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Should you be lucky enough to be invited to the home of one of the Spanish families in Winters you might find yourself eating homemade chorizo, salt-cured ham, and blood sausages, homemade olives of course, and maybe a big paella. The food traditions of these families are still strong and thriving and Gloria Lopez wants to make sure it stays that way.
“Food is one of the last things we have of our culture,” says Gloria, a third generation member of one of about 100 Spanish families that settled in Winters a century ago, and she has been researching the history of the local Spanish community in preparation for a book whose working title is “An American Paella: 100 Years of Memories and Experiences of Becoming American and Staying Spanish.”
From 1906 to 1913, approximately 8,000 Spaniards left Spain to provide a labor force for the Dole Company's pineapple plantations in Hawaii . Gloria Lopez's grandfathers came through Hilo and like the others were promised an acre and a half of land and a house in exchange for three to five years of labor. However, at the end of the labor contracts the houses and land didn't materialize. They had heard about San Francisco so they came to work in the orchards of Santa Clara , Loomis, Vacaville and Winters. These were rural men so they settled and sent for their wives and children from Spain . When they women came they brought with them from their native villages the traditional foods and their preparations, often time intensive, family affairs, and translated them to the new country.
In some instances, we've been told, those traditions have been discontinued in their original Spanish villages. However, they are alive and well in Winters. Gloria's grandfather arrived with pepper seed from his village. Each year he saved some seed back, as did his son, Gloria's father Sam, as does Gloria. She grows about 100 plants a year on one of her father's ranches, roasts them over an almond wood fire, and peels and freezes them. These peppers, descendents from Spain like she is, are the ones that she puts in her chorizo, made using her grandfather's sausage machine
In the old day, when chorizo was made, it was part of the matanzas the winter day when a hog was slaughtered and dressed on the farm. Every part of the hog was used. The hams were packed in salt, then later hung to air dry. A lost of the meat was ground into sausages, like chorizo, which was air dried as well, and rellano , which was boiled. The blood was saved and used to make morcilla , blood sausage.
Matanzas were common when Gloria was growing up but now she buys pork butt from Town & Country Market in Winters, owned by the Lorenzos, another Spanish family. John Lorenzo makes about 3,000 pounds of chorizo each year to sell over the counter and for the Spanish community. This year, John and a dozen or so other local men, some Spanish, some not, are salt-curing hams. Each year Gloria and her husband Mike make salt cured ham and green olives and every other year they make about 100 pounds of chorizo. “If you don't make chorizo”, she says, “the tradition is gone.”
Most of the Spanish families that settled in the area were from Southern Spain , from villages and towns like Malaga , Estepona, Lubrin and Granada . “We all know who we are and which families we came from,” Gloria says. The first generation born here benefited from the hard work of their immigrant parents' hard work. They bought more land and stayed in agriculture.
Dan Martinez, the Mayor of Winters, is from one of those families. In 2000, Dan, the son of Dan Martinez Sr., partnered with Santiago Moreno, long-time foreman for Martinez Orchards to plant vines and form Berryessa Gap Vineyards. Mike Anderson, winemaker for Berryessa Gap, joined Santiago and Dan to establish the winery in 2002. The trio have been friends since the early 1970's, when Dan's father and Mike's granduncle partnered in a grape rootstock nursery.
Buried in a corner of Yolo County , the vineyards are on relatively poor ground, agriculturally speaking, former sheep ground, says Anderson . “We can grow the grapes in a way not possible on the valley floor,” he says, “and we use hands-on, traditional methods to make our wines, using basket presses instead of bladder presses, for example.”
Berryessa Gap produces Temperanillo, a grape from Spain 's Rioja region, as well as four other red wines, all award winners. Their 2003 Syrah, voted Regional Best in Class, 2005 California State Fair and received a silver medal at the 2006 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition. It is available locally in Davis at Valley Wine Company. You can also taste their wines by the glass and purchase them by the bottle Fridays and Saturdays from 4-8 PM at their Main Street location in Winters next door to the Palms theatre and across the street from the Buckhorn. Nearby is the recently-opened Ficelle, which serves tapas on Friday nights. Ficelle is owned and operated by the Martin sisters, descendents of descendents of one of the original Spanish families.
Gloria Lopez recently went to her aunt's house for dinner where there were five people eighty years old or older. She grabbed a bottle of Berryessa Gap wine, the Martinez wine as she calls it, knowing how proud her family is of another Spanish business in town. They got out their traditional juice glasses in the old way, not stemware, and ate and drank in the way they have always been accustomed to in this country, as if in Spain in times gone by.
