Podcasts about Hopland

This week on our Vino Lingo segment we feature Scott Kirkpatrick, Winemaker, Dancing Crow Vineyard, Hopland, defining the term “Flocculate”.  Learn more by visiting dancingcrow.com

The wine growing regions of California are vast and beyond imagination when it comes to acreage as well as just plain beauty. Dancing Crow Vineyard is located in Hopland just a couple hours north of San Francisco. The scenery along the drive is stunning and the wines are equally exceptional. Scott Kirkpatrick is Winemaker and [...]

Na de thuiswedstrijd tegen Fortuna Sittard vorig weekend kwam FC Twente dit weekend op bezoek in het Abe Lenstra Stadion. Twente kwam vroeg op voorsprong en breidde die zelfs uit naar 0-2. Heerenveen kwam terug en werd extra geholpen door een rode kaart voor FC Twente. Vroeg in de tweede helft werd het 2-2, maar Twente vocht terug tot 2-3. Na een invalbeurt wist Eser Gürbüz een punt voor de Friezen te redden, gaat hij de anderen in het mooie rijtje achterna?   Na een geslaagde en leuke uitzending met directeur Ferry de Haan vorige week doen Redmer, Frank en Marnix het deze week weer met z'n drieën. In ongeveer drie kwartier passeren weer een hele hoop onderwerpen de revu. Zo gaat het over de off-day van Hopland, de wedstrijd van Linday, de vechtlust, de invalbeurt van "Gurbe" en de keepers. Daarnaast behandelen we ook weer luisteraarsvragen, wie is bijvoorbeeld de speler in de huidige selectie met de meeste potentie? In de Ode van Redmer gaat hij deze keer in op ons grootste verbeterpunt de laatste wedstrijden, de corner. Verder worden er weer drie spelers genomineerd voor de titel van Camataruaan van de Week, want er waren zeker jongens die hun van hun goede kant lieten zien. Uiteraard komt er weer een spelerspaspoort voorbij en wordt er vooruitgeblikt op de wedstrijd tegen PEC Zwolle. Wat zijn deze week de voorspellingen? Dat alles en nog veel meer hoor je in deze nieuwe uitzending van Radio Camataru!

Na een ietwat teleurstellend einde van 2024 (en daarom geen laatste podcast) begon 2025 afgelopen weekend een stuk beter. In Breda begon sc Heerenveen ijzersterk aan het nieuwe seizoen en stond het bij rust al 1-3 voor, na een stormachtige tweede helft werd er alsnog een 2-4 uit het vuur gesleept en zo zijn de eerste drie punten binnen. Robin van Persie heeft in de winter het nodige onderhoud gedaan en had een aantal nieuwe krachten tot zijn beschikking, maar is dit nu de beoogde basiself? We beginnen het jaar in de vertrouwde drie eenheid, dus met Frank, Redmer en Marnix. Uiteraard kunnen ze niet wachten om te mogen nabeschouwen op de fijne wedstrijd in Breda, met zoveel verschillende uitblinkers en mooie momenten. Uiteraard gaat het dus over Linday, Jahanbakhsh, ingooien, Rallis, mooie goals (van Trenskow), de trap van Braude en de Noorse rots in de branding Hopland. Moet er eigenlijk nog wel wat aan deze selectie toegevoegd worden? Deze week beschrijft Redmer in zijn Ode een debuut en een wederopstanding in één stuk tekst. Op basis van de wedstrijd was het lastig om te kiezen en lastig om een aantal spelers buiten de Camataruaan van de Week verkiezing te houden, maar uiteindelijk kwamen er toch maar drie op het "scorebord". Ook komende week wordt er weer volop gevoetbald, komende donderdag Quick Boys-uit en komende zondag Ajax-thuis, zullen we volgende week weer zo goed gemutst in de studio zitten? Dat alles en nog veel meer hoor je in deze nieuwe uitzending van Radio Camataru!

The Mediterranean Oak Borer was first recognized as a threat to Valley Oaks and Blue Oaks in Napa and Sonoma Counties is on the march. Mike Jones, the UCCE forestry advisor, reports infestations in Hopland and Potter Valley. Listen to our podcast to learn more about what you can do to protect Mendocino's oak trees.

August 22, 2024 — As pink ladies bloomed in gardens, along roadways, and on the wild coastline, Mendocino winemakers gathered in Hopland on Saturday for the annual Mendocino County Fair Wine Competition, which determines whose wine will be poured at the fair.For the first time, the Mendocino Winegrowers did not invite wine experts but instead held a “people's choice” competition. "It's great to have consumers, the people who buy the wine, judge the competition," said Executive Director Bonnie Butcher.

There is no new Brew Ha Ha show today, due to travel schedules, so for this week's podcast edition here is an encore show of a visit with Ron Lindenbush from last March. Brew Ha Ha will be back with a new episode next week, Thursday Aug. 1. Cheers! Ron Lindenbusch, Hopland Tap founder and owner, is back again on Brew Ha Ha with Steve Jaxon and Herlinda Heras. He has been on Brew Ha Ha several times, including this episode on July 5, 2018, again on May 28, 2020 along with Natalie Cilurzo, and again on May 6, 2021. These episodes chronicle Ron's career with Lagunitas up to and including the Heineken purchase. Today's live radio show is a triple-header. We have two other guests in the studio along with Ron today. The episode with Cynthia from Homerun Pizza is here. Ryan Frank, brewmaster at Headlands Brewing, also has his own podcast episode on this page. Since he left Lagunitas at the end of a very successful run, Ron Lindenbusch found the perfect location in Hopland to set up the tavern that he always dreamed of. Steve remembers when it was the Hopland Brewery, they had bands including some pretty famous ones. Hopland Tap also does live music. This Saturday the band is Left-Hand Monkey Wrench. Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more. On Tap at Museum of Sonoma County Herlinda Heras is helping the Museum of Sonoma County develop its upcoming exhibition ON TAP about the history of brewing in Sonoma County. Ron Lindenbush was with her at the museum today to record some video that will be used in the exhibition. He personally holds a lot of the stories of the history that is the subject of the exhibit. See our sponsor Victory House at Poppy Bank Epicenter online, for their latest viewing and menu options. They are tasting a non-alcoholic beer that Ron makes. It actually tastes like beer. One is called Electro Lime. Ron explains that it is made just like beer, then the alcohol is removed. What remains is a beverage that actually tastes like beer. The non-alcoholic beer scene is completely different than it was ten years ago.

Ron Lindenbusch, Hopland Tap founder and owner, is back again on Brew Ha Ha with Steve Jaxon and Herlinda Heras. He has been on Brew Ha Ha several times, including this episode on July 5, 2018, again on May 28, 2020 along with Natalie Cilurzo, and again on May 6, 2021. These episodes chronicle Ron's career with Lagunitas up to and including the Heineken purchase. We have some other guests in the studio with Ron today. Cynthia Caughie is here, from Homerun Pizza and so is Ryan Frank, brewmaster at Headlands Brewing. Each of their conversations have their own podcast episode, Homerun Pizza here and Headlands Brewing on this page. Since he left Lagunitas at the end of a very successful run, Ron found the perfect location in Hopland to set up the tavern that he always dreamed of. Steve remembers when it was the Hopland Brewery, they had bands including some pretty famous ones. Hopland Tap also does live music. This Saturday the band is Left-Hand Monkey Wrench. Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more. Herlinda Heras is helping the Museum of Sonoma County develop its upcoming exhibition ON TAP about the history of brewing in Sonoma County. Ron Lindenbush was with her at the museum today to record some video that will be used in the exhibition. He personally holds a lot of the stories of the history that is the subject of the exhibit. See our sponsor Victory House at Poppy Bank Epicenter online, for their latest viewing and menu options. They are tasting a non-alcoholic beer that Ron makes. It actually tastes like beer. One is called Electro Lime. Ron explains that it is made just like beer, then the alcohol is removed. What remains is a beverage that actually tastes like beer. The non-alcoholic beer scene is completely different than it was ten years ago. Visit Homerun Pizza, home of the Knuckleball! Fresh pizza dough made from scratch daily, la pizza è deliziosa!

Laurdag 10. februar blir det konsert med Elkana og Sølvi Hopland på Godøy bedehus. For nokre år sidan hadde var Elkana på besøk hos Hopland på Ulvund fyr, og då vart det bestemt at dei måtte gjere eit samarbeid på Godøya. No inviterer koret som er 30 år i år til konsert med kveldsmat fyrstkomande laurdag.

Martha Barra Our guest today on California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger is Martha Barra from Barra of Mendocino, the vineyards and winery. Martha was on CWC one other time, on this episode of November 18, 2020. Barra of Mendocino is and always has been an organic farm, even before certifications existed. Their tasting room is located about 10 miles north of Ukiah. Redwood Valley Vineyards is the vineyard estate which is about 5 miles from there. Dan mentions that too much fertility in the soil is not favorable to wine grapes. As you drive up the 101, past Hopland, there are fewer vineyards visible. When you finally get up to Ukiah, that is the last outpost for fine wine in California, and Barra is right in this zone. Then, there are just a few in Humboldt. They open a bottle of Barra wine for tasting that Dan says is “fabulous…exotic.” It has won several gold medals and is Dan's white wine of the year.  This 2022 Pinot Blanc tastes as it is supposed to taste, made with no oak at all. It is delicious and ready to drink now, fresh. Pinot Blanc There are 4 or 5 good Pinot Blancs around and they all come from Mendocino County. This is due to the soils, as Martha explains. They don't get the fog influence in their weather. There is a 15 degree diurnal shift. Among all the tropical and fruity flavors that Dan discerns in this Pinot Blanc, he also detects a trace of Fenugreek. Martha mentions that this wine comes from two different clones. The older one was planted in 1962. Barra only started making wine in 1998 and Pinot Blanc in about 2000. Before that they were just growers. There are only 438 acres of Pinot Blanc and Barra has 14 of them. Girasole and Barra of Mendocino wines are available at Bottle Barn. Winesong is Dan's favorite annual event. It is a wine festival held in Mendocino, a fund raiser for the local hospital. Barra of Mendocino is always there. Martha would give a bee to each guest as a symbol that Barra of Mendocino is an organic farm. Later she learned that many people would keep the bees as souvenirs. Dan remembers the wine from Mendocino County as early as 1981. Back then the wine was not very good. The fruit had potential and eventually their winemaking skills caught up to the quality of the grapes they grow there. John Parducci was a winemaker who helped them make the leap in quality. Girasole They also taste a Girasole wine. The name means "sunflower" in Italian. They have had to defend the trade mark Girasole from competitors who had been using the brand, which is exclusively Barra's. Dan reminds us that Barra wines and wines from Mendocino generally are less expensive than wines from other places, and give great value. There are only 88 wineries in Mendocino, which is not a lot. Many of them, like Barra, are small producers. A lot of the new wineries are Pinot Noir producers in Anderson Valley. Barra also makes Sangiovese and an excellent Petit Syrah.

