I have no idea who this beautiful family is - whether they are indeed local denizens of our town or happened to read about Healdsburg being one of the best small towns in America to spend the holidays (Newsweek, Travel & Leisure, Vogue magazines just the past few weeks) but here’s the thing: it doesn’t matter. On Sunday December 8 they wandered into an event filled with such warmth, grace, and glorious weather that for a few hours even the hyperbolic over-selling of Christmas dissolved into something truly meaningful.
It was one of those days where any differences we might bump into as people living complicated lives on a conflicted planet just…evaporated. And while it wasn’t beside the point that both Barndiva and The Studio were filled with beautiful, hand crafted wares made from the glorious landscape surrounding us, the warmth of the welcome everyone felt, the connections between seeing old friends or meeting new people profoundly spoke to the heart of connection we all seek this time of year.
Dawnelise, Amber, Susan and I - the Conversations Worth Having BFF’s who drove the series this year, (with a heavy lift from the phenom Zem Joaquin and Near Future Summit), with to thank everyone who came out to our Makers Market on Sunday and so throughly enjoying the day with us. This was the culmination of our series, our walk-the-walk moment around vital issues of the day we’ve tried to present with the overriding question: how is it possible to live more lightly on the ground and still have beautiful things around you, delicious things to eat and drink.
20 years ago I came up with the phrase ‘Eat the View,” and I’ve been trying to explain it ever since. We eat with our eyes first but the koan was not just about filling our mouths with the incredible food we grow, wines and spirits we make here in Sonoma County. We are all hungry for more than food when it comes to living meaningful lives. The profound beauty of the natural world feeds our souls in profound ways that can help carry us forward into meaningful lives. But we need to stay present to the challenges inherent in protecting and honoring the view.
Sunday was our way to honor what a cradle to cradle Christmas - C2C Chanukah - might look like if we stayed local and kept our goal simple: having a no crap Christmas with not a piece of plastic to be found. We pulled it off - if only for a day - thanks to an incredibly talented artist and farmer community we have living and working in Sonoma County.
Here’s wishing you a meaningful holiday season filled with beautiful things, made with intent, by artisans, artists and farmers who draw their talent from a love and respect of the world around us.
From Conversations Worth Having and the Barndiva family, with gratitude and affection
The Conversations Worth Having ‘Makers Market’ Participants
(and how to reach them!)
Conversations Worth Having Susan Preston with a stunning array of goods grown at her and Lou Preston’s Farm on West Dry Creek, which included their extraordinary VOO, and their Polenta and sourdough breads made from corn and wheat grown on the farm. And oh, those walnuts. Lou and Susan planted their fruit and nut trees when they started their vineyard over 40 years ago. Lou was the first vintner to pull out grapes to plant hedgerows and…food. Preston Farm and Winery is Demeter certified. Susan has a book of her paintings and writings, “In Ghost Time,” being published in spring.
Prestonfarmandwinery.com
Candice Koseba and her family need no introduction to this community as they have a huge and loyal following in love with the wide range of products they make from their lovingly tended bees across the county. Committed to encouraging people to become better bee stewards through hive inspired products, and education, Sonoma Bee Company is founded on a desire to protect the honeybee, and to preserve nature for future generations. (the salve is phenomenal)
Sonomacountybeeccompany.com
Anne Loarie’s gorgeous resin pieces are secret and sensuous, as all exquisite jewlery should be, but rarely is. Not all that easy to find and Anne seems to like it that way - production is small and specific and she will make custom pieces. Here in Healdsburg she sells exclusively at the wonderful Lucky Heron, luckyheron.com.
For custom pieces you can reach Anne: anneloarie@gmail.com.
The powerhouse Black Pig couple John and Duskie Estes - think Zazu, Top Chef, re-building the Healdsburg Food Pantry - brought an incredible range of all things heritage pig to the market, I mean all things, hats shirts bags, including their bacon (sold at Olivers) and ‘crack’ caramel corn (quotes mine). Sought after for catering gigs, Duskie has long been one of our strongest heartbeats for a sustainable Sonoma County. . We are waiting for the book.
BlackPigMeatCo.com.
Maya Eshom was the lady burning fabrics at Conversations Worth Having #3: Fast Fashion - a sensually profound way to make manifest what happens when dumped fashion is incinerated. Besides being a performance artist and educator, Maya is a designer who sews a range of custom dresses and jackets, all From naturally and locally sourced materials.
