A Return to Dining Out

Owning a restaurant in Wine Country the past few years has come with considerable challenges, but in an ironic yet edifying turn of events it was these very challenges which have provided the building blocks to navigating the difficult months of Covid-19. By staying open and pivoting to a To Go only menu we initially pulled on the skill set that got us through two fires and an evacuation. Owner Lukka Feldman, manager Cathryn Hulsman and wine director Chappy Cottrell are used to landing on their feet, damn the mind boggling logistics. With the arrival of Jordan Rosas to lead our kitchens a renewed sense of mission around the kind of food we want to source and cook, and how we want to serve you, our valued customers, neighbors and friends, has emerged.

Despite what you read in bucolic magazine profiles that seem to tout the proliferation of small farms, 30-40% of small independent farms nationwide are facing bankruptcy*. Going into this pandemic, purveyors that supply restaurants like ours were especially threatened with a catastrophic loss of revenue just as they were contemplating the spring planting season. With Jordan’s passion for local sourcing we are doubling down on our seminal Eat the View mission. We also view this moment as a crucial time to address inequities built into the hospitality industry at the most basic and structural levels.

This pandemic has revealed many weaknesses to the social systems we depend upon. Weaknesses to our healthcare systems, to big government, to the entire retail industry, to access to a just and healthy food system. It’s up to all of us to challenge and re-envision the pieces of our lives and businesses we have control over. As we pray the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement will teach even the most recalcitrant among us, when it comes to the social contract we all depend upon, ultimately, we rise or fall together.

Restaurant dining may never be the same. But what if this is an opportunity to make it even better?

To be sure, we miss the Barndiva dining room vibe - cocktails shaking in time to the music, extravagant floral arrangements, candlelight, multiple conversations studded with laughter. All that will soon return inside. But as we go into a summer with a safe distance dining model, we do so with a new approach to the food we serve and the desire to make all the pieces that contribute to that experience more equatable. We are talking full healthcare insurance and a better living wage. Strengthening the teamwork between front of house and back of house that too often divides instead of unifies.

This will not change the relationship we hope to have with you, our diners, except to enrich it. Our first Saturday serving customers on property again was notable not just for an appreciation of Jordan’s food, the beauty of the gardens, the pared down but focused professionalism of our returning staff, but in the kindness shown by diners who returned with a new appreciation of how important restaurants like ours are to a shared cultural experience.

For the time being, to minimize direct interaction we will rely on cell phones to provide the depth of service we usually provide at the table. Credit card information will be taken with your reservation and a 19% service charge added to all bills - you may tip above that if you wish and while greatly appreciated it is not necessary. Once your temperature is taken by a host at the door and you are shown a table, all you need do is go to our website for the menu, then call or text us to discuss or place your order. Our bartenders have been busy concocting summer cocktails and a full bar experience is available. You can talk to our sommelier about a great bottle of wine. Talk to the chef through our restaurant manager about ingredients, sourcing, technique. We will have a number of staff on the phones at all times. Because we will have your table number once you are seated, all you need do is text or call to add to your order or pay your bill.

A rising star in Los Angeles before he made the move North to inspire and lead our kitchens here in Healdsburg, Jordan Rosas’ approach is light and elegant, deeply satisfying, thoughtful, gorgeous, and utterly delicious. We are thrilled to welcome him to the Barndiva family. Dishes like celery root, turnip and nettle soup with slivers of pickled onion, drizzled with herb oil and seared Liberty Duck with first of the season cherries, Russian kale and forest namekos have already become favorites. Our desserts, by the wonderful Sarah Ellsworth, change daily, but will always include her macaroons, the most popular item (along with Auntie Lynn’s carrot cake) of the desserts on the To Go Menu, which is still going strong for all those who wish to continue sheltering in place. Lunch menus will feature Barndiva burgers, fried chicken sandwiches, teriyaki glazed salmon, house made pastas and wonderful salads. But to discover the depth of this young man’s remarkable talents we encourage you to dine with us at dinner. He’s just getting started.

Seared local halibut with Manila clam broccoli ‘chowder.’

Mastering the Smize: behind masks as they deliver dishes were Jessica, Hayden, Isabel - and Natalie and Terra (not shown)

It was most gratifying to see the number of families with children and dogs out on Saturday, along with Barndiva To Go regulars who walked through the gardens in a post quarantine daze. The gardens are blooming. Summer is here. We would love to see you soon!

In this bucket from the farm: Azaleas, Mock Orange, green flowering Tobacco, Knautia, Artichoke, Foxglove. To keep up with what’s growing in Philo we encourage you to follow our farm manager and brilliant gardener Daniel Carlson @daniel.james.co.

*For more information on the challenges small farmers are facing, click here.

#staytuned #stayhealthy #stayhealdsburg #healdsburgchamber #stayhome #eattheview #shelteringinplace #barndiva #togo #healdsburg #thisishealdsburg #sonomacounty #sommtablehealdsburg #sonomastrong

How to Make a Rose Blush

Ah Cécile, let me count the ways ... a prodigious climber, you bloom for weeks proffering delicate pink blossoms that are glorious to behold. Plucked, layered with sugar and left to sit, you make a Proustian infusion that sings of early summer. All year long cocktails, sparkling drinks and desserts sing your pleasure... Cécile, we love you.

To show it, and In anticipation of re-opening the gardens soon, we’ve been working on a cocktail with our stash from last year that speaks to this moment. Time Lost is about making it through this and coming out the other side. For us it’s also about a renewed appreciation of the importance of place, and how we share this place with a wonderful community.

You need only roses, white granulated sugar and sterilized jars. Not overly fond of white sugar we have tried unrefined (too heavy) and sugar substitutes like coconut (too flavor forward). The goal here is to render the petals down while leaving their delicate flavor and fragrance intact.

Almost any organic rose can be used though it’s best to look for smaller blossoms as they seem to break down faster, losing less of their scent in maceration.

Our Cécile Brünner grows, or rather engulfs, the outhouse on the ridge, thriving on the weird alchemy up here of intense heat and cooling fog. Don’t have any organic roses on hand? Venture out safely to one of the wonderful flower farms in Sonoma County - they are awash in roses right now. If you are close to Healdsburg all you need to do is head over to Dragonfly Farm.

Directions: Pick the rose buds early in the morning, pluck the petals off, and starting with sugar alternately layer with petals directly into the jar. Compact as you go with a wood mallet - petals, sugar, petals. When you get to the last layer of roses apply constant pressure for a few seconds longer to level the layers before filling to the screw line with sugar. Tighten the lid and refrigerate. Voilà.

It usually takes a month for the petals and sugar to meld into a soft, fragrant, oozing but surprisingly stable texture. So little is needed for a cocktail that one jar should last you a year. This is a ‘project’ kids love, a great opportunity to work in the garden or backyard with them discussing all the things in life that are sweet and simple. Come the holidays they can celebrate the fruits of their labor - rose sugar is great for no alcohol libations as well.

But hey, if you don’t have kids, don’t have roses, or just don’t want to wait (we are all doing quite enough of that right now) join us in the garden for a Lost Time cocktail…won’t be long now!

The outhouse on the ridge is the only original fixture from the farmhouse we lost to fire many years ago, It is lovingly referred to as The Church of Poo. With a Dutch door that opens to a big sky often filled with clouds rolling in from the ocean, it’s easy to see why the builders waxed poetic in naming it. No offense intended. Quite the opposite.

Barndiva Mother's Day 2020

At Barndiva we ‘normally’ celebrate Mother’s Day with great fanfare, starting with an expansive Sunday menu that is served in the gardens on what is usually one of the last utterly gorgeous days of Spring. Large floral displays snake their way up to the ceiling on the main bar and overflow the back windows as mothers of all ages are fêted. It is at heart an optimistic holiday, a time to celebrate (or repair) the defining relationship of our lives, a longing to make good on that particular defining notion of love that once upon a time set everything in motion.

Knowing we cannot be together this Sunday to do what we’ve done for the past 16 years gave us momentary pause, it’s true. So many won’t and can’t be with their mothers this year. All the more reason to celebrate the relationships that have long sustained us, finding in the shadow of our fragility right now a deeper appreciation of the connections we make to one another that are the most indelible. So as you cannot come to us, we’ve designed a way to bring the best of wine country, Barndiva style, to you.

This is Chef Jordan’s first Mother’s Day with us and we couldn’t be more proud that he’s chosen to honor our traditions with a groaning board of locally grown or produced delicacies - from Freckle Farms, Front Porch Farm, Bernier Farm, Jackson Family Gardens, Journeyman Meat Co, Pennyroyal Farm, RedBird Bakery. We are curing salmon, making cultured honey butter and Sarah is baking up a storm. Chappy is including a bottle of chilled Rochioli Wine. We are especially delighted to send a Barndiva Farm bouquet down from Philo where it was grown and arranged by Daniel.

All pre-orders for Sunday will include delivery anywhere along the 101 corridor from Healdsburg to SF.

For the feast: shop.barndiva.com

This is a great time to add a few special bottles to your delivery. For that, contact our intrepid wine director Chappy at wine@barndiva.com.

Though it will not make it to the main bar this Sunday….

#staytuned #stayhealthy #stayhealdsburg #healdsburgchamber #stayhome #eattheview #shelteringinplace #barndiva #togo #healdsburg #thisishealdsburg #sonomacounty #sommtablehealdsburg #sonomastrong

Why Bears Do It

Three families have farmed this ridge over the past 100+ years - Fashovers, Cassanellis and Abramsky Feldman Hales. Assiduously pruning and grafting every year, we have somehow managed to keep 40 heirloom apple varietals alive, though the oldest trees with their hollowed out trunks riddled with critter holes seem to defy gravity just by staying upright year after year. Because we dry farm the trees are always in stress, struggling for purchase on the steep hillsides, surviving long hot summer and fall days when even in wet years their roots can find no water by July. The only moisture they get is from the ocean, when diaphanous fogs roll over the ridges and settle for the night.

