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Business & Tech

Mother's Day Winetasting and a CSA Update

Sumptuous specials for Mother's Day, plus the background on other local CSAs in the making.

News From the Tasting Rooms

will have a Mother’s Day celebration on Saturday, according to co-owner Kim Hargett.

Visitors will be able to enjoy self-guided tours of the winery along with estate-bottled wines paired with chocolates and cheeses, she said. The $15 per person admission will also get you a Logo wine glass. RSVP to Kim at 858-248-1612.

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Hargett also said that the winery, which opened its first tasting room in November, won two medals at the Finger Lakes International Wine Competition, held March 26-27 in Rochester, New York.

Their 2007 Syrah won a gold medal while their 2008 Merlot garnered a bronze. “The actual medals arrived last Thursday,” said Hargett.

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The competition, in its 11th year, had 64 judges with national and international credentials, from markets in North America, Canada, South America, Australia, England, Germany, France and Israel, she said. The judges sampled 3,279 wines from some 18 countries. All 50 states in the U.S. were represented as well as four Canadian provinces.

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Dennis and Julie Grimes, co-owners of Eagle’s Nest Winery and Cottage, will offer free tastings of their award-winning wines for both mothers and grandmothers on Mothers Day. To find out more about the event, great wines and some gorgeous views, visit their website, Http://eaglesnestwinery.com or call 760-505-8229.

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will be offering free wine tasting to all moms at their tasting room on Sunday. For details call 760-788-6800.

Rose Salerno, co-owner of , says they'll be adding a day to their increasingly popular Sunday at Salerno’s.

“Beginning May 7th, we will be doing the pizza, pot luck and live entertainment on Saturdays as well as on Sunday,” Rose said. Find out more by calling 760-788-7160.

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My requests for reader feedback are being answered. Reader Nancy Kemp wrote that she appreciated the information about new wine tasting rooms.

“I have just organized a group of friends to explore the backcountry wineries,” she wrote. She  described her group as “a few knowledgeable wine lovers, a vintner, nurse, artists and a few self-described culinary ‘foodies.’”

Kemp added that while they all have varying occupations and interests, “we all agree that we love our backcountry and all it has to offer. I’m looking forward to reading more about the wineries in Ramona. Many thanks for providing such good information!”

More on Ramona CSAs

In my recent column on Joseph Zenovic’s I mentioned first learning about his CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm from a website called Local Harvest. That site, based in Santa Cruz, tracks CSAs and Farmers Markets across North America.

You can search the site by zip code or community name for CSAs. A search for Ramona, CA turned up 16 operations but only three were actually in Ramona. Beside San Diego Organic Farm, the others listed were Backyard Fish Farm and Perpetual Harvest Farm.

Both Backyard Fish Farm and Perpetual Harvest Farm have websites and stated their intentions to offer CSA produce to customers. While neither is yet open to the public, their owners invited people to visit their websites and find out more about their operations.

“The backyard fish farm is a combination hydroponic and fish farm concept that grows vegetables (such as lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes or even herbs like basil); and fish for the dinner table,” according to the farm’s website. “The fish can be a species like trout or bass but are usually tilapia, due to it’s fast growth rate and high rate of conversion from feed to fish. Typically, one pound of feed will equal one pound of consumable fish.”

Owner Andrew Simmons has two acres on Mitten Lane on which he’s begun breeding tilapia and food crops but said he isn’t ready to open to the public. He invited people seeking further information to visit the website or call 760-315-5539.

“We have relocated back to Southern California after spending 11 years in Southwest Montana,” states the introduction to the website of Perpetual Harvest Farms. “We love farming and intend to be a part of organic vegetable production in the Ramona/Escondido area some time in the future.”

The website features some great photos of the Montana operation and information on how people can sign up for the coming CSA operation here.

In response to my email about the CSA, farm co-owner Jackie Fischer wrote that, “It was our full intention to get our farm started again once moving back to California from Montana but things haven't really fallen into place. The property we ended up with is only about a half acre, so at this point we are only growing for ourselves. Hopefully some time in the near future we'll acquire more land to be able to farm.”

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