Visit a ranch or farm and you will see American entrepreneurs hard at work. The farmers work using the land, whereas a distillery uses farm products to make the drinks we adults enjoy. This is a story of one small farm and one small distillery, not related financially, but both located in Winters, CA.
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A Working Horse Ranch + Farm
A Harvest Host provider, 222 Ranch Winters in Winters, CA was the first stop of our June 2023 RV trip to various farms north of our home in California. And I must admit, it was a great first choice.
- First, it was only ~1h drive, so the dogs liked it.
- Second, it had wonderful visuals and smells, which the dogs also appreciated.
- Third, there were free ranging ducks and hens, which meant that the dogs used our open RV windows as a 3D television with smell-o-vision.
- Fourth, they slept well having worn out their bodies from the constant muscle tension of following the moving images on their TV.
In fact, although the dogs reacted to every little twitch of a farm animal, when some animal jumped on our roof in the middle of the night, I was the only one to wake up and notice. Their excitement all day had worn them out. Luckily they did not bark much the whole time we were there; however, they were just a bit too eager to get close to the fellow animals.
All the farms in this area of California had very dusty, parched land with brown natural grasses. They each spent a lot of money to bring water to their fields. But those natural grasses are full of foxtails and burrs, and that meant we had to constantly check the dogs feet and bodies as they came into the RV after each walk. This is sort of a given, living in an area that is desert-like. The farmer’s dogs, and it looked like they had three to protect the herds, must be checked constantly given the large furry creatures we saw on our way out of the farm.
Pets + Farm Animals
The rule of thumb for pets and farm animals, is to keep the pets on leash until you can tell how reactive they are to the animals. If reactive (pulling, growling, barking), keep a fair distance from the animals so they are not stressed. But also so neither a pet nor farm animal is harmed.
My rule for my dogs is to never trust pets to not harm anyone, so I prefer to always keep them on a 6’ leash and pause about 100’ from the animals to gauge if I should come forward or not. With Maggie I could get close to the farm animals, but with Charlie I could not get close, as he was too reactive (or “over threshold” as my dog trainer would say).
Humans + Farm Animals
The rule of thumb in this situation is to ask the farmer if it is okay to touch the animals. Remember they are sentient beings with their own personalities. Many livestock, if not all, are prey animals and get wary and stressed with new humans or pets approaching them.
Some other suggestions include wearing hiking boots or steel tipped boots and avoiding the animal’s blind spots, which are generally directly behind their hindquarters. While you are approaching cautiously, avoid horse, cow or donkey kick spots also near their hindquarters. Finally, I suggest avoiding intact male animals of all kinds.
I generally approach slowly from the front, so they see me, speaking low, and approaching calmly. This is done without the dogs. The farm animal should have room and a path to walk away if they choose. I also tend to avoid mother and child/ren unless it is approved by the farmer.
- For instance, there were two heritage wooly pigs at one farm who had babies near weaning age; I asked and got approval to touch, but was told to keep my hands away from the mom’s mouth. I approached a baby, and within seconds the mom had moved the baby away from me and was standing her ground looking at me. I was able to scratch her back (it felt sandpaper rough) but she did try to nip me.
- Another farm allowed us to feed the animals but directed us to feed only a bit of raw veggies. He approved the carrots we had and allowed us to feed the pigs and tortoise. If the animals are friendly and approval is given by the farmer, pigs tend to love belly-scratches, tortoises generally like their back shell scratched.
- So far all the goats and sheep we have seen have been working hard “mowing” grass and weeds and are not approachable.
Chickens + Eggs
It was explained to us that the roosters, in the cage above, were kept as meat-chickens since males do not produce eggs and tend to start fights. While the free roaming hens (some in the foreground box rooting around) were kept for egg production. They had a variety of hens running around, and I am not familiar with their breed names. But they all looked really healthy foraging all over, digging and scratching the earth, and producing fertilizer. We bought a dozen multi-colored eggs for $8, which was reasonable.
- To clean fresh farm eggs just pulled from the hen (1, 2, 3):
- First brush off all exterior debris
- Then rinse and wash with 90F-120F water, but do not soak the eggs
- Clean the eggs one by one, not as a batch
- If using soap, avoid fragrances as that can soak into the egg
- Sanitize (dip in 1T bleach to 1gal water) and dry the eggs with paper towels
- Dump the bleached water into your sink and sanitize the sink
- Place eggs in fridge for storing
- To clean fresh farm eggs that were already cleaned initially by the farmer:
- Brush off exterior debris
- Rinse, one-by-one under running hot tap water
- Dry with paper towels
- Crack the eggs on a flat service, so no shell part gets into the egg
- To assure safety, cook eggs to an internal temperature of 160F to kill salmonella bacteria
Visitor Expectations
If a working farm, and not geared as a petting farm, you will see poop everywhere so do not go barefoot or wear sandals around the land. There will be smells from the animals, but also the poop, and compost that is made from animal and vegetable waste. There were a gazillion black flies, mainly centered around the animals.
