Slow Food Sonoma County North

Terra Madre Americas, Sacramento
2025-09-26 - 2025-09-28 | CA

Tastes & Tales of Italy-Event Postponed
2025-08-23 17:30 - 20:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | 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!

Slow Books: Epitaph for a Peach, David Mas Masumoto
2025-08-04 17:30 - 19:00 | CA
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

Annual Summer Picnic at Gradek Ranch
2025-07-12 16:00 - 19:00 | CA
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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Farm Tour: Knights Valley Wagu at Ghost Donkey Ranch
2025-07-09 09:30 - 11:00 | CA
The Knights Valley Wagyu farm tour has been rescheduled to July 9, 2025

FARM TOUR: KNIGHTS VALLEY WAGYU AT GHOST DONKEY RANCH

Wednesday, July 9, 9:30-11:00 am
Knights Valley Wagyu
13800 Highway 128, Calistoga

Tickets

Get ready for a moo-ving experience! Join us for a tour of Knights Valley Wagyu, a 227-acre working cattle ranch that’s earned our Snail of Approval!
Ever wonder what makes Wagyu so special? The ranch is home to cattle with 100% Japanese genetics – that’s like royalty in the beef world! These happy cows spend their days foraging on lush native grasses, soaking up the California sunshine. They also get a special, hand-fed nutritional mixture twice daily, tailored just for them.
Knights Valley Wagyu is all about being kind to the planet and the animals. The land is devoted to wildlife, native plants, and cattle. No pesticides, fertilizers, or chemical agents are allowed and water usage is minimal. We believe that enjoying small amounts of thoughtfully and sustainably raised beef offers a delicious and ethical alternative to the typical factory farming of large animals.
Come soak in the stunning beauty of the ranch and get the inside scoop on what makes Knights Valley Wagyu truly special. Don’t forget to pack your favorite lunch! We’ll have a picnic area ready for us to share a meal together.

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: Love, Loss, and What We Ate: A Memoir, by Padma Lakshmi
2025-06-23 17:30 - 19:00 | CA
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

Slow Books: Dirt: Adventures in Lyon as a Chef in Training, Father, and Sleuth Looking for the Secret of French Cooking, by Bill Buford
2025-05-12 17:30 - 19:00 | CA
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.

MAY SELECTION: Dirt: Adventures in Lyon as a Chef in Training, Father, and Sleuth Looking for the Secret of French Cooking, by Bill Buford

What does it take to master French cooking? This is the question that drives Bill Buford to abandon his perfectly happy life in New York City and pack up and (with a wife and three-year-old twin sons in tow) move to Lyon, the so-called gastronomic capital of France. But what was meant to be six months in a new and very foreign city turns into a wild five-year digression from normal life, as Buford apprentices at Lyon’s best boulangerie, studies at a legendary culinary school, and cooks at a storied Michelin-starred restaurant, where he discovers the exacting (and incomprehensibly punishing) rigueur of the professional kitchen. With his signature humor, sense of adventure, and masterful ability to bring an exotic and unknown world to life, Buford has written the definitive insider story of a city and its great culinary culture. (Amazon)

Volunteer With Us At The Redwood Empire Food Bank
2025-04-16 10:00 - 13:00 | CA
Volunteer With Us at the Redwood Empire Food Bank!

The Redwood Empire Food Bank (REFB)is the largest hunger-relief organization serving Northern California. Since 1987, REFB has been feeding our neighbors in need and leading the community to end hunger. Volunteers are critical to the Food Bank’s mission. Every month, volunteers contribute time which would otherwise require the work of 45 full-time staff members.

Our Sonoma County North leadership group is volunteering a few hours of our time to help pack food in the Food Bank’s warehouse. We have reserved 12 places and invite you to join our team! Have fun together while giving back to our community and helping to alleviate hunger.

Wednesday, April 16, 10 am-1 pm

Redwood Empire Food Bank

3990 Brickway Boulevard, Santa Rosa

We must confirm our volunteer reservation with the Food Bank by APRIL 9. We look forward to working together!

SIGN UP HERE

Tour of Volo Chocolate
2025-03-26 11:00 - 12:30 | CA
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!

