Columns

Back in 1975, 50 years ago, the first big event in the Healdsburg Bicentennial Committee’s celebration of the nation’s 200th anniversary included a chicken barbecue held at the Villa Chanticleer the following afternoon. For those who preferred a family picnic basket, there was even then plenty of room under the trees at the Villa.

Pigs are smart. These two came in from the rain this week. In warmer weather they roll in the mud. Oh, that loving-the-mud thing? It’s not because they like to be dirty. It’s to prevent sunburn and cool themselves.

When I was younger, I used to walk to the dusty farmstand from the Prestons’ house on Dry Creek Road. We’d eat a peach on the way back, the warm, sticky juice running down our cheeks and arms marking summer’s beginning in quiet streaks of gold.

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.

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.

In answer to many requests for smaller packages than the Standard Food package at $10, CARE is now offering a new Budget Package, with a net weight of 10 pounds, which will sell for $5.95 for guaranteed delivery to Europe.

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.

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.

Holly Hoods was taken aback when three men walked into the downstairs office space of the Healdsburg Museum and Historical Society one morning last week. One of them was unknown to the museum director, but he seemed to know a lot about Healdsburg history,...

"Every year on the Thursday before Memorial Day, the streets of Healdsburg fill with music and marching bands, vintage tractors and streamers, and the laughter of the Twilight Parade," writes Liza Gershman in her bi-weekly "Harvest" column. "This is the rhythm of small-town summer: unhurried, joyful, deeply familiar..."