Deer Run Ranch, Doesn't that Sound Inviting?

Deer Run Ranch Bed & Breakfast is the perfect hideaway for a private, secluded getaway any time of the year. Alfafa fields surround the complex, which has spectacular views of Washoe Lake and the Sierra Nevada mountains to the west. Tall cottonwoods shade the pond deck, a favorite spot for watching the abundant wildlife that call Deer Run home. Top The original ranch, called the Quarter Circle JP, was purchased in 1937, by Emily and Jim Greil (Muffy's parents) for back taxes of $2400. It and the "Goat Ranch" at the foot of Jumbo Grade two miles north of here were the only residences on the one lane, dirt road around this side of Washoe Lake. All the children in the valley went to the one room schoolhouse in Franktown, directly across the lake - grades 1-8, one teacher. 

Legend has it that the ranch springs - including our spring and pond - watered small truck gardens, the produce being carried by wagon up "Deadman's" (our main driveway) and Jumbo Grades to Virginia City during the height of the mining boom on the Comstock in the late 1800’s. Sometime after the end of World War I, prohibition became the law of the land, and the "Moonshiners" gravitated to isolated lands with plenty of water to set up their stills. The spring tunnels here on the ranch were used for that purpose, and at some point before the repeal of prohibition in 1933, government agents blew up the stills, destroying the tunnel at our spring. Excavations for our house unearthed pipes and other distillery relics, as well as some of the old shoring from the original spring. 


This recipe is included in the cookbook and used by permission of Muffy Vhay from the Deer Ranch Run B&B: Squash Blossom Frittata with Asiago Cheese.

This BnB (along with delicious recipes and wonderful stories) is featured in Sunrise Sunset Across America, Bed & Breakfast cookbook. Purchase it by clicking on the link in the upper sidebar. Click on the review to read more about it.