Local Entrepreneur is Baking Her Way to College One Cheesecake at a Time

By Meg McConahey

Anamaria Morales is on a mission to bake her way through college, “one cheesecake at a time.”

Tangy lemon, silky espresso, creamy peanut butter, sweet strawberries, red velvet. Each month brings a menu of new flavors to whip into cream cheese — and melt the willpower of fans.

A year after launching “The College Confectionista” during her senior year at El Molino High, the spirited 19-year-old has banked more than $9,000 through baking. She hopes to more than double that amount by the time she’s ready to transfer from Santa Rosa Junior College, where she takes online classes. Her goal is to be accepted into the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.

For now, Morales is developing her entrepreneurial chops in the kitchen, experimenting with new flavor combinations, baking everything from scratch with fresh and local ingredients. She uses Clover cream cheese, marketing through social media and in some cases, hand-delivering each $40 handcrafted masterpiece of velvety goodness.

Her Facebook page is sprinkled with vintage advertising pictures of smiling housewives and winsome young lovers grabbed from midcentury magazines. The confectionista herself looks a bit like a 1950s time-traveler. A fan of all things retro, she loves to wear polka dots and sports handkerchiefs in her hair.

“Elvis Presley is my husband,” she jokes, “who died a long time before I was born.”

Morales grew up in Healdsburg, the daughter of Tomas and Laura Morales. She was prompted to start her own business after a stretch of late nights spent wondering whether — and where — she wanted to go to college.

“My parents, who both didn’t go to college, said maybe you don’t want to go to a four-year university right away. Maybe you want to do a gap year or travel,” Morales recalls. “That got me thinking. I’ve always been an entrepreneur. I worry about college expenses. I don’t come from money, my parents had me at a young age and never started a college fund for me. I’m starting my college fund from scratch.”

And while Morales sees a future in business for herself, she sees a future in the nonprofit world for College Confectionista.

“I’m hoping to turn it into a nonprofit, where I could create scholarships for other low-income and first-generation women, especially Hispanics, girls who have the drive to go to college and don’t have the money. That would make me so happy.”

College Confectionista, 707-495-5324, facebook.com/CollegeConfectionista

Holistic Health Center Comes to Santa Rosa

By Abigail Peterson
yogi deacon

Deacon Oakley-Carpenter, a Santa Rosa-based Ayurvedic medicine specialist, believes yoga and integrative medicine must evolve to meet the needs of modern life. “Yoga is 5,000 years old. We don’t move, we don’t sit, we don’t communicate, we don’t consume things the same way now as we did then.”

Oakley-Carpenter, a former New York advertising executive, is well-situated to lead this transition, having discovered Ayurvedic medicine in his teens. He moved to Healdsburg in 2010, leaving behind a career in advertising and marketing, and seeking a community with heart and a deep connection to the outdoors. “In New York, you chase life, but in Sonoma you really live life,” he explains.

This spring, Oakley-Carpenter’s airy downtown Santa Rosa yoga studio branched out and became WellSonoma at YogaONE, where in addition to yoga classes and Oakley-Carpenter’s Ayurvedic practice, clients can consult with other on-site integrative health professionals, including a Chinese medical doctor and acupuncturist, a massage therapist, a Reiki specialist, a nutritionist, a hypnotherapist, even a specialist in nonviolent communication.

A traditional MD is also on staffŠ, and patients benefit from the atmosphere of collaboration and knowledge-sharing. A client with chronic back pain, for example, can combine yoga classes with cranial-sacral therapy and acupuncture. The clinic also offŠers a cancer wellness program — on a pay-what-you-can basis — that supports patients undergoing treatment elsewhere with gentle yoga movement and breath training.

Oakley-Carpenter feels WellSonoma’s approach aligns with the overall direction medicine is taking. “What’s not happening in Western medicine are the diet and lifestyle edits that can greatly reduce the use of pharmaceutical drugs,” he says. His Ayurvedic consultations help patients achieve balance and make more thoughtful choices about what they put into their bodies. Sonoma’s robust food culture certainly helps — because if you’re eating seasonally, he explains, you’re eating healthfully.

“There’s no magic bullet,” says Oakley-Carpenter. “The intention is always to bring people to a better place.”

416 B St., Santa Rosa, 707-542-9644, loveyogaone.com

Holy Mole: The Elusive 30-Ingredient Mexican Sauce Gets a Mother’s Touch in Healdsburg

By biteclub
Ingredients in Juana’s mole include plantain, sesame seeds, cinnamon, chocolate, raisins, apples, dried peppers, almonds, Mexican peppercorns, garlic, ginger and herbs. Heather Irwin/PD
Ingredients in Juana’s mole include plantain, sesame seeds, cinnamon, chocolate, raisins, apples, dried peppers, almonds, Mexican peppercorns, garlic, ginger and herbs. Heather Irwin/PD

Mole negro isn’t made in an afternoon.

One of the seven traditional moles of the Oaxaca region of Mexico, this sweet-savory sauce made with dried chiles, spices, seeds, tortillas and Mexican chocolate is a celebratory dish that once brought entire communities together in days long preparation.

“People make it in a day, but you really can’t if you do it right,” said Octavio Diaz, whose mother, Juana, has been making mole (pronounced MO-lay) at his restaurant, Agave Mexican in Healdsburg, for years. Her secret recipe also is used at the Diaz family’s Casa del Mole market where it’s served over burritos and freshly prepared for takeout.

Homemade mole at Kitchen 335. Heather Irwin/PD
Homemade mole at Kitchen 335. Heather Irwin/PD

With a laundry list of 30-plus ingredients — most of which require separate roasting or blanching or toasting — it’s a labor of love that’s been passed down from mother to daughter for generations.

