Slow Food Sonoma County North

Slow Books: The World Central Kitchen Cookbook by Jose Andres
2024-05-13
Although the Slow Books meet-up is currently full, you can join us in reading this month’s selection.

The Mendocino Grain Project and Ridgewood Ranch Farm Tour
2024-06-15 10:00 - 13:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Mendocino Grain Project, 3541 N. State Street, Ukiah, CA, 95482, United States
Farm Tour: The Mendocino Grain Project and Ridgewood Ranch

Please join us for a tour of the Mendocino Grain Project in Ukiah followed by a tour and picnic lunch at Ridgewood Ranch.
Saturday, June 15, 10 am
3541 N. State Street, Ukiah
The tour is limited to 15 people. Tickets are $20 for Slow Food members and $30 for non-members.
Proceeds will be shared equally by the Mendocino Grain Project and the chapter’s Local Farmer project.
Ridgewood Ranch is about 20 minutes north of Ukiah. You may choose to leave after our tour, or continue north to visit the Ranch and have a brown-bag lunch. Carpool options will be sent upon registration confirmation.

BUY TICKETS HERE

Rachel Britten is the owner of the Mendocino Grain Project in central Mendocino County. She grows primarily wheat and rye on 34 acres in Redwood Valley. She took over the business in 2020 from Doug Mosel who started it in 2009.
“We’re right on the Russian River, and we don’t use any fertilizer other than compost and cover crops. We use a low-tillage system, which means minimizing the disturbance to the soil. It’s part of my farming values, but it also feels like a responsibility to my community. Local farming creates a really beautiful loop of accountability and understanding.” (Alta Magazine)
Rachel processes her grain for sale, and also partners with other farmers to process their grains post-harvest: quinoa, rolled oats, heirloom beans, and Einkorn. A percentage of the grain stays with the Grain Project for sale and the remainder goes back to the farmers.
Rachel lives on a ranch made famous as the retirement home of champion race horse Sea Biscuit. Ridgewood Ranch is north of Ukiah, and we will have a chance to tour the ranch and have a brown-bag lunch after our visit to the grain milling facility in Ukiah.

Slow Books: How to Cook a Wolf by M.F.K. Fisher
2024-06-24
Although the Slow Books meet-up is currently full, you can join us in reading this month’s selection.
Written to inspire courage in those daunted by wartime shortages, How to Cook a Wolf continues to rally cooks during times of plenty, reminding them that providing sustenance requires more than putting food on the table.
M. F. K. Fisher knew that the last thing hungry people needed were hints on cutting back and making do. Instead, she gives her readers license to dream, to experiment, to construct adventurous and delicious meals as a bulwark against a dreary, meager present. Her fine prose provides reason in itself to draw our chairs close to the hearth; we can still enjoy her company and her exhortations to celebrate life by eating well.

Slow Books: Endangered Eating: America's Vanishing Foods, by Sarah Lohman
2024-08-05
Slow Books is an ongoing activity of our chapter. The group meets every 6 weeks to discuss a food-related book and enjoy a potluck dinner based on the book. We meet in people’s homes which can usually only accommodate up to 8 people. For this reason, we are usually unable to invite others than our core group of participants.
But we’re learning a lot from the books we’ve read, and thought you might want to enjoy the books as well. We will therefore let you know what we’re reading each meeting through the newsletter and our website.
August Selection
Endangered Eating: America’s Vanishing Foods, by Sarah Lohman
In Endangered Eating, culinary historian Sarah Lohman draws inspiration from the Ark of Taste, a list compiled by Slow Food International that catalogues important regional foods. Lohman travels the country learning about the distinct ingredients at risk of being lost. Readers follow Lohman to Hawaii, as she walks alongside farmers to learn the stories behind heirloom sugarcane. In the Navajo Nation, she assists in the traditional butchering of a Navajo Churro ram. Lohman heads to the Upper Midwest, to harvest wild rice; to the Pacific Northwest, to spend a day wild salmon reefnet fishing; to the Gulf Coast, to devour gumbo made thick and green with filé powder; and to the Lowcountry of South Carolina, to taste America’s oldest peanut—long thought to be extinct. Lohman learns from those who love these rare ingredients: shepherds, fishers, and farmers; scientists, historians, and activists. And she tries her hand at raising these crops and preparing these dishes. Each chapter includes two recipes, so readers can be a part of saving these ingredients by purchasing and preparing them.

