Columns

Healdsburg is full of food secrets. Someone knows who has the best mulberries (the word on the street is Preston and Millbrook Farms). Someone else swears by the broccoli at Noble Goat. There’s a bee person everyone keeps telling me I have to meet—and a seed guy, too.

Recognized as a perfect blend of classical architecture and landscape, the colonnaded pergola and vaulted ceiling-ed rotunda is surrounded by a lagoon on three sides. Architect Bernard Maybeck designed this S.F. landmark in the Beaux Arts style, characterized by grandiose structures with symmetrical styling often including elaborate detailing, classical columns, pediments, friezes and cornices.

Fun facts: The word “yet” has a few meanings. As an adverb it references “a continuing state or condition.” As a conjunction, it introduces a contrasting fact or thought. As a modifier, it intensifies meaning, as in “yet again.” Another column of observation from Pierre Ratte.

On a Thursday in 1925, Well No. 7 blew through the bore with a rush of steam, rocks and mud, at the Geysers’ natural steam beds, northwest of Healdsburg, bringing in an additional source of power for the proposed natural steam electrical plant to be erected there. The well had been bored to a depth of 483 feet, when it was decided that the heat and pressure of the workings were sufficiently strong, and the drills were taken from the hole...

"Healdsburg has such lovely hiking trails. It offers so many things to do to kick-off summer over the long Memorial Day weekend. The Future Farmers of America Fair and the Thursday night Twilight Parade, where Healdsburgians either join the parade or watch it... But Healdsburg also offers the possibility of stepping outside the hubbub and hitting a trail," Pierre Ratte reminds us in this week's Snapshot column...

Those who have strolled past Downtown Bakery and then found themselves easing into Levin’s without a thought of buying a book because they were enigmatically drawn in, join a host of others. Walking the east side of Center Street on the Plaza, there is an allure to enter Levin’s. Warm and worn Persian carpets, well-curated tables of bestsellers and frequently changed display books are part of it.

During 2020 and the pandemic, cocktail books flew off the shelves. Books like Death & Co. Modern Classic Cocktails; The PDT Cocktail Book: The Complete Bartenders Guide; Spirits and Cocktails from Around the World; and Artisanal Cocktails - Seasonal Drinks Inspired by the Bar at Cyrus by Healdsburg’s own famous cocktail baller, Scott Beattie, experienced a significant uptick in sales.

This summer has been a season of light and abundance, a time when the land seems to glow from within. From the golden haze over vineyard rows to the bustle of the Saturday Farmers’ Market, I’ve been behind the camera capturing the faces, fields and kitchens that tell Healdsburg’s story...

The newly refreshed Children’s Room lives up to the hype. The laser-cut madrone tree silhouettes provide a charming entryway into the room. Tables and chairs in the room are of different heights to accommodate a variety of sizes and preferences, with spaces for children of different ages and interests.

Even now, in early August, the morning air carries a chill more familiar to spring than high summer heat. Tomato vines hesitated. Peaches took their time. Only this week did the real warmth arrive—sunlight pressing into the ground, drawing out ripeness at last. In my family, this is jam season.