“Mole connects people. There are so many spices, and you can break down walls through food,” said Octavio Diaz.

Unique to each of its creators, mole negro shares many foundational ingredients including ancho, poblano and/or guajillos chiles, Mexican chocolate and cinnamon, stale bread, tomatillos, plantain, oregano, raisins, pumpkin and sesame seeds, garlic, onions and cloves, traditionally. But improvisation and secret ingredients, of course, give the mole life: Sweet bread or animal crackers instead of stale bread for thickening, a ripe banana instead of the plantain, the addition of corn tortillas (a secret to Diaz’ mole).

Juana Diaz, the mother of Octavio Diaz, making Oaxacan mole negro. Heather Irwin/PD
Juana Diaz, the mother of Octavio Diaz, making Oaxacan mole negro. Heather Irwin/PD

“I can’t tell you everything,” said Diaz. Because like any great recipe, there are infinite secrets and traditions surrounding mole, all of which seem to contradict each other. No one, in fact, is quite sure what region of Mexico it originated in or who came up with the dozens of ingredients necessary to create this celebration dish. What they can agree on, however, is its importance in Mexican culture.

But the tradition is dying out, and real mole is a rare find at local taquerias despite the preponderance of great Mexican cooks in Sonoma County. At least the freshly made kind. Why? This is labor-intensive celebration food that’s more easily served from a can than slaved over for days.

Oaxaca is home to no less than seven different types of mole — some now say eight — ranging from red and green to dark brown depending on the ingredients. But most popular in American restaurants is mole negro, an exotic sauce that captures the imagination with ancient flavors of chocolate, smoked chiles and cinnamon.

So what does it taste like? It’s exotic, rich, earthy and unmistakable. Poured over poultry, it puddles and spreads across the plate-like a chocolate mudslide, and the absence of a single ingredient will alter it entirely. Not surprisingly, its sensuous richness serves as a backdrop to one of the most tender moments of Laura Esquivel’s book, “Like Water for Chocolate.”  In it, the oppressed Tita makes a turkey mole for her nephew’s baptism, gently browning seeds and grinding spices for an entire day, in the process making her love, Pedro, wild with anticipation. Like wild.

With the opening of Casa de Mole in 2013 and the recent addition of Agave Uptown in Oakland, mole is becoming a true signature of the Diaz family, and now being made on a slightly larger scale that includes commercial bottling of the family’s secret sauce. Agave Uptown will have a mole ice cream, and Diazes’ new Kitchen 335 in Healdsburg includes a pork chop with mole negro sauce.

“For us, every day is a celebration,” said Diaz, “and there’s a story in each dish.”

Make a Bid for Youth Empowerment at Santa Rosa Fundraiser

By Karen Kizer

LIME Foundation founder and business owner, Letitia Hanke, was bullied in school, and she credits her love of and involvement in music for insulating her during those difficult years.

“There were not many black students in the entire (elementary) school, and for years kids called me names and physically and mentally abused me,” says Hanke who was taken aside by a teacher and encouraged and taught to play trumpet.

Hanke retreated from the cruelty of the playground and practiced her instrument in the music classroom, eventually earning herself a spot in the high school band. The teens with whom she played stood up for her, and “things turned around for me,” she says, “as I got older and made many friends.”

Today, Hanke owns a roofing company, a career path that began “by accident” during her college years as a Sonoma State performing arts student in need of a job. “I wanted to be rock star,” she says.

It could be argued that she did become a rockstar. While her music-making (songwriting, singing keyboards, and drumming) happens mostly in her home studio today, Hanke is a champion for youth and others in need of mentoring and career training through her programs at the LIME Foundation. The organization will be holding its 2nd Annual Believe in the Dream event on September 14 to raise funds for its programs.

Believe in the Dream will be presented at Vintners Inn in Santa Rosa and will feature entertainment by Lime Foundation-funded Turner Initiative scholarship recipients, 17-year-old vocalist, Natalie Moss, and the New World Ballet Center.

Hosting the event will be Sonoma County-based personal stylist and fashion writer, Malia Anderson, of Style By Malia, whose company tagline includes the charge to “envision your closet as an ally.” Clearly, empowerment is on the evening’s program.

Auction items will include massages, amusement park tickets, vacations to Tahoe and Vegas and more.

Hanke says the evening benefits programs designed to help young people who face challenges similar to what she’s experienced. Her NextGen Trades academy trains 16-24 year-olds in construction trades, with an emphasis on women. A graduate who earned a full time position for a construction firm will be speaking at the event.

Malia Anderson appears on a video on LIME’s website, describing Hanke’s leadership style as, “very hands-on and very compassionate.” Andersen says, “It’s not, ‘What do I get as the head of the company?’— It’s, ‘How do we all succeed?’”

Yes, definitely a rockstar.

To attend the September 14 fundraiser, go to 2017dream.eventbrite.com. For more information about the LIME Foundation and its programs, visit: thelimefoundation.org, 707-532-LIME.

Made in Sonoma: Top 10 Iconic Foods and Where to Find Them

By Carey Sweet

Maine is famous for its lobster, New Mexico for Hatch chiles and Iowa for corn.

But in the magical foodshed that is Sonoma County, we’re renowned for so many wondrous things, it’s tough to keep track.
Each season pulls its own delights from Mother Nature’s larder, from winter citrus to spring strawberries, summer tomatoes and fall figs. The bounty is so rich that many local restaurants tend their own farms, like the girl & the fig, Handline and Peter Lowell’s, Barndiva, zazu kitchen + farm and Single Thread.

We’re blessed with Bodega Bay rockfish, crab, salmon, steelhead and halibut, pastured beef and dairy from meadows and mountains all around, wild mushrooms waiting to be foraged in our forests, and so many spectacular artisanal cheeses that there’s even an official Cheese Trail mapping our nearly three dozen farms and creameries.

