Ojai Magazine Winter 2022

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PALOMAR ROAD

Welcome to Palomar Farm: a lovingly restored mid-century farmhouse with a serene upper-Arbolada location where lavender & heirloom roses meet you at the drive. The park-like 1.5 acre natural setting dotted with majestic oaks & fenced flower gardens boasts an oversized pool, yoga platform, greenhouse & chicken coop. The heart of the sunny interior is undoubtedly the renovated kitchen with Carrera marble counters, farm-style sink, breakfast nook & 6-burner Thermador range, wood floors, vaulted ceilings, fireplace, French doors, skylights, Family & Formal Dining rooms, Office plus guest quarters complete the package. $2,139,000

624

SOUTH RICE ROAD

Need Space?? Check out this 5 bedroom, two-story country farmhouse on a sprawling 1.5 acres dotted with oak trees. 3,688 sq ft residence has vaulted ceilings, enormous country kitchen, 1st level primary bedroom and maids quarters. Extras include stunning pool/spa, workshop, covered RV parking plus 2 car garage. $1,875,000

205 PIRIE ROAD, #63

Enjoy one of the most private locations in the Hitching Post complex! Freshly painted one level 2 bedroom+ office with new carpet, vaulted ceilings, updated kitchen, two patios & easy garage access. With sunset views from the patio, shopping, restaurants, and the hospital just across the street, it’s difficult to imagine a more ideal and convenient lifestyle! $790,000

120 ALTO DRIVE, OAK VIEW

With 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths plus an office, this lushly landscaped, highly upgraded 1960’s VIEW home will delight ALL of your senses & appeal to your eco-minded sensibilities as well. Newer luxury windows & doors frame sweeping mountain & valley wide views, while the fresh interior upgrades include fabulous kitchen, updated baths, bamboo & cork floors, newer HVAC, solar panels, Tesla charger & newer roof. Relax in the privacy & serenity of rear yard with deck & meandering paths amongst the terraced grounds. $1,195,000

115 Fairview Road | Ojai Fairytale Romance | 2 Beds, 1 Bath | 1,286 SqFt | Listed at $2,150,000 ~ Sold for $2,300,000

This inviting, vintage-storybook property with its magical park-like 1.3-acre grounds is a dream. Set against a backdrop of vast Topa Topa mountains, this inspired residence offers the ultimate sense of relaxed country living in perfect harmony with natural beauty, situated perfectly in the middle of one of the most distinguished neighborhoods in Ojai. This adorable 1940 turnkey cottage, frozen in time, is infused with light and happy, calming vibes, epitomizing the California way of life!

901

|

with

Rustic Ranchette with legal ADU located in the highly desired Arbolada enclave on just under 1-acre, flooded with natural light and designed to integrate interior and exterior living seamlessly. This adorable cinder block home is centered around a sensational great room featuring a cozy fireplace, the quintessential ideal of a nostalgic hearth, taking you back in time when life was simpler and seemingly sweeter.

GABRIELA CESEÑA

| 3 Beds, 3 Baths | 2,134 SqFt | $2,300,000 REALTOR | Luxury Specialist Berkshire Hathaway Unwavering commitment to my clients’ satisfaction Driven by passion for the work I do

Rose Valley

Create an off-grid, country retreat on 40 acres with mountain views, trails, and a natural spring in Rose Valley in the Los Padres National Forest.

$1,200,000

Integrity, knowledge and experience you can trust

Magnolia Cottage

Remodeled three bedroom, three bathroom with large backyard, RV parking, fruit trees, enclosed carport, outdoor living areas, and mountain views close to bike trail, schools, shopping, restaurants.

963 Tico Road | $795,000

Ocean View Retreat

20 Acres with Mountain and Ocean Views, Gated Entry, Avocados, Citrus, Well, Two Water Storage Tanks, House Pad, and Parking Structure. $1,000,000

Roca Vista Ranch

Enjoy resort style living at this luxurious, private, 10-acre estate in Upper Ojai boasting gated entries, seven-bedroom main house with two guest wings and three fireplaces, pool house, swimming pool with beach entrance and wading pool, spa, gym, artist’s loft, lighted tennis court, horse facilities, outdoor kitchen with pizza oven, patio fireplace, family orchard, three car garage + two car garage, and spectacular mountain views.

$4,995,000 | www.RocaVistaRanch.com

Montana Sky

Montana Sky offers mountain views, room to spread out, and a perfect homebase for exploring the valley. From here, you can bike or walk to the village of Meiners Oaks or enjoy a leisurely bike ride or short drive to downtown Ojai. Interior features include remodeled kitchen with breakfast bar, formal and casual dining, stone fireplace, travertine floors and granite vanities in the bathrooms, and freshly installed carpet in bedrooms. Outside, there is a two-car garage, workshop, covered patio, and fruit trees.

487 Montana Circle | $1,539,000

Integrity, knowledge and experience you can trust

THE DAVIS GROUP

Nora Davis 805.207.6177 nora@ojaivalleyestates.com www.ojaivalleyestates.com 727 Ojai Avenue, Ojai CA 93023 DRE 01046067

EDITOR’S NOTE - 20

ART & CULTURE

149 Years and going strong

Over 149-years-old and more relevant than ever, denim fabric invented in France, came to be known for jeans because of Jacob Davis, a tailor and Levi Strauss, a manufacturer who created work pants in 1873. Their famous 501’s put them on the map. Hollywood romanticized them,Vogue gave their seal of approval in the 20s, James Dean and Marlon Brando wore them as their anti establishment look, followed by the 60s counterculture, moving right into the jet set trend from New York’s Studio 54 in the late 70s and early 80’s. A pair of jeans from the 1800s was pulled from an abandoned mineshaft in the American West and sold at a vintage auction for $76,000 on Oct. 1, 2022. Our fascination with this genre of clothing shows no signs of ebbing.

As casual, comfortable, and easy have become the buzz words of today’s fashion, denim is king. Internationally the choice of youth on every continent. Worn by businessmen, laborers, students, farmers, cowboys, artists alike, it is probably the most egalitarian fashion has ever entered mainstream.

Exploring the endless possibilities of denim, I have created tops soft to the hand that make interesting additions to a wardrobe — unique in their appearance. Two styles of shirts with attached vests, one style more body conscious and one less. A shirt jacket that can be worn over another garment or buttoned up as a looser easy shirt. A slightly fringed figure fitted shirt. A body shaped denim shirt. A very fitted vest and a vest longer in body and less fitted. Our entire collection of denim is manufactured in California and will arrive in our store, Barbara Bowman Boutique, 125 East Ojai Ave., Ojai. in Nov. 2022.

Visit our shop and take note of my unique necklaces along with our handbags. Come see our fall collection of Barbara Bowman shirting and jackets made from Japanese corduroy, flannel and cotton in Los Angeles. We are always there to greet you seven days a week from 11:30 to 4:30.

www.barbarabowman.online

Winter

As we breathe relief that election season is over, and enter the winter season with its holidays and New Year’s resolutions queuing up, it is common to search for ways to expand time, to try to relieve ourselves from the feeling of never enough. Without admitting it, we commit a tiny act of hubris when we try to buck the reality of nite time in our desperation to squeak out a bit more. Our dear helpful friends join us in our denial, suggesting we practice the ne art of “time management.” Yet time will not be managed. When we succeed at streamlining our tasks, the new space we create inevitably generates more to do. Our e ciency exponentially expands our busy life, and allows others to heap more on as we become known as a person who “gets things done.” e more we endeavor to save time, the more plugged into our hamster wheel we become.

Like a mad bargain with Time itself, we participate in the illusion of creating time in the future, in exchange for giving up time now. e trap is the perpetual state of giving up the quality of the present moment for a future when life will be easy — the fantasy of getting ahead.

One of my favorite of Shakespeare’s monologues is from Richard II. It endures because each of us is our own king, and it is our “vain conceit” to imagine we may be able to manage time — to escape our own mortality if only for one holiday season.

“ … within the hollow crown at rounds the mortal temples of a king Keeps Death his court, and there the antic sits, Sco ng his state and grinning at his pomp, Allowing him a breath, a little scene, To monarchize, be fear’d, and kill with looks, Infusing him with self and vain conceit, As if this esh which walls about our life, Were brass impregnable; and humor’d thus, Comes at the last and with a little pin Bores through his castle wall, and farewell king!”

e life-a rming lesson from Richard II is that the inevitability of death is that which makes every day we have to walk the earth valuable, and the choice of how we spend that time … precious. e challenge then is not to eke out more, but shed that which is not dearly worthwhile. What will you choose to do right now? You’ll discover two standouts related to these musings in this Winter issue:

Cover story Jon Bernthal takes a look at a star of the screen, taking his time to rest and restore in Ojai (page 24). Bernthal, like many, seeks work-life balance and nds time in the quiet Ojai life. Home birth is a topic we looked at (Winter 2021); home death is our next. Ojai’s death midwife o ers personal preference, and respect to death choices. Bringing death out of the shadows with an embrace for its part in life. Explore the face of mortality, as we open our eyes to Tending to Dying (page 72). Enjoy the gift of the present moment. Feast a little, right now; it’s your time for the spending, we at Ojai Magazine o er stories in full respect and value of your choice. With a ection,

EDITOR / PUBLISHER

Laura Rearwin Ward

ASSISTANT EDITOR

Karen Lindell

ART DIRECTOR

Paul Stanton

WRITERS

Karen Lindell Kerstin Kühn Perry Van Houten Kimberly Rivers Mimi Walker Holly Roberts Gregg Stewart Catherine Miller Steve Sprinkel Robin Goldstein

PRODUCTION SUPPORT

Georgia Schreiner, Tori Behar, Mimi Walker, Jessica Ciencin Henriquez

ADVERTISING

Linda Snider, director of sales

Catherine Miller, account executive Ally Mills, advertising assistant

CONTACT 805-646-1476 team@ojaivalleynews.com advertising@ojaivalleynews.com www.www.ojaivalleynews.com/magazine @ojaimag

Cover photo: Jon Bernthal, by G L Askew II, The Jude Group

1115 McNell Road, Ojai

The perfect Ojai retreat! This mid-century estate has been lovingly restored and updated with great attention to detail. The property is set on approximately an acre located in the East End of Ojai on McNell Road, which is shaded by a stunning canopy of Oak trees. There are gorgeous wood floors and cabinetry throughout the home along with a modernized fireplace in the living room and skylights. They also took advantage of the incredible views out to the property by creating more window space, raising the kitchen ceiling allowing for an abundance of natural light. There is a large kitchen with modern appliances, a pass-through window to the terrace, and a breakfast counter that opens up onto an outside patio area bringing the outside in! The guest bathroom is situated by a generous laundry area, with an ensuite in the primary bedroom and an additional bathroom outside the other two bedrooms. The pool area is an added bonus to this little paradise. Enjoy the private outdoors with views to the mountains, ample patio entertaining space and a charming rock wall entranceway that adds to the authentic East End vibe. This is a rare opportunity for new owners to create lasting memories together.

When Jon Bernthal takes on a role, he goes all in. From rigorous military training and periods of complete isolation in preparation for Marvel’s The Punisher, to intensive tennis coaching for sports biopic King Richard, and hanging out with maximum-security prisoners for crime thriller Shot Caller — whatever a character demands, Bernthal will give it everything. So when he read the leading part in Stephen Adly Guirgis’ stage adaptation of Dog Day Afternoon at the Ojai Playwrights Conference in August

and had just one hour to prepare, he was evidently thrown. “Man, I felt like 80% of the time I was just reading,” he says almost apologetically. Not that anybody noticed. In fact, his portrayal of Sonny Wojtowicz, the gay bank robber whose heist goes horribly wrong, was so full of intense energy and raw emotion, it had a packed Matilija Auditorium completely captivated.

It is this willingness to plunge deeply into character, and to give nothing less than 100% no matter what the circumstances,

that defines Bernthal. It also explains why he has become one of Hollywood’s most prolific actors. In the last 18 months alone, the 46-year-old starred in five movies, including the firefighting thriller Those Who Wish Me Dead with Angelina Jolie, The Sopranos prequel The Many Saints of Newark, the Sandra Bullock drama The Unforgivable, and Lena Dunham’s comedy Sharp Stick. And that’s just the big screen. On TV he committed himself fully to his portrayal of

Jon Bernthal

Jon Bernthal

in the HBO drama We Own This City (more on that later), and stripped down as Julian Kaye in the Showtime miniseries American Gigolo, a remake of the 1980s classic. He’s certainly been a busy man, but right now Bernthal is taking a break. And being home in Ojai, doing school runs, attending kids’ birthday parties, baseball games, and dinners with friends at his favorite local hangout, the Deer Lodge, almost makes him seem like an ordinary guy.

“In Ojai, I’m Henry, Billy, and Addie’s dad, and nothing else, and that’s exactly what I want to be when I come home,” he says, adding that moving here with his wife, Erin, in 2015 was the “best decision of their lives.” “There’s something about Ojai and

Ojai resident Jon Bernthal is one of Hollywood’s most proli c actors and just possibly one of its best. He speaks to Kerstin Kühn about how acting saved his life and why he loves living in Ojai

corrupt Baltimore cop Sgt. Wayne Jenkins

the people who are from here that is just so incredibly special,” he enthuses. “It’s a connection to the land, a kindness and pride in the community but at the same time a curiosity about people who aren’t from here. I feel so grateful to be able to return here after spending a lot of time away (on set) and it’s an amazing place for my kids to grow up in.”

