The Lost Cabin (California)

Reaching the remote haven This is a last story to make you dream. When we saw this place and the people who live there, I thought that if a movie director had put it on screen for a story I'd have found that a complete idealized fiction and too nice to be true. But it isn't fiction, here are a man and a woman who live in an old stone/wood cabin (dating from the late 30s') in the California backcountry, living off their vegetables and without many common amenities like air-conditioning and TV,

This is in a remote corner of California (no further location details, no need to bother Jonathan and his wife with visitors), and if the property is fenced it's not to fight off paparazzi or crime but to keep wild animals from coming in and eating the vegetables they grow, because the region being very dry they wouldn't have much left if they didn't close their lot. The area seems to have been inhabited even before the first settlers came in, because they found stones that had the patterns of human work near this house, probably Chumash natives.

I didn't shoot more pictures of the house itself by discretion but it was a marvel of a rustic house in the wilderness, the large living room was, how to say, extremely simple and at the same time so welcoming and imbued with timeless beauty, that's how I imagine the house of an ermit (or a couple of ermits in that case) where you root back to the important things in life, peel off the useless gadgets and connect to mother nature.
There's still room for people to live their dream in the United States, and wandering into the backcountry of Oregon and California convinced me of this, although it's certainly true in other parts of the country from what my past travels taught me. The hippie era may be behind us, but this is the Land of the Free and there's lots of room, both geographically and in the national psyche, for non-conventional individuals who want to follow their own route.

The garden We drove into the property, passing an old tractor with caterpillars (International 1953, something like this one), which I learnt runs fine to this day. We found Jonathan in his garden, he was tending all these vegetables and sometimes mysterious plants sourrounded by an additional fence, an electric fence, in case a hungry hare or other voracious animal jumped over (or under) the first one.

