In this moment of planning, and potential

This is the time of winter when we consider which holes to dig and what to plant in the soil we have been building, always hoping for the best, for magical form and color come spring.  Surrounding us on all sides of the farm are redwood, oak, madrone and fir forests being replenished by the rains. The forest floor is thick with leaves and lichen-gilded branches, mushrooms and moss. It feels good to imagine all the breathing going on of animal life, ours and everything beneath us and around us, resting and reviving. Winter at the farm is a time to pull grass, clear overgrown gardens, prune fruit trees and just lean into the wet green silences. We are all in thrall right now, embracing this moment of planning, and potential. 

When Barndiva re-opens after our break, we too will be rested and revived. But as Covid continues, so to our approach to it must keep evolving, fueled by the belief that we must use this challenging time to recraft elements of the dining experience that were fragile well before this upheaval to all our lives began. We’re of a mind there is more to be done building organic farm networks; more to be done building an equitably strong service community. And as we craft exciting and meaningful dining experiences, dare we say it, more joy.

For these reasons and - paramount - because we can’t wait to shake and pour and serve extraordinary food and drink to you, we are thrilled to introduce three key new members joining the Barndiva family this spring.   

Scott Beattie is a longtime friend and supporter of our distinguished cocktail program. His now legendary farm-to-glass career in mixology is the gold standard in all things seasonal. In April he will join us as Barndiva’s Beverage Director, working with our bar and farm teams to build a drinks program like no other. In addition to teaching hands-on garden-to-glass cocktail classes at Barndiva, Scott will offer a custom cocktail service to our on-site weddings and events, so sought after in the past at both Meadowood and Montage Healdsburg.

Sally Kim moved to Healdsburg to lead our award-winning wine program. The powerhouse behind the exceptional wine and spirits programs for the Delfina Restaurant Group for many years, she has deep ties to the local wine community as well as a prodigious command of French and Italian varieties. As wine director for all dining and special events, Sally will also take on our three large collaborative wine events – first up a return of The Pink Party in April. In the coming weeks Sally will be announcing a regenerative somm table series of wine maker evenings.

And when we re-open after our annual hiatus we are especially delighted to welcome Chef Erik Anderson to lead the Barndiva culinary team. He will be joining Neidy Venegas as she expands her sublime Viennoiserie and bread programs, a real partner to her extraordinary vision, as well as to the increasingly sustainable direction we are taking Barndiva.  Erik is a hands-on, up-from-the-ground chef whose arresting food journey through some of the most renown kitchens in the world eventually lead him to Coi, in San Francisco, where he earned two Michelin Stars.

Under the direction of this exceptionally talented group of food, wine, and cocktail maestros we plan to make beautiful music this spring. The goal, the hope, is for all of us to emerge from winter not just intact but with our gardens beginning to open and bloom, as we head into a delicious summer.

We hope you will join us soon as the Barndiva journey continues. 

January at the farm

Here’s how it must work: the unofficial wild bird newsletter goes out the morning the first spring shovel hits the ground with an ‘all you can eat!’ invite for which we are more than willing hosts. After all, it’s not like anyone invited us up here in the first first place so it makes wonderful sense we provide the wildlife a reason to return every year. The shortlist Dan, Nick and Shaun managed to identify one frosty foggy morning just after they finished a week of digging and transferring plants fro our nursery into the long meadow the ground was so alive with rapacious birdlife we all just stood around dumbfounded at their numbers, grinning like children.

Spotted that morning in the meadow: Spotted towhee, Golden crowned sparrow, Junco, American robin, Anna’s hummingbird, Downy woodpecker, Piliated woodpecker.

On the pond: 3 hooded merganser ducks

On the ridge hunging black trupets for Chef Erik with Lukka: one magnificent Red-tailed hawk.

Everywhere else: Quails, Crows, and heard but not seen, Band-Tailed pigeons.

Our heartfelt thanks to Shaun for sharing his vacation time with us before he heads back to the magnificence of the Great Dixter Gardens with Dan. As for the hundreds of bulbs we also planted the past few weeks, and roses and shrubs pruned, stay tuned for insane floral displays from Nick, aka @whodoestheflowers.

All photo credit © Jil Hales.

tagged with @michelinguideunitedstates, #michelinstar21, #eattheview , @HealdsburgChamber, @daniel.james, @socomeatco, @prestonfarmandwinery, @farmert, @spontaneidy,@trytoputacorkinit,@whodoestheflowers, @texfel, @moshugana, @franciscoa, @hangrykorean, @lovehealdsburg, @winespectator , @lovehealdsburg, @matthewjukes, @amberkeneally, @nataliekerbyxo, @chefjeremycabrera @sonomamag, @airick72, @biteclubeats, @scottbeattiecocktails, @greatdixternurseries, @shaun.r.b

Its a wrap! 2021 in pictures

We shoot thousands of images every year here in Healdsburg and at the farm in Philo, but in the end we publish very few. Blessed to be content rich at barndiva, the temptation to post is ever present. But we’re increasingly sensitive to the fact there are way too many competing images in all our lives already. If the objective is to have a real conversation with you (it is), and if we value our sanity (we do), we’ve got to keep it real.

2021 was a remarkable year here at the barn. We are incredibly proud of being awarded a Michelin Star. For being recognized for a fifth year for the excellence of our wine program with two cups from Wine Spectator. The Barndiva Wine Company in the UK managed to survive another year of restaurant closures and still begin to thrive. But keeping it real means acknowledging that as proud as we are of these accomplishments (and we truly are) they resonate fullest in the knowledge that we end the year in good health and that we did not make it through another pandemic year alone. We were blessed to have made many new relationships in the food, farming and art worlds, while strengthening friendships we already held dear. Without these vital partnerships that connect us to our family’s core values - curiosity, sustainability, a belief that character matters, and crucially, the power of beautiful form in nature and in what we create - we would be lost.

To our extended family here and in Engand, our incredible staff, the farmers, vintners and artists near and far who inspire us daily, we thank you from a tender place for your support, your feedback, and for sharing our 2021 journey.

To all of you who broke bread or raised a glass with us this year - virtually or in the flesh - we send our wishes for a Happy New Years and the hope 2022 will be filled with bon chance and good health. Of looking forward to the next adventure, no matter what the challenges may be. Any year that gave us Walker, Lennon, Cleo, Asa, Ansel, and Luca; saw Carlo walking and LouLou riding a bike; resulted in bountiful harvests that fed us and the critters, found us of sound mind and good intent at the end, can’t be all bad. Sometimes you eat the bear, sometimes the bear eats you. This year the bear ate more of our apples then we intended, but we were happy to oblige.

This is an album of personal favorites. Photo credit (and thanks) to Cathryn Hulsman for the shot of the small dinner party in the gallery, Moira Beverage for the image of Neidy and I in the gallery gardens, Emma K. Morris for Neidy’s scorched nectarine caramel semifreddo, and to wedding photographer Sabine Scherer for ‘the kiss,’ from one of our 2021 weddings - in fact thank you to all the special event photographers who made their images available to barndiva this past year. We’ve been expanding celebrations both large and small as we re-open studio barndiva. The response has been phenomenal.

Gardens loom large in our lives and I have included a few images here of two very special gardens we spent time in on our trip to England in September - both buoyed and inspired us considerably. To Fergus and the incredible team at Great Dixter, where Dan is now channeling his considerable talents, just…wow. Christopher Lloyd’s spirit was also alive and thriving at Gravetye Manor where, on a Sunday morning just after dawn in the walled vegetable gardens I experienced the most exquisite and sustained grace note of the year.

tagged with @michelinguideunitedstates, #michelinstar21, #eattheview , @HealdsburgChamber, @daniel.james, @socomeatco, @prestonfarmandwinery,@farmert, @gravetyemanor, @spontaneidy,@trytoputacorkinit,@whodoestheflowers, @gracekhalsa, @hayley.feldman, @texfel, @moshugana, @franciscoa, @hangrykorean,@sabineschererphotography, @emmakmorris, @lovehealdsburg, @winespectator,@castlewoodwines, @trillfarmgarden, jordy.morgan, @the_pig_hotels,@matthewjukes, @bottleapostle, @philoapplefarm, @amberkeneally, @nataliekerbyxo, @chefjeremycabrera

Reflecting on our Michelin star

We can’t help but smile when asked how it feels to have received a Michelin star. Especially as it’s a question that, after an incredulous pause, usually ends …."and after 17 years!”    

The simple answer is unequivocal: to be acknowledged in this way following the year our industry has suffered through is simply terrific. It’s a major, career-affirming event for our executive chef Jordan Rosas and pastry chef Neidy Venegas, both of whom moved to our small town from one of the biggest and diverse cities in the world only to confront raging forest fires and vexing pandemic closures. Forced to re-envision their approach to cooking, they pivoted from To Go, to Provisions, to an innovative version of ‘Safe Distance Dining,’ strengthening and even expanding our farm partnerships. To receive a star is wonderful for them - as it is for all of our cooks, bartenders, servers, and dishwashers, who immediately felt the wind in their sails when they came to work. Pride is an amazing elixir.

If you’ve read this blog at all over the many years K2 and I have been putting it together, you know how we’ve filled those 17 years. Keeping the farm and the mantra ‘Eat the View’ relevant. Constantly upping our game when it comes to sustainability and rewarding labor. Gathering wine and spirit makers, artists and designers of all stripes and finding new ways to incorporate their work into the quarter-acre we occupy in the center of Healdsburg. For all the perfect nights in the gardens, the cocktails shaken, the farmers laden with boxes shouting hello at the kitchen door, not a day has gone by when we haven’t faced obstacles, some pretty damn challenging. Restaurants are first and foremost a performative art. What you learn must be practiced, over and over, then re-enacted with split second timing night after night, without losing that spark of initial inspiration that makes a dish memorable. Fire isn’t the only thing that flares up; knives aren’t the only things around with sharp edges. People whose private lives are filled with drama seem drawn to this profession. But you don’t get into this life - certainly don’t stay - if you can’ t stand the heat in the kitchen. Because when it’s showtime, you just have to bring it.

So yes, we’re proud of those 17 years. If nothing else we’ve been consistent in our passion to figure out - to do more than just survive - this exasperating, exhilarating, exhausting but ultimately life-affirming business. Being able to interact with people who make delicious things, sharing with them the desire to tell compelling food and wine stories - connecting them and their stories to our guests - this is what sustains and guides us. We want to thank Michelin for keeping us in their sights and welcoming us into their community.

Chef Neidy Venegas’ dish above: Quince/ Verbena/Grains of Paradise + Tahini Manjari Mousse. Chef Jordan Rosas’ dish above: White Bass/ Broccoli Chowder/ Manila Clams/ fennel/ broccoli stems

A few weeks ago I wrote about how we hoped to come out of Covid in a manner that might embrace ‘dining out’ as more of collaboration, a commitment of time with delicious intent shared by both diner and host. It’s also very much a collaboration between chef and farmer, chef and purveyor, and each member of staff working together, showing care for every element of service, and, crucially, for one another.