So abundant are our edible treasures that Sonoma County chefs have coined a term all their own: hyper-local, meaning their menus are built not just on California or even Sonoma County sourcing, but ingredients from within the very town the restaurant calls home.

And constantly, we’re adding more to our pampered pantry. Coveted local ingredients now include Sonoma Coast seaweed, Pacific Ocean-harvested salt and pickles as an entire food group.

Join us, then, for a flavor-fueled adventure with this Top 10 must-eat guide to Sonoma County signatures.

DUCK 

What: Our most famous bird comes from Liberty Ducks/Sonoma County Poultry in Penngrove, where founder Jim Reichardt is a fourth-generation farmer specializing in a cultivated strain of large-breed Pekin Duck celebrated for its rich, highly flavorful meat. Pasture raised year-round on an all-natural, mostly grain diet, the birds are sustainably “whole animal” harvested, to feed gourmet recipes showcasing everything from breast and wings to gizzards, heart, tongue and even tiny, tasty feet.

Where: At the new Pinoli Cucina Rustica in Guerneville, chef-owner Christian Darcoli marries several Wine Country classic ingredients for his sumptuous Liberty duck breast glazed in 2010 Novy Family Wines Russian River Oley Late Harvest Viognier, prettied up with seasonal local berries atop Italian farro.

Recipe: Duck Breast with Farro, Seasonal Berries and Late Harvest Wine
Pinoli Cucina Rustica, Guerneville Courtesy Chef-Owner Christian Darcoli, Serves 1

3 cups water
1 cup farro
2¼ teaspoons salt, divided
5 ounces boneless, skin-on Liberty duck breast
¼ teaspoon pepper
½ cup mixed berries
5 ounces late harvest white wine
½ cup vegetable broth
1 ounce butter
¼ teaspoon thyme
¼ teaspoon minced fresh garlic

Combine the water and farro in a medium saucepan. Add 2 teaspoons of the salt. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to mediumlow, cover, and simmer until the farro is tender, about 30 minutes. Drain well, and then transfer to a large bowl to cool.

Season duck with pepper and remaining ¼ teaspoon salt. Heat a well-seasoned skillet or nonstick sauté pan over high heat. When
pan is hot, add duck breast, skin side down, and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, or until skin is brown and crispy. Flip and cook for 5 more minutes. Remove from pan and let meat rest, reserving the juices in the pan. Heat the same pan to medium high. Add the berries and late harvest wine to the duck jus and cook until reduced by half. Add the broth and reduce by half again, then whisk in butter and cook for 3 minutes.

Pre-heat oven to 500°.
Place farro in another pan, and sauté briefly with thyme and garlic.

Spoon farro onto a plate, top with sliced duck breast, and warm in oven for 7 minutes. Remove plate from oven, drizzle berry sauce over duck and serve immediately.

FREE-RANGE CHICKEN

What: From their first peek out of the shell at hatching through their happy lives pecking in pasture, our pampered bird breeds like Rocky The Free-Range Chicken from Petaluma Poultry enjoy a 100 percent vegetarian diet and a natural environment to live like, well, chickens. They reward us with succulent, juicy meat that’s made Rocky birds national stars since farmer Allen Shainsky founded his ranch in 1969.

Where: Barndiva owners Jil and Geoffrey Hales are so dedicated to farm-to-fork that Jil produced a film, called “Eat the View,” documenting the journey one plate takes as the ingredients travel across Sonoma County, through the Healdsburg restaurant’s kitchen, and into the dining room. Chef Ryan Fancher impresses with his crispy roasted Rocky chicken in its own jus, plated with a ragout of roasted local mushrooms from Wine Forest Wild Foods forager Connie Green, Hobbs bacon, egg yolk ravioli made with eggs from Angerer Family Farm in Geyserville and Bellwether Farms Whole Milk Basket Jersey ricotta from Petaluma — all finished in chive oil, basil, greens, herbs and edible flowers plucked from Barndiva Farm.

Recipe: Crispy Free-Range Roast Chicken with Fresh Corn-Chanterelle Mushroom Ragout and Ricotta-Egg Yolk Ravioli
Barndiva, Healdsburg,Courtesy Chef Ryan Fancher, Serves 4

For the chicken:
One whole Rocky free-range chicken, trussed by your local butcher
1 cup carrots, diced
1 cup onion, diced
1 lemon, sliced in half
Salt and pepper for seasoning
Butter for seasoning

Preheat oven to 400°.
A half-hour before roasting, stuff the bird with vegetables and lemon. Salt and pepper the bird, then rub the skin with the butter. Roast the chicken for about 45 minutes, remove from oven and let meat rest for about 20 minutes before carving.

For the ragout:
1 pound uncured, top-quality bacon (Hobbs, Black Pig Meat Co. or Sonoma County Meat Co.)
1 pound golden chanterelle mushrooms (or hen of the woods, trumpets or beech), wiped with a damp paper towel to clean; diced
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, divided
2 ears fresh corn, peeled and silk removed; kernels cut off cobs
6 shallots, diced
7 cloves garlic, minced
1 Roma tomato, diced
Handful of fresh thyme (lemon thyme if available)
Splash sherry vinegar
Maldon or other whole flake salt and freshly ground pepper for seasoning

Render the bacon in a saucepan over medium-low until crispy and dark golden brown. Remove and crumble, reserving the bacon grease in the pan. Turn heat up to medium-high, add the the mushrooms and ½ tablespoon butter and sauté until golden. Add the corn, shallots, garlic, tomato, thyme and cooked bacon. Cook until warmed through, then finish with ½ tablespoon of butter, sherry vinegar, and flake salt and pepper to taste.