Comedia, Marketing y hasta Skydiving! Nuestra invitada no le tiene miedo a nada y lo mejor es que es de Caguas. Leishka Lidí no le tiene miedo a nada y nos acompaña a degustar la Road to Hopland de Clown Shoes mientras hablamos de todo y conesta las preguntas. Subscríbete a GW5 Network https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_IW8iAm6gBBVVLbqSWsgrA Busca tu pinta en nuestra tienda  https://teespring.com/es/stores/the-birra-lounge En todas las plataformas de podcast 'The Birra Lounge' Buscamos en IG y FB @thebirralounge y a Mr. Birra en @onixortiz #birra #cerveza #podcast #thebirralounge #gw5network #gw5studios #entrevista

Mark Beaman Kenwood Vineyards winemaker Mark Beaman joins Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger in the studio today on California Wine Country. The last time Kenwood Vineyards was on CWC was this episode of July 19, 2018, with the previous winemaker Pat Henderson. Dan Berger has brought another cellar wine today for tasting, a 2002 Riesling. It shows how Rieslings can age well. They are fresh and fruity when they are young but they also age very well and this wine is a good example of that. Mark Beaman begins by telling the story of Kenwood Vineyards. There have been vines on the property since 1906. He describes how the Pastore family made wine there until 1970. The wine library at Kenwood goes back to the 1970s. The present owner, Pernod-Ricard, purchased the property in 2014. Of course, Mark has brought a Chardonnay. They open a Six Ridges Chardonnay, from Russian River AVA. It is a late ripening Chardonnay location. The wine has “big mineral character” and “racy acidity.” The acidity is strong enough to make a rich mid-palette and a wine that will go well with food. Click the logo to visit our sponsor Bottle Barn online for the coolest bargains on wine, beer and spirits. The harvest this year seems late but Mark remembers other years beyond the last several years, with a similar timeline. This year reminds him of 2019 when he was picking Sonoma Valley Cabernet well into October It also reminds him of 2010. From eastern Washington to Tanzania, Hawaii and Sonoma Co. Mark Beaman grew up in agriculture in southeastern Washington. They grew alfalfa and wheat and had cattle. He went to college up there and got a degree in Geology. He joined the Peace Corps and lived in East Africa, in Tanzania, for about two and a half years, in a small village. He learned to speak Swahili. He also got introduced to fermentation science there, when he knew someone who made mead. After he came back, he worked for Columbia Crest winery “low on the totem pole.” They moved him to California, to a facility in Hopland. He learned viticulture and got into the laboratory. Then he worked for Parducci wines, making organic, biodynamic and sustainable wines. Click the logo to visit our sponsor Rodney Strong for up-to-date info on concerts and other events. After that, he decided it was time for another adventure, so he moved his young family to Hawaii where he made wine from both grapes and pineapple. He was there for close to three years. He enjoys the atmosphere of Sonoma County where there are a lot of other winemakers who share ideas and motivation. He liked it as a combination of the wildness of Mendocino and the pressures of Napa. He worked at Valley of the Moon winery, then Sebastiani, and now, since April, at Kenwood. He is also attracted to the great number of varietals grown in Sonoma County, since he loves to experiment. Kenwood Vineyard is open seven days a week for tastings by reservation only, 10 am to 5 pm.

I denne episoden av Sunnhordlandpodden møter du Grethe Hopland Ravn, ein erfaren journalist frå Etne. Ho deler sin historie og lidenskap for journalistikk og lokalt samfunnsengasjement. Grethe fortel om alt frå å spela klarinett i Etne musikklag, til sitt arbeid som leiar i Norsk journalistlag Haugesund, og om kvifor Grannar no skal starta sin eigen podkast. Høyr på denne episoden for å bli betre kjent med Grethe! Eit spennande møte med ein dedikert journalist i Etne. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sunnhordlandpodden/message

I årets første utgave av Sunnmørsball hiver vi oss rett inn i et kamikaze-tips rundt hvor vi mener AaFK står akkurat nå. En av gjestene i studio mener AaFK ser ut som en nedrykkskandidat, fordi de har mistet spillere og bare fått inn én erstatter. Og hva med AaFKs strategi på overgangsmarkedet: Er det for stor gjennomtrekk og for kortsiktig tenkning? Studio er også innom hvordan AaFK bør jobbe med så mange unge spillere på kontrakter, og en i studio mener Hopland bør ha like høy lønn som kapteinen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

December 5, 2022, Sarah Reith — An agreement between the county and its largest employee union is coming before the membership this week, with a side letter granting workers a bonus from the American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA fund. And the “triple-demic,” or flu, RSV, and covid season, is compounded by staff shortages, including substitute teachers, which means administrative staff and even school principals have been taking on classroom duties. Final election results came in on Friday, with some shakeups in key races. The top three vote getters for the Fort Bragg City Council long term were newcomer Jason Godeke, with 26.14% of the vote, incumbent Marcia Rafanan, with 16.08%, and incumbent Tes s Albin-Smith, with just over 12%. Incumbent Lindy Peters swept the short-term race with 78.31%. In the Ukiah City Council race, newcomer Susan Sher netted the most votes, with 22.61%. Incumbents Juan Orozco and Mari Rodin stayed on, with 21.35% and 21.16%, respectively, edging out Mayor Jim Brown, who garnered 19.53%. John Redding, the only incumbent who ran for the Mendocino Coast Healthcare District board, won the lowest percentage of the vote, with 12.64%. James Jade Tippett won the highest, with 27.78%, followed by Lee Finney, who won 21.73%, and Susan Savage, with 19.96%. Two countywide taxes passed with slim margins, while a parcel tax in Hopland was defeated. Measure P, a quarter cent ten-year general tax, passed the threshold of a simple majority with 55.17% of the vote. The measure asked voters for their approval to use an estimated four million dollars a year to fund “essential services, including fire protection and prevention.” The language is non-binding. Measure O, a special sales tax to fund the libraries, passed with 60.82% of the vote. This tax essentially doubles the current eighth of a cent sales tax and removes the expiration date, making it effective until it is repealed. Measure N, a parcel tax intended to fund emergency medical response and fire protection services for the Hopland fire protection district, required a two-thirds majority and was defeated, with 56.7%. Medical woes are hitting schools hard, with substitute teachers struggling to provide instruction to classes where sometimes only half of the enrolled students are present. Doug Shald, the communications officer for Ukiah Unified School District, which has about 7,000 students, said the district is trying a variety of programs, from in-person and online tutoring, to after-school programs, to make up for learning loss caused by absences due to illness. County employees have contended with illness, too, with social workers and nurses putting in long hours at the height of the pandemic. Julie Beardsley is the president of SEIU 1021, which represents the largest county employee union. She's been part of the negotiating team advocating for the county to use some of its $16.8 million allotment from the American Rescue Plan Act for an employee bonus. Last week, negotiators representing SEIU 1021 and four other county labor unions signed side letters, separate from their pending contracts, awarding ARPA bonuses to employees. “The American Rescue Plan Act, ARPA, provided money to the counties to help offset the effects of the pandemic,” she said over the weekend. “This money was supposed to be designated for businesses who were in financial trouble. Also, a lot of counties designated it as a thank-you for the work that their employees did. Because you know, during the pandemic, people worked just so many hours overtime, and often at risk to their own health. I mean, we had nurses and social workers going into homes where they knew everyone had covid. And yet that was their job and so they went in and they did what they needed to do. So this money really was a thank-you. And the regular staff, full-time staff, will get $3,000. It will be taxable, so it won't be the full $3,000. And we also were able to secure a bonus for our extra help staff.” Employees who worked an average of 20-47 hours per pay period will get a bonus of $1500. SEIU 1021 has been in contract negotiations with the county since spring of this year. A tentative agreement has yet to be ratified. The union membership will hold meetings about it this week, and vote on whether or not they accept the terms, which have not been made public yet. The Board of Supervisors will hold a final vote before it can be approved. Beardsley thanked county CEO Darcie Antle and Deputy CEO Cherie Johnson for their work on the agreement, as well as the Board of Supervisors, whom she regards as pro-labor. “I appreciate that,” she concluded.

Greg Graziano joins Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger on this encore presentation. The CWC folks are gone fishin' this week and there is no new show for today, Sept. 7, 2022. So this podcast episode is a repeat of a show that originally aired on KSRO on Dec. 30, 2020, featuring Greg Graziano, the winemaker for the Graziano Family of Wines.  Greg Graziano, winemaker for The Graziano Family of Wines the joins Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger on California Wine Country today. His grandfather, Vincenzo Graziano, landed on Ellis Island in 1907 and worked his way across the country to Mendocino where he bought 100 acres with his future brother-in-law and began planting grapes, two years before Prohibition. During Prohibition they did whatever they could to survive, selling what wine was legal to sell. Then they sold grapes to Gallo and Italian Swiss Colony, and also Sebastiani and Parducci. Then the family started Mendocino Vineyards in the early 1950s. Gallo and Italian Swiss Colony bought most of the bulk wines then. Later, it was purchased and renamed Cresta Blanca. Then Constellation bought it and changed it to Dunwood, which never took off. Greg started making wine in 1977 and started Milano winery with his friend Jim Maloney. In 1985 he went to work for La Crema and took over in 1986 and was winemaker until 1990. They made 50,000 cases per year then, and now it's maybe 2 million, so it's a different thing now. The Jackson Family owns it now. They grow around 30 different grape varieties. He studied at UC Davis and did not graduate, but he explains how he knows what he needs to know. He learned by working for some really great winemakers. Dan Berger appreciates that they make wine from so many varietals from Italy and elsewhere that nobody else is working with. They have a 2019 Monte Volpe called Vesuvius from Potter Valley. The wine is a blend of grapes that grow around Vesuvius, including Coda di Volpe, Fiano, Greco di Tufo, Trebbiano and others. The vineyard is at a higher elevation so it is cooler so the grapes have higher acidity. The different varieties in this wine are usually never all together. It is very complex and rich, but not oaky. “The fruit is barking at me in this, it's wonderful.” – Steve Jaxon Greg mentions that they are using screw caps now. They found that there are too few people able to work a corkscrew. The year has been difficult due to all the pandemic closures, but that will improve. Click the logo to visit our sponsor Bottle Barn online for the coolest bargains on wine, beer and spirits. The Graziano Family of Wines includes all the different brands, four at the present time with one more on the way. Monte Volpe is all Italian grape varieties. St. Gregory is all Pinots. They take a break to taste Dan Berger's Cellar Dweller of the week. It is a 2014 J Lohr Cuvée POM, a Merlot-based Bordeaux style wine. It was fresh and young in 2018 and now (2020) it still has yet to develop its characteristics. Next they taste the 2017 St. Gregory Pinot Meunier. Dan mentions that there is more Pinot Meunier planted in France in Champagne than actual Champagne grapes. Dan calls it a white wine with color. Greg explains how to identify it against ordinary Pinot Noir by looking at the growing tips of the vine and underneath the leaf, they are covered with tiny white hairs. (The Munier in French is a miller, who gets covered with white dust by milling grain.) It's very floral. They're probably the oldest producer of this in the state. Chandon used to make it but stopped, there was another too. They also make sparkling wine from it. The winery is in Redwood Valley but the tasting room is in Hopland, so that is the place to visit. There are outdoor chairs and umbrellas, for now, but they are open (late 2020). Click the logo to visit our sponsor Rodney Strong for the latest on the 2022 Summer Concert series. A 2016 Barbera is next. Greg opines that in America,

July 19, 2022-- Chad Swimmer and Paul Schulman interview Abeja Hummel and Tom Shaver of Emerald Earth Sanctuary in Anderson Valley about the prescribed burns they've been doing, and Kyle Farmer of Potter Valley, a co-founder of the Mendocino County Prescribed Burn Association and a Community Education Specialist for UC Cooperative Extension in Hopland.

July 7, 2022 — After seven years of standing vacant, the Hopland Superette is under new ownership, set to reopen as Geiger's Hopland Market, possibly as early as Labor Day. Ken Molinaro, a Sonoma County developer who purchased Geiger's Market in Laytonville three years ago, says he expects the Hopland store to have a full-time staff of about ten people serving local grocery shoppers as well as tourists slowing down along the highway, which passes right through town. “This was a perfect opportunity for us, being right on 101, just like our other market is,” said Molinaro. In Laytonville, he added, “we really serve two masters. We serve the local market…but more and more, the tourist market is getting to be our other master. And it'll be the same here in Hopland. We're really opening it to serve the needs of the local community, but there's 14,000 cars a day go by here, and whole bunches of them, especially this time of year, are tourists.” At about three o'clock on Wednesday afternoon, traffic was steady, and so was business at two of the medium-to-high-end restaurants within sight of the store. Now that the hotel is here, “I would guess that as time goes by, Hopland will become bigger and continue to be more popular,” Molinaro predicted. The brown-papered windows are plastered with a “Coming Soon” sign and flyers advising people on how to apply for a job at the future Geiger's Hopland Market or take a survey on what they'd like it to carry.The store is about 6,500 square feet, approximately 6,000 of it what Molinaro calls sale space. “If I had to compare this market to a local market in the area, I would say we're going to be obviously a very small, like Big John's in Healdsburg, Oliver's, those kinds of markets,” Molinro anticipated. He said most or all of the produce will be organic, which was one of the things that showed up on the survey. “We got about 250 responses,” he reported; “which I thought was incredible…the responses were all very specific: can we get fresh fish, we really want organic produce, can we get Annie's macaroni and cheese…it really gave us a great idea of what this community is looking for, because it's far different from the community in Laytonville.” Wholesalers in the Bay Area, he noted, often won't travel to the north county, especially with rising fuel prices . But he expects to be able to get commodities like fresh fish at the Hopland store, and plans to ferry specialty items back and forth between the two markets. He is also planning to have a few tables where people can wait for a to-go order or eat something from the deli. Standing in front of a 12-foot-long cold case, he outlined his plans for what he expects will be the business' centerpiece. “The highlight of the store is this deli,” he declared, describing a full range of salads and hand-made sandwiches with organic produce, meat sliced to order, and fresh bread. “High quality stuff, but not at San Francisco prices,” he promised. “Reasonable prices for what reasonable means today, which is way different than what it used to mean,” he acknowledged with a laugh. He's not planning to just quietly open the doors one day and wait for people to notice the store is in business. After the soft opening, he concluded, “we'll definitely be having a soiree.”