But the further we get into society opening up again the more I feel the truth that the social zone we are re-entering - for all its old sheep’s clothing - presents a new paradigm. We are all looking for purchase in this new world, relevant experiences that will resonate, not just for an afternoon or evening but as a thread running through our lives.

Reading Richard Powers’ new novel “Bewilderment” a few weeks back a line jumped out at me that I can’t get out of my head,  “…if some small but critical mass of people recovers a sense of kinship, economics would become ecology. We’d want different things. We’d find our meaning out there.”  Whether this is an achievable goal or not isn’t the point. We need to try. And there may be no better place than the communal dining room, especially those that take their cues from nature and its seasons. With so much of life in the 21st Century spent dipping into virtual realities, there is great solace to be found in the fact that there is - as yet - no virtual substitution to sitting down in a room full of strangers and taking food and drink into your body to be nourished, engaged, and looked after in the pleasurable way humans have craved for centuries. To quote the last line of an Erika Meitner poem, “gather is a transitive verb.” To have the ability to work at what it means ‘to gather’ so it exalts this time, in this place, rewarding human endeavor, living our lives doing what we love, has been an honor and a privilege.  

To celebrate the year ahead, upholding traditions we think have always made Barndiva unique, we’re hosting special exhibits, parties, and collaborative events that speak to our interests, and, we hope, yours. The Pink Party, Fête Blanc, and Fête Rouge are back. Collaborations with other chefs who Eat the View. A ‘throw out the playbook’ series of parties, starting with New Year’s Eve. But first up a mixed media evening that combines the talents of three rising stars in the ceramic world with the work of Barndiva’s brilliant floral farmer. Up from the Earth is one from the heart for us. It elementally connects everything we do in Philo to everything we do here in Healdsburg.

Stay tuned and keep your calendars fluid. From Chefs Jordan and Neidy, and the entire Family at the Barn, we hope to see you soon!

Up from the Earth will take place November 12, from 4-8. It is for one night only. Barndiva’s Nick Gueli will be joined by Grace Khalsa, Ian Hazard-Bill and Miles McCreary from the Mendocino Arts Center to display work specifically made for the show that combines their Anagama wood-fired kiln vases and food safe vessels with florals Nick has grown and dried at the farm. Thanks to the wonderful Lulu Handley, we will be pouring wines from Handley Cellars, and the Gallery Bar with Isabel at the helm will be open for the first time since, well, you know.

Please note: all the work will be for sale, and range in size and price, with all proceeds going to the artists. Join us to celebrate these talented individuals.

Support the Arts!

What we really mean by Eat the View

American Gothic, single wire. Seth Minor

Eat the View is more than a tagline attesting to a commitment to source food grown with sustainable and ethical intent. View is context. It’s what you get by paying attention in the moment. Beyond what a guest comes to eat and drink, our hope has always been that you will be nourished by everything you see and interact with here; that those elements will play over the entire experience in a way that you can, hopefully, play forward.

But while it is our aim that food, cocktails, wines, flowers grown at the farm, art and antiques gathered from farm and wine communities from around the world - basically everything you see and touch here - will give pleasure, the Barndiva experience is ultimately a willing collaboration between us. One that starts with the understanding that talent, resources, and above all else time, is finite and precious. Yours especially, but ours as well.

The pandemic was challenging in different ways and to different degrees for all of us. While we had no control going into it, we find ourselves in a slipstream of desire coming out, propelled by a greater appreciation than ever of how dependent we are on one another. It’s not just an awareness borne out in our kitchens where we were up close and personal as we tried to stay open, accommodating a sudden shift toward To Go menus and on and off openings and closings, safe-distance dining in our gardens. During those first awful months people across the world came to see who keeps the lights on. Beyond the kindness of strangers - which we should always recognize and cherish - we witnessed writ large the skills and talents of fellow human beings in all walks of life. They honored their professions under the most trying circumstances, a community of strangers in hospital settings and emergency services, people who drove through the night, filled shelves, cleaned floors, basically kept things going while most of us Zoomed the days and nights away or found a safe tree to stand beneath while the dogs did their business.

We’re not philosophers and we don’t have a crystal ball. What we do know is that when you’re sitting in a room with candlelight, filled with the fragrance of flowers and food, the low murmur of other people is a social incantation we all need. For all the other things we learned to rely upon in the time of Covid - the healing power of nature, the fact that solitude isn’t empty but can be rich and full - it is obvious to us, as we hope it is to you, that the most important care we need to give right now is to one another.

For everyone working in hospitality right now, Labor is the biggest problem facing a return to social life. Much of it is for reasons that go beyond what you may be reading about a workforce that enjoys being ‘on the dole,’ or is still afraid to re-enter the marketplace. It has to do with a lack of affordable housing, with access to reliable transportation and child care. All these things are directly connected with workers not being paid a truly livable wage, including necessary benefits. The team we have built during the pandemic - and are now expanding - understands that addressing equity in pay between front and back of house is long overdue. They believe, as we do, that everyone working alongside them should have full healthcare as a foundational piece of employment. I like to think it helps that Barndiva is such a beautiful place to work, the ingredients we prepare so fresh and precious, it makes the long hours we put in worth the effort. But first and foremost, people have to feel valued. A service charge instead of a gratuity is a very important step we are taking that will allow us to extend health benefits and raise compensation. Getting back to that notion of willing collaboration, we hope we can depend on your support for keeping it in place.

Our executive chef Jordan Rosas moved to Healdsburg a few weeks before we closed down for the first time. For all the dishes he hoped to create here in bucolic, small-farm obsessed wine country, he was suddenly faced with getting creative in a To Go box. Our great thanks to him, our brilliant pastry chef Neidy Venegas, and our incredible lead sous chef Francisco Aguilera for hanging in there, continuing to dream forward, cooking delicious food despite the challenges. Food is people, before and after what happens in the soil, in the pan. It’s the way we interact as we nourish one another. Whatever happens going forward - and we fully understand this is a transient industry at heart - we will always be grateful to the indefatigable Cathryn Hulsman, to Chappy, Natalie, Felix, Hayden, Terra, Manuel, Raul, Abel, Paola, Carolina, Jessy, Robyn, and dear Lynn (who never stopped baking to celebrate every birthday). To Jade, Ryan, and Evan whose plans after they left SingleThread were put on hold and found safe harbor here during a dicey time when we were swabbing down everything anyone touched, and stayed on.

Once we are fully staffed, look for the return of The Pink, White and Red collaborative wine parties; for an Industry Night with great playlists and movies on the wall of the Studio; look also for a collaborative ceramic and floral gallery show unlike anything we’ve ever done before. Art is central - as are design and florals - to who we are, and what we do. When we relocated staff operations inside, we weren’t just surrounded by empty dining rooms. The art and sculptures we’ve collected over the years helped sustain us; they lent the light filled space and our experience of work and service during those strange months a hopeful gravitas. As we gather again together as community, try and support the arts - and artists - in any way you can. Healdsburg, with its many wonderful galleries, is a great place to start.

We move into a very busy summer with a dynamic woman to help lead our managerial team. We are thrilled to welcome Moira Beveridge, who brings with her not just an impressive resume in all aspects of hospitality but a true passion for it. She’s also got significant wine chops. Come in and meet her!

As for our floral program, which has guests gasping in appreciation every service, it is now led by the extremely talented Nick Guili (holding Camellias, above), who took over from Daniel Carlson, and also wears the hat of Barndiva farm manager. Nick has expanded the program to include the ability to order arrangements for any special occasion you may be celebrating. (For those of you who miss Dan - and we do - he is happily thriving in England, working at Great Dixter, one of the most esteemed and thrilling gardens in England.)

In closing, let me say for Lukka, Geoffrey, Isabel and the entire staff, that while we are very happy to meet all the new customers who have made their homes in Healdsburg (Windsor, Santa Rosa, Cloverdale, et al) over the past year, we will always be grateful to our long time clientele and the many friends of the Barn who patronized us through the darkest months of 2020-21. You buoyed us up, and kept our lights on. It is a true joy to see you once again filling our gardens and dining rooms. You know who you are. We are so grateful to you all. Stay tuned…

Barndiva is open Wed - Sunday for lunch and dinner - we will not close when we have larger celebrations in the studio. Brunch has expanded to include Saturday. Come and Eat the View with us!

@saverestaurants #staytuned #stayhealthy @stayhealdsburg #healdsburgchamber #eattheview #barndiva #healdsburg #thisishealdsburg #sonomacounty #mendocinocounty #sommtablehealdsburg #sonomastrong #ediblemarinwc #lovehealdsburg @barndivahealdsburg @sonomamag @winecountry @slowfoodusa @chef.jordan.rosas, @spontaneidy, @wckitchen, @independantrestaurantcoalition, @BarndivaHealdsburg, @CityofHealdsburg, @HealdsburgChamber @tockhq @socomeatco @feedsonoma @eatersf @maisonhealdsburg @franciscoa_ @prestonfarmandwinery @michelinguide @trytoputacorkinit

Food to Banish the Blues

While we’ve still got one foot firmly planted in winter as we await more rain, the other has taken a giant step into a spring where flowers are not the only things blooming with fantastical color and form. For a year now we’ve been driven to cook and devour big plates of comfort food to sustain us- the messier the better. Many of those dishes we’ve grown to love, but it’s all systems go in our kitchens now especially on the dinner menu where new dishes from Chefs Jordan Rosas and Neidy Venegas dance with incredible scent, layered flavors, and elegant plating that refuses to go back in the (To Go) box. As we come out of our caves again, the longing for beautiful food and a return to the simple luxury of time spent lingering over a meal is palpable. We’re excited.

Join us for Lunch and Dinner in the Gardens. Menus will change frequently…follow us @barndivahealdsburg!

Sonoma County Meat Company 6 oz Filet Mignon, potato mille-feuille, confit pearl onions filled with bone marrow & cauliflower purée, topped with crispy shallots, finished with tarragon and chive powder. Sauce perigourdine, aromatic with black truffles. Sweet peas from Freckle Farms.

Monkfish & Manila Clams with romanesco in a foamy clam ‘chowder’ made with monkfish fume, clam juice and emulsified butter. Below: Compressed cauliflower stems hold romanesco purée. Sourcing from Sun Catcher Farm, Freckle Farm, Feed Sonoma and Barndiva Farm.

Blood orange Mousse Cake with passion fruit gelee spheres, fresh citrus. The frozen mousse cake slices are sprayed with white chocolate in a vivid shade of jaunty yellow, the better to play off peeled segments of cara cara, kumquat, blood orange and grapefruit, which nestle on blood orange gel.

Mignardise of Hibiscus Campari Pâte de fruit and Coriander Guanaja Valrhona fudge- surprise delights after a meal - a small but sweet thank you for dining with us.

