The 'official' Pink Party Album

A familiar complaint we’ve all heard around town of late is about the dearth of genuine community in Healdsburg. It’s a grumbling refrain that holds particular meaning from anyone that remembers Healdsburg when the words quaint and small town charm could be said about it with a straight face. The usual culprits are a mind boggling collection of new businesses, hotels and restaurants that have opened over the past few years to capitalize on the town’s ‘success’ as a destination location, but the quickening pace of our lives, and the emotional distancing of technology certainly contribute to the disconnect at the heart of the discontent.

The way we see it, community isn’t stagnant, is should and must accommodate change. It’s a layered human construct that is constantly telegraphing across the web of seemingly random connections we make with the people whose paths we cross as we go about our lives, working, shopping, dining out, walking the dogs or, yes, coming out on a beautiful afternoon to taste wine.  Of course It can be locational, found in the church hall, a sporting event, working alongside neighbors at the local food pantry, but we are creating it all the time, with every interaction.  It starts with a desire to connect, is sustained by courtesy, respect, and common interests, and, if you are lucky enough to find them, shared goals.

If the only goal is to make money, if you don’t truly care about your product, respect or spend the time getting to know the people you live and work alongside, you cannot sustain genuine community. Especially in small towns like ours, relationships reverberate in subtle ways when you pay attention; good will resonates whether you’ve known someone for years, or just met them by chance. Community can happen in an afternoon – as it did on Pink Party Sunday. The thing that makes it real is the genuine presence you bring to it, no matter what role you play.

The winemakers who gathered in our gardens to pour their Rosé’s at this years Pink Party, who charmed and educated the guests who came to meet them and admire their craft, are a community with like minded goals, just as the slow flower farmers who grew the blooms we sourced to help create dazzling displays, and the food purveyors like Chef Mike Degan, The Healdsburg Bagel Company, Chef Anderson. Our wonderful staff here at Barndiva, the amazing Corazón crew lead by Ashley Mauritson, Alexis Ioconis who steered the wine ship for us for this years Pink on top of everything else she does, Amber Kneally who sewed our Pink Party Pirate flag at the last minute simply because we asked her to - these are the members of our community we depend upon who bring quality and meaning to our lives as we work through them. Dawnelise and Ari Rosen, last seen leading a joyous if bittersweet progression at the closing of campo fino with patrons who very much considered themselves a community - came to help raise funds and awareness for Corazón, the community organization they founded that focuses upon strengthening families at the very heart of hospitality in Healdsburg. Community is everywhere you choose to see it, and engage with it.

I want to give a special shout out to the many beautiful women in their pink dresses who danced together at the end of the day, as the rest of us looked on beneath the wisteria enjoying the same breeze and listening to the music. It felt so good just to be together and celebrate spring, and the abundance of Healdsburg.

The fabulous Pink Party Line Up for 2023:

@bloodrootwines, @almafriawines, @prestonfarmandwinery, @raftwines, @mauritsonwines, @idlewildwines, @jolielaidewines, @drinkseppi, @cruxwinery, @amistavineyards, @bricoleurvineyards, @brickandmortarwines, @stephane.vivier.wines, @reevewines, @daniel_sonoma, @handleycellars, @flowerswinery, @roedererestate, @grosventrewines, @breathlesswines, @dunstanwine, @tberkleywines, @marinelayerwines, @scharffenbergercellars, @hirschvineyards, @domainesott, @matanzascreekwinery, @liocowineco, @cruesswine, @leosteen_wines, @theharrisgalleryandwine, @ernestvineyards, @rootdownwines, @county_line_vineyards, @copainwines, @drinkkally, @altaorsowinery, @captûrewines, @untiwines.com, @guv_hales, @natalienelsonkirby

Special Friends who always bring it: Chef Francisco, Alexis Ioconis, Ari Rosen & Geoffrey Hales, Scott Beattie (in search of a cocktail no doubt), the irrepressible Susan Preston, Lukka Feldman in from London, Releigh and Asijah, Barndiva’s wine Director Emily Carlson, Eric Sussman, Dan Fitzgerald, Jil Hales & Chappy Cottrell, Dawnelise Rosen, and another belle of the ball in her pink frock, Birdy.

Our thanks to all the winemakers for donating to the raffle benefiting Corazón.

Healdsburg has an abundance of vital community organizations that welcome new energy - join one!

All photographs by the incredible Chad Surmick can be shared. TM us @barndivahealdsburg. And heads up: If you are one of many who missed attending when The Pink Party because it sold out so early, consider signing up to receive our newsletter, Eat the View, so you are first to know about future public events. we’ve got some doozies up our sleeves.

Tickets are now on sale for Fête Blanc, August 20.

@dragonfly_floral, @singlethreadfarm, @longertablefarm, @filigreenfarm, @frontporchfarm, @whodoestheflowers!

@airick72, @franciscoa_, @healdsburgbagel, @chefdegan

Pink Party 2023!

We throw fabulous parties of all kinds and sizes; It’s what we do to earn our crust and something we love - there is nothing quite like the energy of beautifully decorated rooms filled with fabulous food and drink, and the energy that comes when guests arrive wanting to have a great time. Parties open us up to an experience, they connect the dots between milestones, achievement, our desire to have fun. At a moment in time when there seems to be diminishing reasons to celebrate, gathering together (again) in larger groups reminds us why we need the powerful strength we get from community.

The Pink Party holds a special place for Barndiva. Started with Alexis Ioconis and a small group of winemaker friends many years ago as a way to showcase wineries that did not then have a presence in Healdsburg, it has grown exponentially to fill both our gardens as the penultimate party signaling spring is here and summer is about to commence. Healdsburg has changed quite a bit, and many of those fledging winemakers now have international followings, but the heart of the event is still very much about this community doing what it does best. Alexis is back at the helm again this year, and we are thrilled with the line up of winemakers she and our wine team have chosen to join us and pour. The Rosé will flow!

Barndiva Pink Party 2023 will take place on Sunday April 23, from 2-5. There will be music, there will be food - expanded this year to include several street food stations and a pizza oven. We’ll even have a snow cone machine with some inspired flavorings to refresh your palate as you make your way around the gardens tasting through 40 of Sonoma and Mendocino County’s best rosés. As it is every year, the Dress Code is Think Pink!

The wine raffle will benefit Corazón Healdsburg, whose efforts to create a more just and compassionate community includes a bilingual family resource center, and cradle to career education. Their work now stretches across Healdsburg, Windsor, Cloverdale, and Geyserville. Corazón’s inimitable founders, Dawnelise and Ari Rosen have agreed to lead the auction this year, a total treat for us and the community. So you know the drill: Each winemaker graciously donates 2 bottles of their Rosé making it possible to raffle off multiple cases. Corazón benefits from 100% of the proceeds. Great fun for a good cause.

Tickets are now on site for Barndiva’s Pink Party 2023 and friends, they will sell out, so we encourage you to purchase them now.

Join us as we once again fill the gardens with flowers, music, laughter, and a Rosé loving community.

Come, Drink the View with us!

Love thy Neighbor

80% of all species living on earth are anthropoids, they are the largest phylum in the animal kingdom. These include bees, ants, spiders, butterflies, and moths. Live on a farm and they are happily your daily companions, going about their business, as you go about yours. Though I was admittedly once a diehard city girl who would quickly default to ‘is this a predator?’ toward anything unknown (whether it walked on two legs or crawled on four) I’ve come to love the muck and tosh of farm life. Yes, it has taken me years to stop killing spiders – who for the most part do not bite – but I now marvel at the beauty to their balletic grace, the cunning in their designs for living.

And I am not squeamish. Or so I thought, until one sunny winter day just after the recent torrential rains when Dan, Nick and I began to tackle the ¼ acre of ‘treasures,’ aka trash, that had grown to fill a neglected corner by the front gate. A few minutes after we started, Dan lifted the edge of a rotting tarp and a family of centipedes scurried out, followed by a score of creatures, all webbed feed and slimy exoskeletons. I jumped back, fully creeped out. Dan, on the other hand, was positively joyful. He immediately set about transporting them, giggling like a child as he ran the ten feet to the edge of the forest where he deposited them to a new life.  It went on: Beneath a pile of warped ply from some long forgotten project he found blue tailed skinks “beautiful!”; in the grassy muck around an old stove, several alligator lizards. Then beneath a stack of rotting ply, for Dan, a treasure trove of “three species of Salamander!”