Bernthal’s own upbringing is somewhat more checkered. While he was raised in an a uent suburb of Washington, D.C., as the son of a lawyer, and attended the ultra-prestigious Sidwell Friends School, he describes his younger self as a troublemaker who “made a lot of stupid mistakes.” The middle of three high-achieving brothers — his older brother Tom is now a CEO and married to Sheryl Sandberg, the recently retired COO of Facebook, while his younger brother Nicholas is an orthopedic oncologist and executive medical director at UCLA — Bernthal says he spent most of his adolescence without any aspirations at all. “For a long time I was lost, without any direction,” he admits. “I had no calling, and so my calling was trouble.” From risking expulsion at school to getting into street fights (his nose has been broken 14 times), and brushing up against the law, Bernthal insists his only saving grace was his family.

“I was a total mess, but unlike a lot of other people I knew, I had a family that loved me and never, ever gave up on me,” he says. “So many folks I knew didn’t have that kind of support system, and I saw their lives ruined because of it.”

Bernthal went on to Skidmore College in upstate New York, where he was “more interested in playing sports than anything else.” He continued to get himself into trouble and eventually dropped out. But it was here that his acting teacher, Alma Becker, saw something in him: “She put me in a play, and I fell in love with it. From then on I knew that this was it for me.” Wanting to steer him away from his unruly friends, Becker pushed her former student to go to Russia and study at the renowned Moscow Art Theatre, a move Bernthal credits with “saving [my] life.” Against all odds, the rigorous discipline and intense competitiveness of the theater school brought out the very best in the troubled young actor. “They saw 10,000 kids and took in 100. We had to do ballet, boxing, singing, and every semester they cut the class in half. It was very cutthroat,” he recalls. Yet there was a national appreciation and pride in the art of theater in Russia that Bernthal hadn’t experienced before,

and this completely changed him. “It wasn’t about getting a bus to L.A. and getting famous; it was a deep reverence and commitment to the theater, and it was such an incredibly vibrant scene,” he explains.

Bernthal returned to the U.S. and launched his own company in New York doing “super-raw, avant-garde theater,” which gained him a spot at Harvard’s Institute for Advanced Theater Training, but did little to further his career. “For about seven years, I really struggled,” he says, adding that there were long periods of time where he had no work at all and was supported by Erin, who paid the bills with her job as an ICU trauma nurse.

The turning point came in 2010, when Bernthal was cast for the leading

Venice Beach, which led him to knock the man unconscious. Bernthal was arrested and told that if the man didn’t wake up, he’d spend the rest of his life in prison. “That was the moment I realized I had to change, and the world really came back and rewarded that change in me,” he says. He married Erin and had his first son, Henry, while filming The Walking Dead, and over the next decade landed role after role in some of Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters starring alongside A-listers such as Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf of Wall Street), Brad Pitt (Fury), Ben A eck (The Accountant), Liam Neeson (Widows), Matt Damon and Christian Bale (Ford v Ferrari), Will Smith (King Richard), and the late Ray Liotta (The Many Saints of Newark). “I went 10 years straight without stopping, moving from set to set to set,” he says.

Known for playing tough guys and bruisers, Bernthal immerses himself in his characters, a method clearly rooted in his classical training in Russia. But he also credits his upbringing, his own troubles with the law, as well as his parents’ decision to take foster children into their family home, with teaching him to find humanity in everyone. “My mom had this incredible ability to see the light in all of

these kids, and I was raised with this cogent understanding that there’s beauty within everyone, and that has deeply influenced me,” he explains. “It taught me to understand that we’re all human beings, we all want the best for our kids, we all have fears and insecurities, and there’s light in everyone. This understanding allows me to really dig in and ask the questions: What does this character feel, what are their fears, their hopes, their desires, their disappointments, tragedies, and triumphs?”

It was perhaps his portrayal of Sgt. Jenkins in We Own This City that has garnered Bernthal the most attention. Created by the team behind The Wire, the series focuses on a group of corrupt Baltimore police o cers from the city’s Gun Trace Task Force in one of the most infamous policing scandals in recent history. Jenkins, the leader of the group, was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Bernthal says taking on this role was an absolute no-brainer for him. “Race and policing have defined so much of my upbringing and what I care about, so [this role] ticked so many di erent boxes, not just in terms of the subject matter but also the people I wanted to work with. It allowed me to really work the way I want to work and that is to go all in.”

The actor spent three months prior to filming visiting Jenkins in prison, and embedding himself in the Baltimore police department, learning everything he could about

the former cop from his ex-colleagues, and going on nightly patrols, joining drug busts and gun raids. “I went there as an artist, and came with respect and without judgment, wanting to tell one of the darkest chapters of the Baltimore police force, and they gave me all the access I wanted,” he says. “I was able to dive in in the way that I want to dive in, going to places I couldn’t even believe I was able to go, which was such an honor. And that ability to immerse myself in a job is now a major criterion [when choosing work].”

Bernthal’s cagey about what’s next and declines to comment on industry rumors about the return of The Punisher and The Accountant. But he insists that his decision to take a break is giving him the space he needs to think about the future. “I know I need to be inspired by the people I work with and also be challenged by them. I know I need to only work on projects that are deeply personal either to me or to the person making it. I don’t want to be in commerce-based art, I know I can’t do that,” he says. “The amazing thing is I now have choices, and that is an incredible blessing.”

Left to right: At the Ojai Playwrights Conference Photo: Peggy Ryan.

Sgt. Jenkins in We Own This City (HBO). Ford Motor company executive Lee Iacocca in Ford v Ferrari (2Oth Century Fox)

Playing Rick Macci in King Richard (Warner Bros.)

Building a local regenerative food web

LayingOjaidown roots

ORIGIN STORY

Ojai Roots is a regenerative, no-till, multifarm food system project that began in an urban garden in a small backyard in Los Angeles, while Evan Graham Arango attended law school. He graduated to his parents’ 30-acre Ojai property in 2018, where he converted an acre — a dilapidated residential golf course — and evolved it into a highly diversified, well-organized farm and community-centered business. The small area now produces enough food to supply many local restaurants, deliver 150 weekly residential CSA food boxes, stock his local farmers’ market booth, and make appearances in several local markets. Evan carried forward the skills he learned from small-space farming, by maximizing square footage by growing vertically and trellising plants. All this success has inspired Evan to begin a new challenge — “Ojai Roots 2.0” — that includes a 100-acre parcel of rangeland he recently acquired and moved into by Ojai’s Lake Casitas.

When Ojai Magazine writer Jessica Ciencin Henriquez and I interviewed Evan on his

tidy, city water-fed Ojai farm in early 2021, he explained: “My farm is smaller than a lot of farms in Ojai…. People ask me, how big is your farm, and I never really know what they’re asking. Is it the acreage or is it revenue, or is it the production? Is it the number of employees or the number of people we feed, or the number of customers we have? Acreage-wise, it’s extremely small; it’s just a little more than an acre, but it’s super-e cient.”

In the first years of Ojai Roots–in his vegetable garden below a 6-acre avocado orchard nestled amongst the beautiful oak and eucalyptus trees of an Ojai neighborhood called the Arbolada–Evan focused on learning how to farm regeneratively. His team experimented with di erent plant varieties, planting dates, composting strategies, etc., trying to figure out what worked best in the climate and how to integrate production methods with the philosophy of low-impact sustainable organic farming. Evan explained that Ojai Roots originally aimed to produce food for neighbors and family at the onset of the

Promoting sustainable and resilient local food systems that reconnect people with the food they eat, Ojai Roots is part of the growing movement of regenerative farmers producing healthy food in ways that heal and improve our soils and the environment.

Covid pandemic, and to make the space physically inviting, peaceful, and quiet.

“There are a lot of di erent ways to go about farming,” Evan said when we asked about his philosophy. “I never learned how to be a farmer. I’ve never been trained, and it shows in the way I farm. There’s no tractor involved at all, no tilling. If you ask some of the older farmers, they’ll tell you this doesn’t work and that doesn’t work, and you can’t use that much compost and … I don’t know. I just do it and the results speak for themselves.”

By 2021, Evan had built a farm business with e cient wash/dunk stations and cold storage. We asked him about his greatest challenge. “My biggest struggle with farming from day one has been distribution; it hasn’t been production. I’ve been really

Above right: John Fonteyn

Left: Farm to table dinner hosted

hamstrung by our distribution issues. I could produce and sell a lot more food than I do; I really want to,” said Evan. “I think of the farm as the faucet, and distribution is the drain, and I’m always trying to match it so the sink doesn’t get too full. I have a lot of di erent ways of doing that: changing crops, and using some that store for a long time so they don’t have to come out and they’re not super perishable. It’s a long, complicated dance.”

THE PARTNERSHIP

Evan began working closely with longtime, and well-connected, local farmer John Fonteyn, owner of Rio Gozo Farm. John had developed a mastery of the complex logistics involved in getting freshly grown, and often highly perishable, products to eager customers. These logistics included organizing weekly availability lists, communicating with chefs, creating delivery routes and timelines, developing cold storage, and more. It became increasingly clear that by joining forces

with Rio Gozo, Ojai Roots could more e ectively operate, accomplish a far greater depth of o erings, and on a wider scale, than either business could accomplish on its own.

In August 2022 they formally joined forces, with John as Ojai Roots farm manager under the Ojai Roots flag. “Ojai is the perfect setting for our mission to position our hometown as a pioneering, innovative, forward-thinking demonstration of a robust local food system. It can be a showcase for how sustainable local agriculture can be when coupled with intelligent local and regional distribution systems,” said Evan of the new partnership.

John, who runs Roots’ production, sales, and distribution, said farmers in general can be isolated in their own islands, not tending to talk to each other about what they are growing or how they are doing. And there can be a disruption in the community when they try to sell to the same clients.

Ojai Roots’ operation includes microgrowers to help bring their food to market. “Roots produces the majority of what we distribute, but it also acts as a portal for other smaller growers,” John explained.

On a tour of the Ojai Roots city farm, Evan dug his hands into the earth and held up a large dark clump with pride. Ojai Magazine asked Evan about his farming principles:

“We are educators, innovators, and proud stewards of our land.”

On no-till soil: “I’m farming biologically. Rather than giving the plants fertilizer, I’m thinking about feeding the life in my soil. I’m thinking about the worms; they’re in every single scoop of soil on the farm. They’ve evolved over a very long period of time to do their job, which is to decompose organic material like leaves and straw and animal manure. They take the carbon and nitrogen inside … and turn it into a form available for plant roots that they can uptake — that’s water soluble….

“Bringing machinery and tractors through soil like this, it would kill the worms. And they play an important role. The more you damage the biology in the soil, the more you have to rely on things like fertilizers. In some ways, you’re giving yourself these problems that you have to try and fix all the time. Another problem with tilling is that it makes the soil completely bare and brings up a lot of weed seeds that are sometimes buried, and gives them the opportunity to sprout. So, tilling creates a lot of weeds.”

The growing style at Ojai Roots is centered on respecting and building healthy soil, Evan explained: “We disturb our soil as little as possible, keep our soil covered, and plant densely. Through these practices, we minimize water consumption, e ectively control weeds, and create a healthy habitat for critical soil organisms.”

Big Red Beets are one of the signature Ojai roots that benefit from the approach to no-till farming.

On staff and volunteers: “The number of people working here depends on the season and … on how much money we’re trying to make at the time. Pretty much, there’s between one to three people … working here.

“While there is value in educating people who want to learn about this, I don’t use volunteers because it’s hard to find people who will commit. A lot of people ask to come work on the farm because they think it’s going to be enjoyable, relaxing, fun; it’s not. It’s hot and you’re getting sunburned, and you need to pack these boxes in time … It’s really hard work. You should be getting paid for your hard work.”

The core team includes Evan, John and Reiana Ongelengco—her roles are everything from packing boxes to creative director. Everyone gets their hands into the soil.

On farming space: pretty close together; we’ll usually have more than one crop growing in a bed at the same time. For example, we’ll plant things that grow a little slower and take a little longer, like celery or kale, and then in the middle space between them, we’ll plant quicker-growing plants like lettuce.”

On compost: “We build soil fertility rather than fertilize plants. Our compost heaps are the heart of this process. Here, the carbonand nitrogen-rich organic matter from our farm undergoes nature’s decomposition process, turning ingredients like grass clippings, leaves, wood chips, and animal manure into a fertile habitat for plant roots. Plants grown in this way are healthy, happy, and naturally resistant to pests and diseases. “Using compost and putting it on top of soil will smother out the weeds, so it has a very practical benefit. If you look around my farm you’ll see how few weeds we have. You get paid to plant and harvest. You don’t get paid to pull weeds out. Pulling weeds is truly a waste of time. We don’t use or need any herbicides to manage the plants. The most solid defense to pests is having a really healthy soil. The healthier your soil is, the quicker your plants will go, the stronger they’ll be, and it’s really weak plants that attract pests. Just like weeds, pests also have a function: to decompose dead or dying plants. Nature doesn’t want you to have huge acres of the same crop; that’s going to cause problems. If you look around our farm, there’s tons of variation and di erent types of plants, and some of them might host the good beneficial insects that might live on the other plants right next door to it.”