For the ravioli :
16 ounces “00” pasta flour
9 egg yolks + 1 whole egg for the pasta
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon whole milk
12 ounces Bellwether Whole Milk Basket Jersey ricotta
8 additional egg yolks for the ravioli

Mound the flour and make a well in the middle. Add 9 yolks and the whole egg to the well, along with olive oil and milk. Using a fork, slowly whisk the flour and wet ingredients together to make dough. Knead until the dough is smooth, then let rest for an hour in the refrigerator.

Roll the pasta into two thin sheets about 36 inches long. Place a tablespoon of ricotta every three to four inches apart to make 8 ravioli, then gently place one egg yolk atop each ricotta mound. Carefully cover it all with the second sheet of pasta. Use a ring mold to shape and fully seal each ricotta and egg package; the pasta must be sealed so no water gets inside while the ravioli is cooking. (Note: this recipe will be more pasta dough than you need, so cut excess intro strips and refrigerate to make tagliatelli the next day.)

Ten minutes before serving, cook the ravioli in simmering salted water until pasta is tender but egg yolk is not firm.

Meanwhile, divide mushroom ragout among four plates. Carve chicken and arrange atop the ragout. Lift ravioli out of water with wire slotted spoon, and let the water run off. Crown the chicken with ravioli.

DUNGENESS CRAB

What: Our Bodega Bay fishing season usually kicks off in November, as the first cages brimming with light purple-brown crustaceans are hoisted from the Pacific. Harvest generally runs through June, though winter is the prime season for the sweet, rich meat. Fair warning: because crab catches can be unpredictable, and boats can be shuttered in bad weather, it’s a good idea to call ahead and make sure your crabby critter actually made it to the restaurant.

Where: Savvy locals make a beeline to Fishetarian Fish Market, where fisherman Shane Lucas (of the Lucas Wharf restaurant family) displays the daily catch in glittering ice-filled glass cases framing the order counter. Meaty crab cakes are the star at the casual cafe, in plump, pankocrusted beauties dotted with minced celery, red bell pepper, herbs and spices, served with local organic greens, lemon wedges and a choice of hand-cut Kennebec fries or herbed sweet potato fries.

PEACHES 

What: We admit it, it’s almost cruel to include peaches in a fall foods list, since peach season is actually summer — and even then, each juicy beautiful peach variety often has a window of ripeness lasting only a few weeks. But at Dry Creek Peach & Produce in Healdsburg, boutique orchard owner Gayle Sullivan also purees and freezes her fruit to make brilliant bellinis year-round, and local chefs freeze them for sauces on pork and chicken.

Where: Mateo’s Cocina Latina Chef Mateo Granados of Healdsburg stretches the deliciousness even more inventively into fall, by taking end-of-season fruit and burning it. He cuts Dry Creek peaches into halves and chars them on his flat-top grill, which both evaporates the water so the fruit doesn’t ferment and concentrates the naturally occurring sugar and pectin within. Then, he purees the fruit with a touch of balsamic vinegar to create a smoky but still bright and fresh peach flavor in his fall peach/pear salad blooming with White Crane Springs Ranch greens from Healdsburg.

Pear and Burnt Peach Salad
Mateo’s Cocina Latina, Healdsburg, Courtesy Chef-Owner Mateo Granados, Serves 6

6 Dry Creek peaches
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
4 local farmers market pears
¼ pound purslane
Sea salt to taste

Pit the peaches and cut them in half. Heat a flat-top grill, well-seasoned skillet or nonstick sauté pan over high heat, and add the fruit skin side up. Char the peaches, without flipping them, until thoroughly burned. Scrape the fruit from the flat top and place it in a stainless steel bowl, add the balsamic vinegar, and seal the bowl with plastic wrap. When the fruit cools to room temperature, pour the mixture into a blender and process to a smooth marmalade consistency.

Core the pears and cut them into quarters. Spread the burnt peach marmalade on a plate; arrange the pears on top and garnish them with purslane and sea salt.

PORK

What: Here, piggy, piggy — our ranchers specialize in premium heritage-breed swine including European Mangalitsa, Mulefoot or Red Wattle, and at Front Porch Farm of Healdsburg, the extremely rare white-belted Tuscan Cinta Senese pigs. Fed a luxury organic diet in open air “pig palaces,” the animals develop much a fuller, richer and more marbled flavor than mass-bred, confined pigs.

Where: Black Pig Meat Co. owners John Stewart and Duskie Estes of Forestville craft heritage-breed salumi and brown sugar-cured applewood-smoked bacon. The menu at the couple’s Zazu Kitchen + Farm in Sebastopol intrigues with porky joy of all kinds, too — a cullatello prosciutto platter; roasted bone marrow with hog-jaw bacon jam; pig sugo and rigatoni with backyard rosemary and grana padano; a Black Pig Sour cocktail made of homemade bacon-infused bourbon, maple simple syrup and Madeira and garnished with homemade Rodeo Jax bacon caramel popcorn; maple bacon donuts with bacon jimmies; chicharrone peanut butter cups; and even a whole honey-chile glazed pig head served with toast.

LAMB

What: Look at the open meadows all around Petaluma, and you’ll see the city’s signature sheep and lambs. One of our top purveyors is Marin Sun Farms — actually located in Sonoma County — and its 100 percent pasture-raised, grass-fed lamb is custom butchered at the Petaluma facility, which shines as the last remaining USDA-inspected slaughterhouse in the Bay Area (critical to the boutique craft).

Where: Petaluma’s new SlamBurger may be fast food, but the ingredients are all natural and organic, as owner Maurice Mickel looks locally for everything from milk shakes made with organic milk from Petaluma’s iconic Straus Family Creamery to Santa Rosa Hen-House beer on tap. The Lamb Slam burger is a marvelous mouthful topped in organic spring mix, house-made chimichurri, house-made garlic aioli tomato and house-made pickles.

