Susan Preston book Launch at Barndiva Healdsburg: Take a Bow

The gift of perspective with age

We don’t talk enough about the upsides of old age, which is a great shame. While we go on and on about getting as much as we can from every minute of our lives, devote books and podcasts and practices on how to ‘hold the moment,’ when it comes to aging, too often fear replaces reverence for the lives we can still live as we age. The truth is that all of life, not just youth and middle age, is a blink and you miss it experience. And unlike those other phases of our time on this planet, getting old brings with it the potential of illuminating perspectives, especially if you have been paying attention. Another huge plus- there is a palpable relief in allowing yourself to finally let go of the insatiable need to fill your life with things, and diversions, all that ‘stuff’ you come to realize with age - thanks again to that hard won perspective - do not in themselves bring resonant joy or happiness.

The obsession to deny our aging minds and bodies their agency ignores the fact that our mental and physical health can be fragile at any stage of life- none of us really knows what’s coming. Resilience is the skill set we should be focused on, not clinging onto being young, which is monetized non-stop starting from an age when we are in fact still biologically young! Learning to accept the inevitability of age with intelligence, with grace, is what could be driving more of us to live meaningful lives… before and certainly after we get there.

Towards the end of our lives there is great relief to be found in sitting back on your heels, and basking in the glow of your life’s accomplishments.

It helps, of course, to have accomplishments you can be proud of - even better if they are acknowledged by the tribe.

Gathering Healdsburg’s Artists, Farmers & Makers

On Sunday Sept 14, a very special tribe gathered in Barndiva to celebrate the publication of “In Ghost Time, The Art and Stories of Susan Preston, her remarkable compendium filled with joy and mischievous humor that could only have come out of a long and glorious life, lived with intent. Much has been written about Lou and Susan Preston over the years, their farming life in Dry Creek Valley where they raised glorious vegetables, fruits, nuts, animals, made olive oil, bread, organic wines, all while supporting the growth of a Sonoma County regenerative food shed. Less known is that for all those years, quite a bit before, and while raising a family, Susan Preston never stopped writing and painting, accumulating a remarkable body of work that is now gathered between the pages of this new book. ‘In Ghost Time’ is a record of a life lived fully, infused with kindness, wit, few regrets, no apologies. It is also a heroic endeavor, as the making of the book was the lifeline she used to pull herself out of a very difficult couple of years when her health, indeed her life, was precarious. That she has come out the other side with this magnificent accomplishment was cause for celebration.

Celebrate she did, with her family and a very special community —a veritable who’s who of artists, farmers, and visionaries who have helped make Healdsburg the celebrated destination it is today. Legacy leaders mingled with those still shaping the town’s creative spirit: Bonnie Z of Dragonfly Farm and Floral; Carrie Brown, founder of Jimtown; Cindy Daniels and Doug Lipton, founders of the acclaimed gathering place The Shed; Yael Bernier of Bernier Farms; Dawnelise Rosen, formerly of Scopa and Campo Fina and now executive director of FARMpreneurs; Manok Cohen of Gallery 205; Carol Vena-Monte of the 428 Collective; Laura Parker of Laura Parker Studio, (who exhibited at Barndiva’s opening alongside Susan); Jessica Martin of Jessica Martin Art and the 428 Collective; Barbara von Wollner of BVW Art; Colleen McGlynn and Ridgley Evers of DaVero Farms & Winery; Marci Ellison of Art Farm; Ray Dagischer of Country Industrial; Suzanne & Chris Blum (Blum Box Art); Christina Hobbs of the 428 Collective; Kirsten Petrie of Yarn Paper Print Studio; Marcia Brauer of Preston Family Farm; and of course Francesca Preston, poet, and Maggie Preston of Maggie Preston Studio, Susan’s beloved daughters.