Maya can be reached: meeshom314@gmail.com
Alan Cohen is a well known architect and my fellow Healdsburg Planning Commissioner for many years. He has taken up Assemblage in his semi-retirement using only materials he finds at salvage sites (which he knows something about), and walking along the beach near his and artist Manok Cohens home in Sea Ranch. He and Manok hold ‘by appointment only’ visits and sales at their studio in Healdsburg. The pieces are charming, perfect gifts that often sell out at Open Studio.
alan@abcaia.com.
Longer Table brought incredible dried floral wreathes to the market - which they will be selling up to Christmas online. Their online shop includes a wide range of dried peppers and incredible sauces. They also supply restaurants with produce all year through FEED Cooperative (a food hub network of over 50 North Bay farms supporting ecologically sustainable practices, FeedSonoma.com.
You can reach them directly to order online: LongerTableFarm.com
The Farm Studio Family, “loving the earth through farming and art,’ are new to Healdsburg and a most welcome addition to the community. They even (sustainably ) wrapped! Their beautiful serviettes and other woven tableware can be found by reaching out to them directly:
Farmstudiosonoma.com
The Goldberg Family came down from their farm in Ukiah, but are well know to the Healdsburg community as they have long sold at our farmers market. They sell a full range of micro-greens and their wheatgrass elixir was a revelation.
Mendo Grass Microgreens can be reached: Mendograss.com
Above left: Mateo Granados (seen here with his daughter Meddi) needs no introduction to anyone who lives in Healdsburg - he was the executive chef at Charlie Palmer’s Hotel Healdsburg before opening his own Yucatán inspired restaurant Mateo’s where Lo and Behold now welcomes community. Mateo Granados Catering throws some of the most delicious off-site parties around - often at Preston Farm and Vineyards. Matteo Granado raises ducks, chickens, pigs, goats, turkeys on his and his wife Circe’s farm in Healdsburg. (Circe’s father, Hotel Healdsburg founder Merrit Sher, was a huge supporter of the arts, which no surprise is a passion of hers as well).
Mateo can be reached: mateoshealdsburg.com
Above right: We are all thrilled to welcome Yoga on Center back in town! Founders Katina and Jenn were on hand to offer non-toxic rubber mats and great membership deals - a welcome pay it forward gift to give yourself or anyone you love (and will need especially after the Holidays!)
Yogacenter.com
Ah Apple Girl, let me count the ways your presence made us happy on Sunday: Rosalie Pochan (along with Serafina Rosen) was our youngest maker, drawing cartoons of shoppers, as well as selling her macrame coasters, screen printed bags, duck scrubbers, purse charms, and recycled tee shirts she had screen dyed. No surprise the talent- both parents are well loved local artists - wood sculptor Sébastian Pochan and painter and child advocate Jessica Martin - but Rosalie’s connection to art, sustainable materials, and community came with an abundance of charm and confidence that was a joy to behold.
Tara Jasper is another “maker” that needs no introduction: her Sipsong Gins are a mainstay in every bar across the Bay Area. To her range of Healdsburg distilled gins we can now add an incredible Sipsong GinTea, a hit at the Market. Tara is also beloved for her “fight like a girl” proactive women’s heath initiation around cancer detection. A pilot, a passionate advocate of regenerative farming, an indefatigable spirit. We love her.
SipSongSpirits.com
The presence of this gorgeous Maker was also a special treat- and not simply because she is Dawnelise and Ari Rosen’s daughter. Serafina baked pumpkin bread and made quince jam but the product most sought after at the market was the late- great- much missed restaurant Campo Fino’s Sugo Sauce, which everyone has been dreaming about tasting again. It came frozen.. but won’t stay that way for long to those lucky enough to snag a pouch. Stay tuned for more Campo Provisions intel.
Amber brought the wonderful Cequin coffee family into our lives, they are in fact her cousins, but boy are we glad she did. With beans sourced fair trade from all over the world by their father, Celia and Quinn roast here in town and yes, we know, there is a great deal of competition around great coffee Healdsburg but Cequin is special and they offer subscriptions! Pay it forward this Christmas and send or have an exciting coffee delivered, with notes, all through the year. We are now big fans.