OLIVES

What: Olives are the second-largest harvest in Sonoma, according to the Sonoma Valley Visitors Bureau. Just take a look at many vineyards in Wine Country, and you’ll see plenty of olive trees growing alongside — like at Sonoma’s Jacuzzi Family Vineyards sister company The Olive Press, for example. That’s because the two crops thrive in the same climates, in the Mediterranean-style environment of warm, sunny days and cool, crisp nights.

Where: Trattore Farms grows and mills olives from 100-year-old orchards at its family-owned Geyserville estate, and on Sundays April through October, it serves up mouthwatering pizzas from its own brick-trimmed wood-fire oven. Homemade dough and extra virgin olive oil create the base for bites like the Trattore classico of red sauce, mozzarella, fresh basil and Tavola Toscana EVOO, or “The Goat” of Sonoma’s own Laura Chenel goat cheese, Anjou pear, Italian herbs and Meyer lemon olive oil.

GRAINS

What: Increasingly, our specialty farmers are growing heirloom varieties of barley and wheat — for breads, home cooking, and, more and more, craft beers. Ancient grains are more nutritious than refined grain products like white flour, and burst with bold, beautiful flavor. The organic bounty blooms particularly well at Healdsburg’s Front Porch Farm, planted to vegetables, alfalfa, herbs, berries, experimental seedlings, and — perhaps most distinctive as one of the only such crop sources in America — waving fields of heritage grain like ancient einkorn wheat, Senator Cappelli Italian durum wheat, and
Floriani Flint corn.

Where: Healdsburg SHED co-owner Doug Lipton mills Front Porch grains on-site, while chef and culinary director Perry Hoffman crafts premium grains into artisanal snacks such as rye flour seeded crackers and a Red Floriani Flint corn meal and buckwheat flour Belgian waffle slathered in maple syrup, salted butter and jam.

GOAT CHEESE

What: It seems everyone in Wine Country does a goat cheese salad — usually tossed with candied nuts and/or beets — or goat cheese pizza. And they’re divine. Then, there’s the girl & the fig in downtown Sonoma, which offers a sumptuous goat cheese sampler of three artisan varieties paired with homemade fig cake and fig compote, spiced nuts and baguette.

Where: For something different, chef-owner Ariel Nadelberg’s charred fingerlings and shishitos at the new Drawing Board in Petaluma entices with vibrant, herbinfused Laura Chenel Sonoma goat cheese sauce. The same silky, tangy dressing also adorns seasonal veggies, like a fall mix of charred beets and cumin-spiced heirloom carrots sourced from small local farms.

GAME

What: Wild boar roam many mountainside vineyards, so much so that some winery owners hunt for home cooking, with family-owned butchers like Sonoma County Meat Co. of Santa Rosa and Bud’s Custom Meats of Penngrove processing the meat. Rabbit is another popular restaurant menu choice, raised by heritage-style farmers such as Old World Rabbitery in Sebastopol, Rockin’ S Rabbit Farm in Petaluma, Jones’ Rabbit Farm in Santa Rosa and Marin Sun Farms of Petaluma.

Where: The new Brass Rabbit in Healdsburg of course features rabbit, presented as Marin Sun Farms rillettes spread generously atop house-baked rye toast with dollops of grain mustard homemade with Death & Taxes beer from Moonlight Brewery in Santa Rosa, and curls of homemade kohlrabi sauerkraut sourced from the restaurant’s nearby garden.

Where to Eat Now in Sonoma County

By Heather Irwin

With the bounty and the heat of late summer cresting, Dining Editor Heather Irwin finds outdoor spots in which to cool down, beer up and enjoy the best of harvest season. Also: Seasonal doughnuts, boozy cupcakes and Bangkok in Sebastopol.

Amy’s Wicked Slush, Healdsburg 
Locals are lining up in droves to get a taste of something wicked in Healdsburg.

Just in time for summer, Boston native Amy Covin has opened Amy’s Wicked Slush just steps from the Russian River — bringing an icy sweet treat of her childhood to Sonoma County.

What’s a slush? Unless you’re from the East Coast, you probably have no idea. Think of this iconic New England dessert as Icee meets sorbet meets shave ice. Available in sizes from pipsqueak to “there’s no way you can eat that, bro,” slush is properly eaten with a spoon rather than a straw. Expect to find yourself with a wicked good melty mess on your hands halfway in.

But Wicked Slush is no mere ice cream shack. It’s more of an ode to Amy’s favorite New England foods, featuring nearly a dozen flavors of slush (mango and cherry to classic lemon) along with freshly made bagels and Italian subs that are straight from the North End of Boston.

Ah, the bagels! These are seriously good ones that don’t turn into a pile of crumbs when you cut them. It’s one of the only things we miss terribly about New York City.

And the Italian subs! Piles of mortadella, capicola, “hots” and not a dab of mustard in sight with a perfect hoagie roll. Bad delis have given this classic a bad name. The “half,” however, is bigger than your arm, and you’ll likely eat the whole thing. The whole is… well, bring a team to help you.

Wicked Slush didn’t happen by chance. Covin worked with local BurtoNZ Bakery in Windsor for three months to get the Italian hoagie rolls and boiled/baked bagels as authentic as possible. For the sandwiches, she used the power of persuasion and a whole lot of charm to get the secret recipes from the biggest names in Boston’s deli scene. And Covin can be very persuasive.

“This is just street food,” says the former CPA (she worked this tax season while opening the slush spot) and president of Healdsburg’s Prune Packers baseball team.

