May/Jun 2025
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Food for People, Not for Profit: Worker-Owned Community Market Celebrates 50 Years
For 50 years, Community Market has been keeping Sonoma County well-fed and feeling good about it—no shady ingredients, always fresh, organic, and ethically sourced goodness. With locations in both Santa Rosa and Sebastopol, this worker-run market puts people and the planet first. Now, as they celebrate their golden anniversary (that’s a lot of kale sold!),…
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Light Living: Medicine Meal with Erin Wilkins, L.Ac.
Welcome the Fresh Energy of Early Summer. Medicine Meal explores the intersection of food and herbs as medicine. The name comes from the Japanese Yakuzen culture, which is about creating delicious, healing meals using traditional Chinese medicine herbs and principles. The early summer months are an auspicious time to lighten up—just as each season brings…
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Name Games: What Does “Local Food” Really Mean?
In 2007, the New Oxford American Dictionary named “locavore” its Word of the Year. Farmers’ markets were proliferating nationwide, tripling in just 15 years. Restaurants began emulating farm-to-table trailblazers like Chez Panisse. Then came surprise bestselling books like The Omnivore’s Dilemma and films like Food, Inc. as millions reconsidered dinner’s long and convoluted journey to…
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Labor of Love: Inman Family Wines
For Kathleen Inman of Inman Family Wines, tending vines and wines is second nature. If terroir is destiny, Kathleen Inman is its midwife. The founder and fearless force behind Inman Family Wines in Sonoma’s Russian River Valley, Inman has spent the last two decades coaxing elegant expressions of Pinot Noir from her sustainably farmed estate…
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Ride On!
Bike Sharing Is Changing the Way We Roll. By now, we’ve all noticed those white electric bikes lined up in various locations around the county. But how does one get started using them? Dana Turrey, Senior Transportation Planner from the Sonoma County Transportation Authority, answers a few questions about the who, what, when, where, why,…
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Timeless Beauty
Jess Brown’s Keepsake Clothes, Quilts and Dolls. Kary Hess: Your work has such a classic, universal quality. What influences your designs?Jess Brown: Thank you so much! I think my biggest influences lie somewhere between beauty, texture, and utilitarianism. I’m inspired by the traditions of combining beautiful textiles with garments or products that can actually be…
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Steeped in Story: Two Trees Tea House Brews up a Sensory Journey
Two Trees Tea House Brews up a Sensory Journey. With one sip of tea, you’re resting by a tranquil brook under the shade of a blossoming peach tree. With another, you step into a lively country teahouse, where the air is rich with the scent of steamed dumplings and the buzz of cheerful voices.
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Take Flight: Winged Wonders at Sonoma Botanical Gardens.
Created by Boston-based duo Donna Dodson and Andy Moerlein, aka The Myth Makers, these huge avian sculptures—some soaring up to 20 feet tall—are crafted entirely from natural materials. Expect to spot an enormous Acorn Woodpecker among the oaks, a giant Anna’s Hummingbird, and a larger-than-life Western Meadowlark and California Quail keeping watch over the trails.…
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Meals That Heal: Ceres Community Project Delivers Nourishment
Food is medicine. Instinctively, that statement makes a lot of sense. It’s easy to see that if one eats well, then one has more energy, avoids illness, and feels well, both physically and mentally.Sebastopol’s Ceres Community Project takes the “food is medicine” concept and puts it into practice by providing 100% organic, locally sourced, and…
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On the Rise: Nightingale Breads Harmonizes Artisan Breadmaking with Community Care
On the corner of Front and Second streets in Forestville, Nightingale Breads hums to life long before sunrise. A baker arrives in the early morning hours to bake bread that was mixed, shaped, and cold-proofed the day before. By 7:00 a.m., the next shift rolls in to mix fresh dough for the following day’s bake,…