Susan floated through her opening on Sunday with self assured grace, signing books until it was time for a mesmerizing reading to the group assembled beneath the Mulberry Trees in our garden. On this sunny, perfect summer afternoon, in the heart of a splendid community we all helped foster, there was profound admiration for this singular woman. For her art, her honesty, and her resilient spirit.

Working on this book with Susan for the past two years I’ve taken away a great many lessons- not least that old age can be a season of abundance. Would that we all lived lives as fully as she has, with purpose and rootedness. To have an abiding passion for something so fully that when we look back we feel the quiet satisfaction of having become who we were meant to be.

Buy the book! You can find it on Susan’s page @PrestonFarmandWinery.com.

racing the bears

It’s that time of year when it’s a race to get all our ripening fruit off the trees before our ursine ‘neighbors’ pull down the perimeter fencing like lowering a window shade and have at it. We have no complaint. Sharing fruit with the bears, the birds, all the smaller furry four legged animals that still thankfully roam the forests surrounding the farm is an act of kinship. Your care for the land can also be the land caring for you. It would be nice if they only ate what was on the plate (ground) instead of pulling whole branches down from our very very old trees, but you know, bears? Not gonna happen.

Family lore has it that once enough apples fall and begin to ‘marinate’ in their own luxurious juices, the bears become intoxicated from the heady fumes and begin to cast about like drunken sailors. Do all nighters in the orchards, dancing to a mysterious playlist. One of our most infamous cocktails ‘why bears do it,’ speaks to this love affair with the apple. This is a Heads-up time in the orchards as bears don’t mind their manners, sober or tipsy, and what they eat goes right through them - its wise to watch where you walk.

Why Bears Do It and a new cocktail garnished with our Pink Lady and Macintosh will be on the menu this week; Connel Reds in late summer salads; Bartlett pears, in deserts. We plan to keep a basket at the door of different varietals as we pick them so guests can take some home as they leave.

Apple farms are an increasingly rare thing in Northern California - the reasons why, which we’ve written about before - make for a longer and frankly depressing post - suffice to say what we have up here on Greenwood Ridge is a museum of antique flavors that have all but disappeared. But oh, the variety of fruit being grown in old orchards like ours is subtle and astounding. Each tree, depending on its slant on the hillside, has a distinct flavor profile. These varietals all had a place in family recipes once upon a time, and the families who tended these orchards would be jamming and canning all summer, when putting up food for winter was necessary to sustain them. The world of three or four varities you see all year at the super market that has been dulled by months of refrigeration speak to a dumbed down world of apple flavors and textures. It’s a dumbed down world in general. There is no fighting the lost cause of disappearing varieties across the fruit and vegetable world. We knew this decades ago. Yet still we care for the orchards, prune them in spring, thin and prop in summer. If we can get enough hands on deck we will juice at The Philo Apple Farm on ‘community day,’ a break from their non-stop harvest as one of the remaining full production organic apple farms around.

Organic apples that have been dry farmed like ours are rare however. They have sun-blasted concentrated juices - not perfect looking by any means, not pumped up (flavors watered down) from irrigation. They have thicker skins, the better to protect the flesh, and you will sometimes find critter litter near the core. All 24+/- of our heritage trees, many grafted to very old wood by master orchardist Vidal Esponosa, have flavors that speak to the weather up here on the ridge; a medley of textures and aromas, faint but redolent. Close your eyes and you get a hint of eau du ridge- top note of carmelized fruitsugar, middle notes of early morning fog from the Pacific filtered through the redwoods, base note of umami mountain funk.

Summer is almost gone, shouts from the pond have faded, our back aches linger longer in the mornings. But it is worth it all to wake and see autumnal fog blanketing the trees, breath in the perfume of all these apples. To savor the completeness that satisfies the dreamer long after she’s forgotten the dream.

