The Chef: Jen Demarest, Baker & Cook

Jen Demarest is the baker behind Sonoma’s Baker & Cook — her husband Nick is the cook, and their daughter Annabelle hosts at the popular cafe, nestled in a shopping center just east of downtown. Baker & Cook recently began offering three-course dinners on Friday and Saturday nights in addition to their popular breakfast and lunch service.

Demarest says her white chocolate peppermint cheesecake draped in dark chocolate ganache is inspired by her first restaurant job as a high schooler in upstate New York. “They had peppermint-stick ice cream and a vat of hot fudge, so at the end of a shift, that was a really great snack. It just became something I needed to have every holiday season.”

Her tips for a perfect cheesecake include using a water bath and a slow, gentle bake. “The key to a nice silky texture is not overbaking it. You want to leave just a little bit of wiggle in the middle.” In addition to cheesecake, each year Demarest bakes holiday rolls, pies, and more cookies than she could probably count, to bundle into boxes as gifts. “It’s the best time of year to be baking,” she says happily.

The Recipe: Double-Chocolate Peppermint Cheesecake

Serves 8-10

For the crust:

2 cups chocolate cookie crumbs, finely ground

2.5 ounces butter, melted

For the filling:

20 ounces cream cheese, room temperature (Demarest recommends Gina Marie brand)

1/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 egg yolk

6 ounces white chocolate, melted

1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp. sour cream

1/8 tsp. food-grade peppermint oil (see note)

3 tsp. crushed peppermint candies (candy canes or round starlight mints)

pinch of salt

For the topping:

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped

3 ounces butter

1/2 tbsp. corn syrup

1 tbsp. water

1/2 cup crushed peppermint candies

In a small bowl, combine the chocolate cookie crumbs and melted butter and mix until butter is evenly distributed.

Press into the bottom of a greased 10-inch springform pan. Use a measuring cup to press and smooth evenly. Bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees, then remove from oven and cool.

Crush the peppermint candies using a mortar and pestle, or place them in a plastic bag, seal it, and use a rolling pin to gently break them apart.

To prepare the filling, melt the white chocolate gently over a double boiler.

Stir until smooth, then remove from heat and set aside.

In a mixer with paddle attachment, mix the cream cheese, sugar and salt until smooth, scraping down the sides and paddle to prevent any lumps. Beat in the eggs and egg yolk, then all of the sour cream, and finally, the melted white chocolate.

Add the peppermint oil and crushed peppermint candies and mix them into the filling by hand. Make sure the latch on the springform pan is tightened, then pour the filling over the cooled crust.

Wrap the springform pan in two layers of aluminum foil. Make a water bath by putting the wrapped pan inside a larger pan and fill with 1 inch of water.

Bake in a water bath at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes until the cake is just set at the center.

Remove the cake from the oven, unwrap the foil, and cool the cheesecake on a wire rack. Refrigerate until firm or overnight.

Prepare the ganache topping. Melt the chocolate, butter, corn syrup and water over a double boiler and whisk until smooth. While the cake is still in the springform pan, pour the ganache on top, tilting the pan to cover the cake evenly to the edges.

Sprinkle crushed peppermint candies over the top of the cake and return it to the refrigerator to chill until the top is set. To serve, release the cake from the springform pan, slice and garnish with additional peppermint candies.

Note: Food-grade peppermint oil is available at most supermarkets or at bakery supply shops. It is highly concentrated, so you will need just a small amount.

Baker & Cook, 18812 Highway 12, Sonoma. 707-938-7329, bakerandcooksonoma.com

The Chefs: Amy Brown and Joe Wolf, Marla Bakery

“My baking obsession really began because I needed to stay warm,” laughs Amy Brown of Marla Bakery. After college, Brown spent a year in Italy — but the winter clothes she had shipped ahead didn’t arrive in time for colder weather. So Brown, who was working at a bakery at the time, spent many wintry hours staying warm by the ovens and falling in love with the scene.

She and her husband and business partner, Joe Wolf, recently welcomed their many Marla fans to a new café in Railroad Square, after three years of serving pastries, cakes and bagels out of their Windsor production facility.

The couple, who have two young sons, are a family of mixed religious heritage and spend the December holidays making sufganiyot for Hanukkah alongside traditional Christmas goodies like panettone, stollen and biscotti.

Flavored delicately with orange and anise, Brown says her biscotti are a humble little cookie that come from the heart and have a warm, comforting aroma. She’s been making them for over three decades, ever since she learned the recipe from her college roommate, who had learned it from an elderly Italian woman she cared for. “It’s recipes that carry the past into the present,” says Brown. “That’s kind of what we’re all about, and this recipe speaks to that.”

The Recipe: Orange & Anise Biscotti

Makes 2 dozen

2 ½ cups, plus 2 tbsp. organic all-purpose flour

1 ¼ cups organic sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. anise seed, finely chopped (not ground)

1 ½ cups raw almonds, skin on, or raw, skinned hazelnuts, roughly chopped

3 eggs

2 egg yolks

1 tsp. vanilla extract

zest of 2 oranges

extra flour for dusting

Preheat oven to 325 degrees and line a standard-sized baking sheet with parchment paper. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, anise seed and nuts in a large bowl. Stir until thoroughly combined and set aside. Whisk together eggs, egg yolks and vanilla extract in a small bowl, using a rubber spatula to stir in the orange zest at the end.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir with a spatula until the mixture is just combined. It will start out feeling dry, but resist the urge to add liquid. As the sugar “melts,” the mixture will loosen. Once combined, the mixture will be fairly wet and sticky.

There is no getting around it, this next step is the messy part. Don’t be afraid of some sticky, doughy hands — your hands can be washed. Generously dust a work surface with flour and place your lined baking sheet nearby. With your hands, scoop out half of the mixture and quickly roll it into a log nearly the length of your sheet pan and about 2 ½-3 inches in diameter. If your log is sticking to the work surface, dust with more flour, but try not to over-flour as it will make the biscotti tougher. Gently but quickly scoop up the log with both hands and transfer to the baking sheet, placing it long ways on one side.

Re-flour the work surface, scoop out the remaining dough, and repeat the rolling to form another log. These will spread out, so allow enough space between the two logs and the edges of the baking sheet. If you are worried, use two baking sheets, one for each log.

Bake at 325 degrees for 30-35 minutes until deep golden brown and no longer soft in the middle. Pull out and allow to cool slightly before cutting, about 15-20 minutes.

Lower oven temperature to 250 degrees.

To cut biscotti, transfer each log to a cutting board while still warm. With a serrated knife, gently slice at a 45-degree angle into about 1/3-inch-thick cookies.

Set a wire cooling rack on each sheet pan and arrange the cookies loosely on the rack. Return the cookies to the oven and bake at 250 degrees for another 30-40 minutes until crisped through, flipping them over halfway through baking. Cool completely and store in an airtight container for up to two weeks.

Marla Bakery, 208 Davis St., Santa Rosa. 707-852-4091, marlabakery.com

The Chefs: Warren and Bobbi Burton, BurtoNZ Bakery

The tail end of the name of Warren and Bobbi Burton’s bakery, BurtoNZ, is a nod to Warren’s roots in coastal Hawke’s Bay, on New Zealand’s North Island. With pastry cases filled with meat pies, sausage rolls and lamingtons, the couple’s bakery has become a welcome taste of home for Kiwi and Aussie expats.

At Christmastime, when Northern Hemisphere folks might enjoy hot cocoa by the fireplace, the Burtons dream of warm weather and lighter fare. Growing up, after a big Christmas Day lunch, Warren says his family would go to the beach or the river to cool off before heading home to tuck into pavlova, a large meringue topped with fruit and whipped cream.

“It’s literally my favorite dessert to eat. I think just the flavor of a ripe kiwifruit, the ripe strawberry, with the cream and crunch of the meringue, it’s just familiar,” says Warren, adding that a truly authentic pavlova includes shavings of Cadbury chocolate.

While pavlova requires just a few simple ingredients, Warren and Bobbi have a few tips to make sure the middle of the meringue doesn’t cave in. One is to use the freshest eggs possible — the couple source theirs from nearby Wise Acre Farm. The other is to make sure the egg whites and sugar are whipped up extra thick and glossy, says Warren. “The secret I’ve found is when I think that it’s whipped enough, I give it another minute for good luck.”

The Recipe: New Zealand-Style Pavlova

Serves six

For the meringue: 

4 egg whites

1 ¼ cup sugar

1 tsp. white vinegar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tbsp. cornstarch

For the topping:

2 cups whipped cream

1 small square Cadbury milk chocolate, grated

Fresh strawberries and kiwifruit, sliced

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites and sugar for 10 minutes or until thick and glossy. In a separate bowl, mix together the vinegar, vanilla extract and cornstarch, then add to the egg whites. Beat on high speed for five additional minutes.

Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Draw a 9-inch-diameter circle on the baking paper. Spread the egg white mixture on the paper, to within an inch of the edge of the circle. Smooth the top surface.

Place into the oven and lower the temperature to 210 degrees. Bake for 1 hour, then turn the oven off, crack open the oven door, and allow the pavlova to fully cool in the oven.

Remove from parchment and place on a serving platter. Top with whipped cream, decorate with fruit and grated Cadbury chocolate, and serve right away.

BurtonNZ Bakery, 9076 Brooks Road S., Windsor. 707-687-5455, burtonzbakery.com

The Chef: Cita Vivas, Cita’s Kitchen

Cita Vivas is passionate about sharing the culture of her native Colombia through food. She launched her pop-up, Cita’s Kitchen, in 2022 after years in the kitchen at Willi’s Wine Bar and Stark’s, serving homemade empanadas and arepas at local farmers markets and breweries.

Though it’s been 25 years since Vivas moved to California, she still gets nostalgic for the holidays of her childhood. “Christmas is the biggest holiday we celebrate. In Colombia, at Christmas, we are very loud,” she says. The festive season lasts throughout December as families make homemade nativities and ornaments and pay nightly visits to friends’ homes, where children sing and take turns reading Christmas stories.

Afterwards, everyone enjoys a treat of buñuelos, traditional round, golden fritters filled with cheese. Buñuelos are an everyday food in Colombia, but they become festive fare at the holidays when paired with natilla, a sweet, Jello-like custard made with cinnamon and sometimes shredded coconut or raisins. It’s a salty-sweet combination Colombians adore.

“Natilla is authentically Colombian,” says Vivas. “I don’t find anything like that anywhere else. Everybody does it in a different way. You can put in coconut, raisins — or you can just do them with cinnamon, and it will be just as delicious.”

The Recipe: Colombian-Style Buñuelos with Natilla

Serves 12 

For the Natilla (make one day ahead):

4 cups whole milk

3/4 cup cornstarch (maizena)

1 ¼ cups panela (sugar cane), grated

2 ½ tbsp. butter, softened

1 cinnamon stick

3 tbsp. red raisins or shredded coconut (optional)

In a medium bowl, add 2 cups of the milk and the cornstarch and stir with a spoon to dissolve, making sure there are no lumps. Pour the remainder of the milk into a large saucepan, add the cinnamon stick, and on a stove, slowly bring the mixture to a gentle boil over medium heat. Add the grated panela and stir until fully dissolved.

Remove the cinnamon stick. Add the cornstarch-milk mixture to the pan, lower the heat to medium-low, and continue to stir for about 10-15 minutes. Do not allow the milk to burn. Add the butter and continue stirring for approximately five more minutes until the butter is incorporated. Stir in the raisins or coconut, if using. Remove from heat and pour the mixture into an 8-inch-square pan or shaped mold of your choice. Cover with a kitchen towel and allow to set at room temperature for 30 minutes, then transfer to the refrigerator and cool for a minimum of six hours or overnight.

For the Buñuelos: 

3/4 cup cornstarch

1/4 cup yucca flour

1/4 tsp. salt

2 tbsp. sugar

1 cup cotija cheese

2 eggs

1 ½ tbsp. milk

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 quart vegetable oil, for frying

Powdered cinnamon, for serving

In a large bowl, mix cornstarch, yucca flour, salt, sugar and cotija cheese until well combined and free from lumps.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the eggs and milk.

With your hands, mix well until a soft dough forms. Fold in the baking powder and let the dough rest for 10 minutes.

After resting, form the dough into 12 equal balls, each about the size of a golf ball.

In a medium pot, add vegetable oil to a depth of about 2 ½ inches, and heat the oil to 325 degrees. Test that the oil is the right temperature for frying by making a ball of dough the size of a small marble and placing it in the oil. It should rise and float in about 10 seconds if the oil is the right temperature. (If the ball rises too soon, the oil is too hot. If it stays at the bottom or rises late, the oil isn’t hot enough.) Fry the buñuelos in batches, a few at a time, for 8-10 minutes until golden. As each batch finishes, drain on paper towels to absorb any excess oil.

Serve hot, with a square of natilla and a sprinkle of powdered cinnamon.

Note: Panela (sugar cane or piloncillo) and yucca flour (maizena) are available at most Latino markets.

Cita’s Kitchen in Santa Rosa. On Instagram @citas.kitchen.llc

The post 4 Showstopper Holiday Recipes from Sonoma’s Best Pastry Chefs appeared first on Sonoma Magazine.

Karen Gilbert and Paul Pavlak founded the lighting and accessories company SkLO 10 years ago with design partner Pavel Hanousek.

The trio have a new trade showroom in Healdsburg, and their designs are produced at a glassblowing facility in the Czech Republic. As with Gilbert and Pavlak’s home in Sebastopol, the focus of the company’s designs is on subtlety and process, paring back shapes to their essence while layering in vibrant color.

Handblown pendant lights and sconces, jewel-colored vases and vessels, and elaborate glass-beaded wall art installations (a nod to Gilbert’s background in jewelry design) are staples of the SkLO lineup. The trio’s designs, with their deep Sonoma County roots, are now found in high-end restaurants and hotels around the world.

Early on, the three founders felt compelled to put every dollar they made straight back into each next project. But as they found their design footing, the company expanded.

This year the designers introduced beautiful fluting and frosted options into the line. They soon will add new designs for furniture and tabletop accessories.

“I feel like we’re finally making what we want to make, versus what we had to make,” Gilbert said. “You go through a phase in design where you’re just trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together and make something that people want. And then, once you start to learn the language, you can create combinations of beautiful thoughts and processes together. I think we’re finally at that phase where we have a language we can speak in.

707-385-2101, sklo.com

Peek inside the home of SkLO owners Karen Gilbert and Paul Pavlak in this article. 

The post Handblown Glass Sparkles in Healdsburg Showroom appeared first on Sonoma Magazine.

For many years, Steven Valencia of the Calidanza Dance Company tried to keep two very different parts of his world separate, almost as if he lived a double life. But in 2010, “a huge photo” of him dancing ballet folklórico ran in a local newspaper. The next day, he walked into his job as a corrections officer at a maximum-security youth correctional facility, and inmates and staff all had funny looks on their faces. “Everybody wanted to know, ‘Is this you?’” he recalls.

Walking the line between dance theater and the penitentiary, Valencia takes a lot of pride in helping shape the lives of kids in both jobs. “In the prison system, you get to see the other side—what happens to kids when they don’t have programming and things in their lives that are important to them,” says Valencia, a fourth-generation Mexican American.

Valencia’s Calidanza Dance Company will stage the 19th annual Posada Navideña holiday celebration December 8 at Santa Rosa’s Luther Burbank Center for the Arts.

Reconnecting with culture

“Posada Navideña is the Mexican celebration of Christmas, held for nine nights (Dec. 16-24) and recreating the journey of Mary and Joseph as they were looking for shelter before the birth of Jesus. In America, we often condense it down into one night. For some people, it’s about discovery, and they’re learning about their culture through dance and music.

Other times, I’ll see older people in the audience in tears because it’s something they miss, something they remember when they were a child, when they were younger growing up in Mexico. It’s important for people to reconnect.”

Teaching the next generation

“I started dancing in elementary school and now we go into so many schools every year. We do an interactive assembly, where we’ll teach them how to do things like “gritos” (shouts) or we’ll bring a few kids up and teach them steps, so they’re learning about what they’re seeing and it’s not like, ‘Oh, that’s a pretty dance with pretty colors and pretty dresses.’” Dance as therapy

“I’ve been assaulted three different times. The last time was in 2017. I was out for about 10 months with a shoulder injury. I love my career, but prison can really bring you down emotionally, spiritually, and physically. I think having that balance in my life with dance, having something that’s meaningful and brings so much joy, has really left me with a very healthy balance where I don’t feel like I’m pulled down too much.”

Changing it up

This year, there’s a new piece from the state of Guerrero that takes a mixture of the different regions of Guerrero and fuses them together. But this one’s really about women empowerment represented in dance.

Usually ballet folklórico is male-dominated. A couple dances, with the male taking the lead, that’s what you usually see. We wanted to change the narrative and bring the women to the forefront, as the lead in this choreography.

The post Popular Posada Navideña Returns to Sonoma County. Meet Its Artistic Director appeared first on Sonoma Magazine.

The Sonoma Coast will experience some of the biggest tidal swings of the year in December and mid-January.

King tides typically occur at a new or full moon and when the moon is closest to the earth, and they cause even greater impact when they coincide with big winter storms. They’re of interest to climate researchers because they can give a glimpse of how the coast may be impacted as sea levels rise.

Post up on the cliffs above Goat Rock or along the Kortum Trail to take in winter’s drama from a safe distance. Check tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov for tide tables.

