Category — Sonoma

Can you imagine the Bay Area without Mount Tam, Half Moon Bay Beach, and Henry Coe? Well that’s what the Governor announced - a new proposal to eliminate state funding for our state park system – which will close more than 80% of the 279-unit state park system.  His proposal to cut $143 million from our state parks is 10 times worse than last year’s proposal.

What can you do?

1. Sign the petition from the California State Parks Foundation

2. Donate to the California State Parks Foundation, the only non profit dedicated to advocating for the California State park system.

3. Learn more about the issues and the California state budget.

4. Spread the word!

Last year, during this time, I realized I couldn’t handle the day to day tasks of a wedding while at work. So I made the wise choice of hiring a wedding planner. I looked for a green, environmental wedding planner, and I was able to find one!

I worked with Corina Beczner of Vibrant Events. I liked her style, her background in sustainability, and her ideas. She worked with me for several months before the big day in Half Moon Bay to concoct a green wedding. My wedding had so many green elements in it that it has been filmed by Bloomberg, along with other green wedding vendors like Brilliant Earth. More photos and ideas from my wedding to come!

California State and federal government officials plan to spray across the San Francisco Bay Area in order to eradicate the apple moth. According to a recent Chronicle article, “Hundreds of residents in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties, where pheromone pesticides were aerially applied late last year, have reported health symptoms, including shortness of breath, muscle aches and sore throats.”

Read more about these issues through a local non profit dedicated against the spraying called Stop The Spray. I signed the petition to stop the spray on Care2 which already contains over 14,000 signatures.

In the midst of my own wedding planning, I checked out some interesting organic and green wedding ideas in the Bay Area. One place that I really liked was a restaurant called Barndiva in the beautiful town of Healdsburg.

The owner, Lukka Feldman, gave us a nice tour of the city and offered to host an all inclusive wedding with organic, local food and drinks. The restaurant is a beautiful restored barn with an outdoor garden. It is one of the few restaurants featured in Michelin from the Bay Area. Don’t miss this place for drinks at night if you are in Sonoma wine country.

It’s wedding/birthday season and my last weekend was packed with trips to both Sonoma and Napa. A big group of my high school friends celebrated two birthdays in Sonoma wine country. I couldn’t make it until the dinner which was held at El Dorado Kitchen. The drinks were very fresh and relaxing (see the mint mojito and pomegranate cocktail above).
To start, I had a Caesar salad with local, organic romaine lettuce, with cucumbers. The salad was also very fresh, but I think it had a little too much dressing for my taste.
Although we sat outside near the pool and patio, the interior (see above) of the restaurant was decorated in a relaxed, but modern California style.
For my main course, I tried a mushroom, pea, tomato bow tie pasta. This was a fantastic pasta dish. As a vegetarian, I often don’t expect much from pasta, but the mushrooms in this dish were unbelievably tasty.
At the end, I tried a rhubarb tart with ice cream served on the side. This was better than the other choice that the table had which was a chocolate brownie. I recommend trying this rhubarb tart, it wasn’t too sour nor was it too sweet. El Dorado’s service was prompt and courteous and all of our food came out at the same time piping hot. I’d definitely recommend stopping here if you are in Sonoma tasting wine. El Dorado is located in central Sonoma right on the square, 405 1st St W. There is also a hotel as part of the building which is nicely decorated.

A very cool nonprofit called Food for Thought in Sonoma County is a different type of food bank benefiting people who are HIV positive with wholesome food, including fresh organic produce, harvested in the area. To read more about it, look here in today’s New York Times. Food for Thought is located in Forestville and supplied groceries for over 300 people a month.

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.