Four good reasons not to feel guilty for celebrating Christmas this year

We went into planning an Enjoy at Home Christmas Dinner with some trepidation - with so many across the country struggling right now, celebrating anything out loud needs some context. The most obvious reason for optimism is that we are inexorably heading toward the finish of a year we can’t wait to see in the rear view mirror, but here you go: four stand alone reasons to spend some time enjoying the notion, the magic, the much needed hopefulness in the Holiday Season 2020.

1. Anything that strengthens connection right now is good - in spite of the fact that raising a glass on Zoom is not what any of us ever envisioned for Christmas, certainly not for New Year’s Eve. Still, if, on the other side of that screen you get to see beloved relatives and friends, it’s going to be a shot in the arm while we patiently await a real shot in the arm that can actually bring us together in person again.

2. Kids sure aren’t to blame for what’s happening in the world right now, and they have reasons to love Christmas that the pandemic shouldn’t touch. Whatever your feeling about shopping mall Santas and the commercialization of Christmas, this is a holiday full of the best kind of wistful thinking, and it comes with the tag line “don’t be naughty, be nice.” There’s a soft moral in there that’s good to be reminded of, whatever your age.

3. If you are blessed enough to be healthy and financially secure this holiday season, it’s a great time to spread some of that wealth around your community. For us it’s about keeping people employed doing what they love - cooking and farming and making things - but every shop in Healdsburg, Windsor, Cloverdale, Santa Rosa - every town in our beautiful part of California - will tell you the same thing: the big box companies will survive this pandemic. We might not. Support small retail this Holiday, enjoy safe distance dining and if we all must pivot to TO GO then patronize your favorite local restaurants, especially those that support the food shed. It will make you feel good; it will certainly make all of us feel good.

4. This is the big one. Celebrating lifts the spirits, great food and drink feeds the soul, so try to find a way to make a small but joyful noise this Holiday. We had incredible feedback from our sold out Thanksgiving feast, but we are still finding our way through this new dining paradigm, as you are. Planning the menu wasn’t hard - Jordan loves celebration meals (take a look, below) but initially we weren’t feeling it. Then Chef Neidy and I started playing around with antique Christmas decorations, pâte à choux, little towers of meringue entwined with sparkly ribbon and something crazy happened. Even the god awful red feathers which no one admits to buying years ago but make their return year after year rewarded us with delight. It was momentary, but inspirational. Neidy is going to bake seven different varieties of Christmas cookies with recipes from around the world for Christmas Dinner. Jordan has sourced beautiful hams - in fact the entire meal will be sourced from Sonoma County. Take a look at the full menu below, and keep scrolling for very special bottle offerings. We are thrilled to have Evan Hufford and Ryan Knowles - both previously at Single Thread - as our Somms in residence this year. In the run up to the holidays, Evan has made it his special mission to root through our cellars and pull some great bottles out to share. Meanwhile, over in Barland, Terra’s incredible Three Generation Punch will be included with the dinner and we are planning to shake up some classics like Why Bears Do It with fresh apple juice from the 2020 harvest and a new Tequila FLIRT. We are also happy to send you Barndiva versions of whatever libations you have in mind for the holidays.

Booking for the dinner is now live on the website. We’d love to cook for you. Cheers!

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

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