The California Grizzly that features as our state symbol has been extinct since the 1920’s, extirpated due to habitat loss and overhunting. But bears play a continuing role as ‘ecosystem engineers’ up here - their nutrient ‘recycling’ programs contribute all across our orchards, as well as a thing to behold, I mean these guys eat and defecate all night long people. But their size, which can be quite large, belies a shy and non-aggressive nature.

The wild California Black Bears - though they come in many shades of brown - that roam these mountains are gentle souls. In the over four decades we have been here we’ve yet to run into one face to face. These images, courtesy of our thoughtful neighbor Dennis, whose family was one of the earliest settlers to Anderson Valley, looked out his kitchen window earlier this week and came face to face with one of the midnight marauders in his orchard. They had a brief staring contest. Then the bear took off before Dennis could say boo.

Mid-Summer delights

Mid-August and while we are well aware the living ain’t always easy for much of the world, truth be told our cocktails, salads, cold soups and fruity desserts are exploding with summer’s juices and gorgeous life affirming color in our little corner of the world. Dining in the gardens is always wonderful to see - especially for families with children and couples with dogs.

Early in the evening more than half our guests still opt for Studio dining - cool tunes, air con, flooded with farm florals - but as the sun drops the best place in Barndivaland for a drink and a shared snack is on one of of the couches in the garden next to the edible flower beds we grow for the bar program, for scent, and guest delight.

We are a casual fine dining restaurant with the emphasis on fine dining. This means we truly prefer guests reserve for dinner so we come to every service on point. We welcome walk-ins for dinner - you just risk a wait without a reservation. The bar fills up nightly - and have also designated two Jordy Morgan sculptural hi-tops for drinkers. Even when the dining room is rocking we can manage shared plates - Our house made white bean hummus with garden crudites and a fresh green herby citrus oil, mounds of onion baji crunchy with salt and served with a coriander and mint chutney, and our notorious goat cheese croquettes- a barndiva favorite since the day we opened can always be ordered alongside a cocktail or a glass of wine.

The whole point of our move back to the Studio was to be able to accommodate this style of dining, inside and out; being able to offer dinner parties to larger groups; playing our B&W silent films on the barn wall, sharing our playlists, lighting the candles. Celebrating every season in our inimitable style and- for you as well as for us - just having a bit of fun enjoying a night out in Healdsburg.

By the time you read this the farm figs served the past few weeks on the heirloom tomato salad will be gone -they are fragile, and their season short. But tomatoes this year? Not to be believed. And Erik’s and David’s whipped mozzarella salad with fresh basil and crunchy croutons is the perfect carrier for all that summer tomato goodness. Barndiva farm fruits up next: comice and asian pears.

Brief too will be the fresh corn season and we celebrate it with a wonderful Erik Anderson chilled golden corn soup. The bowl arrives with a dollop of glorious Jimmy Nardello pepper jam made with a hint of sherry vinegar. The soup is poured table-side, and you just give it a stir -the better to re-discover the piquant ‘jam’ with every velvety spoonful. This is a dish that truly resonates with the season. It is topped with a tangle of crisped corn silk and a few petals of sweet garden thyme.

As for sweet endings: we’ve known Simon Mendoza since he was a boy. His father, Abel is one of Barndiva’s most valued chefs who has been with us for many years. Abel (and for a time his talented wife) have navigated every stage of our journey, while the kid, it turns out, was watching and if not taking notes, taking note of the parts that intrigued him. Turns out he has the talent and the chops for pastry. Simon is now turning out some of the best sorbets and ice creams in town - which I know is saying a lot. He’s baking as well: we were dreaming of a galette this summer and Voila, Simon has delivered. It’s a peach galette for now, soon to shift into pears and apples as they ripen here at the farm. His sorbets this week: raspberry, mandarin, mango. Ice Cream flavors will come and go with the season, except for vanilla which is sublime. Leave room for desert and celebrate young talent! Eat the view!