Revulsion is the act of stepping back from something, it is generally instinctive, rather than rational. Like all forms of prejudice, it usually comes from ignorance. As the sun crept beyond the canopy of trees casting us in shadow, it was hard to miss the difference between what Dan and I were experiencing. If I have learned anything in over three decades dry farming organically up here on the ridge it’s that while insects may make strange bedfellows, they make grand partners in building the layers of biodiversity our farm has needed to survive and flourish. Why then, do most of us treat things that crawl out from under rocks- arguably where we all started - differently than those that float from flower to flower? We anthropomorphize some creature and not others, easily finding connection to ‘anything with a face,’ but repulsed by slithering snakes and slimy bug eyed creatures. Even within a species most of us hold to established standards of coherent beauty. Why else do we more frequently ooh at the butterfly, ignore the dusty moth circling the porch light on a summer night?

Dan is still, happily, the director of our big farm programs in Philo, though he now delegates from London most of the year, coming back to do a big push in winter and again in fall. He is especially wonderful at reminding us to always take a closer look at the impact our lives up here have upon the surrounding ecology of this ridge; reminding us that as form often follows function, so too beauty is in the eye of the beholder. This trip he gifted us with the knowledge that its often the unseen life on the farm, that over time contribute essential layers necessary to healthy biodynamic structure. These creatures happened to be feasting in the dump, but it is the feces of arthropods which are the basis for the formation of soil aggregates and humus, which physically stabilize soil and increase its capacity to store nutrients. Ecosystem engineers.

As for all those piles of trash we’ve kept around that we no longer have hopes of someday using, we are going to take another look at them before we pay someone to haul them off to yet a bigger trash pile we just can’t see. Before he left he urged us to listen to a John Little Podcast - John, who founded the Grass Roof Company.Co.UK (@grassroofcompany), in 1998, has been a seminal force in both macro and micro thinking around fly-tipping (dumping) and how it adversely affects biodiversity.

If  you are in the least bit curious how to come to meaningful terms with all the junk that invariably surrounds us - how to cultivate your living situation in ways that encourage and protect wild life so it might thrive alongside you, how to cultivate plants that will more easily adapt to our changing climate, I recommend spending some time with this gentleman. Choose any podcast that strikes your fancy - and look at his website. John Little is a marvel rethinking how we live, especially in cities and towns, where every day we pass refuse in both private and public spaces that could be transformed to be pleasurable, have purpose. He grows things in unimaginable places, with very little resources beyond his ingenuity and vision - even top soil has a relegated place in his world. His work in the private and public spheres offers imaginative and inexpensive ways to create remarkable gardens and landscaped installations. So much to learn here.

And yes, upon much reflection, the skinks were pretty awesome.

There is breathtaking beauty everywhere you look in Anderson Valley this winter, and it’s easy to see while passing vineyards which are dedicated to cultivating more than grapes. Handley Cellars Vineyards, always a Barndiva Family Favorite, is particularly stunning. And check out a recent @barndivahealdsburg post about Navarro’s remarkable annual approach to sheep season, captured during a joyful visit with the incomparable Sophia Bates.

Finally, We’d be remiss in closing this newsletter failing to mention how pleased we were with the turn-out for our Book & Film Event on Sunday January 22, which launched Studio B in 2023. It exceeded our expectations. Thanks to the help of Copperfields Bookstore the authors sold a great many books and fully half the sold- out audience stayed for the end of Elizabeth Falkner’s documentary “Sorry We’re Closed” which resumed after a probing, and frank Q & A about the state of the restaurant industry. A difficult conversation at times, it was a necessary one for anyone who loves dining out and is having trouble getting their heads around why and how it has become so expensive. We were proud to have helped facilitate it. Hopefully, there will be more to come like this for Studio B!

Our thanks to Heather Irwin and the Press Democrat ( @pressdemo, @biteclubbeats) for advance publicity for the event; to @shoplocalhealdsburg, @heatherfreyer, @jillkd, and our good friend @alexisconis for their IG follow ups - which we are admittedly dreadful at - so many reached out to say they were sorry to have missed the event but wanted to attend the next one!

And of course Big Love to our incredibly talented divas - Tanya Holland (@mstanyaholland, #californiasoulcookbook) who started the ball rolling, Jennifer Reichardt (@duckdaughterjj, #thewholeduckcookbook), Elizabeth Falkner (@cheffalkner, #sorrywereclosed) and the inimitable Duskie Estes, who guided the Q & A so deftly. (@farmtopantry).

We’ll leave the last word to @shophealdburg and their succinct take-away from the afternoon: #eattheview!

New Year New Opportunities for Studio B

Healdsburg is justly famous as a mecca of fine dining these days, and Barndiva is proud to have been a part of that evolution, just as we are truly honored to have been awarded a Michelin Star for a second year. But this community has always been about more than fine dining for us. It is also a motherlode of single owner shops and galleries, makers and creators, neighbors, and friends – all of us surrounded by magnificent, verdant countryside.

If the past few years have taught us anything about keeping this landscape truly healthy so we can all thrive, we need to gather more to talk and listen, the better to protect what we love about this singular community. And who knows, these conversations might eventually have a ripple effect.

So it is that one of our resolutions this New Year is to focus on extended use of Studio Barndiva to foster more ongoing community conversations. First up in the newly branded Studio B is an afternoon celebrating four remarkable women whose food journeys have a great deal to teach us.

Tanya Holland is a new friend of the barn, a restaurateur, magnetic TV & podcast host and cookbook author of bestsellers like “Brown Sugar Kitchen.” She has just released a fabulous new cookbook called “California Soul,” something she has in abundance and is gracious enough to share.

Jennifer Reichardt is the winemaker/owner of Raft Wines always a star at The Pink Party and Fête Blanc – and she also has a new cookbook, “The Whole Duck,” which draws its recipes from her family owned business Liberty Duck – a valued purveyor of Barndiva’s since the day we opened.  

We have admired Elizabeth Falkner since her Citizen Cake days, long before she went on to open four more acclaimed restaurants in San Francisco and New York and became an international presence as a TV personality and consultant. She now adds filmmaker to her impressive resume with the release “Sorry We’re Closed,” a timely film she directed about how the pandemic has adversely affected small restaurants throughout the country.

Healdsburg’s Duskie Estes hardly needs an introduction — the former owner of beloved restaurant Zazu and The Black Pig Meat Co with husband John Stewart, she is an iron chef, a brilliant speaker and mentor to many. Duskie has transformed Healdsburg’s non-profit Farm to Pantry in ways that are having a profound impact across the state on how to address food insecurity by strengthening our faltering food distribution systems.  

That these four women are successful business owners, Top Chefs, Iron Chefs, Food Network Stars, winemakers and authors isn’t beside the point – the take away for us is how they are all using their considerable personal successes to fuel conversations about definitive ways to support farms, restaurants, and organizations that care as much about people as the food they source, serve, and distribute.

In the final days of December, we hosted a sold-out dinner for the late Sally Schmitt’s Six California Kitchens with Sally’s family, friends of our Philo family for many many years. Winemaker Phil Baxter gave a toast that night I have thought about often since. It was after a cooking class with Sally in 1999 that his parents decided to uproot their lives and come live and work in the Anderson Valley. “That single experience, Phil explained, “that connection to the Schmitt family, is the pure reason why I am living in Anderson Valley and doing what I do today.”

We are all looking for pure connections, especially those that provide direction to our lives. We all know they are rare. But as we try and build our businesses around meaningful lives in these most difficult times, trying to feed necessary personal notions of success that will keep us going, it is essential we form more inclusive, expansive definitions of what it means to be part of a “family.”  Cooking and serving food and wine to the public we are ever mindful of farming practices and conscious sourcing; we try to honor connections to our purveyors and our work force. But you, our customers and clients, are the other side of that equation. Taken altogether, in good faith, in an environment where kindness matters, this is the family we have chosen.

We hope you are able to join us on January 22nd in Studio B, and meet these four remarkable women. We will be sipping Alma de Oakland cocktails and Raft wine, nibbling bites Chef Erik Anderson has prepared from California Soul. The authors will be talking about and signing their cookbooks, we’ll hear about and preview a bit of “Sorry We’re Closed,” and Duskie will inspire us about the vital mission of Farm to Pantry and what they have planned for the new year. If you are unable to be with us we encourage you to go out and purchase ‘California Soul’ and ‘The Whole Duck’ cookbooks at your local bookshop, seek out Elizabeth’s Film “Sorry We’re Closed,” and to find and support – with whatever resources you can manage – a non-profit food distribution network where you live.