On seeds: “We save seeds for sure, but with some of the varieties that I grow, it’s very di cult to save good quality seed for it. And some of the things we grow are hybrid varieties (it’s not GMO), but they take the pollen from one parent and mix it with the flower of another because they can be a lot more reliable and steadier. I strongly support open pollinated seed.”

On choosing crops: “You have to grow what you can sell. It depends on the season, the chefs, the demand, and the space we have available for it at the time. I really consider the in-town property to be an urban farm. This is in the neighborhood, in the Arbolada, on city water. One thing I know is that you don’t have to have so many acres to have a productive farm. Most farms have the issues that they do because they’re too big. The reason this farm looks so tidy is because we utilize every inch of usable land. We can fit almost 2,000 lettuce heads in just one block.”

Evan also uses his cover crops and has found a customer base interested in nontraditional o erings.

PRESENT AND FUTURE

At the end of 2022, Ojai Roots 2.0 follows a new vision. The farm has taken up a 100acre challenge to create its magic on what is currently uncultivated pasture land at a Casitas Lake front property, and includes a connection to Evans’ family’s Paso Robles farm that produces wine and olive oil. Their modern farm re-envisions a robust local food system. Their mission extends beyond producing the healthiest, highestquality products. wre-envisioning the local food system,” said Evan. “Ojai Roots is an ecologically focused farm. Its work is aimed at creating a regenerative food system that addresses many of the environmental, social, and public health problems present in traditional food production and distribution.”

The Ojai local food scene is a “salon e ort,” said John. “We’ve gotten to know so many people. We work a lot with institutional kitchens like El Encanto and the Ojai Valley Inn, but we also feed people whose names we know and run into at the gym. It’s inspiring because I didn’t realize … it’s not just about growing amazing food and doing it in a technical way; it’s more of an intimate relationship. Seeing the people you feed. I didn’t realize it was something I was missing. You can really nerd out with the chef in a detailed way about fennel, for example, and that’s really fun, but sharing the mutual joy of something that is simple and sustains you ….

“It’s important to remember that human beings all started cultivating food around the same time, around 10,000 to 15,000 years ago … in five spots on the earth. It’s common and it’s simple and it’s complicated. It’s the moon in the dewdrop consideration — the majesty and smallness.”

John explained how the Ojai Roots CSA residential flexible farm box delivery program works: rather than locking customers into a big commitment, they get a weekly text asking, “Hungry this week, are you around? The rest of life is so complicated, your fresh food shouldn’t be a hassle.”

John expressed his deep connection to the bounty of the earth and the people it sustains: “Farm production is like science and yoga — you can never master it. It’s still a magical, inspiring thing that you put a seed in the ground and it becomes this thing you consume. You turn it into love, laughter, dreams … it fuels unquantifiable aspects of your life.”

Today, Evan operates on three primary properties with the same original goal of feeding our community and family — “it’s just that now we have a larger family and community to feed.”

Become part of the Ojai Valley’s food web: Ojai Roots Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) box for delivery.

Sign up: www.ojairoots.com/products/farm-box

3BD

UPPER OJAI ESTATE

UPPER OJAI SANCTUARY

Tarra’s Tale

–Bill Murray

To say that Tarra just walked into Carol Buckley’s life would be entirely accurate.

In 1975, Buckley, a student at Moorpark College’s Exotic Animal Training program, was doing homework at her tiny Simi Valley rental home, when her dog started barking. She looked up and saw a little elephant being walked down the street.

The Asian elephant named Fluffy was a promotional mascot for Bob’s Tire Center, about a block from Buckley’s house.

She talked store owner Bob Nance into letting her care for and begin training the 6-month-old, 800-pound pachyderm she would purchase a year later and take on the road, performing at theme parks and circuses, on television and in the movies.

Living together in Matilija Canyon, north of

Ojai, during the 1980s, Buckley taught the elephant she renamed Tarra to roller skate.

But Tarra’s skating days didn’t last long, as Buckley grew tired of the flak she was drawing from animal rights activists.

“Ojai is so proud of its roller skating elephant,” Buckley said. “But the rest of the world thinks it’s horrendous and that I’m some kind of cruel, cruel person for ‘forcing’ this elephant to be on roller skates. But anybody who saw her on roller skates went, ‘oh, look at how much fun she’s having.’”

Intending to retire Tarra from show business, in 1995 Buckley bought a 112-acre farm in Hohenwald, Tennessee and founded The Elephant Sanctuary, which rescued and retired 24 elephants over the course of 15 years.

But a hostile takeover by the board in 2010

An expansion of “Reunited at Last; Ojai’s Roller-Skating Elephant Tarra and Carol Buckley,” firstplace winner of the 2021 California Journalism Awards print contest — profile story.

forced Buckley out and took her elephant away. After an 11-year custody battle that went all the way to the Tennessee Supreme Court, Buckley and Tarra were reunited for good.

Buckley brought Tarra to Attapulgus, Georgia, where in 2009 she had founded nonprofit Elephant Aid International and a new sanctuary, Elephant Refuge North America.

Tarra found Bo, another retired circus elephant, waiting for her and the two became friends from the moment they met.

Left: Tarra, Bella and Carol in 2009 in Hohenwald, Tennessee.

Below: 10-year-old Tarra in her transport trailer.

“They say an elephant never forgets. What they don’t tell you is, you never forget an elephant.”

PERRY VAN HOUTEN

In May 2022, a gate at ERNA was opened, expanding the elephants’ room to roam from 100 to 750 acres of natural habitat.

Tarra was in her element, according to Buckley. “She’s so accustomed to having a huge space and the freedom to just wander wherever she wants to. She’s very curious and she’s always all over the land,” she said. But Bo had spent his entire life center stage, including headlining at Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, and never had the freedom to wander a big piece of land. “It took him a little more time to figure out, oh, you mean I can just keep walking?”

Buckley said. “It’s been such a joy to watch him reclaim his ‘elephantness.’”

Left: Carol, Tarra and Ace escape the Wheeler Fire

Top right: Tarra and Carol at home in Ojai

Bottom right: Carol and 2-year-old Tarra at Bob’s Tire Center, Simi Valley

One would think that giving elephants all this physical freedom and the autonomy to make their own choices would cause them to revert to acting wild, Buckley said. “They are wild animals, but they don’t get out of control when you give them all this freedom. They even get calmer and more cooperative, and part of it is they know they have a choice,” she explained.

And Tarra and Bo’s relationship continues to evolve, which surprised Buckley. “I did not expect her to become really close with Bo, because that has not been her pattern in her lifetime,” she said.

In the past, Tarra had spent some time with other elephants, but had mostly kept to herself. “And that is not the case with Bo. She likes him. She likes to get his attention, and there are hours in every day that they are together,” Buckley said. “It’s an improvement for her psychological and emotional health, that she has found an elephant that she likes to hang out with.”

But Bo is not quite comfortable yet with going deep into the habitat. So every day

Tarra will go on an excursion on her own and then return to wherever Bo has wandered to. The pair spend the nighttime hours together.

Buckley knows this because she does a nightly feed at around 10 or 11 p.m., and the elephants are usually together. They’re also together at the morning feed. “So that tells me that they pretty much spend the overnight hours together,” she said.

As for a typical day at the Refuge, there are two worlds, according to Buckley. There’s the elephant world — “a fairly loose, very casual routine, and they dictate it all because they go wherever they want to go,” she said. Tarra roams at least 10 miles each day.

The other world is the human activity.

“It’s like running a farm, so there’s always something going on from the caregiver’s side,” Buckley said.

There’s food that needs to be prepared, grounds that need to be maintained and equipment that needs to be repaired.

Below:

Photo:

Three times a week, volunteers arrive with produce from grocery stores the Refuge contracts with.

Recently, Buckley has been installing fiber optic cables and additional cameras for ERNA’s EleCam system, high-definition cameras strategically located throughout the wild habitat. They even have night vision so Tarra and Bo can be tracked after dark. The EleCam project is being funded by donations and video from the cameras will be streamed live on the Refuge’s website.

According to Buckley, plans are afoot to bring as many as four additional elephants to ERNA. “But there’s not an urgency, because I want to make sure that these elephants are comfortable in their environment, that they know their environment, that they know each other really well, before we bring in the next ones,” she said.

Before that happens, Buckley will need to build another barn for the elephants, “because, as it is, with Bo being so huge, we’ve lost barn space,” she said. (Bo is 10½ feet tall and weighs 12,000 pounds.)

Someone, somewhere, still has possession of Tarra’s old roller skates, said Buckley, who laughed when she remembered getting the skates made.

She got a local welder to fashion the skates, and she approached Cobblers Corner, a small boot shop in Meiners Oaks, to see about making Tarra’s boots. The shop’s owner, Russ Baggerly, goggled at her upon hearing the idea.

So Buckley invited Baggerly to meet Tarra. “He came up to meet her, and before he left he had measured her for boots,” she said.

Another fond memory from Carol and Tarra’s Matilija Canyon days was crossing Maricopa Highway to Matilija Canyon Road, for playtime at Matilija Lake. “We would do this mad dash, because I’d have two goats, a couple of dogs, Tarra, and we also had a horse. Everybody was off-leash, and we’d stand there on the edge of the road and I’d go, ‘1-2-3, RUN!’” she said.

In July 1985, Buckley evacuated her animals, including Tarra, from the arsoncaused Wheeler Fire, which consumed 120,000 acres and took 15 days to tame.

Above: “He came up to meet her, and before he left, he had measured her for boots.”

Photo: Pat Baggerly

Top right: Tarra and Carol, the best of friends

Bottom right: Bo and Tarra

The day the blaze erupted, Buckley was driving to the Santa Barbara Zoo for a meeting about Tarra giving elephant rides at the zoo. When she got to Meiners Oaks, there was a police officer blocking Maricopa Highway, going up the canyon.

That’s when she looked to her right and saw the fire. “I actually spun around to go back up the canyon and he stopped me. I said my elephant is up there. I have to go there. He had my driver’s license in his hand and it showed my address,” Buckley said.

But the officer’s face showed he wasn’t buying Buckley’s elephant announcement. “He tried to grab my keys out of the

ignition, so I pushed his hand out of the way and I drove off,” she said.

Arriving home to evacuate her menagerie, Buckley remembered to her dismay that Tarra’s trailer was in Ventura being painted, so she had no choice but to walk Tarra and Ace, one of her dogs, down Maricopa Highway into town.

When they got to Meiners Oaks, Buckley said, “the policeman is there and he just looks at me, and I’ve got an elephant with me, and he walks over and gives me my driver’s license.”

To learn more about ERNA and to donate, visit www.elephantaidinternational.org

555 Camino Cielo $3,899,000

Transport yourself to another world... a world of full moons and waterfalls, aromatic orange blossoms and papaya. Where every morning is a treat to the senses in a micro-climate that’s cooler than the valley yet never freezes. This 23acre biodynamic farm with 3,211 sq. ft. home is just 5 miles from the center of downtown Ojai but a world away from the city. Come sense the magic.

309 N. Montgomery Street $1,449,000

This serene compound is tucked away behind a gate down a long driveway in downtown Ojai. The vintage cottage shaded by ancient oaks, o ers 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, and lots of unique details. Walk outside to the separate o ce/yoga/art studio to pursue your inspiration, or stroll across the droughttolerant entertainment area to the second unit with kitchen, wood stove, and 1/2 bath with private outdoor shower. Zoned Commercial and use is currently Residential.

HIDEAWAY

Thacher Road

Annual Lease, $9500/mo.

This is your fully furnished dream Ojai hideaway in the woods on prestigious Thacher Road. All the charm of a rustic cottage with the modern updates you’ll appreciate... a well-planned cook’s kitchen with newer appliances, updated baths, plenty of room inside and out to relax, meditate, and exhale. This 2-bedroom/2bath 1600 sq. ft. home o ers a cozy stone fireplace, central heat and air, and a comfortable reading nook with a trundle bed for unexpected guests.

TO THE Snow

Of course, wherever you go in winter weather, make sure you and your vehicle are prepared for conditions, check the latest road report and weather forecast, and tell someone where you’re headed. Trekking poles are recommended on tread that can be muddy, snowy, and icy.

CHORRO GRANDE TRAIL (23W05)

The 5.5-mile Chorro Grande Trail is one of the only options for wanderers wishing to trek to Pine Mountain Ridge for a day in the snow, since the paved road to the ridge is closed during winter. The drive to the trailhead takes you far up Highway 33, past Wheeler Gorge, Rose Valley, and Sespe Gorge, to Mile Marker 36.6.

The trail passes through three distinct zones — along a shady creek past huge rock formations, through low chaparral on a boulder-strewn hillside, and finally into a conifer forest.

Before the 2-mile mark you reach Oak Camp, and from there the trail puts the “chore” in Chorro Grande, as you climb numerous switchbacks through rocky terrain.

SISAR CANYON ROAD (4N15)

Eight-mile-long Sisar Canyon Road gains more than 3,000 feet on its way to Nordho Ridge, at about 5,000 feet elevation, where snow is not unusual during winter weather. About 3 miles up the road, the White LedgeRed Reef Trail (21W08) splits from the fire road and makes for a strenuous, alternative route to the ridge.

Approximately 1 mile up this trail you pass through White Ledge Camp, set beside a stream beneath a thick canopy of laurel trees. It’s a steep 1.7-mile climb from the camp to the ridge road.