A Barndiva Wedding where East Coast elegance meets Wine Country ease

When the venue whispers the dress code

The art of showing up to a beautiful wedding and enhancing the celebration with your presence can be one of life’s joys, though more often than not it’s also a challenge. And while we don’t actually know if a subtle dress code was ever suggested for Kate and Pearson’s glorious wedding in the Barndiva Gardens on June 7th, what was abundantly clear from the moment guests began to gather was a shared and ebullient understanding of them as a couple.

Women arrived in luxurious, flowing dresses, many with halter tops and peek-a-boo slits, bare shoulders catching the light as it filtered through the arched green canopies; gentlemen proffered a relaxed elegance of sockless loafers and open collars, a few carefully chosen ties, softly structured linen suits in shades of soft blues, grays, cream. Classically demure yet artfully seductive, the brides wedding dress perfectly informed the day’s aesthetic with its flowing semi-sheer, beautifully sewn panel’s of silk moiré that revealed a slimmer outline in shadows of the satin sheath below.

For us Kate and Pearson’s wedding was the perfect expression of what happens when couples with great taste allow their surroundings to inspire their wedding day. Zack Schomp’s wonderful photographs don’t just capture a tableau of stunning attire but a glorious summer day alive with beautiful jewel tones, extraordinary light, visible joy.

Kate & Pearson sealing the moment with a kiss in the Barndiva Gardens, their parents in the front row.

Every corner of Barndiva offers a romantic backdrop, every detail is curated to honor both the heritage of wine country and the beauty of Sonoma County. What we’ve discovered in our two decades hosting Healdsburg’s most memorable weddings is that when the wedding couple chooses colors and a textural palette that invites the guests to participate, those that ‘bring it’ for love of the couple they’ve come to honor don’t just attend a wedding here - they become an integral part of the beauty and art of celebration.

The depth of detail Kate planned for her wedding reflected the inherent beauty of place and space - perfectly captured in the florals she choose for her bridal bouquet and the manner in which Clementina Florals dressed the antique gates, our ‘alter’ by the wild grass verge. The table arrangements in the Studio Barndiva Gardens spilled over with native and natural flowers and grasses, including scabiosa, love in a mist, delphinium, bachelors buttons, wild mustard, fennel, and ammi (aka Queen’s Anns lace). With just a touch of yellow, all florals extended the cream and pale blues of the color pallet, drawing with elegance and ease from the surrounding landscape.

Barndiva Event Director Susan Bischoff worked closely with the excellent wedding planners from Kismet Events. Susan@barndiva.com

A quiet moment in The Hotel Healdsburg, where the wedding party stayed and prepared for the day ahead. One of the joys of a wedding at Barndiva is the promenade through the Plaza to the ceremony Gardens. We are so grateful the larger community of Healdsburg embraces family celebrations.

Barndiva + Near Future

Barndiva Gardens, Sunday August 11, 2024

Ah the youth of it all: four gorgeous Ask Me What I’m Wearing models, above, rocking it in great thrifting outfits. We also saw original crocheted creations, lots of classic tees and pretty summer frocks, Stella McCartney, and head to toe prima alpaca from a cradle to cradle company a stone’s throw from where we all gathered on Sunday. When we asked everyone to ‘dress in your happy’ for our third Conversations Worth Having, The Future of Fashion, we had no idea what to expect. How delightful that style and comfort merged into an elegant insouciance -  If a chorus of 'I feel pretty" had spontaneously started up in the gardens, no one would have been surprised.

Clothing is performative on so many levels, but for anyone who remembers early childhood dress-up it can be a simple reflection of joy, and that's what most of us felt on Sunday. Clothes are our second skin, after all. The interest in this event would seem to indicate that many of us are curious how to continue to feel at home in that skin, without doing harm to the planet through our clothing choices.

