Rain returned to the north coast with a bang in the wee hours this morning of winter solstice, and it’s going to get even stormier over the next several days – we’ll take it! The seedlings, plantings, and our well are finally getting watered. A perfect blessing for the winter and for the new year.

Traditions honoring the winter solstice and Yule acknowledge the persistence of evergreen life throughout the winter, and pay homage to the Sun, requesting its return as the days lengthen with the passage of solstice. While we recognize the sun as the “creator” and engine of all life and systems on earth, as Californians we mostly welcome the solstice and this season as the bringer of rain, and focus our hopes on a wet winter, the regenerator of life in the duality of our severely partitioned dry/wet Mediterranean climate.

I’ve been around the block the last several decades with every possible combo of the wet/dry ups and downs, highs and lows, severe and mild, that our California climate can throw at us, and I’m truly thankful for the last couple of peaceful years where we have been lucky enough to enjoy mild temperatures, a cold ocean full of life, and adequate to moderate rainfall.  

This late fall into winter solstice our focus on Wave Cut Ranch has been on the monitoring, care, propagation, and appreciation of the native evergreen trees we are so fortunate to have come to love here. Nearby and on the ranch, these include: the southernmost outpost stand of Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) – truly an island of Pacific Northwest habitat on the central Mendocino Coast; the stately Grand Fir (Abies grandis); the compact, elegant and emblematic keystone of the ranch, the Shore pine (Pinus contorta contorta);  and our hyper-local magical endemic, the Mendocino Pygmy cypress (Hesperocyparis pygmaea).      

This year we have undertaken a coastal survey of Mendocino Pygmy cypress (Hesperocyparis pygmaea), to record any and all individuals we find on the immediate coastal zone west of Highway One (the largest portion of the population occurs a bit inland from the coast on the geomorphic risers of Marine Terraces two through four – see our articles on Cal Geographic: The Pygmy Forest on the Marine Terrace, and The Ecological Staircase Effect).

After our eagle-eyed daughter in law confirmed that we did indeed have Pygmy cypress on Wave Cut Ranch, we have launched into protecting and encouraging our small but mighty grove.    

Happy winter holidays! And here are a couple of hearty and nourishing coastal recipes for Winter Solstice from Wave Cut Ranch:

Wave Cut Ranch North Coast Cornbread

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups cornmeal

1/2 cup almond flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 ½ cups plain yogurt

2 large eggs

¼ cup olive oil

1/3 cup honey

1 cup (more if desired) chopped roasted mild green chilis 

1 cup (more if desired) shredded cheddar or gouda cheese 

Add if desired:

1 cup corn kernels 

Heat oven to 375

Whisk wet and dry ingredients separately, then whisk/fold wet into dry ingredients

Add the green chilis and shredded cheese whisking into batter

Pour batter into cupcake pan or bread pan greased with olive oil

Bake 20-25 minutes = until edges are golden brown and tops spring back when poked

Wave Cut Ranch North Coast “creamy” Green Sweet Potato Soup

Ingredients:

A few medium/large sweet potatoes

1 bunch kale or spinach

1 bunch chard

Two pieces of dried Kombu seaweed (Laminaria japonica)

3 cups Wave Cut Ranch North Coast vegetable broth

3 cups water

2 large yellow onions

Olive oil

A shake of black pepper

Instructions:

Cut the sweet potatoes into small chunks (with peels fine)

Light boil/simmer in three cups or so of water – so they are just covered – until slightly soft but retaining bright color

Chop and sauté the onions in olive oil

Add to the lightly boiled sweet potatoes in their water:

Three cups North Coast vegetable broth

Sautéed onions

Washed and chopped kale/spinach, chard

Dried kombu

A dash of pepper

Simmer for about five minutes

Blend with an immersion blender in the cooking pot

Serve with an added splash of olive oil

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wave Cut Ranch North Coast Vegetable Broth

Ingrediants – Everything quartered or chopped into large chunks:

6 unpeeled carrots
2 unpeeled yellow onions
1 leek, white and green parts
½ to one bunch celery
4 unpeeled red potatoes
Or two un-pealed yams 

2 unpeeled cloves garlic
1/2 bunch fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 strips of dried kombu seaweed – Laminaria japonica
A couple pinches of peppercorns

Instructions:

Rinse all vegies and seaweed

Put them all in a soup pot and fill with water to a couple or few inches above vegies

Bring to a boil and then simmer for 30 minutes to one hour or so, depending on preference for leaching and taste of broth

The more minerals and vitamins leached into the water the tastier and healthier the broth Strain out the vegies, or just pour or ladle the broth into a separate container leaving drained vegies behind and a bit of the pulp in the broth