@saverestaurants #staytuned #stayhealthy @stayhealdsburg #healdsburgchamber #eattheview #barndiva #healdsburg #thisishealdsburg #sonomacounty #mendocinocounty #sommtablehealdsburg #sonomastrong #ediblemarinwc #lovehealdsburg @barndivahealdsburg @sonomamag @winecountry @slowfoodusa @chef.jordan.rosas, @spontaneidy, @wckitchen, @independantrestaurantcoalition, @BarndivaHealdsburg, @CityofHealdsburg, @HealdsburgChamber @tockhq @socomeatco @frecklefarmshealdsburg @suncatcherfarm @feedsonoma, @eater_sf

THE GARDENS ARE OPEN!

On the Valentine’s Menu: Strawberry Cream Gâteau for two, coconut & fresh citrus. Dessert will also include assorted mignardises.

We wish to sincerely thank everyone who has continued to support us through this dreadful pandemic by ordering Barndiva To Go, buying Gift Certificates to pay it forward, and patronizing our new Shop Provisions which Jordan and Neidy are growing by the week. To Go has widened our understanding of food in new ways, not just what holds up on the ride home and what doesn’t, but what hits comfort notes and still captures the thrill of new flavors. We’re honored it has been lauded in reviews, and we intend to keep it going, but hearing from so many of you, knowing this community had our backs, is what has made all the difference.

We are so thrilled we are able to open the Gardens again to dining on property from Feb. 3. We have missed seeing the gardens full of diners, the interactions, the ambiance. For the time being it will be weather permitting so please make reservations with the knowledge that if rain is inclement, while we will contact you, we are going to play it close because often the skies clear and we have glorious days after a good rain.

It’s been quite a challenge to continue to push out creatively these past months, but we knew in our hearts there was no point in surviving if we didn’t. As we reopen we want to share dishes with you that excite us, cook food that captures the singular seasonality of the beautiful landscape that surrounds us, celebrate the extraordinary talents of small local farmers and purveyors.

And yes, we are taking reservations for Valentine’s in the gardens, and they are filling up fast. But with an understanding we all have different comfort levels for meeting again in person, we are also offering the same prix fixe menu as an interactive VALENTINE’S kit you can enjoy at home. It will come with videos for each dish - how to simply plate, gently re-heat, or cook from scratch, hopefully together! Included are perfect wines to pair with your romantic meal, and we’d love to add a beautiful bouquet from Dan and Nick. Following our sold out Mother’s Day model, Barndiva’s interactive Valentine’s kit will be available for pick up in Healdsburg, Marin and San Francisco.

We’re pulling out all the stops for Valentine’s because it’s a holiday focused on a consideration of the importance of love - the perfect stepping off point as we head into a future where the joy in kindness is going to be needed in great supply. We’re so ready.

Please  keep in touch via Instagram and Facebook. Stay hopeful, stay safe, stay sane. We hope to see you in the gardens soon. Thank you again for your continued support.

 @socomeatco, @arafanelliwinery, @champagnebrunopaillard, @saverestaurants #staytuned #stayhealthy @stayhealdsburg #healdsburgchamber #eattheview #barndiva #togo #healdsburg #thisishealdsburg #sonomacounty #mendocinocounty #sommtablehealdsburg #sonomastrong #ediblemarinwc #lovehealdsburg @barndivahealdsburg @sonomamag @winecountry @slowfoodusa @chef.jordan.rosas, @spontaneidy, @wckitchen, @independantrestaurantcoalition, @BarndivaHealdsburg, @CityofHealdsburg, @HealdsburgChamber @tockhq

Damn the Torpedoes

If your impulse is to dive under the bed this NYE, close your eyes and just wait for the end of 2020, you are not alone. But there are reasons to pause and even celebrate the milestones, accomplishments, and resilience of this year in particular. While there is abundant evidence that we are making a mess of things as a human race, individually and often collectively we witnessed great forbearance and courage. From frontline essential workers who kept going with empathy and an extraordinary level of care, firefighters who battled blazes across the state, and towns like Healdsburg where shopkeepers and citizens stepped up to keep supporting local businesses, this was a remarkable year of true grit.

And right up there with efforts to ensure our personal survival was the inspiration and focus of Black Lives Matter. Millions marched peacefully to make the point - which should be self evident but sadly, tragically, is still not - that change must come in the way we treat one another. We have much to learn and many bridges to build, but in the face of everything else we struggled with as a country this year, it was a hopeful start.

In raising a toast to the end of 2020, here’s to the things you love, the people, places, work, and passions that kept you going. Hold tight to them. 2021 will no doubt prove another hell of a ride.

The people we worked alongside this year - every single member of staff at Barndiva - many now furloughed - did not falter. We are still here because of them. This was the year we were able to build the most creative and talented team we have ever had - which is saying a lot. Jordan Rosas, our executive chef, lured his sous chef Francisco Aguilera and the inordinately talented pastry chef Neidy Venegas up from LA only months before the first shutdown and despite COVID managed to build an incredible team while forging more relationships with local farmers and purveyors. Jordan crafted menus that satisfied the understandable desire right now for comfort food, yet managed to inject an exciting indication of where he intends to take us. Hats - or toques- off for all the chefs, especially those who lead smaller independent restaurants, that have worked through this dreadful time, fighting for a way of life that transcends any single career.

Glass raised to World Central Kitchen. Support them if you can.

The food they cooked. Comfort dishes like fried chicken sandwiches, hoe cakes, burgers and pastas flew out the door to the gardens and To-Go since April, and hopefully will continue to do so, but Jordan and Neidy still represented the food they love and came to Healdsburg to cook in dishes that were beautifully sourced and an utter delight to the eye, the palate, the soul.

Glass raised to all the farms listed on our menus, in Eat the View and @barndivahealdsburg throughout the year, with a special shout out from Jordan to Kindred Spirits Care Farm and Shemesh Farms

The farm continued to sustain us. Barndiva farm relies on the strong backs of two dedicated individuals with a passion for farming and flowers, Daniel Carlson and Nick Gueli. They tend and harvest our fruit and nut crops (often with friends we rope in to help) and produce the incredible floral arrangements Barndiva is known for, which continued to delight everyone in the gardens all summer long.

Glass raised to Farm to Pantry and it’s is intrepid leader Duskie Estes. Join, and support them if you can.

The Barndiva Gardens allowed us to define safe distance dining on our own terms and in our own style this year. They offered brief respite to all who braved the pandemic and the fires through an otherwise beautiful summer and glorious fall. Not a day goes by we don’t give thanks for them. It was a very conscious decision on our part 16 years ago to design open space in the middle of a town that seemed to have loads of it, filling dining gardens with antiques and local art, herbal and edible floral beds. It may now seem prescient. It wasn’t. We missed the weddings, the collaborative wine events, the anniversary and birthday celebrations and can’t wait for their return, but the beauty of a garden if well loved is that it’s heart keeps beating.

While we were fortunate we did not have to erect a tent on the street to keep going this summer, many did at great cost and difficulty. We greatly appreciate the The City of Healdsburg and The Healdsburg Chamber for encouraging parklets, and for all their other efforts to help keep wine country hospitality alive and well. Staying connected to community is not easy right now, but it’s never been more vital. Independently owned news organizations cast a wide net of interests that can support, expose, and explore stories that affect our lives, day to day.

Glass raised to the incredible reportage and photography from The Press Democrat. From front line reporting on the fires through their continued human interest stories that bolstered local restaurants, farms, and purveyors, they stepped up and it mattered. Subscribe.

Any year that welcomed this little guy into the family can’t be all bad. Just can’t. And while my issues with life lived primarily on Instagram only grew more complex this year, it often made my day to see glimpses of the children we know on social media getting on, growing up, coping. They marched with their parents, cooked for firefighters, contributed to the family labors, continued to educate themselves online. Their remarkable resilience is a testament to youth, but it draws, each and every day, from the time and care we put in as parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and beloved friends, even remotely. Here’s to you Carlo. Your big sister LouLou and I can’t wait to take your hand and walk through the gardens and up into the forest together. Nothing to fear there buddy, only a bear or two.

@saverestaurants #staytuned #stayhealthy @stayhealdsburg #healdsburgchamber #eattheview #barndiva #togo #healdsburg #thisishealdsburg #sonomacounty #mendocinocounty #sommtablehealdsburg #sonomastrong #ediblemarinwc #lovehealdsburg @barndivahealdsburg @sonomamag @winecountry @slowfoodusa @socomeatco @chef.jordan.rosas, @spontaneidy, @wckitchen, @independantrestaurantcoalition, @BarndivaHealdsburg, @kindredspiritscarefarm, @shemeshfarms, @FarmtoPantry, @CityofHealdsburg, @HealdsburgChamber, @PressDemo

Four good reasons not to feel guilty for celebrating Christmas this year

We went into planning an Enjoy at Home Christmas Dinner with some trepidation - with so many across the country struggling right now, celebrating anything out loud needs some context. The most obvious reason for optimism is that we are inexorably heading toward the finish of a year we can’t wait to see in the rear view mirror, but here you go: four stand alone reasons to spend some time enjoying the notion, the magic, the much needed hopefulness in the Holiday Season 2020.

1. Anything that strengthens connection right now is good - in spite of the fact that raising a glass on Zoom is not what any of us ever envisioned for Christmas, certainly not for New Year’s Eve. Still, if, on the other side of that screen you get to see beloved relatives and friends, it’s going to be a shot in the arm while we patiently await a real shot in the arm that can actually bring us together in person again.

2. Kids sure aren’t to blame for what’s happening in the world right now, and they have reasons to love Christmas that the pandemic shouldn’t touch. Whatever your feeling about shopping mall Santas and the commercialization of Christmas, this is a holiday full of the best kind of wistful thinking, and it comes with the tag line “don’t be naughty, be nice.” There’s a soft moral in there that’s good to be reminded of, whatever your age.

3. If you are blessed enough to be healthy and financially secure this holiday season, it’s a great time to spread some of that wealth around your community. For us it’s about keeping people employed doing what they love - cooking and farming and making things - but every shop in Healdsburg, Windsor, Cloverdale, Santa Rosa - every town in our beautiful part of California - will tell you the same thing: the big box companies will survive this pandemic. We might not. Support small retail this Holiday, enjoy safe distance dining and if we all must pivot to TO GO then patronize your favorite local restaurants, especially those that support the food shed. It will make you feel good; it will certainly make all of us feel good.

4. This is the big one. Celebrating lifts the spirits, great food and drink feeds the soul, so try to find a way to make a small but joyful noise this Holiday. We had incredible feedback from our sold out Thanksgiving feast, but we are still finding our way through this new dining paradigm, as you are. Planning the menu wasn’t hard - Jordan loves celebration meals (take a look, below) but initially we weren’t feeling it. Then Chef Neidy and I started playing around with antique Christmas decorations, pâte à choux, little towers of meringue entwined with sparkly ribbon and something crazy happened. Even the god awful red feathers which no one admits to buying years ago but make their return year after year rewarded us with delight. It was momentary, but inspirational. Neidy is going to bake seven different varieties of Christmas cookies with recipes from around the world for Christmas Dinner. Jordan has sourced beautiful hams - in fact the entire meal will be sourced from Sonoma County. Take a look at the full menu below, and keep scrolling for very special bottle offerings. We are thrilled to have Evan Hufford and Ryan Knowles - both previously at Single Thread - as our Somms in residence this year. In the run up to the holidays, Evan has made it his special mission to root through our cellars and pull some great bottles out to share. Meanwhile, over in Barland, Terra’s incredible Three Generation Punch will be included with the dinner and we are planning to shake up some classics like Why Bears Do It with fresh apple juice from the 2020 harvest and a new Tequila FLIRT. We are also happy to send you Barndiva versions of whatever libations you have in mind for the holidays.

