What’s Happening
New Organic and Fair Trade Dark Chocolate Covered Walnuts!
Through collaboration with Mama Ganache in San Luis Obipso, just a short drive from our orchard, we are now offering dark chocolate walnuts for sale. These are available in 4 ounce and 8 ounce bags and may be purchased through our online order form using Pay Pal. Fair warning, you will become addicted!
Mama Ganache has selected their 70% Dark Chocolate as the perfect complement for blending with our Organic Walnuts. They immediately freeze the product for the ultimate in freshness and we order in small quantities to insure the best product in our resealable, stand up pouches.
Tom and Eve Neuhaus have been known for their incredible Organic Chocolate in our region for many years. They have a small retail shop and provide chocolate goodies to regional businesses for staff and clients. Tom is professor of chocolate making and runs the Fair Trade club at Cal Poly University. In addition he operates a non-profit to assist cocoa farmers in Africa who have a very hard time. He just returned from his annual trip and completed a small rice hulling operation and chocolate making facility for one village. They are not Fair Trade in Africa, so Tom has done many things to help make their lives easier. See more about Project Hope and Fairness.
WINTER 2013 at MANZANITA MANOR ORGANICS
The craziness of walnut harvest as well as the grape harvest and wine making are behind us, but the months of September through November are always very busy. Each year our vineyard yield increases and we try new things to make our walnut harvest and processing more productive and efficient.
The walnut harvest was very good in 2012, with record volume, however the size of the nuts were smaller due to less rain last winter. The yield ratio was smaller than normal so the resulting total weight for cracked nuts was not a record year. Since we dry farm the walnuts, only the seasonal rain and existing groundwater supply the trees during the growing season. Fortunately, they were planted more than 50 years ago with this in mind, so they are spaced further than commercial orchards which receive irrigation. The flavor intensity and richness of our organic walnuts is due in part from this farming technique.
See pictures of our organic walnut orchard and harvesting in the Gallery
The grape harvest went well this year. Because of the differences in our Portuguese varietal ripening, we completed the work in two stages, then started producing the wine. For the first time, we chose to use just the naturally occurring yeast, which will result in 100% Organic dessert wine. We are able to call it organic dessert wine with added yeast, but we may consider adjusting the label to say 100% for the 2012 vintage.
We continue to purchase our organic brandy from the same producer and it is from barrels they have been aging for more than 5 years now. We are very happy with this source and we get a continuously improving quality product and a consistent component for our dessert wine.
See pictures of our organic, off-grid vineyard and vines in various growth stages in the Gallery
Links to People and Products we Like!
Below are some friends and businesses that we support and who support us, they may be of interest to you.
- Our award wining winemaker, Signe Zoller, Zoller Wine Consulting
- A great Paso Robles Winery and support for our wine making, Riverstar Vineyards
- Our partner selling organic walnuts in Germany, Fresh, Organic Walnuts
- Graphics and label support, Denise McLean, Mode Communications
- Friend and advisor, Kite Hawk Farm Olive Oil
- Our grape growing association, IGGPRA
- Our friend Loretta the Dog Vet, Ask Loretta