It’s that stress that concentrates the sugar in the fruit, giving the blended juice a caramelized honey finish and a perfume redolent with apple top notes, the barest hints of wood and sea and wild herbs.

Barndiva Farm Heirloom Apple Juice is the pivotal ingredient in a brown butter whiskey cocktail with thyme syrup we call Why Bears Do It. The bears never see the trees in blossom. By the time they wander down from the north most of the apples are gone, and those left scattered on the ground from harvest have begun to ferment into alcohol. The scent goes to their heads, driving them mad with desire, hence the name of the drink. I have no idea if it is indeed desire they feel as they trample through the orchards gouging on rotting apples and pulling down branches, leaning tipsily against the fragile trunks, leaving deposits of their gluttony everywhere, but that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

My Earth Day prayer is for the continued health of blossoms and bears everywhere, real, imagined, remembered.

The mighty Gravenstein, early and sweetly delicate.

The virtual beauty of Flowers...

Farmers gotta farm but the complexity of decisions that need to be made in this fog of global indecision right now could drive anyone to drink. Consider this a huge shout out to our friends and suppliers in the food and floral worlds who are gamely tackling spring with mindful, if cautious, optimism. Support the farmer’s markets that continue to be open, the incredible CSA’s thorough-out Mendocino and Sonoma County, and wonderful family owned grocery stores like Shelton’s Market in Healdsburg and Boont Berry Farm Store in Boonville,

Up here on the Ridge our fruit and nut orchards, quite oblivious to the strangeness of the times are going about their business with glorious blossoms on pears, cherries and plums, apples not far behind. That was a nice series of soft storms. The trees are happy.

As for our extensive floral program, all the bulbs planted in winter and our flowering shrubs are also blooming right on time. As sad as we are we are unable to share them with you in person, here are a few virtual arrangements from Dan, which in the spirit of the season speak to the hope we will soon be able to welcome you back to Barndiva. For beautiful, locally grown floral arrangements and a wonderful range of plants and vegetables starts you can order and pick up in Healdsburg, we encourage you to visit our talented friends at Dragonfly Floral.

Sending you and your sheltering safely families our best wishes for a peaceful and healthy Passover and Easter.

@daniel.james.co arrangements for ‘the bar, the back window, and the bathrooms’ with Wild Cherry boughs, Tulips, Daffodils, Iris, Camillas, Viburnum, Raspberry leaf, Phacelia, white flowering Currant and Hellebores.

#staytuned #stayhealthy #stayhealdsburg #healdsburgchamber #stayhome #eattheview #shelteringinplace #barndiva #togo #healdsburg #thisishealdsburg #sonomacounty #sommtablehealdsburg #sonomastrong

Why Food Like This Matters Now

With our second week as a To Go restaurant behind us we are feeling immense gratitude for the support we’ve received from the Barndiva community near and far. But as we shift our gaze down the road, as necessary as sheltering in place is right now, there are going to be long term effects on almost all small independently owned restaurants and on anyone who services or provides for them, up and down the food chain. This is true everywhere because as Lucas Kwan Peterson wrote in an article published in the LA Times on March 26, “Times are uncertain and people need to eat, preferably cheaply given the fact that they are also worried about or have already lost their jobs. But our multi-billion dollar fast food industry is equipped to weather this shutdown. Our small restaurants are not.” As he, and many many respected restaurateurs like David Chang, Danny Meyer and Tom Colicchio are warning, we aren’t just talking about weathering this shutdown in the short term.

There is no Eat the View blog without Barndiva. But over the past decade that I’ve been writing it, while very much a personal story of the joys and challenges we’ve encountered as our family farmed this ridge and built a sustainable business in the heart of Healdsburg, whenever possible the blog has tried to draw a larger circle around the two food sheds we work from, and the stories of many who work within it, often with little or no financial or physical safety nets. Whether these players are young, having moved here with a dream, or working within long held family businesses, they are dedicated to re-telling and extending the remarkable food history of this area. Many will now be facing serious hurdles.

As proud as I am of the delicious series of dishes coming out of our kitchens right now, I’m equally gratified that many kitchens here in Healdsburg are still producing food, keeping chefs and purveyors working. We miss seeing you in our dining rooms, that’s for sure. For us, going back to the basics has been a refresher course in why food like this matters - its power to convey the love we feel when we know where our food comes from and who produces it. If you have the financial bandwidth, seek out and support smaller independent producers and farms that have online stores and CSA’s - it’s a great time to join one!

And do consider donating to Sonoma Family Meal a vital ‘Groceries to Go’ drive through program here in Healdsburg, whose immediate goal is to aid families and seniors during the pandemic. Read more from our friends at Corazón Healdsburg.

Below are just some of Chef Jordan’s dishes coming out of our kitchen right now which can be picked up curbside at The Gallery or delivered at no charge by Lukka and Isabel along with cocktails and selected bottles of wine from local wineries. Starting next week we will also be offering kits that are easy to finish cooking at home. If you are too far away to enjoy Barndiva To Go but want to show support, consider paying it forward for lunch in the gardens this summer, one of our collaborative wine events like Pink Party, Fête Blanc, Fête Rouge, or taking your significant other out to…dinner. Just dinner. We are dreaming of that - just being together again in the comfort of strangers, sharing full dining rooms filled with flowers and the music of glinting shakers. That will feel like celebration enough.

To order Barndiva To Go or a gift certificate: shop.barndiva.com or call us at 431.0100.

Here are: Spring Onion and Yukon Gold Potato Soup with garlic croutons; a Jackson Family Farm Green Salad; Whole Roasted Chicken for two; Coconut Rice Pudding with fresh mango; Teriyaki Glazed Steelhead Salmon with green cabbage salad; the first Cook at Home Kits from Chef Jordan: hand cut Semolina Lumache with a bolognese of grass fed beef, walnut finished pork, and veal demi-glace, with a hunk of Grana Padano, herbs and finishing salt.

Chappy will have a lot more to say about wine next week - he’s been pretty busy since he took over my job as Barndiva food and drinks photographer. As you can see, he’s killing it. He’s also posting and updating the shop daily. At the same time he has been producing a series of podcasts the local wine community has fallen in love with: we urge you to check out: @crupodcast.

As for cocktails, Isabel is shaking them moments before the food comes out, packed to go for curbside or delivery. Glass keeps them nice and cold, and they are all ready to be enjoyed. She will be adding more favorites, but let us know if there is a cocktail you are missing.

Local distilleries would appreciate business right now and there are some terrific spirits made here in the County, try and order them when you stock up.

For Cocktails To Go, our Manhattan is made with two Redwood Empire whiskies - Lost Monarch and Emerald Giant (The Graton Distilling Company plants a tree for every bottle sold), Sipsong; The Negroni features Healdsburg’s Sipsong Indira Gin (made by everyone’s sweetheart Terra Jasper); The Diva Gimlet is made with Young & Yonder’s Armont Vodka, from other Healdsburg neighbors Josh and Sara. Local products have real stories behind them in addition to talent and passion. This one is a love story (he is the distiller, she designs the gorgeous labels).

Cheers.

#staytuned #stayhealthy #stayhealdsburg #healdsburgchamber #stayhome #eattheview #shelteringinplace #barndiva #togo #healdsburg #thisishealdsburg #sonomacounty #sommtablehealdsburg #sonomastrong

From the Kitchens & Farm of Barndiva

A week has passed now since Barndiva closed its dining room and lights went off all over town, state and country. It felt as if the entire world took a collective deep breath and held it, as everything we had filled our lives with for work or pleasure seemed to evaporate around us. Life as we all knew it has left the room, like Elvis its absence is something we can't fully appreciate yet. But we’ve got to breathe, folks.

The decision to shift to a pick up and delivery operation was made by balancing our desire to keep ourselves and remaining employees working, safely, while trying to honor our relationships to suppliers both in and just outside the immediate food shed. We hope the rest of our staff is faring okay, and that congress will do the right thing by them. Health and safety must take precedence, but the repercussions to the local and global economy, and within the food, wine and hospitality industry specifically, is frightening to contemplate in full right now. So if there are threads we can tug at to keep the embroidery whole, tug we will. The only thing that seems abundantly clear is that mourning what was once our ‘normal’ way of going about our lives is a crucial waste of time.

The point of this blog is twofold. Firstly, to let you know the Barndiva family will continue doing what we do best at the Barn: serving terrific food and drink. If you are in Sonoma County within safe braying distance from the Barn, we’ve got a lovingly packed bag of hot food and a cool drink waiting for you. If you live in Healdsburg or Geyserville, Lukka or Isabel will happily deliver to your door, for one or two or however many diners you are safely sheltering alongside.  

No one I know is surprised, given our current leadership, that we are as a country woefully unprepared for this pandemic. But even as present events seem about to outstrip our ability to deal with them, we need to put partisan politics into a different context and with our differences aside find a way to reflect a respect for life while keeping our economic viability in focus. We need to stand together – as we did during the fires – as one community. We are looking to the wine industry whose connection to quality dining experiences is profound, to help in any way they can. But even here the smaller operators are in financial peril. As are all the workers male and female who diligently keep the wine country machine going, animals thriving, fields harvested, artisan food products manufactured and delivered.

Social distancing is crucial, but so too is eating comforting, healthful, beautiful food, while engendering support for local, local, local. We are blessed to live in a remarkable landscape; keeping it strong, keeping the businesses that support it strong, is what we must all try to do.