In March, Slow Food Yolo is celebrating the Spanish food and winemaking traditions of Winters at a slow Spanish luncheon at the Berryessa Gap Winery at Tufts Ranch in Winters. (see sidebar.) They'll be plenty of Berryessa Gap wine, a lunch of Grilled Boneless Leg of Lamb, Spanish sausages and meats, tapas, Spanish cheeses, dessert and coffee. When you arrive there'll be almonds, walnuts, and olives to snack on and a tour led by winemaker Mike Anderson and owner Dan Martinez. Gloria Lopez will give a talk about the history of the Spanish connection in Winters and her research on the Spanish community.
Chorizo: Spanish Pork Sausage
(From “Spanish Doors, Dishes, and Dreams” by Francie Martinez Vicondoa, the recipes and history of the Spanish families who settled in the Vacaville area.
Note: Chorizo making varies from family to family and region to region. Gloria Lopez adds dried sweet peppers and cinnamon in addition to the ingredients below. You can buy pork butt for chorizo at Town and Country in Winters and they will grind the meat for you. They also have the casings to go with it. Call ahead to order.
The Ingredients:
20 lb. pork butt
8 oz. black pepper
1 tablespoon cloves
3 heads garlic
3 and one half cups red pepper (ground)
Salt (3 handfuls, but to taste)
Paprika
1 bundle casings
Putting it Together:
1. Grind the meat in a meat grinder ahead of time. (20 pounds should be the weight of the meat with bone removed). Peel and mash the garlic.
2. Put the meat into a large tub. Add all other ingredients in order, a little at a time. One person should be mixing the meat with their hands, while another person adds the ingredients. Be careful not to add too much salt. Add small portions at a time. Add cayenne in small amounts until it is as hot as you want it. Add just enough paprika to get the desired color. Knead the meat as if you were making bread. Fry a few tablespoons of the meat mixture and taste test it. A little more of something may be added. Remember it is easy to add something, but it is not easy to remove once it is mixed in.
3. Using the appropriate attachment on a meat grinder, fill the already cleaned casings with the meat. Leave about one-half inch of unfilled casing on each side to tie the openings closed. Use a strong string and double tie each end (tie to each other so it becomes like a circle with about two inches of string in between each end.) With a straight pin, prick the sausage several times all over. (This will help them to dry faster.)
4. Hang the chorizo to dry in a very cool dry place for 10-14 days or until they harden. They should get some ventilation, but never a draft. If they get too much exposure to air, they may dry too quickly on the outside, which would prevent them from drying on the inside. If the casings begin to form a white coat, moisten a paper towel with vegetable oil and rub them to remove the white. After you have rubbed them with oil, dry them with a dry paper towel. They are ready to eat when they are solid all the way through and firm to the touch.
Slow Food Yolo and the Berryessa Gap Winery Present A Lunch in the Spanish Tradition
Date: Saturday March 25th
Time: 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM
Where: The Winery at Tufts Ranch, Winters
Cost: $20.00 for Slow Food Members, $30.00 for non-members.
Reservations required: Limited to 75 people
For more information visit www.slowfoodyolo.com
Resources for Spanish Recipes and Food in Winters and Beyond
“Spanish Doors, Dishes, and Dreams” by Francie Martinez Vicondoa
Available at Borders Bookstore in Davis
Town & Country Market
121 East Grant, Winters
Phone: 530-795-3214
The Spanish Table
1814 San Pablo Ave (cross street Delaware ) in Berkeley
Phone: 510-548-1383
Hours: Sunday 11AM - 5PM and Monday through Saturday 10AM – 6 PM
Spanish ingredients and gourmet cooking tools (like paella pans serving 2-200), wines, gypsy and Flamenco music and a full service deli, all within walking distance of Café Fanny, Acme Bread and Kermit Lynch wines.
Ficelles
5 C East Main
Winters
Phone: 530-795-9593
Tapas: Friday night 6:30 to 10:00 PM
Lunch Tuesday-Friday, 11:00 to 2:30 PM
Take Out Dinners Tuesday-Thursday 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM
Occasional Saturday Night Special Dinners
Berryessa Gap Vineyards Tasting Room
15 Main Street
Winters
Phone: 530-795-3201
Friday and Saturday, 4:00 to 8:00 PM
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