Baldasare Forestiere

That is probably a name you have never heard of, yet here in the Central Valley of California, he is pretty well known for his digging skills.

Baldasare grew up in Sicily and became quite skilled at grafting fruit trees.  Always working for someone else, he longed for a piece of property of his own where he could make a living growing fruits and vegetables.

He saved up all his money and was finally able to immigrate to the United States in the early 1900's.  He had found some property for sale for a mere $1 an acre, actually a pretty good price back then.  He purchased 80 acres and set about to become a farmer.

Unfortunately when he began to till the soil, he discovered his entire 80 acres was covered with a thick layer of hardpan, an extremely dense layer of clay that doesn't allow water or roots to penetrate it.  We had entire fields full of hardpan at the ranch, making growing things impossible.

Baldasare was crushed.  His dream lost.  He had to find work elsewhere, but what was he going to do with 80 acres of hardpan?  He made lemonade.  Not having a house to live in during the hot summer months, he began to dig below ground where it was cooler.  Maybe he could use these chunks of hardpan like bricks and so Forestiere Gardens came to life.

This is the entrance, down several steps to a beautiful arch-enclosed patio.  He left openings at the top to allow light and sunshine into the house, like windows.

Baldasare hacked the chunks of hardpan into brick-like pieces and built living quarters with arches everywhere.  This is the original kitchen.  As you can see, the walls are rather rough.  The black thing hanging down is the chimney for his cook stove.  He later moved the stove to the NEW kitchen.

Down about 10 feet and finally through the hardpan, he discovered he could plant trees which would grow up through the holes he made in the ceiling.  Citrus seemed to be his favorite and he put his grafting skills to good use.  Most all of the trees growing here are over 100 years old and yes, that is an orange at the top of the tree.

Not wanting to feel closed in, he built archway after archway so he could see great distances while inside.  At the very far end of these hallways is the well he dug.  While building all this, he incorporated elaborate ways of disposing of rainfall that came through the holes in the roof.

Here it is June and these orange trees are still full of edible fruit.  I'm guessing it was about ten degrees cooler inside.  Every tree was planted in a planter about three feet tall.  Ledges were built around the holes at the top so as water came in, it cascaded over those ledges which directed it straight into the planter.  Automatic waterers.

As you walk around the hallways admiring the rock work, you will find yourself right back where you started.  It's all built in the round, so to speak.

As time went on, Baldasare decided to make a hotel/spa/resort and began making courtyards and bigger rooms.  As you can see, harvesting the trees was pretty easy.  He just climbed the stairs, walked outside and gathered the fruit from the top of the trees.

To say hardpan is hard as a rock is an understatement.  Here you can see the scratch marks he made with hammer and chisels to sculpt the ceilings.  His first rooms were pretty rough looking but as his skills improved, he began to make fabulous arches and plastered all the walls.

The window you see is to his bedroom, looking out on this courtyard, which is also the bathroom.  The interesting part is the iron rail bridge which crosses over his fish pond.  He would catch fish in the river and keep them alive in this pond until he was ready for a fish dinner.

Across the large courtyard, the bathtub allowed a little bit of privacy.  He painted a big metal container black, set it up top in the sun and kept it full of water.   Just open the faucet and he had hot water for a bath!  

He finally moved his kitchen to the new section, this being his original wood cook stove.  The table pushes back in to the wall to allow access to the wood box just below.  Shelves were made by making notches in the walls and fitting in 2 x 6's.  To the left are beautiful French doors looking out to a big patio.  Yup ... he actually had doors and windows in most rooms.

This was Baldasares winter bedroom, completely carved out of hardpan.  One of the problems he had was not knowing if anyone was up top, either a visitor or a culprit.  In his bedroom (and all about the inside) he had spy holes to see who was there.  This room has a hole going to the fireplace in the room next door (completely invisible) that allowed him to see who was at the French doors in the kitchen.

Baldasare also installed a large bell.  When family and friends came to visit, they would ring the bell so he would know to come to the entrance courtyard.  

I'll break this up into two blogs since there are still so many cool things to show you.  Baldasare harvested the fruit from his trees and sold it locally to make money to build his new endeavor, an underground hotel.  Believe it or not, this facility covered almost the entire 80 acres.  It is now down to only ten and I will explain why tomorrow.

I'm happy to say I came home with all ten fingers yesterday, leaving no extra protein in the hamburgers.  I think today is nap day!!