FOOD NEWS: Chef Erik Anderson’s Winter Prix Fixe Menu

Maine Lobster from our January 4 menu

Photo: Chad Surmick

We are thrilled to present prix fixe menus this winter the better to showcase more of Erik’s prodigious talents. The menus will also enable us– including our chefs – to spend more time with our guests. The prix fixe will reflect exciting seasonal changes every week*, and can be enjoyed by vegetarians from start to sweet finish. Wine pairings are optional – a chance to dig through the cellar for gems and wines we love from lesser known vineyards. This week’s pairing from Barndiva’s (and soon to open Maison Healdsburg Wine Bar) Jade Hufford.

Starting this Janurary there will also be Bar Menus ~ come in for a Scott Beattie cocktail and share something unexpected.

We’d love to see you.

Which NYE Party?

New Years Eve is the ultra FOMO evening of the year, full to the brim with unreasonable expectations. But it doesn't have to be that way. This year we are throwing TWO NYE parties, each with a different personality, both inspired by what we do best. Parties we'd love to attend if we could. 

In the main dining room in the Barn we will be offering an exquisite a la carté seasonal winter menu, with all the NYE bells & whistles you'd expect - Chef's own label “PIPER caviar, Truffle tart flambé, killer cocktails from Scott Beattie,  magnums of champagne. Isabel Hales, in an encore performance, will be spinning an incredible playlist. 

Think festive, noisy,  delicious.

Over In Studio B we offer BRUT, Chef Erik Anderson's multi-course tasting menu drawing on classic French techniques to create a vibrant and fresh new vision of modern French fine dining. A curated evening tracing our executive chefs remarkable culinary journey, it will be a dinner party of luxurious delights.

Think small, intimate, & candlelit, with scintillating conversation.

An Apology and An Invitation:

When I started to format this newsletter just a week ago, The Sally Schmitt Dinner on December 15 to celebrate three decades of friendship in Philo with our friends from the incredibly talented Bates and Schmitt family, had not yet gone on sale. It sold out from word of mouth within days. BUT … If you missed out on a place at the table to Celebrate Sally Schmitt’s life and Six California Kitchens at the dinner  swing by Barndiva in the afternoon of the 15th between 3:30 and 5:00 when Karen and the family will be showing Ben Proudfoot’s documentary about Sally featured in the NYT and signing books! 

There will be Apple Farm Jams and Jellies, Apple Syrup and Vinegars to purchase - great xmas stocking gifts or just to have in the pantry heading into the Holidays.  We will be serving their delicious hot cider. Who knows, we may even get Scott to open the bar a few hours early to serve cocktails inspired by our three decades on Greenwood Ridge. Bahl Hornin’! (Which means Great Drink in Boontling)

Speaking of cocktails…We have only a few openings left for a Scott Beattie lead holiday cocktail class - as a stand alone experience to treat special friends and co-workers. scott.beattie@barndiva.com

And don’t forget to add a Barndiva Gift Certificate to your xmas list - they are good all year for every delicious thing we do! Share the Barndiva Experience…

The Fête Blanc Album!

This is a photo album and the following images speak in a language we all understand. Our first Fête Blanc since 2019, it was lovely to gather once again to celebrate fine white wines and the people who make them. We wish to thank our guests for the delightful energy they brought to our gardens on Sunday. Fête Blanc draws incredible talent from across Sonoma and Mendocino; it attracts one of the most discerning and engaged group of wine drinkers we see in the year. But boy, do they know how to enjoy an afternoon. You brought the shade friends. Thank you for joining us. Onward!

Our executive chef is Erik Anderson, our pastry chef is Neidy Venegas. Natalie Nelson directs our event team. The exquisite floral arrangements in both gardens were grown in Philo at Barndiva Farm, under the direction of Nick Gueli.

Over $2,000 was raised at Fête Blanc through an auction of wine donated by participants toward our continued support of Healdsburg’s Farm to Pantry.

We love this image. It speaks to both our history and our future, and the intersection is a good part of why we continue to love this community. The gentleman on the far right, Daniel Fitzgerald, was Barndiva’s very first bartender, his sister Emily, our very first server. The man sitting next to him, Sam Bilbro, also worked behind our bar quite a few moons ago. It gives us immense pleasure to welcome them both back for Fête Blanc as singularly talented winemakers - of Daniel Wines and Idlewild, respectively. This story of connection was repeated through the gardens on Sunday. As for the three rogues on the left, well, hopefully they are here to stay for a while. The renown mixologist and gleaner Scott Beattie, also a dear friend of many many years, now directs our beverage program. He is flanked by Barndiva’s newest bartenders, Charles and Daniel. The beat goes on.

All Rights Reserved Barndiva, LLC. Photography: Chad Surmick and Jil Hales.

Dining at Barndiva this summer

We have never been as proud of the food we are sourcing and serving than in this moment. And it couldn’t have come at a better time.

Challenges across the hospitality industry are still being felt acutely, and building kitchen and front of house teams that have the desire to work with great skill and integrity has been a considerable challenge. All of which raises the bar on what to deliver when guests come in search of a great - make that gorgeous - food and drink experience. We get it.

Enter Erik Anderson, for whom every challenge is met with a nod and a wink. He and Thomas Noonan, the guiding force behind our hospitality, have built kitchen and Front of House teams that have both the skill set and the desire to be a part of something truly special. Erik's food has an elegant focus of flavors, subtly of texture, glorious color. We will savor the memory of the food we are cooking this summer for a long time to come.

Neidy Venegas continues to create deliriously delicious desserts, and she has expanded her heritage bread program for both dinner and brunch.

Here then is a snapshot of some of our favorite dishes on the dinner menu right now. Reservations are accepted one month out, but the bar, under the direction of Scott Beattie, is now serving dinner on a drop-in without reservation, first come first serve basis.

Barndiva serves dinner Wednesday - Sunday, with a later reservations policy of 9:30 on Friday and Saturday.

We are also pleased to present the new barndiva brunch menu, below.

We hope to see you for a meal, or a cocktail soon. Eat the view!

Dishes above: Nijimasu Crudo horseradish, buttermilk, smoked trout roe, english cucumber; Charcoal Roasted Squab medjool dates, coco nibs; Mount Lassen Trout saffron nage, Jimmy nardello pepper, grilled baby fenne; ; Grilled Spanish Octopus, pimenton caramel, pepper relish, salsa verde;

Our wonderful in house pasta program continues.. on the left: Brentwood Corn Snail Shell Pasta w/ sunflower yogurt, fresno peppers, perilla. on the right: Egg Yolk Dumplings w/ peas, onions, bacon, radish

Roasted Chicken green asparagus, morels, vin jaune, petit baguette

Red Currant Curd chocolate tahini crust, glazed Preston peaches, ras el hanout ice cream

Big News…

While Barndiva will no longer be serving lunch on Wednesday and Thursday, we have expanded our hours for Brunch with an exciting and completely new Menu.

On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday Barndiva Brunch will be served from 11-2:30. This collaboration between Erik and Neidy have created a big C Comfort menu that is surprisingly fresh and nuanced. Never to be outdone, Scott has upped the ante on brunch cocktails and every week we will be offering a new short list of the best wines to drink on an afternoon. Reservations are required, but as with dinner the bar will be open for diners on a first come first serve basis. And of course, If there are cancellations in the gardens on any afternoon, we will try our best to accommodate your party.

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all rights reserved Barndiva llc. Photography: Chad Surmick

Early Summer, part 1: wine & cocktails

Hello again! We are spilling over with exciting news to share. This will be the first of two early summer newsletters. Short but sweet.

Join us as we head into a beautiful summer here in Healdsburg and at the farm.

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Two very special wine events follow on the heels of Barndiva’s earning the Wine Spectator ‘Best of Award of Excellence’ for the sixth year running. On July 27th we host Baron Ziegler and Pax Mahle of Marine Layer and PAX, followed by the return of Fête du vin Blanc after an absent of two years. Details and ticket links for both: below. Seating is limited for the Marine Layer / Pax dinner. Fête Blanc, which has just gone on sale, will invariably sell out. We hope to raise a glass with you at one of these wine events.

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Should you want a bit of romance a few weeks before Fête Blanc, according to the fine folks at Travel and Leisure (who know these things) our upcoming wine dinner with Marine Layer and Pax is the ticket. These two talented winemakers - Pax Mahle and Baron Ziegler -have charged Erik to create a very special menu we will pair with the vintages THEY are most excited about. Rumor has it they will be raiding their own wine cellars for this one.

In between the launch of the season with The Pink Party and Féte Rouge at the end around harvest time, we host our most elegant garden party, known as Fête Blanc. Gathering in both gardens over 30 vintners pour their most fabulous white wines and bubbles. There will be music, incredible florals, and we’ve expanded the grazing menu from the kitchen. A wine raffle of all the wines being poured, donated by the winemakers, will benefit the essential services of Healdsburg’s Farm to Pantry.