Conversations Worth Having is the brain child of four friends who have deep ties to this community: Jil Hales, Dawnelise Rosen, Susan Preston and Amber McInnis. It is a labor of love for the four of us, and it is with love we would like to thank Near Future Summit’s brilliant Zem Joaquin for choosing and moderating our panel of game changing speakers. We’d also like to thank three artists who generously shared their talents and time: Maya Eshom, who brought her fascinating Textiles on Fire to the garden; Naomi Mcleod, who carved the large rubber stamp for our ‘Animal, Vegetable, Oil’ game, (without which our clothesline would have looked like a slightly psychotic garage sale), and Manok Cohen, who ‘dressed’ our mannequin in antique handkerchiefs (remember those?). And thank you to prima alpaca designer Sandra Jordan for bringing multiple samples from her showroom on Eastside Road to give away. Jennifer & Jeanne Marie - cheers for donating an entire case of your Rue de Réve Rose Apéritif for our cocktail.

And most of all, Thank You, gorgeously turned out community! So many beautiful mothers and daughters! Not all our ‘green room’ images made it into this blog but please contact us if you posed for Chad - we will send you photographs!

Barndiva weddings are the norm in the gardens this time of year; we have built our business around and love hosting celebrations of all kinds. But gatherings like Conversation Worth Having strengthen our mojo in a most crucial way because they build community. Future of Fashion has been quite a journey, so it was especially gratifying to see that all the time and research we spent wrapping our heads around how best to engage with that community played out so beautifully on Sunday. There is a nominal ticket price for CWH, but no one is ever turned away.

Above: Zem Joaquin with Marci Zaroff of EcoFashion Corp; Lewis Perkins of The Apparel Impact Institute; Garrett Gerson of Varient3D, and Liam Berryman of Nelumbo. 

Lewis Perkins, above right, is the president and CEO of the Apparel Impact Institute whose mission is to verify, fund and scale new fashion programs that can help decrease carbon emissions.

Marci Zaroff, above left, has been a leader in supporting regenerative farming practices in the production of clothing with a lazer focus on understanding the impacts of chemically grown cotton. Though less than 3% of the world’s agriculture is cotton, over 20% of the world’s harmful carcinogenic chemicals are used by the cotton industry producting them. Her numerous organic, toxic-free fabric and clothing companies produce beautiful, durable, zero waste fashion. Above, she is previewing a Tee Shirt she developed in creative partnership with Billie Ellish for Target. Next up for Marci is seeking funding to turn pineapple waste from Costa Rico into fabric.

Garrett Gerson, center, is founder of LOOP, a flat bed knitting softwear-driven production system that is hyper-local, zero-waste, and customizable, making it a financially viable option for new designer start-ups. Among his many projects with LOOP are 100% post waste trainers which I can attest - as I was wearing a pair - are beyond comfortable. Next up for Garrett is exploring how to use LOOP fabrics on furniture, with the hope of bringing zero waste furniture production currently off-shored back to the US.

Liam Berryman, above right, is Founder of Nelumbo, a locally based start up that relies on a platform technology that applies morphology, shape, and structure to surfaces. Nelumbo’s use of materials science - Metamaterials - uses only ‘clean ingredients’ to design ‘coatings’ for a variety of different materials - metals, textiles, fabrics. This micro nano texture surface acts as water or oil repellency, has anti microbial properties, and contains NO PFAS or ‘forever chemicals, which shed into the environment and onto anyone wearing clothing that has been sprayed with them.

The range of ideas and projects our panel shared were by turns mystifying, exciting, technologically complex. In thanking Marci, Lewis, Garrett and Liam on linkedin and IG for making the journey to Healdsburg, Zem wrote: “While there is still clearly never-ending work to be done in materials, textiles, and the manufacturing industries, the four bad asses from last night’s illuminating discussion give us hope.”

Continue the conversation by following them: @nearfuturesummit; @ecofashion.corp; @varient3D; @nelumbo.us; @apparelimpactinstitute. We also highly recommend @ellenmacarthurfoundation.

