Flourish Magazine

Flourish Fall 2013

Flourish Magazine, the North Bay's Guide to Sustainable Living. Serving Marin, Sonoma and Napa counties and sharing the stories of local people working towards sustainable living, organic foods and eco-conscious lifestyles.

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exposure to the developing grape clusters. So committed to natural process farming in the vineyards have the partners become that they established the Green String Institute – and its namesake farm – to educate the next generation of farmers and grape growers. The farm hugs the flank of Sonoma Mountain on the southeastern outskirts of Petaluma, encompassing 140 acres, of which 60 is planted. An additional 380 acres of vineyards adjoin the property. Formerly the site of three separate dairies, the farm now produces seasonal produce year-round, attracting a steady stream of customers driving between Sonoma and Petaluma on busy Adobe Road. "I'm carrying on what I've been doing for 30 years," Cannard says. "Growing good food and sharing it with others." Fittingly, the name of the farm – and the institute – succinctly embodies Cannard's vision: "I'm an abstract student of physics. This is the green string, stringing humanity and nature together." On the opposite side of Sonoma Mountain, above the hamlet of Glen Ellen, the Benziger clan is promoting farming practices that are "socially equitable, environmentally correct and sustain profitability," according to Jeff McBride, vice president of winemaking. It wasn't always so. When the family first purchased their 85-acre property in 1980, they were advised to follow the traditional practice at the time: clear out native plants growing on the land – underbrush and shrubs – and then plant just grapevines. "So they pulled out everything before planting," says McBride. Afterward, "Mike (Benziger, one of the winery founders) noticed something had changed. Everything was quiet. There were no insects or birds. The hillside eroded into the parking lot that winter." Convinced that there had to be a better way, Benziger began exploring biodynamics, a wholistic approach to farming developed by Austrian Rudolf Steiner in the 1920s and first brought to the United States by the Fetzer family. "Mike met with them and grasped 30 FLOURISH • FALL 2013  Top: Natural process farmer Bob Cannard of Cline Vineyards and Green String Institute. Above: The "woolly weeders" at work in the Cline vineyard.

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