For this episode of Sip Sip Hooray! we are in Hopland in California's Mendocino County at the beautiful, picturesque winery, Saracina Vineyards. Tucked into the rolling hills, the mantra at this wine ranch is biodiversity and sustainability. Since its founding by John Fetzer and Patty Rock in 2001, Saracina has been on the leading edge of a holistic approach to grape growing and winemaking. Vineyards share the landscape with majestic 140 year old olive trees, baby goats and alpacas, honey bees, orchards and chicken. Saracina may be best known for wine, but the ranch also produces honey and olive oil. Now owned by Taub Family Selections, Saracina is committed to raising the bar through its dedication to diversity in every aspect. Winemaker Alex MacGregor is one of those legendary Mendocino characters and you'll love getting to know him. So grab a glass and enjoy our conversation.

June 15, 2022 — With the passage of SB 1383, Californians will be required to reduce organic waste in the landfill by 75% in the next three years. In a few weeks, a new large-scale compost facility will be available to most of Mendocino County, and buy-back recycling will re-open in Fort Bragg and Ukiah. Most of the county's non-recyclable, non- compostable trash goes to a landfill in Fairfield. The county and cities have composting contracts with Cold Creek Compost in Potter Valley, which is permitted to process 50,000 tons of material a year. On July 1, C&S Waste Solutions will take over the solid waste contract for Fort Bragg and Franchise Area 2, from Waste Management. C&S partner Bruce McCracken sketched out the area where residents can expect to see new containers, and new trucks, making the rounds. “Franchise Area 2 is kind of split in two, an inland portion and a coastal portion,” he explained. “The coastal portion being everything slightly north of Fort Bragg, and then south down to the Navarro river, so down towards Albion, et cetera. The inland portion is the Ukiah Valley: Redwood Valley, Potter Valley, Hopland. So basically the entire Ukiah Valley…I would like to add, though, on the trucks: one thing that the residential customers will see is that we run split-body trucks. So we co-collect. We collect garbage and recycling at the same time. And I know when people first see it, we're going to get a bunch of phone calls saying, you're mixing everything! But we're not. There actually is a wall in between, in the body of the vehicle. It's one less trip on the streets, so it helps the roads. It makes us more efficient…it makes no sense for us to mix the material, because it costs us money to go to the landfill.” In 2019, the company won a $3 million grant from the state to build a compost facility at the Ukiah transfer station. Like Cold Creek, it's permitted to process 50,000 tons a year, though it's currently able to process half that. The transfer station has been composting yard waste, but the new covered facility will take organic waste like food scraps, as well. And, after suspending buy-back recycling in 2019, C&S is promising to open beverage container recycling centers in Ukiah and Fort Bragg. McCracken estimates that in about three months, customers will be able to get their California Redemption Value refunds on bottles and cans. SB 1383 puts the burden of enforcement and education on the contractor, but McCracken says the hammer will come down incrementally. “If we note that there's prohibited material in the blue can or the green can, we will tag it. Our customer service staff will call the customer. We will send out literature explaining that this is what really goes into the blue or green can. A second time, you'll get a small fee, which in most cases we will waive. It's more of a wake-up, to say, hey. We can't accept this material in these carts. The third time, it's a little more serious, where there will be a charge levied against you for contamination, and if it continues, we have the ability to take the cart away. But we don't want to do that. I understand that everybody wants to recycle everything. But it's just not doable.” That's apparent at the old Alex Thomas pear shed in Ukiah, now transformed to a sorting facility where seventeen workers separate trash from recyclables. Plastic bags and plastic wrappers, says McCracken, are the enemy. “We don't want bags in the recycling, because that's where we find needles, too,” he said, over the roar of the machinery. “Needles are the biggest threat on the line.” There are other hazards, too. In the quiet section of the MRF, or Materials Recovery Facility, there is a huge pile of crushed glass. McCracken's not worried about glass. “Another thing that's really bad in the blue can are batteries,” he said. “Because it starts fires in MRF's, and it starts fires in garbage trucks.” He added that batteries need to be taken to Mendo Recycle during hazardous household waste events, or to the facility in Ukiah, which has limited hours of operation. “The amount of fires across the county in garbage trucks and at MRF's is escalating at an alarming rate, and it's batteries,” he warned. On the tipping floor, where workers extract sheets of plastic film from the recyclables, there are room-sized bales of material that are headed for the landfill. Clothes, pillows, foam mattresses and small appliances have all been pulled from the recycling stream. Some items, like hoses, call for extraordinary measures. “These are known as tanglers in the business, because they tangle up in the machinery,” he said, tugging on a length of hose strapped into one of the landfill bales. “So we literally, at the end of the shift, have to send people up there in harnesses, with knives, to cut it out of the machinery. It's a hard job as it is, and that's why people doing their part on the front end makes the job a lot easier.” Once the material makes its way out of Ukiah, there are a few options. McCracken says there are brokers on the West Coast who will take recyclables, but that “nothing goes to China anymore.” It does go to Pacific Rim countries, including South Korea. “There is a push to get more and more in-country facilities that will process this material,” he reported. On the far side of the crushed glass and the assembly line where McCracken says a couple hundred tons of material is sorted every day, there is an orphan pile of miscellaneous items that he hopes to educate out of the blue bins altogether. “I mean, there's a lot of stuff here, why would you ever think of putting it in the blue can?” he asked, nudging a brick with his foot. A beat-up old saddle was nestled in beside a chipped red enamel pot. “We see it all,” he confirmed, eyeing the mountain of trash.

Kevin Lovett from Wolf House Brewing is our in-studio guest today on Brew Ha Ha with Harry Duke and Herlinda Heras. Kevin was master brewer for Cloverdale Ale Co when he bought Wolf House in October 2019. He was going to open two places at once. He is inspired by Jack London, who was a Glen Ellen resident. Some other beers are also named after Jack London stories. The beer they are drinking is called Burning Daylight, which is the title of a Jack London short story. Dutch Courage is another one. We hear about how they managed to open the brewery and restaurant and then finally the music venue. This achievement has fulfilled his original goals. The Freshtival is coming up this Saturday, June 25, 2022. Check out the Freshtival page at the Hen House site for all the info. Lots of food, beer and music, including some gluten free choices, something for everybody. No beer will be older than seven days. Get tickets on Eventbrite. Kevin has brewed a special Hazy beer for the Freshtival that is flavored with some familiar and some new hops. Kevin's dad Michael Lovett was a co-founder with Don Barkley of the iconic Mendocino Brewing Co., makers of the renowned Red Tail Ale, which everyone misses. They worked at New Albion under Jack McCauliffe, the first new brewery to open after Prohibition and an originator in what became a movement. When New Albion closed, Don and Michael got the equipment to use for Mendocino Brewing. Kevin worked at his father's brewery when he was growing up and then he worked for others including Napa Smith and Brian Hunt's Moonlight Brewing. He became very good at building breweries and is grateful for the mentoring and the opportunities he found in brewing. Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more info. The Wolf House Brewing taproom is located at 131 E. 1st Street in Cloverdale. There are locals and others who come from pretty far away because “the word is getting out.” Burning Daylight is his Pilsner. He thinks it's the best beer he has made. They also have a beer called Therapy Session. Pilsners are hard to make and he credits Brian Hunt for teaching him about Lagers and Pilsners and he always has each strain of yeast available. They have a 9-barrel system so he brews 3 times a month or so. They plan to raise their capacity so they can get into more places. Kevin and his sister and brother-in-law, a chef, are partners in the brewery. They have a full menu including something called a Cloverdale Twinkie, which is a jumbo Jalapeño pepper stuffed with cream cheese, wrapped in bacon and deep fried. Wolf House Brewing has a pedigree behind it due to Kevin Lovett's personal history and experience. He grew up at the Hopland brewery taphouse. His first job was bussing tables in about 1995 so he got to be a part of it before it all changed. When he came back in 2005 it was an empty lot and now Ron Lindenbusch has turned it into a destination again. Wolf House and Hopland Tap would be a good two-fer for a day trip. They have a lot of live music, including lots of kinds of Rock (the old joke, “Music? We got both kinds! Country AND Western!”) Kevin Lovett will pour his Hazy beer at the Freshtival but he won't give it a name until he tastes it.

Today we interview striking Special Education Assistant Macks Hopland about his piece "Public Education is Not for Sale: The Case of Minneapolis Public Schools".  We talk about the corporate power and ruling class interest behind the scenes in our fight for Minneapolis students and famiiles. We supplement the interview with the voices of striking educatos and students directly from the picket lines.  *The MFT strike has since been settlted, we still think there is much to learn from Macks' writing and from the courageous struggle of educators and students, the strike is over but the battle for education is still on and poppin.  Subscribe on Patreon to help us continue to make class struggle joirnalism and art 

This week on our Vino Lingo segment we feature Tami McKay, Winemaker at Windsor Vineyards in Hopland, California, defining the term “Wonky”. Learn more by visiting www.windsorvineyards.com

Like some in the industry, Tami McKay started as a home winemaker with no definite plan to make it a full time living. After extensive education she made that passion a career. Today Tami is Winemaker at Windsor Vineyards in Hopland, California. Tami has infectious enthusiasm and has continued to grow her passion for wine [...]