Booking for the dinner is now live on the website. We’d love to cook for you. Cheers!

@saverestaurants #staytuned #stayhealthy @stayhealdsburg #healdsburgchamber #eattheview #barndiva #togo #healdsburg #thisishealdsburg #sonomacounty #mendocinocounty #sommtablehealdsburg #sonomastrong #ediblemarinwc #lovehealdsburg @barndivahealdsburg @sonomamag @winecountry @slowfoodusa @socomeatco

The Importance of This Food Now

Farm to table dining didn’t start out as a restaurant slogan. When the PR wunderkind searching for a nostalgic trigger to lure diners realized no one really remembered the dairy down the road, he or she was off and running. Dining is, after all, a state of mind even before the first mouthful. While it worked well in the lingua franca of the socially and morally conscious, once upon a time it would have raised eyebrows in rural communities where everything served in local restaurants came from a nearby farm or purveyor. What was grown locally was going to be the cheapest - and before farming became dependent on chemicals, tasted better too. If you lived in the countryside you were literally eating from the landscape you saw everyday. We all know what happened: as cities expanded land for growing food and raising animals and making things from scratch shrunk as a result. In many places farming communities disappeared altogether. Better land values, which is different from land usage, became the name of the game. In our lifetime we have seen supply chains that once barely stretched across state lines now easily spanning the globe.

Barndiva is blessed to be located in a once thriving farming community and our goal has always been to source as fully from it as we could, but truth be told we always somewhat uncomfortable with the term. We understood why ‘Aspiring Farm to Table’ didn’t play as well in the press, but what is the true litmus test for making this claim for your establishment? 80% local? For most restaurants 60% is an accomplishment when you consider the real cost of sourcing sustainably alongside trying to pay your staff equitable wages and offering health care, all while juggling the myriad of other overheads that go into running a restaurant. And to be clear, it isn’t just the cost and logistics of dealing with many small producers that send chefs who may long to source more locally to large and often global chain delivery services. It is customers wanting tomatoes in January, fresh raspberries in March. It’s having to contend with expectations around value for money.

None of this should be of concern to the diner who comes to escape their problems for a few hours, be fed and cared for body and (to some degree) soul. But keeping that view outside the kitchen windows whole, not cut up into pieces and filled with yet more fast food islands serving commercially produced shrink wrapped food, is why we got into this crazy assed business in the first place.

In publishing these images of the first new fall dishes from Jordan and Neidy, which as I’m writing this we are able to serve in the gardens though we await an imminent Covid closure of on-site dining and a shift back to To Go, I’m proud of how their remarkable skills make the most out of products that were entirely sourced from Marin, Sonoma and Mendocino Counties. Not just because they taste sublime (they do) but because they make it possible for us to continue to support smaller farms and purveyors who are also fighting for their businesses right now… and their way of life.

So whether it’s for a special occasion, or you can afford to dine out frequently, your support of restaurants that are trying their best to walk this walk is crucial right now. Read publications like Edible Marin, check in with Slow Food USA, talk to your Farmers Market favorites about which restaurants they supply. Every day is going to be a struggle for a while now, but it is one worth engaging. Because - and I know this will sound crazy - we can come out of this on the other side as better chefs, owners, farmers, purveyors… and diners.

Thank you for your continued support. Stay well.

Fire seared then pan finished, Chef Jordan Rosas’ crispy duck breast is sourced from our friends at Liberty Ducks in Petaluma. Hakurei turnips from Preston Family Farm are cooked in shiro dashi, with dollops of chicken liver mousse, rainbow swiss chard from Marin Roots Farm, and pomegranate jus, with pomegranates from Jackson Family Farms. Radish flowers, as garnish, also from Marin Roots Farm.

As an accompaniment to our steak from Sonoma County Meat Company (who supplied our beautiful turkeys for Thanksgiving Feast at Home, and will be supplying house brined ham for Christmas) Chef Jordan used a trio of squash for the purée filling - delicata, spaghetti, and butternut - all from the incomparable Preston Family Farm. Nasturtium leaves are from Marin Roots Farm, as well as harvested here in Healdsburg in the Barndiva gardens.

Pastry Chef Neidy’s ethereal apple tart is constructed of layers of apple butter, apple juice jelly swimming with fresh apples, and white chocolate mousse. It is finished with vanilla Chantilly. She used Sonora wheat grown by Lou Preston here in Healdsburg, and all apples were from our harvest this season from heirloom varieties we dry farm on a ridge above Philo.

@saverestaurants #staytuned #stayhealthy @stayhealdsburg #healdsburgchamber #eattheview #barndiva #togo #healdsburg #thisishealdsburg #sonomacounty #mendocinocounty #sommtablehealdsburg #sonomastrong #ediblemarinwc #lovehealdsburg @barndivahealdsburg @sonomamag @winecountry @slowfoodusa @liberty_ducks @prestonfamilyfarmandwinery @socomeatco @feed_sonoma @marinrootsfarm @farmert

So where do we go from here?

Pádraig Ó Tuama offered up a lovely poem a few weeks back on Poetry Unbound, “The Cave” by Paul Tran, which touched the heart of the moment we find ourselves in right now. Everywhere we turn we face another precipice. Health. Climate. The economy. Truth itself has become a slippery slope as it careens across platforms, refracted like a broken funhouse mirror.

Tran’s poem begins “Someone standing at the mouth had the idea to enter.” In negating gender, and for that matter race and creed, reading Tran’s words I was struck with how little we actually know about these first humans, as individuals. One can imagine them looking up at the heavens to see which way the clouds were blowing, but they come down to us through history with no formal construct of God or country. We don’t know much about what defined their belief systems, what we do know is that struggling together, slowly growing their numbers, they survived, and ultimately thrived. Everyone alive today should be thankful that enough of them had a prevailing curiosity, a determination to continue discovering what lay before them in the dark, to keep the human race alive.

The poem describes “objects that couldn’t have found their way there alone: ocre-stained shelves, bird bones, grounded hematite.” And deeper still, “paintings on the walls of cows, bulls, bison, deer, horses, some pregnant, some slaughtered.” Though the word “bravery” is never mentioned it’s inconceivable their progress forward could have been made without it. And, crucially, another attribute all but a few of us seem to have lost: curiosity. “We need to continue to go into new caves, or caves we think are new,” Padraig concludes, “in order to mine the possibility of what it means to be human, together.”

What lies embedded in that last but essential word “together” is what we’re having so much trouble with now. As the pandemic and climate change make clear - whatever you think caused them - in order to survive ‘our’ existential threats we need to get beyond the noise and ask ourselves why it is so hard to get along. It does not reduce the meaning of our solitary journey through life or the choices we make as individuals to acknowledge (and honor) that all our explorations, our achievements, our sorrows and joys have more resonance when shared. Therein lies the urge to create tribe, family, community. And yes, party affiliation.

Americans think of themselves as brave; it’s something that’s drilled into us, decade after decade. We’re taught that “we” marched across a beautiful but perilous country and claimed it, planted it, and civilized it, all to the good.

What a beautiful country it was, yet how messy civilizing it has been, how cruel it continues to be when you honestly chart the journey. As we grouped, and then more formally segregated ourselves to protect what we had, we let those differences define us. When we raise our voices in choir, when it comes to breaking bread and celebrating family accomplishments and life’s milestones, tradition is thankfully what binds us to our sweetest moments. But when those differences divide us we are driven to protect… what? Whose truth? Whose status quo?

How can we create forums for conversation now that are not tainted with prejudice and the cruelty that flows from it? As a much older person to the child who once dutifully pledged allegiance “to the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands” before the start of every school day, I’m not convinced cruelty is endemic to the American experience, much less a necessary corollary to achievement. We are all vulnerable to resorting to angers fed by generational prejudices when frustration and hardship get the best of us. Perhaps it is human nature that seemingly insurmountable problems seem easier to grasp when there is someone to blame for our woes. But the corrosive emotions being deployed right now across our beautiful country in order to command our attention and allegiances may be drawing us into conflicts that do not serve us well.

As we sit in our caves now day after day watching flickering light from various media platforms, we are incurious they cast no shadow. What we do paint on our internet walls in posts and tweets is ephemeral, less than breadcrumbs, far from enlightening, infrequently uplifting, almost never poetic. These messages, our personal stories, compete and are increasingly overwhelmed by the images and words of strangers, inundating us, claiming our attention with the sole intent of trying to sell us something. A new dress, an energy drink, a mattress. A point of view.

Our ancestors built their fires for warmth and to cook food. When they came to paint what they knew of life, their shadows were alive on the walls of their caves; they were fully in command of the stories they told.

Which brings me back to curiosity. The problems we face may not be fundamentally all of our doing, but they will surely be our undoing if we do not resolve them, and soon. To be curious right now is the opposite of being certain. It’s also the opposite of being angry. We need to wonder who is selling us what, and why. Need to wonder how things might turn out if we are fully present right now and responsible, both to ourselves and our neighbors. To remember our actions define us more than our opinions.

In wishing you a joyful, if quieter Thanksgiving this year all of us here at Barndiva and the farm, and the farms and purveyor kitchens we rely upon express our gratitude for your custom and your continued support. When we are finally able to gather together again inside, a bit closer to the warmth of our kitchens, it will no doubt be a different world in hospitality. We’re curious how that might not be a bad thing. In every way we can we are imagining and working toward that future as we would construct a dish of many intriguing ingredients - looking for the most flavor, the truest return.

To keep working here, to protect what we love about this particular landscape, to work alongside people who respect that landscape as well is our goal. Hopefully, we can share that with you when we meet again.

Stay curious. Stay well.

A link to Pádraig reciting and talking about Paul Tran’s The Cave, on @onbeing.org & @poetryunbound.org, can be found here. Eat the View’s banner image this week of Lou’s walnuts drying was photographed in the Preston farmshop (@prestonfarmandwinery) . Use this link to their farm shop to order the walnuts or wine or the many other beautiful products Preston produces.

“The Cave”
Written by Paul Tran
Read by Pádraig Ó Tuama

Someone standing at the mouth had
the idea to enter. To go further

than light or language could
go. As they followed
the idea, light and language followed

like two wolves—panting, hearing themselves
panting. A shapeless scent
in the damp air …

Keep going, the idea said.

Someone kept going. Deeper and deeper, they saw
others had been there. Others had left

objects that couldn’t have found their way
there alone. Ocher-stained shells. Bird bones. Grounded
hematite. On the walls,

as if stepping into history, someone saw
their purpose: cows. Bulls. Bison. Deer. Horses—
some pregnant, some slaughtered.