Animated by stories yet grounded in historical research, Endangered Eating gives readers the tools to support community food organizations and producers that work to preserve local culinary traditions and rare, cherished foods—before it’s too late. (Amazon)

100-Mile Dinner in Bennett Valley
2024-09-07 18:00 - 20:00
100-Mile Dinner in Bennett Valley

Setting for our 100-mile dinner in 2023

A 100-mile dinner sources every ingredient within 100 miles of the dinner’s location. Please join us for our next special experience!
Saturday, September 7, 6 pm
Bennett Valley, Santa Rosa
This 5-course menu with wine is $165 per person. The dinner features Liberty duck, and the full menu will be set according to what is most fresh on September 7.
The meal is created and served by members of our chapter’s Events team, and raises funds for our many Slow Food projects that support farmers and food-related businesses.
The special location will be revealed when you purchase your ticket(s). Dinner is limited to 16 guests.

Sign up soon as only a few seats are left!

PAYMENT OPTION: If you prefer to pay by check, please sign up first at slowfoodsonomacountynorth@gmail.com. We will tell you where to send your check, and will register you when we receive it.

Slow Books: The Migrant Chef: The Life and Times of Lalo Garcia, by Laura Tillman
2024-09-16
Slow Books: The Migrant Chef, The Life and Times of Lalo Garcia

We have 3 places available at our next Slow Books meeting, and invite you to join us for a potluck dinner and discussion of the book, The Migrant Chef: The Life and Times of Lalo Garcia,by Laura Tillman.

Monday, September 16, 6 pm, Cloverdale

There is no charge for the meeting, but we must know who is coming. Please sign up here and we will confirm your attendance: slowfoodsonomacountynorth@gmail.com. The address and details about the meeting will be sent upon confirmation.

The Migrant Chef: The Life and Times of Lalo Garcia, by Laura Tillman A chef’s gripping quest to reconcile his childhood experiences as a migrant farmworker with the rarefied world of fine dining. Born in rural Mexico, Eduardo “Lalo” García Guzmán and his family left for the United States when he was a child, picking fruits and vegetables on the migrant route from Florida to Michigan. He worked in Atlanta restaurants as a teenager before being convicted of a robbery, incarcerated, and eventually deported. Lalo landed in Mexico City as a new generation of chefs was questioning the hierarchies that had historically privileged European cuisine in elite spaces. At his acclaimed restaurant, Máximo Bistrot, he began to craft food that narrated his memories and hopes. Mexico City–based journalist Laura Tillman spent five years immersively reporting on Lalo’s story: from Máximo’s kitchen to the onion fields of Vidalia, Georgia, to Dubai’s first high-end Mexican restaurant, to Lalo’s hometown of San José de las Pilas. What emerges is a moving portrait of Lalo’s struggle to find authenticity in an industry built on the very inequalities that drove his family to leave their home, and of the artistic process as Lalo calls on the experiences of his life to create transcendent cuisine. The Migrant Chef offers an unforgettable window into a family’s border-eclipsing dreams, Mexico’s culinary heritage, and the making of a chef. (Amazon)

Annual Meeting: An Afternoon of Conviviality And Information About The Food Movement
2024-10-27 15:00 - 17:00
Annual Meeting: An Afternoon of Conviviality and Information About the Food Movement

Meet and greet, sip and nibble, and hear about some cutting-edge issues in the food world. Please join us!

Sunday, October 27, 3-5 pm

Farm to Fight Hunger Barn, 12340 Los Amigos Road, Healdsburg

Greet your friends and meet new members, learn what your chapter has been doing, and make your voices heard. Our special speaker will tell us why Slow Food USA designated 2024 as the Year of Grain.

We ask you to please bring 3 items to the meeting:

an appetizer to share
a box of pasta that will be given to the Redwood Empire Food Bank for their October Project Pasta drive

a packet of seeds for Farm to Fight Hunger (jalapeno, serrano, poblano, and anaheim peppers; tomatoes and tomatillos; all kinds of summer and winter squash; cucumbers; garlic; kale; chard; basil, papalo)

Please register here

Our speaker is Farmer Mai Nguyen, who grows and mills heirloom grains in Sonoma County. Farmer Mai works for climate and social justice through farming, actions and advocacy. She is part of a global movement of agroecological farming, which integrates the science of sustainable agriculture with social justice. These farming practices encompass what the US considers organic or regenerative, while also embracing traditional, place-based knowledge that is healthful for ecosystems and those who live in them.

“Seeds remember. Growing heirloom seeds saved from the same soil and climate, even as we face climate change’s extreme droughts and floods, means that the seeds remember how to adapt. Seeds also carry our stories–where we came from and what nourished our ancestors. The heirloom grains I grow come from many parts of the world by the hands of people immigrating or escaping. These seeds connect them to a place and people as they make a new home here. The diversity of seed reflects the diversity of our society.” Farmer Mai Nguyen

We extend a special invitation to our newer members–come meet other members and get involved in your chapter’s activities! If your membership has expired, attend and renew it. Not a member? Come and see what we’re all about!

