• ANITA CUMMINGS

  CO-OWNER

  

  Anita Margaret Bailey Cummings, the youngest child of Val and Lloyd Bailey was born in Berkeley. She attended a rural three room 1-8 grade school in what is now Fremont, CA. She graduated with an AB in Social Welfare from the University of California at Berkeley

  Anita worked in the Alameda County Welfare Department for three years as a social worker in the “needy children’s” program.

  Education continued at San Francisco State College where she earned an Elementary Teaching Certificate. For 10 years she worked in the Emeryville School District teaching economically depressed children in grades four, five, and six.

  Anita’s love for horses began when she was a little girl on her family’s farm. Riding through the farms before Fremont was incorporated and on various trail rides around the Bay Area and Yosemite were some of her favorite times. For a short time, Anita bred Quarter Horses.

  Anita continues her family’s farm heritage with her large vegetable garden, canning fruit and vegetables, and making jams and jellies. Another part of Anita’s homespun crafts is making braided rugs. She is also known as a knowledgeable and creative chef, cooking delightful meals for family and friends.

  In 1972 Anita married David Cummings, an electrical engineer, and they lived in El Cerrito, California. Anita and David have two children: Sarah, a graduate of Whitman College and Seth who is currently attending Santa Clara University.

  The family moved to Saint Helena, California in 1980. Both Anita and David are heavily involved in the local community. Anita especially enjoys working with children; volunteering in the public schools, performing as a Sunday school teacher, participating in the 4H program, and participating in scouting.

  Additionally Anita is known for her philanthropy. She worked at “Second Helping”, a thrift store, volunteering hundreds of hours and raising thousand of dollars for Saint Helena’s local schools. She and David provide an annual scholarship for seniors at the local high school, they donate generous funds to the Red Cross, and Anita directs the annual “Poinsettia” fundraising program for the Women’s Opportunity Fund.

  Her love of travel has taken her all over the world; she particularly enjoys the London theater scene. She is known for her love of family, friends, animals, wine, and food.

  In 2005, David and Anita Cummings, and Leo Ainsworth created Fantasy Vineyards, L.L.C., a wine wholesaler and consulting company.

• DAVID CUMMINGS

  CO-OWNER

  

  David Cummings was born to Ross and Marjorie Cummings and raised in Berkeley, California. He is a graduate of University of California, Berkeley, with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering. He is a Navy Veteran having served on board the USS Duncan as an Ensign, between 1953 and 1955.

  In 1972 he married Anita Bailey and they lived in El Cerrito, California. Anita and David have two children, Sarah (30) a graduate of the Whitman College and Seth (24) who is currently attending Santa Clara University.

  David worked for Beckman Industries for twelve years, Zehntel, Inc. for three years, and Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp. for fifteen years as an Industrial Automation Engineer. David was on the ground of industrial automation, having worked on some of the first computers in the industrial world.

  In 1980, the family moved to Saint Helena, California. Both David and Anita were heavily involved in the local community, volunteering in the public schools, coaching soccer, participating in the 4H program, and participating in scouting. David has been a tutor of children for many years, in the Project Makes Sense program and various ESL programs. David was one of the founding board members of the Stonebridge Housing Corporation, an affordable housing development in Saint Helena. He served on the board for thirteen years. David is also a board of trustee’s member of the Methodist church in Saint Helena.

  In 2005, David and Anita Cummings, and Leo Ainsworth created Fantasy Vineyards, L.L.C., a wine wholesaler and consulting company.

  David is a “Renaissance Man”, he has wide interests and is an expert in several different areas. He lives life to the fullest, traveling the world, visiting family and friends.

• LEO AINSWORTH

  MANAGING PARTNER

  

  Leo Ainsworth was born to Leo and Betty Ainsworth and raised in Hawthorne, California (So.). He is a graduate of Long Beach State University in Business Administration. He is a Navy Veteran having served in Viet Nam on board the USS Saint Paul, between 1969 and 1971.

  In 1975, Leo moved to Northern California to begin his professional career. In 1979 he married Margot Flynn and they lived in Belmont, California. Margot and Leo have two children, Christopher (31) a graduate of the University of California, Irvine and Nicholas (27) who is currently attending the University of California, Santa Cruz.

  In 1984, the family moved to Saint Helena, California, and Leo went to work for the Robert Mondavi Winery as the Sales and Marketing Financial Manager. Both Leo and Margot were heavily involved in the local community, volunteering in the public schools and coaching soccer, etc. Leo later was elected to the Saint Helena School District’s Board of Trustees and served five years, one as president. He also served for over five years on the board of directors for the Saints Athletic Association, supporting the high school’s sports programs. Leo is currently president of the board of directors of the Stonebridge Housing Corporation, an affordable housing development in Saint Helena. Leo also is a director on the California Grower’s Foundation Board that provides health care and pension plans for winery and vineyards workers.