The trail starts at the top of Sisar Road in Upper Ojai. A locked gate 0.25 miles south of the trailhead now blocks direct vehicle access to the old parking area, and parking at the end of the road is limited, so you may want to park along the shoulder of Highway 150, adjacent to Rock Tree Sky. Just don’t park on school grounds.

HORN CANYON TRAIL (22W08)

This 5-mile trail can put you in snowscape whenever the snow level drops to 5,000 feet or so. Roughly 1,800 feet of elevation gain is involved for a hike that should take about five hours to complete.

There are four creek crossings very early in the hike, so be prepared for some rock hopping and possible wet boots. At about the 2.5-mile mark, the trail passes through The Pines Camp, where a grove of Coulter pines stood for decades. Most of the drought-stricken, bark beetle-infested trees were removed in 2015-16. What was left burned in the 2017 Thomas Fire.

Access to the Horn Canyon Trail has changed recently. No longer do hikers need to drive through The Thacher School campus. A connector trail to the main access point starts on McAndrew Road, just north of Lupine Lane.

Park on the shoulder and follow the signs.

Another 2 miles and you arrive at Chorro Springs Camp, where a spring trickles forth from beneath an enormous sandstone boulder.

The remainder of the hike is done beneath pines and firs, and deposits you on Reyes Peak Road (aka Pine Mountain Road), elevation 7,100 feet.

Grounded IN Nature

“you feel love’s presence in nature,” christine morehart reminds me as we roam through her ojai orange grove under late-summer blue skies. moorea morehart stands close by, smiling at her mother, her white prairie dress billowing on the afternoon breeze. the two women are part of a growing and essential environmental movement — a return to authenticity for natural materials in interior living spaces.

Their journey to work with nature and carry on ancient traditions was, not surprisingly, inspired by messages from nature. Christine, a gifted artist, had been experiencing health concerns from the toxicity of the paints she was using, so much so that she believed she might have to quit painting. A few years back, while visiting Goleta Beach, she noticed her daughter staring at the rocks. “When Moorea gets focused, I watch. We’ve spent a lot of time in the wild and she has this remarkable sense for natural beauty.” They collected malleable pink rocks that Moorea had discovered and charcoal from a beach bonfire. “We powdered it all, and it took me a while to find a technique to work with it, but once I found a medium, it was magic.

That charcoal is now my favorite color.”

Painting with foraged materials led to Christine’s desire to change consciousness around how we make art. “I let nature be my colors. It’s a lot more work — collecting, grinding, and mixing — but you feel connected. Now, every painting I sell, I give a percentage to organizations I believe in, like Wildlife SOS.”

Learn more at www.wildlifesos.org.

Christine’s paintings, with names like “Center” and “Blessed,” are infused with the dynamic energy of the earth. “There is a huge part of nature that we feel but cannot see. It’s like gravity. We can’t see it, but it’s there,” Christine says.

Moorea likes to say she and Christine are “twin flames” and that her mother’s creativity always goes back to consciousness around nature. “That alchemy of color, this return to nature, and a passion for uplifting artisans, I definitely have to credit her instilling that in me.”

Moorea’s latest creative and entrepreneurial endeavor began in April 2021, when airlines canceled all flights out of Buenos Aires during Covid. Stranded for the next 12 days and unable to get back to Ojai, Moorea decided to drive to Salta, many hours to the north. The Salta region is one of the most biodiverse locales in

“With rugs made from microplastics, you are separating yourself from the earth when you step on them. All these synthetics and plastics and the things that are supposed to make life ‘easier’ and ‘cheaper’ — they’re not healthier and they’re not connected or grounded to the earth.”

“In every culture, from forest bathing in Japan to the writings of Whitman and Thoreau, when you return to nature, you are reminded of your wholeness. It’s why I love Ojai and taking long walks with my mom. It’s an oasis to find your center, especially at a time when so much is pulling us in different directions.” — Moorea Morehart

her days playing outdoors with gaucho children, learning to ride horses, and falling in love with the simple lives they led. “It’s deep in my blood,” she tells me, and I see it, like red cochineal dye, that bold symbol of freedom and independence.

Argentina. “You travel through a wide range of terrain to get there, from tropical cane fields through jungle cloud forests, over treeless Andes mountains that crest into a desert that looks like Morocco,” Moorea says. “It all happens in 15-minute intervals. It’s a wild, mind-blowing place.” It’s also world-renowned for textiles — rugs, hats, sweaters, blankets — all 100% wool hand-woven and hand-dyed by Indigenous artisans for centuries.

Moorea traveled with her father, who now lives in Patagonia, but whose California roots run deep. They drove, sometimes nine hours a day, hunting for the fantastic colors and weavings that make Salta unique … but they couldn’t find any. It was as if all the artisans had disappeared, and in a sense, they had. Over the previous year, tourism had ceased, and without an infrastructure to sell their beautiful creations, the artisans of Salta had stopped weaving. They weren’t even making new fajas, the vivid red sashes worn by gauchos. Artisans create the red dye used in the fajas with cochineal, a parasitic bug that infests local cacti. When you scrape the bugs o , they turn bright red. For the gauchos of Salta, this bright red color symbolizes freedom, independence, and the untamed north. “When you see the alchemy of people taking a bug o a plant to make these bright red dyes, and adding acid or alkaline to turn it orange or purple … it’s like magic,” Moorea says. Still, with no tourist trade, Indigenous artisans had moved on to other professions to provide for their families during the pandemic. The realization that this change could mean the end of an art form was too much for Moorea. She bought everything she could find — any way to support these artisans in this challenging time. “I was

standing on a mountain at 10,000 feet, thinking about what more I could do. I had an idea forming, and then six condors glided past with their enormous 10-foot wingspans. I felt like, ‘Why not?’ Why not take this leap?”

She would start an export business. If the people couldn’t get to the artisans, she would bring their ancestral work to the people. Upon her return to Buenos Aires, Moorea saw a sign on the street. She went to an internet café, searched the name on the sign, and discovered it was a Certified B corporation, meaning it works at the highest levels of social, economic, and environmental accountability to support, protect, and revitalize Argentina’s rich textiles culture. “It was like, DING! It clicked,” she says. They could help her with exporting to California. Within a few months, Moorea had launched PATRONA, named for Argentina’s female landholders and stewards of their estancias (estates). “The patrona is a female, in a position of power, who oversees and cares for the land and all who inhabit it. Introducing the world to the beautiful artisanry of Argentina is the most important thing to me. I have an infinite passion for it.”

We look at some PATRONA rugs, and the weaving, with its sacred geometry, is fascinating. Moorea tells me every shape has a meaning. The repeating diamond pattern, called ojo de perdiz (“eye of the partridge”), is a symbol of protection — perfect for wrapping yourself up on a cold night.

Moorea’s love for Argentina began many years ago when she visited her godfather’s ranch for three months each year. They lived o -grid with no electricity. She spent

“There is a magic there,” Moorea says. “They’re still riding horses, still weaving, still listening to the birdcalls, knowing which ones are migrating through and using that knowledge to forecast the weather.” Moorea and Christine see this ancestral connection to nature. They uplift it and bring it into our interior world. When you’re in a room with natural paintings and textiles, you sense how the light hits those pigments. It simultaneously energizes and grounds you. “We’ve gotten used to — and I’ve been guilty of this too — having machine-made textiles in our homes,” Moorea says. “With rugs made from microplastics, you are separating yourself from the earth when you step on them. All these synthetics and plastics and the things that are supposed to make life ‘easier’ and ‘cheaper’ — they’re not healthier and they’re not connected or grounded to the earth.”

I think about Moorea’s love of nature and her sighting of the six condors in flight, and ask her if she feels guided by nature in her day-to-day life. “In every culture, from forest bathing in Japan to the writings of Whitman and Thoreau, when you return to nature, you are reminded of your wholeness,” she says. “It’s why I love Ojai and taking long walks with my mom. It’s an oasis to find your center, especially at a time when so much is pulling us in di erent directions.”

The alchemy of color

For Moorea, her California roots provide her an “ancestral sense of place,” as she calls it. She is a ninth-generation Californian. Her ancestors traveled with the Spanish missionary Junípero Serra, who built many of the missions along California’s coast. “It’s a brutal history, but it is also who I am and where I came from,” Moorea says. “I am in the very rare position of being able to read what my ancestors were doing, seeing how they lived, and that is a gift.”

This appreciation of ancestry ties into PATRONA and the mission to provide textiles that accentuate the classic California-Spanish architecture of the Ojai and Santa Barbara regions. One of Moorea’s early Californian ancestors was the first to bring sheep to the state. I can’t help but notice the connection and the fact that she imports wool, and she laughs, noting again it’s “in the blood.”

Moorea is looking forward to her next visit to Argentina and taking Christine with her. She is grateful that, wherever she travels, her inspiration (and a small part of Argentina) remains alive and well in Ojai.

Visit Sanctum in Ojai, at 305 E. Ojai Ave. You can also find Moorea’s PATRONA textiles and Christine’s paintings on display, side-by-side, at Maraya Interior Design, 960 E. Ojai Ave., Ste. 106.

Let there be

If you were an early riser in Ojai on July Fourth, maybe you glimpsed the Ventura Brush Goats’ herd of 100 herbivores trot quickly through the golden, backlit Ojai Meadows Preserve, then along an empty Highway 33, past the topiary OJAI sign by Vons, wait calmly for the green tra c light, then continue down the Ojai Valley Bike Trail

On this crisp, clear morning, Ojai Valley resident Michael Leicht, founder of Ventura Brush Goats, calmly loped along at a steady pace in the lead with a handful of scrub branches, while his three full-time goatherds/shepherds and three herding dogs heckled and nipped at the herd to stay in line. Only once did a mother goat and her two kids make a run for it to the north side of Highway 33, to the not unwelcome surprise of a couple walking on the sidewalk, only to be guided back into the group by

the clever tuxedo border collie, Banjo.

On their way to a job in the foothills of the Topatopa Mountains, this particular herd drive made a stop at the Independence Day parade staging area to be marked as float entry #14, representing the Ojai Valley Fire Safe Council’s Community-Supported Grazing Program. Leicht, along with his co-workers and specialized herding dogs, herded the untethered goats and sheep along Ojai Avenue and through downtown, to the obvious delight and amazement of all in attendance.

Children and adults alike were simply absorbed in their sheer novelty and cuteness. Most parade-goers may not have registered the significance of these biomass feeders who naturally eat grasses and scrub (often invasive) and clear our urban/ wildland interfaces to prevent extreme wildfire events. They also contribute to the ecological restoration of native plants.

The goats began their workday at Oak Grove School, where they had munched around the entire 150-acre perimeter of the campus over the previous three weeks.

In 2019, Oak Grove’s campus planning committee was looking for environmentally friendly options to handle brush clearance. “We’re a small … private school. We got a quote from Michael Leicht, and shockingly, it was in line with what we would pay to have weed abatement done with traditional machinery,” said Jacqueline Valle, director of operations at Oak Grove. “So many people loved it; they were thrilled to see the goats here. For weeks before they arrived, I kept repeating to my family, ‘The goats are coming, the goats are coming!’”

After the parade, the Brush Goats herd continued north on Park Road, east on Grand Avenue, then north on Daly Road to graze dry grasses and brush, providing fire mitigation for another valley property.

Following his own family’s evacuation during the Thomas Fire, which started Dec. 4, 2017, and burned 281,893 acres in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties before it was contained, Leicht founded Ventura Brush Goats in spring 2018 to help prevent another large-scale wildfire in his community.

What started with two dairy goats is now a herd of 750 grazing sheep and goats

(one-third sheep and two-thirds goats) that work on both private and public lands in Malibu, Ventura, the Ojai Valley, and Santa Barbara.

Leicht credits some of his education to Ojai’s Poco Farm, run by Grace and Dan Malloy, where he volunteered and learned how to care for goats and sheep.

Next, Leicht met Matthew Shapero, UC Cooperative Extension’s livestock and range adviser for Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. Leicht learned from Shapero that the Thomas Fire would have been significantly worse if not for the thousands of grazing cattle in the mountains between Santa Paula, Ojai, and Ventura. “I saw pictures and heard testimonials from people whose houses were saved from being in proximity to these cattle ‘grazing’ ranches,” Leicht explained. Shapero and the Cooperative Extension o ered technical support to Leicht when he started his own grazing operation, with his (by that time) six goats.

According to Shapero, “grazing can be used for great ecological benefit.” He explained that grassland and shrubland systems are very di erent, and the grazing impact and fire behavior varies greatly between them.

“I think we need to support both largescale traditional grazing and smaller-scale, targeted grazing, maybe mostly with sheep and goats, but potentially also with cattle, Shapero said.

Programs like the Ojai Valley Fire Safe Council’s Community-Supported Grazing Program are important, he said, because grazing benefits the community as a whole even though private landowners foot the bill. Helping communities understand “that fire works on a landscape scale might make them willing to subsidize some of this work, because it benefits all, ultimately.”

The Ventura County Fire Department Fire plan (viewable at osfm.fire.ca.gov) defines defensible space as “the required space between a structure and the wildland area that, under normal conditions, creates a su cient bu er to slow or halt the spread of wildfire to a structure. It protects the home from igniting due to direct flame or radiant heat.”

As a former vegetable grower, Leicht knew rotational grazing had to be the foundation of the business. He explained that the

number of animals on a project (stocking density), number of head per acre, and the length of time grazing in each paddock (or designated area) was paramount to the success of each grazing project, whether for fire mitigation or ecological restoration. “The time of year for grazing is another factor that goes into how I’ve learned to calculate the impact that we’re going to have on the ecosystem,” he said.