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THE BAR IS OPEN FOR DINING!

Yes! we are finally back to drinking AND dining at the barndiva bar, so it’s a perfect time to come in and experience the green and floral oasis Scott and our farm manager Nick have created. Sitting there is slipping into Henri Rousseau’s The Dream with an icy coup filled to the brim. No tiger, pure joy. For those who have followed Scott’s illustrious career over the years, you are in for a treat. For us, the connection between the farm and Barndiva bar program has never been so beautiful. When we quip “Drink the View,” this is what we mean by it.

With the days growing long we have also extended dinner hours with last seatings at 9:30 Friday - Saturday

This this month we also welcome two terrific new bartenders to join Isabel and Hayden. Charles has come to us from Montage Healdsburg, Daniel moved all the way across the country to work with Scott from The Hayride Scandal, in Baton Rouge, New Orleans, where he and Charles met . We are thrilled they are here and can’t wait for you to meet them.

Food service at the Bar does not require a reservation; it is first come first served. You are most welcome to start your evening with a cocktail, but whether at the bar or the allée please ensure it’s before your dinner reservation.

Scott wants us to remind everyone that summer is the perfect time to get friends, family, co-workers TOGETHER for one of his Cocktail Classes - an experience in master mixology, foraging technique and the true nature of good spirit(s). Held in the Studio Barndiva Gardens, we are happy to offer priority seating for dinner following class.

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That is all the liquid news for now. We will have great food news from Chefs Erik and Neidy in Part 2. Please, stay tuned. As a teaser, here is something new from Neidy. A sweet adieu if you’ve read this far. 

Eat the View,

Barndiva

The 'Official' Pink Party Photo Album 2022!

BARNDIVA’S PINK PARTY CREW 2022

BloodRoot | Reeve | Leo Steen | Ryme Cellars | Valkyrie Wine Imports | Raventós I Blanc | Carboniste Robert Sinskey | Private Property | Captûre | Orsa Wines | Schramsberg | Handley Cellars | Pax Wines | Rootdown Wine Cellars | brick & mortar | Kara Marie | Cep/Peay Vineyards | County Line | Scribe | Long Meadow Ranch | Marine Layer Wines | Railsback Frére| Roederer Estate | Tendu Wines | Ruth Lewandowski | Ernest Vineyards | Raft | Flowers | Tansy Wines | Halleck Vineyard | Lili Sparkler | Idlewild | Inizi

It was an afternoon of gloriously coloured rosé in every glass, a wisteria sky, gardens filled with laughter and smiles. Yes, we know, the world is a mess and covid is not done with us yet, but for a few hours on a Sunday in April we all dressed up and mingled again without fear. We even danced a little. Barndiva was proud to have hosted a party such as this, where we tipped the scales towards delight as we celebrated a scintellating spring moment and the singular talents of the 32 Rosé winemakers in our midst.

The Pink Party has always been about community. It arrives at the start of the season when our small town is about to be inundated with tourists,  so it is especially gratifying to gather together and touch base with so many dear friends- and make new ones - in the winemaking community.  Not that it mattered if you came not knowing a soul –as you can see from these wonderful images shot by our friend Chad Surmick .  At Barndiva we pride ourselves on knowing how to throw a great party, but the truth is that no matter how on point you are at planning the really successful parties always ultimately depend upon the wilingness of the crowd to make a day or an evening come alive. Together, we nailed it, so thank you to every face pictured here and to those we may have missed capturing. You are gorgeous. We loved having you here. 

We send thanks to all the hands behind the scene who played a crucial role in Pink Party 2022: to Sally, Natalie, Cathryn, Haley, Duskie, Scott and Nick, who harvested, sourced and arranged all the glorious florals in both gardens. And of course to Chefs Erik , Neidy, Michael, and everyone in the kitchens and on the serving staff.

Finally, a word about Farm to Pantry: We were thrilled to be able to support them this year with a raffle of wines donated by every winery who participated. We cannot stress how Important what Duskie Estes and her dedicated team at Farm to Pantry are doing within the Sonoma Community to distribute the excess bounty of our landscape – and then some. They are helping put food on tables where it is most needed. That we can enjoy a day such a this and also help a little to redress the inequities of food availability in the larger community was a privledge. Donate your time to glean with them and enjoy making a difference as you spend time with a wonderful group of neighbors.

Remembering Sally Schmitt

The Philo Apple Farm, looking towards Hendy Woods and Greenwood Ridge

We talk about farm to table a lot these days without understanding the back breaking, thoroughly unglamorous hours of work it takes to accomplish anything close to that profound connection. Or, for that matter, loom to sweater or clay to vase… instead we covet power and the goodies that come with money and recognition as proof of some notion of success that increasingly seems to come and go with the season. But the deeply felt rewards of following your intuition and putting in the time and work because you care was Sally Schmitt’s genius, and clearly something she taught her children. In her case it came in the form of taking honed traditional values and making them ‘true’ to her own time and her family’s ongoing needs. It’s very old fashioned to think of character in this way - in the sense that True North is philosophical as well as directional. Sally Schmitt didn’t set out to be a trendsetter for so many of the things we’ve come back around to valuing today - she lived those values. And it was bloody hard work until it became easier. 

Sally, who passed away peacefully at The Apple Farm on March 5, was the formidable mother of my good friend Karen Bates who moved to Philo with her husband Tim the same year, 1984, that we bought our farm on Greenwood Ridge.  Whenever I saw Sally after she and Don had sold the French Laundry to Thomas Keller and re-located to Anderson Valley, first to Elk and then the Apple Farm, I was still hopping on planes from London every summer to get my family back to our ‘work-in-progress’ farm. Always in her apron, moving slowly but with purpose, she’d stop and break into a beatific smile when she saw me and the kids. I like to think this was because she knew I loved her family, but it also just might have been that she knew I connected all my crazy dots about life in a way that also revolved around family, creativity, hard work. Our backgrounds could not have been more different except that I had a mother for whom nothing was impossible if you believed it was the right thing for you and your family. So. A kindred spirit. 

In interacting and observing the world Sally built with her children over the years, I saw how much it centered around family, and food. Specifically food that exemplified Brillat-Savarin’s ideal that all great dishes must ultimately come down to satisfying ‘le goût du revenez-y’ – the taste you come back to. Savarin never established where this longing started – in childhood perhaps – but it has always rung true. And Sally’s cooking nailed it.  

The last time I saw Sally for any length of time was at her granddaughter Rita’s splendid wedding to Jerzy. Never the social butterfly and moving more slowly by then, she was happy to watch her family celebrate around her - she did not move far from her chair that day – and I took the opportunity to keep her company. We talked about the whole pig we roasted per her recipe at Barndiva for Grandson Perry’s wedding and the extraordinary dancing at Grandson Joe’s wedding at The Apple Farm years before that – Joe’s sons now running wild in the orchards below us. At some point I remember her turning in her chair to look me straight on and ask how things were going “at that barn of yours in Healdsburg.” I shook my head, said something like “I may have bitten off more than I can chew,” expecting some pithy Sally response like “take smaller bites.” What she said, simply, was ‘You know what you are doing.’ I didn’t fully. Not that day, and not now – do any of us? We hope and too often our hubris allows us to think we know, but do we? 

But thinking back now it wasn’t that she thought I “knew” in the sense of planning for a tomorrow that might never come, especially in the crazy world of hospitality and restaurants, but in Montaigne’s sense that “the greatest thing in the world is to know how to live to yourself.” Staying true, somehow, to that indefatigable North Star even as it moves across the sky of your life, through loss and success, joy and sadness. Just willing to put the work in.  

There’s a wonderful line in Richard Powers The Overstory – one of many in that great book – that seems applicable here: “As certain as weather coming from the west the things people know will change. There is no knowing for a fact. The only dependable things are humility and looking.”

I’ve had trouble learning humility. My mother warned me of this. But as a woman in a man’s world, being fierce was – as I saw it and built my life – the only way forward without being compliant to anyone’s version of the status quo, or, crucially, becoming complicit in supporting values that were morally reprehensible. I am still learning to lean into humility.  But I do know it starts with looking. 

I am not in the habit of making predictions but here’s one I am sure of: Six California Kitchens is going to be a classic. Troyce, yet another talented grandson, has done a magnificent job melding the old photographs of Sally’s life with images of dishes she and daughters Karen and Kathy cooked and styled at The Apple Farm.  There is no spiffy cookbook artifice here - gorgeously photographed dishes you can’t hope to recreate - just wonderful recipes, and the story of one remarkable woman’s life.