7th Annual Snail of Approval-Slow Food in Sonoma County Awards
2025-02-19 17:30 - 19:30 | Sebastopol Grange, 6000 Sebastopol Ave, Sebastopol, CA, 95472, United States
7th Annual Snail of Approval-

Slow Food in Sonoma County Awards

Wednesday, February 19, 2025

5:30 – 7:30 pm

Sebastopol Grange, 6000 Sebastopol Avenue, Sebastopol

The Snail of Approval is a prestigious recognition given to food businesses that embody the values of Slow Food: good, clean and fair food for all. This locally run yet internationally recognized program honors establishments that support sustainable food practices. At the 7th Annual Snail of Approval Awards ceremony, to be held at the Sebastopol Grange, 18 local restaurants, farms, artisan producers, and our new category–supporting organizations–will be celebrated.

Light bites and beverages will be available for guests, providing an opportunity to meet the new award winners, learn about their businesses, and join the growing network of hundreds of Snail of Approval recipients from across the country. This event is a chance to support and discover food businesses that are committed to sustainable, ethical, and high-quality food practices.

Included in the celebration will be our eleven Snail of Approval renewals for 2024. The Epicurean Connection, Farm to Fight Hunger, Geyserville Gun Club, Gradek Family Farm, Kendall Jackson Family Garden, Little Paradise Farm, Patisserie Angelica, Quail & Condor, Relish Culinary Adventures, Santa Rosa Junior College Shone Farm and Tall Grass Ranch.

Tickets

2024 Snail of Approval Awardees:

The Altamont General Store, Occidental
Belden Barns, Santa Rosa
Belfare, Petaluma
FEED Cooperative, Petaluma
Golden State Pickle Works
Goodness Gracious Private Chef and Catering, Sonoma
The Green Grocer
Kibo Farm, Santa Rosa
Lala’s Jam Bar and Urban Farmstand, Petaluma
Maison Porcella, Windsor
Marin Coast Ranch, Tomales
Nightingale Breads, Forestville
Pizzaleah, Windsor
Planetary Potato Chips
Sarmentine French Bakery, Petaluma & Sebastopol
Showa Farm, Cloverdale
Troubadour Bread & Bistro, Healdsburg
Woodlands Charcuterie

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 Books: An Omlette and a Glass of Wine, by Elizabeth David
2025-02-17 | CA
Our Slow Boods group is currently full, but please enjoy reading along with us.
FEBRUARY SELECTION: An Omelette and a Glass of Wine, by Elizabeth David

An Omelette and a Glass of Wine is a culinary classic by the greatest food writer of the mid-twentieth century, and one of the greatest food writers of any era. This revered volume contains a collection of articles Elizabeth David originally wrote for magazines and newspapers such as the Spectator, Gourmet, Vogue, and the Sunday Times (London). It offers delightful explorations of food and cooking, among which are its namesake essay and other such gems as “Syllabubs and Fruit Fools,” “Sweet Vegetables, Soft Wine,” “Pleasing Cheeses,” and “Whisky in the Kitchen.” David’s many admirers will cherish this new edition, and readers new to her writing will marvel at her wisdom and grace.

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

December 10 Terra Madre Day Dinner, Idlewild Winery, Healdsburg
2024-12-10 17:30 - 20:00 | CA
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

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)

The Return Of Our Sausage-Making Workshop
2024-11-13 10:00 - 14:00 | CA
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: 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)

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

Volunteer Days for Farm to Pantry
2024-10-16 08:30 - 11:00 | CA
Volunteer Days for Farm to Pantry

Do good and have fun: Volunteer with us for a few hours of gleaning for Farm to Pantry! This year there are 2 days of gleaning.

Wednesday, October 16, 8:30-11:00 am

and/or Wednesday, October 23, 8:30-11 am

We are gleaning at Farm to Fight Hunger, 12340 Los Amigos Road, Healdsburg

We will meet at Farm to Fight Hunger at 8:30 am at the barn. Park near the entrance to the farm and walk up the driveway to the barn.

During the morning, we will harvest field vegetables and bring them from the field to the barn. When we finish, the produce will be delivered to organizations that feed people in need of healthy food.

Wear work clothes and bring a water bottle, hat, and gloves. We’ll also learn a bit about this farm and its mission.

SIGN UP HERE

What Is Farm to Pantry?

In 2008, the nonprofit Farm to Pantry was launched to serve a need in our local community: to provide a continuous supply of fresh, healthy produce to our most vulnerable neighbors who lack access to it by cultivating a community of growers and volunteers. The mission then and now is to bring together communities to end food injustice and reverse global warming by rescuing and sharing locally-grown food with those who have been systematically marginalized. We envision a just food system in which everyone has access to healthy food that honors and nourishes our community and heals the planet through eliminating food waste.

