More Than Grapes: The Best of Sonoma County Harvest

By Heather Irwin

The grape crush isn’t the only harvest happening September through October in Sonoma County. Not by a long shot. Though the scent of fermenting grapes is our Sonoma aroma during these final warm months, here are a few more things being picked in Wine Country.

Tomatoes

From Berkeley Tie Dye and Early Girl to Paul Robeson, Indigo Jewel, Cool Chocolate Pear and literally thousands of other specialized heirloom breeds, it’s that time of year when gardens and markets are overflowing with summer’s favorite fruit (or vegetable, depending on how botanically precise you want to be).

Soda Rock Farms is synonymous with summer tomatoes in Sonoma County, and the Healdsburg family farm often yields up to 1,000 pounds of heirloom tomatoes each day during their peak time, which is late August through September. Look for Soda Rock, along with dozens of other locally grown tomatoes, at farmers markets throughout the county.

Want to pick your own? The Black Piglet at Davis Family Vineyards in Healdsburg encourages diners to hunt out their favorite tomato at the farm for a fresh u-pick BLT that will be the best thing you eat all fall. Open through October.

Apples

From mid-August through September, the apple orchards of Sonoma west county are in full swing. Though the coveted Gravensteins are often picked clean by late August, dozens of other varietals grown throughout the county last well into fall.

A few farms allow CSA members, groups and occasional passers-by to come pick, including Chileno Valley Ranch, Gabriel Farm and Apple-A-Day Ratzlaff Ranch. It’s also high-season for cider apples, usually tart heirloom apples used for the county’s flourishing hard cider industry. Ask around, and you’ll probably find a friend more than happy to help you harvest their apples.

Pumpkins

There’s no shortage of pumpkin patches and corn mazes around Sonoma County. The Petaluma Pumpkin Patch and Amazing Corn Maze, just north of Petaluma and visible from Highway 101, allows locals to watch the corn rise and pumpkins grow throughout the summer. Though it’s also a source of some consternation (and serious slowdowns) throughout the season as lookie-loos drive by, there’s no doubt it’s still a favorite destination. Open to visitors from late September.

Cannabis

With recreational marijuana legalized, and coming into the marketplace early next year, outdoor cannabis farmers have been busily growing the county’s biggest cash crop. While marijuana grown indoors or with light-deprivation techniques to foster quicker flowering can be harvested multiple times each year, sun-grown marijuana has a relatively short window of harvesting — beginning in late October through November. Cannabis then goes through a drying and trimming process before being sold. The Emerald Cup, held at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds in early December, is a competitive celebration of the year’s harvest.

11 Unique Destinations in Sonoma County for Instagram Lovers

By Shana Bull

Remember a time, before social networks like Instagram and Facebook, when photos were developed or printed, carefullly put into albums and shared with friends and family after the vacation ended? Over the past decade, smartphones have radically changed the dynamic of traveling and sharing our experiences. Today, Instagram lovers post photos in real time, reaching larger audiences and providing word-of-mouth hype to destinations and businesses.

In Sonoma County, there are many visual experiences that will stand out on Instagram. Click through the gallery above to see some of the most fun spots, both natural and man-made, to pose for a Sonoma selfie.

Game Day Essentials from Sonoma Stores

By Karen Kizer

Because we can’t always make it out to the ballpark, game-viewing at home can be upped in fun and flavor (hello, cheaper hot dogs). Whatever your sport or team, gather with family and friends to graze gamely, through glorious victory and heartbreaking defeat, with the help of these Sonoma finds. Click through the gallery above for more information.

Clutter-Busting Finds in Sonoma

By Karen Kizer

When life gives you clutter, get rid of most of it, and then organize what you have left. With the help of a few decorative pieces, would-be clutter can be managed and even attractive to look at. Of course, select carefully because sometimes clutter storage becomes clutter. Taking the time to pick the right quality piece can protect against the I-suddenly-hate-it syndrome. Click though the above gallery for more information.

What to Wear When Wine Tasting in Sonoma and Napa: 6 Great Picks

By Karen Kizer

Harvest is a great time to visit wineries. Whether you’re trying to get away for an afternoon, show some out of town guests around, or observe some of the action of the crush season, here are some picks to enhance your wine tasting ensemble. Click through the gallery above for more information.

 

Sonoma Cowboy Shop Paradise for Lovers of Vintage Western Fashion

By Dianne Reber Hart

Visitors to Lonesome Cowboy Ranch in Boyes Hot Springs won’t find cowhands or cattle rustling. This “ranch” is a quirky shop that’s part museum, part cowboy outpost and part paradise for those who fancy the Old West.