If you find yourself heading up to Anderson Valley and can cage a reservation to stay at The Apple Farm to experience a real small family farm, do not hesitate, and try to talk to Tim about apples. The extremely talented Perry Hoffman, now working with his Uncle Johnny at the Boonville Hotel can cook you dinner there - the best Anderson Valley has to offer. And don’t miss stopping off first for some wine and cheese at Pennyroyal Farm, where if you are very lucky you may get a glimpse of granddaughter Sofia if she’s not off on some mountain above Navarro tending their sheep.

Life is not easy to get through unscathed, but the trait of character that gets one through it – at least to the extent you are satisfied with the life you’ve led at the end of it - is something I’m pretty sure Sally Schmitt figured out.

What a legacy. RIP Sally. 

Return of The Pink Party (and other stories you need to hear)

We hope this Eat the View finds you well, your spirit intact and exciting plans for gathering with friends, extended family, and co-workers gaining momentum. It is so great to be out together again, maskless, re-connecting. While It’s been beautiful here in Sonoma and Mendocino - cold, sunny, green - we need more rain and the News of the World continues to be challenging (to say the least). Call it the new normal - but all we know for sure living in these wonderful, confounding, delicious, too often heartbreaking times is that life is so much better trying to make sense of things with other people who are passionate about food and wine and design and gardens. we hope like us you are intent on rooting out genuine storylines that are ongoing and real, if slightly fantastical. We have been largely silent of late on the blog front for a reason, taking stock and getting ready for a spring… of emergence. We’re ready now.

This Eat the View contains three events we want to tell you about that capture what we’re feeling and planning right now: the first is a deep dive dinner party Wednesday, March 9; the second is a scoop for Eat the View readers; the third a temptation around libations unlike anything we’ve done (or seen) before.

Read on. And thank you for your continued support!

DEEP DIVE DINNER PARTY Our wine director the inimitable Sally Kim, formerly of the Delfina Restaurant Group will be curating a seasonal series of unusual wine maker evenings in the elegant Studio Barndiva this spring kicking off 9th March with a Deep Dive into the best of Sonoma Coast’s wines, starting with the legendary Littorai vineyards. Biodynamic grape growers, farmers, winemakers and educators Ted & Heidi Lemon will be joining us, pairing their wines with a dynamic five course menu created by Barndiva’s Chef Erik Anderson. $350 per person, all inclusive.

CLICK HERE FOR THE MENU, WINE PAIRINGS, AND A SEAT AT THE TABLE.

THE SCOOP: Tickets have quietly gone on sale, online as of today, for the long awaited return of The Pink Party on the 3rd April, 11am – 2pm. Our 40+ winemaker Sunday extravaganza (you know if you’ve been there) is a glorious collaboration and celebration of over 35 local wineries, with winemakers in attendance serving their finest local Rosé’s accompanied by delectable, Barndiva canapé & hors d’oeuvres. Served beneath the flowering wisteria and mulberries of our gardens- with Nick Gueli this year doing the honors of our instagram floral wall- you won’t want to miss this launch of the season. Be advised dear Eat the View Readers, tickets will disappear.

CLICK HERE

THE TEMPTATION:. if you follow us @barndivahealdsburg you may know that come April 1st - no fool he- the legendary mixologist Scott Beattie will be joining us as our Beverage Director. Future Eat the Views will no doubt have to be sub-titled Drink the View in future as Scott, after a short honeymoon, puts the finishing touches on an exciting new cocktail service to be followed with a return to dining at the bar.

And we are pleased to offer the very first series of Scott Beattie Cocktail Classes at Barndiva. These will be lively, full sensatory experiences where Scott will teach you how to make classic and original cocktails using the finest spirits, elixirs and organic fruit material, much of it forged from the Barndiva Farm. Classes start at $150 per person and can be booked for 6 – 24 ‘students’ in a spectacular classroom otherwiseknowas The Studio Barndvia Gardens.

Learn how to make great seasonal cocktails from the man who wrote the book on it.

DIRECT BOOKING ONLY: 707 4310100.

In this moment of planning, and potential

This is the time of winter when we consider which holes to dig and what to plant in the soil we have been building, always hoping for the best, for magical form and color come spring.  Surrounding us on all sides of the farm are redwood, oak, madrone and fir forests being replenished by the rains. The forest floor is thick with leaves and lichen-gilded branches, mushrooms and moss. It feels good to imagine all the breathing going on of animal life, ours and everything beneath us and around us, resting and reviving. Winter at the farm is a time to pull grass, clear overgrown gardens, prune fruit trees and just lean into the wet green silences. We are all in thrall right now, embracing this moment of planning, and potential. 

When Barndiva re-opens after our break, we too will be rested and revived. But as Covid continues, so to our approach to it must keep evolving, fueled by the belief that we must use this challenging time to recraft elements of the dining experience that were fragile well before this upheaval to all our lives began. We’re of a mind there is more to be done building organic farm networks; more to be done building an equitably strong service community. And as we craft exciting and meaningful dining experiences, dare we say it, more joy.

For these reasons and - paramount - because we can’t wait to shake and pour and serve extraordinary food and drink to you, we are thrilled to introduce three key new members joining the Barndiva family this spring.   

Scott Beattie is a longtime friend and supporter of our distinguished cocktail program. His now legendary farm-to-glass career in mixology is the gold standard in all things seasonal. In April he will join us as Barndiva’s Beverage Director, working with our bar and farm teams to build a drinks program like no other. In addition to teaching hands-on garden-to-glass cocktail classes at Barndiva, Scott will offer a custom cocktail service to our on-site weddings and events, so sought after in the past at both Meadowood and Montage Healdsburg.

Sally Kim moved to Healdsburg to lead our award-winning wine program. The powerhouse behind the exceptional wine and spirits programs for the Delfina Restaurant Group for many years, she has deep ties to the local wine community as well as a prodigious command of French and Italian varieties. As wine director for all dining and special events, Sally will also take on our three large collaborative wine events – first up a return of The Pink Party in April. In the coming weeks Sally will be announcing a regenerative somm table series of wine maker evenings.

And when we re-open after our annual hiatus we are especially delighted to welcome Chef Erik Anderson to lead the Barndiva culinary team. He will be joining Neidy Venegas as she expands her sublime Viennoiserie and bread programs, a real partner to her extraordinary vision, as well as to the increasingly sustainable direction we are taking Barndiva.  Erik is a hands-on, up-from-the-ground chef whose arresting food journey through some of the most renown kitchens in the world eventually lead him to Coi, in San Francisco, where he earned two Michelin Stars.

Under the direction of this exceptionally talented group of food, wine, and cocktail maestros we plan to make beautiful music this spring. The goal, the hope, is for all of us to emerge from winter not just intact but with our gardens beginning to open and bloom, as we head into a delicious summer.

We hope you will join us soon as the Barndiva journey continues. 

January at the farm

Here’s how it must work: the unofficial wild bird newsletter goes out the morning the first spring shovel hits the ground with an ‘all you can eat!’ invite for which we are more than willing hosts. After all, it’s not like anyone invited us up here in the first first place so it makes wonderful sense we provide the wildlife a reason to return every year. The shortlist Dan, Nick and Shaun managed to identify one frosty foggy morning just after they finished a week of digging and transferring plants fro our nursery into the long meadow the ground was so alive with rapacious birdlife we all just stood around dumbfounded at their numbers, grinning like children.

Spotted that morning in the meadow: Spotted towhee, Golden crowned sparrow, Junco, American robin, Anna’s hummingbird, Downy woodpecker, Piliated woodpecker.

On the pond: 3 hooded merganser ducks

On the ridge hunging black trupets for Chef Erik with Lukka: one magnificent Red-tailed hawk.

Everywhere else: Quails, Crows, and heard but not seen, Band-Tailed pigeons.

Our heartfelt thanks to Shaun for sharing his vacation time with us before he heads back to the magnificence of the Great Dixter Gardens with Dan. As for the hundreds of bulbs we also planted the past few weeks, and roses and shrubs pruned, stay tuned for insane floral displays from Nick, aka @whodoestheflowers.

All photo credit © Jil Hales.

tagged with @michelinguideunitedstates, #michelinstar21, #eattheview , @HealdsburgChamber, @daniel.james, @socomeatco, @prestonfarmandwinery, @farmert, @spontaneidy,@trytoputacorkinit,@whodoestheflowers, @texfel, @moshugana, @franciscoa, @hangrykorean, @lovehealdsburg, @winespectator , @lovehealdsburg, @matthewjukes, @amberkeneally, @nataliekerbyxo, @chefjeremycabrera @sonomamag, @airick72, @biteclubeats, @scottbeattiecocktails, @greatdixternurseries, @shaun.r.b

Its a wrap! 2021 in pictures

We shoot thousands of images every year here in Healdsburg and at the farm in Philo, but in the end we publish very few. Blessed to be content rich at barndiva, the temptation to post is ever present. But we’re increasingly sensitive to the fact there are way too many competing images in all our lives already. If the objective is to have a real conversation with you (it is), and if we value our sanity (we do), we’ve got to keep it real.