P.O. Box 1494 | Healdsburg CA | 95448 unsubscribe

Slow Books: The Upstairs Delicatessen: On Eating, Reading, Reading About Eating, and Eating While Reading
2024-10-28 17:30 - 19:00 | Sebastopol
Slow Books is an ongoing activity of our chapter. The group meets every 6 weeks to discuss a food-related book and enjoy a potluck dinner based on the book. We meet in people’s homes which can usually only accommodate up to 8 people. For this reason, we are usually unable to invite others than our core group of participants.
But we’re learning a lot from the books we’ve read, and thought you might want to enjoy the books as well.

OCTOBER SELECTION: The Upstairs Delicatessen: On Eating, Reading, Reading About Eating, and Eating While Reading, by Dwight Garner

Dwight Garner, the beloved New York Times critic and the author of Garner’s Quotations, serves up the intertwined pleasures of books and food. The product of a lifetime of obsessively reading, eating, and every combination therein, The Upstairs Delicatessen: On Eating, Reading, Reading About Eating, and Eating While Reading is a charming, emotional memoir, one that only Garner could write. In it, he records the voices of great writers and the stories from his life that fill his mind as he moves through the sections of the day and of this book: breakfast, lunch, shopping, the occasional nap, drinking, and dinner.

Through his lifelong infatuation with these twin joys, we meet the man behind the pages and the plates, and a portrait of Garner, eager and insatiable, emerges. He writes with tenderness and humor about his mayonnaise-laden childhood in West Virginia and Naples, Florida (and about his father’s famous peanut butter and pickle sandwich), his mind-opening marriage to a chef from a foodie family (“Cree grew up taking leftover frog legs to school in her lunch box”), and the words and dishes closest to his heart. This is a book to be savored, though it may just whet your appetite for more. (Amazon)

The Return Of Our Sausage-Making Workshop
2024-11-13 10:00 - 14:00
The Return of Our Sausage-Making Workshop!

Join us for a fun and delicious day of making Italian sausage. We’ll enjoy the results of our morning workshop with lunch.

Wednesday, November 13, 10 am-2 pm

Sciaini Family Estate

25975 River Road, Cloverdale

This workshop will be led by Slow Food members Marie Giacalone and Denaire Nixon, cooks and bakers extraordinaire. It is hands-on and limited to 10 participants. Learn how to grind the meat, season it, and insert it into casings. When the sausage is ready, we’ll grill it for lunch.

Lunch includes salad and wine as well.

Tickets are $50 for Slow Food members and $60 for non-members.

Because this workshop has limited attendance, it is being offered first to current chapter members.

Buy your ticket here.

P.O. Box 1494 | Healdsburg CA | 95448 unsubscribe

Slow Books: Invitation to A Banquet, by Fuchsia Dunlop
2024-12-02 17:30 - 19:30 | Healdsburg
Our Slow Boods group is currently full, but please enjoy reading along with us.
DECEMBER SELECTION: Invitation to A Banquet: The Story of Chinese Food, by Fuchsia Dunlop

Chinese was the earliest truly global cuisine. When the first Chinese laborers began to settle abroad, restaurants appeared in their wake. Yet Chinese has the curious distinction of being both one of the world’s best-loved culinary traditions and one of the least understood. For more than a century, the overwhelming dominance of a simplified form of Cantonese cooking ensured that few foreigners experienced anything of its richness and sophistication—but today that is beginning to change.

In Invitation to a Banquet, award-winning cook and writer Fuchsia Dunlop explores the history, philosophy, and techniques of Chinese culinary culture. In each chapter, she examines a classic dish, from mapo tofu to Dongpo pork, knife-scraped noodles to braised pomelo pith, to reveal a distinctive aspect of Chinese gastronomy, whether it’s the importance of the soybean, the lure of exotic ingredients, or the history of Buddhist vegetarian cuisine.

Meeting food producers, chefs, gourmets, and home cooks as she tastes her way across the country, Fuchsia invites readers to join her on an unforgettable journey into Chinese food as it is cooked, eaten, and considered in its homeland. (Amazon)

December 10 Terra Madre Day Dinner, Idlewild Winery, Healdsburg
2024-12-10 17:30 - 20:00
Celebrate Terra Madre Day With Us Again!

Please join us for dinner to celebrate International Terra Madre Day!