Our menus will be offered continuously from noon to 8:30, Wednesday through Sunday. If our smaller artisan suppliers offer retail options at this time, we will include that information so you can purchase directly from them as well.

These first menus pull from Barndiva dishes like our whole roasted chicken with fried herbs, handmade rigatoni bolognese with burrata, roasted beet salad with ricotta, citrus, chicories, and hazelnuts and what we believe is the best damn burger and fries in town (on Sarah’s house-made buns and Chef Jordan’s secret sauce). You read that right - gauntlet thrown down. We won’t spare the vegetable entrées and sides on the menus, but these, as the season dictates, will change often. Our first week we offered roasted asparagus with grana padano, braised collard greens in Barndiva Farm apple cider, and - food lover’s crack of the spud world- salt baked potatoes. There are our infamous croquettes, a Hoecake baked in cast iron and drizzled with maple butter. Sarah’s desserts will change up often, but we hope to keep chocolate pots de crème and Valrhona brownies on, as well as her transcendent coconut macaroons. Everything on the menu can be ordered in greater numbers if you are in a service industry that is still in operation. We only ask that you place larger orders a day ahead. There will be daily specials, and meals you can re-heat starting with spring soups this week.

Providence - and Lukka - has brought to our kitchen the most talented chef we’ve worked with in many years - we can’t wait to introduce Jordan Rosas properly to the community. It has certainly been a trial by fire. But while it’s already abundantly clear he has chops and imagination to soar when the dining room re-opens, there is an honest and delightful immediacy to the food he’s cooking right now.

All wines from our award winning list are 20% off, and Chappy will be showcasing local wine we love on every menu . This Thursday we will start delivering classic Barndiva libations starting with the infamous Why Bears Do It. A series of popular past elixers, Lift, Flirt & Slide, will follow. All libations, spirit laced or not, will arrive at the perfect temperature in half pint or pint jam jars.

The story of how we’re going to navigate the next few months is also being written in Philo, at our farm, where the other half of the family is sheltering now with Daniel, our extraordinary farm manager. As Chappy and Chef Jordan post images and videos of dishes for the To-Go menu, Dan and I will document what we are up to on the ridge. It is spring, after all, and quite a beautiful one at that, and we’d love to share it with you. Dahlias dug up last fall that have been stored deep in the barn are now drying out in the greenhouse before planting, plum and cherry trees exploding into bloom, new grass and wildflowers carpet the fields and orchards. We are usually very private with this part of our lives but it is our hope that you might be inspired to seek projects outside, where you can plant something, build something, or just spend time in this glorious season. We all have more time suddenly, which always seems in short supply. In Philo we’re pulling out the rare seed packets Dan has collected from his travels, accelerating starts for vegetables and microgreens, rototilling extra beds.

Whatever your experience level, it’s not too late to cultivate something in your front yard, fill a pot or two, try to get on the list for a coveted space in a community garden. Farm supply and hardware stores, qualified as essential services (which they are!) are open. If you don’t want to get your hands dirty, visit a beautiful working garden like Dragonfly here in Healdsburg which is welcoming a limited number of guests, or order a field guide online about wild plants or birds, anything that gets you outside. We are lucky to live in a spacious and gloriously bountiful landscape in Sonoma and Mendocino. As we take care of ourselves right now, as we navigate how best to care for our families and loved ones, its important to remember that Isolation and solitude are very different states of mind. Nature is a great antidote to worry and doubt. In its ability to soothe and heal it reminds us that it is still an extraordinarily beautiful world out there.

We all need reminding of this, that there are still moments even during the most challenging of times when we can stop and just marvel at the world around us. Early one morning in a light rain we burned two piles of small brush from last fall, watching as the smoke made thick braided columns that floated up over the redwoods – a revelation as columns of smoke have come to mean something else the past few years, something quite ominous. On this morning the smell of wood smoke in the air was a solace, a psalm.

We know for many finances will start to feel tight - if they haven’t already - and we will cut margins as closely as we can as our aim is to provide Barndiva To Go without losing a whit of quality and delight. What we need to be eating right now must satisfy on so many levels. We hope you will find a way to support Barndiva and all the other restaurants in town who are exploring creative ways to bring the best of Sonoma and Mendocino to your home while our dining rooms stay dark. Know that wherever you are as you read this, we are grateful for the ongoing support extended to the Barndiva family, which we have been blessed to receive over the years. Near or far, you are part of that family. We write this next chapter together.

Our good friends At the Chapel in Bruton, forced to close as England heads into the worst of the pandemic, sent an inspiring message in their blog this week that eloquently captures what we too are feeling now and want to impress upon our patrons near and far. “Now we can rest, look at the stars, listen to the birds, breathe and give nature and ourselves a chance to recover. We will find creative ways to stay in touch virtually, to reassure and inspire each other. The story will end at some point and we will emerge stronger and with a new way of being together.”

 Amen to that hope. Stay Safe.

Instagram @barndivahealdsburg @daniel.james.co

Facebook @thebarndiva

#staytuned #stayhealthy #stayhealdsburg #healdsburgchamber #stayhome #eattheview #shelteringinplace #barndiva #togo #healdsburg #thisishealdsburg #sonomacounty #sommtablehealdsburg #sonomastrong

A way forward in challenging times

Risotto is like life. It needs to hold a wonderful blend of different flavors, think of these as community, business, politics, while each grain remains distinct. Each grain - who we are apart from how the world defines us - carries the flavors of all the other ingredients, but - to make a great risotto - should retain its own integrity, bite, satisfactions. Whether or not it turns out the whole is greater than the parts, balance is the essential element.

It seems that given our current COVID-19 situation, now is the time to put that balance into some perspective.

At the height of the Kincade Fires when town was evacuated and our actual existence here in Healdsburg, so specific and unique to each member of our family, seemed to depend, literally, on the vagaries of which way the wind was blowing, I stopped on my way out the front door, framed photograph hastily wrapped in one hand, to hold the moment. An overwhelming sense of gratitude for being able to work and live in Healdsburg with our luxury of space, abundance of products, incredible talent to make use of them.

I also felt frustration and anger. Sure, life is a challenge, we all know that, or should. At the best of times it’s a race to enjoy it while keeping everything humming, at the worst to surmount fear and think creatively … how to survive to keep everything humming.

Leaving the role luck played in sparing us from the fires, then, as now, there are first responders doing the best they can under terrifying and difficult circumstances. But like the fires, when just about everyone participated not just in the evacuation but in helping and coordinating an effective response, we all need to do our part.

What we learned then cannot be forgotten now, though this foe is harder to ‘see,’ which is what is making it, and the numbers it may touch, so potentially deadly. But even given what we know so far of the virus, we must also contend with the fact that it has great potential to harm us beyond our individual immune systems, undermining and threatening our very ability to live together as a wonderfully diverse, resilient community. 

We have been taking immediate steps at Barndiva to add layers to our already exacting cleaning protocols to safeguard the health of our guests, our staff, our vendors. I’m amazed how swiftly every member of staff adapted to what feels like a brave new world of surveillance where suddenly all touch point surfaces - tables, handles, bathroom faucets- are constantly being disinfected, all handheld devices getting the same treatment after every use. We have taken tables out of the dining room in excess of guidelines, eliminating service at the bar, and will control the number of guests we have at any one time. Weather permitting (and we need this rain!) we have opened the gardens so guests can dine outside if they prefer to, with heaters. vFor now, we will open Wednesday with all these measures in place.

Starting Wednesday March 18 we will have a comforting, healthful TO-GO menu to mitigate the potential for interaction while still doing what we do best: feeding people, employing people, setting a tone in hospitality which is uniquely Barndiva. We know you and your families will love Jordan and Randy’s gorgeous dishes. We have designated an easy pick up area outside the gallery and will offer free delivery within Healdsburg and Geyserville. Our complete wine list will be available for the TO-GO Menus with all bottles 20% off list price. Our hours of operation for TO-GO will be from Noon - 8:30pm, continuously, Wednesday through Sunday.

We are so grateful for the loyalty shown to Barndiva over the past 16 years, and we hope this wonderfully generous community continues to support all who work here and with us, and ALL the smaller businesses as much as they can, safely, in the coming weeks. Nothing will stop us from trying to up our game, but the health of our community has never been more of a priority.

What we took from the fires of the last few years is that we are stronger as a community when we traverse adversity together. Because your health is our health. And that, as we’ve come to see in the past, is a good thing.

As for that spring risotto, it’s the creation of one Jordan Rosas, who I believe will soon make a profound impact on Barndiva food and culture. It fully captures a new spirit we will hone in the coming months. Here’s how he makes it: Smokey Lapsang Suchong and Dashi broth is infused with a purée of spring onion and garlic, Pecorino Romano and Grana Padano. Slivers of bright sugar snap peas glimmer beneath a wreath of pea shoots woven with comfry flowers and a sprinkling of Furikake- toasted sesame seeds in Nori. It’s called Allum Risotto. It may not make it to the new TO-GO menu (risotto does not usually travel well) but take heart: it will still be on the spring menu when we can gather together in numbers again. It’s a dish that wears a smile. There will be plenty of those in our future.

Be well, everyone. Take a deep breath, but don’t stand to close. Facts not Fear. Clean Hands. Open Hearts.

Here is the new Barndiva TO-GO menu.

Behind the scene of Restaurant Week!

