SoCal with Val 9 19 25 Guests Roger Hedgecock & Tyler Stamets

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:23):
Think of Southern California. It's beaches, it's desert, it's mountains
and apples. Did you know that the city of Julian
is one of the only places in southern California where
you can pick apples forty two hundred feet above sea
level and that its unique climate makes the apple sweeter

(00:46):
than those grown at lower elevations. Or did you know
that this little mountain town was once a gold rush
hotspot before apples and pies were even put on the map.
Welcome to Socao with Valley and Valerie van Dersover, and
today we're exploring Julian, California, a town where history, family

(01:07):
fund and small town charm and the world's most famous
apple pies all come together. Joining me are two amazing guests.
Tyler Stammets is the President of the Julian Chamber of Commerce.
He is a Julian native, where he serves now as
a passionate advocate for preserving the charm, history, and economic

(01:29):
fatality of this fun town. Tyler's deeply rooted in Julian's
local economy, in the culture, and he plays a pivotal
role in organizing seasonal events. Likes to have a good
time supporting small businesses and promoting sustainable tourism to this
treasured mountain escape. And we're going to talk about some

(01:51):
of the fun things that they do and that he's
a part of. Also, we're joined by Roger Hedgecock, the
owner and the heart behind Vulcan Valley Apple Farm, one
of Julian's largest. In fact, I think it is the
largest and most visited apple picking destinations. Known for its

(02:12):
family friendly atmosphere and scenic orchard rose, Roger's farm actually
draws thousands of visitors each fall. He's a dedicated steward
of the land and a beloved figure in Julian's farming
and tourism. From apple picking and ghost stories to cozy

(02:33):
cabins and pie secrets, We're going to share everything that
makes Julian, such as sweet escape. So grab a cup
of cider and let's dig in. Tyler and Roger, thank
you so much for being our guest today.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
Thank you for having us, for having us, You're very welcome.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
So let's talk about the history. Probably most people probably
have heard of Julian. Maybe some of them go there
every year, maybe some of them have been there at all.
But even I learned a little bit about the history
of Julian when I was preparing for our time together.
So let's talk about that. It was founded in the
eighteen seventies. Yeah, and it was a gold rush town,

(03:13):
the only town in southern California that was a gold
rush town. So tell us about it.

Speaker 3 (03:18):
Yeah, home of southern California is one and only gold rush.
You know, when you think of gold country, you think
of the northern Sierra mountains and foothills there in northern California.
But Julian was Southern California's own little gold rush. Nowhere
near the quantity of gold that they had up north,
but definitely quite a few mines, a couple of which

(03:40):
you can still tour today.

Speaker 1 (03:43):
And how did how is it discovered? Somebody just happened
to find gold in.

Speaker 3 (03:48):
The Yeah, they discovered it by seeing flex of gold
in the local creek. It's now called Coleman Creek after
mister Coleman discovered gold in that creek. And you know,
the saying is that, you know, the rest is history.
The town sprung up right next to that creek, and

(04:09):
that's where it still is today.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
That's exciting. That's exciting. So and then from that point on.
Then the gold dried up, and yeah, Roger started growing apples.

Speaker 3 (04:21):
Yeah, yeah, apples came in a little bit after the
gold rush kind of ended there in the early nineteen hundreds.
Roger might have more information on that.

Speaker 2 (04:33):
Well, it's a fascinating story actually. Well because when mister Coleman,
who was a freed slave from the state of Kentucky,
came out here and it's kind of looking around at
the creek there and all of a sudden he sees
his little shiny stuff. Well, as Tod said, the rest
is history because thousands of people flocked there to see
if they could find it. And you find today around
the hills of Julian, little diggings, little places where the

(04:58):
land is kind of indented, these folks who were looking
for gold. And on a property that I own, there's
a three gold mines, the Owens mind, the Janet mine,
and the Chieftain mind. That were very, very effective for
a couple of years in the eighteen eighties and put
Julian on the map. There was one time where actually
the County of San Diego was maybe going to put

(05:19):
the county seat in Julian instead of the city of
San Diego. So kind of an interesting history. But the
town itself was founded, of course by James Drury and
Mike Julian and the people that like that who came
looking west because their whole state was obliterated in the
Civil War. They were Georgians and they were Confederate soldiers

(05:39):
and they came here and what the Confederates soldiers and
the ex slaves got together to make Julian.

Speaker 1 (05:46):
Well, that's certainly interesting. That's certainly interesting. Great story. And
some of the mines are still.

Speaker 3 (05:54):
There, well, a couple of them are.

Speaker 2 (05:56):
Tyler mentioned a couple the Washington mindes open to tourists
to come and see how these miners with picks and shovels.
I mean, they didn't have any elaborate machinery. We're going
into these mountains and in some cases three and four
hundred feet in and I've got a place on my
property in which there's a air hole. It was drilled
down to get to the mine, so the miners would

(06:17):
have air. That drilling down is over three hundred feet deep.
So there was some really incredible excavations done. Again, pick
and shovel.

Speaker 3 (06:27):
Yeah, yeah, the Washington and Egle Peak mine are still open.
Daily for tours. It's always one of my number one
recommendations for any tourists who it's their first time in
Juline and they want to get a sense of what
it was like back in the gold rush days. You
can go to the Eagle Peak Mine and take a tour.

(06:47):
They're open pretty much every day and it's one of
the most reliable tourist attractions there in Julian and a
very fun tour. You really get a sense of how
difficult it must have been for those folks those lines,
like Roger said, with a pick and shovel, but also
you know what imprint they left on the landscape and

(07:07):
on the town.

Speaker 1 (07:09):
But they I'm sure they did that because of the
hope that they were going to find gold, right.

Speaker 3 (07:13):
Yeah, And they did find quite a bit of gold there.
And then the Stonewall Mine, which is now part of
Quiamaca State Park, there was a large mine that you
can go see the remnants of as part of the
Queamaca Rancho State Park near Julian that was one of
the most prolific mines in the area. I'm not so
good on my mind stats of how many pounds of

(07:36):
gold were taken out of the hills, but it was
enough for quite a while for it to be worth
all of the time and the effort.

