Changing the perception

Earlier this week, I met with longtime foothills resident Steven Dambeck, a 40-year resident of Oregon House who is seeking to bring change to a region of the county that is ripe with potential.

His passion for the area and its people is evident from the moment you meet him. A current member of the Fellowship of Friends, a somewhat controversial non-denominational religious organization that has called Oregon House home for years and is filled with a plethora of stories waiting to be told, Dambeck has a kind, loving spirit and an eagerness to sell the place he has took pride in for so many years.

Currently, Dambeck leases about 12 acres of land on the Fellowship property for a business he calls Yubakami. But what he wants for the foothills would not only benefit him, but also the county as a whole and the industrious residents who reside in this remote landscape filled with twisting roads and immense beauty. 

What Dambeck said the foothills desperately needs is a way for the small-scale farmers of the area to more easily get their delicious products into the hands of more consumers. He said by doing so, the foothills would see greater economic prosperity among some that are struggling to get their homegrown goods out to a wider audience.

His plan, Dambeck said, was to get what he called a “food hub” into the foothills that would provide services such as a creamery and slaughterhouse. Services that are needed so farmers there can expand their clientele and scale up production. To achieve this, Dambeck said he would be seeking to get Yuba County’s help in developing a business plan for the underserved area. 

Along with a food hub, Dambeck wants to help foster the creation of more experiences in the foothills that could provide a reason for visitors, such as those from the Bay Area or Sacramento, to stay longer and make the trip more of an extended visit. After spending nearly an entire day with Dambeck this week, the possibility of those experiences was on full display.

With me on my tour was CEO of the Yuba-Sutter Chamber of Commerce, Marni Sanders. She’s an important part of what Dambeck is trying to accomplish. He wants to demonstrate not only what’s possible business-wise in the foothills, but also highlight the diverse personalities of some of the kind-hearted souls who occupy these lands and what the area could offer if the necessary improvements were made.

He said the fertile alluvial soil found in different areas within the foothills was ideal for farmers. During the tour, he pointed to several empty lots where if people were willing, could be turned into productive and successful farming opportunities.

“We have to find farmers who care about the land,” said Dambeck. “And we need to find markets for the farmers.”

He said this area that once served gold miners was now pristine land just ready to be used.

Artisan Lavinia

The first stop on our tour was Artisan Lavinia, a small semi-private bakery and apothecary run by a family who came to the area from Romania. Its owners, Dorian and Carmina Matei, settled in the foothills because of its European feel and their own deep-rooted love of nature. 

“Welcome to the middle of nowhere,” said Dorian, smiling as he emerged from the charming European-style home where the couple and their young family reside.

When you visit their property, you can immediately feel the remoteness and allure of a place that offers something so much different than our busy day-to-day lives in vastly more urban areas. Their home and the accompanying structures that support their business endeavour of love resemble something you might find in the Italian countryside, and so does their view. From their home, you can see the steps of the vineyards on the Fellowship property. The overall beauty of the property is something you’d expect to see in a French film or an epic movie that includes an immense European backdrop.

As we pulled up to the property, we were immediately greeted by an eager dog who embodied the free spirit of the couple who lived there.

Carmina said the couple had lived at the property for about 20 years, but started the bakery about five or six years ago. She said it is a small-scale operation that she intended to keep that way for families, like her own. As of now, the best way to get to enjoy their homegrown and homemade products is to order online and pick up during a select time on Fridays. 

After visiting with Carmina and Dorian, you could see why they really enjoyed what they did and how that love of their respective crafts was intertwined with the goods they offered. 

Carmina said the couple’s love of nature played a huge factor with their presence in the foothills and that love is present in the products that come out of Artisan Lavinia. While Dorian handles most of the baking duties, Carmina also creates oils and serums that she makes from flowers and plants grown on the couple’s land.

In fact, living off the land is at the core of what Dorian and Carmina have done with their five-acre property – they even have a small vineyard for wine.

To view what the couple has to offer, visit Artisan Lavinia’s website at www.artisanlavinia.com. 

Fellowship of Friends

After visiting with Dorian and Carmina, we headed to our next stop, a quick tour of the Fellowship of Friends compound known as Apollo.

Once the site of a thriving wine-making business, Renaissance Vineyard and Winery, this 1,200-acre property is still home to its leader, Robert Earl Burton, and those who follow his “Fourth Way” teachings.

According to its website, the Fellowship is “a group of men and women, young and old, who have gathered together to share the lifetime pursuit of being present.”

