Kathleen Hill: High School ag dinner, Corner 103 triumph, coastal cleanup and more
FFA and high school agriculture dinner
Sonoma Valley High School attracts more and more students genuinely interested in agriculture, so the SVHS Foundation of Agriculture invites everyone to its 10th annual Sonoma Agriculture Dinner & Auction on Saturday, Sept. 15 right near town on Denmark Street.
Thank heavens for students who want to become farmers, a vital profession in the world's quest for healthy food in our climate of climate change.
All proceeds from the event will go toward the growing agriculture program, including the School Farm at Sonoma Valley High School. If you buy a $100 'Golden Ticket' which, if yours is drawn, gives you the right to choose whatever live auction item you want. Some of those prime auction lots include a smoker made in Ag Metal Shop by Oliver Cannard; Giants, Warriors and 49ers game tickets; and box seats at the Sonoma County Fair. And then there's the weekend on the Mendocino Coast or a polenta dinner for 10, and lots more.
Always generous Broadway Market, our only remaining Sonoma-owned grocery store, will prepare dinner with marinated tri-tip, pesto pasta, Caesar salad, garlic bread and desserts made by ag and culinary student bakers. The evening will be further sweetened by music from Sonoma High alum Nick Kardum and Train Wreck Junction. $50 or a reserved whole table at $750. Dinner at 4 p.m. with auction. Live music at 8 p.m. Denmark Street Vineyards, Sonoma. Tickets at https://sonomaffafundraiser.splashthat.com/
Corner 103 is 9th best Winery Tasting Room in U.S.
USA Today's editors and 'a panel of wine experts' chose 20 tasting room nominees from 8,000 wineries. Those experts included Jill Barth, a Provence wine master; Shana Clarke, wine editor for inside.com and contributor to Eat Sip Trip; Karen MacNeil, one of the foremost wine experts in the U.S.; and June Rodil, a master sommelier.
Tasting rooms ranked from one to 10 included Stoller Family Estate in Dayton, Oregon; Presqu'ile in Santa Maria; Bending Branch of Comfort, Texas; L'Ecole No. 41 of Lowden, Washington; Brennan Vineyards of Comanche, Texas; Spicewood of Spicewood, Texas; Fox Run in Penn Yan, New York; Van Duzer of Dallas, Oregon; then Corner 103 at No. 9; followed by Dr. Konstantin Frank of Hammondsport, New York.
Owner Lloyd Davis worked hard at rounding up votes via email and Facebook appeals. He thanked god, his mother and family, his supporters, and his team via email. Congratulations, Lloyd Davis.
Sondra Bernstein honored by KRON 4
The Girl & the Fig proprietor Sondra Bernstein was honored recently as a KRON4 Women Business Leader as the station saluted Women in Business. Bernstein was accompanied to the studio for filming by her 'handler,' Gary Saperstein, who is also a dear friend who managed the Girl & the Fig for 10 years.
Bernstein says the segment will air periodically from Sept. 19 through Nov. 1.
Vintage Festival Gala Sept. 28
This year's Vintage Festival kicks off with its annual Gala behind the Barracks on Spain Street with more than 20 excellent local wineries pouring and 12 food folks serving.
According to the festival's website, Vintage Festival was 'first held in 1897 at the Gundlach family's Rhinefarm and celebrated the return of a healthy harvest after blight devastated California grape vines.'
The late Jerry Casson once told this writer about how there used to be dinners in the patio behind the Sonoma Community Center where local winemakers would bring their wines, drink too much of others' and their own, and argue loudly that theirs was the best. All in fun and celebration.
In case you are worried about dinner or how to stay slightly sober at the Gala, here are the foods you might expect: Hare & Hatter sausage samples; spiced pork tenderloin, sweet potato salad and Japanese curry spiced chicken wasabi slaw from Delish Dish; appetizers from Palooza Brewery Gastropub; Popo's bon-bon size Banana Dippers; coffee and lemonade from Java Wagon; lumpia, zucchini and mushrooms from Outta This World Concessions; the Swiss Hotel's famous meatballs; pasta from Mary's Pizza Shack; bagels from Homegrown Bagels, grilled cheese and tomato soup from Sonoma Cheese Factory, and not-yet-knowns from Palms Grill and Maya. $125. 7 to 10 p.m. Spain Street. Sonoma.
New local agriculture group forming
Seth Dolinsky, president of the Sonoma Springs Community Hall, formerly known as the Grange, has announced the formation of a new Sonoma Valley agricultural group with Janne Campbell of the Sonoma Valley Clean Grapes Initiative.
Dolinsky said in an email that, 'As it is, the farms have no unified voice or representation. This group would work on promoting local farms and food products, particularly organic or similar, with a larger or longer term goal of maybe a local food co-op store?' Does anyone remember the several former Berkeley Co-op stores?
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