Mar/Apr 2019
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Letter From The Editor
On March 14, the world will celebrate the mathematical constant π. Yes, it’s Pi Day. Which, for me, honestly, is just a good excuse to eat a slice of the other kind of pie. The one with a flaky crust and fruit baked to perfection. Around here, we love pie so much, the unofficial theme…
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Locavortex: Slow Food
2018 Snail of Approval Winners Last year, we wrote about the very first Snail of Approval awards from Slow Food of Sonoma County, which recognize local restaurants and food producers that are “making a significant contribution to improving the food system.” The 2018 Snail of Approval recipients were announced in January. The next time you…
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Ice Cream, Pie & Equality
With the opening of the second Noble Folk in Santa Rosa, Ozzy Jimenez and Christian Sullberg have established themselves as a new breed of young entrepreneurs. As the 2019 Women’s March winds down, a few dozen people remain in Santa Rosa’s Courthouse Square, carrying signs and dancing jubilantly to “Can’t Stop the Feeling” by Justin…
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Sound Ambition
A new podcast promises honest conversations about food, farming, and the future of eating The very definition of a food movement mover and shaker, Dimock recently made the leap into the world of podcasts with Flipping the Table: Honest Conversations about Food, Farming, and the Future. Produced by Patrick Sexton, the show features in-depth, engaging…
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Small But Mighty
Carbon Sequestration and Climate Beneficial farming at two-acre Wild Oat Hollow It’s a blustery, rain-drenched late afternoon in January and I am sitting on hay inside an animal pen. Sarah Keiser of Wild Oat Hollow farm is tending to Zorro, her guard llama, with an IV filled with Thiamine. The seven-year-old animal contracted polio after…
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The Blossoming of Flour Girl, Cloverdale’s Cake Conjurer
Shannon Moore sprinkles edible glitter over a cake fashioned to look like a rough-hewn log with a fern curling over one edge. The effect is frost-kissed and magical— as if this faux bois dessert had been discovered nestled in a forest. Moore’s baking style is a deftly built nest of contradictions: rustic and fancy, sweet…
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Incremental Pleasures
Downtown Santa Rosa is getting happier by the hour. Downtown Santa Rosa has brightened up considerably in just the last year, with several drinking and dining establishments newly opened, every one of them determined to give you a deal. Let’s call it “Happy Hour.” In this hard-hitting journalistic investigation of downtown happy hours, we restricted…
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Adventures In Drinking
FERN BAR: A Delightful Place for a Drink Fern Bar, the latest night spot at The Barlow in Sebastopol, has managed to create an atmosphere draped in the splendor of yesteryear’s fern bars: lush foliage curated by neighboring floral designer California Sister, an array of lamps lit to perfection, a classy lounge area, and a…
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LOCAVOX: Stories from the people who make our food system go
JESÚS GUZMÁN Board Chair at Graton Day Labor Center The State of Working Sonoma 2018, paints a devastating portrait in data of a split in Sonoma County, between the rich and poor, with an economic gap that continues to widen. Prepared by Jesús Guzmán, a graduate of the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley and…
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Savorbang: Salted Caramel Date Mousse Pie
Welcome to our regular column from teacher and stand-up comedian Sarah Whitmore. Did you make New Year’s diet resolutions? Sarah has some thoughts about that—and a dessert recipe that’ll knock your socks off. The New Year brought the predicted icy blast of diet culture. By now you should be finished with Whole30, Sober January, and…