December 27, 2021 — Oscar's Place, a donkey sanctuary in Hopland named for a cat, is populated by guinea hens, medieval artillery, and dozens of soon-to-be reality TV stars. Ron King is a former New York fashion and media executive who lost his job in the pandemic and decided to devote himself to rescuing donkeys. The 75-acre ranch is named for the memory of a much-beloved pet. Donkeys are charismatic, with their quizzical expressions, big hairy ears, and dainty hooves. They are equines, but their brains, their guts, and their hooves are entirely different from those of a horse, which means they require a different kind of care. They are also profoundly emotional. “They form very strong bonds with each other, and with their human caretakers,” King said during a tour of the premises on Friday morning. Oscar's Place has had just over eighty donkeys come through. Twenty-nine have been adopted, and six are permanent residents. Not many are available for adoption at the moment, since King wants to make sure they are successfully rehabilitated, both physically and emotionally; that potential adopters have the resources and the fencing to take care of them properly; and that they will be treated as pets, rather than beasts of burden. He also won't adopt out pregnant females. Most importantly, he will only home them in pairs, even if they are destined to be companions for other animals. “I have promised these donkeys a safe, happy, and healthy life, and I believe that retirement is probably part of that,” he said. “I think donkeys probably do enjoy having a job, but it has to be pretty light. The primary reason people adopt donkeys is to be a pet, and secondarily, they're great guardians.” While the donkeys he introduced to a visitor were affectionate and docile, nuzzling for treats and leaning into shoulder rubs, King says “donkeys are fierce.” Their bonding tendency means they will protect their friends and family, starting with a unique bray that is often enough to send coyotes in search of a meal somewhere else. Next, they charge. “Usually, a thousand-pound animal charging will deter it,” King explained. “If the coyote still continues, donkeys' back hips are double jointed. They can kick sideways and backwards. And so if you ever google Donkey vs. Coyote, which I do not recommend, the donkey always wins.” For all that is endearing, unique, and fierce about them, the species is a bit of a modern-day castoff. “Most ancient cities around the globe were built on the backs of donkeys,” King reasoned. “And then we got tractors. Now, in this century, horses win races. Cattle feed a food system. Goats produce milk and meat. So they all serve a monetary value to humans. Donkeys have no monetary value. They've just been used, and then discarded. So the donkey has very few advocates.” Viejo, King's personal pet donkey, is one of the permanent residents. He and his friend Sandy got a vigorous rub as King talked about what he knows and doesn't know about the animals who show up on the ranch with a variety of conditions. Donkeys end up at auction houses, where their buyers almost inevitably slaughter them, for a variety of reasons. Either their owners or the owners' heirs surrender them, or people illegally round up wild donkeys and sell them for quick cash. King suspects Viejo was surrendered, because “he came off the truck friendly. I think he is just about perfect.” Sandy, who is heavily pregnant, is food-motivated, so, according to King, “she acts like she's being sweet. She's just trying to manipulate you into giving her some food. If you don't, she will leave you.” King hasn't entirely lost his fashion sense. He is fully aware that he and Viejo, both silver-haired partial brunettes, go well together. “Photographers seem to like us because we have the same color hair,” he divulged, planting a kiss on Viejo's forehead. His media senses are still keen, too. Starting in 2022, he promised, “the donkeys are going to be reality TV stars. Several different production companies approached us, and it was very important to me that we understood what our northern star was and what kind of story we're going to tell. It's really going to be stories of compassion and joy and some of the heartache that comes from running a donkey sanctuary.” He already knows who the biggest stars are going to be. They're just outside a high-ceilinged barn, echoing with the cries of guinea fowl. The guineas are supposed to protect everyone from rattlesnakes, and sure enough, at 10:00 in the morning on Christmas Eve, there wasn't a rattlesnake in sight. They're not the stars, though. “Donkeys are pregnant for 14 months, so we already know how many babies we're going to have next year, and that number is 23,” he announced, leading the way into the maternity pasture. “Donkey babies are adorable, and make for really good TV.” They also come in a variety of sizes. Hershey, who is the size of a really big dog, is probably half mini. Which brings us to the medieval artillery. Sonsa is a baby, too, at two years old. But she is a Percheron, a giant horse that was bred for doing battle with soldiers wearing chainmail and wielding lances. “A pushy Percheron is quite a different thing from a pushy donkey,” King observed, trying to dissuade her from running down a visitor out of sheer curiosity and exuberant friendliness. Her journey from the auction house to Oscar's Place should resonate with anyone who ever went to the pound to pick up a lapdog and came home with a pitbull. “I went to the auction in November to rescue donkeys,” King recalled. “And this one chose me. I just fell madly in love and decided I needed to follow my heart, even though it wasn't really our mission, so here she is.” King is planning to bring in a trainer, and eventually put Sonsa to work, giving donors cart rides and helping round up donkeys on vaccination day. In the meantime, he's focused on the mission, which is kind of a long, elaborate way of saying thank you to a species that's been carrying our burdens for a very long time.

November 22, 2021 — The Board of Supervisors adopted a map reconfiguring the county's district boundaries at a special meeting last week. And wildlife organizations are offering to help, after a mountain lion killed two goats on an outdoor school campus in Anderson Valley. The redistricting effort is a follow-up to the census. It's meant to even out the population numbers so there is no more than a 10% variation in the number of voters in each district. That's to ensure fair representation, as is another top criteria, to avoid splitting communities of interest. Since the last census, the fourth district has lost population, while the third has gained. An early draft of the map proposed moving Laytonville from the third to the fourth district, but the community did not support that suggestion. The twelfth draft, which the board of supervisors adopted unanimously on Thursday afternoon, moves Bell Springs Road and part of Spyrock out of the third and into the fourth. In another adjustment, the Brooktrails boundary has shifted to the east. But the Russian Gulch boundary will stay where it is, and southern Caspar will remain in the fourth. Some more complicated multi-district shifts took place in Hopland and southern Ukiah. In an effort to make the fifth district more compact, the populated part of Hopland is now in the first district. Lief Farr, the county's mapping specialist, explained some of the Tetris-like rearranging that went into redrawing the map. Sometimes two of the top criteria were at odds with one another, as in a brief consideration to add heavily populated areas on the northern and southern ends of Ukiah to the second district. This would have kept communities of interest together, but bloated the population of the city. Supervisor Glenn McGourty noted that the new map consolidates an agricultural community of interest, while preserving a multi-party alliance in terms of water interests. “I'm glad that we have the Russian River villages all together,” in the first district, he said, “which are Hopland, Talmage, Calpella, Redwood Valley, and Potter Valley; and finally, I'm glad that the fifth district still comes down into the Russian River watershed, because I think having three supervisors together working on and aware of Russian River issues makes more of an impact to Mendocino County.” McGourty serves with Supervisor John Haschak on an ad hoc committee to come up with non-lethal solutions to conflicts that humans and livestock have with wildlife. The Board has voted to terminate the contract with USDA Wildlife Services, out of concerns that too many wild animals were being killed. During public comment, Louise Simson, Superintendent of the Anderson Valley Unified School District, told the Board that she has a problem. On Monday evening, she reported, two goats were killed by a mountain lion, and a third was injured. “I am super frustrated with this process for support,” she told the board. “I was able to get a hazing permit, which allows me to make loud noises at a mountain lion...this is a severe safety issue. The support I've been given on this is, build a bigger fence, a twelve foot fence, or build a bigger barn. Well, that's not feasible. My school district is going to be operating at almost a $400,000 deficit next year. And I need some real time, real solutions to keep my students safe.” Dr Quentin Martins of Living with Lions, a research and conservation group in the Mayacamas Mountains, called in to caution that killing a big cat could create a territorial vacuum that often results in more loss of livestock. Although the school is in a populated area, he said its location at the confluence of Mill Creek and Donnelly Creek also makes it a prime thoroughfare for mountain lions. He suggested involving students in an educational project to protect the livestock. Dr. Michelle Lute, the National Carnivore Conservation Manager for Project Coyote, said she is already working with Haschak and McGourty on the non-lethal program. She applauded Dr. Martins' idea, sympathized with the superintendent, and offered to help. “I hear the superintendent's concerns about limited resources and how much she can change in the setup, but I just assure her that there are resources to help address the situation,” she said. “I like Dr. Martins' idea about involving the kids in potentially a new project that would enhance the fencing, enhance the security in a number of different ways, so we can definitely talk about how we can all contribute and pool our resources and our expertise to address the situation.”

Quarter Cut Bourbon Barrel Chardonnay 2019-Whiskey Wood Wine.This is an Aldi $9.99 Chardonnay produced for them by Fetzer located in Hopland, California.Fetzer is a certified B corporation meaning that they are at the highest standards environmental and social issues.They have a history of using whiskey oak barrels in wine production.Usually, bold Red wine is finished in bourbon barrels, but a Chardonnay sees bourbon barrel finishing.It takes a delicate hand to marry Chardonnay and Bourbon barrels.Check out www.cheapwinefinder.com and listen to the podcast for all the details.

November 1, 2021 — The cleanup from the Hopkins Fire has a clear path forward now. The State has issued a proclamation declaring the event an emergency, which means the county can probably be reimbursed 75% of what it spends on remediating the damage, including what it's spent so far. And the Department of Toxic Substances Control is scheduled to begin cleaning up hazardous waste in the burn zone tomorrow. The Redistricting Advisory Commission presented the eighth and ninth drafts of its proposed map to the Board of Supervisors last week, explaining that number nine would adjust the boundaries so that Hopland, which is now in the fifth district, would join Potter Valley and Redwood Valley in the first district. None of the maps has been finalized yet. The deadline for cannabis cultivation applicants to submit documents to the online portal has been extended to 11:59 on Tuesday night, due to power outages during last week's storm. That deadline means that applications submitted by Tuesday will be eligible for consideration, not just those that had been reviewed by that time. And the misinformation campaign regarding vaccination and masking is in full swing. Numerous members of the public called in to the Board of Supervisors last week to share falsehoods about natural immunity and claim, erroneously, that wearing masks causes health problems. Callers made analogies involving Satanic rituals and the Nuremberg Trials, and used creative terminology like ‘natural killer cells' to support their arguments about the vaccines' efficacy. Travis Killmore, field coordinator for the county's Prevention, Recovery, Resiliency and Mitigation or PERRM team, reported that just a few days before the atmospheric river threatened to sluice debris from the Hopkins burn scar into the Russian River, several organizations including the California Conservation Corps stepped in to provide emergency assistance….

Apparently, I've been absent for a while. For now, I'd like to reach back to share a version of this previous post. It's been an extreme pleasure to meet many fascinating personalities in the wine business. This recording highlights those who have expressed their passion about the wine industry, from Napa Valley and Sonoma County to Hopland and places in between. The winery owners, winemakers and growers I have chosen speak eloquently, philosophically, poetically, and often spiritually about wine and vineyards. I'm confident that if you listen it will make the wine you love taste even better. Cheers! Guests include Greg LaFollette of Alquimista Cellars, Julie Johnson of Tres Sabores, Ulysses Van der Kamp of Van der Kamp Vineyards, Mark Topel of Topel Wines, Jean-Charles Boisset of Boisset Family Estates, the late George Macleod of MacLeod Family Vineyard (who we lost earlier this year), Delia Viader of Viader Vineyards and Winery, Gary Breen of Campovida, and Randy Ullom of Kendall-Jackson/Jackson Family Wines.

October 12, 2021 — By now, everyone in the region has noticed clear-cuts around PG&E wires, from Deerwood to Hopland to Humboldt and Sonoma Counties. PG&E's ill-maintained equipment causes fires that kill people and animals, and burn down towns and rapidly dwindling habitat. In response, the utility is removing the vegetation that could catch fire if it comes in contact with the lines. The Sierra Club's Wildfire Mitigation Task Force wrote a cost benefit analysis of how effective — and cost effective — the program is. Here's the short version: “It's really expensive. And it doesn't work,” according to Nancy Macy, the task force chair. “How can it work? You can't cut down every tree that may or may not, sometime in the future, have a problem.” The research team analyzed documents from PG&E and other utilities in California, and found that PG&E's bare copper wires meet vegetation with disastrous results almost twice as often as other utilities. But in addition to undergrounding lines, the other companies are replacing bare copper distribution wires with triple insulated steel core cables and installing computerized circuit breakers for protection from broken wires. Southern California Edison has estimated that steel-core triple insulation for its lines costs $428k per mile. PG&E estimated that its enhanced vegetation management program of clear-cutting under the lines would cost $405k per mile. But by the end of August 2020, the program costs came out to $416 million. That's almost half a million dollars per mile for a program that doesn't even address the main causes of wildfire. The analysis “shows a meager 5% reduction in projected ignitions by PG&E unders its vegetation focused plan. Worth noting, PG&E will be spending over $4 billion in the period between 2020 and 2022, for vegetation management alone.” “I don't think we were really surprised,” Macy reflected. “It came out that if you add up the costs of enhanced vegetation management, which is around $2 billion a year, it costs a whole lot more to cut down the trees and pay the contractors and deal with the slash and all of that, than it does to rebuild the infrastructure. PG&E has already paid two and half times as much as it paid in 2020, when it far exceeded its budget. “So we do not know (how much it will cost),” Macy concluded. “And that's the scary thing.”

I dette programmet tar Olaug Lillian Bjørke deg med til Irak. Hun knytter noen tanker til en opplevelse i 2014, da IS inntok Irak. Gjennom denne opplevelsen reflekteres det over hva det vil si å identifisere seg med forfulgte kristne. Dette er en av Åpne Dørers målsettinger for arbeidet i «den frie verden». Du får høre Sølvi Hopland og Kor de ville synge «Herre, gje meg dine auger», før du får et sterkt møte med Sana fra Irak.  Hun opplevde at mannen og sønnene ble bortført av IS i 2014. Siden har hun verken sett eller hørt fra dem. Hun deler smerten og savnet, men også håpet om å se sine kjære igjen. Sana får nå tilbud om hjelp gjennom et Håpssenter, en lokal kirke støttet av Åpne Dører. Det har tatt lang tid før hun har våget å dele sin historie. «Troen min på den allmektige Gud er stor», sier Sana. «Jeg ber om at mannen min og sønnene mine kommer tilbake. De er alt jeg har. Om Gud vil, kommer de tilbake.»

