Jul/Aug 2022
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Letter from the Editor
I wish Lindsay knew how much I love her. World peace, please. That my breakup is easier than I think it will be. I wish for me and my mom to afford things like tuition and rent. That James comes out of his coma well and stronger than before! A pet. These are just a…
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Meet a Local Artist – The Spindles
The Story of The Spindles: Sonoma County Stalwarts, Darlings of the Nostalgic Futurama My name is Henry Nagle. I’m a guitar player, born in Santa Rosa. In 2001, I went to a party at my neighbors’ house in Sebastopol. I quickly found my way to the bedroom where the music nerds were sequestered. The light…
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Eat Local – “Fire! Food! Friends!”
Barbecue, like so many American traditions, is rooted in Indigenous and West African cultures and practices—from the salting and seasoning that helped preserve large cuts of meat to the practice of cooking whole or parts of animals low and slow using green wood over indirect flames. Countless regional iterations have ensued, leading to debates over…
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Drink Local Short – “Cultured Creations: Chef Lauren Kershner Takes on Kombucha”
“I bought my first kombucha at a gas station in Mendocino County when I was a teenager and thought it was awful,” Chef Lauren Kershner tells me. She’s preparing artful trays of vegetables and fruits for her catering business Goodness Gracious Catering in Glen Ellen. But luckily for her, and now for us, there are…
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Grow Local – “Plants to the People!”
The success of a harvest starts long before planting. While some might see just a vegetable, any good farmer sees the end result of months, years, even decades of work, the manifestation of thousands of relationships carefully cultivated in the soil, field, and community: bacteria and fungi, beneficial insects and pollinators, customers and crops. To…
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Make Local — “Resale Therapy”
Why does Brian Benn’s office contain, among other things, a bagful of a stranger’s ashes and a spinning sex swing? There’s also a bulletin board crammed with photos of people in varying degrees of blurriness. Don’t worry, this is not some freaky grisly exposé—it’s the story of a thrift shop. Specifically, Pick of the Litter,…
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Make Local Short — “No More Worksheets”
Learning House envisions a more holistic approach to education In August of 2020, my youngest started kindergarten—a milestone that, with three older sisters, she’d been looking forward to pretty much her whole life. I’m not sure if you’ve ever seen what Zoom kindergarten looks like, but you can imagine that it was adorable chaos, the…
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Locavore: Eating Local, Cooking Local — “Jalapeños en Escabeche with Sheila Shupe”
Confessions of a Germophile I’ll tell you a secret. I’m a native Californian and I didn’t eat a fish taco until I was 28. When I first met my husband, born in Southern California and reared on Mexican food, who would gladly take beans intravenously if it were possible, he was devastated by this oversight…
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The End Bit: Meet Heather Irwin, Founder of BiteClub
Heather Irwin is the dining editor for Sonoma Magazine and The Press Democrat and the founder of BiteClub, which jabs an irreverent fork at the restaurant scene in Sonoma County. An avid eater and writer, she has 15 years of experience covering local restaurants, chefs and food and has been a journalist for more than…