Though she had no real interest in a restaurant, after a string of tragedies that included her home burning to the ground and her daughter being seriously injured in a car accident, Covin was ready to leave her desk job and enjoy life a little more.

Sitting on the deck of Wicked Slush in a T-shirt, her fingers slush-stained as she holds her 2-month-old grandson, she’s clearly found her bliss. For the 55-year-old, that even includes pulling all-nighters jamming to Bruce Springsteen and making slush for the next day. That, and teaching high school kids she mentors how to properly make a dip cone.

“Usually on their fourth try they get it,” she says. But not without a few mishaps along the way.

With her son Benny as general manager and most of her other family members, including her dad and her husband, helping out, there’s a cheerful kind of insanity as lines begin to form even on an early Tuesday afternoon. “We were lucky to survive the first week,” she laughs.

Covin is currently working on her Wicked Wagon, a mobile slush truck for events and deliveries that will let the rest of Sonoma County taste a bit of Wicked.

13840 Healdsburg Ave., Healdsburg, 707-431-9253, wickedslush.com. Dog- and kid-friendly.

Trading Post, Cloverdale 
After ownership changes last winter, new chef-owner Erik Johnson and baker Aaron Arabian are seriously ready for a close-up on their garden-to-table concept in the emerging culinary destination of Cloverdale. With late summer’s bountiful days upon us, there’s no better time to go.

The menu, in part, revolves around Ronnie’s Garden, the restaurant’s own culinary plot. Restaurant gardener Ron Ferrato’s Instagram account (@ferratosgarden) hosts a rainbow of lettuces, daikon, peas and whatever else is popping at the moment. That translates in the daily “Ronnie’s garden” ($8) plate of the morning’s vegetables, “prepared on a whim.” Don’t miss it. Our version included a lightly dressed salad of pea shoots, radish, chamomile-soaked carrots, pickled strawberries and daikon with house-made ricotta with black sesame seeds.

The Trading Post bread basket ($6) is a signature, with a daily selection of baker Arabian’s painstakingly made, always insanely delicious breads with house-cultured butters. Not your usual sad basket of dried-out baguettes, but Parmesan focaccia, wheat bread, sourdough and a hearty seeded wheat. You’ll want to leave with a loaf or two.

As seasons change, so will the menu, but there’s always a daily tartine, half roast chicken that’s juicier than a telenovela and duck fat potato tots that will make you weep with happiness. There are burgers and a flat iron steak for more traditional eaters, and a three-course midweek market menu is available for $30 per person on Wednesdays. Don’t miss the small takeout counter with breads, cookies and tarts.

102 S. Cloverdale Blvd., Cloverdale, 707-894-6483, thepostcloverdale.com

City Garden Doughnuts, Santa Rosa
These aren’t workaday donuts or wacky cereal-coated marshmallow-dipped curiosities that are more fun to look at than eat. Instead, City Garden takes a more subtle approach, using intensely flavored glazes made with fresh fruit (the lemon glaze is perfectly pucker-worthy) and chocolate atop pillowy brioche.

Owner Alan McCandless said he planned to either open a donut shop or a hamburger place. Or maybe a pizzeria. Donuts won, and over the last six months he created City Garden Doughnuts — named for the 1860sera Santa Rosa public garden that once stood nearby. Must-tries include the lemon, pepper and pistachio Santa Barbara donut; the maple bacon combo (made with Hobbs bacon) that’s a taste of Sunday morning any day of the week; orange-glazed with fresh orange juice and zest; strawberry-glazed; and Guittard chocolate with sea salt. Scones aren’t usually worth the calories, but City Garden’s “Hobbs” scone is (and we don’t say this lightly) the best scone we’ve ever had.

Unlike the dusty hockey pucks we’ve had at too many places, this version falls apart like a stood-up prom date, but with a whole lot of bacon, Vella cheddar and green onion inside. Need a glucose stabilizer after all that yummy? City Garden Doughnuts’ Harney and Sons Cinnamon Spice Nitro Ice Tea is our official drink of the summer — made with three types of cinnamon, no sugar and a flavor that slaps your taste buds awake.

1200 Fourth St., Santa Rosa, 707-595-1932, facebook.com/CityGardenDoughnuts

Brewster’s Beer Garden, Petaluma
BBQ and brews are the focus at this 350-seat outdoor beer garden in the heart of downtown Petaluma. Having tasted some of the very best — and very worst — barbecue that Sonoma County has to offer, we give Brewster’s high marks for flavor and technique. When it’s been a good long while since you’ve had a barbecued rib that actually falls off the bone without the use of a knife/hacksaw/gnawing, Brewster’s will be welcome relief — with smoky, saucy pork that acquiesces like a Georgia peach in August.

To avoid starting a civil war between ’quethusiasts, chef Chris Beerman makes a solid Texas-style beef brisket, St. Louis-style pork ribs and even smoked Korean short ribs.

Even though there are also smoked beets, smoked wings, smoky pork belly, a smoky mezcal cocktail and smoked tea leaves, don’t bank on Brewster’s being just a barbecue spot. Modern comfort classics include his signature onion ring-topped mac and cheese, fried chicken sandwich and chocolate brownie sundae.

The space is immense, with a plethora of picnic-style tables that are great for a group, or if you’re interested in being social. There’s a bocce court for grownups and a kids’ area to let the tots go nuts. Brunch, served on Saturday and Sunday, and an abbreviated lunch menu start at 11:30 a.m. and go until 5 p.m., when the larger dinner menu emerges. A children’s menu features chicken fingers and other tasty kid grub. Dogs are welcome, and there are weekly music events Friday through Sunday. Every other Thursday is Bluegrass and Bourbon.

This busy restaurant can get crowded, and service can range from enthusiastic to dismissive depending on the time of day and staffing. Plating can also get a little haphazard when the kitchen is really humming. Finding the restaurant is tricky, since there’s not much signage from the street. Just follow your nose.

