First Fermentation Festival offers food, facts, fun

Several years in the making, the inaugural Freestone Fermentation Festival, founded by Michael Stusser of Osmosis Day Spa Sanctuary in downtown Freestone, takes place from noon to 8 p.m. Saturday at Salmon Creek School (1935 Bohemian Highway, Freestone).

From noon to 4:30 p.m., there will be lectures, demonstrations, workshops and exhibits that cover such topics as how to make sauerkraut, kimchi, kombucha and compost tea (for your garden, silly).

Vintner and fermentation master Lou Preston has promised a cabbage stomp. Clover Stornetta is among the exhibitors and we suspect their delicious new kefir will be on display.

If you love pickles, you won’t want to miss Berkeley’s Cultured Pickle Shop, and if you’ve never tasted natto — fermented soy beans, an ancient Japanese food enjoying a surge of popularity in the United States as a “superfood” — you’ll have an opportunity.

Two popular products of fermentation — beer and wine — will not be available for tasting. Because of the festival’s location at a public school, it is an alcohol-free event. However, Lynmar Estate and Freestone Vineyards are among the festival’s sponsors.

Music begins at noon and continues until 8 p.m. Among the highlights are Jed and Freestone Samba, Brazilian music by Wild Flour Bakery’s Jed Wallach, playing at 3 p.m., and the stunning Hubbub Club Grassroots Radical Guerrilla Marching Band at 4 p.m. The Hubbub Club causes an exuberant ruckus, the likes of which we have rarely seen outside of New Orleans. If you attend the festival, do not miss this group of musicians.

Admission is $5 per person plus $5 per car for parking. Carpooling and alternate transportation are encouraged, as parking in Freestone is limited. For a complete schedule and list of exhibitors, speakers and musicians, visit

www.freestonefermentationfestival.com.
15th annual Napa Chefs’ Market

Next Thursday at 5 p.m., the Chefs’ Market in downtown Napa opens for its 15th season.

In addition to the sale of local seasonal produce and other farm products, the market includes live music, two cooking demonstrations by local chefs, family entertainment, wine tasting and the opportunity to have dinner out with friends and neighbors.

There’s plenty of free parking and there is no admission charge.

To find the market, simply head to First Street. You can’t miss it. The market continues every Thursday from 5 to 9 p.m. through July 30.

A visit to the market also presents a great opportunity to stop by Mustards Grill (7399 St. Helena Highway, Yountville), which reopened May 1 after a 69-day closure following a fire. Mouthful says congratulations and welcome back to Cindy Pawlcyn and her crew.
Support Sebastopol schools

A Spanish Fiesta Auction to benefit Sebastopol schools takes place from 5:30 to 11 p.m. Saturday on the green at O’Reilly & Associates (1005 Gravenstein Highway N.).

Artist Patrick Amiot, creator of the wildly whimsical sculptures on Florence Avenue and beyond, is the festival’s honored artist. Amiot has for years supported local schools with his annual calendar.

The evening will include appetizers, a dinner of seafood, chicken or vegetarian paella and dessert. Spanish sangria and a selection of local wines will be for sale. There will be live music by Dgiin, Flamenco-style fire dancing by the Alchemystics and, of course, a live auction, which you can preview at www.sefauction.org.

Tickets are $60 per person or $440 for a table of eight; check the Web site, www.sef.sebastopolschools.org for last-minute availability.
Food For Thought spring fete

There is still an opportunity to join in the 14th annual Western Sonoma County Spring Home and Garden Tour, a benefit for Forestville’s Food For Thought, Sonoma County AIDS Food Bank. The tour will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.

The popular benefit draws home and garden enthusiasts from all over the Bay Area. This year’s destinations include a 1912 Craftsman home recently featured in Architectural Digest magazine; an owner-designed hacienda with a dramatic waterfall; a restored farmhouse with beautiful flower gardens; a 35-acre estate with garden rooms formed by beautiful hedges and a luxurious new kitchen in the mid-century home and a 4,400-square-foot contemporary farmhouse with grand and whimsical elements. The tour also includes a stop at the French Garden Restaurant’s organic farm.

Tickets are $45. After purchasing your ticket, you receive a map and information about each of the homes and gardens and then you head out on a self-guided tour, visiting each destination in whatever order you choose. If you like, you can add a box lunch for $15. The lunch and a pleasant and shady place for you to enjoy it will be waiting for you at one of the locations.

Tickets are available at Food For Thought, 6550 Railroad Ave., Forestville. The office will be open from 10 a.m. to noon Sunday for last-minute attendees.

For more information, call 887-1647.
Another trip to Spain

On May 23, Sebastopol’s Wine Emporium (125 N. Main St.) is hosting an evening of Spanish food, wine and Flamenco, with music by Geoffry Hawkins, from 7 to 9 p.m.

The evening’s food will be prepared by Dana Revallo, who managed, a few years ago, to talk his way into the kitchen of chef Ferran Adria’s el Bulli in northern Spain, ground zero of molecular gastronomy and often declared the best restaurant in the world by critics. You can be sure that whatever is served will be interesting.

We mention this event now rather than next week because the venue is tiny and attendance is limited to just 25 guests. There have been a number of events at this charming little retail shop that we have been unable to tell you about because they always sell out in advance.

Cost per person is $30.

To reserve a spot or for more information, call the Wine Emporium at 823-5200.
May aloha

On Saturday evening, the North Bay’s largest halau (hula school) presents “Legends of Hawai’i Moku,” a dance celebration of Hawaii island, which most of us know as Big Island.

The performance takes place at New Life Christian Fellowship (1310 Clegg St., Petaluma) from 7 to 9 p.m.

There are unique elements to this particular performance that should put it high on the to-do list of anyone who loves Hawaii, traditional Hawaiian dance or dance in general. Three students in the unike — graduate — class of Halau Hula Na Pua O Ka La’akea have been given an opportunity to choreograph dances themselves. It is rare for the public to get a glimpse of student choreography.

In addition, Kumu Hula Shawna Alapa’i has brought a taiko drum into one of the dances. We saw the dance when it debuted earlier this spring and promise that it is riveting and gorgeous.

Tickets are available at www.hulaon.org and will be sold at the door if available. General admission is $25 and $15 for kids under 12 and seniors 62 years and older.