The Importance of This Food Now

Farm to table dining didn’t start out as a restaurant slogan. When the PR wunderkind searching for a nostalgic trigger to lure diners realized no one really remembered the dairy down the road, he or she was off and running. Dining is, after all, a state of mind even before the first mouthful. While it worked well in the lingua franca of the socially and morally conscious, once upon a time it would have raised eyebrows in rural communities where everything served in local restaurants came from a nearby farm or purveyor. What was grown locally was going to be the cheapest - and before farming became dependent on chemicals, tasted better too. If you lived in the countryside you were literally eating from the landscape you saw everyday. We all know what happened: as cities expanded land for growing food and raising animals and making things from scratch shrunk as a result. In many places farming communities disappeared altogether. Better land values, which is different from land usage, became the name of the game. In our lifetime we have seen supply chains that once barely stretched across state lines now easily spanning the globe.

Barndiva is blessed to be located in a once thriving farming community and our goal has always been to source as fully from it as we could, but truth be told we always somewhat uncomfortable with the term. We understood why ‘Aspiring Farm to Table’ didn’t play as well in the press, but what is the true litmus test for making this claim for your establishment? 80% local? For most restaurants 60% is an accomplishment when you consider the real cost of sourcing sustainably alongside trying to pay your staff equitable wages and offering health care, all while juggling the myriad of other overheads that go into running a restaurant. And to be clear, it isn’t just the cost and logistics of dealing with many small producers that send chefs who may long to source more locally to large and often global chain delivery services. It is customers wanting tomatoes in January, fresh raspberries in March. It’s having to contend with expectations around value for money.

None of this should be of concern to the diner who comes to escape their problems for a few hours, be fed and cared for body and (to some degree) soul. But keeping that view outside the kitchen windows whole, not cut up into pieces and filled with yet more fast food islands serving commercially produced shrink wrapped food, is why we got into this crazy assed business in the first place.

In publishing these images of the first new fall dishes from Jordan and Neidy, which as I’m writing this we are able to serve in the gardens though we await an imminent Covid closure of on-site dining and a shift back to To Go, I’m proud of how their remarkable skills make the most out of products that were entirely sourced from Marin, Sonoma and Mendocino Counties. Not just because they taste sublime (they do) but because they make it possible for us to continue to support smaller farms and purveyors who are also fighting for their businesses right now… and their way of life.

So whether it’s for a special occasion, or you can afford to dine out frequently, your support of restaurants that are trying their best to walk this walk is crucial right now. Read publications like Edible Marin, check in with Slow Food USA, talk to your Farmers Market favorites about which restaurants they supply. Every day is going to be a struggle for a while now, but it is one worth engaging. Because - and I know this will sound crazy - we can come out of this on the other side as better chefs, owners, farmers, purveyors… and diners.

Thank you for your continued support. Stay well.

Fire seared then pan finished, Chef Jordan Rosas’ crispy duck breast is sourced from our friends at Liberty Ducks in Petaluma. Hakurei turnips from Preston Family Farm are cooked in shiro dashi, with dollops of chicken liver mousse, rainbow swiss chard from Marin Roots Farm, and pomegranate jus, with pomegranates from Jackson Family Farms. Radish flowers, as garnish, also from Marin Roots Farm.

As an accompaniment to our steak from Sonoma County Meat Company (who supplied our beautiful turkeys for Thanksgiving Feast at Home, and will be supplying house brined ham for Christmas) Chef Jordan used a trio of squash for the purée filling - delicata, spaghetti, and butternut - all from the incomparable Preston Family Farm. Nasturtium leaves are from Marin Roots Farm, as well as harvested here in Healdsburg in the Barndiva gardens.

Pastry Chef Neidy’s ethereal apple tart is constructed of layers of apple butter, apple juice jelly swimming with fresh apples, and white chocolate mousse. It is finished with vanilla Chantilly. She used Sonora wheat grown by Lou Preston here in Healdsburg, and all apples were from our harvest this season from heirloom varieties we dry farm on a ridge above Philo.

@saverestaurants #staytuned #stayhealthy @stayhealdsburg #healdsburgchamber #eattheview #barndiva #togo #healdsburg #thisishealdsburg #sonomacounty #mendocinocounty #sommtablehealdsburg #sonomastrong #ediblemarinwc #lovehealdsburg @barndivahealdsburg @sonomamag @winecountry @slowfoodusa @liberty_ducks @prestonfamilyfarmandwinery @socomeatco @feed_sonoma @marinrootsfarm @farmert

Why Food Like This Matters Now

With our second week as a To Go restaurant behind us we are feeling immense gratitude for the support we’ve received from the Barndiva community near and far. But as we shift our gaze down the road, as necessary as sheltering in place is right now, there are going to be long term effects on almost all small independently owned restaurants and on anyone who services or provides for them, up and down the food chain. This is true everywhere because as Lucas Kwan Peterson wrote in an article published in the LA Times on March 26, “Times are uncertain and people need to eat, preferably cheaply given the fact that they are also worried about or have already lost their jobs. But our multi-billion dollar fast food industry is equipped to weather this shutdown. Our small restaurants are not.” As he, and many many respected restaurateurs like David Chang, Danny Meyer and Tom Colicchio are warning, we aren’t just talking about weathering this shutdown in the short term.