229 Water St. N., Petaluma, 707-981-8330, brewstersbeergarden.com

Bump City Bakery, Petaluma
The transition from fish biologist to baker isn’t as crazy as it might seem, according to Bump City Bakery’s Emily Floyd.

The cupcake, pie and cookie baker who used to spend her days studying the habitats of local fish now uses her science background as a basis for creating delicious gluten-free and vegan goodies. If you’ve ever tried to swap out typical baking ingredients with things like amaranth powder, rice flour, coconut milk and nut butters, you know gluten-free and vegan cooking is an exact science. Too much of one thing or not enough of another can make the mix grainy, or too dense, or just plain yucky. A biology and science background helps her tinker and experiment with foundational ingredients to get things just right.

Just right also means spiking most of her cupcakes with a little booze (rum, Bailey’s, Campari, gin, bourbon or brandy) and calling them “Drunken Cupcakes.” Though the flavors change up, we downed almost three cupcakes in a single sitting: Irish Car Bomb (chocolate cake with Jameson, Bailey’s buttercream and chocolate sprinkles); Orange Creamsicle (nonalcoholic) and our very favorite, the Dark and Stormy with ginger-beer cake, dark rum and lime buttercream.

Not all of Floyd’s cupcakes are on a bender, with flavors like raspberry cheesecake, chocolate chocolate and vanilla vanilla, along with Creamsicle and whatever else she comes up with. Floyd also makes vegan cookies like Peanut Butter Cup, oatmeal raisin walnut, chocolate chip oatmeal and Salty Date with dates, pecans, almonds and chocolate chips. Rye Pecan Pie with Bulleit rye whiskey and key lime pies are available to order.

122 American Alley, Suite B, Petaluma, 707-888-9026, bumpcitybakery.com

Khom Loi Pop-Up, Sebastopol 
At the Khom Loi Thai pop-up in Sebastopol, there’s nothing shy or demure about the spicy, sweet, sour flavors of East Asia
on the plate. The fire in my face, complete with watering eyes and running nose, makes that abundantly clear. Ramen Gaijin owners Matthew Williams and Moishe Hahn-Shuman — who started their own ramen shop as a pop-up several years ago at Woodfour Brewing — are hosting a handful of summer dinners inspired by travels in Northern Thailand and Laos. The food focuses on Chiang Mai and nearby Laos, with nods to Central and Southern Thailand.

Packed to capacity on a warm summer night, the restaurant temps were already feeling a little bit Bangkokish. But a brisk housemade Thai Iced Tea and cocktail king Scott Beattie’s Tiger Uppercut (house coconut-fat washed rum, lime, coconut milk, raw ginger, Thai herbs) loaded with ice in a handmade pottery cup was as welcome as a cold shower.

The first Khom Loi menu included tiny bamboo baskets of sticky rice (khao niaw, $3), and cold green papaya salad with braised octopus (som tam plahmuk, $13) that made us remember why we love this grated mixture of sour papaya, beans, cherry tomatoes, dried shrimp, fish sauce, lime and not-fooling-around chiles.

We also couldn’t get enough of the charcoal grilled mushroom salad (het paa nom tok, $12) with a punch of mint and fish sauce, lemongrass and toasted rice powder. As an entrée, the standout was Chiang Mai-style yellow curry (khoa soi gai, $14) that’s a soothing, creamy foil to the heat of spicier dishes. With slippery noodles, coconut milk, chicken and chili sauce, you’ll be lapping at the bottom of the bowl within minutes. Menus will change over the course of the pop-ups, which are twice monthly. Check out ramengaijin.com for details on upcoming events.

6948 Sebastopol Ave., Sebastopol, 707-827-3609, ramengaijin.com

Good Gourd: National Heirloom Expo Is About More Than Veggies

By Carey Sweet

Could corn, potatoes and soybeans be on America’s endangered list? How about apples? Or at least those classic potatoes, apples and the like produced from heirloom seeds that were first cultivated back in the 300s BC?

A little DNA twist here, a little gene splicing there — as big companies worm more and more foods onto the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s genetically modified approved list, farming is increasingly becoming pharmaceutical.

That’s food for thought, at least, as people from around the world gather for the 7th Annual National Heirloom Exposition running Sept. 5 through 7 from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. at Santa Rosa’s Sonoma County Fairgrounds. Tickets are $15 for one-day admission or $30 for a three-day pass.

Nearly 100 speakers, including Dr. Vandana Shiva of India, will take a hard look at the past — and the future — of the literal roots of produce. Shiva, who is known for her work as a pure seed activist, joins other visionaries including John Jeavons (a founder of the biointensive farming movement), “corn guru” Stephen Smith and celebrity chef Peter Gilmore (from Quay restaurant in Sydney, Australia) to discuss farming, gardening, cooking, seed saving, permaculture, biodynamics, orcharding, bee keeping and other critical environmental issues.

Uniting them all is the belief that heirloom fruits, vegetables, herbs and grains provide superior flavor and nutrition over more modern industrially farmed crops and hybrids raised on chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

The Expo, promoted as the largest pure food event in the world, showcases historic agriculture, horticulture and culinary traditions, and shares ways to preserve them. Every fall, more than 20,000 attendees converge for the nonprofit event that was created by seed entrepreneur and Petaluma Seed Bank founder Jere Gettle in 2011. In addition to the Seed Bank, Gettle owns Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Co. in Mansfield, Missouri, and Comstock, Ferre & Co. in Wethersfield, Connecticut.

Over the years, the Expo has expanded beyond its original California core, Gettle notes, now welcoming experts and guests from Mexico, Jamaica, Canada, Australia, India, Hawaii, France, Guatemala, Japan, Bosnia and beyond.