Speaker 1 (07:44):
Well, that's certainly interesting and we'll have to bring that
into our next tour to Julian. So for those people
who've never been there, how would you describe the vibe
of this little town? What makes it so special this
time of year. I've seen that some of the old
buildings are still intact. Is that correct?

Speaker 3 (08:03):
Yeah, that's very correct. You can call it a quaint town,
you can call it a storybook village, you can call
it a lot of different things. But the one thing
that Julian is is it's a pleasant place to go.
And whether you're sampling some apple pie, whether you're strolling
the streets looking at unique shops, whether you're out picking

(08:25):
apples off of the trees, or you're taking a gold
mine tour, you really feel like you're transported to another time.
But it's a real place. It's not something that someone
recreated and rebuilt as an amusement park or something like that.
This is a real town that has existed since the
eighteen seventies, and some of these buildings that you're looking
at were built back in those days and have been

(08:49):
used ever since. So it's a living, breathing place that
feels like it should be part of a theme park
or something like that.

Speaker 1 (08:56):
And are a lot of the business owners Tyler like
you have they been there for a long time.

Speaker 3 (09:01):
Many have, many have. There's a really great mixture of
very long time, multi generational families that are running businesses
in Julian. And then there are always new entrepreneurs who
are coming into the area. Looking at how many tourists
are in Julian, especially in the fall, right around apple
picking season, and you know, everyone still thinks that there's

(09:23):
a little bit of gold to be made up in
those hills, and everyone wants to try their hand at it.
Some are very successful and do a wonderful job. Some
are not so much. But it's always interesting to see
all the different things happening.

Speaker 1 (09:34):
So let's talk about the history of the apple orchards.
How did they come to me? Did one person start
planting or were there apple trees already there?

Speaker 2 (09:44):
Well, well, you mentioned that there was a lot of
attention paid to the unique environment of Julian, and it's
quite true. We're as you mentioned, we're a little over
four thousand feet at the orchard and we get contrary
to most other places in San Diego County, we get snow,
a lot of it and several I think last year

(10:06):
was maybe nine or ten days when snow stayed on
the ground and we got down into the twenties and
early twenties and low twenties on my property. And this
is essential to getting good apples off your trees. You've
got to have what the farmers call a chill hours,
that is to say a number of hours consecutively when
you're under thirty two degrees. Because it's interesting these trees,

(10:30):
the cold is part of their defensive mechanism. When it
gets cold, it freezes out the bugs and fungi and
all this stuff is trying to attack them and to
eat the tree, and so the tree has this defense
mechanism which is rooted in the cold weather. So most
of the places Sandygo County and southern California do not

(10:51):
get that kind of sustained snow, and we do. The
other thing, of course, is the water. It's very important
to understand that a lot of the water comes in
San Diego course from conduits from southern northern California and
the Colorado river, and all that not ours ours comes
out of the ground, and it comes out of the
ground in my place in a fissure that's got to

(11:12):
be water that's millions of years old, very low mineral content,
actually very good water, and it goes on those trees
and they love it. So a combination of a unique
environment that's come together in this orchard to produce trees
that are really quite wonderful.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
And I heard something and you just said this, You
just referred to it something about that it needs cold
for part of it needs hot for some of it.

Speaker 2 (11:37):
Well, the hot comes along, that's true. So the cold
is in the wintertime, but then in the spring and
summer you need that heat. And what you don't need
is a lot of humidity. And that's another thing that's
unique about San Diego County as opposed to say the
South or Texas or wherever. We don't have a lot
of humidity. Now recently we've been getting some storms called
the monsoons come up from Mexico. We get good rain,

(12:00):
which I like, but we also get a humidity which
I don't like. And that's that's something that produces some
problems for the trees. But most of all. Most characteristically,
we don't have the high humidity in other places, and
again this is very good for the apple trees.

Speaker 1 (12:16):
Let's go back a minute, Roger and talk about your history.
So give our listeners and our viewers if you little
insight into your background, what brought you to where you
are and of all the things you could have done,
how did you end up here?

Speaker 2 (12:30):
Well, this lawyer, politician, talk show host. I finally got
to the end of that line in twenty sixteen. And
before that, I'd always wanted to have a place at
Julian where I could get away, you know. I lived
down at the beach, get away from the urban area
and come up and have some fun in this unique
little town that Tyler was talking about. And I finally
found a house on five acres, a beautiful place, and

(12:52):
then down the road there was this big orchard, and
the elderly lady who was running that decided time to
give that up, so she sold it to me and
I started in. We closed escrow in March of that year,
eleven years ago, and my harvest was scheduled for September,
and I knew nothing about what to do next in
terms of that, So there was a guy named Ray Meyer,

(13:15):
who at eighty four, had been working those trees in
Julian since he was twenty nine years old. He knew
everything about it. So I said, Ray, I'm attaching you
to my Goodyear, and you're going to tell me every
day what I need to do to make this September
harvest work. And sure enough he did that, and that
was the beginning of the whole thing.

Speaker 1 (13:32):
And what time of year was it that you got started?

Speaker 2 (13:35):
Well, well, I came into it in March, in the spring,
and so he started talking to me about blossoms and
I said blossoms and he said, yeah, bees and I
said bees, and so we went from there.

Speaker 1 (13:45):
My goodness, So apples are you always get a fresh
batch every year? Correct?

Speaker 2 (13:50):
Every year and only once a year? That's correct?

Speaker 1 (13:53):
Right? And then you have people who pick like I are.
One of our sponsors on this show is a wine maker.
So we talk about the harvest for grapes, which is
a little bit different. But then there are people that
go dipping down the rows and pick the grapes, and
I'm assuming the same thing happens with you have pickers.