2021 was a remarkable year here at the barn. We are incredibly proud of being awarded a Michelin Star. For being recognized for a fifth year for the excellence of our wine program with two cups from Wine Spectator. The Barndiva Wine Company in the UK managed to survive another year of restaurant closures and still begin to thrive. But keeping it real means acknowledging that as proud as we are of these accomplishments (and we truly are) they resonate fullest in the knowledge that we end the year in good health and that we did not make it through another pandemic year alone. We were blessed to have made many new relationships in the food, farming and art worlds, while strengthening friendships we already held dear. Without these vital partnerships that connect us to our family’s core values - curiosity, sustainability, a belief that character matters, and crucially, the power of beautiful form in nature and in what we create - we would be lost.

To our extended family here and in Engand, our incredible staff, the farmers, vintners and artists near and far who inspire us daily, we thank you from a tender place for your support, your feedback, and for sharing our 2021 journey.

To all of you who broke bread or raised a glass with us this year - virtually or in the flesh - we send our wishes for a Happy New Years and the hope 2022 will be filled with bon chance and good health. Of looking forward to the next adventure, no matter what the challenges may be. Any year that gave us Walker, Lennon, Cleo, Asa, Ansel, and Luca; saw Carlo walking and LouLou riding a bike; resulted in bountiful harvests that fed us and the critters, found us of sound mind and good intent at the end, can’t be all bad. Sometimes you eat the bear, sometimes the bear eats you. This year the bear ate more of our apples then we intended, but we were happy to oblige.

This is an album of personal favorites. Photo credit (and thanks) to Cathryn Hulsman for the shot of the small dinner party in the gallery, Moira Beverage for the image of Neidy and I in the gallery gardens, Emma K. Morris for Neidy’s scorched nectarine caramel semifreddo, and to wedding photographer Sabine Scherer for ‘the kiss,’ from one of our 2021 weddings - in fact thank you to all the special event photographers who made their images available to barndiva this past year. We’ve been expanding celebrations both large and small as we re-open studio barndiva. The response has been phenomenal.

Gardens loom large in our lives and I have included a few images here of two very special gardens we spent time in on our trip to England in September - both buoyed and inspired us considerably. To Fergus and the incredible team at Great Dixter, where Dan is now channeling his considerable talents, just…wow. Christopher Lloyd’s spirit was also alive and thriving at Gravetye Manor where, on a Sunday morning just after dawn in the walled vegetable gardens I experienced the most exquisite and sustained grace note of the year.

tagged with @michelinguideunitedstates, #michelinstar21, #eattheview , @HealdsburgChamber, @daniel.james, @socomeatco, @prestonfarmandwinery,@farmert, @gravetyemanor, @spontaneidy,@trytoputacorkinit,@whodoestheflowers, @gracekhalsa, @hayley.feldman, @texfel, @moshugana, @franciscoa, @hangrykorean,@sabineschererphotography, @emmakmorris, @lovehealdsburg, @winespectator,@castlewoodwines, @trillfarmgarden, jordy.morgan, @the_pig_hotels,@matthewjukes, @bottleapostle, @philoapplefarm, @amberkeneally, @nataliekerbyxo, @chefjeremycabrera

Reflecting on our Michelin star

We can’t help but smile when asked how it feels to have received a Michelin star. Especially as it’s a question that, after an incredulous pause, usually ends …."and after 17 years!”    

The simple answer is unequivocal: to be acknowledged in this way following the year our industry has suffered through is simply terrific. It’s a major, career-affirming event for our executive chef Jordan Rosas and pastry chef Neidy Venegas, both of whom moved to our small town from one of the biggest and diverse cities in the world only to confront raging forest fires and vexing pandemic closures. Forced to re-envision their approach to cooking, they pivoted from To Go, to Provisions, to an innovative version of ‘Safe Distance Dining,’ strengthening and even expanding our farm partnerships. To receive a star is wonderful for them - as it is for all of our cooks, bartenders, servers, and dishwashers, who immediately felt the wind in their sails when they came to work. Pride is an amazing elixir.

If you’ve read this blog at all over the many years K2 and I have been putting it together, you know how we’ve filled those 17 years. Keeping the farm and the mantra ‘Eat the View’ relevant. Constantly upping our game when it comes to sustainability and rewarding labor. Gathering wine and spirit makers, artists and designers of all stripes and finding new ways to incorporate their work into the quarter-acre we occupy in the center of Healdsburg. For all the perfect nights in the gardens, the cocktails shaken, the farmers laden with boxes shouting hello at the kitchen door, not a day has gone by when we haven’t faced obstacles, some pretty damn challenging. Restaurants are first and foremost a performative art. What you learn must be practiced, over and over, then re-enacted with split second timing night after night, without losing that spark of initial inspiration that makes a dish memorable. Fire isn’t the only thing that flares up; knives aren’t the only things around with sharp edges. People whose private lives are filled with drama seem drawn to this profession. But you don’t get into this life - certainly don’t stay - if you can’ t stand the heat in the kitchen. Because when it’s showtime, you just have to bring it.

So yes, we’re proud of those 17 years. If nothing else we’ve been consistent in our passion to figure out - to do more than just survive - this exasperating, exhilarating, exhausting but ultimately life-affirming business. Being able to interact with people who make delicious things, sharing with them the desire to tell compelling food and wine stories - connecting them and their stories to our guests - this is what sustains and guides us. We want to thank Michelin for keeping us in their sights and welcoming us into their community.

Chef Neidy Venegas’ dish above: Quince/ Verbena/Grains of Paradise + Tahini Manjari Mousse. Chef Jordan Rosas’ dish above: White Bass/ Broccoli Chowder/ Manila Clams/ fennel/ broccoli stems

A few weeks ago I wrote about how we hoped to come out of Covid in a manner that might embrace ‘dining out’ as more of collaboration, a commitment of time with delicious intent shared by both diner and host. It’s also very much a collaboration between chef and farmer, chef and purveyor, and each member of staff working together, showing care for every element of service, and, crucially, for one another.

But the further we get into society opening up again the more I feel the truth that the social zone we are re-entering - for all its old sheep’s clothing - presents a new paradigm. We are all looking for purchase in this new world, relevant experiences that will resonate, not just for an afternoon or evening but as a thread running through our lives.

Reading Richard Powers’ new novel “Bewilderment” a few weeks back a line jumped out at me that I can’t get out of my head,  “…if some small but critical mass of people recovers a sense of kinship, economics would become ecology. We’d want different things. We’d find our meaning out there.”  Whether this is an achievable goal or not isn’t the point. We need to try. And there may be no better place than the communal dining room, especially those that take their cues from nature and its seasons. With so much of life in the 21st Century spent dipping into virtual realities, there is great solace to be found in the fact that there is - as yet - no virtual substitution to sitting down in a room full of strangers and taking food and drink into your body to be nourished, engaged, and looked after in the pleasurable way humans have craved for centuries. To quote the last line of an Erika Meitner poem, “gather is a transitive verb.” To have the ability to work at what it means ‘to gather’ so it exalts this time, in this place, rewarding human endeavor, living our lives doing what we love, has been an honor and a privilege.  

To celebrate the year ahead, upholding traditions we think have always made Barndiva unique, we’re hosting special exhibits, parties, and collaborative events that speak to our interests, and, we hope, yours. The Pink Party, Fête Blanc, and Fête Rouge are back. Collaborations with other chefs who Eat the View. A ‘throw out the playbook’ series of parties, starting with New Year’s Eve. But first up a mixed media evening that combines the talents of three rising stars in the ceramic world with the work of Barndiva’s brilliant floral farmer. Up from the Earth is one from the heart for us. It elementally connects everything we do in Philo to everything we do here in Healdsburg.

Stay tuned and keep your calendars fluid. From Chefs Jordan and Neidy, and the entire Family at the Barn, we hope to see you soon!

Up from the Earth will take place November 12, from 4-8. It is for one night only. Barndiva’s Nick Gueli will be joined by Grace Khalsa, Ian Hazard-Bill and Miles McCreary from the Mendocino Arts Center to display work specifically made for the show that combines their Anagama wood-fired kiln vases and food safe vessels with florals Nick has grown and dried at the farm. Thanks to the wonderful Lulu Handley, we will be pouring wines from Handley Cellars, and the Gallery Bar with Isabel at the helm will be open for the first time since, well, you know.