Local conservation group Stewards of the Coast and Redwoods will offer docent-led king tide interpretive events along the coast in January and February (see stewardscr.org for information). Dec. 13 and Dec. 24, Jan. 11.

When visiting the coast, be aware of weather and water conditions and heed warnings. Never turn your back to the ocean and stay much further back from the water than you might think is necessary.

“Sneaker waves can sweep people and pets into the sea from rocks, jetties, and beaches as well as move large objects such as logs, crushing anyone caught underneath,” according to the National Weather Service.

The post Where and When to See King Tides Along the Sonoma Coast appeared first on Sonoma Magazine.

Sometimes, as a designer, the hardest thing to do is to hold back. Paul Pavlak and Karen Gilbert, founders of SkLO, a Healdsburg-based company that produces handblown glass lighting and accessories, focused on restraint when designing the renovation of their 1,200-square-foot cabin-style home outside Sebastopol.

The couple shunned large additions and excessive ornamentation in favor of the humble, essential beauty of a smaller, cozier space marked by untreated redwood siding, stone slabs, and large glass windows to bring the outdoors in.

“It’s very warm,” explains Paul, who trained as an architect. “As an architectural point of view, and as people, we don’t want fussy stuff. We like things that are durable, things that will wear with you.”

The couple’s daughter, Lola, now a sophomore in high school, was just a few months old when Paul and Karen bought the property, a 70s-era rancher and an adjacent outbuilding along a winding country road. The house was in fairly rough shape, with wall-to-wall shag carpeting, orange Formica counters in the kitchen, and a funky old circular fireplace that was the only source of heat. Oh, and there was a cat—an elderly, indoor-outdoor cat that had belonged to the original owners.

At the time, with their growing careers and a young child to raise, the couple didn’t have much of a budget for renovations. They painted inside, ripped out the carpet, and installed a makeshift kitchen, but other needed improvements, like a more functional bathroom and better insulation and heating, had to wait a few years.

“When Lola was little, I just remember getting up in the morning, and it would be like 46, 48 degrees in the house,” says Paul.

“You get pretty good at making a fire when you use it for your heat source every day,” laughs Karen. With Paul’s architecture training and Karen’s background in jewelry and product design, the couple never stopped picturing what would come next in the property’s evolution. When Lola was 10, they took on a much larger renovation of the space, moving into a single small bedroom as work began.

“Remember at the beginning of ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,’ where everyone sits in the bed together? That was us. There was nowhere to be, but the bed. And Lola was still little enough that we could get away with that,” says Paul. His design added a mudroom and a half bath at the front of the house, a fully updated kitchen, and a new family bathroom. They also replaced doors and windows, added insulation and central heating, and traded the old fireplace for an economical European woodstove.

As they updated the layout and made the house more energy efficient, Paul and Karen focused on maintaining the pared-back simplicity that had drawn them to the home. Post-renovation, it still has a “just the facts, ma’am” feel, with a thoughtfully laid-out main room that combines a kitchen, dining area, and living spaces, plus two identical, modestly sized bedrooms just off the living room.

The couple chose redwood for the exterior siding, durable and inexpensive basalt stone floors in the new mudroom, and oiled redwood kitchen counters, inspired by ones they saw on a visit to Jack London’s turn-of-the-century cottage in Glen Ellen. The wood for the bathroom countertop is from their old dining table, studded with small touches of paint from Lola’s childhood art projects.

At every opportunity, Paul and Karen sought out the most honest expression of the materials they chose.

“I remember when the contractors were putting up the pine boards for the interior walls, which we’d repurposed from the old flooring. They were trying to figure out how to space the joints so they were all perfect, and one guy was trying to fill in all the old knots, so it would be seamless. And I was like, no—I want that texture, I want to see those knots. I want to see those old nail holes underneath the paint,” says Paul.

Intentionally, the redwood siding on the exterior is untreated, and the interior floors are treated simply with tung oil. There’s no drywall anywhere, no polyurethane sealants, no window coverings to separate the home from the outdoors.

“Everyone’s kind of obsessed with permanence,” says Paul. “But impermanence is part of the deal, for all of us. And we embraced that in building. The redwood—it is probably going to fail a little bit faster because we didn’t seal it, but it also would look different if we’d sealed it, right?”

Karen says she appreciates how the renovated space maintains the connection to the outdoors.

“That’s why it’s kind of like camping,” she says. “You’re very tied to the outside in all the seasons.”

When the weather is warm, the house opens up to the breezes, with skylights and sliding doors and various window configurations. And as winter approaches, the family can close off the windows and doors, or perhaps build a small fire on the weekend. (Even though the new wood stove is highly efficient, Paul is conscious of how often they use it, as the particulates in the smoke affect the environment.)

Paul and Karen are minimalists by nature and keep the common spaces neutral in tone, layering in color through books and art. While all the walls in the main space are painted white, Lola, who has grown up to be an artist and creative like her parents, wanted more color and vibrancy in her bedroom. She left the pine paneling in her bedroom in its raw form and chose a brightly colored bedspread.

The cabin feels cozier and quieter in early winter, as Lola sketches on her bed or at the kitchen counter and Karen works at the dining table.

“We’re very homebody people—we all kind of have our own inner world,” says Karen. “I make things, Paul cooks. We’re out in the country, so you don’t just go out for coffee. We make everything here.”

With the main home updated, the family turned their attention two years ago to a 1940s outbuilding, renovating it into a design studio and workspace for their business. The new studio is an unapologetically industrial space, with sturdy tile floors and big windows that look across the courtyard to the house and let in beautiful light to work by. One corner is given over to machinery and tools for Karen’s metalworking and jewelry, and there’s a large table at the center where she and Paul can spread out prototypes and work together on new designs.

SkLO’s lighting and accessories are designed by Karen and Paul in Sonoma County but are produced by artists at a glassblowing facility in the Czech Republic. “There’s this allure of being creative and working with a team of people in this ancient tradition,” says Karen. “Glassblowing is a craft—an ancient, living craft. Things are made exactly as they were 200, 300 years ago.”

The simplicity of the home in all of its seasons remains at the heart of what the family loves about living here. This time of year, there’s always someone in the kitchen, often heating up water for tea or starting a batch of soup. Lola puts on headphones and wanders under the oak trees, lost in an audiobook. They hear deer rustling in the leaves down by the creek, sometimes in the middle of the night. And the early winter light is especially resonant, pouring in through the windows to warm the home indoors and out.

“It’s one of the most beautiful times of the year,” says Karen. “You go somewhere else and it’s so gray all the time. We have entire weeks when it’s sunny—the sun is low and it’s still warm outside. That’s the real appeal, I think, of where we live.”

Building a Business

Karen Gilbert and Paul Pavlak founded SkLO 10 years ago with design partner Pavel Hanousek. The trio have a new trade showroom in Healdsburg, and their designs are produced at a glassblowing facility in the Czech Republic. As with Karen and Paul’s nearby home, the focus is on subtlety and process, paring back shapes to their essence while layering in vibrant color. Handblown pendant lights and sconces, jewel-colored vases and vessels, and elaborate glass-beaded wall art (a nod to Karen’s background in jewelry design) are staples of the lineup.

Early on, the three founders felt compelled to put every dollar they made straight back into each next project. But as they found their footing, the company expanded. This year the trio introduced beautiful fluted and frosted glass, and soon, they will add new furniture and tabletop accessories. “I feel like we’re finally making what we want to make, versus what we had to make,” says Karen. “You go through a phase in design where you’re just trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together and make something that people want. I think we’re finally at that phase where we have a language we can speak in.”

707-385-2101, sklo.com

The post A Family of Designers Creates a Modern Cabin-Style Home Outside Sebastopol appeared first on Sonoma Magazine.

To an untrained eye, the stacks of wood from 19th century old-growth redwood wine tanks in Jesse Almos’s Rincon Valley workshop might look like something you’d take to the landfill, or put on the curb, hoping someone might haul it away.

But to Almos, the owner of Sonoma Woodworks, these stacks are as good as gold. His workshop is piled high with slabs of walnut and oak, often salvaged after wildfire, each one awaiting a magical transformation into a custom dining table, bench, or cutting board. Many of the trees might otherwise have been left to rot or die in place—or even cut up for firewood.

In many ways, Almos is like a rescue organization for local trees. He almost never sources the wood for his projects from freshly cut trees or from purchased sources. Instead, he reclaims his material from trees left behind due to wildfires, disuse, abandonment, or neglect. He’ll take what is left behind, mill it on-site, then patiently wait until the wood is properly dried and aged, often as long as five years. Only then, sometimes years later, will he begin to craft the material into beautiful pieces destined for forever homes.

A native of Santa Rosa with a deep connection to craft, Almos started working with wood at a young age. When he was 5 years old, his parents separated, and his father told him that he would need to be “the man of the house.” It was an old-fashioned message, but one Almos took to heart, crafting simple benches and other small household items—even a fort for his friends. By the time he was 12, he was making and selling skimboards: flat, oval-shaped boards used for gliding across small waves as they break across the sands. “Everyone in my neighborhood had my skimboard,” Almos recalls, smiling.