Speaker 2 (14:11):
Well, no, we have a little bit different situation here.
Because it's a you pick. So what we do is,
at a certain time, when all the apples are getting ripe,
we open our gates to the general public. We sell
them a bag, and they go out with their kids
and grandkids and have fun picking the apples. And we've
got picnic tables, and we've got lemonade stands, and we've
got all kinds of fun stuff to do for families.
And so the families come up and they pick, and

(14:31):
this is the experience I really love about this. The
kids approach a tree and they get to twist and
pop off an apple and actually eat it because we
don't spray pesticides, so they can eat the apple right
there and get the experience that these apples don't just
derive in a supermarket. You know, these are apples right
off the tree and a very very good taste.

Speaker 1 (14:50):
Yeah, so tell us about the type of apple this is.
This didn't happen to come from Julian, came from the
grocery store. But so you have like Granny Smith, I mean,
what do you grow.

Speaker 2 (15:04):
The orchard that I bought into was already forty years old,
so the varieties they planted, then the Jonathan's the Empires,
the Golden Delicious, the Pippins. So our Pippin is like
our Granny Smith, but I think maybe much more tasty.
The Empire is.

Speaker 1 (15:18):
Of course, we're sure that must be the case.

Speaker 2 (15:21):
Absolutely, So the Empire is actually half of a what
do you call them that you find in the stores. Now,
the Macintosh and the Empire were put together, and the
result of eating an empire you go, oh, well, this
is very sweet and juicy and all that, because it's
right off the tree. For one thing, you don't have
five months in a cooler before you get it in
the supermarket. So it's a whole different attitude. And we

(15:44):
have four or five different varieties depending on whether you
want to cook or whether you just want to eat.

Speaker 1 (15:49):
Now, I read that you advertise or you market that
the apples are there until they're all gone. Is that correct?
So and then you told me before we started today
that you're time with your open to the public is
four days or three days or five days? How many
days a week are you opening?

Speaker 3 (16:07):
Three days a week?

Speaker 2 (16:07):
It's Friday, Saturday, Sunday. And we're coming to the end
of twenty twenty five. Actually, it was an interesting year
and not as many apples as I thought, we're going
to be there, so we're shortening the season a little bit.
But by the time people see this, mark your calendar
for September of twenty six because we'll be back with
the bigger crop, I hope by that time. But we
are certainly Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of most weekends in

(16:29):
September for the public to come and pick their own apples.

Speaker 1 (16:33):
And considering the amount of the size of your orchard,
and forgive me if I don't use the right terms
considering the size of your orchard, when do you always
open on the same day like, for example, do you
always open on Labor Day for example? And does it
usually take the same amount of time every year to
sell out your crop.

Speaker 2 (16:53):
We'll open after Labor Day because we figured on the
long term basis that's when the apple first apples get
to be ripe and they're ready to be picked. But
it varies, it depends on the apples are in charge.
And so when they're ripe and they're ready, then we
open and when they're gone, we close. And that's the
way we operate, and.

Speaker 1 (17:10):
That usually takes how many weeks.

Speaker 2 (17:13):
Usually it's going to be four weekends of the Friday,
Saturday Sunday. This year, we're not going to make four.
But we're having a heck of a good time doing
what we're doing.

Speaker 1 (17:22):
And that's all.

Speaker 3 (17:24):
That's all.

Speaker 1 (17:25):
The only time people can come.

Speaker 2 (17:26):
What you're saying, Val is I'm never going to get
an honorary MBA because my business model is twelve days
of revenue and three hundred and fifty three days of expenditures.

Speaker 1 (17:34):
Yes, yeah, we get it. I thought you were going
to say the other days you were going to retire,
and I well that must be. That's kind of a
good all. There's work to be done, Yes, yes, there is.
So Okay, well let's tyler, we'll go back to you
on this. So how has Julian Balance maintained its historic
character while being accessible to modern visitors? People still and

(17:59):
obviously do you want the historic charm?

Speaker 3 (18:02):
Right right? Well, I mean, I think the important thing
to note is even though apple picking is a short
portion of the year when you can actually go and
pick fresh right apples off the tree, there's something going
on in Julian year round. There are festivals happening year round.
We have a large Christmas celebration that we do every year.
We do our Grape Stomp Festival. There are countless performing

(18:26):
arts groups and different venues around town with live music
and events. So no matter what time of year you
happen to decide to visit Julian, there's always something to do.
And there's apple pie in the shops year round. So
if you don't get a chance to pick a pie
or a pick a pie off the tree, nope, pick
an apple off the tree, there's still going to be

(18:48):
a fresh made, warm Julian apple pie in half a
dozen bakeries around town at this point. That is definitely
worth the drive alone. So that's an important thing. Some
people say, oh, I missed it. I didn't get a
chance to go apple picking, while there's still plenty.

Speaker 1 (19:05):
Of things to do in the year. Excuse me, and Roger,
what do you did? You do you do anything in
your orchard for the off.

Speaker 3 (19:12):
Season, not for the public.

Speaker 2 (19:14):
We're working working the trees, we're trimming them, and we're
pruning them, and we're you know, all those things that
need to be done in terms of the irrigation and
the fertilizing. But by the way, if you come down
for some of the wonderful music happening in Julian in
various places, and a lot of the times Tyler Sis
will be playing his banjo and guitar right down.

Speaker 1 (19:36):
Yeah, Tyler, always see you performing.

Speaker 3 (19:39):
Uh yeah, Well, my next performance in Julian for a
major event is for the country Christmas event, and that
happens every year the Saturday after Thanksgiving, so that puts
it this year. I'm gonna actually look at the calendar
so I don't get it wrong. That's November twenty ninth
is our big Christmas tree lighting ceremony right there in

(20:00):
the center of town, and we decorate the whole town
with lights and decor and then have a nice Christmas
tree lighting ceremony. We light the Christmas tree at six
pm on the twenty ninth, and that's a yearly event,
so if you miss it this year, you can come back.
It's always the Saturday after Thanksgiving that Julian turns into
little Christmas town.

Speaker 1 (20:22):
So Tyler, tell us a little bit about you. You're
born and raised in Julian and now you have two
or three different businesses. I know of three.