Caroline worked at a tennis camp in her teens, Now she works at International Business Machines. In law school, she interned at the Department of Labor Relations, Caroline works to comply with laws in many nations!

September 10, 2021 — Public Health reported three more deaths from covid-19 this week, all of them under fifty, all of them unvaccinated. The youngest was a 36-year-old woman from Ukiah. A 43-year-old Covelo man and a 47-year-old man from Ukiah also succumbed. And the county reported 77 new cases yesterday. Program director Alicia Bales spoke with Public Health Officer Dr. Andy Coren Thursday afternoon, when there was only one available ICU bed in the entire county. By Friday afternoon's briefing, there were three available beds. Core reported that hospital staff are exhausted, and help from the state is “tapped out.” Coren also spoke about an order he had been contemplating to require proof of vaccination for indoor dining establishments, an idea that did not receive a warm reception from the local business community. He is now considering a recommendation that restaurants and bars require verification of vaccination from employees and screen the vaccination status of patrons before they come inside. He will also require that establishments post signs about their vaccination policies. The county fair is proceeding, with vaccination clinics outside the gates. The vaccines are still highly effective. “The threat that I don't think is recognized by the people who are not getting vaccinated is that they are the field that this virus is growing and multiplying and mutating on,” Coren reflected. School is back to in-person learning, and the Ukiah Unified School District Board of Trustees met in person at their office in Ukiah last night, though the public was not in attendance. One item that has been in the works since well before the pandemic is an effort to offload surplus properties that used to be schools. Two decommissioned schools in Hopland and Redwood Valley were declared surplus in 2018. Last night, the board voted unanimously to begin the process to exchange the Redwood Valley property with GMB Realty, run by Gary Breen of Hopland winery Campovida and Emerald Sun, a multi-use cannabis facility on the south end of Ukiah. Steve Barekman, the school district's chief business officer, explained that “It's really hard for school districts to sell property. The state doesn't really like us doing that...what's going to happen is, we find a buyer who wants our property, we're going to find a property we want, they're going to acquire that property, then we're going to do an exchange, a trade. Thus the term exchange agreement.” The building acquired by the school district could be used for a variety of purposes. It could be a future school site, a warehouse or a revenue-generating property. Two Redwood Valley residents called in to object, including Estelle Clifton, who said the site, at 700 School Way, is prime real estate. “It's really a large chunk of land in an ideal location,” she said, adding that the site was donated years ago for the community's benefit, “but there's no recouping that kind of a loss. Barekman said the costs of rehabilitating the property would be prohibitive, describing them as “astronomical.” The ADA requirements on a steeply sloped section of the property he added, would be “insane.” He told the board that the estimated cost of rehabilitating the decommissioned campus in Hopland, which is much smaller, was well over three million dollars, and that he suspected that the cost of recommissioning the much larger and topographically more complicated Redwood Valley site would be many times as much. Trustee Bea Arkin said the board has explored other options, to no avail. “It's not okay to keep the building there just because it's a wonderful memory,” she said. Trustees hope that the property will be used for housing, and Chair Megan van Sant sought to assure the public that the buyer had agreed not to use the property for cannabis-related purposes. The school district now has an exclusive agreement with GMB realty, which has a 270 day window to perform its due diligence on the property.

September 1, 2021 — In mid-August, Katharine Cole drove out to her pasture in Hopland through a thick haze from the Dixie Fire. Earlier this summer, she lost 20-25 trees to PG&E's vegetation management program, which the California Public Utilities Commission approved as a strategy to prevent catastrophic wildfire. “Basically, I'm looking at a war zone here,” she said, pulling over to survey the felled trees; “that was beautiful oak and madrone and manzanita.” Cole was especially mourning the loss of an ancient blue oak, marked with blue dots and lying on the ground in sections a few feet from its stump. She says about a year and a half ago, she did get notice that crews would come out to some work, but that she never received a contract or any detailed information about the extent of the work that was to be done. Crews marked some trees and said they would remove dead brush and debris left over from the River Fire, which scorched part of the property in 2017. “But we were not notified that they were going to take down this oak without some kind of consideration,” she added. Limbs and sections of the tree were left in the pasture, leaving her to wonder how she will mow. She doesn't have the equipment she would need to buck up the large-diameter rounds for firewood, or the wherewithal to hire someone who does. In addition, crews scattered wood chips around the site, which damages its viability as pasture. “I re-seed in here,” she said, scuffing a toe in the inches-deep carpet of wood chips. “I don't know if I can rake in here, or what.” PG&E spokeswoman Deanna Contreras said in an email, “Unless it's a transmission line that runs through their property...PG&E contractors should've communicated with them clearly about the work, what to do with the chips, and what was going to be removed and when. We understand that chips spread out hinders the reseeding for livestock process.” Contreras offered to send a supervisor out to the property, but between stress about covid and wells running dry, Cole demurred. Also, she added, “it's not like I trust them to come down here and clean all this out.” And PG&E does have an easement along the transmission line. Cole is especially frustrated, in light of the fact that in July, PG&E announced plans to launch a multi-year effort to underground about 10,000 miles of power lines in districts at high risk of fire. “If they put underground lines and they come down here after they've cut all these trees,” she said, laughing in disbelief. “Well, thanks! And now just dig it out.” Cole shares an easement along the transmission lines with her neighbor Kellen Kaiser, whose cattle run on both properties. Kaiser is doing her best to keep the company off her land. The company, she says, has been absent most of her life, but early last year, crews started doing “significant amounts of work on the property, and treating it very disrespectfully, leaving gates open that let my cows out, leaving gates closed between pastures that my cows were supposed to have access to, leaving messes in terms of cutting wood and not cleaning up that wood. So me and my mother started resisting their presence on the property.” Resistance is difficult for both women, who have jobs off the ranch and are not always home to monitor goings-on at the property. “I'm a sex educator,” Kaiser says, “and so I teach about consent all the time. And it seems to me that the concept of consent is lost upon these people. Even though I have explained repeatedly that we are a group of women who would love to know the random strange men that are wandering around the property. That concept, even, is lost upon them.” The transmission lines run along Parsons Creek, which, in the middle of August, still had a pool of cool water shaded by a tree with a blue dot on it. Most of the trees on Kaiser's property by the creek are marked with one blue dot, which Contreras said means they've been selected for trimming. The blue oak on Cole's pasture had two blue dots, which sometimes indicates that it's been selected for removal, and another tree still standing along the creek had three blue dots. Kzyx sent a picture of that tree to Contreras, asking what the markings meant, but did not receive an answer. Kaiser reported that she ran into a crew on her property one morning while she was doing chores. She had expected them three hours earlier, but joined them for a tour of their plans. “And as we went along, they were just going to cut down so many trees that are a part of this riparian corridor that exists on this protected creek,” she recalled. “And over the years, I have had so many people tell me what I can and cannot do with that creek as a property owner...but if I have to treat the creek with that much respect, which I think is the right thing to do, why doesn't PG&E have the responsibility to treat the creek with the same amount of caution?” She says she was assured that environmental reviews were conducted, but that she has not had any success being connected to the people who have done the work. Her consent to any work, she says, is contingent upon her speaking with those who have done the environmental reviews. That hasn't happened yet. In the meantime, the combination of fires and the lack of control or communication about the work being done on their land has taken an emotional toll. Kaiser compared the work of the crews to her experience with wildfire, which “sweeps over your land, you have no control over it...and this is sort of a similar process, where this much larger force sweeps through your property, and again, you have no control over it.” “And so now I have a double PTSD,” Cole added. “PG&E PTSD.” This morning, PG&E announced that it is extending the deadline for eligible landowners to request removal of large-diameter wood. “The deadline for landowners to submit permission forms to authorize PG&E to remove trees that were cut down for safety after the 2020 Wildfires has been extended to September 14, 2021. Landowners who are interested in the Wood Management Program and have safely accessible wood from trees that PG&E felled, should call 1-877-295-4949 or email wildfiresafety@pge.com.” The statement adds that. “After completing tree work, crews chipped wood that was less than four inches in diameter and spread the chips onsite, where possible. Because wood is considered the property of the landowner, any wood larger than four inches in diameter was left onsite. There is no legal or regulatory requirement to remove large-diameter wood, since it is the property of the landowner.”

July 19, 2021 — The cannabis cultivation ordinance has been at the center of controversy since the Board of Supervisors passed it less than a month ago. But the cannabis facilities ordinance was amended in May, with little fanfare. There were just a few objections, some from small growers requesting more consideration for microbusinesses, and others from neighbors, most notably a church in Hopland, protesting the removal of the requirement for a 600 foot setback between cannabis facilities and churches. Tomorrow in closed session, the Board of Supervisors is scheduled to discuss a lawsuit over the matter. The lawsuit says that the county cited a common sense exemption from CEQA when the original facilities ordinance took effect late in 2017. It argues that the common sense exemption does not apply to the amended ordinance, because the changes will foreseeably draw more visitors and workers into undeveloped parts of the county, which would result in more infrastructure and more development. David Drell, of the Willits Environmental Center, which filed the lawsuit on July 2, says the organization is resorting to litigation because the changes to the ordinance are too drastic to get by without proper environmental review and mitigations.

Here are the vaccine events organized by Mendocino County Public Health this week. To find out more please visit https://www.mendocinocounty.org/community/novel-coronavirus/covid-19-vaccinationsFirst Dose Vaccine Events:TONIGHT (Friday May 14, 2021) in Hopland at the Intersection of HWY 101 and HWY 175 from 5-7pm, no appointment necessary. This is for all individuals aged 12 and older, for minors a parent or legal guardian must print out and sign consent from, find that at mendocinocounty.orgMonday May 17th in Point Arena at the Point Arena City Hall from 3-5pm, they’re offering Moderna 1st Doses for all people age 18 and older. You can schedule an appointment at mendocinocounty.org, but all county vaccine events are also now walk-in.Wednesday May 19th  in Ukiah, there is a First Dose Pfizer vaccine event at Manzanita Services at 410 Jones St in Ukiah from 1-2pm. Open to all 12 and older, minors need a signed parental consent form.Wednesday May 19 in Ukiah at the Ukiah Fairgrounds, there is a Moderna 1st Dose event from 4-7pm, for anyone 18 and older.On Friday May 21st in Redwood Valley there is a 1st Dose Pfizer event at Eagle Peak Middle School from 8-10am, open for anyone 12 and older, especially students and their families. Friday in Ukiah there is also a 1st Dose Pfizer vaccine event at Pomolita Middle School from 11am-1pm, again for anyone 12 and older, especially students and their families.And on Friday and Saturday there are Pfizer 1st Dose events at Ukiah High School for anyone 12 and older, especially students and their families. On Friday May 21st they’re vaccinating from 2pm-5pm. And on Saturday May 22nd they’ll be giving shots from 8am-1pm.2nd Dose Events:Pfizer 2nd DosesTuesday May 18th there is a 2nd dose event at Leggett Valley School from 10am to noon for anyone who received their 1st dose at Leggett Valley School on April 28, 2021. Bring your vaccination card.Tuesday May 18th there is a 2nd dose Pfizer event at Laytonville High School from 12:30-1pm for those who received their first dose of Pfizer at Laytonville High on April 28, 2021.Tuesday May 18th there is a 2nd dose Pfizer clinic at Whale Gulch School from 11am-12pm for anyone who got their first Pfizer shot on April 28, 2021. On Thursday May 20th there is a 2nd dose Pfizer event in Ukiah at the Ukiah Fairgrounds from 3-5pm for anyone who received their 1st does at the Ukiah Fairgrounds on or before April 28th or April 29th.And on Saturday May 22nd there is a 2nd dose Pfizer clinic at Ukiah High School from 8am-1pm for anyone who received their 1st dose at Ukiah High on May 1st, 2021.Moderna 2nd DosesThursday May 20th, there is a 2nd dose Moderna clinic from 5-7pm for anyone who received their first dose on or before april 22nd at the Ukiah fairgrounds.You can also contact your local clinic or health center to find out about local vaccine opportunities. Pharmacies such as rite aid, safeway, and walmart are offering vaccine appointments at their websites. Veterans can get vaccines at the VA Clinic, tribal health centers in the county are offering vaccine events.There are no barriers to verification, there is no affect on eligibility for benefits or immigration status. Some events may offer special rewards to people who get their shots, such as gift cards and gift certificates for food and other goodies. All county events are now walk-in, no appointment necessary. Bring your vaccination card for 2nd dose events. And for minors between 12 and 17, bring a signed consent form from your parent or guardian which you can print out by visiting the mendocinocounty.org website or by clicking this link https://www.mendocinocounty.org/home/showpublisheddocument/43026/637564986498770000

Mendocino County Public Health's Vaccine Events for the week of 5.10Bring your vaccination cards for 2nd dose shots. Walk Ins welcome to all events.Today, Monday 5/10 at the Ukiah Fairgrounds from 5-7pm, Johnson and Johnson and Pfizer shots. Tuesday 5/11 at Potter Valley High School from 11:15am-1pm, J & J and Pfizer 2nd doses for anyone who received their first shot on 4/20. 1st doses also available, Walk Ins Welcome. 16 and older.Tuesday 5/11 at the Ukiah Fairgrounds from 5-7pm, Pfizer shots available.Wednesday 5/12 in Covelo at Covelo High School from 10am-12pm, Pfizer 1st doses and 2nd doses for anyone who received their first shot on 4/21, 16 and older.Thursday 5/13 at the Ukiah Fairgrounds from 1-7pm, Pfizer 2nd Doses from anyone who had their first shots on April 19, 20, 22nd or 23rd. Friday in Hopland at the corner of Hwy 175 and Hwy 101, the County is working with the Hopland Tribal Council to have a drive through event from 5-7pm. Walk ins also welcome.More events are being added daily, check https://www.mendocinocounty.org/community/novel-coronavirus/covid-19-vaccinations to find out more. 