A years-long childhood friendship led to the growth of Almos’s skills. Growing up, Almos’s best friend was the grandson of Henry Trione, a key figure in Sonoma history who preserved much of what is now Trione-Annadel State Park. Almos and his friend spent many hours camping and exploring the Trione family’s sprawling Mendocino County ranch.

Much of the old-growth redwood Almos uses today comes from the Trione Winery’s abandoned redwood wine tanks in Geyserville. He still visits the ranch, and harvests wind-fallen trees for his craft. “I’m blessed to be able to get these old wine tanks from the Trione family and build beautiful furniture from it,” he says.

“All that old-growth redwood was once wine tank wood that was basically going to be discarded,” Almos says. “It was sitting out in the vineyards, and their vineyard manager says, ‘Do you want it? I’m going to burn it if you don’t take it.’ And it’s like the most beautiful wood ever. That wood is California history.”

For two decades, Almos worked as a foreman at a heavy equipment operator. Woodworking was a side gig, and he occasionally sold small pieces at farmers markets or craft fairs. “I had built some furniture, including chairs, bistro sets, and lazy Susans, and then went to the farmers market to ask if I could set up a booth,” he remembers. “That first day I sold everything, and it really showed me what I was supposed to be doing.”

In 2011, he took a leap and founded his one-man company, with the goal of selling his furniture and working on larger pieces by commission. At first, he operated out of his home. Three years later, he relocated to a much larger workshop with more room to store scavenged and found materials. While he remains a one-man show, he occasionally has some help from his mom and his 9-year-old son.

Almos keeps a library of wood along one wall of his workshop, with slabs of upcycled walnut, old-growth redwood, red gum eucalyptus, maple, cedar, madrone, oak, and rare Monterey cypress. “Most people would use this wood for firewood, but I turn it into tables,” he says. Almost all the wood he works with is from Sonoma County. Almos often receives calls from homeowners or builders looking to clear land for new developments. Burnt trees from the devastating 2017 Tubbs fire provided a valuable addition to his collection.

After a lifetime around wood, Jesse sticks to a simple message, modestly playing down his role as a rescuer of rare local wood. On his Facebook page, he shares stories of majestic Sonoma County redwood trees felled to build cities, infrastructure, bridges, and schools alongside 1880s-era photos of loggers standing tiny among the towering. He says he develops a deep attachment to much of the material he acquires. Walnut is his favorite—a wood he says can appear dull brown and unremarkable at first glance, but a great deal of patience, not to mention hours of sanding, oiling, and staining, is transformed into highly individual pieces, each with a story to tell.

These trees, this wood, from these hills holds a special, almost mythical place in Almos’s heart.

“They have a third life, I call it,” he explains. “First, they were massive trees, then big wine tanks, and now they become tables where people sit around and tell stories.”

Sonoma Woodworks, open by appointment. 707-975-6687, sonomawoodworks.com

The post Santa Rosa Native Transforms Salvaged Local Wood Into Heirloom Furniture appeared first on Sonoma Magazine.

Forget canaries in the coal mine. For Larry Broderick, the real indicator species are raptors soaring high overhead, hunting along Sonoma’s rich marshlands, or nesting in our native trees. “They’re a biological bellwether,” says the Santa Rosa-based leader of the Jenner Headlands Raptor Migration Project and West County HawkWatch. “When things are going wrong with them, it often means that things can go wrong with us.”

Citizen scientists like Broderick consider fall and winter the best time of year to observe these adaptable hunters. That’s when migratory harriers, hawks, kites, kestrels, merlins, eagles, and osprey from farther north join year-round residents countywide in search of “little furry things” to eat.

Visiting birds move freely among Sonoma’s wildlands in search of a good meal. “There are like all these restaurants throughout the area, and [the birds] are gonna go to which ones are serving the food based upon prey availability,” says Broderick. Even so, individual birds have been observed to return year after year to the same overwintering location, like a vacation home. Others are only passing through.

After three decades of observing raptors, Broderick has noted population declines in several species. The timing of local migrations has also changed, moving back about two weeks since the early 1990s, an outcome Broderick thinks is at least partially due to climate change. “It’s a good way to gauge how healthy the environment is,” he says, “by checking out your top-of-the-food-chain predators.”

Where to observe raptors

It’s no coincidence that some of the best places to spot raptors are along hiking trails at some of Sonoma’s most treasured public lands. Each destination shows off early winter’s quiet beauty.

Tolay Lake Regional Park, Petaluma. parks.sonomacounty.ca.gov

Shollenberger Park, Petaluma. cityofpetaluma.org

Laguna de Santa Rosa Preserve, Santa Rosa. parks.sonomacounty.ca.gov

Jenner Headlands Preserve, Jenner. wildlandsconservancy.org

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For a fun family activity outdoors, you can choose and cut your own Christmas tree at several farms in Sonoma County.

Celesta Farms: Owned by Christmas-loving couple Steve and Carol Schwartz, this ranch, with views for days, often posts pictures of the cute dogs who visit on their website. Dogs are greeted with treats, and their humans enjoy housemade chocolate chip cookies. 3447 Celesta Ct., Sebastopol. 707-829-9352, celestafarms.com

Frosty Mountain Tree Farm: The farm’s picturesque red barn—a 50-year-old former apple-packing warehouse—is home to Santa’s Workshop, with a holiday boutique, popcorn, peppermint bark, and other treats. Mrs. Claus reads stories inside the barn, and there’s a new “train” ride through the fields, pulled by a vintage tractor. 3600 Mariola Rd., Sebastopol. 707-829-2351, frostymountaintreefarm.com

Garlock Christmas Tree Farm: The Garlocks are tree farm royalty in these parts—the three kids of founders Bob and Sally Garlock now each run farms in the area. Son Keith and his wife Becky took over the original 1966 farm at this site, and Keith’s siblings’ farms, Reindeer Ridge and Frosty Mountain, are just over the ridge. 2275 Bloomfield Rd., Sebastopol. 707-823-4307, garlocktreefarm.com

Grandma Buddy’s: Think Grandma Buddy’s looks like something out of a Pottery Barn catalog? It is! The picturesque property, graced with a beautiful barn and a seasonal stream, is so pretty, it’s been a cover model. 8575 Graton Rd., Sebastopol. 707-823-4547, grandmastrees.com

Graton Fire Department Christmas Tree Farm: Proceeds from this farm, staffed by firefighters, benefit the all-volunteer department. Time your visit right, and you might meet Santa in a fire helmet. This site was formerly the Del Davis Tree Farm, memorialized in a 1995 song from the band Primus. 3750 Gravenstein Hwy., Sebastopol. 707-322-2091, gratonfire.com/christmas-tree-farm.html

Larsen’s Christmas Tree Farm: This old-school spot is especially welcoming for first-timers: they offer saws, carts, and even “lumberjacks” to help you select and cut your tree. The land, in the same family since 1918, has a pretty red barn and scenic grounds that make a great background for last-minute Christmas pictures. 391 Marshall Ave., Petaluma. 707-762-6317, petalumachristmastree.com

Little Hills Christmas Tree Farm: Little Hills isn’t just a tree farm—it’s also home to a happy- hearted menagerie that includes Carol and Kriss Mungle’s sweet Newfoundland dog, Chloe, plus alpacas, rescue pigs, and mini-donkeys. The sales barn is made from reclaimed wood from the property’s old chicken barns. 961 Chapman Ln., Petaluma. 707-763-4678, littlehillschristmastree.com

Pronzini Ranch: A few weeks after their famous pumpkin patch closes down, the ranch’s Adobe Road location (a separate spot from their downtown Petaluma lot of pre-cut trees) opens for you-cut tree harvesting. The 128-acre ranch has an impressive petting zoo with ponies, pygmy goats, and distinctive, long-horned Watusi cows. 3795 Adobe Rd., Petaluma. 707-778-3871, pronzinifarms.com

Reindeer Ridge Christmas Tree Farm: Right next door to Frosty Mountain, this spot is run by Paul and Debbie Garavaglia and their daughters. Reindeer Ridge is especially great for kids, with Christmas characters scattered around the farm and Santa visits every weekend. 3500 Mariola Rd., Sebastopol. 707-829-1569, reindeerridgetrees.com

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Sonoma’s creatives know how to bring magic to our community at the holidays, from caroling and toy drives to cozy afternoons with books and hand-knitted sweaters. The offerings at local independent boutiques run both wide and deep, whether your December wish list includes a pepperberry-studded wreath, a flashy red bass guitar, or something delicate and sparkly. Here are some of our favorite ways to shop local this season.

