Abalone season is almost here. From April 1 through November with a month long break in July, the harvesting of Abalones is popular with locals and tourist alike. The search for abalone ranges from friendly foray to full scale abalone obsession for California divers.

The prized abalone is of course the Red Abalone. The classification in the animal kingdom, abalone belong to the phylum Mollusca, a group which includes clams, scallops, sea slugs, octopuses and squids.

Anatomy: The abalone shell is prized because of their inner, iridescent layer. The outside of the shell has a row of respiratory pores. The musculer foot has a strong suction power permitting the abalone to hold tightly to rocky surfaces. A column of shell muscle attaches the body to its shell. There is a mantle and epipodium that circles the foot which is a sensory structure and extension of the foot which bears tentacles.

The internal organs are arranged around the foot and under the shell. The crescent shaped gonad, is gray or green in females and creamed colored in males. It extends around the side opposite the pores and to the rear of the abalone. The abalone has a pair of eyes, a mouth and an enlarged pair of tentacles. Inside the mouth is a long, file-like tongue called the radula, which scrapes its food matter to a size that can be ingested.

The gill chamber is next to the mouth and under the respitory pores. The water is drawn from under the edge of the shell, and then flows over the gills and out the pores. Waste and reproductive products are carried out in the flow of water. Since an abalone has no obvious brain structure, the abalone is considered to be a primitive animal. However, it does have a heart on its left side and blood flows through the arteries, sinuses and veins, assisted by the surrounding tissues and muscles.

Reproduction: The sexes are seperate and can be distinguised in individuals as small as one inch when the gonads begin to develop. An 8 inch abalone may spawn 11 million eggs or more, while a male abalone can release trillions of sperm. The presence of eggs and sperm in the water may stimulate other abalone to spawn, thus increasing the chances of fertilization. When eggs hatch they are a microscopic, free living larvae. It drifts with the currents for about a week, then the abalone larvae settles to the bottom, and sheds its swimming hairs and begins to develop the adult shell form. The chance that an individual larvae will survive to adulthood is very very low. Fortunately abalone and most mollusks are prolific spawners but the mortality still exceeds 99%.

Food: Abalone eat marine algae. The adults can feed on loose peices drifting with the current. Abalones eat giant kelp, bull kelp, feather boa kelp and elk kelp are preferred, although most others may be eaten at other times. Abalone tend to stay in one location waiting for food to drift by. They can move daily, seasonally or when food becomes scarce for a long period. Juvenille abalone graze on coralline algae that grows on the rocks and diatoms and bacterial films. As they grow they increasingly rely on drifting algae.

Withering Syndrome: is a terminal phase of a bacterial infection. “Rickettsia-like Procaryote” (RLP) is a newly found bacterium. The RLP bacterium infects the digestive system of the abalone. When RLP sufficiently develops, the abalone slowly starves to death. Once abalone exhibit the visual signs of Withering Syndrome, they will expire within a few months.

In 1998, California Department of Fish & Game (CDFG) realized that they had been authorizing the transfer of RLP infected abalone from southern California to northern California aquaculture facilities. Inspection of abalone from California’s aquaculture facilities quickly confirmed RLP infested facilities from southern California up to the Oregon border. In August 1998, CDFG banned shipments of RLP infected abalone seed from southern California to facilities north of San Francisco.

What was an RLP free nursery facility in Crescent City has been infected with RLP and was pumping untreated effluent into the ocean. According to a letter dated February 8, 2000, circulated by the Director of the CDFG, the ban on shipment of RLP infected abalone north of San Francisco was re-imposed following the shipment of these 6400 RLP infected abalone.

Ground Zero: Northern California’s remaining abalone represents about 17% of the state’s original abundant resource. RLP has been found at Van Damme State Park. The Park is in the heart of the recreational abalone diving Mecca in Northern California. One of sixty abalone tested from Van Damme State Park has been found infected with RLP. The presence of RLP at Van Damme is believed to be the result of a single out-planting five years ago. Van Damme could be ground zero for a northern Withering Syndrome epidemic, which would totally decimate the northern California red abalone. The future survival of California’s last remaining abalone may well rest on sciences’s purging the RLP infestation, and on the public’s resolve to save this valuable resource.

