For farmers, West Sonoma County’s Gold Ridge truly gold

Gold Ridge is a loosely defined feature stretching from the vicinity of Forestville to a little southeast of Sebastopol. About 10 miles long, its highest point is around 500 feet in elevation. Though the ridge has been described as the divide between the Atascadero/Green Valley watershed and the Santa Rosa Plain, both Gold Ridge Road and Luther Burbank’s Gold Ridge Experiment Farm are outside this delineation. Like many things geographical, its edges are a bit fuzzy.

The name seems to have come from the color of the predominant soil in this region, which also turned out to be agricultural “gold.” Gold Ridge soils, which are more precisely defined than Gold Ridge itself, cover about 56 square miles. Most is in the neighborhood of Sebastopol; some is also found in the county’s northwest corner.

Described as “dark, yellowish, fine, sandy loam .?.?. over a subsoil of golden yellow, sandy loam and fractured sandstone,” Gold Ridge soils began as the bed of an inland sea that slowly emptied into the ocean several million years ago. Fossil shells commonly show up in the area’s wells and rocky outcrops.

Nineteenth century settlers found redwood, Douglas fir, madrone and tanoak growing on Gold Ridge soils. It didn’t take them long to discover that the same land could grow high-quality crops without irrigation. Besides having an outstanding chemical balance, these soils store enough water in the subsoil to sustain plants through the dry season. They’re ideal for raising berries, cherries and especially Gravenstein apples.

The name Gold Ridge was already being used for the area in 1885 when Luther Burbank purchased 15 acres for his experimental farm. What the “Plant Wizard” developed over his career, much of it on those few Gold Ridge acres, is legendary - 800 varieties of fruits, flowers, vegetables and grains, including the Santa ?Rosa plum, the Shasta daisy, the ancestor of the Idaho potato, the thornless blackberry, and the spineless cactus.

Years later, as the area’s apple orchards went into decline, Gold Ridge soils also were found to provide excellent conditions for grapes. Light, balanced and well-drained, they encourage deep rooting but not excessive vigor, which tends to reduce fruit quality. It’s an essential ingredient of the area’s terroir - that combination of soil, climate and culture unique to each place. Terroir finds expression in the products and flavors of the land, whether it’s wine or apples.

Burbank had lived in Sonoma County for 10 years when he bought his Gold Ridge farm, but his experiences there must have reaffirmed his earlier impression of Sonoma County as “the chosen spot of all this earth as far as Nature is concerned.”