Farm to Fight Hunger is a non-profit organization that grows, harvests and delivers fresh nutritious produce, free of charge, to those in Sonoma County in need of healthy food. Eggs laid by happy pastured hens are also donated to local food banks. We farm in an earth-friendly sustainable manner and work to improve the soil health, therefore improving the nutritional content of the food we grow, increasing the amount of carbon the soil can hold and reducing greenhouse gases. We will work to make the farm its own healthy balanced ecosystem, with habitat for both native plants and beneficial insects.

Farm to Fight Hunger is a Slow Food in Sonoma County Snail of Approval farm.

Farm to Fight Hunger owners Bruce Mentzer and Anthony Solar

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

Terra Madre/Salon del Gusto, Italy - See August Sonoma County North newsletter for details.
2024-09-26 | CA

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

Heron Shadow Farm Tour, Sebastopol
2024-09-12 10:00 - 11:15 | CA
Farm Tour: Heron Shadow

Heron Shadow is an Indigenous biocultural heritage oasis in Sebastopol. Join us for a special educational tour!
Thursday, September 12, 10-11:15 am
Sebastopol
Tickets are $20 for Slow Food members and $30 for non-members. The tour is limited to 15 people. Proceeds are divided equally between Heron Shadow Farm and Sonoma County North’s Local Farmer grant.
There are several Slow Food Snail of Approval restaurants in Sebastopol if you want to have lunch after the tour.
Handline, 935 Gravenstein Hwy S.
Americana, 162 N Main Street
Psychic Pie, 980 Gravenstein Hwy S.

BUY TICKETS HERE

An Indigenous Biocultural Heritage Oasis
Heron Shadow is a Native place of refuge and learning for community engagement, connection to the land, growing Indigenous foods, and nourishing Indigenous and intercultural relations.
After 37 years of growing our organization and implementing our mission to protect and revitalize the sacred relationship Native peoples have with ancestral lands, we now have purchased 7.6 acres of land in Sonoma County, on the ancestral lands of the Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo Peoples of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria. We were able to become stewards of this land and make this purchase thanks to the discount offered by the former owner, the generous support of key funders, and with the permission of Graton Rancheria.
Heron Shadow: An Indigenous Biocultural Heritage Oasis is a home for the dreaming, building, growing, and transmission of The Cultural Conservancy’s mission and work. We are transforming this gift of land into an innovative haven that will focus on the conservation and regeneration of Indigenous agriculture, Native Sciences, and healthy lifeways.
We invite you to connect with this land, engage in the dream, and experience the potential of Heron Shadow.
(The Cultural Conservancy is a Native-led nonprofit organization founded in 1985. It is based in the San Francisco Bay Area.)

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

Farm Tour: Hog Island Oyster Farm
2024-08-21 10:30 - 12:00 | Hog Island Oyster Co., Marshall, CA, United States
Farm Tour: Hog Island Oyster Farm

Join us for a special educational tour of Hog Island Oyster Farm! For those who are interested, we will have a quick visit to Hog Island Saltworks after the main tour.
Wednesday, August 21, 10:30 am – noon
Hog Island Oyster Company
20215 Shoreline Highway, Marshall, CA 94940
Tickets are $30 for Slow Food members and $40 for non-members.
Lunch is not provided but you may reserve a place at Tony’s Seafood, 415-663-1107, just down the road from our tour.

BUY TICKETS HERE

The Story of Hog Island Oysters
Few foods carry the flavor of “place” quite like an oyster. Tomales Bay has the cool, clean water rich in plankton that oysters feed on to grow plump and sweet, and the flavor of the bay is evident in every delicious mouthful.
We started out with the aim of cultivating the highest quality oysters possible, and that is still the driving principle behind Hog Island. Good things grow slowly and that is what we have tried to do, developing sustainable aquaculture techniques to produce superior shellfish that taste wonderful while building a community of like-minded people. We take great care in everything that we do, from cultivating oysters through to the ways in which we work with our environment and finally how we present our product to you.
Visit our farm in Marshall and learn all about oysters, how we farm them, the marine environment in which they grow, and how to shuck an oyster.

Salt Is Another Product
Harvesting salt the Hog Island way is hands-on from start to finish. We begin by feeding the mineral-rich water of Tomales Bay into a large evaporation tower lined with “salt sails,” made from the same material we use to grow our oysters. Water drips down the sails and recirculates back to the top with the help of solar-powered pumps. Then, we let the wind and sun work their magic to evaporate the sea water into a high salinity brine.
Next, the saturated brine gets brought into the salt house, where Jeff gently heats it over a wood-fired brick oven. As the salt emerges from the brine, Jeff carefully extracts the harvest to give it a unique, fluffy texture and rich mineral content.
The distinct mineral makeup of Tomales Bay’s water gives our salt a high concentration of essential minerals, like magnesium, potassium, iodine and more. With a deep umami flavor profile that’s uniquely West Marin, Hog Island Saltworks adds the perfect finishing touch to any dish.

information coming soon!

