"You don't have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces, just good food from fresh ingredients,"
- Julia Child
According to Wikipedia (a handy, instant source of info that I, for one, adore, even if it's not academically considered a rock-solid safe haven for sifting fact from potential fiction), the popular term Foodie is informal for a particular class of aficionado of food and drink, coined in 1981 by authors of The Official Foodie Handbook, celebrated US/British writer/scholar/journalist, Paul Levy and Ann Barr.
If gourmets of the past largely lived to eat the best food and drink only the finest wines, foodies of today have more of a burning desire to learn absolutely everything about food, right? This includes the everyday and the extraordinary, as well as the science, industry, history, and individual characters involved in the production of food.
Now here's something for those of us residing in the abundantly produce-rich San Francisco North Bay who may well consider ourselves as falling into the evolving realm of everyday foodie, epicure even, gastronome, or old-fashioned gourmand. An event to appeal to the purists, the practicals and the newly initiated in an international consensus of ordinary people to generally make more of an effort to eat local.
And who better to take the concept of fresh, farmed, local meat and produce to the next level of our collective consciousness, than the man who has done the most in influencing the way that forward-thinking Americans produce their food from coast, to coast, Joel Salatin of Virginia's Polyface Farms, the country's premier non-industrial food proprietor, showcased in The Omnivore's Dilemma, prominent speaker in Food Inc, author, lecturer and mastermind of cutting-edge, US sustainable agriculture?
There is no denying the fact that Salatin is one busy guy. And that's about the biggest understatement of the year, to date. Not unlike the beleaguered Mr. Obama, this is one plucky fella with a heck of a job ahead of him in both looking after his own multi-generational ranch whilst attempting to gradually reshape the entire country after five decades of diabolical agricultural practices. The coup of Salatin coming to the Petaluma area to speak lays entirely in the capable hands of Petaluma's equally impassioned Tara Smith, proprietress of Tara Firma Farms.
If you live in the area, how many times have you driven out on San Antonio Road to take the more scenic route back into Petaluma, off the 101? And how many times en-route might have you have then taken a fleeting glance at the mysterious-looking, tree-lined Institute of Noetic Sciences, wondering for a few moments perhaps, just what that's all about?
A locally low-profile nonprofit membership organization serenely located on the bucolic border of Marin and Sonoma Counties, the Institute of Noetic Sciences quietly conducts and sponsors leading-edge research into the potentials and powers of consciousness—including perceptions, beliefs, attention, intention, and intuition. Maintaining a commitment to scientific rigor while exploring phenomena that have been largely overlooked by mainstream science, the institute hosts workshops, retreats and educational sessions considered to be at the frontier of international research into consciousness.
All that important stuff aside, where better than this tranquil center of awareness to host a limited-seating, locavore's dinner of delicious, natural, pasture-raised food with a special presentation by Salatin himself?
And pair that with an organic, locavore's dessert for the evening gathering of foodie movers and shakers baked by fellow Petaluma blogger, baker-caterer extraordinaire, the marvelous Ms Meloni Courtway,this fast approaching Wednesday February 17th event is one you truly should not miss. Click here to make a reservation, seats are expected to sell out.
Want to know more about the man? Here's a great article on Salatin from the UK Guardian
Tara Firma Farms
presents
“Joel Salatin”
Dinner Event
hosted at
The Institute of Noetic Sciences
February 17, 2026
Reception 5:30pm / Dinner 6:15pm /
Presentation 7:30pm
(Dress is casual)
Members: Dinner and Program $50 ~ with
Wine $55
Non-Members: Dinner and Program $60 ~
with Wine $65
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