Running behind? Out of ideas? Peninsula artists and artisans have a lot to offer. By Laura Ness The third week in December can have the holiday clock looming over you like sugar plum fairies with a disapproving gaze. Yes, it is crunch time for gift buying this holiday season, but fear not, we have compiled an eclectic guide to last-minute presents, which will not only meet the difficult standards of your mother-in-law, but support ...
Read MoreWe asked local butchers and farmers to weigh in on the best bird for your buck By Elena Kadvany Turkeys on the move in full fanned-out glory. (Photo via Flickr) Matthew Prentice, head butcher at Belcampo Meat Co. in Palo Alto, grew up eating Butterball turkeys for Thanksgiving. The widely available birds are injected with what the company calls a “pre-brine” and are raised on factory farms. This was all he knew, he said, “until I became a ...
Read MoreHappy chickens, frolicking pigs: Where to buy local humanely-raised meat right here on the Peninsula You don’t have to be an insufferable bore to want boar that didn’t suffer! This little piggy from Root Down Farm is living the dream. Photo by Federica Armstrong. We all know that Portlandia episode where Fred and Carrie pepper their server with questions about the chicken. “How big is the area where the chickens are able to roam ...
Read MoreLove for the locavores at Pescadero’s Fifth Crow Farm How UCSC classmates became converts to sustainability and purveyors of delicious farm boxes for the SF Peninsula. Words and photos by Molly Cornfield Fifth Crow Farm produce is grown on 80 sun-and fog-kissed acres outside of Pescadero. It’s 8am on a Friday morning, and I’ve managed to get myself out of my Mountain View apartment, over the foothills, and to Fifth Crow Farm in Pescadero. The farm ...
Read MoreTrust us, you want in on this. Where to find the fabled green chile of New Mexico while supplies last. If you’ve ever lived in New Mexico, or visited in fall, you know the smell of roasting Hatch chiles. When I was growing up in Albuquerque, semis full of freshly harvested green chiles from the southern half of the state would pull onto dirt lots, set up a mesh barrel roaster over ...
Read MoreThis Labor Day, keep it low-stress with an outing to the farm country south of Half Moon Bay. The slice of bucolic heaven that lies on the other side of the Santa Cruz Mountains is one of the best things about Silicon Valley. Goat farms, produce stands and quaint towns turn a trip down Highway 1 into an odyssey to another time. And then there’s the scenery: miles of blue Pacific Ocean ...
Read MoreHow to Get Your Art on at the Palo Alto Arts Fest Tips from a local on getting the most out of the Palo Alto Festival of the Arts by Caitlin Wolf It’s the end of August in Palo Alto, and that can only mean one thing: time for the annual Festival of the Arts! Having grown up here, I remember being dragged along University Avenue as a child waiting impatiently as my mother and grandmother ...
Read MoreVinyl Solution in San Mateo is one of the Peninsula’s last vintage music holdouts. And yes, they have cassettes. by Jennifer Christgau-Aquino Vinyl Solution stocks all manner of analog doohickeys, like this turntable. Photo by Jody Troxel. On a Tuesday morning, in the middle of a quiet street in San Mateo dotted with nail salons and Asian restaurants, Vinyl Solution Records is buzzing. Twentysomething employees rack records, customers stream in and out picking through ...
Read MoreDon’t panic, but this month we’ll lose about 2 minutes of daylight each day. So make your grill time count! These Peninsula butchers shared their favorite new cuts of meat, and some old stand-bys, for a summer wind-down like no other. Brad Bain breaks down a lamb at Gambrel & Co. Photo by Veronica Weber. Gambrel & Co. This friendly new-school butcher shop in Redwood City has a cult following, and it’s easy to see why. ...
Read MoreMandana Navi likes to cook. Like many a chef she started out in her own kitchen, testing out recipes and sharing her results with friends, before taking the plunge and going into business. But her recipes are a little different than yours. Shampoo. Conditioner. Skin cream. All of it made from natural ingredients. All of it formulated by Navi herself in the lab she designed in the back of her shop. Navi ...
Read More