House of Botanicals, Sonoma

Whether your holiday home needs a complete plant makeover or a simple shot of green alongside the tree, Broadway’s House of Botanicals offers a luxurious take on the world of indoor plants. Owner Lewis Deng, who also runs BotanyZhi in Santa Rosa, stocks everything on the indoor plant spectrum, from large and exotic to tiny and easy to keep alive. While some picks do require specific and delicate care, Deng likes to say that caring for a plant is a way of caring for yourself, too. Once one of the super-friendly employees helps select a plant for the care and light conditions that suit best, there is a gorgeous array of cache pots and vessels to place it in, including many that look straight off the set of a high-design photo shoot. If you like, pair a plant with one of their richly scented candles for a perfect gift. Done and done.

520 Broadway St., Sonoma. 707-501-7379, hofbsonoma.com

Maison Smith, Healdsburg

In 2022, husband and wife Buzz and Janen Korth opened their first “modern mercantile” in Santa Fe, and that October, they brought a second Maison Smith to Healdsburg. As an interior designer who grew up immersed in the art and culture of New Mexico, Janen Korth has a talent for spotting unique pieces and makes regular international trips to source for the store. From European linens to vintage pottery to 18th-century antique furniture from Mexico, Maison Smith has that worldly, well-traveled look fully dialed in. There are also pieces from local designers, including Charlene Court, who uses gemstones and bone collected by her late father to create vintage-inspired jewelry. The store is just a short walk north of the Healdsburg Plaza, where shoppers can step in for a wine tasting before or after shopping—although, jokes Buzz, “actually, we prefer people drink first, because they tend to buy more.”

459 Healdsburg Ave., Healdsburg. 707-756-5002, maisonsmith.us

Russian River Books & Letters, Guerneville

“Being in a small town and a town that is diverse has always been really important to me,” says owner Michael Rex, who has assembled a thoughtful selection of art books, fiction, nonfiction, and kids’ books with BIPOC and queer characters at his bright, cheery shop a short walk from the bridge. Part unofficial Guerneville visitor center (“I think we just look like a good place to stop in and ask questions,” says Rex) and part gathering spot, Rex hosts author events and teaches ESL language classes. He stocks the store for the holidays with boxed cards, pen and art sets, traditional Mexican-style tin angels from a local artist, and Sonoma-themed coffee-table books—he’s also booked the Areté mistletoe singers for caroling on December 16. Our favorite detail? A vintage typewriter, preloaded with holiday letter paper and set out on a table, with pre-stamped envelopes nearby so bookstore browsers can type out and mail a free holiday greeting. It’s these thoughtful, community-building touches that make this bookstore such a gem.

14045 Armstrong Woods Rd., Guerneville. 707-604-7197, booksletters.com

Celebrating with Michael Rex, Russian River Books & Letters

Standout gifts: I purchased these really cool lights from a maker in London. They’re very simple; they’re a light that’s in the shape of a hardcover book, with a USB charge—you can lay it flat, you can stand it up, you can do all kinds of things with it. They look really nice on your bookshelf. “Braiding Sweetgrass” is a book that I always recommend to people as a gift. I always do a lot of great children’s books, which are always very, very popular, and I do a lot of letter-writing materials, pen sets , calligraphy sets and then give that with some really nice paper, putting things together in a nice little gift package.

Local favorites: I’m going to name my competition, The Poet’s Corner in Duncans Mills. It’s a lovely place and they have a lot of really great gift books, too. We have a lot of Christmas fairs, so I go to those in our little churches and community centers—there’s a great one at the Monte Rio Community Center. And I’m on the board of the chamber of commerce, and we’re going to try to do a Christmas market this year.

How to unwind at the holidays: I adopted a dog a couple months ago. His name is Archie, he’s 1 year old, and he’s huge, part Labrador and part Pyrenees! He comes with me to work each day—now he’s a shop dog. So for me to unwind is just taking a nice walk through the redwood trees with Archie. Or I love to go to Goat Rock. I never get tired of it, it’s amazing.

Bosworth & Son, Geyserville

Gretchen Crebs is the fourth generation of her family to run a business in downtown Geyserville’s historic Bosworth & Son building. Back in 1904, the building was home to a mortuary run by her great-great grandfather, and later, the family’s business interests moved into clothing and hats (one section of the building is still dedicated to a small local history museum). These days, Bosworth’s is known for its unique western apparel, including Wrangler jeans, Minnetonka moccasins, and cowboy boots from legendary brands like Dan Post, Olathe, and Lucchese. Particularly popular at the holidays is the lineup of fur felt hats, which are water resistant and naturally antibacterial. “Hats are very popular the last few years, thanks a lot partially to the TV show ‘Yellowstone,’” says Crebs. Bosworth’s is also one of the only places around still offering specialty hat steaming and shaping services. The festively decorated shop is also a must-visit either before or after Geyserville’s famous holiday tractor parade, always the first Saturday after Thanksgiving.

21060 Geyserville Ave., Geyserville. 707-857-3463, bosworthandson.com

Mix Garden, Healdsburg

Owner Mick Kopetsky started out selling compost and mulch and later made a name for himself selling hard-to-find starts of heirloom melons, tomatoes, and rare Italian herbs. At the beginning of winter, gardeners visit the nursery for tender escarole and puntarelle starts—the showstoppers in warming dishes like Italian wedding soup or puntarelle alla Romana. Inside, there’s a beautiful array of garden tools and gifts for people who love to get their hands in the dirt. The showroom is overflowing with durable handmade quilts, botanical plates, Henry Dean glassware, Danish watering cans, colorful seed packets, and handmade beeswax taper candles. Delicate everlasting wreaths made in-house are accented with foraged red pepperberries and lacy air plants. And bountiful tabletop displays of pine cones, seed pods, greens, and berries look like holiday jewels under handblown glass cloches. One of the more unusual gifts? A perennial caper bush, Capparis spinosa, to grow for its pretty (and delicious) caperberries.

1531 Healdsburg Ave., Healdsburg. 707-433-4327, mixgarden.com

Tiddle E. Winks Vintage 5 & Dime, Sonoma

Remember when a 50-cent allowance seemed like a treasure? A time machine effect takes over upon entering downtown Sonoma’s Tiddle E. Winks, a 50s-style five and dime with walls of old-fashioned candy (alas, not a penny anymore, but just as fun to shop), collectibles, stickers, and more, with something quirky or wondrous to see at every turn. There are Sonoma-themed souvenirs, like wine glasses and mugs, plus throw pillows shaped like San Francisco cable cars, Karl the Fog ornaments, and even college-town themed dish towels for those whose school spirit has never left. “That was my vision—a little bit of everything,” says owner Heidi Geffen. “I really do think we have something for everyone.” Geffen and her team even offer a service to help folks fill their holiday stockings: just let them know the age of the recipient and a price point, and they’ll put together a fun little collection of wonders. 115 E. Napa St., Sonoma. 707-939-6933, tiddleewinks.com

Smith & Bergen Bicycles and Repair, Petaluma

There’s a wonderfully unpretentious community vibe with a bright red Fender Squier Stratocaster electric guitar leaning on the edge of a bike rack and a handwritten Black Lives Matter sign presiding over a rack of colorful bicycle jerseys. The name of the shop is an homage to the New York City Subway F/G stop located at the corner of Bergen and Smith streets in Brooklyn, where owner Ron Murdock-Perriera lived before moving to California a couple years back. His friendly shop focuses on selling commuter bikes and bicycle repair, and he offers sleek accessories that will smooth out any commute, from to-go canteens to bike bells to phone holders. Young and old riders alike can get all their needs sorted, from a jolt of espresso to a bit of conversation to chilling out and watching whatever bike race might be playing up on the TV. Murdock-Perriera believes that the best bicycle shops should have the feel of a neighborhood barber shop—a place to gather, and a place where everyone is welcome.

7 Petaluma Blvd. N., Petaluma. 707-774-6111, smithandbergenbicycles.com

Celebrating with Ron Murdock-Perriera, Smith & Bergen Bicycles and Repair

Standout gifts: Definitely helmets and lights. Second to that will be children’s bikes, and in third place are e-bikes. There’s a big demand for commuter-style e-bikes. [On the horizon…] E-bikes are going to be recharged just in the way EV cars are being recharged, with regenerative braking where the power goes back into the battery. I feel that will help with our energy consumption a little bit too. We’re not constantly charging the e-bike and pulling from the grid. We’re able to put back some of that power into the e-bike.

Local favorites: I love gifting people really nice coffee. A friend of mine owns a really nice roaster and coffee shop here in Petaluma called Super Coffee Roasters. Second to that—it really does revolve around food—I’ll buy people little variety packs of treats from Water Street Bistro or Stellina Pronto. I love gifts, food is my love language, and I love gifting people food!

How to unwind at the holidays: I do most of my riding in Petaluma. I am looking forward to—and I don’t know if it’s gonna happen, but— more bike paths and streets with bike lanes that actually connect to each other.