Located along a busy corridor of Highway 12 in Boyes Hot Springs — not down some dusty dirt road as its name implies — Lonesome Cowboy Ranch nearly defies description. Where else do hundreds of vintage cowboy boots occupy space next to Converse sneakers with marijuana leaf designs or Goth-inspired platform spikes?
It all makes sense after meeting owner Sandi Miller, 65, whose anything-but-mundane background and numerous interests converge in her unique shop.

Miller practically grew up in Frontierland in Disneyland, where her mother played violin with a band on Main Street and her father was a Disney animator nearby, working on films like “101 Dalmatians.”

Miller still harbors a love for gunslinging cowboys, like the Disney stuntmen she spent her childhood summers with while her parents were at work. Her store is a tribute to cowboys, from their bootstraps to the tips of their hats.

But, she’s quick to note, it’s not just about cowboys. Fans of Native American arts and Hawaiian aloha attire won’t be disappointed, either.

“People think it’s just Western, but we’re really about fun fashion. Mostly it’s about humor and having fun stuff in the store,” Miller says.

Miller’s life partner, Robert Barnhart, 73, manages the store and greets customers. Most, he says, enjoy the step back in time.

“We get people who come in for the leather smell,” he says. “Everybody’s got some cowpoke in their hearts.”

Lonesome Cowboy Ranch got its start in an antiques collective on the Monterey peninsula, moving locations several times before settling into a small space on Broadway, a few miles south of the Sonoma Plaza, in 2008. They moved to their current location seven years ago, gaining square footage and a large display window at a busy intersection.

Top-selling items include cowboy boots, cowboy hats (many custom made) and Western and Hawaiian shirts. The couple orders from just three manufacturers, striving to keep prices reasonable and quality high.

And just where does Miller find classic old cowboy boots, handloomed rugs, handsome bomber jackets, vintage ethnic jewelry or silver-studded belts?

“That’s my secret. Everywhere,” she says. “I’m kind of like a foraging animal. I’m always on the lookout.”

Open 10:30 a.m.-7 p.m. Thursday to Monday and by appointment. 18135 Highway 12, Boyes Hot Springs, 831-262-6976, lonesomecowboyranch.com

How to Style Your Sonoma Home for Halloween

By Karen Kizer

The stores are now awash in fall items, which means it’s time to start making decisions about how to deck the Halloween halls. If the thought of adorning your home for a month in rubber eyeballs and plastic rats, leave you feeling a bit uninspired, consider bringing in some ornamental pieces. Many of the finds here are perfect for year-round use, but in the context of a few ghoulish items, they can give your Halloween decor a bewitchingly stylish vibe. Click through the gallery above for ideas.

The Big Punch: The Dirtiest Job in Winemaking

By Blair Campbell

At one time of year, for one small segment of winemaking, the human touch makes all the difference. Erik Castro’s evocative photo essay features winery workers and the fruit of their harvest season labor. Click through the gallery above for photos, and read the article below. 

Hands, feet, calves, arms up to the elbow, entire limbs even, disappear into tanks filled with fermenting grapes that were only just days ago picked and crushed. The task at hand is breaking down the grape solids that have formed a cap toward the top of the tank. It’s called punching down, and among other benefits it ensures the optimal extraction of color and flavor from the grape skins.

Punch-down happens once a year, at harvest, and in many places it’s now handled by an automated punch-down tank that breaks up the skins using a built-in pneumatic punch or paddle. But at the Sonoma wineries shown on these pages — Wind Gap Wines, Idlewild Wines, Bedrock Wine Co., and Acorn Winery — the job still belongs to human beings.

By using their bodies as punch-down tools, these intrepid winery workers can sense important changes in temperature and texture that inform the next steps in the winemaking process. And in the course of a year spent immersed in the scientific — and, increasingly, commercial — aspects of winemaking, it’s a singular opportunity to interact in a primal way with the fruit of their labor.

“The touch of the person really informs the quality of the punch-down,” says Wind Gap Wines owner Pax Mahle. “We choose to do it that way regardless of the size of our vessel. Whether it’s a small bin or one of the large tanks in the winery, we do it all the same way, and it is for that human touch.”

While punching down manually is seen as a gentler and more precise method of extracting color and tannins, it’s still backbreaking work — further evidence that in winemaking as in life, you get out what you put in.