There is no Eat the View blog without Barndiva. But over the past decade that I’ve been writing it, while very much a personal story of the joys and challenges we’ve encountered as our family farmed this ridge and built a sustainable business in the heart of Healdsburg, whenever possible the blog has tried to draw a larger circle around the two food sheds we work from, and the stories of many who work within it, often with little or no financial or physical safety nets. Whether these players are young, having moved here with a dream, or working within long held family businesses, they are dedicated to re-telling and extending the remarkable food history of this area. Many will now be facing serious hurdles.

As proud as I am of the delicious series of dishes coming out of our kitchens right now, I’m equally gratified that many kitchens here in Healdsburg are still producing food, keeping chefs and purveyors working. We miss seeing you in our dining rooms, that’s for sure. For us, going back to the basics has been a refresher course in why food like this matters - its power to convey the love we feel when we know where our food comes from and who produces it. If you have the financial bandwidth, seek out and support smaller independent producers and farms that have online stores and CSA’s - it’s a great time to join one!

And do consider donating to Sonoma Family Meal a vital ‘Groceries to Go’ drive through program here in Healdsburg, whose immediate goal is to aid families and seniors during the pandemic. Read more from our friends at Corazón Healdsburg.

Below are just some of Chef Jordan’s dishes coming out of our kitchen right now which can be picked up curbside at The Gallery or delivered at no charge by Lukka and Isabel along with cocktails and selected bottles of wine from local wineries. Starting next week we will also be offering kits that are easy to finish cooking at home. If you are too far away to enjoy Barndiva To Go but want to show support, consider paying it forward for lunch in the gardens this summer, one of our collaborative wine events like Pink Party, Fête Blanc, Fête Rouge, or taking your significant other out to…dinner. Just dinner. We are dreaming of that - just being together again in the comfort of strangers, sharing full dining rooms filled with flowers and the music of glinting shakers. That will feel like celebration enough.

To order Barndiva To Go or a gift certificate: shop.barndiva.com or call us at 431.0100.

Here are: Spring Onion and Yukon Gold Potato Soup with garlic croutons; a Jackson Family Farm Green Salad; Whole Roasted Chicken for two; Coconut Rice Pudding with fresh mango; Teriyaki Glazed Steelhead Salmon with green cabbage salad; the first Cook at Home Kits from Chef Jordan: hand cut Semolina Lumache with a bolognese of grass fed beef, walnut finished pork, and veal demi-glace, with a hunk of Grana Padano, herbs and finishing salt.

Chappy will have a lot more to say about wine next week - he’s been pretty busy since he took over my job as Barndiva food and drinks photographer. As you can see, he’s killing it. He’s also posting and updating the shop daily. At the same time he has been producing a series of podcasts the local wine community has fallen in love with: we urge you to check out: @crupodcast.

As for cocktails, Isabel is shaking them moments before the food comes out, packed to go for curbside or delivery. Glass keeps them nice and cold, and they are all ready to be enjoyed. She will be adding more favorites, but let us know if there is a cocktail you are missing.

Local distilleries would appreciate business right now and there are some terrific spirits made here in the County, try and order them when you stock up.

For Cocktails To Go, our Manhattan is made with two Redwood Empire whiskies - Lost Monarch and Emerald Giant (The Graton Distilling Company plants a tree for every bottle sold), Sipsong; The Negroni features Healdsburg’s Sipsong Indira Gin (made by everyone’s sweetheart Terra Jasper); The Diva Gimlet is made with Young & Yonder’s Armont Vodka, from other Healdsburg neighbors Josh and Sara. Local products have real stories behind them in addition to talent and passion. This one is a love story (he is the distiller, she designs the gorgeous labels).

Cheers.

#staytuned #stayhealthy #stayhealdsburg #healdsburgchamber #stayhome #eattheview #shelteringinplace #barndiva #togo #healdsburg #thisishealdsburg #sonomacounty #sommtablehealdsburg #sonomastrong

A Perfect Summer Evening to Push out the Raft ...

Barndiva wine director Chappy Cottrell with Raft’s winemaker Jennifer Reichardt

Nostalgia for it’s own sake tends to skew maudlin, but when you have the rare opportunity to revisit the past in a life affirming, beautiful and delicious act of bringing it forward, you hit pure joy. Jim Reichardt was with us at Barndiva the day we opened, his 14 year old daughter Jen in tow, and we have been proud to feature his Liberty Ducks on our menus ever since. Beyond pleasing guests, which keeps us going, it has been the friendships we’ve made with dedicated and talented farmers, winemakers and purveyors like Jim that has kept us whole. His return to our table on a perfect Labor Day evening with that same beautiful daughter, all grown up and in command of a winemaking talent as deep as it is humble, made for one of the loveliest dinner parties anyone here can remember.

