Mar/Apr 2022
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Letter from the Editor
Though I’ve been running relatively consistently for the past couple of years— lured by the freedom from gym memberships and class schedules and indoor spaces—I’ve only just committed to an actual running schedule. My goal is to train for a half-marathon, which seems straightforward enough, but I’m also responding to a deeper impulse, thrumming with…
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Meet a Local Artist — Féven Zewdi
Féven Zewdi is an Eritrean-American artist from Asmara, Eritrea. She’s currently based in Sonoma County where she’s wrapping up a stay at Chalk Hill Artist Residency in Healdsburg. Her practice primarily focuses on painting, but in recent years she’s begun public art and mural projects. Find her most recent mural at the Arlene Francis Center…
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Locavortex — “Greener Garbage”
A year after running the story of Green Mary and the importance of composting, California’s SB 1383 has gone into effect. The legislation, which mandates that all residents and businesses divert their organic materials from the landfill, has already resulted in an appreciable increase in compost tons here in Sonoma County—from 24,891 in the last…
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Eat Local – “Restaurant Roulette”
LOCAL EATERIES STRUGGLE TO SURVIVE When a customer griped to restaurateur Samantha Ramey that he’d never heard of a $20 plate of bacon and eggs, her response was, “Neither had I.” Together with her husband Ryan, Samantha runs the beloved Estero Cafe in Valley Ford and the newer Americana diner in Railroad Square. “I want…
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Drink Local – “Bottled Botanicals”
FloraLuna Apothecary & Trading Co. During the summer of 2015, Phaedra Achor was researching forgotten cocktails to serve at an outdoor party she was planning in a couple of months. Given that most of the recipes she settled on called for bitters, the flavor-loving former restaurateur decided to make her own. She already knew and…
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Grow Local – “Fertile Prospects”
Will Sonoma County ease restrictions on urban agriculture? We’ve all seen the painting. It hangs in local galleries and on restaurant walls. You’ll find it on business cards for real estate companies or framed in homes. It’ll even appear when you google “Sonoma County painting.” And while it may come in many colors and styles,…
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Make Local — “Beekeeping to Bee Stewardship”
From beekeeping to bee stewardship with Apis Arborea As the sun began to set on a sweet spring day in April 2019, so too did my dreams of acquiring a wild bee colony for my birthday. Just then, like magic, a good friend called, alerting me to a swarm that had landed in a tree…
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Make Local — “Sole Savers”
Shoe Repair in a Throwaway World According to the Shoe Service Institute of America, which was founded in 1904, there are still some 5,000 people practicing shoe repair across the country—down from 15,000 in 1997 and some 100,000 in the 1930s. The Institute, whose tag line is “If the shoe fits, repair it!” takes seriously…
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Meet a Farmer — Josh Norwitt of Tilted Ranch
Meet a Local Farmer: Josh Norwitt of Tilted Ranch We are a Sonoma County family farm in our 4th generation of land stewardship. Currently we raise Scottish Highland Cattle, along with herbs and vegetables for our Petaluma restaurant, Wishbone. The ranch name is Tilted Ranch, but the family has grown livestock and veggies under different…
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Locavore: Eating Local, Cooking Local — “Confessions of a Germophile”
Making Garlic Sauerkraut with Sheila Shupe I’ll admit it. I’m a germ lover. I court the sour flavor and profusion of vitamins they add to veggies. Their complex names seduce me like foreign tropical isles: Coliform, Leuconostoc, Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus. I lust after a good rhamnosus. I rub them on my body and consume them whenever…