Acorn, Sebastopol

It’s a cottagecore dreamland at this tucked-away housewares and toy shop, with warm lighting, inviting tablescapes, and a comfy couch with layers of colorful pillows. The store is filled with cloth napkins, candles, and dishware perfect for garden parties once the weather warms, plus sustainable toys and thoughtful kid costumes from Sarah’s Silks for all kinds of backyard adventures. Owner Emily Lynch puts up a “Please Touch” tree decorated with felt ornaments so kids can play with the holiday decorations without fear of breaking anything—and parents can relax a bit. “It’s fun to see kids be able to interact with this season in a way that they’re not normally allowed to,” Lynch says of the specially decorated tree display.

25171 Hwy. 116, Monte Rio (also at The Barlow, 6780 McKinley St., Sebastopol). 707-5200679, acornshop.co

California Luggage Co., Santa Rosa

The oversize, stuffed white sheep dog standing guard outside the California Luggage Co. will be donning a red Santa hat this holiday season, after greeting customers at the store on Fourth Street for nearly a decade. If you have a wanderer in your family, the downtown spot is great for gifts, with hundreds of options for luggage and other travel accessories. Especially popular are wine carriers—owner Bernie Schwartz estimates 15% of customers are wine travelers. Schwartz has been running the business for 43 years—a blessing, he says. “If you like people, retail is a gas. It makes you a Zen Buddhist. It’s a moment-to-moment reality. You have an interaction that’s meaningful and authentic, and then you’re on to the next person.”

609 Fourth St., Santa Rosa. 707-528-8600, califluggage.com

Good Gray, Penngrove

In 2021, mother and daughter Laural and Lily Reid moved their “commonplace shop,” named for poet Walt Whitman, from Petaluma to a historic, sunlight-flooded building in Penngrove. The idea of a commonplace shop comes from the early colonial practice of using “commonplace books” to record notable bits of information or inspiration—almost like an analog Pinterest board. “They would write anything educational, interesting, or useful to them,” Laural explains. “So this is like my commonplace book—my commonplace shop.” The minimalist, eco-friendly store actually fronts two businesses: Good Gray, with housewares, books, stationery, and art supplies, and Apprentice Studio, with Lily’s hand-knitted sweaters plus jewelry and apparel. During the holidays, Laural adds paper crafts, origami kits, ornaments, and cards to the shelves, along with thoughtful displays of books and chocolate in the Icelandic holiday tradition of staying up late on Christmas Eve to eat chocolate and read together. The old-timey business is plastic free, with price tags and receipts written out by hand.

9591 Main St., Penngrove. 707-755-4535, goodgray.com

Celebrating with Laural and Lily Reid, Good Gray

Standout gifts: Lily: “My knit sweaters are great gifts because they’re handmade and they’re usually limited edition. They’re made locally, and the biggest part of my collection comes out in the fall.” Laural: “We get advent calendars and candles that are really special — calendars done by British artist Angela Harding and advent candles from Denmark. We get a special collaboration with our candle person, who makes essential oil beeswax candles. Books always make great gifts because we have that tradition, reading together as a family. We’ll have beautiful chocolates and hot chocolate to go along with the books. We also sell a lot of art supplies, watercolor sets, brushes, and sketchbooks.”

Local favorites: Lily: “Ethical Clothing in Petaluma, the Antique Society in Sebastopol, Chelsea, Yankee Girl, and Pennyroyal in Petaluma.” Laural: “I’m so busy here, I don’t shop a lot anymore. We’re not real ‘gifty’—it’s more about giving together. I find a book for everybody in my family and mostly get them through here, but also find some at Copperfield’s Books in Petaluma.”

How to unwind at the holidays: Laural: “We go see the Chanticleer Choir at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Petaluma.” Lily: “I like to knit and watch movies. People think I wouldn’t want to be knitting anymore, but that’s when I get to knit for myself.” Laural: “We’re like, ‘Yay, we get a week off!’ And then we realize we have to do inventory and we sort of crash because we’re exhausted. But we like to go to Pearl restaurant for breakfast during the holidays. I do like to go to the beach or take a walk at Bear Valley at Point Reyes.”

Jeremiah’s Photo Corner, Santa Rosa

If you or someone you love wonks out on the craftsmanship of a medium-format Hasselblad or an early-80s Canon A-1 (the film camera of choice for many budding photographers), you may already know about this tiny, beloved camera shop and tintype portrait studio in the downtown Sofa District. But you don’t need to be a professional to admire minute, analog controls and precisely machined moving parts, not to mention the satisfying click of a hard-to-find vintage lens into a camera body. Gifts for enthusiasts include playful Polaroid and Fuji instant cameras, high-quality Ilford film (stored cold for a longer lifespan), magazines and books, shooting cubes and reflectors, and darkroom supplies to start developing film at home. “People will show up and say, ‘I’m so-and-so’s mom or boyfriend, and they said you would know what I should get them,” said owner Jeremiah Flynn in 2020. “We’re that kind of shop.”

441 Sebastopol Ave., Santa Rosa. 707-544-4800, jeremiahsphotocorner.com

Adelle Stoll, Healdsburg

For what you would pay for a mass-market designer handbag you could get an Adelle, cut and crafted by the artist in her Windsor leatherworking studio and sold in a jewel box of a shop, tucked away at the end of a long entryway in what locals know as “the old bank” on Plaza Street. Adelle Stoll sells 10 styles of leather bags, plus housewares, leather jewelry and cuffs, playful vintage glassware, handblown ornaments, and other accessories. The purses have understated personality: the round Cloverdale style, cut from a single piece of full grain leather; The Fitch, a smart crossbody with a saddlebag look; and The Healdsburg, a dressy baguette bag with a signature brass clasp (Stoll makes much of her own hardware, too). Stoll also creates bags in gorgeously hued German wool felt, and for winter, adds shearling to some styles for cozy adornment.

119 Plaza St., Healdsburg. 707-291-4484, adellestoll.com

Loud and Clear Music, Cotati

Loud and Clear serves as a hub for local musicians and a gathering spot for the community at the holidays. “It’s a time when people are buying things, like beginner instruments, for gifts,” says owner Neville Hormuz. “Acoustic guitars are what we sell the most of.” Hormuz has a long history in Cotati and in local music circles—he was a longtime employee at Cotati’s popular Zone Music store. After it closed in 2010, Hormuz and his wife Marie took over the business with help from some of their coworkers and changed the name to Loud and Clear. A year ago, he bought the 100-year-old Odd Fellows Hall on Old Redwood Highway, remodeled it, and moved in. The store holds music camps for aspiring musicians and nearly every month, they host events to restring instruments for $15, including strings, with proceeds going to area nonprofits. “When people come here, they get friendliness,” says Hormuz.

8000 Old Redwood Hwy., Cotati. 707-665-5650, loudandclearmusic.com

California Roadshow, Sonoma

From Napa natives and twin brothers Justin and Ryan Channels, California Roadshow is a local spot for rare sports trading cards and all kinds of other sports memorabilia. The brothers have been collecting baseball cards since elementary school and started making real money in high school selling trading cards on social media. Though roughly half their business is done online, the brothers designed their Sonoma card shop, which opened last June, with its community of customers in mind—sports are on the screen, and there’s plenty of seating to hang out and shoot the breeze. Whether you’re an experienced collector looking for the rare stuff or a total newbie looking to dip into collecting and trading, the Channels brothers can help—not to mention that they can answer seemingly any question about any rare sports collectible practically on the spot. For the holidays, they can help find a gift for any sports fan within any budget, including trading cards and store gift cards—“the one card everyone collects,” jokes Ryan.

750 W. Napa St., Sonoma. 707-231-1097, roadshowcards.com

Estuary, Petaluma

Down the street from the Petaluma Seed Bank and within spitting distance of Cucina Paradiso, Estuary’s wide storefront windows and deliciously tall ceilings entreat shoppers to step inside. On offer is a beautifully curated lineup of sustainable housewares plus rustic-luxe denim and blouses, often made locally or from women-run companies. Pretty, felt-covered soaps from Fiat Luxe (washcloth, loofah, and soap all in one) and candles with exotic top notes of Sicilian verbena and Bulgarian rose make lovely small gifts, especially wrapped in vibrant sheets of Linna wrapping paper. California-made artisan ceramics recall the quiet, sturdy elegance of Heath, and cult-favorite Blackwing pencils are great for keeping ledgers, sketching, or holding a top-knot together when all the hair ties seem to have run off.

