If you’re one of the first female vintners in the county, what might you do with your influence?
For Judy Jordan, formerly of J Vineyards and Winery, the answer was simple: create Geodesy Wine (providing its profit to women in ag) and a program designed to support the upcoming generation.
“I have such gratitude for our local agricultural community,” says Jordan. “My goal was to give back to it through their children. We hope to create paths for young women to grow, stay and thrive here and honor their families’ legacies.”
So in July of 2019, her Wild Goat Foundation launched the WG Edge program, which provides scholarship support for local female-identifying students to study in the Agriculture & Natural Resources department at SRJC. According to program director Janet Durkin, the program “connects them with a ‘village’ of mentors, teachers, and internship sponsors who can guide, inspire, and open doors for them.”
Jordan reached out to SRJC’s Benjamin Goldstein, Dean of Agriculture and Natural Resources, and together they formed an Ag Tech Committee (with both SRJC faculty and industry members) to meet each semester and collaborate on how best to prepare students with ag tech skills.
The scholarship awards $7,500 a year for two years to female-identifying students who pursue an Associate’s Degree. Both graduating high school seniors and those already studying in one of the programs listed under Ag and Natural Resources are encouraged to apply.
Find out more at wildgoatedge.org.
Snapshot of a Local Maker: Nell Hergenrather
Born to radical hippies in 1974, Nell Hergenrather spent her early years living on one of the most famous and successful communes of that era, the Tennessee Farm. In the eighties, her family moved to sunny California in search of organized education and financial freedom. Always ready to defy convention, her parents pulled Nell and her three brothers out of school as teenagers and traveled the world on a shoestring for over a year. Even then, at the tender age of 14, Nell knew she wanted to be an artist.
She received her formal art training at the University of California at Santa Barbara, where she primarily worked with oil on canvas. Nell has been sculpting and creating molds using cutting-edge materials to create plants, landscapes, cityscapes, and underwater worlds with a futuristic, space age design. She has found a voice in her humanistic bird and fish characters and with her sculptural paintings. Nell lives with her husband and three daughters in Sebastopol, California.
Solo Exhibit: Depth Perception
March 24-May 7, 2020
Reception: Thursday, March 26, 5-7 pm
Finley Community Center, 2060 W College Ave, Santa Rosa
Save the Date
March 14
In honor of Pi Day, why not celebrate both the mathematical constant that begins with 3.14 and the sublime sliced version by putting pen to paper? Submit a haiku about pi or pie to Petaluma Pie Company’s annual Pi-Ku contest. Deadline is noon on Sat 3/14 and winners are announced the next day. Enter contest here:
petalumapiecompany.com/pages/piku-contest
March 15
4:30- 6:30 pm
Join pastry chef Joni Davis (of Jackson’s Bar and Oven) and herbalist/nutritionist Amy Charnay for a Scone and Herbal Tea Blending Workshop at Miracle Plum, 208 Davis St (in Railroad Square), Santa Rosa. $60.
April 18
10 am- 2pm
Join staff educators for a family-friendly Bees, Blooms, and Butterflies walk at Pepperwood Preserve. All ages welcome, picnicking afterwards. FREE. More info here: pepperwoodpreserve.org/get-involved/classes-events/
April 25
12:00- 4:00 pm
Check out the City of Santa Rosa’s 11th Annual Earth Day OnStage Festival at Courthouse Square. This fun family-friendly festival is a great way to inspire awareness and build community through environmental protection. FREE.
Ongoing
350 Sonoma, an all-volunteer nonprofit, is working to slow climate change and promote climate justice in the county. Meetings are the third Wednesday of the month at 7:00 pm at the Peace and Justice Center of Sonoma County, 467 Sebastopol Ave., Santa Rosa.