Audubon Canyon Ranch invites visitors into legendary author M.F.K. Fisher’s Glen Ellen home

Wine Country history came alive on May 18 for visitors who toured famed food and wine writer M.F.K. Fisher’s Last House in Sonoma Valley.

The two-room house, located on the 500-acre Bouverie Preserve in Glen Ellen, is the focus of a monthly tour program led by Audubon Canyon Ranch, which stewards the preserve.

The 90-minute tour gives visitors a glimpse into Fisher's life, work, and the views she enjoyed. Wednesday was the second public tour of the house this year. Each tour is open to 12 visitors.

Cost of the tour is a suggested $25 donation per person or $20 donation for Audubon Canyon Ranch members, but no one is turned away. The money benefits the nonprofit organization’s programs and the continuing restoration and maintenance of Last House.

“The goal is to promote Fisher’s legacy,“ said Susie Allen, Bouverie Preserve events manager and Last House program coordinator. ”She was more than a food writer, she was a beautiful writer.“

Many of the tour visitors are fans of Fisher and her writing. Some tour visitors even knew Fisher while she lived at the house. “I get educated all the time by my tour groups,” said Allen.

Audubon Canyon Ranch has maintained the Bouverie Preserve since 1994, when architect David Bouverie, who purchased the land in 1938, passed away and left the land to the nonprofit environmental conservation and education organization as part of his estate.

Bouverie built Last House on the property for Fisher, who lived there from 1971 until her death in 1992. Fisher wrote 13 of her 34 books while living in the house, which she named “Last House” while she resided there.

Last House tours are sold out through July. Audubon Canyon Ranch is already planning tours for Aug. 9 and Sept. 20.

For more information, visit egret.org/mfk-fishers-last-house.