120 Petaluma, Blvd. N., Petaluma. 707-231-9125, shopestuary.com

J.G. Switzer, Sebastopol

Former Tesla marketing executive Jessica Switzer Green wanted to buy a wool blanket—a comforting piece to send away with her daughter to college. Instead, she wound up with a new career when she discovered fine American-made wool blankets were nearly impossible to find. From her own little mill, and showroom in The Barlow, Green now looms and sells beautiful bespoke blankets produced with natural dyes and largely sourced from Sonoma County grown wool (she’s partial to the long wool from rare Wensleydale sheep). While the bed-size blankets are definite investment pieces, there are gifts at all price points, from “porch blankets” to warm the knees, scarves, silk-lined eyeglass cases, and laptop cases wrapped in wool. White wool piled at the door offers a snowy effect. Some items will be wrapped and ready for shoppers on the go and gift wrapping is free.

6780 McKinley St., Sebastopol. 707-244-3330, jgswitzer.com

Celebrating with Jessica Switzer Green, J.G. Switzer 

Standout gifts: I go to Rust for clothes (in The Barlow). My daughter loves anything in that store—it’s dressy, tailored, and stylish. I go to Beekind to get honey presents and stocking stuffers like beeswax candles in cute shapes. Their honey is extraordinary. I’ve also hit up Homebody Refill in Sebastopol, on the square. The owner is very anti-packaging and earth friendly. I get refillable soaps for my own home, but she has a lot of fun gift-giving stuff like on-the-go utensil sets.

How to unwind at the holidays: My husband and I love going exploring. Our recharge dates usually include day outings. A favorite family destination is Donum Estate. They have one of the most beautiful outdoor sculpture collections in the world. I also go to Region, a wine tasting bar here in The Barlow with 100 different wines. They have a beautiful outdoor lounge and heat lamps.

Relaxing at home: We like nothing more than to hang out on our porch with a porch blanket and sip wine. We have sheep, two mini donkeys, and a mini horse. I love animals—it’s one of my joys. That’s why I love making fabric out of sheep wool—because it’s like sharing sheep with the world. They have a great gift to give to us, with what they carry around all year, waiting to be shorn in spring.

Western Farm Center, Santa Rosa

Oh, how the tails wag at the holidays, as pups stand in the middle of the aisle, sniffing out toys and treats and hundreds of other interesting-smelling things at this old-timey feed store. Grounded deep in the county’s ag culture, Western Farm Center is a Sonoma original, with a warehouse of shavings and bulk livestock feed, chicken coops and rabbit hutches. Inside, there are gifts for all kinds of pets and their people, from rolled-leather puppy collars and sturdy stoneware food dishes to gauntlet-length beekeeping gloves and natural fleece chew toys—anyone else see the humor in a long-handled doggie toothbrush in their holiday stocking? Small pets like parakeets and sometimes hamsters live in the back corner, along with everything you need to keep them well and happy, and the store hosts an annual Santa Paws event, where your pet can get its picture taken with Santa to benefit Canine Companions for Independence.

21 W. Seventh St., Santa Rosa. 707-545-0721, westernfarmcenter.com

The Toyworks, Sebastopol

Let your inner child out to play at The Toyworks, where a pair of 4-foot-tall medieval Playmobil figures guard the entrance to the store. Inside, you can spin the giant three-dimensional labyrinth, pick out the perfect pair of dress-up angel wings, find a new Calico Critters family to add to your collection, or get your hands on the latest Lego or Playmobil set. The Goehring family has been operating toy stores in Sonoma County since 1977 and opened the Sebastopol store in 1985 to bring more high-quality, European toys to local shoppers. The store is now run by the Goehrings’ son, Jon, who keeps the whimsical spirit of the toy shop alive.

6940 Sebastopol Ave., Sebastopol. 707-829-2003, sonomatoyworks.com

I Leoni, Petaluma

Three generations of the Leoni family run this shop, a nostalgic reminder of the days when you could hit downtown Petaluma for everyday necessities from a friendly local shopkeeper. You can pick up an appliance, a cookie sheet, utensils or a new pan, including beautiful stainless steel and copper Hestan cookware from Italy. Sprinkled among the utilitarian kitchen supplies are beautiful bijoux: sparking Juliska glassware with canework trim, classy handforged barware and serving pieces by designer/artist Jan Barboglio, and timeless Swedish crystal votives. There are even pretty picks for babies, like an heirloom Santa bib and tiny cotton beanies with animal designs. Keep an eye out for random gems like whimsical clay chickens imported from Europe—on the third day of Christmas, give your true love three (ceramic) French hens.

120 Kentucky St., Petaluma. 707-762-9611, ileoni.com

Cochineal, Freestone

Cruising down Bodega Highway, you’ll feel like the ingénue in a Hallmark movie when you stop at this tiny boutique to peek at all the beautiful sparkly things. Goldsmith Erin Cuff’s jewelry shop and art gallery, in a former gas station directly adjacent to Wild Flour Bread, has beautiful exposed wood beams and a wood-burning stove in the corner. Guests can take in the displays of fine jewelry from local designers— including Cuff’s own designs—plus ceramic dishware by Sonoma County native Zoe Dering and leather bags from HH Dry Goods. Try a spritz of fragrance from Kismet Olfactive (the poems on the bottle are beautifully transporting) and muted, desert landscape prints from Tucson artist Scout Dunbar. “I wanted my shop to be approachable but still elevated,” Cuff said. “We sell super-high-end stuff, but we also sell things that are under $100. I wanted to cater to a lot of different price points.”

142 Bohemian Hwy., Freestone. shopcochineal.com

Celebrating with Erin Cuff, Cochineal 

Holiday picks: We have these beautiful silk eye masks that a friend makes that are really popular. The brand is called The Ziran, and they’re a good price point. The masks are made out of beautiful Chinese silk with really fun colors and prints, and everybody just loves them. For jewelry, I think local Talking Tree jewelry from Gina Pinzari in Camp Meeker has amazing pieces—solid gold with rich textures and beautiful stones. Her work is a higher price point, so that would be a really, really special gift. Lingua Nigra does gold-plated jewelry and fun, big statement earrings. And fragrances from Kismet are also super popular as a gift.

Local favorites: I love Good Gray in Penngrove because it’s right by my house. In the past, I’ve bought watercolor sets for my husband because he loves to make me watercolor cards for my birthday. And then I also love going to Pennyroyal in Petaluma, on American Alley. The owner makes leather bags and some jewelry. I love her stuff. I love the shoes they carry as well.

How to unwind at the holidays: I like to garden as a hobby. This is the first year I’m going to be trying to do some stuff besides, like, kale. I haven’t put anything in the ground quite yet, but I have some squash and winter veggies I’m hoping to plant. I like to just try to relax and spend time with friends and family, have bonfires—but honestly, I try not to do too much during the holidays because it’s a lot for a small business owner.

Northern Light Surf Shop, Valley Ford

Does Santa surf? We’ll leave that to the elves, but no matter what size wet suit the jolly man wears, he can find everything he needs at this local surf shop. The original location along Bodega Highway in the town of Bodega stocks boards, gear, wet suits, flip-flops, and a terrific lineup of graphic sweatshirts and hoodies, designed and printed in-house. The second location, a few miles away in Valley Ford, stocks even more and is perhaps the only surf shop anywhere in a former bank—the 1892 Dairyman’s Bank, vintage vault and all. In Valley Ford, you’re steps away from the heartiest breakfast at the coast, the huevos rancheros at Estero Café. Both spots are the kind of locals places where you’re sure to run into someone you know, and folks hang out to shoot the breeze. Gear advice, ding repair, lessons, and rentals as well, since 1986.

17191 Bodega Hwy., Bodega and 14435 Hwy. 1, Valley Ford. 707-876-3032, northernlightsurf.com

Rain Dog Records, Petaluma

There’s a great story behind the launch of this destination record store: friends Gabriel Hernandez, Jon Del Buono, and James Florence played in a rock band together, but when Covid shut down their performance schedule, they started selling records out of the back of a pickup truck. Fate led them to their brick-and-mortar shop and a completely new career, though they’re still working musicians as well, and continue to host punk and rock shows at the store. Vintage vinyl and new releases make terrific gifts for music lovers, and the store also carries band T-shirts, posters, and other memorabilia. The dollar-record section has odd, obscure finds, plus there’s a whole wall of rare, classic collectorquality vinyl, like an original box set from local punk rockers Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. Look for new and used gear, too—launch a music-obsessed teen into the DJ world with a BackGroove turntable and speaker set for under $300, a great deal.

1010 Petaluma Blvd. N., Petaluma. 707-776-6187, raindogrecords.net

Celebrating with Gabriel Hernandez, Rain Dog Records 

Holiday picks: I’m into house music, and one of my favorite DJs, Danny Tenaglia, just put out a single called “The Brooklyn Gypsy,” so that would be cool, and he’s coming out with a compilation soon, too. We have music action figures—like I’m looking at a Devo action figure here—and we have lots of official band T-shirts, like Wu-Tang Clan or Black Flag or Nirvana “In Utero.” You can come in and spend a dollar in the dollar section or go for the rare collector stuff, which can be several hundred. We also do lots of soundtracks, especially horror and sci-fi.

