May/Jun 2018
-
Letter From The Editor
We all know that buying local creates economic gains for our community. The data clearly shows the more you purchase locally, the more you strengthen the local economy, thanks to the multiplier effect. Yet it’s also true that spending your hard-earned dollars to purchase goods from local food producers, farmers, and restaurants is not only…
-
Botanical Craft
A Guide To Local Bitters Phaedra Achor began her foray into the world of bitters in 2015 while planning a cocktail party for a small group of friends. “I wanted to do some forgotten pre- and-post prohibition cocktails with funny names and funny stories,” says Achor. “I did quite a bit of research and found…
-
Locavortex
My Favorite Eats Jody Fessler Age: 44 Location: Windsor Profession: Environmental Scientist Instagram: @farmtotablekitchen Farms I love Tierra Vegetables (651 Airport Blvd., Santa Rosa; 707. 544.6141). I like incorporating their seasonal produce into the plant-based recipes featured on my Instagram page. They grow year-round and specialize in heirloom varietals that you can’t find in grocery…
-
Farm-to-Snail
A new Slow Food certification rewards local restaurants for good, clean, and fair business practices. Daniel Kedan, chef and owner of Backyard, has no problem with people asking to see the inside of his refrigerator. “At any point someone could come in here and I’d be happy to show them my walk-in,” he says on…
-
A Family Affair
How the Diaz family brought a matriarch’s mole recipe from Oaxaca to Healdsburg without losing a lick of authenticity. I The story of the Diaz family mole (pronounced mo-lay) begins in the town of Santa Gertrudis in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. At a young age, Octavio Diaz learned a love of good food from…
-
Staying Alive
With a sleek new look, Enlivened gets reinvented as a modern probiotic beverage for an Instagrammed world. Two decades ago, in Colorado for the Telluride Film Festival, Deana Dennard and Tom Boyd encountered the tiny but mighty probiotic kefir grains that would become their life’s work. “There was a beautiful stream up on the mountain,”…
-
Locavox
Leonard Diggs has been farm manager at Shone Farm for 20 years. On 365 acres off River Road, the working farm is the outdoor learning laboratory for Santa Rosa Junior College’s agriculture and natural resource programs. As the manager, Diggs keeps track of all of the farming enterprises and coordinates the staff, students, and instructors…
-
Savorbang!
Welcome to Savorbang, our regular recipe column from local teacher and stand-up comedian Sarah Whitmore. In this installment, Sarah puts a fresh spin on an old favorite: dandelion soufflé. Savorbang’s Dandelion Souffle Raise your hands. How many Sonoma County soccer parents have received an email like this from your child’s Team Nourishment Facilitator a.k.a. snack organizer?…
-
Adventures In Drinking
Sutro Wines Nature Walk and Tasting Warnecke Ranch stretches out over 260 acres of rolling oak woodlands in Sonoma County’s idyllic northeastern Alexander Valley, where coastal fog winds its way up the Russian River, and grapevines blanket the hillsides. Just east of Healdsburg, the ranch, which has been in the Warnecke family since 1911, has…
-
The End Bit
In turbulent times, local cannabis farmers face extinction: Part 1. Two years ago, Sonoma County had a thriving cannabis cultivation community. The number of actual growers is hard to estimate due to a desire for secrecy, but industry experts estimated it at between 5,000 to 10,000 growers. That seemed like a broad range, so I…