Tuesday, December 10, 5:30 -8 pm

This year we are again observing Terra Madre Day with dinner at the intimate Idlewild Tasting Room

132 Plaza Street, Healdsburg

MENU

Selection of Appetizers

Fennel, Apple and Arugula Salad

Coq au Vin with Mashed Potatoes

(a vegetarian option will be offered)

Meringues with Cranberry Compote

Idlewild Wines

In the Slow Food tradition, please bring your own (non-disposable) plate + silverware + napkin to help reduce waste and clean-up time. Wine glasses will be provided.

Please DO NOT BRING YOUR OWN WINE! Legally we can consume only Idlewild wines in the tasting room.

Tickets are $60 for Slow Food members, $75 for non-members. Sales will close on December 6, 2024.

See you on December 10!

Reserve a Spot

This year, Terra Madre Day calls our global community to unite in celebration of agroecology—a practice that champions sustainable farming, biodiversity, and the well-being of our ecosystems. Together, we honor “good, clean, and fair food for all” while recognizing the vital connection between nature, our food systems, and our communities.

Under the theme, “We Are Nature,” this year’s Terra Madre Day reminds us of our deep connection to the natural world and the responsibility we share in its care. Around the world, local events will bring attention to the resilience of our food cultures and the crucial role of community-led action in protecting our environment. Whether through farm tours, seed exchanges, workshops on sustainable practices, or conversations with local producers, we’re all invited to get involved.

P.O. Box 1494 | Healdsburg CA | 95448 unsubscribe

Passionate About Pie!
2025-01-27 13:00 - 16:00
Passionate About Pie!

Get ready for whatever the New Year has in store—everything is better with pie! Join us for a hands-on pie-making workshop.

Monday, January 27, 1-4 pm

Cloverdale

with Chef Christine Piccin

We’ll discuss what goes into a tender, delicious crust, I’ll teach you my tricks and soon you’ll be shaping your own perfect pies. We’ll sample a chocolate cream pie (a single-crust technique) and you’ll take home a mini lattice-crust apple pie you made yourself!

If you have a rolling pin, please bring it with you – let us know if you do not.

Tickets are $35 for Slow Food members and $45 for non-members. Only current members are receiving this initial invitation

Get your ticket here!

Instructor Christine Piccin

Chef Christine Piccin has written about food and travel, cooked in restaurants for many years and now trains student-chefs in the SRJC Culinary Arts program. She has paired food and wine for wineries, was the president of the Sonoma County Culinary Guild and a Harvest Fair Sweepstakes Award winner, a competition she now helps judge. Christine credits her dad with inspiring her to try just about anything, once, and her mom with teaching her how to make the perfect pie crust.

P.O. Box 1494 | Healdsburg CA | 95448 unsubscribe

Tour of Volo Chocolate
2025-03-26 11:00 - 12:30
Tour of VOLO Chocolate

VOLO is the award-winning handmade “Bean to Bar” deep chocolate founded in 2016 by Jeff and Susan Mall, Sonoma County farm-to-table chefs.

Join us for a tour of VOLO’s small factory and learn about the process of making chocolate from Jeff Mall.

Wednesday, March 26, 11 am – 12:15 pm

399 Business Park Court, Windsor

Tickets are $30 per person for Slow Food members. Because space is limited, this invitation is going first to current members only.

REGISTER HERE!

For those who would like to have lunch after the tour, one of Slow Food’s Snail of Approval restaurants is nearby. PizzaLeah is at 9240 Old Redwood Highway, Suite 116, Windsor (in the Oliver’s shopping center). 707.620.0551.

VOLO’s Process

Our chocolate making process begins with sourcing cacao (cocoa beans) from various parts of the world. We work with Uncommon Cacao to source ultra-premium grade organic beans. They operate their business with Transparent Trade, financial transparency, a step beyond Fair Trade guidelines.

We receive the fermented/dried cacao at our little factory here in Sonoma County. The first step is roasting, which is much like roasting coffee. Time and temperature are closely monitored and adjusted during the roasting process.

Once the beans have been roasted, there are several more processes before the chocolate bars are molded and packaged. The artwork on the labels are photographs of quilts made by Cathy Shanahan, a renowned textile artist, and Jeff’s aunt!

Slow Books: Love, Loss, and What We Ate: A Memoir, by Padma Lakshmi
2025-06-23 17:30 - 19:00
Slow Books is an ongoing activity of our chapter. The group meets every 6 weeks to discuss a food-related book and enjoy a potluck dinner based on the book. We meet in people’s homes which can usually only accommodate up to 8 people. For this reason, we are usually unable to invite others than our core group of participants.

But we’re learning a lot from the books we’ve read, and thought you might want to enjoy the books as well.

