Southern Sonoma Country Life

Coming Up Roses

“What a lovely thing a rose is!"

He walked past the couch to the open window and held up the drooping stalk of a moss-rose, looking down at the dainty blend of crimson and green. It was a new phase of his character to me, for I had never before seen him show any keen interest in natural objects. 

"There is nothing in which deduction is so necessary as religion," said he, leaning with his back against the shutters. "It can be built up as an exact science by the reasoner. Our highest assurance of the goodness of Providence seems to me to rest in the flowers. All other things, our powers, our desires, our food, are all really necessary for our existence in the first instance. But this rose is an extra. Its smell and its color are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it. It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to hope from the flowers.”  - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Naval Treaty

West of West Wine Festival - Discover the Best of Sonoma Coast August 2nd, 3rd and 4th, 2013

Journey to the edge of the world - without having to leave the county! West Sonoma Coast Vintners like to say that the end is their beginning. It certainly is a spectacular region within which to get lost in the cool climate wonders of Sonoma coastal wines for a few days. Especially if you are a wine connoisseur.

The 3rd annual West of West Wine Festival is certainly one to put on your summer to-do calendar. Centered in Sebastopol, the Festival kicks off with Welcome Dinners at wineries and homes around the county, hosted by member wineries on Friday night, August 2nd.

These dinners, ranging in price from $140 to $200 per person offer a rare and exclusive opportunity to dine with winemakers in their home or winery.

Saturday offers morning seminars, interviews and flight tastings, following by the first of two Grand Tastings on Saturday afternoon and the Whole Hog Feast Celebration in the evening.

After vineyards tours, the Grand Tasting tent reprises on Sunday afternoon for a second opportunity to taste through more than 40 outstanding coastal wines. 

Guests are able to select from the Welcome Dinners line-up: 

BANSHEE: An intimate dinner in the winery's new tasting room in downtown Healdsburg featuring one of area’s top restaurants and an array of Pinots and Chardonnay from its collection.

FAILLA: Join the Failla team for an “Al Fresco” Dinner located in the middle of its Olivet Road vineyard. Sit amongst the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay vines with friends while enjoying current releases and library wines of Failla, paired with a feast prepared by Chef Gary Penir.

FREEMAN: A global exploration of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. For the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay aficionado, enjoy with an intimate dinner for 16 guests at the beautiful and architecturally acclaimed vineyard home of Ken and Akiko Freeman. This special dinner catered by Chef Christopher Greenwald will be paired with wines from the Freeman portfolio as well as a special sampling of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from world’s best known producers and famed regions.

HALLECK VINEYARD: Sip wines on the deck while gazing across Sonoma County to Mt. St. Helena in distant Napa County. The five-course gourmet dinner will be paired with a selection of Halleck Vineyard wines. The menu will be lovingly prepared and served by the Halleck sons.

JOSEPH PHELPS: Enjoy an intimate celebration of Joseph Phelps 40th Anniversary and the winery's second decade of Sonoma Coast winegrowing at its charming Guest Center in Freestone. Join host Bill Phelps for a multi-course dinner paired with a selection of Phelps finest bottlings.

LITTORAI: An intimate, elegant yet casual dinner and tasting at the Littorai estate winery property with proprietors Heidi and Ted Lemon.

Saturday evening's Whole Hog Feast Dinner at the Barlow Events Center in Sebastopol starts with a pre-dinner reception featuring white and rose wines from the West Sonoma Coast and oysters from Hog Island Oyster Company. 

Afterwards, seating for dinner highlights the best of Sonoma bounty prepared by James Beard finalist Steven Satterfield from Miller Union in Atlanta. Dinner wines will consist of magnums of Pinot noir and Chardonnay supplied by each of the members of the West Sonoma Coast Vintners. Feel free to bring something from your cellar to share if you're attending this memorable dinner. Tickets for this lavish dinner - $275 per person. 

Mix and match which events you'd like to attend at various ticket price costs or treat yourself to an all access Saturday/Sunday pass for $450 (excluding cost of Friday night dinner choice).  Grand Tasting only attendees pay $125 for Saturday's event and $100 on Sunday. 