The evening unfolded beneath the trees at a leisurely pace as befits old friends meeting and making new ones. It was a labor of love for Chappy Cottrell, our wine director, who worked assiduously with Chef Danny Giromolo and Jennifer over the past few months to create a menu that not only used every part of Liberty’s Pekin ducks but was paired to enhance the range of qualities Jen brings to her winemaking.

A welcome glass of Love Ranch Viognier Madera, with it’s bright citrus and florals, began the evening along with two amuse: Duck rillettes on toasted brioche topped with Barndiva Farms Hosui Pears, and duck prosciutto on Randy’s house made focaccia, Pt. Reyes Blue and saba.

Once seated, guests were treated to a Grenache Rosé from Trails End Vineyard in Potter Valley with the delightful name ‘Fleur Pour Ma Mère.’ Tart peach and Lady Apple aromas lifted the tenderness of the duck carpaccio with a plum gastrique, pickled fennel and Jackson Family pea shoots.

Then we switched gears, and glasses were filled with the fresh, dry, herbal notes of a blended red called Antonella, from Dry Creek Valley. It was paired with two distinct presentations of that redoubtable duck organ: crispy duck liver arancini over a piquillo vinaigrette, and a fluffy light duck liver dirty rice with arugula, drizzled with strawberry coulis.

The ultimate comfort duck dish, confit, was next up, along with a 2017 Besseré Vineyards Sangiovese from Butte County. Its classic Italian herbs and pizza spices were a wonderful complement to what has become a Barndiva favorite dish. Then Danny pushed the boat (or Raft) out with the perfect intermezzo - duck tongue ‘oysters’ with blueberry lemonade granita served with a clean, crisp, chilled light red Madera from Love Ranch.

Jim’s Pekin Duck breed was given the Peking treatment for the next main course. Served with forbidden rice, Sayre Farms rattlesnake beans and pillowy Moo Shu Crêpes, two remarkable reds were offered to compliment and compare: a 2017 Grist Vineyard Syrah with a punch of blackberries and bramble, and a 2017 Weed Farms Syrah, an earthy old world nod bringing the sanguine, damp loam, bitter bakers chocolate and what Chappy describes as young leather. Both Syrahs were from Dry Creek Valley, similar terroir, but remarkably different. The table was by now filled with glasses. No one was complaining.

The only dish not paired with one of Jennifer’s Raft Wines came at the end of the meal: a centuries-old distillate of 131 herbs and spices, Green V.E.P chartreuse - served as a digestif in a chilled rocks glass with a duck crackling rim, duck fat gelato, brown butter streusel and carbonated grapes.

In the end Chappy was right to keep the number of guests to one long table beneath the trees, so while we offer our apologies to those who called looking for tickets when the dinner sold out, he made the right call. The size of our group allowed Jim and Jen to spend real time with every guest. Jim has a remarkable history here in Sonoma County and stories to go with it, while Jen, charming and informative to a fault, is a serious talent who has worked with some of the leading winemakers in California. There is heart in everything they do. To have their family here on Monday, with ours, was golden.

A huge shout out to the stellar talent of Daniel Carlson who colored the summer evening with an abundance of candlelit grasses and wildflowers from our Greenwood Ridge gardens. To Chefs Danny Giromolo, Randy Dodge, and Bobby Hartley, hats off for a delectable, intriguing and ultimately satisfying series of dishes. To Lukka and Cathryn, Caitlyn, Hayden and Isabel, thank you for a seamless service that kept the platters coming and our glasses full.

Though the night was very special for all of us, it’s clear that Chappy Cottrell will continue to raise the bar on all our SommTable events. Next up: Fête Rouge, on November 24, which will showcase the finest reds of the season along with artisan delicacies to taste and to buy, market style. Thinking ahead to the run up to Thanksgiving, with Christmas right behind, this is an event you do not want to miss as you plan your Holiday tables and consider edible gifts. It will be held in Studio Barndiva and The Gallery will indeed be all dressed up for the holidays. Stay tuned as we announce winemakers and purveyors. Tickets have just gone on sale.

Spring Encanto

This Week

There is serious talent in Barndiva and The Gallery right now. Above: Randy, plating his handrolled Cavatelli in The Gallery; Yazmin, in the Barn, plating a cornucopia of vegetables and salad greens under the watchful eye of Danny; The many colors of Terra. Image of Yazmin by our pastry chef Shae, a fan.

While At the Farm…

On the mornings it hasn’t rained, clouds as vaporous as dragon’s breath enfold the gardens and orchards at sunrise. Do we know what dragon’s breath looks like? We do not, but there is a magical fairy tale quality to the light up here on these early spring mornings. Below, Queen Anne cherries are the first to bloom this week; “Happy Rich,” variety of sprouting broccoli and shelling peas hides out in the tunnel alongside White Ranunculus beds; vibrant Analita tulips filled with eager Hoberflies.

Let the Fêtes Begin!