Seeing as November is Native American Heritage Month first and foremost and it being Thanksgiving it strikes me as an appropriate time to post my poem that I read at Petaluma Arts Center this summer and more recently at the Museum of Sonoma County in celebration of the museum's upcoming 2023 Sonoma County Stories.
I haven't posted this, an adaptation of my second book, Fog Valley Winter, prior to this so I hope you enjoy it & it provides food for thought.
It's been a busy November with several fun readings and events with my earlier books around the county and some lovely wine writing assignments too. I'm so close to getting my new novel The House on Liberty Street ready for a late year release, it's taking all my patience to keep a lid on it until it's live. Hopefully in the next few days!
In the meantime, I will be at home here in southern Sonoma County with my family and friends and I can smell the scalloped potatoes baking while I'm posting this.
I'm ever more grateful for every day spent in this beautiful place I call home. I'm so thankful for the wonderful community and countryside that surrounds us and appreciate all that takes place behind the scenes, the many, many folk who don't necessarily call out their dedication to making this the splendid place it is for all.
I wish you a Happy Thanksgiving, wherever you are and whomever you chose to spend your day with. And if you're taking a couple of days to relax and read, walk, pack a picnic for the beach, well that's great too. Expressing our gratitude for another day in Sonoma County (and beyond) comes in many shapes and forms.
Fog Valley — The Tastiest Little Place on Earth — By Frances Rivetti
First there was the Miwok whose wild coastal realm and rich, natural foodshed
Nourished generation after generation for five thousand years or more
Salmon and steelhead trout, crabs, mussels, clams, limpet and oysters
Marsh plants, magnificent, dense and mystical forest of acorns and the California Buckeye Nut,
Elk and deer, at every meal a small portion offered in thanks to the spirit world
Then came the Russian fur hunters and soon after, the Mexican colonization of the Northern Frontier, the 21st and final California Mission, 6,000 sheep and goats, 50 pigs and 3,500 head of cattle, 800 Spanish bushels of wheat, 1,025 bushels of barley, plus beans, garbanzos, peas and corn, European farming methods for Western foods, disease
A new world built on the backs of the First People
Grasslands decimated, wildlife and forests forever changed, the birth of California’s pioneer wine and dairy industries, Gold Rush fever, grapes, eggs, oysters, butter, milk, meat, the Petaluma Gold Rush Bean, introduced by a Peruvian whaler who jumped ship, flat, kidney-shaped, tan in color with specks and stripes of maroon
Bodega Red, the coastal region’s first potato, also of Peruvian descent
Wild Mushrooms, chantarelle, porcini, the illusive truffle
Immigrant culture — Chinese, Italian, Portuguese, Swiss, German, Danes, English, Irish, Welsh
Cioppino, Sourdough, Clam Chowder, Stollen and Soda Bread, ranchers, cheesemakers
Jewish poultry pioneers — more eggs than imaginable
Apple Orchards, wild boar, hops, vineyards as far as the eye could see,
Wine, Butter and Egg Days, organic olive oil, craft beer
Cannabis
Community Supported Agriculture, farm boxes, plant-based foods, vegan cheese
Veggie gardens, farm shops, farmer’s markets
Climate Change, heat, wildfires, food pantries, pandemic
Water shortages, conservation, controlled burns
New ways to grow greens in a warmer, drier California
Healthy soils and cutting greenhouse gas, the circle is widening and closing at the same time
We look back to those who lived in harmony with the land for answers, for survival
Our Fog Valley
Precious and precarious
The Tastiest Little Place on Earth
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