Category — Product Review

What a great Napa organic tour: a certified organic olive oil farm with solar powered fermentation tanks and other organic goodies for guests.

• Last Sunday’s San Francisco Chronicle article describes the Long Meadow Ranch tour in Rutherford.
• Located in Rutherford Gardens, 1796 S. St. Helena Highway, Rutherford. Daily tours at 10:30 a.m. $35 to $50 per person.

Last Sunday, my sister came into town and we headed up to Sonoma Valley for some winetasting. We went back to one of our favorites, Benziger, just north of Sonoma. They have one of the best tours from growing, production and storage. What I enjoy most is its focus on biodynamic growing, which claims to go beyond just organic growing with a self-sustaining ecosystem. The wines were all great, chardonnay and pinot noirs were some of my favorites. Located at 1883 London Ranch Road in Glen Ellen.

I finally moved into my first home a couple months ago. Excited, I decided to check out green furniture options. Is there such a thing like an organic sofa? What would that mean anyway? Apparently, there is a lot of interest in organic furniture, according to this CBS interview with Home and Garden. The real downside is the pricing. I found an organic sofa worth over $5,000. Why can’t these be any cheaper a la IKEA?My guess is until demand is greater, hopefully these prices will go down.

A friend forwarded me this interesting article from the San Francisco Chronicle on what organic really means. There appears to be only one true organic winery in Sonoma Valley…”Coturri Winery in Glen Ellen may be the only winery in California that could qualify for a “100 percent organic” claim, which requires that every ingredient in the wine be organic. That means no commercial yeast for starting the fermentation, no tartaric acid for correcting the wine’s acidity, and of course no sulfur dioxide.”

Of course, this could be subjective, many wineries claim they are organic or biodynamic. But I’m glad these wineries realize how important it is to remove toxins from their products and use it as a powerful marketing tool. Let’s just hope there’s no false advertising involved. =)

Since when did Safeway become so organic? I tried their organic blue corn tortilla chips with flaxseed and salsa from their “O –Organics” line. I was so surprised by the quality–this could have been either from Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods’ private organic line.

However, I would not recommend their produce. The veggies lack flavor; it was one of the worst broccolis I have tasted.

Pros: Good for non produce staples, convenient location and hours
Cons: Not local, poor produce quality

My old roommate, Muy, in San Francisco told me about a cute store called Giggle which sold baby gifts both online and through its store in the Marina. I decided to buy my friend Jenny’s baby an organic clothing set and organic cotton bibs…and I was honored to have the outfit I bought for my friend’s baby to be the newborn’s first outfit!

Pro: Less toxins on newborn babies, great gift for parents, convenient online shopping

Con: A bit expensive, selection is limited