If we are indeed at the beginning of the end of the Anthropocene era, we are going out in one big beautiful bang. This magical gap that’s opened up between winter and spring has us all a bit giddy. The buds are still setting, the orchards have yet to go mad with blossoms, but cold frosty mornings warm up as if it were mid summer. With verdant carpets of grass along the ridge strewn with necklaces of daffodils it’s hard not to just wander off and lose track of time. The air is softly scented with them, and with heady clematis armandii having its moment. We are constantly stripping layers of clothing, shedding personalities as we do, trying to forget it’s only February and we may have a long hot and dry summer and fall ahead. Only when the sun drops below the ridge and the air shudders suddenly and closes in do we come to our senses, amble back inside. These early mornings of cutting and hauling and digging have been back breaking, but wonderfully joyous work. Big love to Moises and his crew and, as ever, to our farm manager Dan for his inspiration.

This week’s blog is a late but enthusiastic shout out to Restaurant Week, or Restaurant Fortnight as it should be called now in its final five days from Wednesday to Monday. The common wisdom is that it’s a giveaway, frequented by diners just looking for a deal who may never return, but honestly that runs counter to the reason we are participating in it. A countywide initiative which comes at great expense and effort by many, we see it as an opportunity to celebrate purveyors and technique. In short to strut our best barn dancing. So this year we practiced uncommon wisdom in our approach: cook food we want to eat, now. Make it fun. Everything on this menu is delicious - a huge thank you to Chefs Danny, Randy, Sarah and Ben for their inspiring dishes!

We all agreed the stand out dish is Porchetta, made with LLano Seco Porchetta. We are thrilled to be sourcing from this Chico ranch and we thank Ben for the introduction. Even Mr. Hales has never seen crackling like this before, encasing sweet herb rubbed pork that is succulent and tastes of fair fields and fine grain. Here’s how Ben Wilson, our guest chef this spring, describes the dish he lovingly created for Barndiva: “It represents the end of winter and the beginnings of spring. Sweet root vegetables, bright citrus, sweet garlic, and clean wild lettuces. We finish the dish with a bright salsa verde made with chives, parsley, cilantro, green garlic, whole garlic cloves, lemon zest, grapefruit zest, and lot of California extra virgin olive.”

There is one more week to partake. Very busy last week but there are often seats at the bar.

Last but never least, here is a snap of Dan harvesting camellias for a dining room arrangement. Check out the size of our star pink camellia bush, keeping in mind he is 6’4”! Planted by our patron saint Victoria Cassenelli well over 80 years ago, it is one of her remaining bushes, though the trees that shaded it burned a decade ago. Extreme frost browned some of the plant’s prodigious output but the flowers are a gorgeous delicate pink, like the inside ear of a conch shell. Not a day goes by we are not in awe of what Victoria planted and left for us to enjoy.

New Winter Cocktails

I unabashedly love cocktails, especially when perfectly made and served at exactly the right temp. They ease the ache that comes from being an adult all day long intimating a shimmery promise that for a few moments you can give yourself permission to step off from worry. Maybe it’s just the simple need for a good flirt with life. A shift of perspective made viscerally compelling when it comes at you in a beautiful place surrounded by people and music and the smell of food you are about to enjoy.

The rise of the artisan spirit movement along with the emergence of the alchemist bartender who freely collaborates with chefs and gardeners for inspiration and sourcing have all conspired to make this a wonderful time to create cocktails, especially when all these forces align. They do right now at Barndiva, where we have remarkable talent behind the bar. I cannot remember a seasonal drink menu more balanced, accessible, and exciting than this one aimed squarely at the run up to New Year’s Eve.

Just don’t call them specialty cocktails, please. It should always be special when you order a cocktail, but something else comes into play when a curious bartender references the season flowing all around you. That kind of cocktail marks time in a different way, putting it in a continuum you share with everyone around you who are also smack dab in the middle of a seasonal moment. We all need reminding: Drink the view, baby! Bespoke winter cocktails should have subtle spice, soft fragrant herbal aromas, a hint of wet meadows. If they also manage to reference history, something we seem to long for this time of the year, the more the better.

Tender Buttons; Fugitive Dust; The Monk Bites Back.

‘Fugitive Dust’ First scent of Alessandra’s creation is of entering a darkening forest, courtesy of a sprinkling of bay dust across the foamy pillow that floats atop this drink. Sipping through that foam is the first delight of a drink that opens up into a sensual blend of bourbon, Nonino Amaro and blood orange. We’ve all been watching “His Dark Materials” on HBO so the magic properties of ‘dust,’ had us at hello. Screw the Magisterium (if only for a few moments) and thank you Preston Farm for the bay leaves which Sandy dries and grinds into a fine, gold-dust weight powder.

‘Break the Night’ With Terra’s new drink, the name doesn’t reference anything but the ease in which it goes down. It’s a lovely champagne cocktail reminiscent of a French 75, but is decidedly more complex on the nose and the coyness of the flavors thank in great part to the use of Barr Hill Gin. This is a drink that doesn’t so much as open up inside the glass (see Fugitive Dust, above or The Monk Bites Back, below) as open the room up around you. The kind of drink you could stay with all evening and into the morning and be no worse for wear.

‘Tender Buttons’ Andrew is known to take on difficult fresh ingredients for his cocktails, in this case the unlovely cranberry that appears in abundance this time of year with a tendency to assault the mouth with an unrelenting astringency. Cranberries feel like they should be good for you yet from Thanksgiving through Christmas the inclination is to wrap them in sugar, which seems a shame. Andrew does lightly roll his frozen cranberries in powdered sugar as a garnish, but it’s an initial flavor that immediately gives way to his freshly made cranberry juice that balances tequila, a hint of black walnut bitters, and a bubbly finish of sparkling Roederer Estate. His creations never cease to delight. Like the Gertrude Stein poem it’s named after (which curiously does not have the word cranberries in it. Go Gertrude!)

‘The Monk Bites Back’ Montenegro Amaro was created in 1885 by Stanislao Cobianchi a young Italian who turned away from a life in a Monastic order to follow his hearts desire and travel the world. He spent the next decade collecting unusual seeds, flowers, fruits, citrus - you name it - from three continents, which he narrowed down to 12 ‘mother’ essences from which he created the ethereal elixir we have today, bitter yet herbaceous, spicy and floral, with notes of chocolate and caramel. The Montenegro Amaro in Isabel’s cocktail plays hide and seek with two other remarkable old world spirits, Cocchi Americano (1891) and Caperitif (1900, re-imagined in the early 20th century). All three are known to aid in digestion and lift the spirit, making this a perfect NYE cocktail to set you up for a night of revelry.

‘Beautiful Ghost’ Our last new cocktail on the winter list, also created by Alessandra, is her version of a White Negroni. Our story (and we are sticking to it) is that Ada Savage, mother of Count Camillo Negroni, preferred her son’s creation made with transparent distilled bitters, which is the way Fosco Scarselli, the original bartender at Caffè Casoni where the Negroni was (supposedly) invented, made them for her. She is the Beautiful Ghost we have named this drink after.

Pictured above: Break the Night; a winter version of Bitches of the Seizieme; Beautiful Ghost

Penultimate Pairing of the Year

By any measure it has been an extraordinary year for wine here at Barndiva. We hosted three sold-out collaborative wine Fêtes with the most exciting winemakers in Sonoma and Mendocino. Won our fourth inclusion in the Best of Award of Excellence by Wine Spectator. Chosen by Wine & Spirits Magazine for SF50, a recognition for having one of the most exciting wine lists in the Bay Area offering an exceptional and - this is crucial for us - accessible wine experience to our diners. It’s clear Chappy Cottrell, our Wine Director/Sommelier has accomplished a great deal since taking the reins from Alexis Iaconis last year. Shortlisted as one of most talented Wine Directors and Somms in the country by Wine Enthusiast, this young man has been instrumental in framing our passion for wines that tell a compelling story of terroir, family, history, and sustainability. He has taken Sommtable Healdsburg to the next level, indulged my passion for TraceBox, and in a year of great upheaval in Healdsburg has been a joy to work with, calm and even tempered, which is exceedingly rare in this hothouse industry. I’m handing him the blog this week to shed some insight on his wine pairings for our penultimate meal of the year. Don’t expect florid overheated pros from this guy. He is droll, focused, and committed to opening the door to a pretentious-free, entrancing wine experience for Barndiva diners.

1st Course: DUNGENESS CRAB SALAD
Oyster Leaf, Crème Fraîche, Salmon Roe

2013 Nyetimber Tillington Brut Reserve Sussex

Chalk, apple blossom, red delicious apple, lemon shortbread, and stone play on the subtle nose, and a touch of flint suggests a hint of smokiness. Nyetimber is one of the original English sparkling estates, growing and producing sparkling Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier in West Sussex, England for over 30 years.

Why This Pairing: Sparkling is a bright, light foil for crab, and the most festive way to kick off a delicious, last meal of the decade. We choose English bubbles because they are 1) superb and 2) because of our changing climate, on the rise!

3rd Course: BUTTER POACHED LOBSTER TAIL Orange Beurre Blanc, Cauliflower Haché

2012 Littorai May’s Canyon Chardonnay Sonoma Coast

Pineapple, lime, quince, yellow apple, pear, and gravel are lifted by notes of orange and lavender. Littorai is produced by Ted Lemon west of Sebastopol where the coastal fog, cooler temperatures, and longer growing season give bright acidity with intense aromatics.

Why This Pairing: Lobster and Chardonnay are a classic pairing - but instead of going with an overly buttery and oaky chard, the Littorai has just the right amount of of age to lend a natural richness from the fruit.

