Sonoma Valley Fire & Rescue pancake breakfast is back on
Hopefully, we will have many chances to thank our local firefighters and other first responders but one is coming up for sure on Saturday, Nov. 17. Their annual fundraiser pancake breakfast was postponed until Nov. 17, because they were all out fighting fires.
The pancake breakfast will be at the Al Mazza Fire Station on Second Street West and usually Santa Rosa Rotary flips the flapjacks, someone makes scrambled eggs, and the coffee, juice and milk are all donated.
Kids can enjoy learning about fire safety, how to operate a fire hose, learn hands-only CPR, a firefighter obstacle course, face painting, jumpy houses, vision screening and fire engine rides. $5 adults, kids 12 and under free. Fire engine rides $1 per rider.
Remember: Springs Community Hall hosts its organic pancake breakfast this Sunday morning.
Sonoma businesses plea for help
After the 2017 fires, many Sonoma Valley residents know how it feels to not know when to leave, to have no communication, and not know which way to go to get out – it's a fire metaphor for the unfortunate spot some Sonoma Valley businesses are in.
It was hard enough during and after our 2017 firestorms when the Bay Area and national media and some bloggers portrayed Glen Ellen and Sonoma as gone, destroyed.
Some restaurateurs gave up and closed up shop. Others toughed it out, and were nearly back to normal two years later when PG&E cut off power to many Valley locations, including all of Glen Ellen, once again.
And that was the impression the national media have created again, not distinguishing between Sonoma County and the City of Sonoma.
Absent Sonoma Valley's onetime largest employers, Nicholas Turkey Farms and the Sonoma Developmental Center, tourism seems to be Sonoma's primary employer across the valley. Without tourism, such as in times of crisis, where are we?
This time Sonoma Valley didn't lose any buildings, businesses or lives like our neighbors to the north did around Guyserville and Windsor in the Kincade fire. We only lost refrigerated food, abilities to communicate or pump water.
Some people lost jobs, lost workers, lost income, and lost ability to replenish their refrigerators. Evacuated business owners and workers couldn't get here or were displaced to counties miles away. Some were even afraid to show up at shelters or accept food from donors.
Meanwhile last Sunday the Los Angeles Times sent out a news alert saying, 'California's wine country has become fire country, leaving devastation and fear.' Not helpful.
And the San Francisco Chronicle's Sunday Business section featured an empty Girl & the Fig at the high point of wind and power outages.
Now our restaurants, wineries, and other businesses need our help to recover and to be able to pay their staff. They are suffering and receiving cancellations of reservations at restaurants, wineries and hotels, and huge drops in business.
Karen and Chris Bertrand of Glen Ellen Inn Grill & Bar said it well for all of us on Facebook
'Truly the very best way to help our beloved Sonoma County recover is simple,' wrote the Bertrands in a joint post. 'Come, visit, eat, drink, stay. Please don't cancel upcoming reservations-just come! Bring friends. Enjoy the bounty of Wine Country.'
They described themselves as 'the real people' behind the restaurants and other local businesses.
'We want nothing more than to do our jobs and live our normal lives. We are the cooks, servers, dishwashers and farmers (many of us small business people do all of these things at the same time). Those have lost homes still need to provide for their families through work.'
Concluded the Bertrands: 'Sonoma County is a truly magical place that frankly needs your patronage to survive. Come visit – we welcome you with open arms.'
Dungeness crab season is here but…
It's here but you can't have any.
Bottom line, the Dungeness crab season has been postponed, as has become usual, until at least Nov. 23. That is unless you already have some.
Saturday evening it was announced that the season would not open on Nov. 15 because of some Domoic acid poisoning potential, and that people who have fresh Dungeness crab should remove all the inner nasty stuff to avoid the poison. (At a seaside pub in England a couple of years ago, I ordered the pasta with crab, which included all of the black innards, and was topped with a generous filet of skate.)
Then last Sunday it was announced on several local network affiliates that the season would be postponed until Nov. 23 because crab fishers' traps might endanger passing whales.
SOS for SOS
We do have seriously hungry people here in Sonoma and more and more of them are showing up for the generously donated and cooked food at the Haven, our Sonoma Overnight Support shelter. Most of these 70 to more than 100 people who desperately need a meal arrive in their cars since the Haven, which had to close down during PG&E's shutoff, only houses eight to 10 people.
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