We all grow a few vegetables when we have a foot in the countryside but here it was obviously the source of essential supplies for their daily diet, with the option to can the extra vegetables for winter consumption. It reminded me of all these Russians who also grow and make preserves for the rest of the year using (intendedly or not) pure natural crops.
Jonathan says it's a good soil, and they also add horse manure from time to time, as there are many horses in this area. We walk by a tall wall of some gegetable, I thought it might be something related to beer, but its Lima beans, white beans, and they seem to thrive under the California sun. On the side there are cucumbers and other beans, green beans. The beans are the perfect type of vegetable when you're almost autarcic, they are full of rich nutrients, take little place and dry by themselves. there is also a row of Muscat, a rare type of grape in the area, which where planted by Jonathan's wife with wood taken from a rich vine conservatory of American hybrids dating from the 19th century that was in the historical landmark they were working in (there was close to 200 varieties over there). The grapes can be used for both table consumption and wine making, Jonathan seems to be quite knowledgeable in wine and cites the Muscat wines of Beaumes-de-Venise in the southern Rhone. He says also that this Muscat may resist Pierce's disease, which is a problem in California. Growing hops And yes, we're getting at it, Jonathan also grow hops and he makes his own beer, he's been making it for years. Some people who know him told me in private (not in his presence) that he could have made a brisk business setting up a small brewery because his beer is dso fantastic... So here we are under the shade of this pergola, looking at the base ingredient of yet another liquid food made by Jonathan from his well-tended garden. Jonathan says that it is the only other plant in the same family with marijuana, and hops has been used as a medicinal herb for a long time too, he says [scroll down this page]. the smell is indeed great, with I feel the sugary/spicy side of marijuana (I never grew any, how could you think that ? I just smelled some, growing in the wild in India...). Black from Tula Here is fror example a variety of tomato named "Black from Tula", this one is very ripe and ready to eat but I spotted other varieties in the garden that were still green, and Jonathan says that he grows in puropse varieties that don"t ripe at the same time so that he doesn't get overwhelmed by the tomatoes at once. The tomato plants look like small trees, their're obviously happy here. the Black from Tula looks black although the one here is a bright red.
At one point we saw huge tomatoes, I'd call them Coeur de boeuf in France because I 'm not knowledgeable in varieties and it's the only big-tomato variety I know the name of, but these are Brandywine tomatoes, and they are known to reach enormous sizes. They're orange to yellow in color. Elsewhere we see Thessaloniki tomatoes, then some Costoluto Genovese , with a nice gorgeous shape. The hops tunnel Jonathan says that he's using old vegetable varieties for his crops, and seeds exchange seems very widespread in this country. It reminds me of the judicial proceedings that the French judges initiated against the French seed-exchange group Kokopelli after the complaint of big seeds companies, and this would be something unhear of in the U.S. where the seeds of rare vegetable varieties are sold unimpeded.
To remind readers of this affair on which I wrote about several times, here is what took place a few years ago : In spite of their posturing as promoters of the artisan foods and agricultural products of this country, the French authorities, through its administration and the judicial system actually put their weight to have Kokopelli shut down through huge fines for sharing seeds and promoting agriculture diversity. Kokopelli was fined 35 000 € for selling small paper bags of seeds from almost extinct vegetables, because these seeds weren't "allowed" seeds, they weren't listed in the catalog of authorized seeds (yes, this is not an excerpt of George Orwell's 1984, this is France in the 21st century...). You read correctly, only the variétés autorisées à la commercialisation par le Ministère chargé de l'Agriculture [varieties that are authorized for sale by the Ministry of Agriculture] can be sold in France, and countless indigenous varieties aren't listed there, so selling them to other good-willing home gardeners is a crime that the judges here make you pay deerly, a change, you might say, from their well-documented lax treatment of violent repeat offenders. But I guess, this ancient vegetable seeds exchange was a real, major threat, la république est en danger... Looking at his crop (beans) Jonathan and his wife have worked some 30 years in an historic landmark south of San Francisico, Jonathan being the head gardener there and somehow he cultivated his love for crops and gardening there. He wasn't born yesterday to the organic farming he's implementing around here, and the search for real products has deep roots in California, the Americans having also this do-it-yourself approach which can transform a marginal market trend into a mainstream force.
This garden is so large that we visit onle a small part, I'm sure they can live the year around from what they grow here, they have all the usual vegetables, asparagus, rhubarb, artichoke etc, including small fruits like strawberries, raspberries and black berries. Thee are also a lot of Iris because his wife is into flowers. They have a tortoise around here and it loves eating the flowers, but they still leave it there... The outbuildings with the animals Near the house, again under the protective shade of very old trees, there are a few outbuildings for tools and for farm animals, among them the chicken and hens. They got older hens for the eggs and younger chicks that were born may 1st, they'll give eggs a bit later. The food storage room But the big surprise came when Jonathan led us to some sort of food storage room and opened his fridge there. The keg in the fridge I run to the fridge to see that : a custom-built keg system to serve draft beer at home, welcome to the workshop of an American homebrewer, at the heart of this craft beer revolution that we see all around in this country.
It reminds me of an article I read in Carpinteria Magazine about a group of relaxed homebrewers doing tastings and exchanging tips or recipes, I just found this precise article on the web : Pouring talent into making beer, it helps you understand the extent and volume of this label-less beer which is exchanged and consumed under the radar every day in the United States as more and more people enjoy the fun and delights of making their own brew. We in France can grasp the idea of making one's own bread, but making one's own beer and getting this awesome quality is yet another unchartered territory on which we have to set our sights on. Here we are in Jonathan's outbuilding in the middle of California backcountry tasting one of these unique beers...
Incredible foam, gorgeous beer. It's rich, and there's a light bitterness too, very enjoyable.
Jonathan says that these hops, they're not from here, they're from where they used to live before, friends picked them and he made the beer from them. he shows us a plastic bag with dry hops inside, it smells very fresh, like with lemon aromas too. The beer we're drinking has been made with a variety named Cascade, a recent American variety. Jonathan enjoying his own beer I ask Jonathan how many years he's been making beer, and after thinking a few seconds, he says 35 years, I ask if it was before the beginning of craft-beer movement, but he says that it was precisely in these years, Sierra Nevada which is today one of the top craft breweries was already beginning to brew. There was also an old brewery that went through a revival in those years, Anchor Steam. From what I understand it's much easier to set up a micro brewery, because the authorities change the laws if necessary to help business flourish. Recently a new law allows you to sell your own products (food or drink including alcohol) and avoid most of the administrative hurdles if you stay over 35 000 £ a year. And the new law undercuts the local health department of the county or the city, so that you don't need a health permit, which was a big hurdle because otherwise you had to have a professional, separate kitchen following the established norms and the health department administration would go check, you'd have lots of red tape. Bigger businesses can afford but often, small operations can't, or at least it's a big hurdle for them. It's for food as long as there's no meat and dairy inside, and it's also for craft-beer operations. You can sell direct, people can come to your place and buy, it's allowed under this new regime, but if you want to sell to a store, then you'll need a permit.
[Edit] Law is keeping adapting to the reality in the U.S. and the Governor of California recently signed into law a bill authorizing non-profits to use homemade wine or beer donations in their fundraising practices. Great move. Slicing the home-made bread Jonathan is an expert of making great real products, beginning with bread, he's perfected his technique and recipe for his home-made sourdough bread, cooking it in a wood oven sometimes. I can't again think to Pierre Overnoy and his secret love for real bread, it's been quite a while since I tried make bread myself and I got to put myself to work on this. That's here that the person who helped me visit Jonathan and his wife got his first sourdough 7 or 8 years ago, and began to make bread for himself on a daily basis. Slicing tomatoes On top of that, Jonathan cut a few tomatoes from his garden, they were probably the most tender an deliciously-juicy tomatoes I ever had, riped to the very best optimal point. He says of these ones, if he grew them in San Francisco they would not taste like that, here the heat is higher and they really express themselves. Not my picture but great shot Someone who knows Jonathan for a long time and whom I met later told me that Jonathan's beer is the best he ever had (and believe me, this man knows what he's speaking about), and that if he had opened a local brew pub business he'd have made a big successful operation. Here is a man who preferred to live with his wife the anonymity and the serenity of a simple and autarcic life in the middle of the woods...