Blue Sky Hot Sauce Throwdown

Everything about our day off smacked of wonderful, awash in the vivid primary colors everyone needs in their lives right now starting with the sky, a Mayan blue with diaphanous white clouds and not a hint of smoke in the air, praise be. We were surrounded by paper bags full of the most glorious red, yellow and green peppers, all grown by our friends at Blue Leg Farms. We had plenty of Modelo and a few bottles of good Rosé we felt compelled to finish, it being the first day of Fall. And though we had an objective - to coax lingering heat with loads of complexity out of those peppers into a hot sauce worthy of Jordan and Neidy’s new brunch menu (which starts up Sunday), no one was in a rush to get there.

Lukka and Dan had set up an outdoor kitchen but with a slight wind blowing nobody felt the urge to actually start a fire and cook over wood as planned. So we pulled the old propane barbecue out and worked through the day, grilling, seeding, chopping and blending various combinations as the mobile kitchen slowly expanded, chairs flung out around the grills trailing off into the chestnut trees. We talked travel, skydiving, My Octopus Teacher (on Netflix, a must see), watched Frankie the pup tumble around on wood chips and wade through the grass. The clouds did their thing. All talk of Covid, the fires, and the election was banished.

Though we came to this impromptu food lab on the mountain with no recipes in mind, we had many years of living between us, some of it spent forming opinions on what makes a great hot sauce. We agreed on a few things: add some apples and pears from the orchards to supply subtle fruit notes, our aged apple cider vinegar and maybe some of the Datu Puti vinegar Jordan had brought (along with a mysterious jar of spices) for acidity. We had a bag full of Bernier garlic - to which we added a few heads of Preston - always good measure. No decision was pressing - scallions or onions, apple cider syrup or honey, it didn’t seem to matter so long as we recorded everything. No idea was off the table.

The only question was how to recreate whatever we fell in love with in the kitchens down in Healdsburg in the months to come. The sun moved across the sky and dipped below the ridge, the solar jam jars bursting into fairy light one by one as dusk grew to night. Hot sauce is above all things, an anomaly - insanely beautiful colors that all but disappear as you cook them down, transforming into incandescent flavors that channel other spirits. There is a reason every culture has one. At heart they are a gentle slap to the senses before you dig in to a dish, urging you to wake up, and be present.

Blue Leg Farms, a ten acre certified organic farm in the heart of Sonoma County currently has 40 varieties of peppers. They can be found at the Healdsburg Farmers Market and Santa Rosa Luther Burbank Center Market, and online bluelegfarm.com. All Photos: Jil Hales & Dan Carlson.

Photo: Paul C Mille

In Memoriam

We will always remember the day Ruth Bader Ginsburg graced Barndiva with her presence to officiate at a wedding in our gardens for two of her beloved former clerks, Miriam and Robert. You could see why she was so admired and loved in the way she treated the couple that day, honoring Jewish religious practice by inviting everyone in, yet somehow keeping it intimate and private for them. It was a masterclass in capturing the moment. This tiny woman so elegantly dressed, speaking just above a whisper, held everyone enthralled.

The secret service had swept the property several times in the days running up to the wedding, I think they swept most of Healdsburg. The whole time she was there they formed a courteous phalanx around her that somehow did not prevent her - though she did not mingle - from acknowledging everyone she came into contact with, no matter how minor to the day. Lukka is usually unflappable but his hands shook at little when she asked him to hook her collar on, a special one from her (voluminous I’m sure) wedding collection. At the end of the ceremony it was thrilling for everyone gathered to hear, probably for the only time in our gardens “By the power vested in me by the Constitution of the United States of America, I pronounce you husband and wife.”

Justice Ginsburg was the epitome of a fully engaged mind, a champion for social justice in ways that should transcend the ugly partisan divisions now driving us apart. Not above the law, but of the law, informed by the arc of history but not a prisoner to it. That she believed and protected a woman’s right to choose made her an early hero of mine, but even when I disagreed with her decisions over the years I could see how she had arrived at them. They were usually around the corner, where we needed to be.

RIP RBG.

Baruch dayan ha’emet.