Ron Lindenbusch is back on Brew Ha Ha with Steve Jaxon, Mark Carpenter and Herlinda Heras. He was one of the co-founders of Lagunitas and now he operates Hopland Tap in Hopland, California. He was with Lagunitas since the beginning, for more than twenty years. Now he operates Hopland Tap. The sign says “Welcome to Hopland. We’ll take care of the rest.” Steve Jaxon’s band used to play at the Hopland Brewery years ago. They used to make Red Tail Ale and they are finally serving it again now. Hopland Tap’s building was built in 1880, it was called the Hop Vine Saloon. They have been open for two and a half years. They opened just before the pandemic. “I can’t think of a worse time to open a restaurant.” Ron is working on his ventilation system and looks forward to full capacity. There is an outdoor area for about 100 people. The Beverage People The Beverage People proudly sponsors Brew Ha Ha. They have new products and gift ideas for any occasion. Their teach you how to make, wine, beer, cheese, olives, mead, kombucha, cider, and more. Mark Carpenter says that they, “make making beer easy for you.” Brew Ha Ha sponsor The Beverage People are Sonoma County's Fermentation Headquarters. Visit The Beverage People for more. Hopland Tap has a full menu now, including newly added peel-and-eat shrimp and some turkey receipes. He was looking for menu items that are easy to handle. They make burgers with ground chuck and with onions grilled into them, simple is the best way. They will also do some St. Louis style ribs.  Their beers come and go, so there is always something new. They are happy to start playing live music since it’s a good place to do that. They will be starting a blues invitational jam on Wednesdays, starting probably in June. They found an old blue upright piano that they are getting fixed up. They are open noon to 8 Wed. through Sunday. They are located on the 101 in Hopland. They have a Facebook page for news about menus and events. The first dry hopped ale to be released in America was Anchor’s Liberty Ale, using all Cascade hops. It is a 6.5% alcohol pale ale. By today’s standards it is light but when it first came out, it was considered very hoppy. They will work on getting kegs of it for Hopland Tap. They are planning a big public event to be called Destination Hopland, a street party, to be held in October.

“Saracina Vineyards Mendocino is a Certified California Sustainable (CSWA) winery and vineyard located in Hopland, in the southern part of Mendocino County about 30 miles north of Healdsburg. This 250-acre ranch, which includes a winery and sustainably farmed vineyards, is … Continue reading → The post Show 423, May 1, 2021: Winemaker Alex MacGregor, Saracina Vineyards Mendocino Part Two appeared first on SoCal Restaurant Show.

“Saracina Vineyards Mendocino is a Certified California Sustainable (CSWA) winery and vineyard located in Hopland, in the southern part of Mendocino County about 30 miles north of Healdsburg. This 250-acre ranch, which includes a winery and sustainably farmed vineyards, is … Continue reading → The post Show 423, May 1, 2021: Winemaker Alex MacGregor, Saracina Vineyards Mendocino Part One appeared first on SoCal Restaurant Show.

Castro Valley resident Ed Attanasio started the Pandemic Pet Project, drawing pictures of your pets on 3x3 Post-It notes! Now he's helping our friends at Oscar's Place (donkey rescue!) in Hopland!

April 13, 2021--Mendocino County Fire Safe Radio host Scott Cratty talks with representatives of the Hopland Band of Pomo Indians, including Chairman Sonny Elliot, covering the cultural uses of fire, the numerous current wildfire mitigation programs currently under way, and the Tribe's partnership with the Fire Safe Council on Defensible Space and Chipper Day programs.

March 22, 2021 — At a meeting that lasted nearly twelve hours, the Planning Commission agreed to recommend some of the expansion that was the main point of contention in 302 letters and four hours of public comment. The Commission held two hearings on Friday, one on a cannabis facilities ordinance proposed by the Board of Supervisors, and another on a proposed major change to cultivation policy. Phase III is likely going to be replaced with a new chapter in the county code, which its proponents argue will give existing small cultivators a pathway to getting a state license at the beginning of next year. The facilities proposal did not garner a huge amount of public opposition, though a member of the St Francis church in Hopland and the president of the guild wrote letters to oppose a provision that would allow cannabis facilities within 600 feet of a church. But the cultivation ordinance was another matter altogether. There was one item that drew united opposition from environmentalists, the Farm Bureau, one wing of the cannabis business community, several local MACs, and retired Sheriff Tom Allman. This was a proposal to allow property owners to apply to grow cannabis on 10% of a legal parcel zoned agland, upland residential, or Rangeland. Under the new proposal, each grow would be subject to site-specific environmental review before receiving a discretionary permit. Some fear this would result in onerous environmental requirements, while others worry that protections wouldn’t be nearly enough. Still others, like Devon Jones, the executive director of the Farm Bureau, don’t have faith in the process as it stands now. Sheriff Matt Kendall called in to make a case for resources to be allocated for enforcement. With unforeseen overtime, the sheriff’s office is currently projected to be more than a million and a half dollars over budget. The Commission agreed to recommend that the board allocate resources to the Sheriff’s office and Planning and Building to implement the new ordinance, but couldn’t agree on exactly how much expansion in which zones they should allow. They eventually settled on recommending an increase between one acre and 5%.

March 19, 2021 — The Planning Commission came up short at its regular meeting yesterday, with only three of the seven commissioners available for an application to extend a cell phone tower that generated about twenty letters of opposition. Without a quorum, though, the item was automatically permissible, due to federal law about the length of time allowed to review the application. A proposal for a campsite in Hopland was roundly rejected. The Commission is meeting again today to discuss the widely unpopular Phase III cannabis ordinance, which, if it passes, would result in each grow being subject to site-specific review as part of a discretionary permit process. And the days of ‘line-jumping’ to get a vaccine could be coming to a close. Earlier this week, 246 inmates at the Mendocino County Jail were offered the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which requires only one shot. Fewer than half of them accepted it, for a total of 111, according to Lt. John Bednar, a spokesman for the jail. There’s no formal arrangement with public health at this time to vaccinate more inmates as they come in. Yesterday, a perfect storm of absences converged on the Planning Commission as it took up the question of whether or not to allow Crown Castle, the owner of an AT&T cell tower in Laytonville, to increase the height of the tower by 20 feet. Last month, the Board of Supervisors approved an ordinance to reduce the number of commissioners from seven to five, eliminating the agricultural seat held by Greg Nelson and the timber seat held by Randy Jacobzoon. But that ordinance doesn’t go into effect until next week, which means that four commissioners must be present to constitute a quorum. Jacobzoon was absent, the second district seat is still vacant, and two of the commissioners recused themselves due to a conflict of interest and prior work on the project. Letters opposing the height expansion cited a range of concerns, from the tower not fulfilling the needs of people who don’t use AT&T to those who felt it would pose a hazard to the children attending the nearby Spy Rock School. The item had been carried over from last month, but Deputy County Counsel Matthew Kiedrowski explained that time had run out. “And any extensions of that are available only with the written consent of the applicant,” he concluded. The applicant, through an attorney, respectfully declined the invitation to continue the matter. Later in the afternoon, the five commissioners present chose unanimously to reject an application by a company called Getaway House to turn a remote parcel off of Old Toll Road in Hopland into a campground designed to attract people from the Bay Area looking to relax in a natural setting. The proposed project included 45 RV campers on gravel pads, plus a lodge and a residence for an on-site manager. A hundred seventy oak trees were slated for removal, which would have necessitated replanting trees elsewhere and a ten-year monitoring period to ensure their survival.The applicant, Stephen Maulden, said he was preparing to buy the parcel from Brutocao Vineyards and was willing to dedicate part of it to a conservation easement. The area is a known wildlife corridor, connecting populations that roam as far as the Mayacamas Mountains. The 90-acre site is zoned Rangeland, where some forms of recreational use are allowable with a major use permit. But the water source is on a neighboring parcel, and the Farm Bureau worried that the proposed use would make it difficult for the property to be returned to agricultural purposes. Commissioner Alison Pernell countered that a fence would hamper the movement of wildlife. Only one of the thirty letters that came in supported the project, and that was from people in Washington state attesting to the company’s ability to be good neighbors. But Wendel Nicolaus, a neighboring vineyard owner, hired a lawyer, a biologist and a fire protection engineer to speak about the inadequacies of the application, including fire danger, the lack of a traffic study, and a tiny one-lane bridge that would make it difficult to escape the area in the event of a fire. Jones summed up some of her reasons for not approving the project: “I understand why you were attracted to this site, it’s high up, it has beautiful views, it’s in an amazing natural setting,” she conceded. “But unfortunately those are also the characteristics that lead it to be difficult to approve.”

March 15, 2021 — Cannabis is in the spotlight this week. With the Planning Commission scheduled to hear about major changes to the Phase IIII cannabis ordinance this Friday, informational events about various aspects of cannabis have been highly visible. The Cannabis Business Association of Mendocino County is hosting an event this afternoon at 4pm on the MendoVoice facebook page, about a proposal to align the county’s regulations more closely with the state’s by introducing a discretionary land use model requiring use permits. Environmental arguments against the proposed ordinance concern the already existing water shortage and the desire to preserve open lands for wildlife. Most public policy regarding cannabis is not based on science, according to Phoebe Parker Shames, a PhD candidate at the Brashares Lab at UC Berkeley who has devised an experiment to test the impact of noise and light from cannabis grows on wildlife. Last week, the Hopland Research and Extension Center hosted her virtual presentation to a crowd that included local county and tribal government leaders, ecologists, and small cannabis farmers. Parker Shames expects to conduct her wildlife monitoring research over the next two years, involving three sites each at the Hopland Research and Extension Center and Angelo Reserve. She’s gathered some observational data, like a stunning game cam shot of a mountain lion in front of a cannabis grow, but says that’s not enough. What’s needed, she believes, are experiments. Parker Shames, whose work is funded by the Bureau of Cannabis Control, plans to set up the light and noise conditions of a cannabis farm at her six sites and monitor the reactions of a wide range of animals at various distances from the sites, including some collared deer at Hopland. Game cameras are set up to capture the activity of larger mammals. There will be acoustic monitors for birds and bats, and traps for insects. There’s also an ingenious device involving a bucket and a short fence to capture the reactions of small land-based animals. She’s not expecting a full set of data until a couple of years after she completes the experiment. Until then, she has some advice for policy makers seeking to craft ordinances: “Start with the farmers. Look to existing research, and make informed guesses.”

