Tag Archives: local food

Ranch Tour & Lunch

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.

6th Annual Snail of Approval Awards

Celebrate our 2023 Snail of Approval Awardees! We will honor 12 local restaurants, farms, and artisan producers at the 6th Annual Snail of Approval Awards ceremony at the Sebastopol Grange.

Meet our community of honorees and enjoy their tastes and displays, while learning about local food businesses. They will be joining a growing group of local Sonoma County food purveyors and hundreds of awardees from across the country.

Get your tickets now!

2023 Snail of Approval Awardees:

Light bites and beverages will be served.

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 recognized program, Snail of Approval is a powerful recognition. 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 Food USA’s Snail of Approval directory is a national interactive Snail of Approval map that allows users to find businesses across the US that are embracing the Slow Food values.

Visit the Sonoma County map for a full list of local Snail of Approval awardees.