- At this farm there were a handful of cattle, and as happens, the poor creatures had thousands of flies all over their heads and bodies. I am not a fan of flies but they are an everyday occurrence for horses, cattle, and other farm animals. It is just one of the many things you get used to seeing on a farm.
Generally, the farms we visit have little farm stores, but adjust your view of what they should look like. In the great scheme of things on a farm, the “store” is minor compared to the other work the farmers need to do. They are designed primarily to sell their own grown products, but are not all nice looking, some farms have a lean-to built from left-over wood and offer just a few things, while some look like a fancy boutique and offer things from other nearby farms as well.
- This one branched out from eggs and vegetables, to sell what looked like homemade gifts, including clothing, goats milk soap, jewelry, knitted hair ties, and zipper pouches featuring horse graphics.
- They told us they had no veggies to sell right now as the recent California atmospheric rivers ruined their vegetable crops so they had nothing left to sell. So we bought eggs and the soap.
Also I should mention they signed up with Harvest Hosts to get people into the farm to hopefully spend money, and also allow people with horses to come and keep them on the property while staying here. I did not research that much, but if interested contact them directly.
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Patio 29 Distillery
Open since 2016, this distillery is a small, family run affair. They create premium whiskies, gin, vodka, rum, brandies and other spirit products, all sourced from locally-grown grains and fruits. Everything they make is by hand, as they write, “from farm to glass”.
Their name is based on 29, as in the numbers of protons in the nucleus of copper. After all, distilleries require a lot of copper, and it is synonymous with producing high-quality, artisan craft distilled spirits.
They had a large parking area that luckily had some tree-based shade as it is damn hot in this area in June. They also had a reasonably sized patio with umbrella-based shade where we first sat. But we found out that well behaved, leashed dogs were allowed inside so we chose that as it was cooler. They brought water over for the dogs, and gave us a menu.
Then a staff person came over and gave us some of their family history.
Cinnamon Tooth Picks
We spoke to the grand-daughter, and later to the great-grand-son of the man, Lewis Harmon, who invented the cinnamon flavored tooth picks. They both explained that their Cinnamon whisky was their attempt to honor their grandfather by making a spirit that tasted similar to that invention.
This made my spouse think about Fireball whisky, so they discussed that a bit.
Fireball Whisky and Cinnamon Whiskey
My spouse enjoys Sazerac’s 66 proof Fireball whisky, made with Canadian whisky, cinnamon, and sweeteners, but finds its texture a bit too much like a syrup.
We tasted this Patio 29 Cinnamon whiskey and found it light, with only the cinnamon and cane sugar as the additions. It was much better and lighter in taste and texture, and did not include all the other ingredients Fireball has in it that are not really healthy sounding.
- Fireball was recalled in Europe in 2014 (CBS News) because it contained an ingredient, propylene glycol, found in some types of antifreeze.
- But the USA’s FDA allows ~50 grams per kilogram of propylene glycol in foods.
- At that time, Sazerac stated its Fireball Whisky used < than an eighth of that amount.
Now technically neither of the drinks can be called whisky, for they both have added sugars, and lowered ABV, so they are really liqueurs (1).
The Experience
We bought one flight for $10 USD and each of us named 3 items we wanted to taste, based on the menu. There was enough in the tasting that we could not finish and at one point I stopped drinking and went to walk the dogs around the property. As the driver I could not drink that much anyway.
So after our taste test of various spirits it was down to getting a bottle of the cinnamon or orange whiskey. My spouse is not really a whiskey drinker, but liked the orange infused whiskey over ice, so it became the bottle we took home.
As you may notice, we try really hard to get something at each farm, ranch, distillery, or brewery we visit. Part of visiting these places, and taking up their time to learn about what they are doing, is also to support their efforts and express our gratitude for their work. No harm in honestly thanking and paying people for making the food and drinks we consume.
—Patty
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A note about whisky and whiskey. Canadian and Scotch whiskies generally leave out that vowel, while Ireland and USA write whiskey with the vowel.