“The event is valuable on an international level, because it brings together seed collectors and agricultural ideas from so many countries,” he says. “Participants can then take seeds, ideas, and agricultural methods back to their countries and improve their food quality.”

Indeed, seed swaps are an Expo highlight, drawing gardeners of all levels interested in collecting, conserving and planting the valuable GMO-free heritage produce.

The heart of the festival is more than 4,000 varieties of heirloom produce on display, such as a 10-plus-foot-tall tower built of some 300 kinds of pumpkins and squash. Crafty growers lug in their biggest and best, too, vying for the $5,000 prize pumpkin contest. The challenge: beating the record-breaking 1,725-pound champion from 2015.

Other attractions include 300 vendors showcasing food and art, a Folk Music Festival and National Fiddlers Contest, and 150 exhibits featuring demonstration gardens, a “colossal” dahlia show and heritage livestock and poultry.

Then there’s the pure joy of exploring the sometimes weird world of the heirloom seed and food industry. Rare fruit specialist Stephen Spangler of Exotica Nursery in Vista, California, has been known to parade around with fruit on his head, while world-renowned fruit carver Carl Franklin Jones of Tennessee will show off why he retired from his successful career as a restaurant owner to pursue his true passion of whittling melons into works of art.

Kids, for whom the admission fee is waived, can get in on the fruity fun too with a new pavilion this year dedicated to games, tastings and school-group displays. A pre-Christmas visit from a notably slimmed down “Sustainable Santa” is another must-see, finding the bearded one sharing his message to shun fast and processed foods for honest nutrition.

If nothing else, Gettle hopes people embrace heirloom foods just for their remarkable flavors. What’s not to appreciate, after all, about beautiful, delicious delicacies like Amish Deer Tongue lettuce, Chinese Red Meat radishes, multicolor Rainbow Sweet Inca corn, and the rare Moon and Stars Yellow Flesh watermelon with a constellation of gold dots speckling its green-black rind?

“We think the Expo has been successful because people like the traditional agricultural fair combined with the more modern, up-to-date, organic methods,” he says. “And they see it’s something every gardener can do, focusing on saving the old ideas, seeds and methods.”

7th Annual National Heirloom Exposition
Sept. 5 – 7, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sonoma County Fairgrounds, 1350 Bennett Valley Road, Santa Rosa, theheirloomexpo.com.

Single-day ticket, $10; multiday ticket, $25. Children 17 and under free. Tickets can be purchased online, at the Petaluma Seed Bank and at the gate.

6 End of Summer Wines to Drink Now

By Sarah Stierch

Fall may be around the corner on the calendar, but temperatures aren’t dropping in Wine Country anytime soon. Whether enjoying a barbecue during these warm weather nights or settling into a night of binge watching fall television releases, there is rarely an excuse not to open a delicious bottle of wine. Click through the gallery above to discover six wines to enjoy at the end of summer. 

Kenwood Vineyards 2016 Rosé of Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast ($22)
Their first rosé since the 2008 vintage, Kenwood has created a tasty 100% pinot noir that has a rich personality making it a nice rosé to sip during the impending indian summer. It’s nose is filled with bing cherry and it tastes of plum and exotic spices, making it a great pairing with tajine or bacon wrapped dates. Also pairs well with day drinking.

Benevolent Neglect 2016 Riesling ($28)
The best riesling I’ve tasted this year, Benevolent Neglect has created an estate grown wine that represents Mendocino riesling to the t. It’s lush, floral, and chock full of apricot, candied meyer lemon and everything delicious about riesling. It’s not too sweet, either. The mouthfeel is elegant, silky and lingers. It’s a stand alone wine, but tastes great with spicy fish tacos or your favorite Indian takeout.

Belden Barns 2016 Estate Grüner Veltliner ($28)
When I heard Belden Barns was growing Grüner Veltliner (GV)  – the only growing in Sonoma County – I knew I had to get my hands on it. Commonly grown in Austria, Belden Barns’ estate GV is a bright, lemon curd heavy wine that has some of the best savory, acid on the market. It’s dry, has a light tingle of radish and flavors of honey and lemon in the mouth. Fans of sauvignon blanc and picpoul should grab this before it’s gone.

Landmark 2015 Overlook Chardonnay ($25)
It’s been 25 years since Landmark Vineyards released their first Overlook Chardonnay. The winery celebrates it with this anniversary vintage, which sticks to the tradition that has made this wine one of the most popular premium wines on the market. Aged in French oak for 10 months, 25% of which was new, this chard is balanced with classic notes of brioche, lemon curd and fresh baked sugar cookies. A great, go-to everyday chardonnay.

Donelan Family Winery Cuvée Christine Syrah ($48)
Syrah is the new pinot noir and Donelan presents a prime example of how wonderfully the Rhône varietal thrives in Sonoma County. It’s a bold wine, with lush flavors of dark cherry, dark chocolate, and raspberry. Even better? It’s a mere 14.2% ABV, making it great wine for a cool night by the fire pit or to share with friends at a hearty end of the summer barbecue. Buy one to drink now and one to age for five more years.

Jordan 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon ($55)
Pop open a bottle of Jordan Cabernet Sauvignon and you’ll make friends you never knew you had. It’s a classic Sonoma County wine and ’13 vintage is no exception. The nose is filled with floral, elegant notes and black fruit. The flavor is juicy, velvety, and plummy with hints of currant and boysenberry. Nice acid and great tannins make this an age worthy wine. Decant for at least one hour upon opening.

16 Kid-Friendly Things to Do in Sonoma in September and October

By Sarah Stierch

Looking for some family-friendly fun in September and October? Click through the gallery above for some of our favorite picks.