JUNE SELECTION: Slow Books: Love, Loss, and What We Ate: A Memoir, by Padma Lakshmi

A vivid memoir of food and family, survival and triumph, Love, Loss, and What We Ate traces the arc of Padma Lakshmi’s unlikely path from an immigrant childhood to a complicated life in front of the camera—a tantalizing blend of Ruth Reichl’s Tender at the Bone and Nora Ephron’s Heartburn
Long before Padma Lakshmi ever stepped onto a television set, she learned that how we eat is an extension of how we love, how we comfort, how we forge a sense of home—and how we taste the world as we navigate our way through it. Shuttling between continents as a child, she lived a life of dislocation that would become habit as an adult, never quite at home in the world. And yet, through all her travels, her favorite food remained the simple rice she first ate sitting on the cool floor of her grandmother’s kitchen in South India.
Poignant and surprising, Love, Loss, and What We Ate is Lakshmi’s extraordinary account of her journey from that humble kitchen, ruled by ferocious and unforgettable women, to the judges’ table of Top Chef and beyond. It chronicles the fierce devotion of the remarkable people who shaped her along the way, from her headstrong mother who flouted conservative Indian convention to make a life in New York, to her Brahmin grandfather—a brilliant engineer with an irrepressible sweet tooth—to the man seemingly wrong for her in every way who proved to be her truest ally. A memoir rich with sensual prose and punctuated with evocative recipes, it is alive with the scents, tastes, and textures of a life that spans complex geographies both internal and external.
Love, Loss, and What We Ate is an intimate and unexpected story of food and family—both the ones we are born to and the ones we create—and their enduring legacies. Amazon

Annual Summer Picnic at Gradek Ranch
2025-07-12 16:00 - 19:00
It’s Time for the Slow Food Annual Summer Picnic at the Gradek Ranch!

Saturday, July 12
4 – 7 pm

Our Annual Summer Picnic is held on the Gradek Ranch in the Dry Creek Valley. Please join us for an afternoon of friends and food in a beautiful setting: picnic tables under the shade of tall trees and a lake ready for swimming. Come at 4 pm for appetizers, followed by a Mexican Taco Bar supper with grilled steak and chicken and hand-made tortillas.
Please bring a beverage and your place-setting!

Tickets Here

Thank you for supporting our chapter’s initiatives! This picnic is more than just a fun gathering—it’s also a fundraiser that helps us keep our efforts going strong. We’re grateful for your participation and generosity. In addition, we’re proud to donate a portion of the proceeds to Farm to Fight Hunger, supporting their mission to combat food insecurity.

Slow Food Sonoma County North | Contact Us
a 501(c)3 non-profit organization

Slow Food Sonoma County North | PO Box 1494 | Healdsburg, CA 95448 US

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Slow Books: Epitaph for a Peach, David Mas Masumoto
2025-08-04 17:30 - 19:00
Slow Books is an ongoing activity of our chapter. The group meets every 6 weeks to discuss a food-related book and enjoy a potluck dinner based on the book. We meet in people’s homes which can usually only accommodate up to 8 people. For this reason, we are usually unable to invite others than our core group of participants.

But we’re learning a lot from the books we’ve read, and thought you might want to enjoy the books as well.

JUNE SELECTION: Slow Books: Epitaph for a Peach, David Mas Masumoto
A lyrical, sensuous and thoroughly engrossing memoir of one critical year in the life of an organic peach farmer, Epitaph for a Peach is “a delightful narrative . . . with poetic flair and a sense of humor” (Library Journal). Line drawings. Amazon

Tastes & Tales of Italy-Event Postponed
2025-08-23 17:30 - 20:30 | The Clubhouse at Tayman Golf Club, 927 S. Fitch Mountain Road, Healdsburg, CA, 95448, United States
Event postponed, more information on new date coming soon.

Celebrate Italy, Slow Food, and Local Flavor at “Tastes & Tales of Italy” Dinner
Join Slow Food Sonoma County North Tastes & Tales of Italy, an unforgettable evening of food, stories, and community. This special event celebrates our chapter’s delegates who attended the global Terra Madre Salone del Gusto gathering in Turin, Italy last fall—an international showcase of sustainable food and farming.
Highlights of the Evening:• Italy-inspired dinner by Chef Ryan Ramey of Americana & Estero Café• Four-course meal featuring local, seasonal ingredients (menu below)• Stories & photos from our delegates’ journey to Terra Madre 2024• Silent auction featuring local experiences, artisan goods, and more• A selection of wines will be included
Menu:• Appetizers: Peaches with creamy cheese & honey, anchovy crostini, Wise Acre Farm beef meatballs• Entrée: Italian fry bread with local charcuterie• Main: Saffron risotto with Liberty Duck & gremolata, grilled summer vegetables• Dessert: Buttermilk panna cotta with candied hazelnut crunch
Tickets
Meet Our Delegates:Tiffany Holbrook (Wise Acre Farm), Samantha Ramey (Americana & Estero Café), and Donna del Rey (Relish Culinary Adventures)—all Snail of Approval awardees and leaders in local, sustainable food.
Silent Auction Highlights:• 2-night stay at an ocean-view Sea Ranch home• Wine tasting for 4 at Papapietro Perry Winery• Local olive oil basket, artisan ceramics, hand-woven Guatemalan mat• Tickets to future Slow Food dinners, including our 100-Mile Dinner (May 2026)
This event will raise funds to send chapter delegates to Terra Madre 2026. Thank you for your support!

