Wingshadows Hacienda
Posted by Jay on Sunday, 24 June 2007
One of our most popular ingredients — particularly in terms of how much better it is than the commodity version — is the real ranch egg, from a pastured chicken, we use for our burger and pickled egg.
We get these eggs from Lynne and Bruce of Wingshadows Hacienda in Warner Springs. Usually we meet in Vista for the “drop” but today I took the opportunity to go all the way to Warner Springs to see their farm. It couldn’t have been better.
I got a lot of photos so for this post I’ll mostly let the pictures do the talking. I hear they’re worth a fair weight of words.
To keep critters away from the farm, Bruce built a low wall around the main house.
He made the adobe bricks himself, over 6,000 of them.
Around 75% of the farm’s power is provided from these solar panels.
During the day, the hens are everywhere, laying eggs when and where they see fit.
At night, they have roosts in the henhouse.
Here’s the henhouse. The hens in the henhouse are guarded by…
what else? A guard pig.
The roosters, on the other hand, go wander around in the early morning hours outside of the pig’s protection. This guy got chomped by a coyote a couple days back.
His feathers were still scattered about the property.
Lynne and Bruce are growing beautiful peppers
and squash.
Some of the corn is already more than knee-high, and there’s plenty of time to the Fourth of July.
This sunflower is a spontaneous visitor, as are a bunch of tomatillo plants.
We retreated inside before the Warner Springs heat got too oppressive. Where we devoured lovely goat yogurt with strawberries and papaya. And took home some squash for the restaurant, and some goat cheese for ourselves.
Our generous hosts. Many thanks, Lynne and Bruce.
October 27th, 2007 at 9:11 pm
how do you get around buying from from an unliscensed non commercial vendor?.
What does SD county Health Department think about this practice?
October 28th, 2007 at 2:25 pm
Hi Mike,
Is this, like, Sysco’s new marketing practice, to imply that producers of better products are illegal? Wingshadows Hacienda is a commercial farm, with their own CSA and everything. Just like many other independent farms in San Diego County and elsewhere that supply restaurants that strive to serve the best and freshest ingredients. All of our vendors are legitimate and we follow the rules of the county health department.
Food doesn’t have to come shrink-wrapped from industrial warehouses to be safe or wholesome. In fact, generally the opposite is true — it’s factory meat and produce that results in the recalls we see every week from food distributed through big companies.
December 23rd, 2007 at 2:33 pm
[…] Lynne & Bruce Van Dyke-Grammer […]
January 10th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
[…] “real ranch” eggs we get from Wingshadows Hacienda, which grace our burger (and currently our salad lyonnaise) and which we also sometimes pickle, are […]
July 8th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
[…] Schnells a joy to spend time with as well. They are friends with their neighbors Bruce and Lynne of Wingshadows Hacienda, so it’s safe to assume some sort of wine/farm dinner is in the offing at the […]
October 30th, 2008 at 11:53 am
[…] Wingshadows Hacienda. Bruce and Lynne farm lots of vegetables and collect eggs from their numerous pastured chickens. Pastured chicken eggs are very rare in San Diego but they make a huge difference in things like our house made pasta or topping our burger. Starting in late November, we will be offering their pastured quail, which will be the first time I’ve heard of local pastured poultry available in San Diego, and we are super excited. […]
November 14th, 2008 at 10:32 am
I have been to the Wingshadows Hacienda many times and I personally can tell you that Lynne and Bruce are two of the most concerned people about their farm products. Not only have my wife and I visited there on occasion but Lynne has fed us everytime we have been there. The food has been very delicious and we have had many conversations about quality and safety of their products. Both Lynne and Bruce are very knowledgable about their Birds, Goats (where they get their yogurt and milk and cheese), and produce which of course is grown on site. I am only sorry that I live so far away from them as I would buy their foods that are available every week.
You Two Rock!!!
Ray Brown
See you Both in the near Future
April 23rd, 2009 at 1:02 am
I’d like to buy a couple of tomatillo plants…can’t find any anywhere…please help if you can.
Doug Meadows
619-461-0278
September 1st, 2009 at 8:53 am
[…] Hacienda is a purely Linkery farm: they grow whatever they judge to be best at their property, and every […]