Broadway Under the Stars - 2013 Season at Jack London State Park

Photo By Candy Glass Productions

Cast members from the "Broadway Under The Stars in Jack London State Park" 2012 season.  The concert series returns this summer for 14 nights of performances from June 28th through August 31st, 2013.

Photos By Ryan Daffurn

Each evening begins with pre-show picnicking on the great lawn, alongside the vineyards of the park (with multiple wineries pouring and food and wine available for purchase), and concludes with an evening of inspirational entertainment. Concerts start at 7.30 pm. 

Transcendence Theatre’s “Broadway Under The Stars” in Jack London State Park is a series of award winning concerts featuring professional Broadway and Hollywood performers in the majestic open-air winery ruins in Sonoma's Jack London State Historic Park.

Last year’s season won the award for Best Special Theater Event from Broadway World San Francisco and included Broadway performers from Wicked, Mamma Mia, Les Miserables, Chicago, Gypsy, Hairspray, White Christmas, Mary Poppins and more. 

A portion of every ticket is given to benefit Jack London State Park and the success of these concerts plays a vital role in the sustaining of the threatened park for generations to come.  

Visit the website for more information and tickets www.BroadwayJackLondon.com

Transcendence Theatre’s “Broadway Under The Stars” Concert Series:  June 28 - August 31 2013.

"Fly Me To The Moon" June 28, 29, 30, July 5,6  "Fantastical Family Night" July 19, 20 "Dancing Through Life" August 9,10,15, 16, 17  "Gala Celebration" August 30, 31.

Jack London State Park is located at Sonoma County 2400 London Ranch Road Glen Ellen, CA 95442,  1 877 424-1414.

Tickets - $29 - $117.

 

Oyster Farm Battles On - Drakes Bay Oyster Company Back in Court

Embattled Drakes Bay Oyster Company of West Marin County is back in court Tuesday, May 14th, 2013 following the appellate court having granted an injunction pending appeal of the National Park Service's decision to shut down this historic operation.

In short, the oyster farm will stay open until the court makes a decision on the appeal. Three judges from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals are set to hear some 40 minutes of arguments from attorneys for the oyster farm's operator Kevin Lunny as well as from the man who ordered the farm's closure last fall, former Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.

A third-generation ranching family in the Point Reyes area, the Lunny family purchased the threatened (now 80-year-old) oyster farm in 2004 with a commitment to both protecting the health of Drakes estero and abundant wildlife, and reviving a significant business entrenched within the coastal community.

Providing 30 plus jobs for locals and a sustainable food product that supports local businesses, the Lunny's stewardship of the oyster farm produces award-winning oysters.

According to Drakes Bay Oyster Company: "In the course of this decision, NPS misrepresented the law, our contracts with the State of California, and the results of scientific studies. The fight is not over. We are in court to protest this. We need your help to continue." If you would like to add your name to the farm's growing ranks of supporters, click here.

At least two of the three judges in San Francisco must agree for the appeal to continue otherwise the farm's stay of execution will likely be over. An estimated 18 million oysters will have to be taken out of the water and destroyed. The National Parks and Service other critics remain steadfastly intent on closing operations in order to restore the area to pure wilderness, devoid of commercial activity.

Small Steps, Big Impact - 2013 350 Home and Garden Challenge

 

Sonoma County Daily Acts group is gearing up for celebrating community May 18th and 19th, aiming for a whopping 3,500 actions over the two-day, annual 350 home garden challenge.

Here's how you can boost numbers and green our county:

• Grow Food - Plant a few backyard veggies or start a community garden

• Save Water - Transform your lawn with native plants or install a greywater system

• Conserve Energy - Hang a clothes line, reduce your use of gas and electricity

• Green Your Ride - Go car free, organize a car pool

• Live Local - Move your money, eat, drink and shop local 

What will you do? Click here to register your green actions. 

