From: oday@hplabsz.hpl.hp.com (Vicki O'Day)
Subject: Emandal Farm
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1992 19:23:27 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Laboratories Palo Alto,CA

Sorry to post this all over the U.S., but I thought that limiting it to the
San Francisco Bay Area might be too restrictive.  Besides, if you're visiting
California from out of the area, it might be a great activity for you.

We just spent the weekend at Emandal Farm in Northern California, just north
of the town of Willits, about 60 miles inland from Mendocino.  It was *great*,
and I thought other people might like to know about it and get on their
mailing list.

Emandal is a family-run working farm that has taken in weekend guests since
1908.  The guests are housed in small (tiny) cabins scattered up the hill from
the main part of the farm; there are about 20 of them of various sizes.
The farm is about 1000 acres.  They raise goats, chickens, turkeys, pigs,
cows, and horses.  Most of these animals are housed together in one giant
pasture.  The kids can help with egg-gathering, milking, feeding, etc.
There is also a very large garden (with 300 tomato plants this year, to
give you an example).  Depending on the time of year, there are different
chores to do in the garden.  This weekend, for example, we picked the last
of the tomatoes and peppers, along with various vegetables for meals that
were cooked while we were there.  Other weekends, they might pick apples
and make apple cider, make compost heaps, etc.

The food deserves a paragraph of its own.  Tamara, one of the owners, is
a very gifted cook.  Most of the food is vegetarian, and most of it comes
from the farm.  For those of you who have been to Green's restaurant or
Tassajara Hot Springs, I'd say the quality is the same, though the dishes
at Emandal are a bit less elegant.  You eat in a communal dining room with
all the other families.  There is fresh-baked bread, warm from the oven,
at almost every meal.  Just as you've finished eating all the good things
in the main courses, out come warm pies with homemade ice cream, or warm
chocolate chip cookies.  It's deadly.  It's especially tempting to eat
lots when you know that the pigs get the leftovers.  We did have one meat
dish at Sunday lunch - the sandwich fixings included ham from one of the farm
pigs.  My 3-year-old, Emma, wasn't bothered by this, but some of the older
kids who had played with the pigs were a little dismayed.

Things to do:  mostly, you can just hang out.  The kids run around with
the animals, climb on the farm equipment, play on the lawn, etc.  The
main side activity is swimming in the river.  Three miles of the Eel
River run through the property, and it's just a short walk to a good
swimming area (wide and calm enough for 4-year-olds to take plastic
inflatable boats out).  There are also hiking trails and a lake on
the property.  Each cabin has a large hammock, big enough for two adults
to read in while their 3-year-old takes a nap inside.  There is a big
campfire area where near the cabins where families can build a fire
at night.  On the Saturday night while we were there, the owners had
a arranged a square dance with a professional caller.  We began with
hokey-pokey, and when we graduated to more traditional folk dances the
kids still got to join in.

The guest season is over for this year.  It starts again in early May.
Family weekends are in May, August, September, and part of October.
In June and July they run week-long summer camps for kids.  When we
called in April, this weekend in October was the only one left.  I think
they start booking at the beginning of each year.  In California, call
1-800-262-9597 to get a brochure.  Next year, I think we'll try for
two weekends ourselves, one in the early season when the garden is
just getting started, and one closer to harvest time.

Vicki O'Day
oday@hpl.hp.com
Newsgroups: misc.kids