Beta

Sep/Oct 2020

Letter from the Editor

It’s a Monday in mid-August, the first day of school, and I’m writing this as my new 3rd grader meets her teacher over Zoom and heavy clouds darken the usually bright living room that her younger sister plays in. This morning we awoke to an enormous clap of thunder followed by a hailstorm. The record…
Locavortex

Hair for All Humans by Ramona Camille A couple of years ago, I came up with the idea of becoming a Traveling Hair Artist, inspired by my love of Hawaii and the laid-back island vibes. I loved watching the locals selling wood carvings or snorkeling trips or other creative endeavors that helped support them in an…
Worth the Wait

Chef Anne Sanusi Makes Everything to Order at Sonoma Crust The first time I spotted Sonoma Crust’s tiny business park hideaway was in my rear-view mirror as I was driving down Dutton Avenue on my way back from the gym. I had heard rumblings about an enchanting fried chicken and waffle sandwich from my foodie…
Home Cooking Magic

With their new cookbook, The Kosmic Kitchen aims to inspire you to bring joy, herbs, and ritual into the kitchen. Magic isn’t the first word that comes to mind these days when I think of my kitchen. Dishes? Yes. Six months into the coronavirus pandemic, it’s a place to churn out three meals a day. This means a…
Making Garage Wine

Drinking your hoard of booze in lock-down got old fast? Maybe it’s time to start a new, more rewarding hobby. Here in Sonoma County, it’s grape harvest season, the ideal time to start making wine at home. Here’s a starter compendium of the ups and downs of home wine-making in 2020, with lessons learned from…
Waste Not, Want Not

A Day on the Ground with Farm to Pantry “That makes 237 pounds…” Duskie Estes announces to the volunteers who’ve spent the past couple of hours harvesting with her. I’m standing among half a dozen women, some of them wearing bright yellow T-shirts that bear the name Farm to Pantry—a nonprofit started in 2008 to…
In with the Old

GreenLynx and the World of Reuse “There are so many different lives that a 2 x 4 can have,” muses Nicole Tai on a warm July morning. As I follow her through the bright, airy showroom, her words transform what I initially perceive to be just stacks and stacks of wood, much of it leaning…
All Hands on Deck

At The Spring Hill School in Petaluma, students take hands-on learning to heart. During the 2019–20 school year, middle schoolers made nesting boxes for western bluebirds, bats, owls, and kestrels while learning about the habitat needs of native birds in environmental science. They designed and built catapults and trebuchets after researching medieval European siege and…
Savorbang!

Back to School Lunch Ideas! (lol) Welcome to our regular recipe column from teacher and stand-up comedian Sarah Whitmore. Remember school? That was fun, huh? Well, now we have home. Parents, now that you are teachers again (practically tenured!), it’s time to get resourceful. Take curriculum planning to the next level by auditing your fridge.…
The End Bit

Meet a Contributor: LAURIE GIBBS Made Local Magazine Production Team Laurie Gibbs is a writer, editor, graphic designer, project manager, and sometimes educator who collaborates with a variety of businesses and organizations in the Bay Area, including Made Local Magazine. When not working (which her family would argue is “not often enough”), these days, she’s visiting…