Celebrate a Year of Slow Food With Us at Our Annual Meeting, Healdsburg!
2025-10-26 15:00 - 17:00
Celebrate a Year of Slow Food With Us at Our Annual Meeting!

Barn at Farm to Fight Hunger

Speaker Vince Trotter

October 26, 3-5 pm
Farm to Fight Hunger
12340 Los Amigos Road, Healdsburg

There is no charge for this event, but please register for planning purposes.

Register Here

Come Help Us Celebrate Our Members and Our Collective Work This Year–and Learn About North Bay Agriculture
Mingle with old friends and meet new members, have some nibbles and drinks, and find out what your chapter has been doing this year.
We will enjoy the beauty of the fields and barn at Farm to Fight Hunger and hear from owners Bruce Mentzer and Anthony Solar about their mission to provide food for those in need.
And we are excited to welcome Vince Trotter as our speaker. Vince is Sustainable Ag Coordinator and Agricultural Ombudsman with UC Cooperative Extension in Marin County and co-owner of Kibo Farm. He will give us “A Perspective on North Bay Agriculture” and answer your questions.

Special Information
Please bring your favorite appetizer to share, and label it.
Beverages provided.
Bring a friend! We want to spread the word about Slow Food and Good, Clean, Fair food for all.
If your membership has expired, attend and renew it. Not a member? Come and see what we’re all about!

Farm to Fight Hunger
Our mission is to sustainably grow nutritious vegetables, and to produce pasture-raised eggs, for donation to those in need of healthy food in Sonoma County. We donate 100% of what we grow.
The farm is a Snail of Approval – Slow Food in Sonoma County recipient.

Slow Food Sonoma County North | Contact Us
a 501(c)3 non-profit organization

Terra Madre Day Dinner, Healdsburg
2025-12-10 17:30 - 20:00
Terra Madre Day Dinner

This year we are again observing International Terra Madre Day with dinner at the intimate Idlewild Tasting Room. Please join us!

Wednesday, December 10, 5:30 -8 pm
132 Plaza Street, Healdsburg

MENU

Selection of Appetizers

Salad of Local Greens with Gorgonzola and Gradek Pears
Spezzatino di Maiale (Pork Stew) on Polenta
(a vegetarian option will be offered)

Meyer Lemon Panna Cotta
Idlewild Wines
Tickets are $60 for Slow Food Members and $75 for non-members
Ticket sales will end on December 6.

Get Your Tickets Here

In the Slow Food tradition, please bring your own (non-disposable) plate + silverware + napkin to help reduce waste and clean-up time. Wine glasses will be provided.

Please do not bring your own wine. Idlewild wines will be served during the evening.
Doors will open promptly at 5:30 pm.

December 10 marks Terra Madre Day, our global celebration of food, community, and the living networks that connect us all. Marking the anniversary of the founding of the Slow Food movement in 1989, this day provides us a moment for communities everywhere to celebrate local food cultures and to show how food can be a force for connection, resilience, and change.

Slow Food Sonoma County North | Contact Us
a 501(c)3 non-profit organization

Scone Making Class, Sebastopol
2026-01-21 09:30 - 12:30 | Patisserie Angelica, 6821 Laguna Park Way, Sebastopol, CA, United States
Celebrate the New Year by learning to make scones! Join us in a fun, educational, and interactive class at Patisserie Angelica.
Patisserie Angelica, 6821 Laguna Park Way, Sebastopol
Tickets
Patisserie Angelica is a locally-owned, award-winning French-style artisanal bakery. It has a Slow Food Snail of Approval. Our class will be taught by Maggie, one of the famous bakers at the patisserie. We will gather in the kitchen to learn the process and mix the dough, and then sit down in the cosy dining area to enjoy scones with a pot of hot tea.
Patisserie Angelica’s scones are unique in that they’re made only with cream. There’s no butter, unlike in many scone recipes. In a Press Democrat interview, owner Gargana Karabelov explains that “The cream makes them crackly on the outside and softer on the inside, and they don’t get dry. I like them better than scones made with butter.”Pa
Tickets for this special event are $40 for Slow Food members and $50 for non-members. The class is limited to 10 participants.