Please note: all the work will be for sale, and range in size and price, with all proceeds going to the artists. Join us to celebrate these talented individuals.

Support the Arts!

What we really mean by Eat the View

American Gothic, single wire. Seth Minor

Eat the View is more than a tagline attesting to a commitment to source food grown with sustainable and ethical intent. View is context. It’s what you get by paying attention in the moment. Beyond what a guest comes to eat and drink, our hope has always been that you will be nourished by everything you see and interact with here; that those elements will play over the entire experience in a way that you can, hopefully, play forward.

But while it is our aim that food, cocktails, wines, flowers grown at the farm, art and antiques gathered from farm and wine communities from around the world - basically everything you see and touch here - will give pleasure, the Barndiva experience is ultimately a willing collaboration between us. One that starts with the understanding that talent, resources, and above all else time, is finite and precious. Yours especially, but ours as well.

The pandemic was challenging in different ways and to different degrees for all of us. While we had no control going into it, we find ourselves in a slipstream of desire coming out, propelled by a greater appreciation than ever of how dependent we are on one another. It’s not just an awareness borne out in our kitchens where we were up close and personal as we tried to stay open, accommodating a sudden shift toward To Go menus and on and off openings and closings, safe-distance dining in our gardens. During those first awful months people across the world came to see who keeps the lights on. Beyond the kindness of strangers - which we should always recognize and cherish - we witnessed writ large the skills and talents of fellow human beings in all walks of life. They honored their professions under the most trying circumstances, a community of strangers in hospital settings and emergency services, people who drove through the night, filled shelves, cleaned floors, basically kept things going while most of us Zoomed the days and nights away or found a safe tree to stand beneath while the dogs did their business.

We’re not philosophers and we don’t have a crystal ball. What we do know is that when you’re sitting in a room with candlelight, filled with the fragrance of flowers and food, the low murmur of other people is a social incantation we all need. For all the other things we learned to rely upon in the time of Covid - the healing power of nature, the fact that solitude isn’t empty but can be rich and full - it is obvious to us, as we hope it is to you, that the most important care we need to give right now is to one another.

For everyone working in hospitality right now, Labor is the biggest problem facing a return to social life. Much of it is for reasons that go beyond what you may be reading about a workforce that enjoys being ‘on the dole,’ or is still afraid to re-enter the marketplace. It has to do with a lack of affordable housing, with access to reliable transportation and child care. All these things are directly connected with workers not being paid a truly livable wage, including necessary benefits. The team we have built during the pandemic - and are now expanding - understands that addressing equity in pay between front and back of house is long overdue. They believe, as we do, that everyone working alongside them should have full healthcare as a foundational piece of employment. I like to think it helps that Barndiva is such a beautiful place to work, the ingredients we prepare so fresh and precious, it makes the long hours we put in worth the effort. But first and foremost, people have to feel valued. A service charge instead of a gratuity is a very important step we are taking that will allow us to extend health benefits and raise compensation. Getting back to that notion of willing collaboration, we hope we can depend on your support for keeping it in place.

Our executive chef Jordan Rosas moved to Healdsburg a few weeks before we closed down for the first time. For all the dishes he hoped to create here in bucolic, small-farm obsessed wine country, he was suddenly faced with getting creative in a To Go box. Our great thanks to him, our brilliant pastry chef Neidy Venegas, and our incredible lead sous chef Francisco Aguilera for hanging in there, continuing to dream forward, cooking delicious food despite the challenges. Food is people, before and after what happens in the soil, in the pan. It’s the way we interact as we nourish one another. Whatever happens going forward - and we fully understand this is a transient industry at heart - we will always be grateful to the indefatigable Cathryn Hulsman, to Chappy, Natalie, Felix, Hayden, Terra, Manuel, Raul, Abel, Paola, Carolina, Jessy, Robyn, and dear Lynn (who never stopped baking to celebrate every birthday). To Jade, Ryan, and Evan whose plans after they left SingleThread were put on hold and found safe harbor here during a dicey time when we were swabbing down everything anyone touched, and stayed on.

Once we are fully staffed, look for the return of The Pink, White and Red collaborative wine parties; for an Industry Night with great playlists and movies on the wall of the Studio; look also for a collaborative ceramic and floral gallery show unlike anything we’ve ever done before. Art is central - as are design and florals - to who we are, and what we do. When we relocated staff operations inside, we weren’t just surrounded by empty dining rooms. The art and sculptures we’ve collected over the years helped sustain us; they lent the light filled space and our experience of work and service during those strange months a hopeful gravitas. As we gather again together as community, try and support the arts - and artists - in any way you can. Healdsburg, with its many wonderful galleries, is a great place to start.

We move into a very busy summer with a dynamic woman to help lead our managerial team. We are thrilled to welcome Moira Beveridge, who brings with her not just an impressive resume in all aspects of hospitality but a true passion for it. She’s also got significant wine chops. Come in and meet her!

As for our floral program, which has guests gasping in appreciation every service, it is now led by the extremely talented Nick Guili (holding Camellias, above), who took over from Daniel Carlson, and also wears the hat of Barndiva farm manager. Nick has expanded the program to include the ability to order arrangements for any special occasion you may be celebrating. (For those of you who miss Dan - and we do - he is happily thriving in England, working at Great Dixter, one of the most esteemed and thrilling gardens in England.)

In closing, let me say for Lukka, Geoffrey, Isabel and the entire staff, that while we are very happy to meet all the new customers who have made their homes in Healdsburg (Windsor, Santa Rosa, Cloverdale, et al) over the past year, we will always be grateful to our long time clientele and the many friends of the Barn who patronized us through the darkest months of 2020-21. You buoyed us up, and kept our lights on. It is a true joy to see you once again filling our gardens and dining rooms. You know who you are. We are so grateful to you all. Stay tuned…

Barndiva is open Wed - Sunday for lunch and dinner - we will not close when we have larger celebrations in the studio. Brunch has expanded to include Saturday. Come and Eat the View with us!

@saverestaurants #staytuned #stayhealthy @stayhealdsburg #healdsburgchamber #eattheview #barndiva #healdsburg #thisishealdsburg #sonomacounty #mendocinocounty #sommtablehealdsburg #sonomastrong #ediblemarinwc #lovehealdsburg @barndivahealdsburg @sonomamag @winecountry @slowfoodusa @chef.jordan.rosas, @spontaneidy, @wckitchen, @independantrestaurantcoalition, @BarndivaHealdsburg, @CityofHealdsburg, @HealdsburgChamber @tockhq @socomeatco @feedsonoma @eatersf @maisonhealdsburg @franciscoa_ @prestonfarmandwinery @michelinguide @trytoputacorkinit

Food to Banish the Blues

While we’ve still got one foot firmly planted in winter as we await more rain, the other has taken a giant step into a spring where flowers are not the only things blooming with fantastical color and form. For a year now we’ve been driven to cook and devour big plates of comfort food to sustain us- the messier the better. Many of those dishes we’ve grown to love, but it’s all systems go in our kitchens now especially on the dinner menu where new dishes from Chefs Jordan Rosas and Neidy Venegas dance with incredible scent, layered flavors, and elegant plating that refuses to go back in the (To Go) box. As we come out of our caves again, the longing for beautiful food and a return to the simple luxury of time spent lingering over a meal is palpable. We’re excited.

Join us for Lunch and Dinner in the Gardens. Menus will change frequently…follow us @barndivahealdsburg!

Sonoma County Meat Company 6 oz Filet Mignon, potato mille-feuille, confit pearl onions filled with bone marrow & cauliflower purée, topped with crispy shallots, finished with tarragon and chive powder. Sauce perigourdine, aromatic with black truffles. Sweet peas from Freckle Farms.

Monkfish & Manila Clams with romanesco in a foamy clam ‘chowder’ made with monkfish fume, clam juice and emulsified butter. Below: Compressed cauliflower stems hold romanesco purée. Sourcing from Sun Catcher Farm, Freckle Farm, Feed Sonoma and Barndiva Farm.

Blood orange Mousse Cake with passion fruit gelee spheres, fresh citrus. The frozen mousse cake slices are sprayed with white chocolate in a vivid shade of jaunty yellow, the better to play off peeled segments of cara cara, kumquat, blood orange and grapefruit, which nestle on blood orange gel.

Mignardise of Hibiscus Campari Pâte de fruit and Coriander Guanaja Valrhona fudge- surprise delights after a meal - a small but sweet thank you for dining with us.