Mach 8, 2021 — About half the Caucasian population in Mendocino County has been vaccinated, compared to 16% of the Hispanic population. Still, with case rates dropping, Public Health Officer Dr. Andy Coren says the county could enter the red tier by the middle of this month. The county Planning Commission unanimously approved a subdivision of parcels on Feliz Creek in Hopland for more winemaking, with the possibility of publicly available walking trails on a 40-acre parcel in the floodplain. And the county has likely missed its opportunity to purchase Old Howard Hospital, with another potential buyer taking steps to secure the property. The topic of possibly using Measure B money to buy Old Howard Hospital for a psychiatric health facility surfaced at the January meeting of the Measure B citizens oversight commission, which decided to leave the matter to ad hoc committees of the Board of Supervisors and the Willits City Council. In 2018, when the site was first being considered for a puff, the City Council passed an ordinance noting that the county had failed to provide the city any information about the project; that the Council believed the building does not conform to seismic and safety standards; and that the proposed use of the site does not comply with the city’s zoning requirements. The upshot of the ordinance was essentially a public records act request to the county, enfolded in a declaration of the city’s desire to be involved in the decision-making process about the use of the property. Just a week and a half ago, county representatives were gearing up to do just that. The Willits Rotarians received a presentation about the implications of having a puff in their community, and a town hall with the city and county ad hoc committees was planned for yesterday afternoon. But as of late last week, the Frank R. Howard Foundation had signed a letter of intent with an undisclosed buyer. The purchase agreement had not been signed, but once it is, a minimum of sixty days’ escrow will begin. Arnie Mello, the Executive Director of the Howard Foundation, said the potential buyer had expressed an interest in renovating the property and converting it to a healthcare facility of some sort, but there is still lots of due diligence to be done. And on Thursday Gary Breen, the CEO of Campovida winery in Hopland, made a case to the Planning Commission to subdivide 54 acres into four small parcels and a 40-ACRE remainder. Last year, he built a $12 million 60,000 square foot building to store a million gallons of wine from local vineyards. He argued that he’s made significant financial contributions to the local economy and public safety. The planning Commission agreed unanimously to grant Breen’s request.

Just over the county line from Sonoma is the fascinating region of Mendocino. Mendocino is a large county that spans one California’s largest, most diverse, and northernmost wine growing regions. This quiet area, full of farmers who are passionate about the land, has just over 17,000 acres under vine in 12 appellations. From www.avwines.com, Anderson Valley, Mendocino As we dig into what is here, you will learn that this region is full of surprises. Not only is Mendocino termed the “organic wine mecca of California” for its meticulous care of the land and focus on organic certification, it's range of terroir means producers can make everything from sophisticated, earthy, cool climate Pinot Noir and Alsace varietals, to elegant sparkling wine, to full-bodied Cabernet Sauvignon and Petite Sirah. From www.mendowine.com; Shannon Ridge Winery There is a myriad of climates, soils and elevations in Mendocino, and learning more will make you question why more wineries aren’t based here and why these wines are not more widely available and known to wine lovers. www.mendowine.com: Gibson Vineyard, Hopland

January 19, 2021 — The Ukiah Unified School District, the largest in the county, met last week for an update on distance learning and the governor’s not-yet finalized proposal to partially reopen schools by mid-February. The California Safe Schools for All plan is an incentive program that would give schools grants to bring kids back into the classroom. And a letter signed by sixteen local doctors to Mendocino County leaders and representatives laid out in stark terms how detrimental distance learning has been for children, citing widening disparities in academic success and “more and more kids suffering from isolation, anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, obesity and diabetes,” as well as an addiction to screens, social media and gaming. The letters’ signers include Dr. Drew Colfax of the regular KZYX Coronavirus Update, and Dr. Mark Luato, the county’s EMS medical director. It closes with the unambiguous exhortation that “Getting children back to in-person school now is essential!” Enrollment in the district is down slightly, and could go down further if Sanel Valley Academy, a charter school in Hopland, opens next year. The majority of students in the district have seen a decline in their academic assessments, with only about a third of them meeting proficiency levels in most areas. Most of the district’s 800 employees received their first round of the covid vaccine during events at the Ukiah Valley Conference Center on January 12 and 15. Assemblymember Jim Wood, who is also a forensic dentist, participated in giving some of the shots. In other vaccination news, the county reports that public health has vaccinated 5,970 people over the age of 18. That’s not counting those who have been immunized through hospitals, pharmacies, or the Indian health centers, which get their supplies through other channels in the state and federal government. According to a county press release, the approximately 1,200 people who came to the vaccination event at the Redwood Empire fairgrounds on January 13, many of them senior citizens who waited in a light rain for hours, have been vaccinated or scheduled for their first shot. Those who received their first dose of the Pfizer vaccine on December 30 or 31 can receive their second shot on Thursday, January 21, between 9am and 4pm, at the Redwood Empire Fairgrounds in Ukiah. You’ll need your ID and the vaccine card you got with your first shot. Vaccines don’t play into the safety plan that schools must have if the governor’s proposal to reopen passes, but they could make it safer.

Greg Graziano, winemaker for the Graziano Family of Wines, joins Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger on California Wine Country today. His grandfather, Vincenzo Graziano, landed on Ellis Island in 1907 and worked his way across the country to Mendocino where he bought 100 acres with his future brother-in-law and began planting grapes, two years before Prohibition. During Prohibition they did whatever they could to survive, selling what wine was legal to sell. Then they sold grapes to Gallo and Italian Swiss Colony, and also Sebastiani and Parducci. Then the family started Mendocino Vineyards in the early 1950s. Gallo and Italian Swiss Colony bought most of the bulk wines then. Later, it was purchased and renamed Cresta Blanca. Then Constellation bought it and changed it to Dunwood, which never took off. Greg started making wine in 1977 and started Milano winery with his friend Jim Maloney. In 1985 he went to work for La Crema and took over in 1986 and was winemaker until 1990. They made 50,000 cases per year then, and now it's maybe 2 million, so it's a different thing now. The Jackson Family owns it now. They grow around 30 different grape varieties. He studied at UC Davis and did not graduate, but he explains how he knows what he needs to know. He learned by working for some really great winemakers. Dan Berger appreciates that they make wine from so many varietals from Italy and elsewhere that nobody else is working with. They have a 2019 Monte Volpe called Vesuvius from Potter Valley. The wine is a blend of grapes that grow around Vesuvius, including Coda di Volpe, Fiano, Greco di Tufo, Trebbiano and others. The vineyard is at a higher elevation so it is cooler so the grapes have higher acidity. The different varieties in this wine are usually never all together. It is very complex and rich, but not oaky. “The fruit is barking at me in this, it's wonderful.” – Steve Jaxon Greg mentions that they are using screw caps now. They found that there are too few people able to work a corkscrew. The year has been difficult due to all the pandemic closures, but that will improve. Click the logo to visit our sponsor Bottle Barn online for the coolest bargains on wine, beer and spirits. The Graziano Family of Wines includes all the different brands, four at the present time with one more on the way. Monte Volpe is all Italian grape varieties. St. Gregory is all Pinots. They take a break to taste Dan Berger's Cellar Dweller of the week. It is a 2014 J Lohr Cuvée POM, a Merlot-based Bordeaux style wine. It was fresh and young in 2018 and now (2020) it still has yet to develop its characteristics. Next they taste the 2017 St. Gregory Pinot Meunier. Dan mentions that there is more Pinot Meunier planted in France in Champagne than actual Champagne grapes. Dan calls it a white wine with color. Greg explains how to identify it against ordinary Pinot Noir by looking at the growing tips of the vine and underneath the leaf, they are covered with tiny white hairs. (The Munier in French is a miller, who gets covered with white dust by milling grain.) It's very floral. They're probably the oldest producer of this in the state. Chandon used to make it but stopped, there was another too. They also make sparkling wine from it. The winery is in Redwood Valley but the tasting room is in Hopland, so that is the place to visit. There are outdoor chairs and umbrellas, for now, but they are open (late 2020). Click the logo to visit our sponsor Rodney Strong for the latest on the 2022 Summer Concert series. A 2016 Barbera is next. Greg opines that in America, we have a tendency to over-do everything, but he makes wine in the old world style. This Barbera got some oak aging, but it's very rare to do that in its native Piemonte. This is the Enotria brand. It was the Greek name for Italy and means Land of Wine. (Eno means wine in Greek.) This variety can get too ripe when its grown here because we have so much sun.

Michelle Marquez is filling in for Steve Jaxon today on the Brew Ha Ha podcast, Herlinda Heras has brought guests from Wolf House Brewing in Cloverdale, Kevin Lovett and Dwayne Moran. Kevin Lovett grew up around craft beer. His father was one of the founders of Mendocino Brewing Co. He and Don Barkley took the equipment from New Albion and started Hopland which became Mendocino.  When Barkley founded Napa Smith, Kevin asked for a job and started on the bottling line. Then Brian Hunt, who also worked at New Albion, gave him a job at Moonlight Brewing Co. After that he was head brewer at Stumptown, and then master brewer at Cloverdale Ale. Now he is running Wolf House with his partner Dwayne. He describes the challenges of opening a brewery and brewpub in these times. They were open for about three weeks before precautions. They are open, though. They are drinking Burning Daylight Pilsner. It's 4.6% alcohol. He calls it a Cloverdale Pilsner because he does not treat the water so the local water is what is being used. Most Pilsner makers try to match the pH of the Pilsen River, but he says he thought he could do better. He still has some New Albion swag. He also uses a recipe from the old Eye of the Hawk, for a beer he calls One Eye Select Ale.

Welcome back to I Saw The Beatles! Today, we'll be speaking with Harold Montgomery of Hopland, California who saw The Beatles perform in Boston when he was 17.  You can read more about Harold's experience in Garry Berman's book: We're Going To See The Beatles! --------------------------------------------------------------- Intro music by Cliff Hillis

Natalie Cilurzo and Ron Lindenbusch join Steve Jaxon and Herlinda Heras today on the Brew Ha Ha podcast. Natalie is co-owner of Russian River Brewing Company, with her husband Vinny Cilurzo. Ron Lindenbusch was one of the key people working with Tony Magee at Lagunitas Brewing Co. Russian River Brewing Co. is open for take-out food and beverage service. Their 4th Street Santa Rosa Brewpub is open and they are also continuing this service at their Windsor location. Since the Coronavirus restrictions are still in place, although less strict than before. They can operate 11:30am to 7:30pm in Windsor and 11am to 8pm on 4th Street. You can visit their website then call (707) 545-BEER to place your order. Herlinda introduces the Pliny The Elder for President 2020 beer, in cans. Natalie says this is a Pliny with a twist, it's hoppier. They just canned it for the very first time the other day. They will release it on June 15 and they plan to have it throughout the election cycle. They sold out on line in 45 minutes and within a few hours at the brewpub. Pliny runs for President every 4 years on the Keg Party ticket. The Windsor location is open every day now. "At this point in time, like the last few months, I've realized, that what I really want to do is just hang out in a bar." -Ron Lindenbusch Ron Lindenbusch is back on Brew Ha Ha. He has Hopland Tap in Hopland, CA, which is a dream come true. Ron is emphatic about the imperative right now. "Listen to your health officer. Read the news. Read what's going on and do it." They were just able to open their beer garden last weekend. They are lucky, they have a lot of space and they can keep people 6 feet apart. People are happy to get out again and he is doing everything he can to stay safe. "It's just a weird time." Herlinda was there last Sunday and it was so nice to be outside and have some Frickles, fried pickle chips. There are many different beers and they will be doing music soon. Ron is involved in the return of Red Tail Ale. "It set the tone for the whole damned thing. (...) Red Tail was first." Wolf House Brewing in Cloverdale is brewing it. Hopland Tap is open Thursday through Sunday from 12 noon to 7pm, for now, at first. Check the Hopland Tap website for updated hours. Ron tells about how he met Tony Magee at the beginning and they had a great partnership, working for him for 25 years at Lagunitas. Steve Jaxon remembers the old Hopland Brewery and now Hopland Tap is its reincarnation. There will be some live music there as soon as possible. He has great musicians who are eager to get out and play.