Speaker 3 (20:30):
What else do yeah? Yeah, born and raised in Julian.
I went to Julian Elementary and Julian High School. Growing up,
my father was a business owner in town. My mother
was a teacher at the elementary school. She actually taught
music at the elementary school there in Julian, so I

(20:54):
got a lot of my musical education from her. I
actually played music growing up with my parents. We had
a little folk trio. They were playing as a duo,
and then as I got older, they roped me into
playing music with them, so we would play at various
Julian events. This was many years ago at this point,

(21:16):
but I graduated from high school and then I decided
to move away from Julian for a while. I needed
to get out of the small town and experience the
rest of the world, you know. Went up Orange County,
went to UC Irvine for college, studying theater and a
lot of different things there. I wound up working for
Disney for many years. But then I had found myself

(21:38):
back in Julian again. My brother and I co owned
two different gift stores in town. The Old Julian Garage
is our newest venture that we've been operating for the
last five years, and the Warm Hearth is the largest
gift store in town. It sells gifts, clothing, food items,

(22:00):
all sorts of different things. It's a true general store
and you can find a lot of great items if
you're The shopping plug hits you while you're in Julian
and always something great to see in there. I'm also
a real estate broker. I have a real estate prokerage
with my business partner, Angela Tyler and Angela do real estate,

(22:21):
so we do a lot of real estate in the
Jullion and surrounding areas. And I'm also a musician. I
have a band called the Sun Valley String Band. We
play bluegrass style music and do a lot of producing
events for the community, including the Country Christmas and the
Grape Stop Festival. And I also produced the Julian Pound

(22:43):
Square Music Festival every June. So that's a quick rundown
of all the different things that I do.

Speaker 1 (22:51):
So for someone who wonders what you do when you're
not the council president, yeahmer president.

Speaker 3 (23:00):
Yeah, I'm busy with something, no matter whether it.

Speaker 1 (23:03):
Is yea, I see that yes outside and not only that,
your great businessman from what I've had the privilege of seeing,
and you are a man of your word and you're
just a fine person. So as are both of you,
So tell us who are your favorite guests. Do you
love it when the families come? Do you like international guests?
Do you have people who come every year and they

(23:23):
come up to you and say, oh, I was here
last year.

Speaker 3 (23:27):
Yeah, I mean go ahead. My favorite are definitely those
families that make a point to come to Julian every year,
those repeat visitors, and so many people that do come
to Julian come every year or every other year, and
they have their favorite spots and they love to go
visit their favorite spots and sample their favorite foods, or

(23:47):
visit their favorite apple orchard and pick those apples, and
it's great to see the same faces over and over again.
The thing that makes me the happiest is when someone
tells me, oh, going to your store as a family tradition.
We've been going there every years by guests for you know,
the last ten years, the last twenty years, and you know,
our businesses have been in business for quite some time,

(24:10):
so you know, we have you know, second generation of
people who are you know, shopping at the warm hearth
there in the middle of town, and it's great to
see those folks coming back over and over again. Those
are definitely I love them all.

Speaker 1 (24:24):
Yeah, I'm sure, And what a privilege. What about you, Roger.
If someone's never been to a U pick, what can
they expect when they come to your orchard?

Speaker 2 (24:31):
Well, we have people there who help them to understand
the process that they get this bag, and then they
immediately ask, well, what varieties do you have? And what
about red? And what about yell y know all that,
and we have somebody to help people. We show them
where the what the orchard is organized row by row
with a sign that says what kind of apples in
that rope and how you get to the good ones
and where the good ones are today and all that

(24:51):
kind of thing. But I want to also emphasize what
Tyler just said, because I love the fact that we
have people come in and I've just experienced this yesterday.
People come in and say, well, my parents brought me
here when I was ten years old, and now I've
got my kids ten years old here and there's grandparents
and parents and kids coming in and it's I mean,
total family affair. It's really a great experience for the family.

(25:13):
And I just want to add that for me. You know,
I don't need to do this. I'm old enough to
be totally retired and having fun. But I don't want
to do that, because to me, having fun is interacting
with these people who are discovering that fresh off the
tree apples a whole different experience of what you get
in the store.

Speaker 1 (25:31):
Yeah, yes, yes it is. Yes.

Speaker 3 (25:34):
I was lucky enough to grow up eating those apples
fresh off the tree. I lived down the road from
what it had been a orchard that wasn't being up
kept or picked very often. But I would go down
every fall, right around this time of year and grab
as many apples as we could carry home off of
these trees. And the apples are amazing. And I've still

(25:58):
never tasted apples anything like them.

Speaker 2 (26:01):
No, that's truely. And up at the house, Valerie, I've
got the houses of separate property my wife and I have,
and we have some old trees on this from a
preceding pioneer family, the Farmer family, actually they were called,
and the Farmer family planted an orchard that I still
have twenty two examples of that are over one hundred
years old. And so these are before genetic engineering and
all that. You know, we have four thousand varieties of

(26:23):
apples now in this country, but back when there was
you know, a couple of dozen the red delicious that
grow there are just as perfect as you can imagine.
And every year those trees, without a lot of prompting,
produce a lot of apples, some of which go into
Tom Nichols beer. By the way, he makes an apple
beer that's just terrific.

Speaker 1 (26:43):
And do either of you bake pies at home or
do you go and get them at that pie company.

Speaker 3 (26:50):
Well, I'm not the biggest pie baker. I enjoy other
culinary pursuits, but pies. I was looking enough to grow
up eat lots of Mom's Apple Pies, which is another bakery,
and Julian because my aunt is the owner of Moms Pies.
So I was spoiled rotten for pies all through my

(27:12):
entire childhood and right up until today. Because having a
pie maker in the family has its benefits. Let me
tell you, when you show up for Thanksgiving and the
stack of pies is a mile high and you have
your pick of every single variety that that pie shop makes,
which is about twenty different pies, it's pretty great. You know,

(27:34):
everyone could have their own pie for dessert if they wanted.