Deck the Walls with Ranches & Rolling Hills - Marin Ag Land Trust 2013 Landscape Art Sale

Photo: Marin Agricultural Land Trust

Just as we can't get enough of our farm fresh local produce, Sonoma and Marinites are all about regional art collecting these days. 

And one of the best annual events in the area for scoring original, quality art from an extensive line-up of renowned regional artists is the upcoming Marin Agricultural Land Trust's Ranches & Rolling Hills Landscape Art Show and Sale, Saturday and Sunday, May 18th & 19th at Druid's Hall in Nicasio Square.  

Over the past 16 years, MALT has presented its Ranches & Rolling Hills event, benefitting farmland preservation.  Since its inception, the weekend-long celebration of paintings depicting the West Marin countryside has raised more than $1 million to protect working farms and ranches.

For serious collectors - A private preview lunch and sale: Saturday, May 18, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Be amongst the first to view and purchase art at a private preview lunch. Soak in the sights during a champagne and hors d'oeuvres reception and gather around the table with artists, farmers and MALT supporters to celebrate spring bounty with a farm-to-table lunch in the field located behind the gallery. This lively and fun lunch includes musical entertainment by The Easy Leaves. Pre-registration for preview lunch is required; $150 per person. For tickets to the preview luncheon, click here.

Public show and sale:

Saturday, May 18, 2-5 p.m. Coffee bar by Devils Gulch Ranch Haitian Coffee Project along with wine and beer from the MALT bar. Free admission.

Sunday, May 19, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Also open to the public with food available for sale from Black Mountain BBQ and wine and beer from the MALT bar. Free admission.

 

 

Secret Gardens of Spring Hill

“And the secret garden bloomed and bloomed and every morning revealed new miracles.” 

All quotes in this post are from Frances Hodgson Burnett's, The Secret Garden
 

“However many years she lived, Mary always felt that 'she should never forget that first morning when her garden began to grow'.” 

 “At first people refuse to believe that a strange new thing can be done, then they begin to hope it can be done, then they see it can be done--then it is done and all the world wonders why it was not done centuries ago.” 

“The Secret Garden was what Mary called it when she was thinking of it. She liked the name, and she liked still more the feeling that when its beautiful old walls shut her in no one knew where she was. It seemed almost like being shut out of the world in some fairy place. The few books she had read and liked had been fairy-story books, and she had read of secret gardens in some of the stories. Sometimes people went to sleep in them for a hundred years, which she had thought must be rather stupid. She had no intention of going to sleep, and, in fact, she was becoming wider awake every day which passed at Misselthwaite.”

“Everything's a story - You are a story -I am a story.” 

“How it is that animals understand things I do not know, but it is certain that they do understand. Perhaps there is a language which is not made of words and everything in the world understands it. Perhaps there is a soul hidden in everything and it can always speak, without even making a sound, to another soul.” 

“Hang in there. It is astonishing how short a time it can take for very wonderful things to happen.” 

Susan Villa's enchanted Spring Hill country property, a little ways out of town to the West of Petaluma reveals a treasure trail of secret gardens to the unsuspecting guest. Each year, at the end of April, through May, the master gardener's myriad of h

idden groves and trellis-shaded gardens springs to life in all shades of magnificent. 

The gardener, collector and her family tend to their densly planted, private property themselves. Many of the hundreds of flourishing rare and popular specimens were started by Susan from cuttings. A labor of love rarely seen on such scale and complexity. What an absolute delight to escape the world for an afternoon of wonder on the optimum afternoon for capturing the magic of the month. 

 

April's Industrious Weed Whacker's Take Care of Business the Natural Way

Photo: Dominic Rivetti

Much to the delight of my family, nature's own weed whackers made their much anticipated annual Spring reappearance at the top of the hill of the property behind our's this week. 

No nasty herbicides, no noisy, pollen spewing machines. Just a few busy goats doing what they do best!

Ecology of Place - A Kickstarter for Sonoma County Public Garden Art Space

 

 

Southern Sonoma County based award-winning Sculptural Landscape Designer Suzanne Biaggi's latest imagining started its groundbreaking beginnings before complete funding for the myriad of essential materials was fully secured.