Well, do you have a passion for Pinot? Well then you will not want to miss the 11th Annual Anderson Valley Pinot Noir Festival.Come join us in beautiful Anderson Valley for a weekend in celebration of the richness and diversity of Anderson Valley Pinot Noir. Enjoy world class wines, local culinary delights and engaging local artists and entertainers.

Technical Conference

Date, time & location: Friday, May 16, 8 am to 4 pm, at the Mendocino County Fairgrounds in Boonville. Pinot Noir: learn from the experts how to grow it, how to make it, how to taste it, and how to sell it. Attendance is limited to 125, so don’t delay.

Social BBQ

Date, time & location: Friday, May 16, at 5 pm. Standish Winery (at the Day Ranch). Bring your favorite bottle of wine for a fabulous evening BBQ alongside the historic Standish Winery apple dryer. An optional vineyard tour starts at 4 pm.

Grand Tasting

Date, time & location: Saturday, May 17, from 11 am to 3 pm. Goldeneye Winery between Boonville & Philo. Sample the richness and diversity of nearly 100 Anderson Valley Pinot Noir wines. This event includes a light lunch of Pinot-friendly foods and a silent auction of valuable wines and art to raise money for local charities.

Four Winemakers Dinners:

Tickets are sold exclusively onling (not tickets availabel at door).

Check with your favorite wineries to learn more about open house events. A partial listing of events is below.

Host: Goldeneye Winery
Event: Vineyard tour
Details: Goldeneye will host three vineyard tours, departing at 11:00 a.m., 12:30 p.m., and 2:00 p.m. Attendees will meet at Goldeneye’s visitor center, located at 9200 Highway 128 in Philo. Limit 20 persons per session.
Reservations: Reservations required. Phone 895-3202 or e-mail heidi@goldeneyewinery.com for reservations. Reservations may also be made on Saturday during the grand tasting via a sign-up sheet at Goldeneye’s table.

Host: Husch Vineyards
Event: Open House
Details: Drop by Anderson Valley’s oldest winery for food and wine pairings along with barrel samples presented by the family owners and winemaker.
Reservations: Not required. Hours 10am - 5pm.

If you feel a little guilty every time you flip the light switch, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. has created a way to ease the pain.

Through its ClimateSmart program, launched in June 2007, customers can pay an extra fee (about $5.00 a month) to offset emissions from their electricity and gas usage.

It announced recently the first projects to benefit from its customers’ generosity. It will spend approximately $2 million to help restore California redwood forests in Mendocino and Santa Cruz counties.

The restoration programs were selected through a competitive process and both projects are approved by the nonprofit California Climate Action Registry and accepted by the California Public Utilities Commission.

PG&E says it plans to have contracts to offset 1.5 million tons of greenhouse-gas emissions by the end of 2009.
www.pge.com/myhome/environment/whatyoucando/climatesmart/

The category of organic wines is growing slowly but steadily. The USDA lists certain requirements in order for wines to be certified as organic. These prerequisites state that a grape’s origin must be from pesticide-free vineyards. A wine maker is also prohibited from adding any additional sulfites to the wine. Although the movement is still a little green, there are several easily accessible brands producing quality wines.

If California had an organic wine Mecca, then it might very well be Mendocino County. Lolonis Vineyards in Mendocino has been making organic wines long before it was trendy. Their non-vintage Cuvee of French Columbard, Semillon, Chenin Blanc and Chardonnay has naturally solved the dilemma of how to be pesticide free. Lolonis Lady Bug White comes from vineyards that use Mother Nature’s own pest remover, the lady bug. Smooth as slate with fresh mineral notes and stone fruit flavors, Lolonis Lady Bug White is a perfect patio sipper and one of the more affordable organic wines at $13.44. It also comes in a red blend mysteriously dubbed Lolonis Lady Bug Red.

Another of Mendocino County’s organic output comes from Jeriko Vineyards, the 2003 Jeriko Merlot. With a vanilla creaminess and loads of soft fruit flavors of plum and cherry, Jeriko Merlot makes it easy for the rookie organic consumer to cross over to the green side. The Jeriko Merlot may cost a little more at $18.99, but it’s a biodynamic attempt at doing what comes naturally. Similarly, if you’re looking for the same quality that is also food friendly, then check out the 2003 Jeriko Syrah with its drier style and heartier overtones.