The group says it was “founded fifty years ago on the Fourth Way teachings of George Gurdjieff and Peter Ouspensky. Today we embrace the practical wisdom of all great spiritual traditions, recognizing that all esoteric schools teach the same thing: how to be present to your own life.”

Years after its founding, the Fellowship experienced a series of controversial incidents that led to the decline of its wine business. Allegations of sexual abuse and end-of-world prophecies that never came to fruition seemed to hurt the perception of the group and its leader. To be fair, despite allegations, Burton has never been convicted of what has been alleged and Dambeck said a lot of things that have been said about the Fellowship haven’t been entirely accurate or fair.

But that’s not why we were at the Fellowship that day and perhaps those perceived inaccuracies and misconceptions can be cleared up at another time. On this day, we were at Apollo to see another unique aspect of the foothills and the beauty it can offer for visitors.

After a nod by Dambeck toward the security guard manning the front entrance to the property, we entered this somewhat mysterious land that has been occupied by the Fellowship for decades.

The parts of the property we were able to view were beautifully landscaped with palm trees in seemingly every direction. The Fellowship has created a serene environment that is perfect for meditation and reflection.

“There’s something magical about this place,” said Dambeck, who is still a member of the Fellowship.

Besides animals and wine, the Apollo compound is also home to a large amphitheater that has been used by the Fellowship and, from what others have described, provides for a unique viewing experience under the stars, far away from the light pollution that generally clouds the clear night sky for those living in more populated areas.

During the tour of the property, we felt at ease and there was certainly a desire to see more and experience this “magical” place.

Rancho Deluxe

Once we exited the splendor of Apollo, we headed to a somewhat small sheep farm operated by Karolyn McCall and her partner Timo Brennan. Their property, which spans nearly 143 acres, is home to sheep that McCall and Brennan raise for dairy purposes.

For McCall, tending to her sheep and the land is more than just a practice to produce cheese and milk for consumers, she sees her role in this food cycle as one that can coincide with nature.

“We need to work toward food that has a soul,” said McCall, who Brennan said was the great niece of the infamous Jack McCall who murdered Wild West legend Wild Bill Hickok. 

While I never confirmed that fact with McCall during our visit, it was just another example of the interesting characters and personalities that we continued to come across during our foothills tour.

Carolyn McCall said her work at the farm, which Brennan called Rancho Deluxe after the 1975 film starring Jeff Bridges and Sam Waterston, was about trying to maintain a balance between our humanity and what was acceptable morally to someone who wanted to do more than just provide sheep that would later end up at a slaughterhouse.

“We have to try to do things humanely,” said McCall. “I’m trying to do something that is morally acceptable to me.”

McCall, who was tending that day to a ewe that had recently given birth, said her biggest issues at the farm were continued water accessibility and the desperate need of a licensed creamery where she could take her products so they could be sold.

That need for a creamery was a big part of why Dambeck invited us on the tour of the foothills. Without legitimate ways that were easily accessible for farmers like McCall and Brennan to get their goods on store shelves, the work they put into their livelihoods would remain unsustainable.

YES Charter Academy

The importance of nature and taking care of the world around us was profoundly evident during our visit to Yuba Environmental Science Charter Academy, a “free public charter school for kindergarten through 8th grade education with a focus on applying the scientific method through hands-on learning,” according to its website.

We were able to get a number of examples of the hands-on learning that takes place at the school, home to about 130 students, during a guided tour by Louise Miller, principal and superintendent of YES Charter Academy.

As we began our introduction to the school, Miller described the different nature-based curriculums that each class at YES was focused on for the year. The second-grade class, for example, is raising chickens this year. The third-grade class, she said, was learning about California Native Americans and how they used natural resources in their daily lives. 

She specifically pointed to the book “Tending the Wild” as being the source of what the students will learn from.

According to its description on Amazon, the book by author M. Kat Anderson “presents a wealth of information on native land management practices gleaned in part from interviews and correspondence with Native Americans who recall what their grandparents told them about how and when areas were burned, which plants were eaten and which were used for basketry, and how plants were tended. The complex picture that emerges from this and other historical source material dispels the hunter-gatherer stereotype long perpetuated in anthropological and historical literature. We come to see California’s indigenous people as active agents of environmental change and stewardship. ‘Tending the Wild’ persuasively argues that this traditional ecological knowledge is essential if we are to successfully meet the challenge of living sustainably.”

Miller said as part of their study on the subject, students have planted deer grass and plan on doing other activities such as basket weaving. 