Slow Books: Endangered Eating: America's Vanishing Foods, by Sarah Lohman
2024-08-05 | CA
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)

Annual Summer Picnic at the Lake
2024-07-27 16:00 - 19:00 | Gradek Ranch, 2323 West Dry Creek Road, Healdsburg, CA, 95448, United States
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ANNUAL SUMMER PICNIC AT THE LAKE

Please join us at our Annual Summer Picnic at the Gradek Ranch lake in Healdsburg’s Dry Creek Valley!
SATURDAY, JULY 27, 4-7 pm
2323 West Dry Creek Road
Healdsburg

MENU
Selection of Sonoma County Breads and Spreads
Grilled Tuscan Ribs
Bodega Red Potato Salad
Kale and Wheat Berry Salad
Ice Cream and Shortbread
PLEASE BRING YOUR PLACE SETTING, GLASS, AND A BEVERAGE!

Tickets are $45 for Slow Food members, $55 for nonmembers. Children under 12 are free.
Directions will be sent upon registration.
Want to swim or dunk in the lake? Bring your bathing suit! There is a cabin for changing.
Not sure if your membership is current? Email us at slowfoodsonomacountynorth@gmail.com.

Buy Your Tickets Here

100-Mile Dinner Tickets
Some of you have experienced our delicious 100-Mile Dinners, in which every ingredient of the meal is sourced from within 100 miles. At the picnic, you may purchase a seat at our next dinner, on September 7.

Slow Books: How to Cook a Wolf by M.F.K. Fisher
2024-06-24 | CA
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.

The Mendocino Grain Project and Ridgewood Ranch Farm Tour
2024-06-15 10:00 - 13:00 | 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.

Farm Tour: Seven Moons Farm, Sonoma
2024-05-15 | CA
Farm Tour: Seven Moons Farm

You’re invited to a tour of Seven Moons Farm in Sonoma’s Valley of the Moon
Wednesday, May 15, 10-11:30 am
Tickets are $20 for Slow Food members and $25 for non-members.
Proceeds from this event will be shared equally by Seven Moons Farm and Sonoma County North’s Local Farmer Grant.

GET TICKETS HERE

Rebecca Bozzelli

Our tour will take approximately 1.5 hours, led by Seven Moons’ owner, Rebecca Bozzelli. There are two nearby restaurants that buy produce from the farm (Swim Club and El Molino) if you want to have lunch after the tour.
Directions to the farm will be sent upon registration.
Seven Moons is a small two-family farm in Sonoma Valley. It is a diverse landscape of fruit trees, perennial herbs, berries, flowers, native habitat, and fields for row crops. “We pride ourselves on growing the highest quality produce for local restaurants, farm boxes and the farmers market by focusing on sustainable and regenerative farming practices.”
Visit them on Saturday mornings at the Santa Rosa Original Farmers Market at The Luther Burbank Center.
Seven Moons Farm is a Snail of Approval in Sonoma County awardee, and grows Ark of Taste products.

©2024 Slow Food Sonoma County North | P.O. Box 1494 | Healdsburg CA | 95448

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

Slow Books: Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci
2024-04-08 | CA
Although the Slow Books meet-up is currently full, you can join us in reading this month’s selection.

From award-winning actor and food obsessive Stanley Tucci comes an intimate and charming memoir of life in and out of the kitchen.
Stanley Tucci grew up in an Italian American family that spent every night around the kitchen table. He shared the magic of those meals with us in The Tucci Cookbook and The Tucci Table, and now he takes us beyond the savory recipes and into the compelling stories behind them.​
Taste is a reflection on the intersection of food and life, filled with anecdotes about his growing up in Westchester, New York; preparing for and shooting the foodie films Big Night and Julie & Julia; falling in love over dinner; and teaming up with his wife to create meals for a multitude of children. Each morsel of this gastronomic journey through good times and bad, five-star meals and burned dishes, is as heartfelt and delicious as the last.
Written with Stanley’s signature wry humor, Taste is for fans of Bill Buford, Gabrielle Hamilton, and Ruth Reichl – and anyone who knows the power of a home-cooked meal. (Amazon)