Leicht has found the most success with rotational grazing for fire mitigation by implementing high stocking density per acre for a shorter duration, and by moving the herd into new designated paddock areas surrounded by the movable electric fencing every two to three days. Leicht also considers the climate and season for the area in which his herds graze, and how much rest the land needs between grazing. “Our goal is to introduce high animal impact in a short duration of time,” he explained.

Leicht said that because the animals eat the fuel (like leaf litter) and leave only fire-resistant pellets behind, their grazing/browsing is a very e ective way to mitigate wildfire. Their hooves also churn whatever organic matter is left into the topsoil, breaking it down more quickly to absorb more rainwater.

Land that can rapidly absorb water can prevent flash flooding, which is very important for watersheds. With short, heavy rain events increasing with climate change, the soil becomes saturated, and the amount of organic matter in it determines how much water is absorbed versus running o into creeks.

Ventura Brush Goats grazing projects usually begin in mid-March, targeting invasive species. During the summer, they are on fire mitigation. By grazing early in the reproductive season of the plants, the goats reset the vegetation back to zero, so seeds that would normally drop in May or June won’t drop until July or August, and subsequently, those plants will not become dry until the late fall, providing fuel mitigation for a longer time during the peak fire season.

Ventura Brush Goats works with a variety

of

associations. Loy Beardsmore, president of the Eucalyptus Hill Improvement Association in Santa Barbara, recently hired VBG to clear one of the neighborhood’s steep canyons consisting of 10 acres of brush. The association considered using hand crews, but found them “exorbitantly expensive. After talking with o cials from the Santa Barbara Fire Department, they felt that primarily goats would be more e ective in the second canyon because there was more brush than grasses.”

In July, Ventura Brush Goats brought a herd of approximately 200 goats and sheep to clear 10 acres of steep hillside terrain around Ojai Valley School’s Upper Campus. The school had lost several structures and outbuildings during the Thomas Fire and decided to bring in Ventura Brush Goats for fuel mitigation around the perimeter of the school where it is surrounded by chaparral and oak woodland.

Peter Clark, director of facilities, explained that the choice involved “the logistics of putting people on the steep slopes [and] the economic cost — goats were actually cheaper than a human workforce — but mainly it was the strong alignment to the school’s philosophy of embracing the outdoors as a learning experience and promoting sustainable solutions.”

He said faculty, sta , and students thought “it was such a great experience to have the goats on campus.”

Ventura Brush Goats tends to go from one grazing contract to the next, and often several herds are working on di erent projects in Ventura or Santa Barbara counties. Once the primary fire mitigation grazing season is over in October or November, the winter contracts begin for ecological restoration. Leicht also looks for a property with a good water source to keep the herd in preparation for kidding, which occurs from January to mid-February.

“A lot of land managers recognize the ecological benefit of rotational grazing, and it appears that we can achieve the most ecological benefit in the wintertime because our invasive grasses begin to germinate in January,” Leicht said.

Leicht is also involved in educating the community about the benefits of grazing, whether with other educators at local schools or through the Ojai Valley Fire Safe Council.

Kalli O’Connor, executive assistant with the council, said the organization received grant funding from CAL FIRE and o ers additional programs that aim to improve the safety of the community through fire education. According to O’Connor, the council is currently securing grant funding for more scientific research into the ecological benefits of grazing in large areas. The Community-Supported Grazing Program vision includes creating a local grazing program where, “ideally, we would create contiguous land, about 3,000 to 4,000 acres where they [grazing herd] can graze throughout the year.”

O’Connor continued: “We’re hoping to teach people about our unique ecology here … and the reality of the presence of fire we have in our lives now. We want to empower people to feel like they can do something about it, whether that be from hardening their homes, or even getting trained to be part

of the workforce of this program.”

Where will the goats go from here? Leicht would like to see Ventura Brush Goats and prescribed grazing used for fire fuel reduction among citrus groves and coastal chaparral in Ojai. “We’re not going to leave the animals in there long enough for them to damage the perennial chaparral species,” Leicht said. “In fact, they prefer the invasive annuals, so it works out almost perfectly. With precision, we can remove all of the undergrowth, invasive wild oats, brome grasses, thistles, and mustards within a half day’s accuracy before they begin impacting the chaparral community.”

So the next time you are out and about in your Ventura or Santa Barbara County community, and you happen to notice a herd of goats and sheep grazing under the watchful eyes of a Great Pyrenees or an Anatolian Shepherd, you should feel reassured that they are helping protect you from a large-scale wildland fire event.

e Ojai Trolley Service, established in 1989, is owned and operated by the City of Ojai. e Trolley provides daily xed-route transportation to approximately 9,000 riders per month throughout Ojai, Meiners Oaks and Mira Monte.

e Trolley is a well-known feature in the Ojai Valley, and in addition to the daily xed-route services, participates in many local community events, fund raising activities, community service, and educational functions. 408 South Signal Street, Ojai, CA 93024 Phone (805) 272 3883 • E-mail: transit@ojai.ca.gov

A

make choices. Staying in the moment is a simpler process.

“When someone dies, especially when it’s unexpected, they haven’t already wrapped their mind around the idea of all of the care” and steps needed, Marshall said. Most “are in fear and panic mode.” Particularly in cases of sudden death, “it can be useful to understand” that a family has time, and that you can “touch, clean, and be with the body.” Taking the time to pause can help family members “feel more like themselves when the body is moved because they’ve been present to say goodbye, instead of just being in action and panic mode.”

When things happen too quickly after death, loved ones don’t have a chance to integrate what’s just happened. By the time someone has integrated, the body is already gone and it can feel as though the chance is lost. For some people that’s fine, but others want that time to settle, breathe, and feel the goodbye. Scala said connecting to a past death is possible at any time, and those wanting to create that space can create an altar, set out photographs, or take other steps to recall and remember at any time, even years after a death occurs, to help the grief move through.

Are new approaches really new?

Just like each artist has a di erent paint stroke or method, every family has a di erent approach to death. Some of these ideas might seem di erent or new, but humans have moved away from death in recent centuries. Today, we avoid death and dying in our conversations and planning, and try to avoid it in our minds. When death does touch our lives, we use phrases to avoid the reality of it. “We don’t lean into that word; we soften it, and say ‘passed away’ or ‘we lost Grandma.’ We’re afraid to use the word,” said Scala. A focus of her time with families is diving into the experience of death — for the person dying and also for their loved ones.

Scala described a shift she noticed in the past couple of years related to the COVID-19 pandemic: “People were afraid to die. There was so much separation. People didn’t want to be alone. There was a global redefining; people also were actually using the words death and dying.” In realizing that they did not want to be alone, or that their loved ones did not want to be alone in death, people slowly began to start talking about what they did want.

“There are similarities and di erences in what people want in the process and act of dying,” Scala said. “Every death is unique. And we’re all gonna do it. That’s the crazy thing. We all know we’re going to complete these physical bodies one day on planet Earth. It’s interesting how we don’t believe that.” So much of addressing death is about fixing

the grief, getting through, getting back to work. “When we’re dying there is no fixing to be done,” Scala said. Rather, the work around dying, she suggests, should be about “weaving the tapestry together.

“Back in the day someone would know in their community that someone died. Someone would show up with food at the door, show up to help bathe. People were laid out in their own homes.” Death was accepted as a normal part of community life. While it was totally normal, “every death is also sacred. We mark and we pause in that moment.” At a home, things can naturally be slower. “At a care facility or hospital, yes, time is shorter.” But Scala said the bathing, tending, and “ritual” can still occur.

One keystone when a death midwife or death doula connects family to the dying process takes place when eating stops as death nears. “It is a very fragile time when food and water is ceased,” Scala said. “Feeding is an act of love.” She supports family members in finding other ways to show love and compassion. “What does compassionate touch look like?” Each person in the care circle, members of the same family, “every single person has a di erent vision and they meet death di erently. But they are weaving together to hold this person in a golden tapestry.”

The art of dying

There is a business of dying. “We have to have things in order.” But the art of dying relates to how the pieces are chosen, communicated, and considered. Music or silence. Singing or poetry. Sunlight or candlelight. Who do you want to bathe you? Making these decisions can bring “some ease in the heart.” Scala has seen that “the more we lean into death, grief looks di erent. Grief is wild. Grief is love and love is grief. There’s no di erence, because we love so much we forget it’s the same container.”

A death midwife and home-focused funeral director can provide the palette for a family or individual to cast onto the canvas of dying their wishes and needs, and provide a vessel to help move their grief on its journey through the body and psyche.

“We’re all going to know someone who is going to die. They may die in an accident really quickly, and how do we mark that? How do we place our hearts somewhere? How are we tending?” asks Scala. Deaths long past can also be tended to after the fact. Altars and rituals can occur years later to help tend to our response, processing, and grief.

“Some deaths,” Scala said, “are quick, and it’s hard to catch up to our hearts.”

Horse &

Horse &

andrea gaines has long had an affinity for animals, and yearned for a horse of her own growing up; her dad got her a motorcycle instead.

But that everlasting “resonance with the natural world” called Andrea and her husband George to the Ojai Valley once their children were grown. Their home: Smarty Pants Ranch, a sylvan sanctuary where short, winding paths symbolically lead to wider garden oases. Also housed here are Andrea’s two longed-for horses — Red, an 18-year-old Quarter Horse, and Flash, an 11-year-old Thoroughbred — who are the conduits at the ranch for visitors to experience equine-facilitated learning, which Andrea calls “Horse, Heart & Connection.”

Equine-facilitated learning is an o shoot of equine therapy in which participants can gain greater insight into themselves through experiencing and sharing space with the horses. They don’t ride the horses, but they can pet, sit, walk, run, play, and even lie down with the horses once their hearts and minds are primed to be present with them. Andrea facilitates this by walking visitors through an opening breathwork meditation and card-pulling from an equine-themed tarot deck, getting a sense of what they want to bring forth to maximize the experience while also gauging anxiety levels and lowering them to a comfortable setting. Then, the gates are opened, and interactions with Red and Flash begin. “That’s why we do the meditation in the

beginning, to quiet the chatter … so that the horses can feel our hearts,” Andrea says. “That’s where they’re resonating from, and so are we; we’re just not always aware of it.”

Andrea says the exercises help people “slowly soften and realize it’s safe here.” After spending some time “stilling the system” and feeling each horse’s energy, participants pick the horse they feel most attuned to, then head to the back playpen, which is wide open with room to roam, and beanbag balls for fun and letting loose. The horses circling the visitors “creates a container for a lot of things,” Andrea says. Walking to the bigger pen is also a lesson in both presence and asserting boundaries. Andrea says the walk is a practice in saying “no” to the horse “using you as a scratching post.”

Andrea further muses that, especially for women, “It’s really important for us to know where our inner ‘no’ is, to convey energy of a ‘no.’ We conflate ‘no’ with being rude. We conflate boundaries with being mean.” But the freedom to guide a horse with a “no” in a safe space, saying the word calmly and firmly, results in subtle-but-strong boundary conveyances, through looks, body language, and well-harnessed energy. What comes next from the horses in the playpen is all according to what the individual emanates.

“The greatest fulfillment,” Andrea explains, “does not come when individuals aim to ‘get’ something from the horse; it comes in from what they give to the horse. Sometimes [people] can’t always express their feelings, but the visceral touch and

feel of the large animal can evoke feelings … the presence of the animal can have people feeling ‘met,’ feeling seen. Horses are often somehow able to emotionally reflect and mirror people’s internal world. Every living being emanates an energetic field around it, even though we can’t see it, but it is felt by the natural world and the animals; that’s how they communicate.

“And we can use that: ‘Am I open or am I closed? Is this person good energy or bad energy?’ And we can use that sensitivity we all come with; we just don’t always tune in to the nonverbal world. The horses are teaching us embodiment — to feel out from the body, from the heart and the gut. They’re feeling from their being because they’re in their bodies. They’re embodied.”

Red and Flash have the ability to bring out unexpected facets of people — even Andrea’s experiences acquiring each horse brought out di erent sensations of that “gut feeling.”

When she first got Red, she thought she wanted “a tan horse … but when I got there to look at the tan horse, I saw Red, and then I saw his eyes. There’s something about his eyes that’s really soulful. You can tell he’s real sensitive.” When it comes to people dealing with grief, “sometimes he’ll just stand there with the person.”

With Flash, she says, “I was looking for a second horse, and it was sort of a strange intuitive thing where somehow I got drawn to a Craigslist ad at the bottom of the list … he’s eager, soft, kind, and loving, but also like a big kid.

“

e horse is a great equalizer, he doesn’t care how goodlooking you are, or how rich you are, or how powerful you are; he takes you for how you make him feel.”

— Buck Brannaman, horse trainer

CONNECTED

“The horses are super generous with their energy. They do respond so di erently to each individual, whether it’s touching the ball or lying down. Sometimes they might have a lot of energy. What does that evoke in you? That’s the only thing that matters. It’s not like there’s a universal meaning to every move they make.”

Andrea also o ers fill-in-the-blank thought prompts during the horse interaction, like, “Wouldn’t it be great if …” or “If I weren’t afraid, I’d …” She says: “I want us to think about who we want to be in the world. Anything’s possible when you start with the imagination.”