CWH is about engaging with information in ways that make them memorable and hopefully habit changing. We presented two interactive installations for Future of Fashion that focused on touch and smell for their impact. The Animal, Vegetable, Oil game was about testing one’s fabric knowledge through touch. We know from having emptied out the furtherest reaches of our closets for this ‘game’ that all our wardrobes hit the oil bleeper more often than we had thought possible. Which means if we can’t pass those items on someday they are destined to end up in landfill or incinerated, contributing to all our Co2 nightmares. This game was to address how obtuse labels can be, as well as misleading. Even if accurate, the fabric content label will say nothing about the labor used to make an item of clothing or the use of resources - think water - needed in its fabrication. And don’t get us started on synthetic color, or PFAS’s sprayed on to finish any item that needs to combat weather or water.

Our other interactive experience by local artist Maya Eshom was called “textiles on fire.” What a gift this woman is to this community! Maya is fabric obsessed - but the object of her interest is not making or wearing clothing but setting it on fire, one small piece of it at a time. In learning how different materials smell when they are incinerated, we were curious if it might affect the way we think about what we put on our bodies so close to our skin. We know….we don’t shop with our noses any more than we make clothing decisions based solely on touch but both installations brought physical sensation and memory into play. What do you base your clothing purchase decisions upon?

Above, left: On the bar with Buck a mannequin ‘Dressed’ by local artist Manok Cohen in handkerchiefs from the 40’s, 50’s, 60’s found shortly after the death of a beloved aunt years ago, neatly folded into a small satin covered box ready to be lifted out one by one and carried with her into the world. Handkerchiefs have a long cultural history of use by men and women. Knights tied their lady’s handkerchief on their helmets before jousting or going into battle, ladies used them to assess romantic intent, for hundreds of years they served humankind mopping up sweat, staunching blood, absorbing tears. Whether elegantly embroidered or simply made they were a useful, reusable part of everyday life. Within one decade they were gone.

The mannequin and the feather and fedora hat display on the bar made the same nostalgic point: styles change, as they should, but our currant race to the bottom in producing clothing and fashion accessories cheaply, with no thought to how their production may affect the health of the planet, doesn’t reflect craft, durability, or personal style the way it once did.

Above, right : the Susan Preston painting ‘Woman as Verb,’ graced the wild grasses behind the panel.

Dawnelise Rosen, Jil Hales, Amber Mcinnis, and Susan Preston thanking the panel, contributing artists, and last but never least, the community who came our for CWH3.

All Images in this Eat the View, Chad Surmick

Best White Wine Party Ever!

Barndiva’s Event Director Susan Bischoff at Sunday’s Féte Blanc

We promised the most exciting white wines of the season and we delivered. We promised an elegant Féte and thanks to our guests in their sparkling whites and the sumptuous shades of high summer florals we delivered there as well. The music, the food, all a delight, but with respect, last Sunday’s Féte du vin blanc delivered something much more important: a perfect if brief respite from the heat and drama this summer has already delivered, and it was clear everyone there knew it. The world and its many problems would wait a few hours: rediscovering what we love about our wine shed and why we love to drink together as a community delivered what we needed most and it was the energy and good will of everyone who attended who brought it home.

Thank you to everyone who participated pouring or sipping away the afternoon, for your savor faire, your care in balancing fun with serious contemplation of what was in the glass, and your support of Corazón Healdsburg. We had a blast.

This coming Sunday we turn our attention to another special event, our 3rd Conversation Worth Having, The Future of Fashion. Tackling difficult subjects with compassion is what Barndiva life is all about for us, making them beautiful, delicious, and sustainable. We promised to ‘mix it up’ in this, our 20th year in Healdsburg, and we intend to deliver.