Cequincoffee.com
As it happens Amber McInnis is CWH’s only member that can spell so she immediately became our de facto secretary and fact manager keeping the other three of us on course all year…but that is far from why we love her so. The classes she teaches at The Studio Tuesday 9:30 and Thursday 5:30 are the best work-out around. She also plays a defining role managing reservations and parties at Cyrus Restaurant (a job she did for Barndiva many years ago). An extraordinary mother, the best friend, we challenged her to put her sewing talents to work for the market and lo and behold on Sunday she launched Pillow Lips, a funny, mordant, beautifully sewn range of ‘Home Decor Statement Pillows’ made from fabrics she saves and finds at Good Will which she fills with 100% organic material. The spelling thing came in handy: her Wordle Pillow sold out!
For Pillow Lips Custom Pillows: Ambermcinnis@gmail.com
Geoffrey Hales has been meticulously framing sets of antique ‘cigarette’ cards he started collecting as a lad in England for Studio Barndiva since the day we opened as a gallery. Created as a way to build brand loyalty long before they were known to cause cancer, each card came in every pack of Players and Will’s and were collected by the family until the advent of WW2 when cost to produce them became prohibitive. For the remainder of December, for the first time, Geoff will be offering 30% off on all framed sets.
The “before we knew” collection is also available for viewing during Studio Barndiva service days and hours: Thursday - Monday from 5pm. Feel free to come in and have a look at what’s on the walls, a peek in the drawers (carefully please.) The reason behind the double glass framing is so all the information on the back of every card can be easily read. The range of subjects is unbelievable - build a chicken coop, identify a tree, a car a boat, a bird, a king - reach out directly to inquire about a subject.
Geoff.Hales@gmail.com
Single wire Artist Seth Minor is another Barndiva Alum, having sold his work in the Studio for the past 15 years. He lives and works in Sebastopol and besides affordable single faces creates complex pieces - visit Comstock Winery or Barndiva - as well as special occasion commissions.
He can be reached: sethminor@gmail.com.
So that’s it, a wrap. Besides the wealth of talent that participated, it was great fun that all four of us became Makers for the day.
Dawnelise offered ‘Fund a Farmer,’ a Pay it Forward gifting program in support of the Non-Profit she now heads: Farmpreneurs.org; derosen@icloud.com
Barndiva’s contribution to Makers Market was also Pay It Forward: Gift Certificates and Scott Beattie Cocktail Classes: Barndiva.com
The Market was our way of giving back; walking-the-walk we had been talking the talk about with Conversations Worth Having. We loved showcasing beautiful products, made with respect for materials and provenance.
But this wasn’t just a plastic free, no crap Christmas market for us. It was at heart about a community that supports values we know make our small corner of the world such a blessed place to work, live, and raise our families. All the talk we heard about the failing American Dream this fractious election season can so easily drown us in hyperbolic self serving aggrandizement and spite, but in great part we tragically miss the message we are seeking wherever we call home. We need a more profound connection to the natural world surrounding us wherever we live - and to the people we are living our lives alongside. We all need to survive, but If scalability and profit are your only motivation you are missing a crucial part of the equation. Feeling good about what you make is a first step, having an insatiable desire to share is crucial.
The connections we all made - from makers to their product - to a public both local and traveling, tells a crucial part of the Healdsburg story which drew us all together on Sunday. These are the stories that make Healdsburg such an incredible place to create, and to live. And yes I’d even go so far as saying they are at the secret heart of why Healdsburg is indeed one of the coziest places to spend the Holiday Season.
This Holiday Season when we come upon things that charm us, that we imagine stuffing in a stocking, presenting on the Holiday Table, beautifully wrapped beneath the tree or on the mantle by the menorah, it is invaluable to know who made these gifts we are thinking of buying. The where and the how — both crucial - will follow, if we start there.
Conversations Worth Having Dawnelise Rosen wearing a Maya Eshom custom jacket purchased at the market, sipping a Dream Street Sparkle, Barndiva’s contribution to STAY HEALDSBURG ‘Season to Sparkle’ campaign. It was created by our renown mixologist Scott Beattie with a wonderful new locally made aperitif, Rue de Rêve, that is on our Holiday Bar menu. Next up: a cocktail made with Rue de Rêve and Tara Jaspers Sipsong gin. (for a special dry January menu we are also looking into using the Mendo Grass family’s wheatgrass elixir which we tasted for the first time at the market, and loved. stay tuned)
FARMpreneurs.org
Ruedereveaperitifs.com
STAYheadsburg.com