5th Course: ROASTED PHEASANT
Port Wine Jus, Brussels Sprouts, Braised Chestnuts, Bacon Jam

2008 Rinaldi Brunate Barolo

Plums, black cherries, leather, tar and licorice meld together, supported by firm yet beautifully integrated tannins. Made from 100% Nebbiolo, Rinaldi is based in the town of Barolo since the 1870’s. Brunate is one of the top vineyards that grow Barolo wine.

Why This Pairing: Game birds, bacon, and fall greens scream to be paired with an elegant, rustic, mineral driven, tannin provoking wine that creates harmony on the palate. Barolo is the perfect match, with Rinaldi being one of the top producers, and Le Brunate a top vineyard.

7th course: CHOCOLATE-RASPBERRY BAVAROIS Passion Fruit Gelée

2017 Domaine la Dentelle Bugey-Cerdon Sparkling Rosé

Strawberries, raspberries, bramble, black rocks, wild lavender & sage. 80% Gamay, 20% Plousard. In a tiny appellation — fewer than 500 acres planted in vines — between Jura and Savoie. Methode Ancestrale is the original form of sparkling wine production where primary fermentation finishes in the bottle to capture the natural carbon dioxide.

Why This Pairing: Chocolate and red fruit are one of life’s greatest pleasures! And as we will be dancing shortly after this course, Port would weigh us down - can’t have that! The effervescent & lovely fruit in Bugey-Cerdon is an elegant way to stay light, yet satisfied, with this dessert.

2nd Course: TRUFFLE MUSHROOM SOUP
Puff Pastry Dome

2016 Joseph Swan Catie’s Corner Grenache Blanc Russian River Valley

Orange zest, Asian pear, mandarin orange marmalade, bees wax, peach pits, pomelo zest. Joseph Swan is a classic, small production producer of Burgundian and Rhone varietals based in Forestville utilizing minimal new oak and native fermentations.

Why This Pairing: Most would immediately lean towards a red wine for truffle soup, however the bees wax, orchard fruit, and baking spice of the Grenache Blanc brightens the viscosity of the soup.

4th Course: BUTTERNUT SQUASH RAVIOLI
Sage Brown Butter, Toasted Pepitas

2010 Hirsch Vineyards San Andreas Fault Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast en magnum

Dark red cherries, spices, game, licorice, savory herbs, tobacco. The Hirsch Vineyards, out on the chilly far reaches of the Sonoma Coast, has been providing fruit to some of the biggest names in California Pinot for the last 30 years, including Littorai and Williams Selyem. The San Andreas Fault Pinot is the Hirsch family's flagship Pinot Noir, and it perfectly captures the essence of the fruit grown on this estate. 2010 was particularly cold.

Why This Pairing: Butternut Squash has a lovely earthy decadence to it, while pasta is the ultimate comfort food. This contrasting pairing is lively with rocky, tart fruit.

6th Course: BRAISED SHORT RIBS
Robuchon Pomme Purée, Baby Carrots, Braised Cippolini, Jus

2009 Opus One Oakville

Black raspberry, crystallized blackberry, smoke, leather, licorice, bitter chocolate and cedar, lifted by violet and spices. Smooth, mouthfilling and decidedly dry, with a lightly dusty character to its flavors of dark fruits, minerals and game. The blend is 81% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Cabernet Franc, 6% Petit Verdot, 3% Merlot and 1% Malbec. The winery was founded as a joint venture between Baron Philippe de Rothschild of Château Mouton Rothschild and Robert Mondavi to create a single Bordeaux style blend based upon Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.

Why This Pairing: Short Ribs are rich: demand an unctuous wine that can hold it’s own, elevate the succulence of the beef without overwhelming it. As we’re ending a decade, why not drink a wine that is world renowned and will be aging perfectly for decades to come? Honor the past, look forward to the future! Opus One is the bond of America’s potential in wine and France’s history.

there are only a few spaces left for NYE at the Barn so i if you plan to join us, Whether or not you choose to pair your NYE dinner with these remarkable vintages, give us a call to book asap: 707 431 0100.

Rest assured our awarding winning wine list, with over 94 champagnes and sparkling wines, will also be available. Wherever you decide to spend the last night of the decade, we offer our best wishes for a healthy, satisfying new year!

Mapping a Great New Year's Eve

Tory & The Teasers

I recently learned the term Eudaimonia - the feeling of deep contentment thought by history’s most profound thinkers as the reward one receives for living a virtuous life. Confucius, Lao Tzu, Zarathustra, Archimedes, the Hebrew prophets, Homer and Plato all circled around ideas of what human flourishing might look like, and the values it might espouse, around the time of the last Axial age, two millennia ago. It was a pivotal time for civilization when most of the great intellectual, philosophical and religious systems were born and have shaped history every since. The times we live in now, understandably being called a new Axial age for the massive upheaval we’re experiencing in the natural and technological worlds, would seem to warrant a deep dive in search of new rules for living ‘good’ lives, instead of merely enjoyable ones we have to constantly feed to keep going, usually at the expense of the planet. It’s an especially good conversation to have at this time of year as our desire to celebrate the Holidays ramps up. I’m not suggesting we be racked by guilt for the time and money we spend trying to have fun when we could be improving our character. Life is short, on that I hope we can all agree. Serious fun, the kind that feels joyous, not half baked, should always be on the menu.

But in planning NYE celebrations, knowing well the expectations around it, every year I come to the question of what makes for a great New Year’s Eve versus the ones (we’ve all had) when our parting thought is “phew, glad that’s over.” But what if we consider the ultimate litmus test not one of value for money so much as value for joy? The night is a distillation of the year we’ve just lived, and whether we say goodbye to it with relief, umbrage or pride, most of us feel the need for it to be memorable before we turn the page. Bonus points if optimism for the year ahead is somewhere on the menu.

The last meal of the year at Barndiva has always delivered delicious notes and I’m pretty confident the ambiance here easily tops anything else around. But even in the years when the NYE menu has been sublime (and this year’s menu from Danny and Randy looks to be one of those), if we’ve learned anything it’s that the evening’s success does not rise or fall on what comes out of the kitchen or sails off to tables from the bar, but, ultimately, from what blows in the front door with you, dear guest. With respect, what I’m saying is that wherever you decide to spend New Year’s Eve, making it a wonderful evening will ultimately rest with your mood, attitude, resolve. After 16 years hosting New Year’s Eve at the Barn, and a lot more experiencing them as a guest, I believe the secret is to grant yourself permission to be fully present, at ease with the world, and available for other people. This particular NYE is the end of a very tumultuous decade. Acknowledgment that we are all in this together, that the only way forward is together, that we’ve got to make this work together, has got to be the fulcrum going forward. On New Year’s Eve you will be in a room full of people who, for this one night at least, have the same agenda as you - the desire to have a really good time.

For our part we promise to beautifully set the stage and pull out all the stops. Eudaimonia doesn’t have to wait til morning, let kindness and goodwill abound. But making it resolution #1 ain’t such a bad idea, either.

Here is the dinner menu in full, with Chappy’s extraordinary wine pairings. We will, of course, have a wonderful vegetarian menu - you need only let us know you are requesting one when you make your reservation. Special cocktails, check. Balloons and noise makers and rooms filled with flowers and candles, check. Tory and the Teasers, a great band fronted by an electrifying singer, will begin at 11:30. Whatever ails you, a few turns on the dance floor where no one cares how well you dance has rejuvenating power. We’d be honored if you choose to join us.

Tory and the Teasers were with us for the first time last year and they killed it. Consummate musicians driven by Tory’s irrepressible spirit and infectious kick down drive: This is a great dance band. There may be some tickets at the door before their set depending on how many of our diners stay with us or return from an earlier seating. Next week Chappy will talk more about the extraordinary pairing, and we’ll check in with the bar. A special five course menu ($95) will only be available until 7:30.

The lightest (in weight and spirit) gift of the season - cocktails, wine dinners, lunch can be enjoyed all year. You will make someone very happy with this one. Purchase here.

Footnote: The quotes “if everything is a variable, what are the constants” and “Grant yourself permission to be fully present, at ease with the world, and available for other people.” were both written by Jonathan Rowson the eminent Scottish Chess Grandmaster and applied philosopher.

Serving wine, food and the community

Fête Rouge, the last of our three famously collaborative annual wine events, is now behind us. Traditionally the smallest of our Fêtes, it is usually held inside the Gallery at the tail end of November. The Pink Party gloriously launches spring, arbors spilling over with wisteria, everyone on a Rosé high. Fête Blanc, at the height of summer, attracts guests from across the state for its elegant selection of fine white wines and an almost (but this being Healdsburg not quite) Hamptons appeal. Fête Rouge proffers some of the finest red wines grown and produced in Northern California - most from family held vineyards - and attracts our most wine educated audience. But while a red wine party going into the Holidays makes perfect sense - finding the energy it takes to pull it off at the tail end of harvest has always been a challenge. Not this year. Barndiva’s decision to donate ticket sales in support of two organizations who played a huge role in keeping us safe and cared for during the Kincade fires brought out the best in everyone on Sunday - our wine and food partners, our staff, and especially the wonderful crowd who attended. Just knowing Corazón Healdsburg and Wine Country to the Rescue (supporting the fire departments of Healdsburg, Cloverdale and Geyserville) would benefit from all the fun we were having shifted the whole group dynamic. It was a golden fall afternoon that faded into a magical evening. Hard not to keep smiling.

