Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-05-03
san FRANCISCO LETTER.
A TRIP TO SANTA CLARA VALLEY
AND ADJOINING HILLS.
Description of the Locaiity-An Olive
Ranch and the Method OF
Making Olive Oil.
sAN FRANCISCO. April 80. 1884.

of another valley 1t seems almost as
tactless as praising one woman to another.
| shall venture, however, placing my trust
in your magnanimity, to descant little
upon the beauties of Santa Clara valley,
with which | made acquaintance during a
few days last week spent in small wooded
canyon among the foothills of the Santa
Cruz mountains, at a point where q few
moments climb to any eminence would
bring in view the rich, farm-checkered
floor of the Santa Clara valley. The can
yon itself was very beautiful at that time
of the year, owing partly, 10 the unusual
abundance of deciduouS trees, the rust
colored limbs of the madrone, and the deli
cate blue of the ceanothus, or wild lilac,
turning to a mistygray patch in the dis
lance and the "sel-blue stream of the
bays diversified the forests of pine and
cypress and threw out the sentinel red
woods standing in solemn file along the
small, tributary canyons.
EXCURSIONS INTO THE WOODS
Gave, beside the usual glens and glades,
a varied garden of wild flowers in uncount-
ed numbers of species, perhaps the most
decorative of these being the wild clematis,
which filings itself in masses upon the tan
gle of shrubbery next it. and scents the air
around with its starry blossoms. These are
about the size of the syringa, of a cream
white with greenish tinge, and filled with
a full brush of stamens. The petals are
heshy. like those of the lemon blossom.
The mountains bear more useful vines, but
more beautiful hardly could be. Every one
remembers the discovery that was made
when California wines were first placed
upon the market. namely that the grapes
were grown upon a soil literally too good,
too rich. and in consequence the wine was
earthly and alcoholic Now the discovery
is being made that the wine made from
grapes grown in the mountains is more like
the light table wine, that ideal and desired
beverage, than that made from the valley
grapes that the light, inferior soil of the
elevated lands is more like what the wine
grape needs. Our party, returning from an
excursion to one of the SUBMITS, made a
descent upon the home of an Italian rancher
and vine-owner, who invited us to
SAMPLE HIS cLARET,
Made by himself from grapes of his own
raising. 1t was certainly wine TO be
proud of-light, mild and quite devoid of
the earthiness found in the wines from
grapes of richer soil. He only made few
hundred gallons, he said and sold it prin-
cipally To labOrerS about there. The vine
ward stretched away from his very door
step, mere dark Stumps at this season, way
ing green feathery leaf here and there.
Near a picturesque old water wheel, Just at
the mouth of the canyon, is a rather extern
sive wine-malling establishment, to which
all the small ranchers of the neighborhood
bring their grapes for sale. Here sauterne,
claret and angelica are manufactured, one
of the names of the Sauterne, as spoken by
the employees of the winery, being Gray
Dutchy," which suggested Duchesse, but
proved TO be Girls d'ISchia," corrupted
from the German name for Ischia-Etchc-
into Gray Dutchy, a very good sauterne.
Quite in the valley is one Of
THE LARGEST OLIVE ORCHARDS,
Or olivedos. in the State An enthusiast
has taken it in hand, and will undoubtedly
produce something for the State to be
proud of, and for his own profit, if the gods
are good to him. He found the orchard,
when he took possession of it, quite gone
to rack-the trees planted too near to-
gether, injured by the black scale, an insect
most pertinacious in its attentions to the
olive trees, and of that strange effect that II
Injuries the appearance of them but little,
vet DESTROYS their fruit-bearing capacities.
The new owner tried the experiment of re-
moving every other row of trees in the di
agona and replanting them. Here the
unquenchablc vitality of the olive tree was
a most fortunate fact. The large roots of
the olive are merely for its steadiness in the
ground: the life is derived from the thread
or hair roots. So, while the Italian trans
planters would hack mercilessly at the big,
strong roots of the trees, they would treat
the fibrous ones with cautious tenderness,
and Mr.. Goodrich was rewarded by finding
most of his trees alive at the end Of the
year. OF the
EIGHTY-ONE ACRES OF THE oLIyEDo.
Many are used as a nursery for slips The
cuttings are covered all but one end upon
which wax is poured, and already many of
them were sending up shoots. The effects
Of another enemy a hot, dry wind that was
prevalent last year, showed all to plainly
on some of the trees, which were charred
and blackened as if they had been held in
the fire When Mr. Goodrich first took his
olives in hand. he had a servant wash each
tree with sponge and soap and water, so
that they should at least start right One tree,
whose bark was, as he wished all to be, was
of a smooth. filled out, fine grain and text
ure, like the upper limbs of Il young apple
tree. An odd thing about the olive tree is
that one cannot determine of the buds in
early spring whether they will be leaf or
fruit buds. A steady, hot sun develops the
leaf buds into berries. According to the
best Italian authorities, Mr.. Goodrich has
planted wine grapes between his olive
trees, mostly the variety called La Folle
Blanche. from which Il still white wine is
made, and which has obtained its name
from its irrepressible tendency to bear even
under the most discouraging circumstances.
Mr. Goodrich has large building devoted
to the making of oil. which with him is
thus far wholly experimental.
.... MAKING OLIVE OIL.
The berries are picked and sun-dried
two or three weeks upon bricks, in order
TO absorb all the moisture they may con-
tain The mass is tlIHI thrown. into "A
large stone basin called crusher, with a
second i,stone moving, upon a horizontal
axis and also sweeping round the basin 50
as to- crush and grind at the same time.
The mass removed from the crusher is
packed in peculiar Italian baskets, like fish
crates, of some, woody Gber, and is then
subjected to the preSs-a hand-power press
but geared up To attain a very great
amount of pr,essSiire From the press the
fquid is strained through silk and horse
hair Stoves in the Italian method, and
through druggists paper MI. Goodrich,
hdt Wholly satisfied even with these many
offerings, was passing his sample of oil
through SOME charcoal, as sugar is treated.
He Showed uS his own QUARTERS in rooms
above his Gfl-rooh, and. procuring deep
sautcrS. allowed.tis 10 taste a specimen of
the oil he had been treating. Todip bread
in clear oil that one had followed from the
tinicst cuttings, aS it were, was an expert
ente that seemed 10 bring one
PLEASANTLY NEAR 10 MOTHER EARTH.
The oil is BEAUTIFULLY cIeaf and smooth, not
fat or thick; and while tho, first taste is a
little woody Or earthly, the after and endur-
jng favor is sound and sweet, and almost
nutty in its richneSs. Mr.. Goodrich had
native wines to be tasted, 100, and this