  At the Robert Mondavi Company, Leo had a distinguished career, serving over twenty-one years in the Sales and Marketing Department. He was known as industry innovator, creating many landmark sales and marketing’s business practices. In 2001, Leo was honored with the Robert Mondavi Award of Excellence.

  Leo is currently employed at Judd’s Hill winery in Napa. The Bailey Farms Cellars’ wine is currently produced at Judd’s Hill under their Micro Crush program,

  In 2005, Leo and David and Anita Cummings created Fantasy Vineyards, L.L.C., a wine wholesaler and consulting company.

  Leo has a love of life, family, friends, food, wine, gardening, and golf.

• 

  About Lloyd Bailey

  ABOUT LLOYD BAILEY

  LLOYD EVAN BAILEY 1887-1980

   

  Lloyd Evan Bailey, the seventh child of Angelo Ames Bailey and Lottie Tibbetts Bailey, was born in Martinez, California, on January 22, l889.  He was named after two of his grandfather Amos’s favorite brothers.  Little is known about his first 21 years, however the family historian, Harriet Frisbee Bailey (HFB) began recording some anecdotes about him in l911.  Anita’s comments, from what Lloyd told her will be prefaced with (AMB).

   

  (AMB)  Lloyd did not enter college right after Berkeley High School.  He spent several years working to help his two older brother, Mark, with his dental school expenses.  During that period he caught bullfrogs to sell to restaurants and according to HFB worked on a San Francisco cable car.

   

  (HFB in1911)  Lloyd made Lottie a fine garden at the family home at 15ll Edith St, Berkeley.  Nearly all the vegetables that one feels as tho’ they had rights that the kettles “are bound to respect” are in it, even great fine artichokes besides cabbages, beets, turnips, carrots and corn, potatoes and squashes.  Lloyd doesn’t idle away his time.  I noticed he picked a pan of blackberries for Lottie to put in jars, and he keeps the weeds from the gardens.  The front yard is abloom with Roses (varieties), Pinks, Sweet Peas, Shasta Daisies, Nasturtiums galore, and other flowers.  I tell her one would think she was on a farm, to have such varieties.  There are other vegetables than I’ve mentioned.  They keep 6 or 8 hens, large ones, and then there’s Mister Bantam and his two wives; there are also two large pens with pigeons, 80 in all.  They have an abundance of blackberry bushes, a number of raspberry and strawberry, so there is fruit for every day right at hand.

   

  (HFB in l912)  Lloyd has been busy all day spading up in the next lot for a garden; has plants set about in number, and his large strawberry bed is just making promises of sweetness the coming summer.

  (AMB)  We always had a vegetable garden while I was growing up in Fremont, including all those veggies he lovingly prepared for his mother in Berkeley in l911.  He did his “picking” into a soft-sided hat he always wore.  Now, in 2003, I have had a continuous veggie garden since I married in l972.  I often say, “My dad did it this way and that’s the way I’m doing it too”.

   

  (HFB in l911)  Lloyd is the wit of the Baileys; in fact he “outwits” us all.  His ability to make cats and dogs, birds and almost any animate thing TALK is right to the point.  I’ll quote some I’ve jotted down from time to time.

   

  (HFB)  Some of Lloyd’s funny “get offs”:  (AMB: these “get offs” were sayings he evidently had been doing for a long time). His cat, “Gongobuster, (he named it) hasn’t much stability, but he is quite comprehensitive”.  Another, “I went out on the hill the other day and saw a dewdroponaleaf, it jumped on my back, rolled up and ran away”.  Again, “same cat climbed a slippery hill, rolled down, bumping his head on the bung hole of a beer barrel, and awoke in eternity”.  Romeo, another cat, said, “I’d like ..to feed my appetite”!  Same cat said “They give me the timbers of the chicken–that’s all very well, but when it comes to the shingles, I draw the line”.  Aesop, their cat here, said about the same time, “I went on the hill and what do you think I ran across?  Why, the bridge!.”  The dog Hooley said, “When I get to be a man I’m going to expectorate in stocks).”  Same dog got into mischief, and Lloyd said, “O, he is such a bad dog”.  I asked if he was just as bad as he could be?  “Worse”, said he.  Same dog said, “I caught the measles and kept one”.  Pompey cat said, “T’other day where an old tree used to be, the devil chased me around the stump, and I thought he’d catch me at every jump”!

   

  (AMB)  I recall as I was growing up in the l940’s, Dad, as he was holding a cat loved to use voices, making the cat say something, usually silly.

   

  Dad loved animals, especially cats.  At one time we had 17 cats that he conscientiously, daily, prepared cornmeal mush, margarine and evaporated milk for them to eat.  Most of the cats were “creek cats”; we couldn’t even touch them, they were so wild!  We couldn’t catch them to spay or neuter them so we had a continuous supply.