The wild-
life seemed wild and alive, moving

when someone moved, casting their shadows
on the shadows stretching
in every direction. Keep going,

the idea said again. Go …

Someone continued. They followed the idea so far inside that
outside was another idea.”

Thanksgiving 2020

Turns out Jordan Rosas, our extraordinary lead chef, who has deftly navigated Barndiva through Covid and the wildfires, is a passionate traditionalist. He loves Thanksgiving. Ditto his second in command, our imaginative pastry chef Neidy Venegas. Both grew up in large families and love big old-fashioned menus cooked from the heart. When we floated the idea of offering a feast for guests old and new this year, one they could enjoy at home, it didn’t take long for them to come up with a gorgeous menu of ready to warm dishes with a house-brined pasture-raised turkey you just pop in the oven, the better to get those roasting aromas going. It’s a menu that hits all the best Thanksgiving notes - with some delightful surprises.

We’ve never been opened on Thanksgiving before, in order to give our staff time with their families, but if there was ever was a year we break with that tradition this would be it. Travel will be difficult, gathering in large groups not advisable, and even sourcing the myriad of ingredients you love to include in this once-a-year meal may prove a challenge. All the more reason we’re looking forward to cooking every dish on this menu, which will be sourced entirely in Sonoma and Mendocino. It’s the best way we know to support the incredible food shed surrounding Healdsburg, and all who work within it. Yes, business is always about the bottom line; we choose not to draw ours in the sand, but in the soil.

Cook at Home Thanksgiving Feast can be booked online by going to our website, Barndiva.com. It will be available for pick up at Studio Barndiva on Wednesday, November 25, from 12-6 and on Thanksgiving day until noon.

Chef Jordan Rosas and Pastry Chef Neidy Venegas. The beautiful squash, pumpkins, and flours Neidy will use to bake her biscuits, pound cakes and pies were all grown at Preston Family Farm in Dry Creek Valley. Filberts, most chestnuts and all apple products are from Barndiva Farm in Philo.

#saverestaurants #staytuned #stayhealthy #stayhealdsburg #healdsburgchamber #eattheview #barndiva #togo #healdsburg #thisishealdsburg #sonomacounty #mendocinocounty #sommtablehealdsburg #sonomastrong #ediblemarinwc #lovehealdsburg #biteclubeats @barndivahealdsburg  @chef.jordan.rosas @spontaneidy

Becoming PaVlov and the Dogs

I was half listening to a podcast - my go to these days is Ezra Klein but more likely given the subject it might have been the wonderful On Being with Krista Tippett - when the term Dominant Trigger Responses jumped out at me. We all know what they are in general, those seemingly automatic responses beyond our control that cause us to react in a certain way; we even know which constants in life are going to provoke them fastest: parents, kids, politicians. But what about the inverse? Pavlov’s groundbreaking research in the late 19th century on conditional responses took neutral stimulus and consistently exposed his test subject dogs to situational triggers to create new and long lasting connections. He used a bell which has no negative or positive connotations, but most of our dominant trigger responses most certainly come with highly subjective baggage.

While we are all so focused on uncontrollable incoming dangers (pandemic, tattered economy, smoke-filled skies) and the fraught emotions they trigger, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that we actually have the power to condition our responses to stimuli of our choosing as well. Enduring love, work you feel better for doing, and of course the natural world are all good contenders for sustained attention that over time can trigger positive responses in us. No one’s saying it’s easy. But wouldn’t it be nice to balance fear-driven emotions with ones that move us to beauty, contentment, joy?

The hard work ahead to rebuild this economy and deal with climate changes that affect our livelihoods and the livability of our lives won’t be sustainable if only led from despair, though that’s a pretty fair response these days no matter where you attribute cause or blame. Desire for change must arise from hope but we also need roadmaps for better alternatives. We must play a role in creating many of these for ourselves.

Increasingly I take time every day to tune out the noise and focus on small things that come wrapped in scent, flavor, color. A walk through the orchards and out into the forest does it for me. Any garden that’s been tended with care. Sometimes I stand quietly in the corner of the kitchen and watch the repetitive actions of folding dough, cutting vegetables, stirring stock pots, all the food prep and cooking that perfumes the air with fragrant possibility. Then I wander outside to fully take in one of Dan’s floral arrangements that he’s hidden in plain sight in the gardens, where unless there is something seriously amiss in your world, delight is the natural default reaction.

A precious few weeks every fall all my happy trigger responses light up on an old packing shed hanging over the Navarro river. The Anderson Valley is a first love for me, and an enduring one after 35 years dry farming on Greenwood Ridge. Though it’s been hard work for our family, it has curiously always given back more than it takes, which I guess is why we’re still here. This year, with nature feeling so fragile, the general health of the republic so vulnerable, it was a blessing to be able to stand under the trees shedding golden leaves and watch our apples be transformed into juice, syrup and cider. The Philo Apple Farm - the Bates and Schmitt families arrived the same year we did to the Valley - still opens its beautiful antique press one day a week to anyone in the community growing organic apples. It’s a tradition that engenders goodwill on so many levels that just waiting around to start the press up (and that can take a while) fires up the amygdala. The small talk between old friends, the first snap of a beer being opened, the grind of the press sputtering to life, the creak of the apples bumping up the conveyor belt, cars thumping over the high spots on the bridge, the air alive with the glorious smell of apple juice reducing down to syrup in the outdoor cooker, these are all small random things that imprinted over time compress in memory like a glittering diamond.

We often think we have to go in search of meaningful sensation when it’s all around us just waiting to be found. The first step is sharpening our five senses to the gifts a single moment might hold. Smell is the sense closest to memory and thus the easiest to access - it’s the smell of coffee that triggers the brain before caffeine ever hits the system. Ambient sound also works on us subliminally - think of the way cocktail shakers in a busy restaurant trigger anticipation even if you are not drinking. Color is another huge trigger. Rothko believed fields of color were spiritual planes that could tap into our most basic human emotions, but you don’t need to be a great painter to access them all the time. As the vineyards begin to glow, glorious gold and russet colors will be all around us for the next few weeks. It was already all around us at The Apple Farm - starting in the bins of ripening apples.

I am no Pollyanna, quite the contrary. The sight and smell of a bunch of apples isn’t going to solve the world’s problems. But the singular beauty of nature’s seasons present innumerable moments that over time can hold the power to become dominant trigger responses of the positive kind that help provide the balance we need to face those problems. Right now, fall is resplendent. Wrap yourself in it. Then let’s get back to work.

The Philo Apple Farm

Hospitality of an authentic, beautiful and utterly delicious frame of mind is what it’s all about @philoapplefarm. They know what they do well (practically everything) and are easy about making all the working parts of their farm open and welcoming. If you haven’t yet come for a stay, they are safely booking reservations. Cruz may or may not bake for you but you will leave full to the brim, I promise you. If you’re just passing through the Valley, the Farmstand, with all The Apple Farm’s wonderful jams, chutneys, ciders, juice and in season produce, is open 9-6.

Rita and Jerzy are the third generation living and working the Apple Farm, along with Rita’s parents, Karen and Tim. Their help at crush is invaluable- though it a delight to see them anywhere, anytime.

We had two teams crushing with Lukka and Dan this year … first up was chefs Jordan and Neidy and our longtime manager Cathryn. At the next crush our spectacular three bar divas- Isabel, Terra and Hayden - took over. And at both crushes and at the farm with us all year we have been so happy to work with new farmer and budding (pun intended) florist Nick.

Least I forget a great positive trigger for me these days: Our farm managers Dan’s instagram @daniel.james.co. Enjoy daily.

#saverestaurants #staytuned #stayhealthy #stayhealdsburg #healdsburgchamber #eattheview #barndiva #togo #healdsburg #thisishealdsburg #sonomacounty #mendocinocounty #sommtablehealdsburg #sonomastrong #ediblemarinwc #lovehealdsburg #biteclubeats @barndivahealdsburg  @chef.jordan.rosas @spontaneidy

Neidy in Wonderland

Neidy Venegas, our new pastry chef is young and gifted, a heady combination when you’re also channeling Alice in Wonderland’s wide eyed appetite for adventure. With every creation she establishes a familiar reference point you can relate to, then takes a leap in a direction you least expect. Only last week she noticed something we walk by everyday at the farm without ever thinking of it as edible - beautiful fig leaves from our 100 year old trees - and transformed them into a magical dust and an aromatic oil to finish a confection that was both sophisticated and childlike - a lush perfectly baked chocolate financier cake with clouds of white chocolate crémeux and a summery blackberry sorbet.

This week’s new dessert showcases an ingredient grown only a few miles from the Barn, but to my knowledge one we have never used in the kitchens before: Husk Cherries. It’s a confection as delightful as a hat at Ascot, with delicate sherbert shades, flirtatious form, and flavors both fresh and capricious.

These are desserts that feed the body and soothe the aching soul, perfect companions to Jordan’s remarkable command of all things savory. The irony that this level of talent is reaching full expression in a time of Corona, wildfires, and a maddening election (oh my) has not been lost on us. But there’s never been a better time to put food like this on the Barndiva menus. We are grateful to our Executive Chef Jordan Rosas and to Lukka for bringing Neidy and her beautiful collaborative energy into the Barndiva Family.

Husk Cherries, a distant relative to the Cape Gooseberry, are an Ashwagandha nightshade sometimes referred to as Indian Ginseng. Its flavor is ephemeral, with notes of citrus, pineapple and tomato. The fruit grows in a delicate calyx which Neidy has made a central feature of her dessert. This confection presents the Husk Cherry’s delicate flavor four ways - raw, lightly frozen, candied, and as jam. Our Husk Cherries come from Freckle Farms here in Healdsburg.

After carefully removing the cherries from the calyx without breaking, it is lightly candied and set aside. Husk Cherry jam is pipped over an almond GF sable cookie, then decorated with sliced slightly frozen fruit. The sable sits atop a scoop of house made lemon verbena ice cream, held in place by a dollop of jam. Raw whole Husk Cherries are delicately placed in the candied husks.

Pears from the farm; Neidy Venegas (@spontaneidy); the new Barndiva Bagel (soon to make a debut on our all-star Brunch Menu with a Jordan Rosas signature schmear.)

#saverestaurants #staytuned #stayhealthy #stayhealdsburg #healdsburgchamber #eattheview #barndiva #togo #healdsburg #thisishealdsburg #sonomacounty #mendocinocounty #sommtablehealdsburg #sonomastrong #ediblemarinwc #lovehealdsburg #biteclubeats @barndivahealdsburg  @chef.jordan.rosas @spontaneidy @frecklefarmhealdsburg

Blue Sky Hot Sauce Throwdown

Everything about our day off smacked of wonderful, awash in the vivid primary colors everyone needs in their lives right now starting with the sky, a Mayan blue with diaphanous white clouds and not a hint of smoke in the air, praise be. We were surrounded by paper bags full of the most glorious red, yellow and green peppers, all grown by our friends at Blue Leg Farms. We had plenty of Modelo and a few bottles of good Rosé we felt compelled to finish, it being the first day of Fall. And though we had an objective - to coax lingering heat with loads of complexity out of those peppers into a hot sauce worthy of Jordan and Neidy’s new brunch menu (which starts up Sunday), no one was in a rush to get there.