Tastes & Tales of Italy, Healdsburg - Ticket Sales End January 30
2026-02-04 17:30 - 20:30 | The Clubhouse at Tayman Golf Club, 927 S. Fitch Mountain Road, Healdsburg, CA, 95448, United States
Please join us for an evening on beautiful Fitch Mountain for a Northern Italy-inspired dinner! The menu was planned by our three delegates to Terra Madre 2024, the bi-annual international Slow Food gathering in Torino, Italy.
Start the evening with an aperitivo, browse the offerings at our silent auction, then sit down to a family-style dinner. During the evening, we will also hear heartfelt tales from our delegates about their experiences at Terra Madre Italy.
Tickets are $80 for Slow Food members and $90 for non-members.
Tickets
This event will raise funds to send chapter delegates to Terra Madre 2026.
Thank you for your support!

Our Delegates to Terra Madre 2024Tiffany Holbrook, owner Wise Acre Farm, WindsorSamantha Ramey, co-owner Estero Cafe and AmericanaDonna del Rey, owner Relish Culinary Adventures, Healdsburg

Our delegates are stars in the Sonoma County food system. They represented our farms and restaurants, and learned about food, farming, and other practices from other delegates from around the world. They also led a workshop about Sonoma County’s Snail of Approval program.

Tastes & Tales of Italy Menu

AperitivoPolenta Squares | Tomato Jam | Valley Ford Farmers CheeseCrusty Bread | Italian Anchovy ButterWise Acre Farm Meatballs

MainWinter Greens Salad | Candied Hazelnuts | Blood Orange VinaigrettePasta al Forno | Duck RaguVegetarian Option: Pasta al Forno | Mushroom RaguRoasted Broccolini

DessertChocolate Bonet | Amaretti Cookies

Local wines will accompany the meal.

Silent Auction Items-2 nights at a 2-bedroom, ocean-view Sea Ranch home-Wine tasting and charcuterie plate for 4 at Papapietro Perry Winery in Healdsburg-Basket of 4 local olive oils-Serving bowl and salad/dessert plates by Aletha Soule Studio with accompanying hand-woven mat by AMIDI in Guatemala-PLUS you can buy a seat at our next 100-Mile Dinner, May 2026 in Cloverdale!

8th Annual Snail of Approval Awards-Slow Food in Sonoma County
2026-02-25 17:30 - 19:30 | Sebastopol Grange, 6000 Sebastopol Ave, Sebastopol, CA, 95472, United States
On February 25, Slow Food in Sonoma County invites you to gather at the Sebastopol Grange for an evening of connection, conversation, and celebration at our 8th Annual Snail of Approval Awards.
This year, we are honoring 21 Sonoma County food businesses—from regenerative farms and community markets to beloved restaurants and artisan producers—whose work reflects Slow Food values in action every day. These are the businesses nourishing our community while caring for the land, supporting workers, and strengthening local food traditions.
The evening will feature:

· Recognition of our 2025 Snail of Approval awardees and renewal recipients
· Opportunities to meet farmers, chefs, and food makers and hear their stories
· Light bites and beverages highlighting local producers
· A warm, informal atmosphere designed for community and conversation

At a time when small food businesses face growing challenges, the Snail of Approval Awards offer a chance to pause, come together, and celebrate what’s working—and the people making it happen.
Whether you’re a longtime Slow Food supporter or simply curious about where your food comes from, we hope you’ll join us for this meaningful community celebration.
Get Your Tickets Now!
2025 Snail of Approval Award Recipients

Ambix Spirits, Sebastopol
The Beet Restaurant & Wine Shop, Cloverdale
Ceres Community Project, Sebastopol
Chad’s Soup Shack & Catering, Sonoma County
Cloverdale Certified Farmers Market, Cloverdale
Dahlia & Sage Community Market, Cloverdale
Fishetarian Fish Market, Bodega Bay
Front Porch Farm, Healdsburg
Gabacool Provisions, Sonoma County
The Guerneville Certified Farmers Market, Guerneville
Hot Drops, Sonoma County
Jupiter Foods, Petaluma
Knight Valley Wagyu, Calistoga
Little Saint Farm, Healdsburg
Little Saint Restaurant, Healdsburg
Longer Table Farm, Santa Rosa
Santa Rosa Original Certified Farmers Market, Santa Rosa
Tenfold Farmstand, Petaluma
The Redwood, Sebastopol
Valley bar + bottle, Sonoma
Valley Swim Club, Sonoma