The groups and individuals who breeze through Smarty Pants Ranch’s gates range from children and teenagers with learning di erences and/or previous animal traumas, to adults in the throes of anxiety or heartbreak, to couples repairing broken bridges of communication, all the way to nonagenarians daring to dive into a new way of joy. Sessions usually last up to two hours, but “it’s horse time,” says Andrea, and the day flows according to what bubbles up in the person.

“It can be really cathartic.” The unpredictability of the work creates better acceptance of the nature of life, for both the volunteers and the instructor. “I feel like I teach what I need to learn, which is to keep staying in the moment, keep being generous with my

energy,” Andrea observes.

Sometimes, it’s not just horses that are involved: Snakes and hawks have shown up in moments when people are in their highest state of consciousness with the horse, often emblematic in some way of that person’s life. “Things show up for people. The natural world is here for us,” Andrea says.

Speaking to the overall equine-facilitated learning adventure people undergo, Andrea says: “I don’t ever know how people change, but I do think it has an impact on people’s lives. It’s definitely a touchstone.”

The ranch and her two stallions are Andrea’s greatest dream. Though her Chicago background started in software sales, it led to fitness and empowerment instruction for new mothers, life coaching, and corporate wellness. Every step led to the realization of her childhood dream. “I am feeling like I’m living my dream just to live in nature; it’s so peaceful here. I feel really lucky,” she says. “I love sharing the land, I love sharing the horses and showing they’re not just an object to ride, and that a lot can be established with a little bit of appreciation and space and time for connection. The horse is another way into personal growth and personal development, our wellness, creativity, and intuition.”

horseheartandconnection.com

Instagram: @horseheartandconnection

“.... the presence of the animal can have people feeling ‘met,’ feeling seen.”

People “slowly soften and realize it’s safe here.”

“... horses can feel our hearts., “that’s where they’re resonating from.”

Bread Mann

Claud Mann is one of Ojai’s most beloved foodies, whose long career has seen him work as a chef, restaurant consultant, TV cooking show host, food writer and publisher, and healthy school meals advocate. Now, his passion is sourdough bread, and as the co-owner of Ojai Rôtie, he’s in charge of baking hundreds of loaves each week, which are available at the restaurant as well as the Ojai Farmers’ Market on Sunday mornings. He speaks to Kühn about his lifelong love of feeding people and why sourdough bread is a pursuit not for the fainthearted.

Ojai Magazine: When did you first become interested in food?

Claud Mann: I grew up in Berkeley in the 1960s and 1970s, and at that time the American renaissance was taking place there. Even before Chez Panisse opened, people were approaching food, cooking, and ingredients in a very different way. The culinary scene in Berkeley and San Francisco was just phenomenal; there was so much variety and so many different cuisines. My mother had a feeling that I wouldn’t get married for a long time, so she decided to teach me how to cook. And my father, who was a well-known journalist in the area, knew a lot of restaurateurs and I always got the sense that inside the kitchen of a busy restaurant something special was happening. It was so much like a theater, and I just found that very exciting. I went to study at the California Culinary Academy, where I learned so much. Everything was based on French cooking, but because we were in San Francisco we’d also have a chef come in and teach us all about Chinese cooking for a month. It was an eye-opener for me in many ways.

How did you end up becoming the host of the TV show Dinner and a Movie?

I was working as an executive chef at a restaurant in downtown Los Angeles when my wife and I were expecting a baby. I don’t know a lot of successful chefs and restaurateurs who have great home lives — the business destroys families — so I made the decision to quit my job to be able to be with my family. My wife Perla is a grammy-nominated musician, who toured

the world, and we decided that we would always go together. I started a consultancy business, and then out of the blue I got a call from TBS. They had a very famous movie library and wanted to create a way of promoting the movies with a cooking show. So they would show the movies and break them up as usual, but instead of going into commercials, there’d be a cooking break, and every recipe would be loosely based on the movie. I worked with two comedians, and we did 900 episodes of the show over the course of 18 years, from 1995 to 2012. Rolling Stone called it one of the top 100 reasons to watch TV. It was a great gig for me because I would work for eight or nine days straight and then have eight or nine weeks off so I could be with my family. It eventually ran its course and then I went into kids’ health.

Tell us about your work with the Orfalea Foundation.

I had been on the board of Food for Thought [an organization founded to improve the nutritional status and food awareness of children in the Ojai Unified School District] and I got a call from the Orfalea Foundation asking if I wanted to help them create a curriculum teaching school cooks in Santa Barbara County how to prepare scratch-cooked meals for kids. It was like this job was custom-written for me. I did that for a few years during which time we got [to work with] every school district in the county. We did boot camps and trained all their cooks. It was the most gratifying job I’ve ever done.

So, how did you get into baking sourdough bread?

My brother-in-law has been an artisan baker on an island off the coast of Seattle for 40 years. I used to watch him bake, and it was so completely foreign to the

kind of baking I had seen both in culinary school and in the restaurants and hotels I had worked in, where baking bread was a two-hour process from start to finish. For my brother-in-law, it was a three-day process: The first day he’d make his levain, and then the next day he’d start mixing [it with flour], and then he’d bake on the third day. He’d built his own oven and fired it with wood he chopped every day, he’d carry water to the bakery, and to me this was the definition of intention around food. You’re in partnership with your ingredients and with nature, and it hit me that I wanted to learn how to bake like that. So for three years I made the ugliest, most horrible stuff you can imagine. It tasted good but was very inconsistent, and I realized that this was something I could pursue for the rest of my life and potentially never get exactly right. And that was very attractive to me. But eventually you did get it right, then started selling your sourdough loaves at the Ojai Farmers’ Market. I think I had got too big for my britches when I decided to do that. Anyone can make two loaves of bread, but when you’re making 100, it’s a huge physical challenge and I was doing it all by myself for the first 18 months. I would work all day Friday, all day Saturday, and start at 2 a.m. on Sundays to try to get my bread out for the market. There weren’t a lot of bakeries in Ojai at the time and none that was doing sourdough, so people responded really well, and I sold out each week. But eventually I realized that my process probably wasn’t the best. So I decided to go to the San Francisco Baking Institute (SFBI), where they have incredibly talented bakers, and I spent a few months there learning about grains and fermentation and the science involved in baking bread. Doing that really refilled my tank, and I was so motivated to go back to Ojai and make my process better.

How did you get involved with Ojai Rôtie?

After about two more years of me working on my bread, doing the market and building up a clientele, I got a call from my friend [Larry Nicola] who was selling his restaurant in Los Angeles asking me if I wanted to pair up on a restaurant in Ojai. The concept would be simple but impeccable rotisserie chicken, freshly baked organic sourdough bread, and well-chosen wines. I knew then that I had to put on my big boy pants because how do you bake bread every single day? So I had to build up a team, and one of the first people I hired in the bakery was a guy who had been doing production baking for many years. We worked side by side, just the two of us, for the first two years, and watching his production methods really gave me a second wind. I really believe that if you want to run a successful business you have to hire people who are better, stronger, and faster than you, and he was all of those things.

Sourdough bread is all about the starter. Tell us about yours. The first thing people usually ask about my starter is: “How old is it?” I actually had a starter that was over 20 years old, but when I went to the SFBI, on day one we made new starters. I brought mine back to Ojai and tossed out the old one because the new one was so much more alive and vibrant. It kind of frees you when you realize that you’re not reliant on an old starter; you can always do another one and it’s so easy. You start out with something like an organic whole dark rye flour and add equal weights of water (I use filtered water), and then the next day you pour most of it out and add more water and flour, and then you do that every day until, after about a week or so, it

starts to bubble and you’re ready to party. At the bakery we have 5-gallon tubs of starter, which equal about 20 kilograms [44 pounds] each, and we go through about five of those a day. The more starter you use in your bread, the more alive it is, so I tend to use a good amount.

How would you describe the taste of your bread?

I think when people hear the word sourdough, they often start to think about San Francisco sourdough, which is actually quite sour. But when you use a levain [starter], it’s a different taste as the naturally occurring acidity from long fermentation contributes to a more complex flavor. I would describe it as

pleasantly tart but not assertively sour.

What’s on your favorite sandwich?

I like very simple things. For the last 15 years, my wife and I have spent time in Spain every year and they do the pan con tomate, which I absolutely love. It’s that whole idea of intention. You take a piece of grilled bread and rub it with garlic while it’s still hot so that the oils from the garlic penetrate the bread, and then you thinly slice a beautiful tomato, drizzle a bit of fruity olive oil on top and sprinkle on some Maldon salt. It’s so simple, just essentially three ingredients, but it just blows my mind because it’s something I am never disappointed in.

www.ojairotie.com/order-bread

During holidays we satiate ourselves with the foods we had as children and made with our families year after year. A deep note of culture and custom mingles on one’s palate with the avors of the season.

Family and friends gathered around a festive table laden with delicious homemade foods is one of the most magical parts of the holiday season. To help you create unique, memorable and, best of all, stress-free holiday gettogethers, please share my favorite holiday cookies on your next holiday platter.

SWEET POTATO OLIVE OIL BISCOTTI

Ingredients

¼ cup olive oil

⅔ cup sugar

2 whole eggs

1 ½ cup all-purpose flour ½ cup whole-wheat flour ½ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder 1 ½ cup grated sweet potato ½ cup chopped pistachios

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

In a bowl, mix olive oil with sugar until smooth. Add the eggs and beat in well.

In another bowl, mix the flours, salt, and baking powder. Add the flour mixture to the olive oil mixture and mix well. Add grated sweet potato and pistachios and blend.

On a large pan lined with parchment, shape the dough into 3 logs. You can choose the size depending on how big you want your biscotti. The dough will be pretty soft and a bit sticky. Put some oil on your fingers and form the logs as well as you can.

Bake in the oven for about 30 to 40 minutes, until firm and golden. Remove from the oven and let them cool for about 15 minutes to be able to handle. Cut into ½-inch slices with a serrated knife.

Line the slices on the back close together. Put back in the oven and bake for another 12 to 15 minutes on each side, until they are crispy. Allow to cool completely. Separate into individual packages for gifting or store in an airtight container. Yields about 2 ½ dozen cookies.

POLENTA COOKIES

Ingredients

1½ cups polenta, or coarse cornmeal

1 cup all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon kosher salt

1½ sticks (12 tablespoons) unsalted butter

2/3 cup sugar

2 large eggs plus 1 large egg yolk

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup dried cherries, or dried cranberries

1 teaspoon crushed fennel seed

In a bowl, mix together the polenta, flour, baking powder, and salt.

In a mixer, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs and yolk one by one, then add the vanilla. Add the dry ingredients and mix until a firm dough forms. Add cherries, or cranberries, and fennel seed.

Divide the dough in half, place each piece onto a piece of parchment or wax paper, and shape the dough into a rough log about 2 inches in diameter, dusting with cornmeal as needed to prevent sticking. Roll up in the paper, twisting the ends to seal, and roll back and forth a few times to smooth out the shape. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour. (At this point, the dough can be frozen for up to 2 months.)

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper. With a sharp knife, cut the cookies into 1/2-inch slices, and place on the prepared cookie sheets about 2 inches apart. Bake, rotating halfway through, until cookies are just golden, 16 to 18 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

Yields 2 dozen cookies.

Casoni says when the business first launched, it was a slow and considered process because the couple wanted to do things right by both Wood and her legacy, and the larger Ojai community of which she was such a promi nent member. “We didn’t want to go in guns blazing, but wanted to see what the commu nity thought about it,” she says. “Because when you do something like this with such a historic and legendary figure, you have to be thoughtful about how you go about it. So we approached the Beatrice Wood Center and acquired the rights to use her artworks right at the beginning, and are using her actual drawings, writings, and molds.” The latter include the company’s initial chocolate sculptures shaped in the form of an abstract horse and a moon face, created by the artist in a nod to Ojai, which she described as “one of the most beau tiful valleys of the world.”

As far as Beato Chocolates’ products are concerned, the company sources a 72% dark chocolate that is fair-trade and used as the base for all of its products except for its milk chocolate bar. Casoni insists that the business is not a “bean-to- bar chocolate company” but rather a chocolatier. “First and foremost it’s about the art, and that’s what drives every thing, including the flavors,” she explains. Since its inception in 2018, Beato Chocolates has slowly expanded its product range, which in addition to the chocolate sculptures now also includes nine different “Beato Bars” feature that original artwork, irreverent titles, and sophisticated flavors that draw on Wood’s work, life, and travels. The inaugural bar was the “Happy Valley Bar”, which showcases dark chocolate flavored with orange oil and Ojai pixie dust. “For this we’re working directly with the pixie farmers, which is a challenge because it’s such a seasonal product,” Casoni says. “But then everything to do with making chocolate is a challenge; you’re always troubleshooting because you’re dealing with heat and tem peramental machines, and at any given time anything can go off the rails. In many ways that’s what’s so fun about it.”

Other bars include “The Pussy Between Us,” a milk chocolate bar inspired by Wood’s love for her cat; the “Ménage à Trois” bar made with toffee and sea salt, named after Wood’s romantic involvement with Duchamp and Henri-Pierre Roché; and the “Nut Suite” comprising two bars: one titled “Sometimes You Fancy a Nut” — with coconut and almond — and the other “Sometimes You Don’t (Fancy a Nut)” – with coconut only. Then there’s the “I Shock Myself” bar, named

after Wood’s autobiography of the same title, which is a blend of dark chocolate, coffee, and cacao nibs. Featuring an illustration from the cookbook California Herb Cookery, a collabora tion between Wood and Ranch House founder Alan Hooker published in 1966, the bar is a collaboration with Ojai coffee roaster Bonito Coffee. “We love collaborating with local businesses,” Casoni enthuses.