Lukka and Dan had set up an outdoor kitchen but with a slight wind blowing nobody felt the urge to actually start a fire and cook over wood as planned. So we pulled the old propane barbecue out and worked through the day, grilling, seeding, chopping and blending various combinations as the mobile kitchen slowly expanded, chairs flung out around the grills trailing off into the chestnut trees. We talked travel, skydiving, My Octopus Teacher (on Netflix, a must see), watched Frankie the pup tumble around on wood chips and wade through the grass. The clouds did their thing. All talk of Covid, the fires, and the election was banished.

Though we came to this impromptu food lab on the mountain with no recipes in mind, we had many years of living between us, some of it spent forming opinions on what makes a great hot sauce. We agreed on a few things: add some apples and pears from the orchards to supply subtle fruit notes, our aged apple cider vinegar and maybe some of the Datu Puti vinegar Jordan had brought (along with a mysterious jar of spices) for acidity. We had a bag full of Bernier garlic - to which we added a few heads of Preston - always good measure. No decision was pressing - scallions or onions, apple cider syrup or honey, it didn’t seem to matter so long as we recorded everything. No idea was off the table.

The only question was how to recreate whatever we fell in love with in the kitchens down in Healdsburg in the months to come. The sun moved across the sky and dipped below the ridge, the solar jam jars bursting into fairy light one by one as dusk grew to night. Hot sauce is above all things, an anomaly - insanely beautiful colors that all but disappear as you cook them down, transforming into incandescent flavors that channel other spirits. There is a reason every culture has one. At heart they are a gentle slap to the senses before you dig in to a dish, urging you to wake up, and be present.

Blue Leg Farms, a ten acre certified organic farm in the heart of Sonoma County currently has 40 varieties of peppers. They can be found at the Healdsburg Farmers Market and Santa Rosa Luther Burbank Center Market, and online bluelegfarm.com. All Photos: Jil Hales & Dan Carlson.

Photo: Paul C Mille

In Memoriam

We will always remember the day Ruth Bader Ginsburg graced Barndiva with her presence to officiate at a wedding in our gardens for two of her beloved former clerks, Miriam and Robert. You could see why she was so admired and loved in the way she treated the couple that day, honoring Jewish religious practice by inviting everyone in, yet somehow keeping it intimate and private for them. It was a masterclass in capturing the moment. This tiny woman so elegantly dressed, speaking just above a whisper, held everyone enthralled.

The secret service had swept the property several times in the days running up to the wedding, I think they swept most of Healdsburg. The whole time she was there they formed a courteous phalanx around her that somehow did not prevent her - though she did not mingle - from acknowledging everyone she came into contact with, no matter how minor to the day. Lukka is usually unflappable but his hands shook at little when she asked him to hook her collar on, a special one from her (voluminous I’m sure) wedding collection. At the end of the ceremony it was thrilling for everyone gathered to hear, probably for the only time in our gardens “By the power vested in me by the Constitution of the United States of America, I pronounce you husband and wife.”

Justice Ginsburg was the epitome of a fully engaged mind, a champion for social justice in ways that should transcend the ugly partisan divisions now driving us apart. Not above the law, but of the law, informed by the arc of history but not a prisoner to it. That she believed and protected a woman’s right to choose made her an early hero of mine, but even when I disagreed with her decisions over the years I could see how she had arrived at them. They were usually around the corner, where we needed to be.

RIP RBG.

Baruch dayan ha’emet.

#saverestaurants #staytuned #stayhealthy #stayhealdsburg #healdsburgchamber #eattheview #barndiva #togo #healdsburg #thisishealdsburg #sonomacounty #mendocinocounty #sommtablehealdsburg #sonomastrong #ediblemarinwc #lovehealdsburg #biteclubeats @barndivahealdsburg #bernierfarms #prestonfarmandwinery #ruthbaderginsburg #chef.jordan.rosas #bluelegfarms

Kiss with a Slap Days: Our Roadmap Going Forward...

Photo and Dish Credits:
Executive Chef Jordan Rosas: EGGPLANT TERIYAKI with charred shishito, nori, and shiso; HOUSEMADE RIGATONI summer squash & blossoms, calabrian chili, pine nuts, garlic, grana padano, basil / Pastry Chef Neidy Venegas: WHITE CHOCOLATE ROSE BUDINO with apple granita and dehydrated apple; BARNDIVA FARM BARTLETT PEAR FRANGIPANE with heirloom apple cider vinegar; POTATO ROLLS with fines herbes / Farm Manager Dan Carlson: Gravenstein apples / Jil Hales: All other photos

The smoke had not yet cleared from the Walbridge Fire before it began to drift back in again, shrouding Healdsburg and Philo from fires raging far to the north and east. The sky turned a frightening red, the color of dried persimmons, then into a flecked ash murky brown, which was almost worse. It has thankfully passed now, though the fires in California are by no means contained. It was certainly a week we will long remember in Wine Country, deeply unsettling. And yet, incredibly, we came out the other side, hosting a safe distance wedding rehearsal dinner Saturday night that was respectful of our current state of play, yet achingly beautiful. On Tuesday we juiced the first of our apples.

These are kiss with a slap days. Situations that start out sharp and seemingly unforgiving suddenly give way to a glimmer of restitution, a way forward. The trick is to stay open to the better possibilities, and dig deep. We’ve taken the position that we’re going to get through this year in some form that adds up to more than ‘just surviving.’ Change is in the air. When it’s not too smoky to smell it.

The truth is, no one knows what food culture, much less any patronage dependent enterprise like theater or the arts, will look like when we get to the other side of this horrible terrible year (and we will). But we keep coming back to the question of whether ‘a return to normal’ is all that’s needed. In these past months we’ve had a rare chance to stop and take stock: to discern what’s truly important, see more clearly which aspects of our lives need to be strengthened, and enriched. For our small family business that has meant gimlet eye focus on the people we work alongside who have helped us every step of the way. How do we protect these people and the things we love most about living and working in Sonoma and Mendocino Counties? 

It was so satisfying to read the Sonoma Magazine article, “How One Healdsburg Restaurant is Mastering Social Dining” by Dana Rebmann because it was further confirmation that the innovative and nuanced system Lukka and his team have put in place - and are constantly improving - is resonating beyond the gardens. We’re not taking any bows mind you, it’s been bloody hard work and it’s far from over. Not everyone gets it. Many people so hate the circumstances we all find ourselves in that their frustrations spill over. But overwhelmingly people are so pleased to be out again, in a safe and beautiful space. And Jordan’s food is remarkable.

The article was written from the diner’s perspective, but there have also been fascinating revelations for us as well as we navigate the most creative ways to deal with ‘safe distance dining’ - I mean what did that even mean, pre-March? The biggest discovery has been that in limiting the physicality of service we did not have to limit the quality of that service. No matter your age or technological inclinations, once you get into the flow of using your phone to text or call the brigade of staff just inside the Barn, all masked and communicating with you and each other over wireless headsets, the experience opens up and you can enjoy the best part of dining out in a roomful of strangers: the possibility of great flavors, the presentation of beautiful food, the excellence of a wine list, the joys of a great bar, ambiance, flowers, music. We are blessed to have large gardens and an incredibly engaging and smart food and wine team, but it’s the technology we all dreaded which has allowed us to continue to deliver anything resembling an authentic experience. The biggest surprise is that it’s come with remarkable affinity and ease. Go figure.

Speaking as a diner there are things I won’t miss if they never come back post Covid: long winded recitations of dishes which a well written menu or a diner’s question could better convey; the frustration of trying to get a busy server’s eye to order more wine or replace a dropped fork, and (unless you really crave attention) the constant interruptions just when a conversation is kicking into high gear for superfluous water service. Perhaps the biggest turn off we are currently able to avoid at Barndiva, because of the immediacy of the conversations we’re having with every guest, is the often awkward pacing of a meal. Guests let us know when they want more of anything, how they want to pace the meal according to how they feel, how much time they want to spend at the table.

This is not to say we don’t miss great front of house service - which, when the stars align, is a thing of beauty. Never obtrusive, there is that ‘queen for a day’ feeling we all crave when a dining experience is elegantly curated.

We have almost as many FOH staff now as before, they are just inside the restaurant, able to respond to guests at once. You can still flit through our 700 bottle wine list - you just need to do it on your phone - before texting or calling to talk directly with our sommelier, the wonderful Evan Hufford. Nish, who with two friends came in with Val on her birthday preferred the brevity of texting because he knew what he wanted and felt comfortable to stipulate a price range. But for every Nish there is the wine lover who expects, and still receives, an in depth conversation about a bottle, a vintage, a grape.

Without a doubt, the 20% service charge that now appears on the menu is the most important change to our service since Covid. It accomplishes long sought but hard to reach goals. We have always wanted to find the resources to provide full health care for every member of the staff. We also wanted to address the disparity of pay between the front of house and all other positions, especially those in the kitchen. We feel and express overwhelming gratitude to First Responders for the frightening work they do in keeping us safe, but as a culture we must do more for them and for people behind the scenes doing less perilous jobs that keep our lives going, often enriching them. Wrongly defined as mundane, this work force is not compensated, respected, or appreciated enough. Even a master at hospitality like Danny Meyer failed to make the reasonable case that a cover charge is a viable way to address things like health care and higher wages. Great restaurants - which we aspire to be - rise or fall on many hands, many shoulders, from somm to dishwasher.

Profound changes are now coming to the entire restaurant industry that will affect all of us, no matter where you live and dine. Fast food has ‘succeeded’ in blowing out every projected measure of exponential growth during this pandemic. Make no mistake, the big boys who sell cheap proteins which denigrate the environment, are cruel to animals, and do not respect labor have grown even stronger, while smaller independent restaurants and farms are struggling, forced to close in unprecedented numbers. The profit margins built in to this industry are not the compelling reason to give your life over to it. I hate when people say trust me, but trust me on this one.

The challenge for us - and you as a diner - is how to find a way forward which allows for both the ease and beauty of fine dining but provides true economic sustainability that takes into consideration the welfare of all of us who work hard here, and the health of the food shed. The support you show in the coming months to small independent restaurants like ours flows out into the communities we all hope to get back to soon, and be a part of rebuilding. Consider following and supporting the national grass roots organization saverestaurants.com.

If kindly intended, no matter how critical, we’d love to hear your thoughts (directly please) after dining with us. Please email owner Lukka Feldman at lukka@barndiva.com. Take care. We hope to see you soon.

