The Chestnut Grower

People who know how to interpret jungle drums may know that this fall, Owl Creek Ranch will have new owners.

Polo Ramos, Foreman and master grafter, will continue the operation in partnership with Martellas, longtime friends and walnut processors.

All through this summer the new team has already tended this year’s crops of walnuts and chestnuts. It is a sobering experience to see how well things are going without my constant input!

Let me take this opportunity to summarize my Owl Creek Ranch story:

Almost 20 years ago the vision of an orchard began to replace my mental picture of beef cattle grazing the dry, golden hills and some irrigated pastures I was going to develop. This was the plan when the land was bought here on the eastern side of the California Central Valley in 1983.

It is good to remind myself that at the time the work of nurses and midwives had evolved a lot, not all to the better. Now I was looking forward to be self- employed. Taking care of critters, cows, horses, even trees, is actually not far from nursing. So I embarked on this Owl Creek Ranch project, for my own satisfaction and... as a challenge.

It turned out that there was plenty of groundwater. The cost to pump the water to irrigate pasture was too high, compared to the low prices obtained for beef cattle. Only if you inherited the land could you hope to make a sufficient income. Tree crops like almonds, walnuts or peaches penciled out more favorably. The soils could be broken up and mixed, using a 9-foot shank pulled by a gigantic D-10 tractor. Over a period of 6 years 4 100-acre orchards were started with California Black Walnuts planted in situ and later grafted or budded to English cultivars.

By 1998 some chestnut trees I had planted experimentally into my worst, but well draining soil, convinced me to take the plunge and diversify. 85 acres, 9000 trees, were planted, using bags of Italian chestnuts from the wholesale produce market. Over time all the seedlings were grafted; finding and producing scion wood being the limiting factor.

Now the trees are very much getting into production. Harvesting, de-burring, sorting, storage are still being perfected while more dependable buyers need to be found, coddled and screened.

It is good to stand back and see where we got and to speculate how the enterprise might develop. I am welcome to help with the marketing and possible processing of the chestnuts and imagine staying involved with “my babies” for as long as it remains a joy. Of course study trips to chestnut growing countries will continue to be mandatory and, thank God, there are many such countries!

AU REVOIR, MES AMIS !
- Lucienne Grunder