I wrote in the blog last week that in choosing a definition of community which is intrinsically connected and reflective of a particular landscape, with a deep appreciation and respect for what it produces, we have the chance to create durable social networks that can take us through the hard times and be capable of bestowing upon us great joy. I worried what I wrote sounded hyperbolic, a bit pie in the sky knowing as I do this is a highly competitive community. Yet there it was in the garden on Sunday: 22 uniquely talented vintners finding a way to celebrate their individual achievements, together. There was a palpable feeling of relief in the air - that we had survived the fires, that the first big storm was on its way, that we were blessed to have such bounty from our food and wine sheds spread out before us to enjoy. But beyond that was the sense that when the common goal is greater than all of our singular accomplishments this is a community of abundant good will, one that has no problem paying good fortune forward. FYI: Our very existence, fortitude, and future may depend upon it.

Eric Sussman of Radio-Coteau, pouring center, among an illustrious group of primarily family owned and operated wineries that included Hirsch, Hafner, Mauritson, Small Vines, Occidental, brick & mortar, DuMOL, Ramey, Raen, Preston, Vivier, Sutro, Aperture, Rodney Strong, Paul Hobbs, Senses, Newfound, Read Holland, Pont Neuf, Failla, Notre Vue, and Merry Edwards.

For the first time, Fête Rouge felt like a proper Christmas market as five extraordinary food purveyors joined us with an abundance of tastes from their farms and kitchens. We wish to thank Pennyroyal Farm, Preston Family Farm, Jeff and Susan Mall of Volo, and the Seghesio Family of Journeyman Meat Co. for their generosity in supporting Fête Rouge, Corazón Healdsburg and Wine County to the Rescue. (And what a treat to see Ralph Tingle behind the slicer!) We are equally appreciative of Barndiva’s lead sous chef Randy Dodge for his exquisite bites - divine fried chicken sliders, crispy Hasselback potatoes, fragrant arancini and those gorgeous shooters of wild mushroom soup with their beautiful swirls of chive and basil oil.

And, as always, to our hardworking FOH staff, notably Natalie Nelsen, our wonderful events coordinator, and my creative assistant K2 and her children Teagan and Atticus for their work on the hot air balloon- now moored in the Barn for Christmas. Last, but hardly least when it comes to all things wine, a shout out to our wine director Chappy Cottrell who has, in addition to winning us greater wine awards and recognition this year, shepherded all our sell out wine events. Stay tuned.

The Time It Takes

Once upon a time community was something you lived inside of, with knowable parameters, filled with people you depended upon. But for all the reasons that has drastically changed - from the shrinking of rural communities where interdependence was assured to the rise of the internet and its control over all aspects of social life - there are still times it is wise to ask what we stand to lose when we interact less, if at all, with the people we live alongside. As we gather in ever larger communities online, making allegiances with people we’ve never met, based on what we assume are shared opinions, are we building towards something that has the capacity to nourish, protect, expand the lives we are living in real time? The recent Kinkade fire brought home the importance of knowing, really knowing, the character and quality of community. It was a potent reminder that this other world where we increasingly spend time takes place in a space that has no actual contours, no weather.

So it was on a bright, pumpkin and canary yellow Mendocino morning, eight of us stood milling around the packing shed at The Philo Apple Farm where it sits adjacent to the bridge as it crosses the Navarro River. We were waiting for Pete to arrive from Cloverdale with a mysterious part for the apple crusher, which was having a senior moment. The crusher is a very old contraption of great ingenuity and beauty, with interconnecting parts of worn wood and scratched steel, black gears, troughs attached to rickety steel and wood conveyor belts, and, as befits its age, an irascible temperament.

The part arrives, the engine groans to life, everyone takes their places. Isabel and Dan stand on a patch of beaten down dirt adjacent to Greenwood Road, filling buckets of apples from a bin we picked a few weeks ago, which Tim just fork lifted over. They unload the buckets onto a flat conveyor belt that moves through a washing garage from which the apples emerge glistening wet, trundling their way onto another conveyor belt that heads upwards, like a roller coaster groaning in the first ascent. Jerzy stands on a stool holding a worn wooden baton over the mouth of the crusher which he brings down, decisively, just so, clearing the passage when the apples get wedged.

Once pulped, the mash shoots through clear plastic tubes up to the platform of the packing shed, where the juicer, another mechanical dowager queen, sits waiting. It is here that Rita and Mark, in long yellow aprons and white boots, fill and stack ring molds lined with linen, building wobbling towers they slide beneath the press. Rita adjusts the balance to avoid too much tilt, the motor strains, the full weight lowers, and juice begins to flow from every layer, clear rivulets that foam as they fill the gutters of the trough.

That first jar is the culmination of months that began with bud break in the spring. The air is redolent with an earthy spice of apples, wet wood, fermenting cider. Weaving through all this fruit in transformation is the scent of a savory stew Cruz is making for lunch, which we will all soon sit down to, together.

Two weeks after we crushed and pressed our apples we evacuated Healdsburg. By fortuitous if not ironic timing, no sooner had we unpacked the cars than Isabel and I headed further up Greenwood Ridge to a fundraiser for a new firetruck for Philo. The winds were picking up and the fires were gaining down below us in Alexander Valley, but there was nothing we could do but wait it out. We were relieved, and in an odd way gratified, to have an opportunity to raise money for something our other community dearly needed. We ate BBQ, drank great local wines, and bid on the same homemade cakes more than once - anything to add to the amount Anne Fashauer and Ole Erickson’s GoFundMe Campaign had already raised. I have no idea if anyone we met that day was like-minded when it came to politics, whether we enjoy the same books and movies, worship in the same way. I know only that the cause was one we share, the day was beautiful, and we were all just glad to be where we were, together.

With modern equipment housed in an enclosed facility it would not take eight people to crush a few bins of apples. Piece by piece however, the things we bring into our lives shape who we become, and crucial to that is how we spend our time in that becoming, which really never ends. In choosing a definition of community that is intrinsically connected and reflective of a particular landscape, with a deep appreciation and respect for what it produces, we create durable social networks that can take us through the hard times and are capable of bestowing upon us great joy. And there is an added bonus: it allows us to hold tight to the things we wish to carry with us into the future.

If you’ve never stayed at the Philo Apple Farm you are missing one of California life’s great treats. It’s a working farm of many gorgeous pieces - gardens, orchards, guest cottages, a potting shed (above) where you can host delightful, delicious dinner parties. Sublime breakfasts are included with your stay.

As the Smoke Clears...

Photo Credit: Mike Lucia

Well it wasn’t fake news, that’s for sure. It took all the resources we could throw at it - with help from across the state and the country - to fight back the very real, swiftly moving, voracious Kinkade fire. Winds were against us, and the terrain made it extremely difficult, but in the end determination, experience and bravery were on our side.

Even the evacuations - widespread, emotionally upsetting, and costly for many - were by any standard known for this kind of calamity remarkable for how well they unfolded. In Healdsburg alone, only 84 residents out of 11,000 refused to leave in order to let the firefighters do their job unfettered. Families, friends and strangers opened their homes; shelters and organizations like World Central Kitchen and Corazón Healdsburg housed the homeless and fed the first responders. Incredibly, thanks in great part to coordinated efforts by Cal Fire and remarkable teamwork between City, Fire and Police Departments, there was no loss of life. How we got through Kinkade as a community, the outpouring of concern and care, is something I hope will not be lost as we eagerly return to our lives in this beautiful place.

 While there is no making light of the destruction, property loss, and fear for life this fire generated, there are larger questions now for those of us picking up where we left off during harvest, reopening our businesses, restaurants, shops, tasting rooms and vineyards. How do we proceed if this is - as it’s being touted everywhere - as ‘The New Normal’?

Normal, as compared to what? California has a wild rugged history we take pride in rewriting every time tragedy strikes. Climate change - call it what you want… something has changed, and drastically - will no doubt bring increased challenges. We have populated out instead of up, increasing our use of fossil fuels, been forced to put our lives into the hands of utilities that are run for profit before safety, mismanaged our forests and strained our water resources. It’s important to take stock, to ask what Northern California can do to mitigate the challenges ahead, but calling something which threatens to turn our beautiful landscape into a disaster movie ‘normal’ doesn’t seem quite right. Is acquiescing the best we can do?

Tip the country, the old saying goes, and whatever crazy thing isn’t tethered will roll down and stop here. My father was fond of this saying even though he came to California of his own volition; the same inexorable drive spurred the gold rush, the film industry, aerospace, tech. I knew nothing about farming when I homesteaded on a ridge in Philo with two small boys three decades ago. Geoff, Lukka and I knew nothing about restaurants when we built Barndiva and naively but passionately joined the farm to table movement. The thing about California and the folks who tend to set up camp here is that – for good or ill – it inspires schemes and dreams that have always found a home in the West.

But it’s important to understand we came into a landscape that has been here long before us. A professor I worked with in film school at UCLA had been burned out of Malibu – in the appropriately named Carbon Canyon- four times. He told me this almost as an aside one evening as we sipped tequila looking out over the chaparral: “It needs to burn, to cleanse itself from time to time.”  The way he saw it he had the choice to get out of the way when that happened or lose what it gave him when it was whole, when the coyotes sang their sad poems and the clean dry winds blew, clearing his mind. That was many years ago. Up and down the state we have built too much, love too much of what we have built to move aside and let it burn, though sometimes it may be out of our control. What is in our control is what we must focus on now.

The rueful headlines generated as we fought the Kinkade fire were meant to sell papers and push likes on social media. While the next sensational headlines have already taken their place there is great concern that several years of fires have reached a tipping point that is going to cause great harm to many sectors of our economy. I don’t believe that in the long run people will stop coming to Sonoma County to visit or to live. Not a chance. Because it is a very good life here indeed, a landscape of extraordinary beauty, a phenomenal food shed, great wines, chefs that cook with passion and purpose. It may well flip our tourist seasons, which would not be the most awful thing. The greater issue is how we, as a larger community, move on.