Moving forward, Beato Chocolates’ expan sion will focus on health and well-being as the company is working on a new line of wellness bars to launch in the new year. “The three things we’re going to continually talk about going forward are creativity, pleasure, and wellness,” explains Stobo. “We have the creativity and pleasure with the chocolates and the artwork already, but now we also want to focus on wellness and longevity — after all, Beatrice Wood lived until 105.” The first flavor will be a “Menopause Bar” featuring 84% dark chocolate with walnuts and hemp seeds, and artwork based on one of Wood’s famous sculptures. “The wellness bars will still be Beato bars; they’ll still have the artwork and they’ll still be fun,” insists Stobo.

Proceeding the wellness launch will be a 10th Beato bar. Called the “Titanic Bar,” and featuring flavors of rose petals and sea salt, it is based on Wood having partially inspired the character of Rose DeWitt Bukater in the 1997 blockbuster Titanic after director James Cameron read her autobiography. “The creativity around Beatrice Wood is just endless because she was just such an incredibly inspirational character,” says Casoni. With Beato Chocolates, she and Stobo are giving it a delicious twist.

Ben Franklin ... to the Rescue

How I lost everything and found joy working at Ojai’s most cherished mercantile — Ben Franklin Variety and Crafts store

of her costume. When we are done with our gathering and dreaming, the future mustard bottle is so thrilled, she’s almost levitating. So am I. It is in these moments that I am struck by just how much my life has changed, and how losing everything the year before created space for so much joy.

Iam attempting to balance a dozen papier-mâché pumpkins on a seasonal display when a little girl of about 6 tugs at my work apron. I kneel at her eye level as she excitedly tells me, “This Halloween, I’m going as mustard! Can you help me?” Can I help her? Of course I can! With a genuine sincerity of purpose, we discuss the finer points of mustard. I listen as she talks with glee, flinging her arms wide as I gently ask her about how she imagines herself. Will she be yellow, grain, or honey mustard? Jar or condiment squeeze bottle? “Yellow mustard!” she squeals. “In a squeeze bottle!”

“Perfect!” I tell her. “You will be a classic!” Her mother is hanging back patiently, arms crossed, with a bemused smile on her face during our entire exchange. She’s letting her very capable daughter navigate this one. I motion for them to follow me, and we walk from aisle to aisle collecting our supplies: poster board, yellow felt, Magic Markers, and string. We head to the fabric table, where we discuss the design and creation

So how did I get here? Only one year earlier, in 2019, my carefully curated life blew up and came to an excruciating, yet oddly liberating end. I had finally pulled the plug on a 21-year marriage; quit a stable and wellcompensated career in healthcare, one that no longer fed my soul; and invested my entire life savings (401(k)s included) into a furniture-making business. Calling it a risky move would have been correct. In my defense, I will say it was a highly e cient “trifecta of failure” and a perfect storm of loss.

When everything fell apart, I was faced with a hard truth. I had spent the greater portion of my time on this planet choosing safety over passion and listening to everyone but myself. As a chronic pleaser and an expert doer, I had “chloroformed” my inner voice and smothered it so e ciently, it never made a peep. Had I listened to it, it might have saved me from all this loss. But I pushed past it, curious to see how this loss might somehow turn into a new start.

I find these radical changes in identity and circumstance as the way the Universe, in a not-so-subtle way, helps us coursecorrect when we’re far afield and not living authentically. Maybe, just maybe, through these trials, we also become more joyful,

generous, and compassionate people. I had no idea that finding my heart would be my new life’s goal. In September of 2020, after everything came to an explosive end in my otherwise careful life, I’m just grateful that the cosmic two-by-four knocked me and dropped me into the Valley of the Gentle People (my name for Ojai), and at the doors of Ben Franklin.

The first time I walked into the store I was with a loyal friend who had a front-row seat to the high drama of my personal life. (I still apologize to her nearly every time we talk.)

We were searching for jewelry, and a local business owner encouraged us to “Try Ben Franklin. They’ve got everything.” (They actually do.)

As we walked through the entrance, we stopped, taking in something wholly unexpected: fantastical displays full of color and details. Décor, gifts, crafting items — the ba ing totality — in fact, a whole universe of creative potential! Over 17,000 items of thoughtfully curated and beautifully merchandised goodness, the brainchild/lovechild of its genius owner, Cindy Valdez.

What was this place? Certainly not an ordinary five-and-dime — but something

original, evolved, and whimsical. Fiveand-dime meets Pottery Barn plus old curiosity shop? And the vibe? So warm, homey even. I found myself drifting around the store, just taking it all in.

Trust that there is deep magic here — the kind that comes from generations of customers (40 years’ worth), crafters, and underground and known artists warmly welcomed by their first names, assisted and guided in crafting projects and gift selection

What I did not expect was all the love, healing, and magic I’d experience. Yes, I lost almost everything about my old life, things I had worked decades building, but instead I replaced it with the simple joy of being — of being fully present and alive in a very alive place.

by sta , genius crafters themselves, who truly care. These customers invariably leave happier, more at ease and optimistic than when they came into the store. As one questionably sober customer commented while in line at the cash register, “I really think … that this place … is like … a vortex within a vortex.”

Indeed! The happiness in this store is palpable, and everyone feels so welcome here — and they ARE all here, everyone from Hollywood expats, to children hunting for Halloween costumes, to locals just needing a fresh supply of paper clips, to, well, ME. There is something for everyone here, and its lack of pretense and well-worn floors draws people in, keeps them there, and makes everyone feel at home.

After only a few minutes in Ben Franklin, my friend nudged me, pointed to the HELP WANTED sign, and said, “You need to work HERE!” It was all the encouragement I needed to put myself in a timeout and to stop — to stop thinking my way out of the present and into the future, to stop making decisions, and to just stop caring so much about what others would think of me. To just totally and fully STOP.

The next day, I turned in my resume at Ben Franklin, interviewed with a boss I would

I learned so much from working at Ben Franklin. The old Zen quote about chopping wood and carrying water as a call to release the ego’s grip, scale back, and feel gratitude, for me became folding towels, losing myself in display work, or pushing a broom. Just making improvements and creating beauty, anywhere, is such an empowering act. I took great pride in unpacking heavy crates of rugs; I reveled in helping someone find the perfect color of pink fabric for their home decor. I felt useful and at peace.

At the cash register, I got to know my new community. Like a sociologist, I loved guessing what people were making based on what they placed on the checkout counter, a great conversation starter. I never thought of this as nosy, but as genuine

interest in the diverse creative talents of others. This is Ojai, after all, and artists and caring people abound. This curiosity sparked more wonderful conversations with my fellow community members than I can count. I heard stories about love and loss, creative endeavors and passions, or maybe just learned how they were feeling that day. My own troubles faded into the background with every new story shared.

I had a friend in the corporate world who would proudly assert her professional individualism by saying about the workplace, “I’m not here to make friends.” I recognized this as empty bravado. At Ben Franklin, I made friends — great friends — among customers and co-workers.

Connecting with others is a brave act requiring vulnerability and honesty — the qualities we most cherish in others. It’s not easy, but you learn that, although your specific pain points may be unique to you, everyone has a story, and most of us, by a certain age, have experienced the gift of failure and loss. Those who have su ered and survived typically have the most generous hearts and are available and willing to share their soul-sustaining wisdom. We might be born alone, but we’re definitely meant to find each other.

I consider my time working for Cindy Valdez and her supremely heart-centered sta at Ben Franklin the crowning achievement of a credential-heavy curriculum vitae that attests to years of soul-crushing, exhaustionchasing self-worth. It was here, in this sacred space, that I lived my best life, got back my own life, and invented a new one. It was at Ben Franklin where I was reminded of the simple joys of slowing down, connecting with others, appreciating beauty, finding the miraculous in the ordinary, and most important, experiencing the magic in losing it all, only to find everything you will ever need.

CALENDAR

November

Je Sojka and Eilam Byle Exhibits

Through Nov. 30

Ojai Art Center 113 S. Montgomery St. ojaiartcenter.org

Canvas and Paper

Paintings: Laurence Stephen Lowry

Through Dec. 4 311 N. Montgomery St. Open: Thursday – Sunday Noon – 5 p.m. Free admission canvasandpaper.org

“Elf the Musical” Nov. 25 – Dec. 18

Ojai Art Center Theater 113 S. Montgomery St. Tickets: ojaiact.org or call 805-640-8797

Ojai Historical Walking Tours Nov. 26, 10:30 a.m.

Ojai Valley Museum 130 W. Ojai Ave. 805-640-1390 ojaivalleymuseum.org

Tickets: Adult $10; Family $25. Learn about Ojai’s unique history on a 90-minute tour led by docent Mark Lewis.

December

Ted Gall’s Small Metal Sculptures

Dec. 2 – Jan 5

Ojai Art Center 113 S. Montgomery St. ojaiartcenter.org

Annual Photography Exhibit Dec. 2 – Jan 5

Ojai Art Center

113 S. Montgomery St. ojaiartcenter.org Reception: Sat., Dec. 3, 1-3 p.m.

Ojai Sessions at Ojai Art Center Dec. 4, 11 a.m. -1 p.m. 113 S. Montgomery St. in the Raymund Room. A once-amonth opportunity for musical fellowship and performance, all levels welcome. Contact Robin Riley for info. at 805-252-5361.

Téka and Friends Brazilian Jazz Trio Dec. 4, 5 p.m.

Logan House at the Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts, 8585 Ojai-Santa Paula Rd.

Tickets: $25 beatricewood.com

New Year’s Eve Family Spectacular at Ojai Valley Museum

Dec. 31, 6 - 9:30 p.m.

130 W. Ojai Ave.

WINTER ‘22/‘23

Humane Society of Ventura County’s Annual Purrs and Paws Holiday Boutique and Marketplace Dec. 10, 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. 414 E. Ojai Ave., Chaparral School Auditorium visit hsvc.org for more info.

Ojai Historical Walking Tours Dec. 10, 10:30 a.m. Ojai Valley Museum 130 W. Ojai Ave. 805-640-1390 ojaivalleymuseum.org

Tickets: Adult $10; Family $25. Learn about Ojai’s unique history on a 90-minute tour led by docent Pat Essick.

Talk with Catherine Ann Jones at Ojai Art Center Dec. 10, 3 p.m. Ojai Art Center 113 S. Montgomery St. $5 suggested donation.

Literary Branch Chair Mark Lewis will interview the Ojai author about her recently published autobiography, “Buddha and the Dancing Girl: A Creative Life.”

Ojai Valley Woman’s Club Holiday Boutique Dec. 11, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. 441 E. Ojai Ave. Email: ojaidonna@sbcglobal.net or ksmithojai@gmail.com for info. Quilts, homemade items, holiday decorations and more!

Chamber On The Mountain Presents: Evgeny Tonkha, Cello with Steven Vanhauwaert, Piano Dec. 11, 3 p.m.

Logan House at the Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts, 8585 Ojai-Santa Paula Rd. Tickets: $30 beatricewood.com

Canvas and Paper Paintings: Keith Vaughan Dec. 15 – Feb. 5 311 N. Montgomery St. Open: Thursday – Sunday Noon – 5 p.m. Free admission canvasandpaper.org

OVA Arts 3rd Fridays Downtown Ojai Dec. 16, 5 - 7 p.m. 238 E. Ojai Ave. Enjoy meeting the artists, great music from local musicians and sharing nibbles and wine. ojaivalleyartists.com

Ojai Valley Museum 3rd Friday Winter Market Dec. 16, 5 - 7 p.m. 130 W. Ojai Ave. 805-640-1390 ojaivalleymuseum.org

Ojai Historical Walking Tours Dec. 17, 10:30 a.m.

Ojai Valley Museum 130 W. Ojai Ave. 805-640-1390 ojaivalleymuseum.org Tickets: Adult $10; Family $25. Learn about Ojai’s unique history on a 90-minute tour led by docent Mark Lewis.

Community Contra Dance Series Dec. 18, 6 - 9 p.m.

Ojai Art Center 113 S. Montgomery St. $10 at the door.

Fun for all ages: dancing, games, activities, and food. ojaivalleymuseum.org

January

Ocho Libre

Otis Bradley and Mark Tovar Jan. 6 - Feb. 2

Ojai Art Center

113 S. Montgomery St. Hours: Tues. - Fri.: 10 a.m. - 4 p.m., Sat – Sun.: 12 - 4 p.m. ojaiartcenter.org

Ojai Sessions at Ojai Art Center

Jan. 8, 11 a.m. -1 p.m.

113 S. Montgomery St. in the Raymund Room. A oncea-month opportunity for musical fellowship and performance, all levels welcome.

Contact Robin Riley for info. at 805-252-5361.

Ocho Libre

Otis Bradley and Mark Tovar Artist Reception Jan. 14, 1-3 p.m.

Ojai Art Center 113 S. Montgomery St. ojaiartcenter.org

“Becky’s New Car” by Steven Dietz Jan. 27 – Feb. 18

Ojai Art Center Theater 113 S. Montgomery St. Tickets: ojaiact.org or call 805-640-8797

Andrea Centazzo’s West Coast Chamber Jazz Trio Jan. 28, 4 p.m.