Also recognized during the celebration are 18 businesses receiving Snail of Approval renewals for 2025: Americana Santa Rosa, Bernier Farms, Black Pig Meat Co/Black Piglet, COOKIE…take a bite!, Corner Project, DaVero Farms & Winery, Diavola Pizzeria & Salumeria, Estero Café, Gold Ridge Organic Farms, Handline, Laguna Farm, Lunchette, Red Horse Pizza, Seven Moons Farm, SingleThread Farm & Restaurant, Sunray Farm, Tierra Vegetables, Tilted Shed Ciderworks.
Visit our Snail of Approval map for a full list of local Snail of Approval awardees.
Snail of Approval is a recognition given to food businesses that pursue and practice Slow Food values of good, clean and fair food for all. As a locally run but internationally embraced program, Snail of Approval is a powerful validation for businesses. Slow Food in Sonoma County is a joint project of two local Slow Food chapters, Sonoma County North and Russian River, run in partnership with Slow Food USA.

Slow Cinema, We Feed People, Healdsburg
2026-03-25 15:00 - 17:00
More information to come!
Learn more about the film.

Ranch Tour & Lunch
2026-05-08 10:30 - 13:30
TOUR: STEMPLE CREEK RANCH
900 Burbank Lane, Tomales
Join us for a tour of Stemple Creek Ranch, acclaimed for its superior grass-fed and finished meats and regenerative and organic agricultural practices. The ranch has been home to the Poncia family for four generations. “We seek to enhance and rehabilitate our entire ecosystem by focusing on soil health and increasing carbon in our land.”
We encourage you to support the ranch by purchasing their products: meat (beef, lamb, pork, chicken) and swag (honey, tallow lip and hand balm, caps and more). Please order ahead of time and pick up at the tour.
LUNCH: ESTERO CAFE
14451 Highway 1, Valley Ford
After our ranch tour, we will drive a short distance to Estero Cafe for lunch. The menu is their signature cheeseburgers with Stemple Creek beef and Estero Gold cheese, french fries, a house-made cookie, and tea or lemonade. The vegetarian option is mushroom melt with coleslaw.
Beer and wine is available for purchase.
Tickets are $50 per person ($55 for non-members), which covers the ranch tour and lunch. Space is limited. Note that ticket sales end on May 1.
About Stemple Creek Ranch
Our goal is to work in harmony with Mother Nature to promote optimal biodiversity that ensures the long term health and productivity of the ranch. Most of our pastureland is Certified Organic, and our free range beef and lamb are 100% grass fed and grass finished. We rotationally graze our stock on open pasture from birth to harvest. They are never supplemented with grains, corn, or soy, and never receive artificial hormones, growth promotants, or antibiotics. Our pigs are humanely raised in large outdoor pens where they enjoy a vegetarian diet with plenty of room to socialize and express natural behaviors.
About Estero Cafe
Located in Valley Ford, Estero Cafe offers fresh, farm-to-table American comfort food. We are dedicated to local sourcing, by procuring locally farmed proteins and vegetables for all our dishes. In that way we also support our community by providing healthy, delicious meals. We are also happy to feature beverages from regional producers. Estero Cafe owners are Ryan and Samantha Ramey; it holds a Snail of Approval in Sonoma County.

Slow Food 100-Mile Dinner
2026-05-30 18:00 - 20:30 | Diaz Ranch/Colibri Vineyard, 26607 River Rd, Cloverdale, CA, 95425, United States
Experience the flavors of our region in their purest form. A 100-mile dinner celebrates ingredients sourced entirely from within 100 miles—highlighting the farmers, producers, and artisans who make our local food community so vibrant.
Join us this May for an intimate and memorable evening at a beautiful private estate in Cloverdale.
Enjoy a thoughtfully crafted five-course menu with wine pairings, created and served by members of our chapter’s Events Team. Each dish will reflect the season at its peak, showcasing the very best of what our region has to offer.
With just 16 seats at the table, this is a rare opportunity to gather, connect, and savor a truly local dining experience.
$165 per person | Limited seating
Proceeds from the evening support our Slow Food projects, including initiatives that uplift local farmers and food businesses.

Tabling at Cloverdale Certified Farmers Market
2026-07-19 09:30 - 13:00 | Cloverdale Certified Farmers Market, West 2nd Street, Cloverdale, CA, 95425, United States
Come to the market and stop by our booth, we would love to see you!

Riverfront Park Potluck
2026-08-19 17:30 - 19:30 | Riverfront Regional Park, 7821 Eastside Rd, Healdburg, CA, 95448, United States
More information coming soon.

Tabling at Healdsburg Farmers' Market
2026-08-22 08:00 - 12:00 | Healdsburg Farmers’ Market, 3 North St at Vine, Healdsburg, CA, 95448, United States
