Historic Paicines Ranch, operated since 1860s, continues as
working ranch, event center
The seemingly hardscrabble land around Paicines is brown in late
summer, with the exception of acres of the new cash crop-wine
grapes-whose vines stretch up and down hillsides in southern San
Benito County. But this land has long been the domain of herds of
cattle and acres of hay.
The Paicines Ranch has been in operation dating back to its time
as a dairy ranch operated by Alexander Grogan in the 1860s. Located
off Cienega Road and Hwy. 25 a few miles south of Bolado Park, its
sustained run of operation throughout parts of three centuries is
impressive, and its new focus on a different kind of sustainability
by a different pair of land stewards is what has marked its rebirth
in the 21st century.
Historic Paicines Ranch, operated since 1860s, continues as working ranch, event center
The seemingly hardscrabble land around Paicines is brown in late summer, with the exception of acres of the new cash crop-wine grapes-whose vines stretch up and down hillsides in southern San Benito County. But this land has long been the domain of herds of cattle and acres of hay.
The Paicines Ranch has been in operation dating back to its time as a dairy ranch operated by Alexander Grogan in the 1860s. Located off Cienega Road and Hwy. 25 a few miles south of Bolado Park, its sustained run of operation throughout parts of three centuries is impressive, and its new focus on a different kind of sustainability by a different pair of land stewards is what has marked its rebirth in the 21st century.
Dot-com millionaires Sallie Calhoun and Matt Christiano purchased the 7,500-acre ranch in 2001 after initially purchasing a 400-acre spread off Limekiln road.
“We have a love of old buildings and history,” Calhoun said. “We bought [Paicines Ranch] as a place to wander around, but sometimes you start out on a journey and you don’t know where it’s going to take you.” While they had no intentions of raising cattle or organic row crops, things changed after a few months.
The couple loved the bucolic beauty of the ranch, which they purchased after Ridgemark Corporation’s plans to develop a resort hotel, golf courses, and homes was rejected by county supervisors in 2000. Pepper trees with gnarled trunks line the path from the main road to the ranch’s nerve center, a sprawling complex of homes, barns, and other structures, some of which are more than a century old. Palm trees stand tall above long stretches of walkways that cut through huge lawn areas, some of which are lined by African Shona statues.
“It’s one of the few forms of art or sculpture that you are supposed to touch,” Calhoun said.
A kinetic piece of art near one ranch home was commissioned especially for the ranch.
“The blue represents the San Benito River, of which seven miles runs through the ranch,” according to Leticia Hain, the ranch’s event center manager. “The big orb represents the sun and everything else represents the biodiversity of the ranch.”
A few months after taking ownership of Paicines Ranch, Calhoun and Christiano decided to try their hand at stewardship.
“We’ve been interested in the environment and native grasses and plants,” Calhoun said. “We felt it would be interesting to manage the land.” So in addition to beginning a renovation of more than a dozen buildings on the ranch, they bought cattle and utilized their land much as their predecessors had done for decades-with a few exceptions.
“We’re trying to increase biodiversity at the ranch,” Calhoun said. Everything we do is an attempt to make the soil and the plants more sustainable. You attempt to minimize your impact on the Earth. We believe that grass-fed beef is a sustainable model for ranching and with organic row cropping, you don’t pollute the water and ground or deplete the soil.”
The ranch works to minimize energy usage and recycles as much as possible. Calhoun and Christiano added a new well and water tank and improved roads and fencing as they restored the ranch.
“We imagined all along that we’d do a historic renovation; it took a bit longer to pursue the idea of an event center,” Calhoun said.
Most of the homes and buildings in the ranch complex have been painstakingly restored and are now rented out for weddings, family reunions and corporate retreats.
In the Grogan House, clawfoot tubs in the bathrooms and oriental rugs on wooden floors give the place a historic feel. The large living room window that looks onto the Cienega Valley was the spot that Judy Garland married Syd Luft.
Many of the buildings on the ranch had leaky roofs or other structural issues, but those have been addressed in the renovation.
“My philosophy is that you need to restore them and you need to use them,” Calhoun said.
In the so-called “Cheese House,” Christiano selected bright green, orange and blue paint colors for the wall.
“We like to do these as playful places,” she said. “We want them to be fun, playful and memorable.”
Calhoun said she enjoys when people from urban areas visit the ranch “to see where their food comes from.” Many locals visit the ranch each year as part of the annual Kinship Center’s annual Wine and Food Festival, which will hold its 52nd annual event at Paicines Ranch this Saturday.
“It’s fun to see urban dwellers at the ranch, particularly when they say, ‘Wow, this is where the cows live.’ They are fascinated by it as much as I still am.”
There is another benefit to exposing “city folk” to sustainable workings of the ranch, Calhoun said. “If people from the Santa Clara Valley talk to me about grass-fed beef, they may think a little bit more next time the issue of open space or view sheds or water sheds comes up.”
The 52nd annual Kinship Center Gabilan Chapter Wine and Food Festival will be held at Paicines Ranch Saturday, Sept. 6 from 4-6:30 p.m. Several dozen local and regional restaurants and wineries will offer samples of their food and wine in an elegant setting on the historic ranch. Tickets are $50, with proceeds aiding the Kinship Center’s efforts to find permanent, safe homes for abused, abandoned and neglected children. For more information, contact Nancy Oliveira at 637-1359 or Mary Edrington at 637-6945.