Logan House at the Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts 8585 Ojai-Santa Paula Rd. Tickets: $25 beatricewood.com

February

Ojai Sessions at Ojai Art Center

Feb. 5, 11 a.m. -1 p.m.

113 S. Montgomery St. in the Raymund Room. A oncea-month opportunity for musical fellowship and performance, all levels welcome.

Contact Robin Riley for info. at 805-252-5361.

Chamber On The Mountain Presents: Neave Trio Feb. 26, 3 p.m.

Logan House at the Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts, 8585 Ojai-Santa Paula Rd. Tickets: $30 beatricewood.com

THEe eory of Never Forager

By now you probably have found a friend or family member who enjoys radicchio. I don’t mean to imply that you don’t like radicchio, but everyone will probably agree that a little radicchio goes a long way. You have received the benefit of a duke’s ransom in radicchio for the past month, a royal o ering of the prince of all salad ingredients, short of witloof and blanched escarole, which are the real test of a salad-grower’s acumen. And now, as you behold yet another red and white variegated ball of bitter chicory, an elite mouthful of dubious continental satisfaction, you have every right to wonder why, why have you been so lucky to enjoy such a terribly expensive salad specimen week after week. I meant you no harm; I merely wanted to populate an area with experiments and they all turned out quite well. You may have even snuck a peek at the price of these Italian orbs at retail and sucked in your breath at the lofty price. Those nines don’t lie, Glenn. O the truck the bitter balls roll out for $3/per.

Break it out at retail for five or six and forget the nines.

Does the bitter ball taste any better now that you know the value has global heft? Grill Master Gozo o ered an alternative to the now predictable olive oil and garlic dressing you have dutifully drenched upon thy masterpiece. Gozo suggests halving the globe and marinating in balsamic vinaigre and olive oil, then pan-grilling alongside a chompy T-bone cut of Angus. The panmingle imparts a unique savor. For those expecting a climate-conscious adherence to meat-free living, we acknowledge the sacrilege implied by going beefsteak on you. The recipe is nothing if I exchange the steak for a slab of satan, which

fails to water the mouth readily on its own. The meat will impart justified flavor to the simmering Venetian vegetable product, which you flip and mash into the pan, glorifying the vegetable in savory excellence a orded the elevated likes of asparagus and artichokes, burdock root, and corn on the cob.

Few vegetables rule the table both cooked and raw like radicchio. But, by now, your interest has peaked, with a number of withering orbs perhaps dominating a far crisper-corner, while at the farm, our honed blades cut the last chicories out of the field.

Except the Treviso…

Besides, why would one ignore fruit season? With regard to a radicchio salad, rather than going salty-savory, House Chef Garret last week gave the bowl a peach to sweeten the e ort, and we brought over more peaches from Eco-for you, and adorable little plums from Herzog Park, plus some apricots from a few likely trees. Avocado also qualifies as a fruit, though rarely sweetened, which we share today. The light brown scarring is from tiny mites gnawing on the infant-cado as it hung in the sun.

The scarring bothers not, but does banish vast tonnage, and thus raises the price of more pristine fruit. All this supply-anddemand rubbish is a lot less convincing when the market is tweaked by cartel influence in Michoacán.

I read a rather mean-spirited observation that said there is only the past and the future because the present is constantly altered by the nanos of time, rendering Now continually obsolete. Can’t you see how hurtful it is to have your Nows ripped from your tender grasp on reality and be trampled by the sweep of a second hand swinging mercilessly forward while you hide in your pleasant little carefree Now, humming the melody of the last Shirelles song you carelessly listened to in the bakery next door?

“Tonight’s The Night” is perfectly Now. Don’t you wish Tonight was always The Night? But… “Will you still love me Tomorrow?” — an inevitable question that has ruined countless Nows. You still have to ask it. Your Nows can really throttle your Tomorrows, unless your ear is rescued at the last minute by “Someday Never Comes,” which is a sad ballad but can give credence to my ever hopeful Now theory of Never. www.farmerandcook.com

Yo u r t r u ste d ro o fi n g c o m pa n y

Realtors are a little off on their bedroom-count numbers.

A listing for Pamela Burton’s 1920s stone house in Ojai, for example, would describe it as a one-bedroom home. But that ignores the numerous “outdoor rooms” on her 5-acre property, informally formed by walls and carpets of gardens, orchards, and stones, with the sky and treetops as ceiling.

Landscape designer Burton is trained as an artist, architect, and horticulturist. When she creates a landscape — whether for a private residence, commercial building, university, hospital, civic center, or her own property — she sees herself “shaping distinctive outdoor rooms,” and creating paths through those rooms.

“I love thinking about … how people move through a place, how a series of spaces are connected, and how objects and materials frame and form the proportions,” she says.

The success of a great landscape, she believes, is not necessarily seen, but felt. “Landscape architecture is about making people feel comfortable in spaces, among their family, friends, and with themselves.”

That’s instantly clear on a visit to the Ojai home, Rancho Dulce, she shares with her husband, Richard Hertz.

“Come on in,” she says immediately. But this greeting is an outdoor welcome. The front door is two sycamore trees, the welcome mat a bed of blooms from bulbs given to Burton by her late mother. And beyond, a tour of the outdoor spaces that feel most like home to Burton — and that have informed and inspired the landscapes she designs in California and around the world.

A word she uses often when talking about her philosophy of landscape architecture is “circumambulatory,” which means designed to be circled on foot, often in the context of ritual, spiritual, or sacred walking. Burton designs spaces for walking, but not in an aimless circular way. It’s deliberate, reflective, and a way to connect with both the internal and external world.

Burton, and the Santa Monica-based company she founded, Pamela Burton & Co., have designed landscapes for almost 50 years. The company’s many SoCal projects include work for the Ojai Valley School (for a rebuild after the 2017 Thomas Fire); Calabasas Civic Center; Los Angeles International Airport; Santa Monica Public Library; Ojai Valley Inn; University of California and Cal State campuses; Biddy Mason Park in Los Angeles; the Claremont Colleges; and private residences in Ojai, Santa Monica, and other cities.

In October 2021, Burton was the subject of a video produced by The Cultural Landscape Foundation in Washington, D.C., as part of the nonprofit organization’s Pioneers of American Landscape Design Oral History Project.

She has also taught at colleges and universities, and is the author or co-author of two books: Private Landscapes: Modernist Gardens in Southern California (co-written with Marie Botnick, 2002) and Pamela Burton Landscapes (2010), the latter of which explores her eco-minded work, mainly in California.

“At the core of Pamela’s work is … the message that the organization of our homes, towns, and cities complements and to an extent replicates the structure of our natural world,” writes design architect Richard A.M. Stern in the foreword to Pamela Burton Landscapes. “Her art is knowing how to create places that serve the human spirit.”

THE ART OF DESIGN

The places Burton has lived in, loved, and traveled to over the years nurtured that spirit. She grew up as one of four children in Pacific Palisades, New Mexico, and Redlands, and lived in Malibu before moving to Ojai with Richard Hertz and their two children.

Burton said her mother was “very good with plants” and taught her to nurse and care for all kinds of flora, and also made sure Burton took art lessons. Burton enjoyed drawing, climbing trees, collecting snails, and anthropomorphizing flowers.

A trip to Japan at age 22 deeply influenced her philosophy about design. “I observed the power of simplicity, and the way in which the fusion of nature and architecture connected me to something infinite and deep,” she says.

Left: Private Ojai Residence. A 5-acre site with mature avocado trees, ancient oaks, a main house, pool house, guest house, study, and cottage. The new owners requested a comprehensive landscape design for the site that would honor the agricultural nature of the site, yet update it with infrastructure.

Landscape designer Pamela Burton creates green spaces that feel like home by KAREN LINDELL

At UCLA, she earned a bachelor’s in environmental design and a master’s in architecture, then founded Pamela Burton & Co., which integrates art, architecture, and landscape design.

“It’s absolutely critical that landscape architects know about art,” Burton says. “It makes you see the world in a di erent way.”

In Japan and during her studies at UCLA, she learned about modernism as well as wabi-sabi, “the design philosophy that underlies a great deal of traditional Japanese art and architecture.” Both modernism and wabi-sabi, she says, avoid elements “not integral to an object, structure, or arrangement.” Modernism, however, “can be described as seamless, polished, and smooth; wabi-sabi can be described as earthy, imperfect, and variegated.”

As a landscape designer, she creates energy by trying to make the two philosophies meet. Twining wisteria, for example, might cover a stately pergola. A pot of untamed lemon verbena on a vertical growth spurt sits next to an elegant curved wall. “Planted” stone steps are interspersed with flowering plants or grasses.

Top left: University of California Riverside, The Historic Barn Event Center: Part of the renovation and expansion of the University’s “Historic Barn” Event Center, the 2-acre site carves out new creative spaces for students to study or relax in an exterior garden environment.

Bottom left: California State University, Northridge, Valley Performing Arts Center: The landscape design for the Valley Performing Arts Center creates a comfortable, functional, and elegant environment for students on a daily basis and for more formal audiences from the San Fernando Valley community.

OJAI PALETTE

Burton’s Ojai home provides plenty of space for exploration and experimentation that she often applies to landscape work for clients. “Rancho Dulce has always been my experimental palette,” she says.

She enjoys testing out di erent plants instead of using the same materials over and over, to remain creative. Burton likes what she calls “uncomplaining” plants — ones that are tough, rarely die, and can take the (literal) heat, like roses and California natives.

She and Hertz found Rancho Dulce when they were celebrating their fifth wedding anniversary in Santa Barbara and decided to visit Ojai as well.

They spontaneously decided to look for a house to buy, and when a realtor showed them the little stone house in Ojai’s east end, they knew it was the right place.

“My eyes just woke up when I saw it,” Burton says.

When designing the home’s landscape, she started out by thinking of concentric rings and considering how “random growth met an organized frame” — the Ojai Valley mountains encircling orange groves, with the house at the center surrounded by native stone walls.

The front door is at the side of the house, so she created pathways to guide people there. Instead, guests always come straight to the back door on the opposite side, where the pool, rose garden, and a patio are. But Burton doesn’t get upset about which door people use.

“It’s just the way flow works, letting people go where they feel comfortable,” she says.

THE “BIG IDEA”

For Burton, every project must start with a “big idea.” At Rancho Dulce, the big idea is “family.”

“Family’s most important,” she says. And anyone who visits, with or without Burton DNA, is treated just like family. No one leaves without fruits of her garden labors: a bag of ripe tangelos and avocados, a bouquet of roses, or a fistful of lemon verbena.

Especially as she has grown older, Burton wants her property to be welcoming to her children and grandchildren. The grounds include two guesthouses with bunk beds and lots of books; citrus orchards to run around in; a canopy of leaves creating a mini hideaway; and what she calls the “wedding tree.”

This giant sprawling oak spreads out to create a dome, with branches that touch the earth to create walls for yet another “room.” Numerous friends and family members have held weddings under the tree — as many as 120 guests easily fit beneath it. But it’s also a site for solitude.

“It’s a real social place, but I can also come in here by myself,” Burton says.

One of the biggest challenges of a landscape architect, she says, is “to just let it be” — working with what’s already there rather than adding too many flourishes or exotic plants.

Standing under the wedding tree, for example, she points to a set of branches still attached to the trunk but lying on the ground. “The tree has decided it’s taking a nap,” she says, laughing, “and that’s because we didn’t want to prune or do anything to it; it just gently rests.”

TAKING CARE

Burton was interested in ecologically friendly landscapes before such ideas became popular — and necessary — in California. She uses native plant and hardscape materials, diligently studying the soil and what kind of stone and other non-plant items are available locally, whether she’s creating a landscape in Ojai, Tokyo, or São Paulo. Don’t just “ship something from around the world that’s sparkly,” she says. “Ask yourself, ‘How does that sustain?’ It’s all part of a network of taking care of the world.”

Another goal is to “simplify, simplify, simplify — take it down to the essence of what’s really there.” She encourages clients to look at a design plan and see what they can “edit” or take out, rather than add more. Simplicity, she believes, creates peace as well as beauty.

The same principles apply whether it’s a private garden or a large-scale project, like the School of the Arts Plaza at UC Irvine, a collaboration with architect Maya Lin, who designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall in Washington, D.C. The UCI space was designed around the five senses, with orange trees and ground cover providing scent and evoking taste; native California sycamore trees evoking the state’s plein air painters; “whispering benches” playing music or other sounds via speakers; video monitors showing digital art; and a granite water table inviting touch.

At Ojai Valley School, after the Thomas Fire in 2017 destroyed some of the boarding school’s Upper Campus buildings, Burton collaborated with Frederick Fisher and Partners to create a “sustainable landscape” that reflected the school’s philosophy about keeping students connected to fellowship with the land. Native plants including California sycamores and coast live oaks o er shade and wind protection. Because many native plants contain oils that are flammable, non-native, low-height vegetation was planted closest to structures.

Burton is in a “transition” phase of her career, planning at some point to leave her company to her very capable colleagues.

But she will always be walking around landscapes, with the eye of an artist, the mind of an architect, and the heart of a gardener and welcoming host.

Teresa Rooney 805.340.8928 DRE: 00599443 trooney@livsothebysrealty.com