Roger Killen
Sunday, February 24, 2008

The Chef at Stevenswood likes to play with food. To the right is a photo of his “Red Pear Nigiri,” a play on sushi. On bottom is delicious goat cheese, in the middle is a perfect slice of sweet red pear, and on top is “beet caviar” - but not fish eggs.  In the photo he’s putting a piece of Terragon on top. 

Written by Dean Norman   

  Paul Dolan’s roots are planted firmly in biodynamic practices, trailblazing in sustainable farming.

After 27 years with Fetzer Vineyards, Winemaker and later President, Paul Dolan, devotes his time to working 70 acres of biodynamic grapes at Dark Horse Ranch near Ukiah. Paul with his son Jason helps manage the vineyards.

“Biodynamic is just good farming” Dolan said. “We lost the art of farming”. It became totally technical. Any type of mechanization or new system or chemical, we were immediately attracted to and thought it was going to improve productivity and improve quality. “What was lost there was the exploration, the discovery”.

It was over the years that he began to sense the importance of sustainablility. From the growing of the grapes to the building of the business and the nurturing of employees. He thought about it enough to lay out a blueprint in book form: “True to Our Roots: Fermenting a Business Revolution” came out in 2003. Dolan wrote, his entire way of thinking about grape growing was about to change, with huge ramifications for him personally. He concluded that the wine industry wouldn’t have a future under standard operating procedures. There had to be a better, more sustainable way.

Dolan also introduced the Code of Sustainable Wine Growing to members of the Wine Institute, a public policy advocacy group for California wineries formed in 1934. His code become a workbook laying out the ecological, economic and social criteria for becoming sustainable. Dolan later served as chairman of the Wine Institute which had 928 members in 2006-07.

Dolans’s message and methods resonated not only because of what he was saying but because of who he was — a winemaker and businessman not only talking the talk but walking the walk.

When Dolan bought the Dark Horse Ranch in 1998, Vines were dying, fences had fallen into disrepair, and the buildings needed reconstruction. Paul Dolan with sons Heath and Jason rebuilt and replanted, focusing on grenach noir, syrah, petite sirah and zinfandel with smaller amounts of cabernet sauvignon and mourvedre.

But in going biodynamic, even Dolan had some convincing to do. When he said biodynamic the first time to his sons, there reaction was no way. But when he said its not really about that, it’s about listening, opening up your awareness and exploring new ways of farming, that’s how I got my boys involved.

Biodynamics is a form of farming that attempts to be self-sustained, self-contained and harmonious with nature. There is an international certifying body called Demeter whose standards are said to exceed those of the National Organic Program.

In the vineyard, Dolan tries to create the best possible environment for his grapes to grow in, putting in different cover crops that have different blooms to attract different insects and also absorb nitrogen out of the air. Ultimately it comes down to the soil Dolan figures, so he feeds the soil with compost, with biodynamic preparations — instead of feeding the plant. His methods are attracting a host of interested grape buyers from St. Helena to Anderson Valley.

In 2004, Dolan started making his own wines from some of the grapes under the label Paul Dolan Vineyards, wines he crafts over at Parducci.

By 2006 he felt the quality of what was coming off Dark Horse Ranch was starting to exceed even his own expectations. The perception of biodynamic grapes is high Dolan says but not everybody’s willing to do it themselves, but they know it’s good, and there is something unique going on.

As Mendocino and Fort Bragg are getting ready for the upcoming whale Festivals on March 1 & 2 and March 15 & 16, 2008, little is known about how the whale wars before the Whale Festivals were started.

Thirty-two years ago in 1976, the cause was saving the remaining great whales from slaughter from Japanese and Russian commercial whale fleets.

The inspiration started in June, 1975, when a Greenpeace Foundation patrol boat located a Russian whaling fleet killing sperm whales off Cape Mendocino. They captured dramatic film footage of a canon-fired explosive harpoon flying over their heads and striking a whale. When the film was broadcast on national TV news, some Mendocino locals were inspired to get involved in stopping the whale slaughter off our shores.

Byrd Baker, a local wood sculptur, was probably the one who came up with the name “Mendocino Whale War”. Byrd and friends began campaigning to save whales, and many other locals joined in on the effort. The California Gray Whales swim past Mendocino twice a year on their migration between the Bering Sea and Lagoons of Baja Califorinia. Whale watching from the coastal headlands of Mendocino has long been a popular pastime.

