Our Legacy
The story of my Italian grandparents coming to the ranch was a sad one. The family, including my Mother and Uncle, had been living in a large home on 80 acres along the Russian River in Trenton when my Nonni, Rose, contracted tuberculosis. The long-term hospital stay produced a $5000 bill that the family did not have the money to pay and they bartered their mansion for enough money to pay the hospital bill and also acquire a little 1930s chicken ranch in Santa Rosa.
But, like many immigrant families, they were not afraid to work. The little ranch became a busy working farm where everyone in the family lent a hand and where even visitors were recruited to help. Five thousand chickens produced eggs that were washed everyday by my Nonni. Uncle Bruno took care of the animals including milking the cows, feeding the pigs and chickens, and caring for the many barn cats. Nono fixed buildings and structures using what was available around the property and made cheese and butter and wine.
There was a big vegetable garden were everything was grown organically when organic wasn’t even talked about. Everything they needed came from the ranch or from the close community of friends and neighbors that traded goods to fill their pantries and iceboxes.
OUR LEGACY
The story of my Italian grandparents coming to the ranch was a sad one. The family, including my Mother and Uncle, had been living in a large home on 80 acres along the Russian River in Trenton when my Nonni, Rose, contracted tuberculosis. The long-term hospital stay produced a $5000 bill that the family did not have the money to pay and they bartered their mansion for enough money to pay the hospital bill and also acquire a little 1930s chicken ranch in Santa Rosa.
But, like many immigrant families, they were not afraid to work. The little ranch became a busy working farm where everyone in the family lent a hand and where even visitors were recruited to help. Five thousand chickens produced eggs that were washed everyday by my Nonni. Uncle Bruno took care of the animals including milking the cows, feeding the pigs and chickens, and caring for the many barn cats. Nono fixed buildings and structures using what was available around the property and made cheese and butter and wine.
There was a big vegetable garden were everything was grown organically when organic wasn’t even talked about. Everything they needed came from the ranch or from the close community of friends and neighbors that traded goods to fill their pantries and iceboxes.
When I was a boy, the ranch was the place where everyone wanted to be. We were all welcome here. Mornings were for work and in the afternoons, everything would stop for tea and cookies and a game of cards. Friends and family arrived for a visit and sometimes stayed for days. Everyone became part of the rhythm of the farm getting chores done early in the day and enjoying good food and wine at sunset with stories and laughter and time spent together.
In the years after my family left the ranch, it fell into a period of neglect until 2016 when I was finally able to move back to Santa Rosa and turn my focus to bringing the ranch back to life.
Our goal from the beginning of this process was to bring back that feeling of hospitality and abundance so generously shared by my Nonni and Nono, while moving in the direction of self-sustainability for the generations to come.