"I was been invited by Cornerstone Gardens, partnering with Sonoma Ecology Center to create a public garden at Cornerstone in Sonoma," said passionate creative, Biaggi, whose stunning works have been published numerous times in the nation's top glossy magazines. The project has already been started and is a work in progress. "More funding is needed for the sculptural elements so I'm asking you to help me to complete this important installation," says Biaggi, who has set up a Kickstarter page to boost the coffers in oder for the project to progress at a timely pace. 

"This project represents what I am most passionate about and what inspires me . It highlights the importance of ecological balance to the future of our planet; honors the memory of my brother Phil; provides a place for discovery and contemplation; educates, by example, local restoration of native habitats; and employs universal design allowing the wheel chair experience to be same as the walking one," says the artist.

Here are some highlights of what is happening and is planned for the project entitled ECOLOGY OF PLACE dedicated to Phil Biaggi:

It’s about restoring what was once  there at Cornerstone, on the outside of Sonoma – wetlands, sometimes covered by shells washed up during high tide. "We have already excavated for the wetlands," says Biaggi "roughed out the path and have created the runnel (ribbon of water) that will border and cross the path as it meanders through the garden."

It's also about what is here now –vineyards which will be symbolized by sculptural vines created from aluminum and steel wire.The ever present wind will be seen in the patterns it creates as it passes over sculptural vineyards and activates a sound element – the abstracted voices of Biaggi's brother Phil overlaid with Neil Young -his favorite musician.

I'm both a big fan of Suzanne Biaggi's work and a regular visitor to Cornerstone Gardens, so I'm going to help her kickstart this project. Having put in my few $$s for the recent mural painting on the side of Petaluma's historic Phoenix Theater, it's so invigorating to see what can be accomplished when a lot of people each give a small something to further the arts in our communities. 

This particular of the artist's Garden creations is about discovery and contemplation. A pathway snakes its way through the landscape. The entire garden cannot be seen at one time because plants from the wetlands, hedges, and berms will obscure the view. "One must travel through the garden to discover what lessons and truths it holds and come to one's own conclusions.Custom seating and shade will be provided along the way for one to pause and contemplate.The path is designed for slow navigation and for all to be able to enjoy and participate," says Biaggi. 

"With your help we are going to create a stunning sculptural garden that will inspire and educate thousands of people in the awareness of sustainability and global warming," she says. Sonoma Ecology Center will be leading tours through the installation to demonstrate and teach how one can restore native habitat in their own personal gardens.

 

Take to the Great Outdoors During National Parks Week - April 20th to 28th, 2013

Each spring, the National Park Service and the National Park Foundation, invite us to celebrate National Park Week April 20th – 28th with a free pass.

America’s national parks include more than:

• 84 million acres of spectacular scenery, historic landmarks and cultural treasures
• 17,000 miles of trails
• 43,000 miles of shoreline
• 27,000 historic and prehistoric structures
• 100 million museum items, and
• 12,000 campsites

There are 401 National Parks coast-to-coast, with just about every American living less than 100 miles from a national park experience. National Check the calendar of events, lace up your boots, pack your bag and set out on a national park adventure uniquely your own!

Take a look at the National Park's interactive map to find parks to explore. For Bay Area readers, how about a visit to: 

Point Reyes National Seashore
Muir Woods National Monument, or
Fort Point National Historic Site

Free admission all week long at National Parks throughout California also includes:

• Yosemite National Park (April 22-26)

• Lassen Volcanic National Park

• Pinnacles National Monument

• San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park

• Sequoia National Park

• Whiskeytown Unit National Recreation Area

• Lava Beds National Monument

• Cabrillo National Monument

• Death Valley National Park

Last year, more than 800,000 children became Junior Rangers. Parks across the country will offer kid-friendly programs on National Junior Ranger Day – Saturday, April 20!

April 27 is Volunteer Day, so if you have the time and energy, roll up your sleeves and pitch in with a project at a park near you.