Speaker 1 (27:38):
That would be pretty interesting. So most of the apples
that you grow roger are they I guess you'd say harvest.
Are they also good pie apples?

Speaker 2 (27:51):
You know a lot of them are, and people will come.
For instance, I have two rows of Gravenstein apples, which
are no longer produced commercially, but people who make apple
sauce and apple baked goods love this. They come from
la they come from Orange County. They'll come from all
over southern California. When I announce we're going to have
what we call our Gravenstein Festival, these two rows out

(28:11):
of fifty rows that I have, these two rows grow
these Gravensteins, and people just come from all over to
get them, and they come in early. The problem with
them and the reason they're not commercially grown anymore, they
become ripe and then about you an hour later, they
drop on the ground, unlike other apples that stay on
the tree. So these are very fragile apples and very tasty.
So we do have some that the bakers really enjoy. Because,

(28:33):
for instance, Sonoma County used to be covered with Gravenstein
trees and no longer because it's all grapes.

Speaker 1 (28:40):
So the people who know It's one of those if
you know, you know kind of situations. Right then they're
their first thing when they know that the gates are
going to open, right.

Speaker 2 (28:49):
That's correct. And I've got several to come in and
they want a dozen bags or more. And I'm one
lady comes every year, and every year I greet her.
She's there first, like you say, she's there first, and
and I say, so, you're going to make an apple sauce
again this year? She says, all my grandkids get fresh
apple sauce for Christmas. So that's what she does with
the apples.

Speaker 1 (29:07):
Oh my goodness. So the most popular things are pie
and cider and apple sauce.

Speaker 2 (29:15):
Well, absolutely, and you get several competing now Tyler mentioned moms.
There's also the Julian Pie Company. There's also the California
Mountain Bakery. There's also Apple Ally, there's a bunch of
them that they and they all kind of compete. And
I love it because of the best pies come out
of these places because they're in a competition and they

(29:36):
know we're very discerning about our pie.

Speaker 3 (29:38):
That's right, that's right. I mean, the most fun thing
that you can have in Julian besides apple picking is
doing a apple pie crawl around town where you don't
just get one of the bakeries and sample a piece
of pie. You go to each one of these pie
shops around town and you can decide which one you

(29:58):
like the best and see who has the best crust
the best apples that day. And it's a lot of
fun to taste a few different examples around town.

Speaker 1 (30:09):
So now tell us a secret. Are all of these
made with locally grown apples?

Speaker 3 (30:15):
Well? Unfortunately, I think Jullian sells far too many pies
for them always to be made with locally grown apples.
But I know that most of the bakeries when they
can get Julian apples, they love to use them. But
that is a rat. Right around this time of year
is when you might be able to find some Julian
pies made with Julian apples, but unfortunately the season is

(30:36):
short and the demand is high, So if you really
want a Julian apple pie with Julian apples, you have
to get there right when the apples are ripe. And
I know that Mom's Pies is the one that I
have the most information on since it's family, but I
know that they buy local apples as much as they
can get their hands on every year and use them

(30:58):
in their pies. But they do have to supplement with
apples that come from other locations because there's just too
many folks who want to come up and have a
good apple pie and.

Speaker 1 (31:08):
They want to and people come for apple pies all
year round.

Speaker 3 (31:11):
Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (31:12):
Oh yeah. One of the other things that we do
with the apples ball is we have a situation where
a lot of the apples do drop on the ground,
and under California law, I can't pet, I can't you know,
pack those into bags for people to take home. So
what we do is we sell them to the apple
cider makers, the Hardsider makers, and they make a delicious
bunch of apple cider. It's also very very big a

(31:34):
local favorite as well.

Speaker 1 (31:35):
Yeah, okay, all right, and that's Hardsider Hardsider.

Speaker 3 (31:41):
Yeah, there's both Hardsider and soft sider, right right, yep, yeah,
you can get both.

Speaker 1 (31:48):
So are you telling me that once the apple touches
the ground, you can't sell it.

Speaker 2 (31:52):
We can't sell it as an apple in the bag,
And so under California law, Now I get people from
Europe coming in they say, and very correctly. They know
what they're doing. They'll tell me. And we have European
travelers and visitors all the time, and they'll go and
they'll wait. They'll see the apple that's just fallen from
the tree, and they'll get that one off the ground.
I can't stop them from doing that. And I'll ask them,
why are you picking that one up from the ground,

(32:13):
And they'll say, that's the one that's the ripest because
it just dropped off the tree. It's the ripest apple.

Speaker 3 (32:17):
On that tree.

Speaker 2 (32:18):
And so they don't understand the California law at all.

Speaker 1 (32:21):
Yeah, And if they stick it in their bag, who knows,
because you don't have you're not watching them right.

Speaker 2 (32:27):
Well, No, if they stick at the bag, that's not
a problem. If I tell them to stick at the bag,
that's the problem under California law.

Speaker 1 (32:33):
Right. Very interesting, very interesting. So, Tyler, we've talked about
all the seasons. How does the apple season affect the
local economy of Julian. Do all the businesses gear up
in their own way?

Speaker 3 (32:46):
Yeah? Absolutely, It's definitely the busiest season. And it starts
ramping up, you know, right after a labor day through
September and then kind of hits a fever pitch the
second that the leaves start turning golden red in October,
lots of people come up to the mountains to see

(33:08):
the change in the foliage as well. They have been
primed by I don't know, just pop culture to think
that that's when they can go pick some apples. But unfortunately,
by the time the leaves are turning, they missed it
by about a month. So they have to settle shucks
for some fresh made apple pie, some fresh pressed apple cider,

(33:31):
maybe some apple beer or hardsider, and a lovely stroll
in one of the state parks surrounding town. So I
think they're okay, They're gonna be okay.

Speaker 1 (33:41):
I'll survive. So Roger, how far in advance do you
prepare for your season? If you plan for the season,
you said that you work your around. There are some
things that you do specifically as you get closer to
your release season.