@saverestaurants #staytuned #stayhealthy @stayhealdsburg #healdsburgchamber #eattheview #barndiva #healdsburg #thisishealdsburg #sonomacounty #mendocinocounty #sommtablehealdsburg #sonomastrong #ediblemarinwc #lovehealdsburg @barndivahealdsburg @sonomamag @winecountry @slowfoodusa @chef.jordan.rosas, @spontaneidy, @wckitchen, @independantrestaurantcoalition, @BarndivaHealdsburg, @CityofHealdsburg, @HealdsburgChamber @tockhq @socomeatco @frecklefarmshealdsburg @suncatcherfarm @feedsonoma, @eater_sf

THE GARDENS ARE OPEN!

On the Valentine’s Menu: Strawberry Cream Gâteau for two, coconut & fresh citrus. Dessert will also include assorted mignardises.

We wish to sincerely thank everyone who has continued to support us through this dreadful pandemic by ordering Barndiva To Go, buying Gift Certificates to pay it forward, and patronizing our new Shop Provisions which Jordan and Neidy are growing by the week. To Go has widened our understanding of food in new ways, not just what holds up on the ride home and what doesn’t, but what hits comfort notes and still captures the thrill of new flavors. We’re honored it has been lauded in reviews, and we intend to keep it going, but hearing from so many of you, knowing this community had our backs, is what has made all the difference.

We are so thrilled we are able to open the Gardens again to dining on property from Feb. 3. We have missed seeing the gardens full of diners, the interactions, the ambiance. For the time being it will be weather permitting so please make reservations with the knowledge that if rain is inclement, while we will contact you, we are going to play it close because often the skies clear and we have glorious days after a good rain.

It’s been quite a challenge to continue to push out creatively these past months, but we knew in our hearts there was no point in surviving if we didn’t. As we reopen we want to share dishes with you that excite us, cook food that captures the singular seasonality of the beautiful landscape that surrounds us, celebrate the extraordinary talents of small local farmers and purveyors.

And yes, we are taking reservations for Valentine’s in the gardens, and they are filling up fast. But with an understanding we all have different comfort levels for meeting again in person, we are also offering the same prix fixe menu as an interactive VALENTINE’S kit you can enjoy at home. It will come with videos for each dish - how to simply plate, gently re-heat, or cook from scratch, hopefully together! Included are perfect wines to pair with your romantic meal, and we’d love to add a beautiful bouquet from Dan and Nick. Following our sold out Mother’s Day model, Barndiva’s interactive Valentine’s kit will be available for pick up in Healdsburg, Marin and San Francisco.

We’re pulling out all the stops for Valentine’s because it’s a holiday focused on a consideration of the importance of love - the perfect stepping off point as we head into a future where the joy in kindness is going to be needed in great supply. We’re so ready.

Please  keep in touch via Instagram and Facebook. Stay hopeful, stay safe, stay sane. We hope to see you in the gardens soon. Thank you again for your continued support.

 @socomeatco, @arafanelliwinery, @champagnebrunopaillard, @saverestaurants #staytuned #stayhealthy @stayhealdsburg #healdsburgchamber #eattheview #barndiva #togo #healdsburg #thisishealdsburg #sonomacounty #mendocinocounty #sommtablehealdsburg #sonomastrong #ediblemarinwc #lovehealdsburg @barndivahealdsburg @sonomamag @winecountry @slowfoodusa @chef.jordan.rosas, @spontaneidy, @wckitchen, @independantrestaurantcoalition, @BarndivaHealdsburg, @CityofHealdsburg, @HealdsburgChamber @tockhq

Damn the Torpedoes

If your impulse is to dive under the bed this NYE, close your eyes and just wait for the end of 2020, you are not alone. But there are reasons to pause and even celebrate the milestones, accomplishments, and resilience of this year in particular. While there is abundant evidence that we are making a mess of things as a human race, individually and often collectively we witnessed great forbearance and courage. From frontline essential workers who kept going with empathy and an extraordinary level of care, firefighters who battled blazes across the state, and towns like Healdsburg where shopkeepers and citizens stepped up to keep supporting local businesses, this was a remarkable year of true grit.

And right up there with efforts to ensure our personal survival was the inspiration and focus of Black Lives Matter. Millions marched peacefully to make the point - which should be self evident but sadly, tragically, is still not - that change must come in the way we treat one another. We have much to learn and many bridges to build, but in the face of everything else we struggled with as a country this year, it was a hopeful start.

In raising a toast to the end of 2020, here’s to the things you love, the people, places, work, and passions that kept you going. Hold tight to them. 2021 will no doubt prove another hell of a ride.

The people we worked alongside this year - every single member of staff at Barndiva - many now furloughed - did not falter. We are still here because of them. This was the year we were able to build the most creative and talented team we have ever had - which is saying a lot. Jordan Rosas, our executive chef, lured his sous chef Francisco Aguilera and the inordinately talented pastry chef Neidy Venegas up from LA only months before the first shutdown and despite COVID managed to build an incredible team while forging more relationships with local farmers and purveyors. Jordan crafted menus that satisfied the understandable desire right now for comfort food, yet managed to inject an exciting indication of where he intends to take us. Hats - or toques- off for all the chefs, especially those who lead smaller independent restaurants, that have worked through this dreadful time, fighting for a way of life that transcends any single career.

Glass raised to World Central Kitchen. Support them if you can.

The food they cooked. Comfort dishes like fried chicken sandwiches, hoe cakes, burgers and pastas flew out the door to the gardens and To-Go since April, and hopefully will continue to do so, but Jordan and Neidy still represented the food they love and came to Healdsburg to cook in dishes that were beautifully sourced and an utter delight to the eye, the palate, the soul.

Glass raised to all the farms listed on our menus, in Eat the View and @barndivahealdsburg throughout the year, with a special shout out from Jordan to Kindred Spirits Care Farm and Shemesh Farms

The farm continued to sustain us. Barndiva farm relies on the strong backs of two dedicated individuals with a passion for farming and flowers, Daniel Carlson and Nick Gueli. They tend and harvest our fruit and nut crops (often with friends we rope in to help) and produce the incredible floral arrangements Barndiva is known for, which continued to delight everyone in the gardens all summer long.

Glass raised to Farm to Pantry and it’s is intrepid leader Duskie Estes. Join, and support them if you can.

The Barndiva Gardens allowed us to define safe distance dining on our own terms and in our own style this year. They offered brief respite to all who braved the pandemic and the fires through an otherwise beautiful summer and glorious fall. Not a day goes by we don’t give thanks for them. It was a very conscious decision on our part 16 years ago to design open space in the middle of a town that seemed to have loads of it, filling dining gardens with antiques and local art, herbal and edible floral beds. It may now seem prescient. It wasn’t. We missed the weddings, the collaborative wine events, the anniversary and birthday celebrations and can’t wait for their return, but the beauty of a garden if well loved is that it’s heart keeps beating.

While we were fortunate we did not have to erect a tent on the street to keep going this summer, many did at great cost and difficulty. We greatly appreciate the The City of Healdsburg and The Healdsburg Chamber for encouraging parklets, and for all their other efforts to help keep wine country hospitality alive and well. Staying connected to community is not easy right now, but it’s never been more vital. Independently owned news organizations cast a wide net of interests that can support, expose, and explore stories that affect our lives, day to day.

Glass raised to the incredible reportage and photography from The Press Democrat. From front line reporting on the fires through their continued human interest stories that bolstered local restaurants, farms, and purveyors, they stepped up and it mattered. Subscribe.

Any year that welcomed this little guy into the family can’t be all bad. Just can’t. And while my issues with life lived primarily on Instagram only grew more complex this year, it often made my day to see glimpses of the children we know on social media getting on, growing up, coping. They marched with their parents, cooked for firefighters, contributed to the family labors, continued to educate themselves online. Their remarkable resilience is a testament to youth, but it draws, each and every day, from the time and care we put in as parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and beloved friends, even remotely. Here’s to you Carlo. Your big sister LouLou and I can’t wait to take your hand and walk through the gardens and up into the forest together. Nothing to fear there buddy, only a bear or two.

@saverestaurants #staytuned #stayhealthy @stayhealdsburg #healdsburgchamber #eattheview #barndiva #togo #healdsburg #thisishealdsburg #sonomacounty #mendocinocounty #sommtablehealdsburg #sonomastrong #ediblemarinwc #lovehealdsburg @barndivahealdsburg @sonomamag @winecountry @slowfoodusa @socomeatco @chef.jordan.rosas, @spontaneidy, @wckitchen, @independantrestaurantcoalition, @BarndivaHealdsburg, @kindredspiritscarefarm, @shemeshfarms, @FarmtoPantry, @CityofHealdsburg, @HealdsburgChamber, @PressDemo

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