#saverestaurants #staytuned #stayhealthy #stayhealdsburg #healdsburgchamber #eattheview #barndiva #togo #healdsburg #thisishealdsburg #sonomacounty #mendocinocounty #sommtablehealdsburg #sonomastrong #ediblemarinwc #lovehealdsburg #biteclubeats @barndivahealdsburg #bernierfarms #prestonfarmandwinery #ruthbaderginsburg #chef.jordan.rosas #bluelegfarms

Wednesday at the Barn.......A Love Supreme......

Barndiva welcomes a very special Justice of the Peace

Since we opened our doors eight years ago, weddings have been a part ~ some would say the very heart ~ of the definition of hospitality we have sought to honor, always taking its cue from the landscape surrounding us. We will move small mountains to deliver indelible dining experiences served in rooms and gardens filled with flowers, art, and music.

But ultimately it’s up to the bride and groom, and their family and friends, to make their wedding speak to them in a way that is unique to the union they hope to forge. Only they know what that means, drawing from how and why they fell in love, the importance of family and community, the contours of the things that make them glad to be alive and for that reason want represented on the day they say their vows. It’s not, after all, a vow of silence.

So when we use the word ‘bespoke’ to describe our wedding services, we’re not just offering to accommodate the curious nuptial request, we’re pretty much saying ‘bring it on.’ As a result, we’ve had our share of unusual moments ~ dueling bag pipes, full gospel choirs, New Orleans jazz bands, dogs as ring bearers, the entire USC marching band, even the odd fortune teller (prediction: a long and happy marriage).  A few weeks ago the best man gave his speech via a live link from Afghanistan, where he’d been suddenly deployed.

But by any standards the wedding on Saturday, August 18 between Miriam Seifter and Robert Yablon was exceptional. We are used to hearing the words “by the power vested in me by the State of California (or increasingly, the Universal Life Church) but it’s quite another thing, and thrilling indeed, to hear a member of the Supreme Court utter the words “by the authority vested in me by the constitution and laws of the United States,” knowing she is one of only eight other people in the world who can do so.

Before Associate Chief Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg pronounced Miriam and Robert 'husband and wife' (words she alternated throughout the ceremony with 'wife and husband'), she spoke eloquently about the meaning of the chuppa the couple stood beneath, a cloth canopy supported by four poles, open on all sides. The Chuppa is meant to represent the ideal of a Jewish home. Justice Ginsburg made the point that it has no furniture to indicate that the basis of any home always starts with the people in it. It was a great reminder to all of us gathered, of how easy it is living in a culture overly obsessed with possessions, to lose sight of what is left of any relationship when stripped back to its essentials.

Though a living symbol of the most august institution in our land, standing there in the late afternoon sun as a sudden breeze scattered yellow and white rose petals across the ground was a small, delicate women, speaking from her heart. And so it goes. Whether your reach in life is grand or singular (in her case, both) the depth of any genuine connection we hope to forge with other human beings has the best chance of thriving when it starts with empathy. This is true in a marriage of two, or a nation of millions.  We build from the ground up, hopefully, with common purpose, shared goals, hard work. Somewhere in the mix is the desire to be loved. In this last respect at least, it's a good idea to give as good as you get.

We want to thank Miriam and Robert for allowing us to use these images from their wedding. And for entrusting Lukka, Amber, Ryan and our entire staff to care-take and hopefully inspire their wedding day.

Yes, we loved this article (and so will you)

I worked in journalism for a number of years in London and I know how hard it is to control what you write vs. what is eventually printed. The English dailies are among the best written and rigorously researched in the world, and it helped that some of the people I interviewed were important ~ with fully swinging legal departments if you got a quote wrong. In my own small way, being on the other side of the equation these last few years I am constantly reminded of the power writers and editors and art directors have. So I am doubly grateful for articles like Elizabeth Cosin's in last Sunday's Press Democrat about our video Eat the View. I've been a fan of Elizabeth's since she took over for Scott Keneally for Healdsburg's Towns section in the PD, writing wonderfully about neighbors like Dino Bugica and Doralice of The Healdsburg Cheese Shop. I think The Town's articles are the best thing the PD has done in a long while. We were thrilled to be included.

Here is the link to Elizabeth's article, In Healdsburg, you can Eat the View

For a link to the video go to our website, or directly to Vimeo or Youtube.

Eat the View.

All text Jil Hales. All photos Jil Hales (unless otherwise noted.)