Byrd with other locals formed the Mendocino Whale War Association in December 1975, with Byrd as one of the founding trustees. Byrd looked the part of an old-time sea captain with a lot of charm. With the help of media-savvy locals like John Baer, an advertising man who was the first president of the Mendocino Whale War Association, and magazine writer Jules Siegel, and the media soon picked up the story. Major coverage began early in 1976 with a big feature in the Detroit Free Press which hyped the idea of Mendocino, a small coastal town in California declaring war on Japan and the Soviet Union. This was especially impotant since this was the height of the Cold War.

The Mendocino Whale War Association organized the 1st Whale Festival in Mendocino in March 1976. The goal was to make the public aware that the whales were still being hunted. The festival was also a fundraiser for an ocean voyage to challenge the whalers off the Mendocino Coast, as Greenpeace had done the previous summer.

Byrd traveled to Vancouver, and with the help from Greenpeace he was able to charter the same boat Greenpeace used in 1975, the Phyllis Cormack. Greenpeace had acquired a former Canadian Navy mine-sweeper named the James Bay, and they would be using the bigger, faster ship in 1976.

In late June, the Phyllis Cormack went heading down the coast to San Francisco, where the Mendocino Whale War’s save the whales patrol voyage would be launched. The Four Mendocino people aboard the Phyllis Cormack was Byrd Baker, J.D. Mayhew, John Griffith and Nicholas Wilson the official photographer, who after thirty years is the only one of the four left to tell the story.

After a few days at sea, on July 1, the Mendocino Whale War boat and the Greenpeaces’s James Bay boat were about 100 miles off Cape Mendocino, near where they had found the Russian whalers the year before.

They didn’t spot any whalers off the coast, but they did find a large fleet of big 300 foot Soviet trawlers scraping the ocean bottom with huge nets. They also saw and photographed a 150 foot Korean crabber just outside the 12 mile limit.

The photos taken of the Russian and Korean fishing boats were bought and used by the San Francisco papers, U.P.I. Wire Service, and Oceans Magazine, helping add to political pressure that brought about the 200 mile limit.

The Mendocino Whale War voyage ended with a brief courtesy call to Mendocino the morning of the July 4, 1976, the Bicentennial Day, and then returned to San Francisco the next morning.

After a few days dealing photos to media outlets, another chapter ended with the Mendocino Whale War. Byrd located an old school bus and converted it into a Mendocino Whale War tour bus. Byrd Campaigned around the country, talking at schools and civic organization meetings for some time after that, spreading his message to “save God’s whales”.

 In 1977 “The Boy Who Talks to Whales” starring Byrd Baker, Victor Jory, Andy Gordon, and “Gigi” the whale, brought more attention to the whales.

In 1986 the International Whaling Commission finally yielded to growing public pressure and diminishing numbers of whales and passed a moratorium on commercial whaling that continues today.

In the summer of 2005, Ellen Findley Herdegen, a kindergarten teacher then and now, who was Secretary of the Mendocino Whale War Association turned over the group’s archives to the Kelley House historical museum in Mendocino. Ellen provided five ring binders of carefully organized media clippings, photos, flyers, meeting minutes and other documents. They are now on public exhibit.

Scandalous Whale hunt has resumed: (February 6, 2008) Japanese whaling fleet has again defied world opinion and resumed whaling in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.

The Australian Customs vessel, the Oceanic Viking, reports that the Fisheries Agency of Japan’s whaling fleet has killed at least five whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.

In celebration of the year of the Rat on the Chinese Calendar makes it the year 4706. The Temple of Kwan Tai at Mendocino, California is dedicated to the Chinese god of war. A Taoist symbol of Integrity and loyalty, the Temple of Kwan Tai offers living evidence of Mendocino’s 19th century chinese community.

This original Taoist Temple, a site now recognized as California Registered Historic Landmark # 927. The Temple of Kwan Tai was restored and rededicated in October 2001 through the efforts of the Hee Family, the Temple Trustees, Mendocino youth involved in the North Coast Rural Challenge Network, the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the California Coastal Resources Agency. Visitors may view Temple of Kwan Tai at 45160 Albion Street, in the National Historic District of Mendocino.