My family was lucky we had our farm to retreat to when evacuation started in Healdsburg and spread to Windsor and Santa Rosa. When the electricity cut out we were still able to cook by propane. We dined by candlelight, and as a talisman, drank fine California wine. By day we picked the last of the apples, put the gardens to sleep for the winter, cleaned far corners of the barn. Incessantly, we checked Twitter for news. By Tuesday, waiting for the second round of red flag winds, we wandered out to the coast, haunting darkened hardware stores looking for generator parts, restaurants for a hot meal. In the town of Mendocino we ran into so many neighbors from Healdsburg it began to feel like a reunion one hadn’t planned on attending but found, in its satisfying sense of camaraderie, oddly comforting. People draw together in times like these. Then they forget.

We should not forget. As we get on with our lives we should move forward with new resolve to ensure we run our businesses and our homes so they are formed to fit a new paradigm of using less, more wisely. It is time to rethink the manner of all development to come, and the way we are set up to run our local economies. If we are private or public stewards of open land we must do better in managing our seasonally volatile terrain.

Photo Credit: Erik Castro

Some fires will not be preventable in the coming years, for those we must plan as they do in the Midwest for hurricanes or tornadoes. Improve lines of emergency communications, support infrastructure necessary for temporary housing and feeding residents. It is most essential we make sure there is adequate support for first responders - we were only able to contain Kinkade because Cal Fire took a proactive tactic in which evacuation was key, allowing strike teams to focus on making a stand to stop the fires and not have to worry about saving lives.

Crucially, despite the fact that no one in positions of authority or power seems to be held accountable for anything anymore, as taxpayers and consumers we must reconsider how California’s resources are being managed. There is no avoiding the fact that some fires, and it’s looking like Kinkade is among them, are preventable. It is time to seriously consider moving a bankrupt PG&E into public ownership, which would not be without its own problems but a step forward in having safety of the citizenry as its primary concern.

Whether it’s political action or the nuanced changes we must now take as individuals as we approach the ‘New Normal,’ we will only continue to thrive in the coming years if we commit to growing a more pluralistic definition of community, town by town by town, building a citizenry less obsessed with their own version of the good life, more invested in a good life for all, one that educates as it moves every income bracket forward. The smoke has cleared. What do we see?

The entire Barndiva family will forever be indebted to the bravery and talents of the following organizations: Cal-Fire, Central World Kitchen, Corazón Healdsburg, The Healdsburg Police and Fire Department, supported and working with the City of Healdsburg.

Chef Danny takes on Fall

Whether it’s beet greens for braising or halibut trim for Brandade, Danny Girolomo is one of those chefs who thinks long and hard about sourcing and technique before moving forward with any dish he intends to create, plate and send out into the dining room. What he’s trying to represent most fully are the lives that go into providing our ingredients, be it farmer or animal. Keenly aware of the mutable line between definitions of local and sustainable, his desire to push into new creative directions jockeys with the logistics of commanding an increasingly busy kitchen here at the Barn. It’s going to be exciting to watch him pick up the pace now that he is cooking with a great team behind him. Take a look below if you think I’m overstating: these are vibrant plates of food that manage to deliver layers of delicate flavor- yet they are, each and every one, comfort dishes that satisfy. It’s food we need to eat right now. Menus are going to change as the fall season shifts into high gear and we hurtle towards the holidays, so don’t miss this season. We are proud that more than any chef we’ve had leading the Barndiva kitchen, Danny honors Barndiva Farm and is further expanding the products we source from small farm purveyors. Chef Girolomo puts the heart back into the phrase farm to table. Enjoy.

Roasted squash with lamb bacon, quince purée, quinoa granola, kale chips, and BD farms apple gastrique

Dan’s squash harvest

Butternut squash soup, BD farm apple syrup, pepita dukkah, crispy sage

Pan roasted halibut, spaghetti squash, endive au four, apple jam, sage brown butter

Smoked brussels sprouts, bacon lardons, piquillo dipping sauce

BD farm apples show up on the autumn menu with cider vinegar vinaigrettes, savory gastriques, jams, syrup, and baked in pies

Pan seared salmon, roasted thinly layered sweet potato, orange cauliflower, red wine soubise

Duck leg cassoulet, cannellini beans, sweet onions, breadcrumbs, Toulouse pork sausage

Fall Cocktails

I cannot remember a time we’ve had more divas behind the bar than in front of it, but if the new Fall Cocktails are anything to go by, we have entered a golden age. What I’m loving about this team of Alessandra, Andrew, Terra and Linda, all solid when it comes to mixology, is that they are more interested in hitting the notes customers long for than grandstanding with liquid arias to their formidable collective talents. Our six new libations are habit forming in the extreme, crowd-pleasers yet still retaining intrigue. Some of the ingredients are more ephemeral than others, but the pared down sensibility they’ve taken when it comes to layering flavors achieves complexity through simplicity, no easy feat… except when you know what you’re doing. I’m loving these drinks. Take a look.

The Last Aristocrats of Summer is all about our award winning pear juice, which clever Terra claimed dibs on as soon as she heard Dan and I had spent the night at Tintin juicing the last of the Hosui and Shinseiki pears. Our Asian pear orchard sits on the edge of the ridge facing northwest, apart from the other pears and the acres of apples and chestnuts. They make best use of that first hit of fog as it rises up from the draw, and soak in the last rays of sunlight as it chases the ocean. They are an elegant fruit, flavor wise, with subtle sweetness high on florals, especially on the nose. The Last Aristocrats of Summer is held aloft with an Earl Gray infused vodka, and a spike of St George spiced pear liquor, but it’s luxurious body and texture is of fragrant pear juice. Terra’s pumpkin rim is six roasted spices - she won’t say what - but Starbucks eat your heart out. Shaken and served martini style, icy cold, for as long as the juice lasts.

After hanging out for years with my friend Sandra Jordan I have come to love the taste of a good Pisco Sour, but even when you use an artisan Pisco, it lacks complexity. Rum, on the other hand, is usually too complex, especially when combined, as it usually is, with bold competing flavors. What makes Andrew’s Dreamland Sour one of my favorite new cocktails is that it evokes the memory of a tropical pineapple and rum concoction but makes the case for rum with rounder more fulsome flavor, courtesy of his ginger honey chamomile syrup. In this cocktail Andrew has managed to temper those powerful Jamaican and Peruvian spirits while still giving them their due. Finished with a fall fan of bitters that floats on a surprisingly foamy (vegan!) topper in lieu of egg whites which can adversely affect aroma. What you get here is a wonderful burnt pineapple scent with a hint of spicy undernotes.

Arrakis Kiss is the newest mind boggler from Alessandra, who is fearless when choosing her impetus spirits, terribly clever in what she pairs with it. This is only the second time in our history we’ve had Aquavit on the chalkboard. Aquavit tempered with Luxardo Bitter Bianco and paired with agave? Well, yes. Orange flower water with lemon juice and cardamon bitters? Yes again. There is great finesse to all of Alessandra’s creations and Arrakis Kiss is no exception. It’s a perfect fall libation we wholeheartedly dedicate to all those Frank Herbert readers out there, as the name is an obvious nod to Melange, the drink of choice on Dune. To which we can only add yes again. Make love not war kids. There is enough of that floating around these days.

Permission to Flirt is Linda's first foray onto the board. She is our newest bar team member - and happy we are to welcome her and her contributions to the Barn. Permission to Flirt is one of two new cocktails Lynda re-imagined for fall (the other, Black Buffalo, is a bourbon drink similar to Why Bears do It) and it’s by far the most accessible new cocktail on the list. Before the Cosmo became obsequious (and dumbed down) it began life at the fabled Odeon, a simple but elegant (and only lightly blushed) cocktail great to drink at the start or end of an evening. Permission to Flirt has those same simple chops to become a standard. It works for brunch, it works late night, you can down a few and still feel better than fine. Made with honey-crisp vodka, pomegranate hibiscus syrup, ginger bitters and fresh citrus which lifts the flavors and the mood. The addition of bubbly from Roederer Estate makes it festive, yet still a balm for a restive spirit.

It’s not a misnomer, especially in a room as pretty as the Barn’s bar on any night, to want to enjoy everything about a cocktail lounge - the music, the flowers, the tall windows to the beautiful Sonoma County sky - without alcohol. We come together to drink for so many reasons, we too often forget that only one of them - and probably not the most important - is to get a buzz on. Even without the addition of any signature spirit, The Trickster is a terrific cocktail. Seedlip makes it easy to devise new ways to present N/A drinks without disappointment. Seedlip Garden 108 is fully herbal without being medicinal, and it’s wonderfully dry. There is little that needs to be done to it unless you are a Barndiva diva - looking at you Andrew - in which case you add a splash of Schezwan Pepper syrup and top a highball filled with ice with dry farmed heirloom apple juice. Welcome to The Trickster.

Why We Love County Fairs

When you work at something as consistently challenging as farming it’s wonderful to stand among your peers every now and then and feel you have excelled. That we won a total of 23 ribbons at the Mendocino County Fair and Apple Show this past week-end was remarkable to us. Our main ‘competition,’ Tim Bates of The Philo Apple Farm and Stephanie Tebbutt of Filigreen Farm, are neighbors and friends of many years; both superb full time farmers. They grow organic fruit, as do we, but on farms along the Navarro River which provides them with the ability to water their orchards, whereas we are on the top of a ridge, dry farming gnarled old trees grafted many times over. While we believe dry farming concentrates a fruit’s sweet redolence, our apples are necessarily smaller than fruit that drinks water. And judging is done by sight alone. Suffice to say we’re all feeling mighty proud of our little old orchards right about now, channeling the inventive enduring spirit of the Cassanelli family, who had the foresight to plant the first fruit and nut trees up here during the Great Depression.

