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This year, the day of John's birthday was
very special. It marked the annual celebration Raclette
for pruners. We traveled the hour and 20 minutes to our
favorite winery and landscape, above the Columbia River,
between Quincy & Wenatchee, WA. Cameron and Phyllis
Fries are the owners of this winery and vineyard. The
event was held to honor and give appreciation to the volunteer
wine grapevine pruners from last year for work done during
February and March. Spouses are also invited. This
year's lunch was again a very Swiss, Raclette, involving a
dish consisting of cheese melted and served on boiled potatoes
(sometimes sauteed onions are included--we should have taken
some this year); or bread (no one brought any bread this
year). Raclette is pronounced [rah-klet']. Raclette
(French, from racler, to rake, scrape), originated in
Valais but is made elsewhere in Switzerland, France. and
Germany. Cameron Fries reasons that Raclette
was made before the current political borders were made,
such that Valais would have been part of the House of Savoy,
and thus of the Holy Roman Empire. The House of Savoy
extended considerably into what is now called France.
Nancy carried her new camera this year to document the event
to share below, including some fall memories. We believe the
photo quality this year is superior to last, but so was the
weather. The people were super fun again this year, and we
look forward to next.
From a visit Sept 20, 2013
Access to the winery & vineyard
January 4, 2014 at the
Raclette
2006 view from the winery across Mariposa
vineyard to Columbia River; 2013 view from the Raclette
bonfire site; view in 2014; sunny & 42º
More memories from Sept 2013 -- at the
Chef's Extravaganza, September
13
and from our visit on Sept 20 where John helped harvest Syrah,
a bit, and we delivered to Cameron some veggies from our
garden (3 different
onion types and a large Golden Health winter squash). We
stopped for a visit on our way to the Bluegrass Festival in
George, WA, an annual affair that lasts all week. We
just made the one day. Nice multi-purpose tripping.
In addition, for your pleasure, here's
a video below of Cameron and John harvesting Syrah grapes
September 20, 2013 in the wind:
And, now for the Raclette for this
year's pruners and spouses:
Lynne Snyder & Roussanne-dog early
setup; Tom Snyder stacking John H's wood,Cameron Fries
contemplating; Phyllis Fries-sweet pickles & pickled
garlic
Last year was cold and we got snowed
on. It took all the next day to warm our feet.
This year was warm(er) with sun and we carried along some of
our stockpiled firewood as a precaution. Really
though, the Raclette is historically a pruners' meal cooked
over stems and pieces of vine cuttings, and we try to have
some grape wood on the fire at all times. The cheese
is imported as a full wheel and picked up on the other side
of the Cascades. For some background reading you can
can go here: http://www.laurelkallenbach.com/lkblog/?p=1283
and then click on the 'next' with arrow at the top right
of the page. Nancy disagrees with the explained
pronunciation of Raclette. It should be on the second
syllable, not the first.
Nancy Hultquist & Phyllis
Fries; Sides for the
Raclette cheese & potatoes
dinner; Back
of table (more below in the text);
Powdered nut ball goodies.
Last year, Nancy and Phyllis missed getting in the photos so
we requested John to take our pictures at the start. Good
thing, because Nancy was the photographer for the rest of the
day. About the first table of sides, with
another to come below. Will try starting left to right on
the back row. Covered dish of chocolates, which ended up
being too close to the fire and some melted early on, pickled
red & yellow peppers, special wafers with cinnamon filling,
pickled beets and onions, pickled egg dish, package for Ranch
seasoned wheat berries in the bowl in front (from Nancy's
friends in Condon, OR), Wasabi (hot) peas, continuing clockwise,
cookies in the blue topped container -- that go by many
names: (I grew up calling these "Shorties",
but I cannot find that anywhere on the web. It goes by
lots of other names though, as suggested here: a favorite
holiday cookie is known by many different names around the
world, such as Mexican Wedding Cakes, Russian Tea Cakes, Swedish
Tea Cake, Italian Butter Nut cookies, Southern Pecan Butterball,
Snowdrop, Viennese Sugar Balls, Sand Tarts, and
Snowballs). They always contain finely chopped nuts and
are twice rolled in powdered sugar. [I suppose I should
ask Margaret to share her recipe and find out what she calls
them]. Coming on around are the sweet pickles, the pickled
garlic and cukes, Gerkins, and pickled onions. Finally, in
the next photo (the back of the table), you can see a little
more of the back row, and a container of garlic butter.
Also, note the 7 candles on the cake.