Founders of the Temple: It was about 1850 when the gold rush was just beginning in California. With starvation and insurrection at home (China), immigration was a natural choice for residents of the Canton district, the capitol of Guangdong Province in southern china. The first chinese are believed to have reached the north coast of Mendocino in the early 1850’s. The north coast chinese population grew quickly, particularly in the redwood logging camps where men served as cooks, launderers, and water slingers.

By the 1860’s Mendocino was home to 500 to 700 chinese. Among the early chinese settlers were Lee Sing John and his wife Fung Sun Choy, both born in the village of Lee Ook Bin, Guangdong Province. Lee Sing John worked for a time as a cook in the woods. Later he worked in the Caspar Mill cookhouse. Their granddaughter, Grace Hee Yee was provided much of the oral history anecdotal family information that dates construction of the Temple of Kwan Tai to 1852.

Temple History: Official records report the sale of the temple’s Albion Street site to the Chinese in 1867. A Mendocino Beacon article describes formal opening ceremonies held on November 4, 1882. Since 1871, when the deed was recorded to Lee Sing John, successive generations of the Hee Family have held and preserved the Temple, which was awarded California Registered Historic Landmark status in 1979. In support of anecdotal dating of the Temple construction as 1852, a report by the California State Architect dates construction to the early 1850’s based on materials used in the structure. If accurate, this report establishes Temple of Kwan Tai as the oldest “original” Chinese Joss House in rural California. In 1995, Hee family members deeded the temple property concerning Chinese immigrant history and to the celebration of community and diversity.

 The Temple Features: The Temple of Kwan Tai is on a south facing hillside above Albion Street overlooking Mendocino Bay. A simple structure, reportedly built with $12.00 worth of virgin redwood, it survived remarkably intact for nearly 150 years prior to its restoration and rededication in October of 2001.

Freshly painted in its original red with green trim. The brilliant red of the simple shiplap siding signifies the essence of joy and good luck. When entering the building, one walks under a sign in gold Chinese characters on a red painted background. Read from right to left, the symbols proclaim Do Dai Miu, which means, roughly, “Military God-King Temple.

 While the exterior of the building is not a rare architectural gem, the interior is an invaluable resource of ethnic history. Entering the main room, you will find a small table in front of the altar that holds three place settings of chopsticks, and small bowls of various sizes. Centrally located in the mainroom is a small table with a bamboo mat in front where the worshipper may kneel and pray. There is also a small stove in the southwest corner of the room which was used for the burning of prayer papers. Behind the small table is the shrine containing an image of Kwan Tai, the deity to whom the temple is dedicated.

The fortune sticks flanking the portrait of Kwan Tai were formerly used by the priest who lived in the tiny lanteroom during the 1870’s. Other furnishings are sparse; two simple wood benches line the side walls and two ornate lanterns hang over the prayer table. Except for the portrait and one lantern, interior furnishings are said to be original.

Rare Historic Building: The Temple of Kwan Tai underwent a thorough Historic Building Assessment by Architect Laura Culberson of the San Fransisco architectural firm of Carey and Company. Miss Culberson concluded in her report with the following assessment of the significance of Temple of Kwan Tai:

“The Mendocino Joss House is and invaluable resource to the State of California. It is the only surviving physical document (made more significant by its continued use from the early 1850’s), which retains its original integrity and marks the now mostly lost history of the Chinese in Mendocino. Mendocino was one of the few communities along the Pacific North coast that housed a substantial chinese community. Although Mendocino’s Chinatown burned in 1910, the knowledge of its existence and the cultural and historical relationship between the Joss House and the Chinese community are significant aspects of local and state history”.

This is a luxury B&B in the redwood trees of the Mendocino Coast. We liked the wooded grounds, luxury room accommodations and the proximity to the ocean, the village of Mendocino and Ft. Bragg. Email inquiries were answered immediately, and detailed confirmation information was sent to us. We stayed during a bad winter storm when the power went out, and they made every accommodation to make sure our trip was still great. The on-site restaurant is wonderful, with a full gourmet breakfast menu included in the room rate. We ate at the restaurant the first night, and liked it so much we went there the next night also. We would recommend this B&B as a luxury accommodation to see the ocean and redwoods.