But for all of us farming apples these days, these personal little victories are bittersweet. Manzana, the company in Sebastopol where small organic apple farms have taken their apples to be juiced and pasteurized for decades was recently bought by a huge French multi-national that has decided, following a corporate directive, to no longer make room on their production lines for small farm apple producers to crush at their facility and retain their own juice. Trucks roll in non-stop from Washington, Oregon and god knows where else and apples are juiced there all year now. They are buying local organic apples and reportedly paying well for them. But what Manzana buys and bottle itself under it’s eponymous and sadly ironic “North Coast” label and what they custom crush for other single label apple juice is sadly no longer juice connected to any one farm, terroir, or history.

It is perhaps not surprising that profit again trumps intrinsic value and in this case a remarkable family history as Manzana dates back to 1923. But that is beside the point now for us and The Philo Apple Farm. They will go south with their apples to the only other organic facility that will allow them to pasteurize, bottle and label juice from their own orchards. Barndiva, with far less product, will make do juicing (but not pasteurizing) locally, smaller batches we will turn into cider, vinegar, balsamic, syrup and brandy. Fresh apples for the restaurant will be jammed, dried, and served baked and fresh over the next weeks.

The real tragedy here is that Northern California’s heritage of apple growing is almost gone as the few remaining orchards across Sonoma and Mendocino continue to be pulled out, primarily for grapes. Celebrating what we do almost feels like popping a cork on the titanic. While we may well need a drink contemplating the inevitable, we all know it’s around the corner.

Nevertheless, for a few days we put all that aside and went to the county fair, enjoying being part of traditions that may be fading, but still hold a vital key to what it means to be part of a caring farming community. We raise a glass in joy to the incredible FFA kids and their parents, who instill in them the worthy goals of raising healthy animals; to the handlers at the sheep dog trials for reminding hundreds in the stands every year what patience and guidance look like; to all the small farmers and gardeners and craftspeople across our beautiful county who continue to exhibit what they grow and make with pride, in this place we all call home.

Barndiva Farm’s ribbons included three First Place for Dan’s Dahlias, and Third Place for both his themed wheelbarrow and collaborative garden with Rita Bates. We also won a Blue Ribbon for our Asian pears. The Apples which won First Place were: McIntosh, Connell Red, Granny Smith, Jonathon Red, Red Gold, Red Rome, Rome Beauty, Wickson and Yellow Bellflower (all below). We won Second Place for our Cox Orange Pippin, Golden Russet, Jonagold, Jonathan, Fiji and Red Delicious. Third Place for our Sierra Beauty, Winter Banana, and Golden Delicious. A huge shout out to the judges and to all the wonderful volunteers at the Boonville Fairgrounds. For as long as you can and in every way that you can, Eat the View!

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT SHEEPDOG TRIALS IN 2 MINUTES!

Mendocino County Fair 2019

A Perfect Summer Evening to Push out the Raft ...

Barndiva wine director Chappy Cottrell with Raft’s winemaker Jennifer Reichardt

Nostalgia for it’s own sake tends to skew maudlin, but when you have the rare opportunity to revisit the past in a life affirming, beautiful and delicious act of bringing it forward, you hit pure joy. Jim Reichardt was with us at Barndiva the day we opened, his 14 year old daughter Jen in tow, and we have been proud to feature his Liberty Ducks on our menus ever since. Beyond pleasing guests, which keeps us going, it has been the friendships we’ve made with dedicated and talented farmers, winemakers and purveyors like Jim that has kept us whole. His return to our table on a perfect Labor Day evening with that same beautiful daughter, all grown up and in command of a winemaking talent as deep as it is humble, made for one of the loveliest dinner parties anyone here can remember.

The evening unfolded beneath the trees at a leisurely pace as befits old friends meeting and making new ones. It was a labor of love for Chappy Cottrell, our wine director, who worked assiduously with Chef Danny Giromolo and Jennifer over the past few months to create a menu that not only used every part of Liberty’s Pekin ducks but was paired to enhance the range of qualities Jen brings to her winemaking.

A welcome glass of Love Ranch Viognier Madera, with it’s bright citrus and florals, began the evening along with two amuse: Duck rillettes on toasted brioche topped with Barndiva Farms Hosui Pears, and duck prosciutto on Randy’s house made focaccia, Pt. Reyes Blue and saba.

Once seated, guests were treated to a Grenache Rosé from Trails End Vineyard in Potter Valley with the delightful name ‘Fleur Pour Ma Mère.’ Tart peach and Lady Apple aromas lifted the tenderness of the duck carpaccio with a plum gastrique, pickled fennel and Jackson Family pea shoots.

Then we switched gears, and glasses were filled with the fresh, dry, herbal notes of a blended red called Antonella, from Dry Creek Valley. It was paired with two distinct presentations of that redoubtable duck organ: crispy duck liver arancini over a piquillo vinaigrette, and a fluffy light duck liver dirty rice with arugula, drizzled with strawberry coulis.

The ultimate comfort duck dish, confit, was next up, along with a 2017 Besseré Vineyards Sangiovese from Butte County. Its classic Italian herbs and pizza spices were a wonderful complement to what has become a Barndiva favorite dish. Then Danny pushed the boat (or Raft) out with the perfect intermezzo - duck tongue ‘oysters’ with blueberry lemonade granita served with a clean, crisp, chilled light red Madera from Love Ranch.

Jim’s Pekin Duck breed was given the Peking treatment for the next main course. Served with forbidden rice, Sayre Farms rattlesnake beans and pillowy Moo Shu Crêpes, two remarkable reds were offered to compliment and compare: a 2017 Grist Vineyard Syrah with a punch of blackberries and bramble, and a 2017 Weed Farms Syrah, an earthy old world nod bringing the sanguine, damp loam, bitter bakers chocolate and what Chappy describes as young leather. Both Syrahs were from Dry Creek Valley, similar terroir, but remarkably different. The table was by now filled with glasses. No one was complaining.

The only dish not paired with one of Jennifer’s Raft Wines came at the end of the meal: a centuries-old distillate of 131 herbs and spices, Green V.E.P chartreuse - served as a digestif in a chilled rocks glass with a duck crackling rim, duck fat gelato, brown butter streusel and carbonated grapes.

In the end Chappy was right to keep the number of guests to one long table beneath the trees, so while we offer our apologies to those who called looking for tickets when the dinner sold out, he made the right call. The size of our group allowed Jim and Jen to spend real time with every guest. Jim has a remarkable history here in Sonoma County and stories to go with it, while Jen, charming and informative to a fault, is a serious talent who has worked with some of the leading winemakers in California. There is heart in everything they do. To have their family here on Monday, with ours, was golden.

A huge shout out to the stellar talent of Daniel Carlson who colored the summer evening with an abundance of candlelit grasses and wildflowers from our Greenwood Ridge gardens. To Chefs Danny Giromolo, Randy Dodge, and Bobby Hartley, hats off for a delectable, intriguing and ultimately satisfying series of dishes. To Lukka and Cathryn, Caitlyn, Hayden and Isabel, thank you for a seamless service that kept the platters coming and our glasses full.

Though the night was very special for all of us, it’s clear that Chappy Cottrell will continue to raise the bar on all our SommTable events. Next up: Fête Rouge, on November 24, which will showcase the finest reds of the season along with artisan delicacies to taste and to buy, market style. Thinking ahead to the run up to Thanksgiving, with Christmas right behind, this is an event you do not want to miss as you plan your Holiday tables and consider edible gifts. It will be held in Studio Barndiva and The Gallery will indeed be all dressed up for the holidays. Stay tuned as we announce winemakers and purveyors. Tickets have just gone on sale.

2019 Fête Blanc Album!

ALL THAT WINE!

Fête Blanc 2019

From the top: Cristal Louis Roederer; Aperture Cellars; Rochioli Winery; Failla Wines; La Pitchoune Winery; Medlock-Ames; brick & mortar Wines; Reeve Wines; Kosta Browne Winery; Jordan Winery; Purple Pachyderm; Drew Wines; Handley Cellars; Dutton-Goldfield Winery; Guthrie Family Wines; Idlewild Wines…along with Satyre Wines, Senses Wines, Trombetta Family Wines, Valkyrie Selections, Zeitlos Cellars, Cruess Wine, Copain Wines, Crux Winery, J Vineyards, Preston Farm and Winery, Smith Story Wine Cellars, Scribe Winery, Red Car Wine, Ryme Cellars, Comstock Wines, Carboniste, Gary Farrell Winery, Gail Wines, Pax Wine, Ramey Cellars, Read Holland Wines, Rootdown Wine Cellars, T. Berkley Wines

FOOD!

Caviar blinis, BD farm Gravenstein apples with honey, heirloom fig tarts, spit roast Rosie chicken in Randy’s pita with slaw and confit tomatoes, lemon curd wine-spiced blondies…

COMMUNITY!

Everyone came to drink, to eat a bit, to enjoy a perfect summer day in the gardens, which we did in style. But generosity was also on the menu as participating wineries once again contributed bottles to a raffle to benefit the essential services of Corazón Healdsburg. BD wine director Chappy Cottrell led the charge.

Yes, Healdsburg is changing, we got the memo, but some community roots still run strong and deep: the woman on the left (the indomitable Susan Preston of Preston Farm and Winery) knew the young man on the right (Sam Bilbro of Idlewild Wines) when he was only a bump in the tummy and a gleam in his mum’s eye. The gentleman in the middle is Barndiva’s Geoffrey Hales. One of the great things about our fêtes is the chance to see old friends, and make new ones. This is a community driven event.