Barndiva Wine director Emily Carlson with the tasting crew of Sutro Wines

Wine Director Emily Carlson’s brilliant line up for Barndiva’s Féte du vin Blanc 2024: RAEN Pax Sutro Idlewild Copain Daniel Hirsch LaRue Monroy Littorai Brick&Mortar Bon Vivant Breathless Moshin Carpenter Comstock Dot Wines Maggy Hawke Handley Gros Ventre Radio Coteau Marine Layer Merry Edwards Desire Lines Quivira Overshine Reed Holland Roederer Estate Sharffenberger T. Berkeley Three Sticks Trail Marker Wines …. Raffle Benefitting Corazón Healdsburg!

We all need more moments to show affection to one another but time and place, boy do they affect our ability to live in the moment. The time and attention to detail to pull off our annaul collaborative wine events in-house, as our dedicated staff continues to turn out an extraordinary dinner services Thurs-Mon along with hosting a variety of spectacular private events is no mean task. We wish to thank Chef David Morales and his team for the delicious food at Féte blanc, DJ Collin Peacock for the cool sounds, and last but not least, Misha Vega, Barndiva farm director and the owner of her own nursery and flower design company @philo.floral.flowers. Along with Emily, Cathryn, Charles, Scott, JASON and his staff, this was a dream team.

All photographs in this blog: Chad Surmick.

Fete Blanc 2023

Barndiva wine director Emily Carlson with the wonderful Féte Blanc 2023 entourage, along with the dedicated ladies from Sonoma Family Meal who directed the raffle - six cases of all the wines poured, donated by every winery attending.

Each of Barndiva’s three collaborative wine events have a different personality. Pink Party always brings a ‘Summer is Here’ festive madness to it and trends younger, while Féte Rouge is the most community centric, with a focus on harvest and the upcoming holidays. Féte Blanc is a stand out because it hits all the notes winemakers look for in a wine tasting event. Sure, Féte Blanc guests love dressing up and socializing, you could feel it in the air on Sunday. But these are serious wine lovers. When they put their heads down and inhale, then taste something special, you can just tell the winery has made a lasting connection if not a future wine club friend. It was a great crowd that left very very happy, as you can tell from these images shot by the incomparable Chad Surmick.

We wish to thank Chef Mike Degan and his crew for the divine pizza’s, Barndiva Event Manager Natalie Nelson and her incredible staff, and our Chef Erik Anderson for the platters of deviled eggs with trout roe, charcoal grilled duck skewers, salmon tartar with egg yolk jam, and very special Barndiva farm fig tartlets- summery hors d’oeuvres from our currant event menus - along with our infamous goat balls with lavender honey.

For all who joined us, especially those who participated in the raffle benefiting Sonoma Family Meal, we thank you for sharing your Sunday with us in the gardens.

Collaborating with Slo-Flower farms we admire to create extravagant floral displays has become a hallmark of our bigger wine events. This year we were thrilled to welcome Rita Bates to organize and design the arrangements that filled both gardens for Féte Blanc. In addition to her ‘day’ job at the family farm - that would be The Philo Apple Farm - she is an incredibly intuitive and talented gardener floral designer. For Féte Blanc 2023 Rita ordered some blooms from our friends at Longer Table Farm and SinglethreadFarm, but the bulk of these late summer flowers were harvested at Barndiva Farm by Misha Vega, and from The Apple Farm’s extensive gardens. If you haven’t visited this extraordinary family farm in Philo, make hast to book one of their incredible Sally Dinners and be sure to stay over in one of their cottages, set amidst the apple orchards, right now heavy with fruit.

Bittersweet: the blackberry vines that graced the main Harvest Table arrangement were a long ago gift from the late, dearly missed Myrna and Earl Fincher, who owned and ingeniously farmed Early Bird Place for many years in Healdsburg. In the first decade of Barndiva’s life, Earle and Myrna suppled vegetables and gourds and we spent memorable time with Earle at their farm. The Berries have never been prodigious producers, but I never had the heart to cut them out. Seeing how much joy they gave folks on Sunday, knowing the history, I doubt I ever will.