A&E

Have a hankering for live music? At last, all the local venues have announced their free summer music in the sun (or on the grass, or at the park, or in the Plaza) programs, so music-lovers can begin making their summer weekday plans.

The Grand Tasting, most popular event of the Healdsburg Food & Wine Experience, is held on Saturday from 12:30 to 4:30pm, as 100 vendors of food, wine and lifestyle share their wares under the big canopy erected over the West Plaza parking lot. The location is transformed into a showcase of what Healdsburg does best: eat, drink and be merry!

In this "web extra," we take readers inside the JANE Dispensary. It officially opened last week right next to the Coyote Sonoma, a tasting room for Wilson wines and live music venue (aka the “Coyote Den”).

Agraria is a 7.5 ton (or larger) hand created by environmental artist Larry Kirkland of Portland, Oregon, and installed at the mall in December 1996. A full 12 feet long, six feet tall and three feet wide, it was carved from a single marble block twice its size from Carrara marble in Torrano, Italy, where Michelangelo got his stone. It's now at a new home in Geyserville...

But scratch the surface, and there’s something else going on. The main character, Judy, fills the role of what has become known as the “tradwife,” the traditional image of the woman at home. Of late, such idealized roles have become the fodder of social media “influencers,” pointed out director Caroline Clark. “Especially on Instagram, it’s these very alluring videos of people doing performative cooking and cleaning and preparing of their house..."

The Healdsburg Museum reopens Saturday after an interior remodel with a new exhibit, “Pomo Weavers Society,” which includes baskets, artwork, dresses and regalia by local Indigenous artists. Through Nov. 2, open Wednesdays through Sundays, 11am-4pm, 221 Matheson St. healdsburgmuseum.org. 

Though the price of admission may prove daunting to some, it’s the only way to attend the Welcome Celebration at Mayacamas Golf Course on Thursday, May 16, and Friday’s Platinum Lunch at MacMurray Estate and a Platinum Dinner at Chalk Hill Estate, each with celebrated chefs and winemakers or sommeliers - or both....

At the Healdsburg Certified Farmers’ Market, strawberries are reaching their peak sweetness, their scent lingering in the air before they are even visible in the stalls. Spring onions and green garlic are tender, fava beans are shelled by the pound and sugar snap peas—the kind of bright green that seems to be omnipresent in my life lately—offer that crisp, wet-mouth crunch that makes them an irresistible snack...

Goings on around town this week and next, from May Day to the latest Raven Players production.

Jazz will again make itself heard in Healdsburg this June, songwriters will gather in the vineyards in July and Santa will light the Holiday tree—all thanks in part to the Chamber of Commerce’s Stay Healdsburg grants. A total of $95,000 has been granted to 20 local event organizers...