While the school currently only offers education up through eighth grade, Miller said the school was ready to expand to include grades nine and 10. She said older students in the foothills typically attend other schools such as Marysville High School or those in Nevada City.

Besides the nature-based curriculum found at YES, Miller was extremely proud of the food the school was able to provide for its students.

She said the addition of a commercial kitchen to the academy has accelerated the idea that YES wants to have its students not only explore other foods they might not encounter during family meals, but also have access to foods that are not so heavily processed and are from local farms found in the surrounding foothills. Certainly a far cry from the chicken nuggets and cardboard pizza many of us experienced during our days in a school cafeteria.

Miller said all of the fruits and vegetables that students eat at the school are from local farms and the school will use whatever happens to be in season at the time. She said a big goal was to expand the school’s salad bar, which has been hampered by the ongoing pandemic and safety guidelines that need to be followed.

“We do tastings for the kids for food that could be included in the lunch items,” said Miller. “We’re trying to increase their palate.”

To further reach the goal of providing locally grown food, the academy has its own greenhouse filled with herbs and other items used for cooking. As we walked along the rows inside the structure, you could really take in the great smells of herbs such as cilantro that were flourishing within. Miller said the greenhouse is not only used to grow ingredients that could be included in student meals, but it also served as a teaching space.

She said the school is able to thrive on and take advantage of its 10-acre campus because of donations and grants. Miller said her continued efforts in trying to expand the school and its curriculum are meant to keep students in the area once they graduate. She said she wanted to prepare her students for much-needed roles in the community, such as forest thinning projects meant to prevent wildfires in an area that is exceptionally at risk for devastating events.

“We need to have students who graduate and can stay and work in the area,” said Miller. “We want this school to enable kids to stay here.”

She said among the many challenges of living and attempting to educate in such a remote part of the county were transportation and getting good internet access available to students who, because of the ongoing pandemic, oftentimes don’t have the ability to utilize remote learning options available for those who live in more developed areas. She also said instead of snow days, the school has built-in smoke days in case neighboring wildfires present a significant health risk for students.

To help with growth, Miller pointed out that the school recently added portables to the campus that essentially doubled the amount of space for its students. 

“We’re always growing,” said Miller.

The Clover Cafe

The final and one of the more promising stops on our foothills tour was a visit to the not-yet-opened Clover Cafe.

This wonderfully decorated restaurant is the creation of owner Lynne Sanders, who came to the foothills after spending time in London and France as a chef. Just as with YES Charter Academy, Sanders wants Clover Cafe to be able to offer food based on what is in season and that can be locally sourced. 

After working since January 2020 to get the former three-bedroom house ready for the public, Sanders said she would like to open the Clover Cafe’s doors sometime around Valentine’s Day and have the restaurant serve patrons breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week. 

Even though Sanders may have a background in fine dining and cuisine, she said she wanted the cafe to not be “too sophisticated” and just wanted people to be able to stop in and grab a coffee if necessary. 

But don’t take that outlook as meaning the cafe will just be your average coffee shop or diner. The Clover Cafe is more than that. It’s the type of place you might find in bigger cities, but it has kept the charm of the foothills and embraced the idea that it, along with others in the area, can coincide with nature and bring that experience to visitors.

During our time at the cafe, we were introduced to local winemaker Grant Ramey. Together with his wife, he has been making wine in the foothills since 1986. They run Grant Marie Winery and produce a variety of wines such as cabernets and an exquisite grenache-syrah.

While some of the wines are sold at New Earth Market in Yuba City, Ramey said a lot of his wine sales also come via online and through lunches and events the winery periodically does at the vineyard. Before the onset of the COVID pandemic, Ramey said he used to sell a lot of wine for events put on by companies such as Google.

He said the climate and soil of the foothills was ideal for wine making. He credited the soil, rainfall and cool temperatures at night as being prime factors in developing the flavors found in his wine. He said the extremes in temperature help keep the fruit flavorful.

Ramey, along with the others we met on our tour, was just one of many personalities and interesting characters just waiting to be discovered by potential visitors to the foothills.

If Dambeck is able to get help from the county and bring more attention to the possibilities found here, then the area is primed to be an even more desirable tourist destination. Something the county, should it see the opportunity for, could really help make special and reverse a perception that the foothills is something for the reclusive. 

This area is beautiful, peaceful, and requires just a little push in the right direction to really take advantage of its natural ability to attract those who are willing to spend the money to experience what the foothills have to offer.