John Hultquist & Audrey Seaberg
tasting Roussanne, a wine made from a grape from the
Rhône region of France. Another wine
served was Arvine, a Swiss grape
from Valais and also across the border in Val D'Aoste in
northern Italy, where Arvine is grown and vinified.
We tasted some 1990 & 1997 Riesling. The Raclette
cheese you will hear about later in this report.Audrey
picked up the cheese this year from The Peterson Company
in Auburn, WA.The Arvine was
bottled this year at White Heron Cellars within the Ancient
Lakes AVA designation. The grape is also called,
Petite Arvine.
Left is tea, sharing its color
with the Riesling beside it. John
(right) toasting something that Margaret & Mark Amara and
Tom are watching.
Perhaps the toastee is Phyllis roasting turkey-apple
sausages.
Yummy finished ones and raw ones in holder ready to roast.
Last year's skewer before setup, already done 2014;
unwrapping cheese (note ripples-top left landscape); Cameron,
adjusting cheese, w/potato pan behind
Cheese melting over coals--Note
wood is grapevine cuttings
John behind cheese that's melting over coals
Nancy's plate -- much cheese with outsides; without pickled
side dishes - Lynne's neat homemade leggings and Julius
Mark, Tom, and
Lynne
Pot of
potatoes next to fire (beyond its top are coals for melting
cheese).
Cameron serves Margaret
Tom
and John
Before we get too far away from the
comment of ripples on the landscape, four rows above in the
middle photo, let us give you a little education here on the
Ice Age Floods, which provided the excellent sandy soils for
Cameron to plant his Mariposa Vineyard grapes. The
material was transported from the north in floodwaters that
came down the Moses Coulee ~12,000 -15,000 years ago.
The first two pictures below show the ripples on West Bar
across from and "below" the winery, while viewing the
Columbia River as it flows east and then turns south at
Crescent Bar.
Pictures taken in 2012 show, over
Cameron's classic truck, the "Current Ripples" on West
Bar. The middle one is a zoomed shot of the ripples
created from the ancient glacial (Lake Missoula) floods
and deposited over the West Bar landscape along the
Columbia River -- from the same source as much of the soil
in the Mariposa Vineyard. The photo on the right was
taken in the vineyard Sept. 2013 of tracks in the
vineyard's soil. Check below for a quick, but
thorough, explanation of the cause of these ripples.
For an interesting short video, go to the You Tube link
below to watch our friend, CWU Geologist, Nick Zentner,
explain the Ripples we viewed from White Heron.
Left below is a better shot than mine above of the giant
current ripples at Trinidad, and in the picture on the
right below, Nick explains these little sand dunes.
The team filmed them in Echo Basin, near Frenchman
Coulee. (Note the view from Google Earth below on
the right for the location, and you should follow the
landscape to see the perspective, nearby pivot irrigation,
the Columbia River, and the surrounding landscape.
We went to street view and then exited and backed off for
the interesting view.)
Now back to the party. Phil served Cameron, but he
didn't get to finish much of his dinner, because of needing to
run down to the winery to visit with customers.
Phil serves Cameron
Later we rescued the cheese before it fell into the
coals, and we began to think about dessert, including a fruit
salad (still covered).
I apologize for not getting a photo of Phyllis's fruit
compote concoction. It was beautiful and tasty, created
from everything they grew,
except for the last two in this list of contents: plums,
grapes, apricots, peaches, blackberries, dried apples, and
pineapple.
Celebration continued
The pruners enjoying their usual bantering.
Tom made a fantastic carrot cake
chocked full of his Carpathian walnuts & made with
ground spelt flour. John's serving is above.
The cheese used on their device over the coals is a
French cheese purchased at Peterson's Cheese in
Auburn. This type is especially needed for cooking
over coals. "Raclette" ovens are sold, which utilize a
squarer "Swiss Raclette" cheese, which has no crust and is
specifically made for the oven use.
For some videos -- please follow
these links, and enjoy:
We left about 3:45 p.m. for a trip
home in the sunset, later darkness, with night views of
Mt. Rainier and wind turbines, with red lights and on cell
towers.
Below are some parting shots from the
moving car. Interesting, the tree, ridge
with wind turbines, telephone pole,
and center pivot irrigation structure, giving us a feel
for the Columbia Basin and the Ancient Lakes AVA.
Thanks, Cameron and Phyllis for a great culinary experience
with good friends, fun, and fellowship.
If you'd like to refer to another page from 2012 about our
experiences at this special location, check out:
We added a bit of 2013 to this, but not all, and nothing of
annual greetings has been completed for last year (2013),
except for the Raclette last year:
