Hello All!

Nice to be here.

As the title says, gardening and wine tasting are my go-to activities. I'm also an incurable gear-head with an addiction to German sports cars. Ugh.

My wife and I are both professional chefs nearing retirement. I teach culinary arts full-time at a large NORCAL college and my wife was the sous chef at a well-known wine brand until COVID closed everyone down a year ago.

Gardening gives me a good connection to the food, a connection that I can pass to my students. It keeps me outside and moving and has the added benefit of providing us with delicious food. We grow year-round and always have something to harvest. Right now I'm harvesting lettuce, parsley, and onions. Spinach and radishes are a few weeks away, as is chervil and some micro-greens I'm trying out. I just cut down my winter cover crop and I'll till it in next week in preparation for the summer crops.

Since we're both in the industry, we're both well versed in the local wines and enjoy the tremendous variety and wonderful stories. Right now we're kinda stuck on Cabernets, particularly from the Alexander Valley (where we live) and nearby Knights Valley. Then of course there are the Pinots. MMmmmmmm. Since the tasting rooms were shut down, many of the wineries pivoted and had specials on shipping or curbside pickup and there have been some great deals over the last year. Every winery I've spoken with is reporting record sales for 2020.

We're still looking for our TT, but it will likely be purchased in the fall. I'm not happy with the current buying atmosphere and we won't buy during a frenzy like we're seeing. It's nuts.