Ted Hall
(see Ted's business biography)

Raised in a small farming community in western Pennsylvania, Ted was an active member of 4-H. He maintained an egg-laying poultry flock, exhibited Hampshire lambs, and learned to ride on his Welsh pony. He maintained his own vegetable garden and learned the fundamentals of organic gardening by working his parents' compost pile.

Ted attended high school in LaPorte, Texas, a small town near Houston, where he met his future wife, Laddie, before going off to college at Princeton.

In 1971, Ted made his first wine in partnership with two of his graduate school classmates at Stanford University. Using carignane and zinfandel grapes purchased from an longtime Italian grower in Gilroy, CA, they hand crafted the wine in a garage in nearby Santa Clara. Intrigued and inspired by the results of this first effort, Ted made wine as an amateur for 17 consecutive vintages. With that long experience revealing firsthand the results of good and bad winemaking practices, several of his wines won awards at amateur winemaking competitions in Napa and Sonoma counties. In 1980, Ted and his winemaking partner, Kim Winget, gained recognition for their winemaking prowess by being featured in the September issue of Sunset Magazine.

Pictured in a recent Hall family photo are Laddie, Ted & Chris Hall (pictured left to right)

By the late 1980s, while enjoying a successful career as a partner at the international management consulting firm of McKinsey & Company, Ted began actively looking for a place for his family to establish their own vineyard and winery.

After negotiating unsuccessfully for almost three years for a parcel in the southern Mayacamas Mountains, Ted stumbled onto Long Meadow Ranch through a local realtor. Already familiar with the terrain and the agricultural potential of the surrounding mountains, he immediately made an offer. Since acquiring the property in 1989, Ted and his family have slowly uncovered the rich history of Long Meadow Ranch.

Laddie Hall

Born in Ann Arbor, MI, Laddie spent most of her childhood in the small towns of Pasadena and LaPorte, near Houston, TX. Her only experience with agriculture and animal husbandry was "I had a goldfish."

Despite this lack of experience, Laddie has assumed a major role in the development of Long Meadow Ranch. A critic of Ted's winemaking for many years, Laddie helped shape the objectives for developing the vineyards and winery. She has proven an able and sensitive hand in raising the livestock on the Ranch. Always the optimist, she has provided the steady support necessary to pursue our ambitious development program.

Working with our sons in the early '90s, Laddie helped develop our commercial organic vegetable garden. She carefully selected varieties of herbs and specialty lettuces that are well-suited to our site. She is now working closely with our son, Christopher, in producing and marketing the vegetables and flowers produced from the ranch as well as our new property, Rutherford Gardens. Laddie can be seen every Friday morning at our stand at the St. Helena Farmers Market in Crane Park from 7:30 AM to 12 Noon where she is selling our eggs, beef, vegetables, and flowers from May through October.

An accomplished horsewoman on the many trails criss-crossing Long Meadow Ranch, Laddie served as the leader of the Horse Project for the Rutherford 4-H. Currently she is as a member of the Board of Directors and secretary of the St. Helena Farmers Market.

Christopher Hall (see Chris' staff biography) An entrepreneur since he was ten years old, Christopher has been the driving force in the development of the organic vegetable gardens at Long Meadow Ranch. With the establishment of his first egg laying poultry flock in 1991, Christopher began selling eggs to neighbors and friends. This venture was quickly augmented with the first production of vegetables from a garden he planted with his brother, Timothy. In the summer of 1991, Chris and Tim made their first appearance at the Napa Valley Farmers' Market in St. Helena, CA. A regular fixture ever since, Christopher and his brother became the youngest registered members of the market. Their organic vegetable garden featured specialty tomatoes, beans, carrots, beets, lettuce, corn, eggplant, squash and many other vegetables. The garden also produced beautiful, fresh cut flowers - especially sunflowers. Employing compost produced on our Ranch, the garden evolved into an essential element of the overall farming system at Long Meadow Ranch (ultimately leading to the 2002 acquistion of LMR Rutherford Gardens). Christopher was an active member of 4-H. He participated in swine, poultry, and horse projects. On horseback, he won many awards, especially in the challenging trail and gymkana classes. His POA mare, Nebra Simon Nar ("Wendy"), became one of our foundation mares in the Long Meadow Ranch breeding program. Majoring in geology and fire science, Chris attended the University of Colorado at Boulder. An expert skier and outdoorsman, he has explored many of the off-road trails of Colorado in his Land Rover. During the summers of his college years Chris continued his work at the Ranch until his return full-time in 2003. Chris is presently our National Sales Manager. He is a licensed Emergency Medical Technician and currently serves as member of the local Rutherford Volunteer Fire Department.

Timothy Hall

As the energetic explorer of the meadows and woods, Timmy found many of the artifacts we have discovered on the Ranch. Whether he found an antler from a deer, a 100 year old redwood fence post, or an Indian arrowhead, Timmy helped us discover the special nature of the Ranch. In honor of the Wappo tribe that originally inhabited the area, Timmy even constructed a teepee in the middle of Long Meadow.

A partner with his brother, Christopher, in the organic vegetable garden, he specialized in the tomatoes, green beans, and beets. With his trademark cowboy hat, Timmy charmed customers at the Napa Valley Farmers Market every Friday morning.

Also a member of the Rutherford 4-H, he raised lambs and poultry. After a difficult start in the early years of showing his sheep, in 1996 one of Timmy's lambs was the Reserve Grand Champion Crossbred Lamb at the Napa Town and Country Fair.

An excellent rider, Timmy won many awards at local horse shows. In 1995 he represented Napa County at the California State Fair in the western and trail classes. He qualified for the State Fair by achieving a rare perfect score in the highly competitive trail class while riding his 28 year old Shetland pony, Happy. In 1996, he was again the Napa County trail class champion.

Timmy died suddenly from a brain aneurysm on September 29, 1996. He was thirteen. Always present in our hearts, he remains a central part of our life at Long Meadow Ranch.