The world has enough beautiful mountains and meadows, spectacular skies and serene lakes. It has enough lush forests, flowered fields, and sandy beaches. It has plenty of stars and the promise of a new sunrise and sunset every day. What the world needs more of is people to appreciate and enjoy it.—Michael Josephson

 

This thoughtful quote came to mind when I began thinking about the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Michael Josephson, a former law professor and attorney, founded the nonprofit Joseph and Edna Josephson Institute of Ethics located in Los Angeles, California. He is a speaker and lecturer on the subject of ethics; the institute develops and delivers services and materials to increase ethical commitment, competence and practice in all segments of society.

We, the fortunate people who are lucky enough to live in West Marin, are enriched each day by the beauty that surrounds us, the rolling golden hills covered with oak trees, and Tomales Bay and all it offers, in addition to the three parks which invite us to hike, camp, cycle, picnic and enjoy the changing vistas. On top of this we are surrounded by a plethora of nonprofit organizations, which are working to educate us about threats to our environment, our health and our food. Point Reyes Books provides us with stimulating authors and ideas while the Dance Palace brings music, entertainment and a place to gather to discuss and contemplate concerns that affect our neighbors and our community. 

We are also lucky enough to savor, with our eyes and our taste buds, the cultivated bounty of West Marin. Despite the four years of severe drought we have endured in California, most gardens continue to produce blooms, vegetables and fruit, although often the fruits are smaller in size than in previous years. West Marin enjoys a Mediterranean climate with mild, usually wet winters (until recently) and dry, often hot summers. Although the bloom time for many of the flowers was shorter this year, much to my amazement our garden produced a bounty of apples and pears as well as plums.

The smaller fruits produced this year are, in most instances, sweeter than the moderate-sized fruit of last year. When a crop’s hydration is restricted, it results in a lower water content and higher sugar content—hence more flavor. In Tomales, experiments in dry farming produced tomatoes with much more concentrated flavors that were even more delicious than usual. Because water is withheld from the growing plants, the roots have to grow deep into the soil to find their own water. It is the principle of dilution at work: less moisture in the soil means lower water content in the crop, which translates to more potent flavor.

Several West Marin farmers are self-trained dry farmers. One began experimenting with the process in 1995 and now, fifteen years later, successfully grows over twenty varieties of potatoes as well as chard, broccoli, Walla Walla onions, sunchokes and Early Girl tomatoes.

Interestingly, although you can’t always count on small fruit to be a special treat, Napa Valley wine growers report outstanding harvests this year. When there’s less water, the hardy roots of grape vines search deeper in the ground for moisture, creating a sweeter, more complex flavor in the grape. One winemaker was quoted as saying that the past few years of drought have produced “some of the best wine California has seen in nearly a decade.”

So, we in West Marin have gratitude for the idyllic environment in which we live, the bounty of organic fruits, vegetables and local wines we enjoy and for the entrepreneurial individuals who are experimenting with innovative ways to protect the earth’s resources and adapt to our changing weather patterns. 

As Marco Morrow said: “It is a glorious privilege to live, to know, to act, to listen, to behold, to love. To look up at the blue summer sky; to see the sun sink slowly beyond the line of the horizon; to watch the worlds come twinkling into view, first one by one, and the myriads that no man can count, and lo! the universe is white with them; and you and I are here.” 

And, after four years of drought, we will be grateful when the promised El Niño arrives this winter and the rain and snow fill the reservoirs once again.

 

Martha Proctor, a Marin Master Gardener, lives in Inverness and is an active member of the Inverness Garden Club.