Current Issue Articles

Then & Now:

How the Valley Has Changed
and Grown in Two Decades

By Kenneth Harwood

  Let our imaginations take wing over the Santa Ynez Valley in 1988, and once again now.
  What differences do we see in twenty years?
  More trees and more homes are everywhere. Open land becomes dotted with homes, and with trees, for homes bring trees.
  Rows of grapevines march across the hills where cattle grazed. Strawberries, corn, tomatoes, and peas sprout from old pastures.

Ranch and Farm Tourism
Visible economic change in this valley comes with the rise of agritourism. Miles and miles of picturesque vineyards seem foremost among the changes. Visitors find hearty welcomes in vineyard wineries and their tasting rooms.

Santa Ynez Valley Ranches - Then and Now

Photo by Wolcott Schley

  Agritourism includes more than educational activities such as wine tasting. Outdoor recreation such as horseback riding and fishing is another part. Petting zoos and country festivals are a third kind of agricultural tourism. Then there are ranch and farm stays as a fourth kind. Last are on-farm direct sales such as roadside stands and “pick your own” farms.
   Santa Ynez Valley farms and ranches offer all of these kinds of agritourism, and perhaps more. Nearby Lake Cachuma has fishing. Quicksilver Farm on Alamo Pintado Road south of Ballard is where kids often pet miniature horses. Alisal Guest Ranch at Solvang is a small corner of a 10,000 acre working ranch. Summerset Farm at Edison Street and Baseline Road, Santa Ynez, sells seasonal vegetables, fruits, and flowers.
  Clairmont Farms on Roblar Avenue south of Los Olivos is where you buy fresh lavender, lavender soap, lavender oil, and other lavender products. Buellton’s Ostrich Land gives kids and grownups a close look at ostriches, with opportunity to buy the giant ostrich eggs and ostrich meat.
  Late summer finds more than a dozen varieties of apples in roadside stands along Alamo Pintado Road from Los Olivos to Ballard and Solvang. Autumn brings corn mazes, pumpkins, squashes, and gourds to Summerset Farm at Santa Ynez, as well as to the roadside land of The Solvang Farmer west of Solvang on state route 246.

Photo by Vicki Mitchell

Wine Tourism
Yet wine tourism calls most enchantingly to visitors all year long. Sideways (2004) is an award collecting film having a main background of Santa Ynez Valley wines, vineyards, tasting rooms, and countryside.
Make your way on the Web to Yahoo Sideways movie wine trip planner. See locales you can visit. Buellton includes Hitching Post II restaurant, Days Inn, A. J. Spurs restaurant, and Ostrich Land
Los Olivos has as Sideways settings Los Olivos Café and

Wine Merchant, Fess Parker Winery, and Andrew Murray Vineyards. Santa Ynez is represented in the movie by Kalyra Winery. Solvang’s movie places are Solvang Restaurant, River Course at the Alisal, and Old Mission Santa Ines.
Some 33 varieties of wine grapes grace the Santa Ynez Valley. The most recognized varieties are Chardonnay, Syrah or Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Franc, Grenache, Sangiovese, Voignier, and Grenache Blanc. Sideways promoted the rising popularity of Pinot Noir grapes and wines.
Los Olivos, and Solvang offer larger clusters of wine tasting rooms and wine bars. Other clusters are in Buellton, Santa Ynez, and nearby Los Alamos. New wine tasting places opened in 2007.

Dining Experiences Market value of agriculture in Santa Barbara County more than doubled from 1988 to the present. Agriculture brings more than a billion dollars a year now. Leading products in market value are strawberries, broccoli, wine grapes, head lettuce, celery, avocados, cauliflower, leaf lettuce, cattle, and lily cut flowers. Bell peppers today take first place among vegetables in number of acres harvested. Fresh local products make possible meals that appeal to every palate. Chefs in the valley call upon local commercial gardeners for freshest tomatoes, lettuce, beans, peas,	Photo courtesy Julie Palladino Solvang Antique Center
Photo courtesy Julie Palladino Solvang Antique Center	corn, spinach, squash, leeks, shallots, fennel, oregano, and rosemary. Local beef is featured by many. Local olive oils dress the salads, while local walnuts garnish them. Tables are decorated with local cut flowers such as roses, chrysanthemums,
dahlias, and snapdragons. New and Renovated Guest Rooms Chumash Casino Resort spreads across reservation land that in 1988 bore a modest and struggling bingo hall. Now the multistory casino and hotel are a highly rated resort, and the largest employer in the Santa Ynez Valley.	Photo courtesy Julie Palladino Solvang Antique Center

  The Royal Scandinavian Inn was Solvang’s leading hotel in 1988, as it is today. Mostly invisible economic change came when Chumash Casino Resort bought the Inn. Renovations inside the hotel go on quietly room by room as usual activities continue.
  Visitors to the Santa Ynez Valley have a further choice in housing today than they did twenty years ago. Bed and breakfast inns, hotels, are joined by timeshare units for longer term stays. Worldmark by Wyndham Resorts arrived in Solvang with timeshare units for stays as long as thirty days. The timeshare ownership network includes possible stays in Solvang, all three main regions of continental United States, Hawaii, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, and Cayman Islands.
  Nearly all guest rooms in the Santa Ynez Valley are renewed or new since 1988. A renewal project of hospitality managers in 2008 is to complete as much as possible of the change from tube television receivers to the flat panel high definition sets. February, 2009, is the deadline for the change, as the Federal Communications Commission turns older television broadcast channels to new uses, including more channels for wireless telephones.

From 1808 to 2008
Now let imagination fly us over Santa Ynez Valley 200 years ago, when Old Mission Santa Ines (1804) flourished. We see much more open range, a few cattle, and a few sheep. Thatched dome houses in small and scattered villages shelter some of the forebears of those who own Chumash Casino Resort of 2008.
Today’s luxury laden guest rooms come down to us from the simple guest rooms of Old Mission Santa Ines and the one room Chumash domes. A sip of sacramental wine in the mission becomes thousands of cases of bottles rolling to tasting rooms, wine bars, and retail shops from small wineries in the valley. One variety of wine grape explodes to dozens of varieties. At table we see instead of beans, corn, and squash the colorful show of many more fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, and local meats. Wildflowers and perhaps a few mission roses on the table become many varieties of locally produced cut flowers.
Warm hospitality remains the same.

Kenneth Harwood retired with his wife, Shirley Harwood, to Santa Ynez from Houston in 1994. He serves as volunteer economist of Solvang Chamber of Commerce and Adjunct Professor of Communication in University of California, Santa Barbara. She is a volunteer in the staff of Treasure House of Santa Ynez Valley Humane Society.

Current Issue Articles

Then & Now:

How the Valley Has Changed and Grown in Two Decades

How the Valley Has Changed
and Grown in Two Decades