is from an all natural farm in California (Kobe beef from Idaho), lamb from Colorado and pork from the plains states (all meat is from Newport Meat Company).

Important Note: Choose anything on the dessert list – it’s all excellent, especially the house-made sorbets. Ask for the dark chocolate one!

Bacon steak at Sides Hardware & Shoes

The wine list is as local as you can get, with wines on tap from many spots just around the corner in town. The winemakers themselves are known to dine here, as well as local farmers and cattle ranchers, gardeners and shop owners. Everyone loves a good bacon steak.

Fried Brussels Sprouts at Sides Hardware & Shoes Cafe

The fried Brussels Sprouts feature the acids of Sherry and capers instead of the sprouts’ typical leading star: bacon. At a restaurant known for its house-cured bacon steak and twice-won titles at the annual Bacon & Barrels festival, one notices the lack of pork in this dish.

To make this at home, trim the stem off washed Brussels Sprouts and cut them in half. Heat peanut oil in a deep fryer to 350 degrees – grapeseed and cottonseed oils also have a high smoke point (olive oil won’t work). Fry them for 2 minutes or until golden brown – before they get mushy inside. Remove them and tosses them with Sherry vinegar and kosher salt, then finish them with a handful of capers.

It’s important to use the best ingredients, which means Spanish Sherry – the place where Sherry originates – and when it comes to capers, smallest are best.