May Wine of the Month Recipes

For our May Wine of the Month recipes, we’re offering up a vegetarian picnic fare to pair with our Biodynamic® Cabernet Sauvignon. Like a warm afternoon stroll in a redwood grove, our Biodynamic Cabernet Sauvignon offers up aromas of dusty tannins, mushroomy forest floor, and zesty wood shavings. On the sip, redolent flavors of berry underbrush bloom in the mid-palate, leading into an elegant finish tinged with violets.

For our May Wine of the Month Recipes showcase, we had a picnic in one of the redwood groves up at the Frey Ranch. This lunchtime repast featured a spring vegetable frittata, a delicious salad, and a cheese board with bread, crackers, and vegetables. We decided to host this month’s seasonal food and Frey wine event in the redwood trees since we focused on the redwoods for our herbal highlight from the hedgerow for May.

Part 1: The Veggies

To prepare our vegetarian frittata, we greased a baking dish and turned on the oven to 350 degrees.
In a stovetop cooking pan, we sauteéd some onion in coconut oil (you can use your favorite oil). For a large pan, one large onion or two small onions should cook down until they are translucent.
Add chopped potato or sweet potato to the onions, along with rosemary, and garlic. Cook the potatoes until they start to soften through.
Layer the onions/potatoes into the baking dish as the bottom layer.
Sauté mushrooms in the oil of your choice in your cooking pan until soft. Add to the baking dish as a thin (or thick if you love mushrooms) next layer.
Water sauté greens of your choosing until they are soft. Drain the water, and add the greens layer into your baking dish.
Add in dollops of pesto here and there to compliment your other layers.

Potato, mushroom, greens, and pesto layers in place

Part 2: The Eggs

For the next part of the frittata, you need to prepare the egg mixture that will become the final layer in the baking dish.

Crack enough eggs to cover your baking dish (usually at least a dozen).
Add a dash of milk or cream and a splash of water to the egg mixture.
Add salt and pepper to taste, along with any other Spring herbs that have not yet been added.
Beat the egg mixture until it is golden throughout and all of the yolks have been mixed in.
Optionally grate cheese (fontina or cheddar or whatever you have on hand) and add it to the egg mixture.
Add asparagus to the top whole or in pieces for decoration
Bake at 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes. The frittata top should be nicely golden brown, and the dish should be cooked all through.

The frittata is ready to go into the oven!

For our picnic lunch, we made the May wine of the month recipes to compliment our Biodynamic Cabernet Sauvignon. In addition to the frittata, we served a delicious, local salad with some of the first stone fruit of the season. We had a really lovely time. You can take a peek at our good times here.

Serve these delectable dishes at the picnic grounds of your choice, preferably with good friends, on a fine May day! The redwood grove where we held our picnic has long been a gathering space for the Frey family. For many years it has hosted parties, birth celebrations, wedding celebrations, and even memorials. These towering trees are a short hike from the Tomki winery, near a coursing body of water we call “Sand Creek.”

The redwood forest floor offers ample space to stop and rest. The large shade cover provides a welcome coolness as the temperatures get hotter and hotter by the day. While we sat to enjoy our picnic, filtered sun rays drifted into the scene, illuminating our picnic fare.

Many of the Freys raise some chickens on the Frey Ranch. When the sun’s heat returns in May, the chickens all go into high production mode, laying eggs quite regularly. The chickens enjoy the fresh, rich pasture of wild greens, full of nutritious bugs. And in turn, we get to enjoy the fruits of their labors. We featured organic, pasture-raised chicken eggs in this frittata recipe to celebrate the bounty of Spring!