#saverestaurants #staytuned #stayhealthy #stayhealdsburg #healdsburgchamber #eattheview #barndiva #togo #healdsburg #thisishealdsburg #sonomacounty #mendocinocounty #sommtablehealdsburg #sonomastrong #ediblemarinwc #lovehealdsburg #biteclubeats @barndivahealdsburg @sonomamag

#food2firefighters

Hard to know what to think. One minute we’re mastering all the complicated bits involved in re-opening for service during a pandemic when all of a sudden 11,000 lightning bolts start raining down from what was just a hot, exceedingly innocent looking clear blue sky day. Even if you don’t let your mind go in the wrath direction, it sure does feel like the state of California got up on the wrong side of the bed a few years in a row.

Before we knew it multiple fires, one just a ridge over to the west of Healdsburg, were raging out of control. There was another out towards the coast and a fast moving blaze in Napa County. It was immediately obvious none could be contained as only scant resources were available anywhere. We became part of the LNU complex, code name Walbridge. All we could expect was that local firefighters could try and hold the line until more help arrived. Much of the terrain in northwest Sonoma County is steep and hilly; firefighters had to first find the line before they could attempt to battle it into submission.

While under threat of evacuation we temporarily closed the Barn to guests Saturday. On Sunday we began cooking for firefighters. Living where we do we never forget the professionalism and courage of these men and women, but it still feels overwhelming to confront our helplessness. We have no way of thanking them personally for protecting our way of life except to do what we know best - to feed them from the foodshed they are defending.

By daybreak Tuesday, Aug. 25, the skies across most of the Bay Area that were unbearably smokey the day before had begun to clear. While the Lightning Complex fires has burned over a million acres in our beloved state, the Meyers fire raging along the coast and the Hennessy fire in Napa County are now contained. In our part of Sonoma resources and more firefighters have arrived from Culver City, Folsom, Beverly Hills, Rancho Santa Fe and as far as Washington State to making the difference. More projected lightning storms have ignited only 13 fires that were easily identified and contained. Our hearts are hurting for all those who suffered loss - and we were heartbroken to hear that the ancient forest in California’s oldest state park, Big Basin Redwoods in Santa Cruz, may be irreparably damaged. While fire burns at the edge of Armstrong Woods, it is not in any real danger at the moment.

While the health of our businesses has been on all our minds in Healdsburg for months now, without a second thought other people’s health, and their losses, once again became paramount. We were not surprised when so many restaurants and markets in town jumped in to help feed first responders. Catastrophes are partisan free zones. It never ceases to amaze what can be accomplished when people from all walks of life work together towards a common goal. We want to thank everyone for reaching out to see if we were safe - messages came from across the globe - and one stood out for asking what many of you who do not live here may be thinking. A friend from far away, no doubt overwhelmed with concern shrieked, “How can you continue to live there?”

Here’s the thing: with Covid-19 ongoing, the economy teetering, the climate in stress, systemic social injustices tearing us apart, I can think of no where else our family would rather be than in this beautiful place surrounded by amazing, talented individuals engaged in life affirming work. Harvest goes on despite the challenges we may face. There is a wonderful, inexorable optimism in farming food and growing grapes when you love a landscape, understand its history, want to protect its structural health. We draw from that every day. Then we cook as if our lives depended on it. Because, in fact, they do.

We will be cooking for firefighters again today, but plan to be open for service on Thursday August 27.

The Barndiva Family wishes to thank our dear friend Alexis Iaconis and her remarkable children Hadley and Lincoln, Barndiva’s Cathryn and the great Bloody Bob, our new wine director Evan Hufford and his talented wife Jade, and the amazing Felix. Thank you as well for wonderful contributions from Single Thread Farms and the Philo Apple Farm of gorgeous produce. Lukka’s ability to connect with the GoFundMe campaign #food2firefighters was enabled by the infectious energy of Skip and The Healdsburg Running Company. Great neighbors. They get it. Give what you can.

On Saturday & Sunday 160 meals went out to So Co Fire

On Monday we were able to deliver 160 meals to Healdsburg FD and Soco fire stationed in Windsor.

#staytuned #stayhealthy #stayhealdsburg #healdsburgchamber #eattheview #barndiva #togo #healdsburg #thisishealdsburg #sonomacounty #mendocinocounty #sommtablehealdsburg #sonomastrong #ediblemarinwc #lovehealdsburg #biteclubeats #healdsburgrunningcompany @barndivahealdsburg @brickandmortarwines @bloodybobs @maisonhealdsburg @singlethreadfarms @philoapplefarm

Food Now

When Jordan Rosas took over our kitchens the country was teetering towards a total lockdown. Then we fell. It’s a hell of a thing for a chef to take the leap and move from a big city like Los Angeles to a small rural community in the best of times, even to a town as food savvy as Healdsburg. To do so at the start of a worldwide pandemic was perhaps a bit mad. He had two kitchens to reorganize, existing staff to train to a more exacting standard, an unfamiliar farming community with dozens of important players to get to know. Oh, and he almost immediately had to pivot to a To-Go menu which neither he, nor Barndiva, had ever offered before. So yes, a bit mad.

Or absolutely brilliant. He landed in a beautiful landscape, a line out of a novel, where the distance he has to travel to meet farmers and artisan purveyors - a huge impetus for his move in the first place - is a few minute’s drive if he doesn’t feel like biking it. He has our full support to challenge himself creatively, which he thrives upon. For Jordan, responsible sourcing and foraging don’t just play out in wonderful flavor combinations or beautiful plating. A true advocate of root to stem cooking he is committed to addressing the least sexy but most sagacious component of farm to table sustainability: honor the soil by making the fullest use of your ingredients. Waste nothing.

Everyday is a roller coaster in our industry right now; literally no one operating in hospitality can project the future, much less next month or week. There is the constant worry about keeping staff healthy, a myriad of new safety protocols that must be rigorously followed. Trying to keep the joy in cooking present in a time of such great global anxiety would be daunting for the most experienced chef, yet somehow this remarkable young man has pulled off this transition with aplomb. It is a testament to his character, as much as his considerable talent.

It helps that we have put in extraordinary safety measures and creative ways to continue to engage with guests, even with our limited contact safe distance dining. But Jordan’s Garden Dining menus are some of the finest dishes we’ve ever served. And he’s just getting started.

We will get better at documenting his process, but here are a few dishes to whet your appetite.

Above is White Bass with heirloom Nye Ranch tomatoes, first of the season Barndiva Farm Gravenstein apples and anise hyssop. The Bass is brined in tomato water served with a sauce of tomato, ginger, lemongrass, fish sauce and kaffir lime. The Gravs are put to good use in an apple purée with brown butter, coriander, and our first generation of apple cider syrup, with a bit of raw apples for texture. A fine dusting of tomato powder and tiny aromatic leaves of anise hyssop finish the dish.

In every menu he conceives, waste is considered with remarkable creativity. Both the tomato water for the brine in this dish as well as the finishing tomato powder (dehydrated tomato skins) were ‘saved’ from the preparation of Pan con Tomaté (below). The anise hyssop is grown by Daniel Carlson at our farm in Philo.

Last week’s blog was all about figs, and here they are fresh and glazed in a Robata grilled pork loin with corn succotash and chanterelles with a pork jus finished with orange zest and lime. Everything on this beautiful plate - with the exception of our figs from Mendocino County - was sourced in Sonoma County.

Above is Hamachi Crudo with green papaya, Easter Egg radish, fermented peach, and fresh garden micro herbs. The Japanese Hamachi is ocean farmed in the southern Kansai region, lightly seasoned with lime zest, Maldon and Piment d’ville Espellete grown in Boonville a few miles from the farm. After thinly slicing the fish is drizzled with Nuoc Cham - a refined version of a classic Vietnamese dipping sauce consisting of fresh lime and orange juice, ginger, lemongrass, sugar, and fish sauce, which the green papaya has been compressed in. The fish is served with fermented Sayre Farm peach purée, Freckle Farms shaved Easter Egg radish, mint from our garden, and bolted cilantro leaves and flowers, which Jordan feels tends to have a more aggressive flavor than regular cilantro. The dish is finished with grilled Serrano Chile oil.

Nye Ranch and Red Bird Bakery and a whole lotta garlic, aged sherry vinegar, and EVOO are the deceptively simple ingredients in this perfect share starter of PAN CON TOMATÉ which captures the incandescent flavors of summer. It relies upon the quality of superb heirloom tomatoes - thank you Nye Ranch - but perfect texture here is key, the result of peeling, grating, then straining the tomatoes to separate the water from the pulp, leaving only the fullness of Mediterranean flavors to saturate the bread.

HOUSEMADE LUMACHE is a celebration of local summer squash, grilled corn, pickled ramps, Padrón peppers, house-made marinara, fresh basil. The squash is carved leaving one plane of outer skin intact which is charred for extra flavor. This is a vegan dish that does not rely on any dairy which would weigh down the pasta. Instead the lumache is finished in the pan with the sauce and a little pasta water, constant stirring to bring out out the natural starch. “Gotta treat each dish like it is going out to mamma,” Jordan says, which, in this case, it was.

@chef.jordan.rosas

#staytuned #stayhealthy #stayhealdsburg #healdsburgchamber #eattheview #barndiva #togo #healdsburg #thisishealdsburg #sonomacounty #mendocinocounty #sommtablehealdsburg #sonomastrong #ediblemarinwc #lovehealdsburg #biteclubeats

Why the Farm....and Figgy Joy

In what is turning out to be the most challenging year of our business life, three things are getting us through the days. Knowing everyone on staff is healthy is paramount. Cooking the best food of our lives, sourced as fully as possible from the surrounding ‘view’ restores a sense of mission. And playing with the concept of virtual service keeps us brainstorming creatively, making us stronger as a team. Each dish, cocktail, and wine choice is now channeled through a disembodied voice. For now, the physical anonymity of text or a telephone conversation with no actual contact at the table is overwhelmingly welcome by the majority of our guests, safer for our staff. But everyday we’re juggling with this new paradigm, learning new ways to work within it to tell an honest story about what you are looking at on the plate or in your glass. Brave New World indeed. Then again, being forced to question ourselves - what is flavor anyway? - isn’t necessarily a bad thing. We’ve always wanted to communicate the joy in provenance, and always, always, how things are made. If we can’t do that in person for a while, so be it.

But when it all gets a bit much (and it does) we fall back to our main source of élan vital - the farm.

Henri Bergson coined the term élan vital in 1907 in his book Creative Evolution. For him it referred to a life force, one responsible for growth, change, and the ability to recognize necessary or desirable adaptations. All admirable if not crucial attributes right now. The farm has always been this kind of élan vital for our family, in great part because its indelible beauty and its fecundity thrives in adversity, is in fact inseparable from it. Our dry farmed orchards struggle, yet produce better tasting fruit, with more condensed sugar. The energy is palpable up here, constantly buzzing and leaping just out of sight, with everything dying then regenerating through innumerable ecosystems of insects, animals, plants and seeds. It’s all about balance. And a constant lesson to strive if you are to survive.