Whiskey, Fries and a Helluva View at Santa Rosa’s Beer Baron

By biteclub
Chicken waffle with Fresno chili at Beer Baron in Santa Rosa. heather irwin/PD
Chicken waffle with Fresno chili at Beer Baron in Santa Rosa. (Heather Irwin/The Press Democrat)

Downtown Santa Rosa has upped its craft beer, cocktail and duck fat fries quota with the opening of the long-awaited Beer Baron. With a stunning remodel, the former Rendez Vous Bistro has become the European-plaza style eatery it has long deserved to be—complete with front-row Fourth St. people-watching.

With breezy open design and an outdoor patio just steps from Courthouse Square, Beer Baron has some of the most coveted seats in town.

We stopped in during their first lunch service (the lunch and dinner menus are the same) to see how the Chandi Hospitalilty Group were getting along in their collaboration with their Beer Baron collaborators (there are Beer Baron pubs in Pleasanton and Livermore). So far all signs are good for this simple pub and kitchen concept, which has been packed since opening.

Pork nuggets at Beer Baron in Santa Rosa. Heather Irwin/PD
Pork nuggets at Beer Baron in Santa Rosa. Heather Irwin/PD

On tap are about 25 beers, ranging from Fieldwork Island Time sour ale and HenHouse Brewing’s Big Country Pale Wheat to Racer 5 IPA from Bear Republic, Green Zebra Gose from Founders Brewing, and a nitro Chocolate porter from New Bohemia. The whiskey selection really impresses, with plenty of local spirits including offerings from Charbay, Spiritworks, Ukiah’s Low Gap, and Sonoma County Distilling. There are a handful of whiskey cocktails, including a fig shrub julep that was refreshing, if a little heavy on ice and light on julep.

Beer Baron’s soft-opening menu is simple and approachable, made for sharing with bar snacks, small plates and entrees all under $20 (most between $7-$10). The menu is almost identical to that of the Pleasanton restaurant, so they’ve had time to work out the kinks and find out what dishes resonate.

Chicken waffle with Fresno chili at Beer Baron in Santa Rosa. heather irwin/PD
Chicken waffle with Fresno chili at Beer Baron in Santa Rosa. heather irwin/PD

Don’t Miss:
– Duck Fat Fries ($7): These thick Belgian-style fries are fried in duck fat, giving them a uniquely light, crispy texture that’s so craveable you’ll be smart to snag a couple orders. Served with sides of aioli, chipotle ketchup and curried mayo, they’re one of my favorite dishes of the month.

– Baron Burger ($16): A meaty 7oz. patty made with angus, short rib, tri tip and brisket, cooked medium rare is one of the better burgers downtown (we also love Bibi’s Burger Bar’s Cabernet Burger and the Drive-In burger at Third St. Aleworks). The Baron Burger comes with duck fat fries, cheese, ale mustard and aioli.

– Fried chicken and waffles, $15: Marinated in Frank’s Red Hot sauce and buttermilk, the fried chicken is solid, served with a fluffy waffle, sliced chilis, maple bacon butter, and syrup. Solid, and better than fancier versions I’ve had.

Needs Work:
– Hoisin Chili Lamb Riblet, $12: Though plenty of these seemed to be going out to happy customers, ours were drenched with sticky sweet hoisin sauce and the lamb was a little gamey for our palate.

We Also Tried:
– Beer braised carnitas tacos, $10: Nothing spectacular, but nothing off. Great happy hour noshing, but the flour tortillas were a little too gringo to wow us.

– Smoked Olive Oil Guacamole, $8: Avocados with red peppers and smoked olive oil. Interesting. Our friends loved it.

Beer Baron in Santa Rosa. Heather Irwin/PD
Beer Baron in Santa Rosa. Heather Irwin/PD

– Pulled Pork Nuggets, $10: Pulled pork hits the deep fat fryer, resulting in crispy little squares of, well, pulled pork. With bbq sauce. Strange, but a great base for a couple ‘o pints.

Overall: The best restaurant real estate in downtown Santa Rosa is open for business again. With great drinks, a shareable, approachable menu and friendly staff, Beer Baron is a perfect after work meeting place and lunch spot. Open until 1a.m., its also a great late night hangout.

Brunch and happy hour menus coming soon.

614 Fourth St., Santa Rosa, 707-757-9294, beerbaronbar.com.

4 Items to Help You Enjoy Farm Fresh Foods and Drinks in Sonoma

By Karen Kizer

Relish Sonoma County’s bounty and visit the farmer’s market often this fall. Or dive into that CSA box, and let its contents inspire some clean culinary masterpieces. These local shopping finds will help you enjoy the food and drink extravaganza that Sonoma harvests deliver. Click through the gallery above for details.