Speaker 2 (33:55):
Yes, well, and we are working all year around. In fact,
during the winter time when it's snowing and rating and
gold we have to be out there pruning these trees
to make sure that what's left gets proper sunshine. When
the when the apples are trying to mature, and then
in the spring we have to protect the blossoms because
if we get a late freeze, as we did two
years ago, it freezes off the blossoms and the crop
is not good. So we have a wind machine that

(34:17):
keeps the air churning in the in the orchard so
that it doesn't get below the twenty nine degrees, which
is a danger zone for these blossoms. And then when
the blossoms mature into apples, then we're good. And then
we have to thin because the apples. People don't know this,
Apples come in clusters. They don't come individually. They come
in clusters, almost like grapes. So you have to take

(34:38):
and thin when when they're young so that the central apple,
the strongest one, will grow into a size that you
can see as an apple. So we have quite a
lot of work that goes on. And then right before
the time when we open up for the U pick,
we'll have open the gates, will put up big signs,
we'll put up a nice variety of vendors will come
in and this year we had a very successful pony

(35:01):
ride for the kids that went on in conjunction with
the picking. So a lot of things have to go
on to make this thing the success that it is.

Speaker 1 (35:11):
Well, that sounds it sounds like a lot of fun.
If I'm always love grand openings and Tyler being at
at an amusement park, I'm sure you do too. Oh yes,
gates open and all the excitement happens. I can imagine
when you were at Disneyland and all the fun that
you must have experienced. So I can imagine. So I
live in a tourist areas and a lot of the

(35:33):
full time residents don't like the tourist season because it's crowded,
there's cars. Do you have that in Julian or do
people really love the tourists.

Speaker 3 (35:42):
Well, like you said, it's a love hate relationship. I
think in any sort of tourist town with the full
time residents, you know, I think that in Julian, maybe
even more than in other locations, it is very apparent
that the success of the town is the tourist trade
and how many people come in and spend their money

(36:05):
in town. That's a very very important thing. If we
didn't have visitors coming a year around, this little town
would not be anything like it is. So everyone knows
how important and values those visitors every year, but there
are moments when the traffic is backed up because we

(36:26):
don't even have a stop light in Julian. There's main
intersection with just a stop sign and it's a four
way stop. And when you get you know a thousand
people also walking around town that are trying to cross
the street, you know, it can be it can get frustrating.
So locals have learned during what we would call apple season,

(36:47):
which is always in air quotes because it goes way
beyond when there's any apples. When it's apple season, it's
the busy time of year. People steer clear of the
downtown and Julian on the weekends because that's when we
get the maximum amount of visitors. But if you come
on a weekday in the springtime, which I think is

(37:08):
the most lovely time in Julian, you know, come in
April on a Thursday, and you have the entire place
to yourself and it's just just as lovely. You can
get just as good a pie and sample everything. The
only thing you can't quite do is pick an apple.
But you know, there's a lot of time of year
where Julian is just beautiful and it's not full of people.

(37:30):
So I'm always encouraging people to try and come at
the other times of year because there's a lot of
great things going on all year round, and we appreciate
their business, not just in the fall, but every season.

Speaker 1 (37:45):
Absolutely we do. So let's just review the seasons a
little bit. So in the fall September October, you've got
your peak seasons with apple picking. Yep, you've got the
crisp mountain weather, vibrant automn foliage. Right, you have change
of colors right on the.

Speaker 3 (38:00):
Yeah, we start, we get that change of color coming
in early October through into November.

Speaker 1 (38:06):
And then in winter you've got some snow.

Speaker 3 (38:08):
We do get some snow. Whenever we get a substantial snow.
There are a lot of folks that come up the
mountain to play in the snow. They bring their sleds,
they bring their you know, their families, and they just
want to play around. Many of these folks have never
been in the snow before. It's their only opportunity. So
we definitely get a lot of visitors for the snow

(38:29):
in the winter.

Speaker 1 (38:31):
And how does that compare to like our Arrowhead or
Big Beer areas well.

Speaker 3 (38:34):
It's very different than those because we don't we're not
high enough in elevation to support snow sports for the
entire season. It's very dependent on if there was a
big storm that came through that dumped some snow on
the mountain, then we'll have some snow, but it will
eventually melt away and then it's gone until the next

(38:56):
big storm comes through. So we don't have any permanent
resorts for skiing or anything like that like they do
in a Big Bear or Arrowhead like like those areas.
But you know, when we get our snow, it's substantial
enough for people to come and have a good time
for a few days.

Speaker 1 (39:12):
And probably there's some advantages for the people that aren't
snow sport people like us to just come and enjoy
the snow but don't want to be surrounded with people
that are skiing.

Speaker 3 (39:22):
And yeah, it's a lot more for the natural beauty
of just the snow and the environment rather than all
of the different activities that you know, people pay a
lot of money to go do on those those other mountains.

Speaker 1 (39:36):
Right, and then in your spring and summer, Roger talked
about the beautify, both talked about the weather, wildflowers, outdoor festivals,
it's less crowded.

Speaker 3 (39:45):
Yeah. Yeah, both spring and summer are much less crowded.
You know, in the summer there's also you know, great weather.
It's usually has a nice mountain breeze blowing through most
of the time. We have a wonderful July fourth parade
that if you've ever dreamed of being in a tiny,
little Americana town with a cute little Fourth of July parade,

(40:08):
Julian has the one you've been looking for. Roger and
I are actually some of the announcers for that parade
every year. We get that sit next to each other
and announce the floats coming by on that parade. But
that's a great event to check out in Julian every
July fourth.

Speaker 1 (40:26):
How fun? How fun? And and so then where do
people stay? Are pretty much all of your visitors in
and out one day visitors. Do you have a lot
of overnight our weekend visitors.