There is simply no more elegant fruit here than what we harvest from our 100 year old fig trees. Figs are in the Mulberry family, one of the earliest fruit trees in history to be cultivated. In legend it was a fig that grew outside the Lupercal cave where Romulus and Remus drifted ashore and were suckled by a she-wolf that kept them - and the very notion of a Rome - alive. The fig tree was thought then to be an emblem of the future prosperity of the race - and while that didn’t work out so well for the Roman Empire, it’s interesting to note what eventually brought them down: climate upheaval which affected crops, a series of pandemics brought about in great part because of the way they lived, and massive inequality that went hand in hand with political corruption. How many times do we need to hear the phrase ‘those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it?’

In the meantime, old fig trees drape their branches to the ground, deeply lobed leaves hiding swelling fruit from predators. Most years the blue jays are a nuisance, but this season sleek western Tanagers have appeared in droves. They have taken to dive bombing the figs at twilight, yellow and green flashes of light that zig and zag, mad jazz, quite beautiful. Give me a dozen Tanagers, some really old fig trees, throw in a martini or two and we’re good to go tomorrow.

Big shout out to Jordan and Francisco - great farm partners this month. We now have jam, Aunty Lynn compote, figgy syrup cakes. If you have booked to dine soon in the gardens look for Barndiva Farm figs on several new dishes.

 Stay healthy.

Thank you @daniel.james.co for looking after and loving the farm as you do. And for posing (which I know you hate/love) for all our action shots, lol.

Next up on farm report: The Ongoing Apple Syrup Project. Don’t miss it.

@chef.jordan.rosas

#staytuned #stayhealthy #stayhealdsburg #healdsburgchamber #eattheview #barndiva #togo #healdsburg #thisishealdsburg #sonomacounty #mendocinocounty #sommtablehealdsburg #sonomastrong #ediblemarinwc #lovehealdsburg #biteclubeats

File under sad and beautiful

When we set out to build Barndiva 16 years ago more than one ‘advisor’ told us we were crazy not to build on over 200% of our commercial plot in the middle of town, which was allowed, if not encouraged. “The gardens are too big!” was the constant refrain. We did not listen and have never looked back. Sure, we’ve taken flack from guests over the years when upon entering and seeing a half empty restaurant inside did not believe we couldn’t seat them because we were fully committed for the afternoon or evening. The gardens are huge. Our kitchens not so much. But building spaces relative to the relationships you want to have in them is paramount for us, cue the vastly different (equally esoteric) DNA of Barndiva, Studio Barndiva, and especially the gardens. We don’t kid ourselves, what looks in retrospect like having the courage of your convictions was at the time more foolhardy than not. Build what you love. Serve what you would want to eat and drink. Treat people well. That we were also able to save two huge and ailing heritage black walnut trees our neighbors wanted us to cut down was a bonus.

We’re very happy we can now open the gardens to diners, especially as we are serving some of the best cooking we’ve ever seen come out of our kitchen, thanks to Jordan Rosas. But the goalposts for everyone in our industry have changed, possibly forever. The pandemic exposed to the world what we already knew - how fragile the restaurant ecosystem has been for far too long, especially if attempting farm to table as we are. If there is opportunity here to tackle better wage equity, offer full healthcare, and throw the net even wider over a locally driven economy, we’re there. But it’s also important for diners to embrace the change as well. This is a tango, friends. “There needs to be a new understanding between diners and the restaurants about the real cost of dining out,” Andrew Zimmern is quoted in “What Will Happen to Restaurants Now,” an article by Matt Goulding in this month’s Atlantic . “From that stems everything.”

Goulding’s article, like most of the dire predictions coming at us right now, is sobering. But even in calling what’s happening in our industry “An Extinction Event“ he leaves the door open for what might emerge for restaurants and diners if we get the steps of this dance right. “The restaurants we love most are never just restaurants. They are mirrors, reflecting the interests and imperfections of the society they feed. They are libraries, repositories of tastes and stories and ideas that catalog our culture. They are power strips, where civilization goes to plug in.”

Not a good year for cherries on the ridge - most of our Bing varieties did not produce at all. Happens. Happily, one large heirloom Queen Ann went bonkers and while the kitchens swiftly ran through what we sent down to Healdsburg, thanks to Front Porch Farm we are able to showcase three stellar dishes made with local cherries.

Jordan’s food, as many are finding out, is remarkable not least for its versatility. Below are two Liberty duck dishes that embrace the janus sides of his talent. He easily knocks out big comforting plates of food but it’s clear as we move more fully into his dinner menus that his passion is creating dishes which pull flavors from surprising combinations, delivering a swirl of intriguing flavors which can leave you saited but still curious. This is the food he moved to Healdsburg to cook. We can’t wait for you to try it -if you haven’t already.

Tale of Two Ducks:
On the left: Liberty duck breast glazed with honey, pink peppercorn, lavender. In this dish thinly sliced raw cherries are served with red Russian kale cooked in duck fat and a sauce made from the bones of the duck, infused with coriander, cherry essence and banyuls vinegar.

On the right: Liberty duck with poached cherries, red Russian kale, forest nameko, radish. Every ingredient on the plate was sourced in Sonoma County. A huge shout out to Liberty Duck, Jim and the lovely Jennifer whose pro-active voice on social media has kept our spirits buoyed through this difficult time.

our cherries ended up in the sprouts

To everyone’s delight…with Journeyman bacon in brown butter and parsley sauce. This side dish is on both lunch and dinner menus.

Big, proud shout out to our amazing staff in both Healdsburg and Philo - many learning to cover new positions right now, working with so many new layers of social distancing but doing so with dedication, diligence, and great care.

Before we leave you…We have been so grateful for all the support and feedback we’ve received on social media the past weeks…. We don’t usually do this, but here are a few reviews that made us smile.

2 (little) thumbs up from Barndiva on Vimeo.

@chef.jordan.rosas, @duckdaughterjj, @journeymanmeatco, @libertyduckman, @chefaz, @theatlantic, @mdgoulding @vinoforbreakfast

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

Cocktails in the time of Corona

For all the distinct memories we will carry with us when we look back upon this time, I suspect great swathes of it will come to seem like a dream. If anyone had told us six months ago that a global pandemic would lead the majority of people around the world to willingly put their lives on hold, then, in the wake of a single act of violence reflective of centuries of racial injustice hundreds of thousands across the country and the world would march to demand real systemic change, it would have been unfathomable. Yet here we are. Even as we continue to be swept up in the convergence of fears around Covid-19, there is suddenly an opportunity to work through societal vulnerabilities that affect us all, whatever our race or ethnicity. Giving voice to anger is understandable, but no means to an end. The Black Lives Matter movement is tugging at the edge of our collective soul. Even for those of us who do not live in ethnically diverse communities, hard questions must be asked and answered about what led us to this moment in history, and what role we can all play to provoke and support real change.

In the midst of all this incredible upheaval, Covid-19 is still very much with us. In navigating our direction as we re-open for dining here in Healdsburg, a great deal of our focus has been on how Barndiva’s version of bespoke hospitality can best serve the present moment. Food is obviously essential, but dining out is not, it’s a luxury and a privilege. We want to honor that while strengthening support for our food shed and all who work within it, specifically our purveyors and our workforce here in Healdsburg who make everything we do possible. If we can give you a great time while doing that, cooking food we are passionate about, surmounting the challenges of the past few months will have led us to better place.

We don’t need to look too closely at Barndiva’s To Go Cocktails sales to know that ‘Cocktail Hour’ has taken on new significance during the quarantine, these days it qualifies as a self care ritual. If you Zoom it can offer brief respite from isolation, a chance to catch up with friends. When dining out cocktails are often the opening act, a chance to shift gears. In addition to the classics and Barndiva favorites we’re now shaking up a series of cocktails we hope you will find both delicious and suggestive: an invitation to sit back, take in the gardens, relax and enjoy. Our days may still be long and challenging, but your time with us doesn’t have to be.

Lift, Flirt, and Slide reflect a thoughtful, curative message, embracing the fact that all cocktails are mood enhancers - therein lies their charms. We’ve been making them for years now, one or more is usually on the bar menu. Lift appeals to anyone just looking for a cocktail to hit the spot and bring the moment into high relief, energizing it. Flirts are a bit more expansive as they seek connection, to the room, the music, the people around them. Slides cater to the (increasingly) frequent desire for a comfort driven few hours - a cocktail, a great bottle of wine, a wonderful meal - before gliding home and to bed.

The series showcases seasonal fruits and fresh herbs and garnishes grown here in our gardens. They are complimented with a dash of a specific elixir made from the roots, rhizome or flowers of organically grown herbs. Herbal remedies have been used for centuries to boost the immune system and bolster recovery from a variety of ailments, both physical and psychological. The Egyptians, West Indians, and the Chinese used them in the 1st and 2nd centuries before they made their way to Europe in the 18th century and the German Dr. Samuel Hahnemann gave them the name and nomenclature we use today as being ‘homeopathic.’

While we always take great care in our choice of spirits - St. George gins are made in the North Bay, Young and Yonder right here in Healdsburg - Lift, Flirt and Slides are built in such a way that they are delicious with or without alcohol.

Barndiva’s bar team, like all members of our staff, are currently working masked and gloved, but I didn’t have the heart to publish this blog without giving you an unmasked glimpse of the three talented women who created these cocktails and will command the bar this summer. Here’s a brief description of what they are shaking up this June.

Terra’s LIFT : two St George gins, Botanivore for its floral notes, and Terroir, intriguingly forest forward. They are complimented by a house made strawberry shrub, Pamplemousse Rosé, and black pepper syrup, St John’s Wort. The flowers of St John’s Wort contain antioxidants - Rutin, Quercetin, and Lutein. A roadside wildflower from Europe that dates back to ancient Greece, it’s commonly used to combat ‘the blues’ and lift the spirit. It’s also thought to ease tiredness and nervousness.

Hayden’s FLIRT : lightly infused rosemary tequila, garnished with fresh rosemary tips from our farm. It has fresh watermelon juice, fresh lime, an intriguing hibiscus Tajin syrup, a hit of peach bitters, Rhodiola. Documented use of the fragrant Rhodiola Rosea Root, also known as Roseroot, to enhance mental and physical endurance dates back to 1725.

Isabel’s SLIDE : Young and Yonder vodka, raspberry syrup, Navarro Verjus, Lillet Rose, Caperitif, fresh mint and Valerian. Native to Europe but cultivated in the US since the early 19th century, numerous human clinical trials conducted on the use of the Valerian rhizome have shown positive results to support a restful night’s sleep.

Adaptogens are natural substances that help your body deal with stress and promote mental balance - they need to be grown, harvested and made into tinctures or pastilles with great care. St John’s Wort tinctures use the flower of the plant while use of Valerian relies upon the rhizome, or root of the plant. Many adaptogens - mint, ginger, tumeric - are likely part of your grocery list. Dan grows both at the farm (see above) but the small amounts of the adaptogens used in these cocktails were sourced from HerbPharm and Nature’s Best. Gaia Farm, located in the Blue Ridge mountains and a Certified B Corporation has been around since 1987 and has a beautifully informative website and blog about a range of herbal remedies and their suggested usses. They grow organically and sell online. https://www.gaiaherbs.com/pages/herb-reference-guide.