   

  Lloyd graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in l914 with a degree in Soil Chemistry.  His goal in life was to pursue farming.  With no resources, other than his desire to farm, he teamed up with two classmates who would back him financially.  One of the classmates, and his very good friend throughout his life, was Robert Gordon Sproul, who went on to be the President of the University.  The two financial backers put up the money to buy the 30 acres in Alvarado in what is now northern Fremont.  They named their enterprise “Bear Berry Farm” where Dad raised Olallie berries and Raspberries.  Berries ripen during the summer months and Dad hired Boy Scouts from Oakland to do the picking.  These boys lived in the “barracks” on the property and spent much of their summer at the “home place” even swimming in Alameda Creek for recreation.  Throughout his life the Boy Scouts benefited yearly from his generous contributions.  Boy Scouts of America was his favorite charity!

   

  In l928 Lloyd married Valborg Margaret Hansen.  Val was a school teacher friend of Lloyd’s sister Edith, who was always called Dot .  Evan, Norman and Anita were born in l929, l931 and l936.  Lloyd moved out of berry farming to truck farming, mainly cauliflower; and corn, potatoes, tomatoes, fava beans, and strawberries.  By World War II Lloyd was shipping cauliflower east out of a packing shed in Alvarado, then from a packing shed he purchased in Centerville.  He owned much of the land he cultivated and he also leased quite a few acres.  At one time he was shipping seven freight cars per day east and he was the largest grower and shipper of cauliflower in the world.  A relative from Denmark told me he was known as the “Cauliflower King”.

   

  In l941 Lloyd purchased 420 acres in the Hayward hills.  The sale included 100 cows with calves.  In l942 (The government needed meat for the military) he sold the l00 calves for the amount he had paid for the whole lot, including the land, back in l941.

   

  Lloyd seemed to have a sixth sense about what properties to buy and when to make the purchases.  Other major purchases followed in the l940’s, 50’s, and 60’s.  Norman Sproul Bailey joined the family business upon his return from the Korean War in 1957.

   

  Lloyd, ever the business man, was a founding member of Fremont Savings and Loan in the 60’s.  The Savings and Loan was eventually sold and merged with another S and L.  During the l960’s Lloyd was growing cucumbers and went into the pickle business “big  time” from a packing shed he had purchased in the Irvington district.  I (AMB) remember that there were 28 huge vats each holding thousands of gallons of fermenting pickles.  One needed a tall ladder just to peer in at all those pickles!  The pickle business lasted just a few years.

   

  Lloyd was an avid duck hunter, deer hunter and fly fisherman.  The Grant Ranch, purchased in the early 40’s, came equipped with a duck clubhouse, hunting ponds and duck blinds and he spent many enjoyable times there with his hunting buddies.

   

  Lloyd will be remembered for his kindness, compassion and generosity.  He was always there to help the neighboring farmers, mostly second generation Portuguese, with their farming practices; when to plant and what kind of seed and the best methods of farming  etc., even providing water to a neighbor’s cherry orchard when his well went dry.

   

  His wise land purchases in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s have provided financial security for his children and grandchildren.  He also provided a home and property (twice) to his sister, Angele, as well as a home for his mother-in -law and sister-in-law.  His generosity to Val’s extended family made their lives a lot easier.

  Lloyd died in Fremont on November 2, 1980.  His cremated remains are next to those of his loving wife, Val, at the Mausoleum in Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California.

• 

  2011 Bailey Farms Cellars Pinot Noir

  2011 BAILEY FARMS CELLARS PINOT NOIR

  

  This wine commemorates the life of Lloyd Evan Bailey 1889-1980, who was rich in early California pioneering spirit, reaped abundant crops as a farmer, and lived life to the fullest.  Born in the San Francisco Bay area ,when it was still rural land, he graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in Soil Chemistry and was forever a farmer.  He intertwined wisdom and wit with working the soil, first growing berries and later becoming one of the largest growers of cauliflower in the world.  Our Pinot Noir, grown in the soils of Napa Valley, north of the San Francisco Bay, is a tribute to him by his descendants.  May you find it a celebration of the earth and a legacy of the early California farmers.

   

  A blend of grapes, 75% from The Milliken Creek area North East of Napa and 25% from the Carneros region, make this wine a pinot noir lover’s dream. The nose is laced with ripe black cherry and raspberry aromas intertwined with nuances of earth tones and herbs. The fruit follows nicely into the mouth where the moderate tannins meld with earthy flavors to yield a pleasant richness. The finish is long with the fruit and herbal notes combining to give very nice complexity. This wine should continue to develop over the next five to eight years but is nicely approachable at present.

  Kenn Vigoda
  Winemaker

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