Local favorites: I love Nostalgia Alley here in Petaluma—they have a really great vibe in there. It’s full of stacks of fun arcade video games and other vintage stuff and they’re just really helpful—it’s a really cool place to be. I also like Goblin Bros., which sells all kinds of board games and vintage ones, too. They’re right across the street from the Mystic Theatre.

How to unwind at the holidays: I’m a drummer, and I just moved here in 2017 from New York, but my business partners, James and Jon, are Sonoma locals, Santa Rosa and Petaluma, so they know all the good places. I love Dillon Beach—sitting out there on the beach and just staring at the ocean. It’s so beautiful.

Storia Home, Sebastopol

Interior designer Gina Gutierrez was tapped by Real Simple magazine to design the kitchen in their 2022 idea home, and her Sebastopol shop has quickly become an in-the-know destination for home accessories, throws, candles, books, chocolates, and more. Gutierrez and her team can whip up a custom stocking or gift basket to make the holidays cozy, and they do the prettiest gift wrapping, with simple papers embellished with dried flowers and ornaments for the tree. Holiday finds here include gorgeous terra-cotta and cement planters, Sebastopol-made apothecary products, Southwest-inspired Beyond Borders blankets and throws, and organically shaped cheese boards from Nightwood Studio. Earlier this year, Gutierrez partnered with her good friend, floral designer Jennifer McClendon of JenniFlora, to offer bouquets and centerpieces in store, also great for the holidays.

961 Gravenstein Hwy. S., Sebastopol. 415-501-0024, storiahome.com

Sonoma Cutlery, Santa Rosa

Knife expert Zack Cohen’s great grandparents started this shop for all things knife-related in 1979 (“my mom had me in a booster seat while she worked,” says Cohen), and the familyowned store remains a treasure trove of gift ideas for people who love to cook. There’s no better place to shop for kitchen knives, including well-known chef brands like Wüsthof and Zwilling, plus extremely rare, hand-forged, single-bevel Japanese knives, each signed by the artist who hammered it into being. Knives purchased here come with inhouse sharpening services, and many local chefs won’t take their knives anywhere else (the Cohens will sharpen knives purchased elsewhere for a small fee). There are all kinds of gifts, including sturdy Opinel mushroom knives with built-in brushes, Remington Boy Scout pocketknives, Buck hunting knives, Gingher sewing scissors, and Staub stock pots. Cohen’s father, Dylan, often guestlectures to culinary students at nearby Santa Rosa Junior College, and the family stocks affordable knife kits for student chefs just starting out.

555 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa. 707-542-6433, sonomacutlery.square.site

The post The Best Stores for Holiday Shopping in Sonoma County appeared first on Sonoma Magazine.

A cacophony of turkey voices floods the air late in the afternoon at 4-H leader Catherine Thode’s family farm in Sebastopol.

Here, more than 75 turkeys, resplendent in plumy coats of silver, charcoal, cocoa, and emerald, greet visitors with a throaty yelp—half song, half giggle. Wattles wobble and long necks crane in curiosity as they call in loud unison: Hello, yup! Hi, yup! Welcome, yup!

Their eager greeting is one of the many marvelous things about the birds, says ninth grader Ella Bartolomei. As members of Thode’s 4-H group, Ella and her brother Nico, a high school junior, have raised turkeys of their own for several years on their family’s rural property in Forestville.

“I like the way the turkeys sound,” Ella says, of the 49 American Bronze and Narragansett breed birds she and her brother have raised from chicks this year. “They not only say ‘gobble,’ but they respond when you say ‘gobble,’ too. It’s really entertaining to listen to them mock you all day.”

Nico, meanwhile, appreciates their magnificent style. “They’re prehistoric looking, like little dinosaurs,” he says. The Bronze turkeys he raises have iridescent jade, copper, and ebony feathers and flashes of patriotic red, white, and blue across their necks and snoods (the snood is the fleshy bit that dangles over the beak of male turkeys). “They’re cool animals, and it’s fun to watch them strut around. I especially enjoy when the toms flaunt their tail feathers and change their face colors to impress the ladies.”

Ultimately, the majority of the birds raised by these local students end up as Thanksgiving birds, part of a program to increase the number of heirloom-certified turkeys available locally and provide alternatives to grocery store standard Broad Breasted White turkeys. A few of the birds raised by the students may become part of breeding programs in an effort to propagate and preserve rare, heirloom breeds of turkey. The program requires a lot of work for 4-H and FFA members, yet embracing the boutique birds is a beloved mission for them all—a way to celebrate tradition and history.

Catherine Thode has been the lead coordinator for the heirloom turkey project for nearly two decades, working with Slow Food Russian River. It can be an expensive undertaking, she acknowledges, as the heirloom-certified turkeys dine on organic feed specially formulated to standards from the Livestock Conservancy, a national group that advocates for heritage livestock and poultry breeds. Each bird is a special bird, banded on an inner wing, so a purchaser is guaranteed where it came from.

The students pay for (or hatch their own) turkey poults and are responsible for feed and supplies. In turn, the sale proceeds go to the young farmer who raised the birds. This year, due in part to a more than 13% increase in the cost of the locally milled organic grains, the 4-H heritage turkeys are priced at $12 a pound.

Sebastopol siblings Hannah and Nolan Perry started raising turkeys with Thode’s 4-H group after stepping up from chickens. The siblings are now experienced turkey farmers, bringing six Bronze and four Bourbon Red birds to market for 2023. “Being responsible for the well-being of animals means you have to prioritize them, and check on their food, water, health, and safety, even when it doesn’t fit into your schedule,” says Hannah. She also loved learning how her turkeys can have such individual personalities Nico Bartolomei is proud that his diligence has paid off. “When I started doing the project, I lost many birds to predators,” he says.

“I kept modifying their run, and trying heavier
duty netting on top of their outdoor space until we finally had a year without losses.

It taught me that the best things take time to do. I also now know just how much time, resources, and commitment it takes for one animal to go from an egg to someone’s plate.”

As the turkeys grow, the 4-H kids find themselves forming opinions about the world they want to live in. Ella Bartolomei has discovered that “growing food humanely and organically” is very important to her. Nolan Perry has grown to appreciate where his food comes from, but he also says picking up the day-old poults from the Thode farm and watching them grow is simply a lot of fun. “When they’re older, they’re so fun to be around,” he says.

“Their gobbling is like a laugh track.”

The taste of a heritage turkey

Heritage breeds bring more natural flavor, with rich, robust dark meat, says heritage foods advocate Michael Dimock, who founded Slow Food Russian River and, more recently, Roots of Change, which focuses on regenerative agriculture and making healthy food accessible to everyone. Dimock has purchased a Sonoma County heritage turkey every year since the project’s launch and finds the students’ birds superior to other breeds of turkey.

Heirloom turkeys are raised outdoors, which leads to more defined muscle texture and leaner, more flavorful meat. “They cook much faster, so they’re juicy, and have so much more flavor that they don’t need anything else,” he said. “I just stuff them really full with herbs like rosemary and sage, and a bunch of different fruits like apples, oranges, and pears. They taste like joy.”

Turkey to the table

To reserve a heritage turkey from one of Catherine Thode’s 4-H students, it’s best to plan up to a year ahead, as the students have capacity to raise just a few hundred birds each season. For more information on the Sonoma heritage turkey project, visit heritageturkeyproject.com.

If the 4-H birds are spoken for, you can still support thoughtful, small-scale agriculture with a boutique Broad Breasted bird, raised on a healthier diet and with humane values like room to roam. Here are more sustainable picks for your Sonoma holiday table.

Diestel Family Ranch

The Tuolumne County farm raises turkeys on a vegetarian diet without hormones, antibiotics, or growth stimulants. Order to pick up at Oliver’s Markets, Whole Foods, and Fircrest Market. diestelturkey.com

Shelton’s Natural Foods Market

Select from free-range, organic, and heritage turkeys raised by Mary’s Free Range Turkey in Fresno County. Order ahead to pick up at 428 Center St., Healdsburg, 707431-0530, sheltonsmarket.com.

Sonoma County Meat Co.

During the holiday season, you can find Diestel turkeys at this shop that deals exclusively in all-natural, California-raised, sustainable meats. 35 Sebastopol Ave., Santa Rosa. 707-521-0121, sonomacountymeatco.com 

Tara Firma Farms

A limited number of sustainably-raised turkeys are offered by this regenerative, family-run farm. 3796 I St., Petaluma. 707-765-1202, tarafirmafarms.com/csa

Victorian Farmstead Meat Co.

Free-range, hormone-free birds from local farms. Order to pick up at Sebastopol Community Market Butcher Shop, 6762 Sebastopol Ave., Sebastopol. 707-332-4605, vicfarmmeats.com

The post Sonoma County 4-H Students Raise Heritage Turkeys for the Holiday Table appeared first on Sonoma Magazine.