Speaker 3 (40:40):
Yeah, we have a lot of overnight visitors. We have
several very established hotels in town. The Julian Hotel is
one of the oldest hotels in California that's continuously operating.
It was started as the Hotel Robinson once again by
a family of freed Southern slaves came to Julian right

(41:00):
during the Gold Rush. They started the Hotel Robinson. It
is now called the Julian Hotel and you can still
go and stay there. So there are there are really
wonderful hotels. There are also wellness retreats and resorts. There's
event centers. They're peppered about Julian. There's also a very

(41:20):
active vrbo and Airbnb community of listings throughout there. So
no matter what it is, from camping all the way
to luxury accommodations, whether it's a one night quick trip
or whether it's you know, doing your wedding at one
of these venues, Julian has a place that can accommodate

(41:41):
just about everything.

Speaker 2 (41:42):
It's interesting. It's interesting because there's a lot of different
kinds of tourists that come up. There'll be the day
trippers you're talking about, they'll be the overnight people, they'll
be the wedding guests. But there's also a big hiking
contingency that comes down the Pacific Rim Trail there what
is it.

Speaker 3 (41:59):
Called Tyler the trail?

Speaker 2 (42:00):
Yeah, yeah, Pacific Crest Trail and uh and you see
a bunch of people, big buff people with backpacks and
sticks and they're and they're hiking along and a lot
of the of the merchants in the in our little
one uh block town uh produce a lot of services
for these folks uh to take on their on their
way as they're going along the Pacific Crest Trail.

Speaker 1 (42:23):
Of course, an apple pie and apple of course, and
some cider to go.

Speaker 3 (42:29):
Well, if you're hiking from Mexico to Canada, you're gonna
need a few apple pies too, I guess.

Speaker 1 (42:36):
Yeah, absolutely absolutely, we all need a little bit of
sugar from time to time to keep us going.

Speaker 3 (42:40):
That's right, that's right, Todd.

Speaker 1 (42:42):
I just have a quick question for you as a team,
as a chamber president. What would you like to see
added in Julian's future? Is there anything or is there
anything you'd like to see different that you're already doing.

Speaker 3 (42:52):
Oh well, I mean the thing that and I've already
said it several times already, but you know, encouraging visitors
through all the different times of year is our big
priority as far as you know, encouraging you know, out
of the area folks to come and visit Julian. It's
such a special place year round that I think that

(43:14):
it deserves more visitation at other times of year, and
that's the big thing that we're always trying to promote,
whether it's through doing festivals at different times of year,
whether it's just you know, highlighting different businesses and different
things going on in the town throughout all the times
a year. But we're just trying to keep it top
of mind for people all the time if they want

(43:34):
a nice little weekend away that there's something that's close by.
You know, it's for so many people in southern California,
it's three hours or less of a drive to Julian
and there's a lot of great things to do.

Speaker 1 (43:48):
And from Orange County and San Diego, the driving distance
is about how far.

Speaker 3 (43:52):
Yeah, it depends on what part of the counties you're
coming from, but you know, usually from you know, southern
Orange County are two hours drive. You know, from most
of San Diego you're around an hour drive. You know,
it depends on how many stops you make it, how
many you know, roadside sideries and antique stores and different

(44:13):
things along the way. But the best is to come
and spend the night and to make a make a
day trip out of it. You know where you're you're
staying the night and then heading home the next day,
because I think that by the time that you get
to Julian, you want to have time to explore, but
you also, you know, want to be able to sit

(44:33):
back and relax and then just enjoy the clean mountain air.
And a huge part of coming to Julian that we
haven't talked about in all is the stars in the
night sky.

Speaker 1 (44:43):
Actually that's coming up, So let's do talk. Go right
right to that, great segue.

Speaker 3 (44:48):
Great segue. Nice job. I should be the president of
the Chamber of Commerce.

Speaker 1 (44:54):
I've seen a title called Dark Sky Reserve. I've heard
Julian is an official dark Sky community.

Speaker 3 (45:04):
That's correct.

Speaker 1 (45:05):
Let's talk about that. What is that, what does it mean?
And how do you get that designation?

Speaker 3 (45:10):
Yeah? Well, and Roger please chime in if you have
any more information about that. But there was a movement
by several community members who wanted to get that designation
from Julian, and that's something that the county and the
state recognize Julian as being a place where there is
minimal light pollution, where you can go out and look

(45:32):
at the night sky and actually see things like the
Milky Way and all of the stars in the sky.
It also encourages residents and businesses to use timers on
all of their lights so that you have minimized light pollution,
to use shrouds on their lights so light isn't going everywhere.
It's just lighting you know, maybe your front porch, but
it's not lighting the entire front yard. Things like that,

(45:55):
and everyone's really embraced that throughout the community. And it's
just beautiful when you especially in the summer months, you
just get the best stars because there's not a cloud
in the sky. You can get out onto these mountaintops
in the evening and watch a beautiful sunset and then

(46:15):
watch all the stars come out and just really get
a nice show. My father was a kind of an
amateur astronomer growing up, and he was constantly dragging me
out in the wee hours of the night to see
some celestial happening. Every time look, look, look, and you know,
he would be pointing things out to me. So I

(46:38):
but nowadays it's so easy. There's an app on your
phone that you can just point at the sky and
it tells you where all the constellations are. But I
had to learn them all because my father kept hammering
them into me my entire childhood. So I can find
you the Big Dipper in the Little Dipper and Scorpius
and all of the different constellations pretty well.

Speaker 1 (46:59):
So how can Pete will know when is the right
time to come for that? Is there a time when,
I mean, there must be a time when you can
anticipate it's going to be more visible.

Speaker 3 (47:09):
Yeah, well, summer is great for that because it just
there's a lot less cloud cover in the summer. So
those times when it's clear weather are the best times
to come for the stars. And just the way that
you know the stars work in the summer, the constellations
that you know, like the Big Dipper and those things,
they're right above you in those summer months. So that's

(47:31):
why I recommend you, know, Joanna and Bell.

Speaker 2 (47:33):
I'll tell you this is a serious business because the
government actually decades ago when they were thinking about putting
the in southern California, a major observatory, which eventually went
to Palamar Mountain, but the first place they looked at
was Vulcan Mountain, which is just north of town. Because
it happens to have at least is good, if not
better site to all of what Tyler's just talking about

(47:55):
from Juliet. So it's a very serious location for those
who really enjoy the stars. And what I enjoy about
the stars from my house, I go up on the
roof and look at the stars because it's also so quiet.
I one of the things you come out of the city.
You don't realize the level of noise, the ambient noise
that you experience in a city. You get to Julian
and it just all goes like this, and you don't.

(48:18):
You just you just go down to a silent and
all of a sudden you realize you're listening to crickets
and you're and you know you're you're not listening to
a whole bunch of traffic. And so it's a really
magical place for that.

Speaker 1 (48:31):
I can imagine being there under the stars and just watching,
of course, while you're having a piece of apple pie.

Speaker 2 (48:39):
Absolutely absolutely.

Speaker 1 (48:42):
I've heard that it's better if you want when you're
star watching, star gazing, if you're eating piet that's say
apple pie. At the same time, I've heard that better.

Speaker 3 (48:49):
What do you think it tends to improve just about
every activity.

Speaker 2 (48:52):
Every activity, especially if you put ice cream on it. Now,
that's kind of my favorite.

Speaker 1 (48:56):
But yeah, so that's one of our questions. We have
some trivia for you guys. Okay, let's your go to
Julian pie flavor being classic apple, Dutch, apple, boisonberry, or
what else?

Speaker 3 (49:10):
Tyler, Oh, I was gonna say you all right, I'll
go My favorite is a apple boison berry, So apples
mixed with boison berry. I like the traditional apple is fantastic,
but you throw a few berries in there. Apple cherry
is also a close second for me, really good. I

(49:32):
personally like the like Dutch or flaky top, depending on
you know what nomenclature you're using, But I don't like
my pies to be super super sweet. I really like
to taste the fruit in my pie. Some people love
the super sugary pie. If you like a sweeter pie,

(49:52):
then get the crumb top. There's more sugar in the
crumb top pies than there are in the traditional flaky
style pies. But I like that. But if I'm gonna
get a regular piece of apple, then I'll probably melt
a piece of sharp cheddar cheese on it, because that's.

Speaker 2 (50:09):
Oh yes, so my favorite my favorite bell I take.
I got to tell you that the I like everything
that Tyler said because I'll tell you what, all these
are good tasting. But when the rhubarb season comes along
and they add rhubarb with apple, that's one of my favorites.

Speaker 1 (50:23):
Right there, I'm in. I'm in. Yep, my grandma made
rubarb pie. It's been a long time ago. Okay, next one,
all the mode or not.

Speaker 3 (50:35):
Well, there you go.

Speaker 2 (50:35):
I love ice cream on it, but I'll tell you
I'll take that that cheese too, because every one of
those kinds of experiences is unique. It's wonderful.

Speaker 3 (50:43):
Yeah, I'm I'm definitely an all a mode die most
of the time, especially if it's one of the ones
with berries in it. For sure. You got to make
sure that piece of pie is warm. Yes, yes, so I.

Speaker 1 (50:55):
Have to say. I just don't think that there's anything
that couldn't be made better with ice cream, right, you know,
apple is great apple pie, but but ice cream on
anything and i'm your gown. Yeah, I'm your down. Okay.
If you were planning at Julian getaway, would you go
just for the day, would you spend the night in
a cozy inn cabin or a hotel?

Speaker 2 (51:18):
Tyler?

Speaker 3 (51:19):
Oh, well, I think I already answered this question a
little bit, but I would definitely go for the night
for the stars or the number one reason why why?
That's the answer, you know, and there's it's really hard
to go wrong with lodging and Julian, there are really
a lot of great options. So it would really depend
on how many people I was traveling with. If it was,

(51:41):
you know, just me and my wife, I would find
a really nice, uh you know room at one of
the local hotels. They have, you know, honeymoon suites and
different things like that, that would be great. If I
was traveling with my whole family, then I would start
looking at vrbo or Airbnb or some of the other things,
you know. And if you know, if I was just
by myself, man, I would just go out and camp

(52:02):
at one of the state parks or you know, that's
a great family activity too. So there's definitely something for
everyone as far as life.

Speaker 1 (52:12):
I'm sure you would. We have one minute left. Let
me ask you this, where's your favorite place to snap
a picture in Julian? Your photo op would be where
a pie or an orchard, pie shop, a charming old building.
Where would it be, Roger, you go.

Speaker 2 (52:33):
First, well, I'll tell you I've got also a piece
of the ownership of a ranch. And from the lodge
at Sacred Mountain Ranch, I look out on the Vulcan
Mountain Range and I cannot see a human made thing
in this entire view that I'm looking at. And I
love that about because not many places in San Diego
County can you look out at your view and not

(52:54):
see something man made. So I'm I'm just enthralled by
the Sacred mount Branch. And by the way, they just
added horseback riding, which is really exciting to a lot
of you.

Speaker 1 (53:03):
Take come up, Yeah, there you go, There you go, Tyler.

Speaker 3 (53:06):
Your photo up, I would say would probably be be
out at Lake Quiamaca. You can see the Stonewall Mountain
which you can climb. It has a large rock out
cropping on the top. You can see a beautiful lake
with pine trees, and if you're lucky, you'll be there
on a day when a bald eagle is fishing from

(53:26):
that lake and you'll get that at my photo as well.
So that would be my call for that one.

Speaker 1 (53:31):
Oh, that's great. Well to our viewers and our listeners,
if you weren't already craving a slice of apple pie.
I'm sure you are now And a huge thank you
to our guest today, Tyler and Roger, for sharing the
sweet secrets and warm hospitality that make Julian so special
and sharing things behind the scenes. But you know now

(53:52):
that whether it's apple season or not, Julian is a
place where you can step back in time, make family memories,
and enjoy life pleasures from gold mines to starry skies
and of course those unforgettable pies. Julian has a few
apples and pies for everyone. I'm Valerie vandits over. This
has been so cow withal until next time, Keep exploring,

(54:15):
keep savoring, and remember sometimes the best adventures are just
a slice of pie away