We continue our series of repeat podcast episodes featuring women in the wine business this week, since there is no new show today due to ongoing Coronavirus coverage on our home station KSRO in Santa Rosa, CA. This episode with Bernadette Byrne from the Mendocino County Wine Growers, is originally from July 11, 2018.  Bernadette Byrne, Executive Director of the Mendocino County Wine Growers, is our guest on California Wine Country today. She joins Steve Jaxon, Dan Berger and Barry Herbst to talk about Mendocino County grape growers and vintners and to taste several examples of their production. Dan Berger describes the Mendocino County as having a series of sub-regions regions such as Anderson Valley, Redwood Valley and Potter Valley. Each one has very different characteristics that come out in the different varieties that they produce. Potter Valley produces a lot of good Riesling, it's cooler and produces a finer quality of wine, same as Anderson Valley. There are eleven different sub-AVAs in Mendocino County, says Bernadette. This page on the Mendocino Wine Growers' website has detailed information about the AVAs and sub-regions. Bernadette has been in the Mendocino County wine business for thirty years, including time working for Fetzer and then in other wineries in Napa. She was the hospitality director for Fetzer in the ‘80s and ‘90s when they were growing rapidly. They were innovators in organic farming at the Food and Wine Center in Hopland, and introducing the Bonterra line of wines. She was marketing director for McDowell Vineyards and had a wine shop called Sip Mendocino, which she later sold. Barry says that Mendocino County wines are on the move and that there is an intertwining between Sonoma and Mendocino counties, because some Sonoma based vintners are using grapes grown in the cooler climates in Mendocino. Dan says that for a long time, Mendocino fruit was sold outside the county but now, Mendocino County is making more of its own wine than ever before. The fruit from Mendocino County is high quality and costs less than Sonoma or Napa grapes, so some vintners in those other counties will buy some fruit from Mendocino. More than a quarter of the acreage is organic, and they have more biodynamic vineyards than anywhere. Dan says Paul Dolan gets credit for this. He was wine master at Fetzer who gave lectures on biodynamic farming. He and the late Dennis Martin were leaders in this. Barry says it's expensive to get certified so many farmers apply the techniques without being registered. Full biodynamic farming means zero pesticides and herbicides. There are a lot of wineries that could not afford to make the change because there is risk in awkward and bad vintages that they risk losing their entire crop. Yet, sustainable farming is a step toward that and many more farmers are farming that way. Bernadette Byrne describes the land is very diverse in the county, with unique microclimates. The inland corridor along Hwy 101 is a warmer place so they grow more Rhone varietals and traditional reds. Mendocino is also known for Zinfandel. They have some fabulous 100-year-old vineyards in rugged land that is still managed by the same Italian farmers who settled the area and planted the vines a century ago. They grow Caranant, Petit Syrah, Barbera and lots of old vine Zinfandel. Coro Mendocino is their project dedicated to their heritage variety of Zinfandel. Coro means “chorus” in Italian and the wines must have 40-60% Zinfandel then blend with a list of allowed varietals. They do a blind tasting to choose the wines. Dan says sometimes, people would reject their own wine. Dan Berger mentions that if you blend Zinfandel with Barbera the result is in one direction and if blended with Grenache, the result is quite different. First they taste a Seebass Grenache Rosé. She worked for McDowell Valley Vineyards where they made a similar wine. They also tasted the Seebass Chardonnay,

We continue our series of podcast episodes featuring women in the wine business this week, since there is no new show today due to ongoing Coronavirus coverage on our home station KSRO in Santa Rosa, CA. This episode with Bernadette Byrne from the Mendocino County Wine Growers, is originally from July 11, 2018.  Bernadette Byrne, Executive Director of the Mendocino County Wine Growers, is our guest on California Wine Country today. She joins Steve Jaxon, Dan Berger and Barry Herbst to talk about Mendocino County grape growers and vintners and to taste several examples of their production. Dan Berger describes the Mendocino County as having a series of sub-regions regions such as Anderson Valley, Redwood Valley and Potter Valley. Each one has very different characteristics that come out in the different varieties that they produce. Potter Valley produces a lot of good Riesling, it’s cooler and produces a finer quality of wine, same as Anderson Valley. There are eleven different sub-AVAs in Mendocino County, says Bernadette. This page on the Mendocino Wine Growers’ website has detailed information about the AVAs and sub-regions. Bernadette has been in the Mendocino County wine business for thirty years, including time working for Fetzer and then in other wineries in Napa. She was the hospitality director for Fetzer in the ‘80s and ‘90s when they were growing rapidly. They were innovators in organic farming at the Food and Wine Center in Hopland, and introducing the Bonterra line of wines. She was marketing director for McDowell Vineyards and had a wine shop called Sip Mendocino, which she later sold. Barry says that Mendocino County wines are on the move and that there is an intertwining between Sonoma and Mendocino counties, because some Sonoma based vintners are using grapes grown in the cooler climates in Mendocino. Dan says that for a long time, Mendocino fruit was sold outside the county but now, Mendocino County is making more of its own wine than ever before. The fruit from Mendocino County is high quality and costs less than Sonoma or Napa grapes, so some vintners in those other counties will buy some fruit from Mendocino. More than a quarter of the acreage is organic, and they have more biodynamic vineyards than anywhere. Dan says Paul Dolan gets credit for this. He was wine master at Fetzer who gave lectures on biodynamic farming. He and the late Dennis Martin were leaders in this. Barry says it’s expensive to get certified so many farmers apply the techniques without being registered. Full biodynamic farming means zero pesticides and herbicides. There are a lot of wineries that could not afford to make the change because there is risk in awkward and bad vintages that they risk losing their entire crop. Yet, sustainable farming is a step toward that and many more farmers are farming that way. Bernadette Byrne describes the land is very diverse in the county, with unique microclimates. The inland corridor along Hwy 101 is a warmer place so they grow more Rhone varietals and traditional reds. Mendocino is also known for Zinfandel. They have some fabulous 100-year-old vineyards in rugged land that is still managed by the same Italian farmers who settled the area and planted the vines a century ago. They grow Caranant, Petit Syrah, Barbera and lots of old vine Zinfandel. Coro Mendocino is their project dedicated to their heritage variety of Zinfandel. Coro means “chorus” in Italian and the wines must have 40-60% Zinfandel then blend with a list of allowed varietals. They do a blind tasting to choose the wines. Dan says sometimes, people would reject their own wine. Dan Berger mentions that if you blend Zinfandel with Barbera the result is in one direction and if blended with Grenache, the result is quite different. First they taste a Seebass Grenache Rosé. She worked for McDowell Valley Vineyards where they made a similar wine. They also tasted the Seebass Chardonnay,

You are leading a comfortable life in Oakland with a beautiful family beginning and then one day you discover a dilapidated vineyard with vandalized buildings in a struggling community of 817 folks in rural Hopland, California. At that moment, this family decided to get uncomfortable.Anna, a leadership development coach and Gary, a property developer knew that life could be reclaimed here, both for Hopland and for themselves. Life and care were needed and thus began the journey of beginning again.It has been a journey of ups and downs with trying moments that test even the strongest of souls. A journey of growth, learning, discovery and doing.—Recorded live at the global event in California, USA in 2013.Watch Anna and Gary's full talk here: www.thedolectures.com/talks/anna-beuselinck-and-gary-breen-against-the-grain

Denne vinteren har Åpne Dører et håndlaget opprop for å støtte forfulgte kvinner, og i dagens program får du høre mer om dette. Olaug Lillian Bjørke samtaler med Christine Eidsheim, som inspirerer til deltakelse i oppropet. Her gjelder det å være både firkantet og kreativ! Sy, brodér eller tegn på et kvadratisk tøystykke (30 x 30 cm), og bruk teksten «I see you». Putt i konvolutt og send til Åpne Dører, Postboks 44, 5822 Bergen innen 1.februar. Her blir lappene montert til et stort teppe, og dette skal presenteres i forbindelse med årets kvinnedag, for å sette fokus på forfulgte kvinner. Forfølgelsen som rammer kvinner, er ofte skjult. «Vi vil at dere skal vite, vi vil bli sett» - dette er budskapet fra forfulgte kvinner. Gjennom å delta i det håndlagde oppropet, gjør man det usynlige synlig! I programmet får du ellers høre Sølvi Hopland og Kor de Ville synge Sølvis nydelige sang: "Herre, gje meg dine auge".  

The StoryThe Fetzer Sundial Chardonnay 2018 is sourced from sustainably farmed vineyards in more than one California grape-growing AVAs. Fetzer was founded in 1968 and is a Certified B Corp, which is a designation given to companies that are sustainably and ethically managed, others are Patagonia and Ben and Jerry's. The Sundial Chardonnay sells over under 10 bucks (I found it on sale for $6.99) but received 88 points from Wine Spectator magazine. Wine Spectator typically deals with high-end wines and does not easily give points to any wine much less a value-priced wine. Fetzer is head-quartered in Hopland, California which is in the Mendocino AVA.I checking out Fetzer's website I found the Sundial Chardonnay has been receiving excellent wine scores for a number of years, which isn't always the case for sub-$10 wines (these wines tend to get overlooked by the wine magazines). Often value-priced White wine is very simply produced and with good results, but the Sundial production isn't so simple. This Chardonnay was fermented in stainless steel tanks, the tasting notes were vague, but it looks like a percentage of the tanks has French and American oak (staves, chips, or actual barrels?) and the oak has various levels of toast. The inside of new wine barrels are flamed to toast the wood and different levels of toasting impart unique flavors to the wine. The oaked portion of the Chardonnay also completed malolactic fermentation. So that they used French and American oak (each has their flavor profile) and used multiple toast levels indicates that Fetzer went to great lengths to get the overall taste experience they had in mind.  The alcohol content is 13.5%.The Tasting NotesThe color is a clear, shiny butter yellow. The nose is sweet, floral, and fresh, there are notes of ripe apple, vanilla, peach, lemon chiffon, pear, soft spice, along with spring flowers. This is a smooth, dry, flavorful Chardonnay, there is an oak influence, but well-balanced. It tastes of tart apple, lime, lemon, and vanilla cream. The mid-palate offers a salty nutty sensation, a little butter, unsweetened pineapple, and guava. The acidity allows the flavors to unfold and does not intrude on the flavor profile. The finish is strong and long. The Summary * The Fetzer Sundial Chardonnay 2018 is a really nice effort. If you like your Chardonnay with a little bit of oak influence, but not too much and you do not want to spend much money, then this is your wine. * This is a tasty, light side of medium-bodied Chardonnay, really well-balanced, everything has its place.

Brew Ha Ha with Steve Jaxon today features Don Barkley and Kevin Lovett. Mark Carpenter and Herlinda Heras are both traveling. Don was last on Brew Ha Ha back in March of this year. Don Barkley tells the story of how he was there the day that Kevin was born, on the 4th of July. Kevin's dad Michael and Don Barkley have been friends for a long time. They worked together at the New Albion Brewery then they moved to Hopland at the same time to start the Mendocino Brewing Co. and the Hopland Brewery and Kevin Lovett was born soon after that. Kevin was one of Don's first employees at the Napa Smith Brewery, where he worked for about five years. Then he got an offer from Brian Hunt who owns and operates Moonlight Brewing Co., which also happens to be where Don's son works. Kevin says, "I got to work for two of the godfathers in this industry, Don and Brian." Then after Moonlight, Kevin was the head brewer at Stumptown for two years, then became the Master Brewer at Cloverdale Ale Company. He has now bought the brewery, just three weeks ago, and is going to reopen it at the beginning of the year, as the Wolf House Brewery. He is opening two spots at the same time, one in Glen Ellen, the Jack London Historical Village, on the south side, right up against the Jack London Park. Both places will be a full brew pub, but their main production facility will be in Cloverdale. Glen Ellen is known as a wine town but there are few breweries and no tasting rooms, except for Cloverdale. We get a phone call from Herlinda Heras who is visiting Belgium, where it is 2:29 AM the next day. She began the trip in Amsterdam. Everywhere she goes there are separate containers for recycling glass and plastic. She also visited two breweries in windmills. Kevin's business partner and bro-in-law is a chef who also runs a food truck called Got Balls Meatball Factory. that specializes in meatballs and he will manage the food provisions there.  The Glen Ellen location is being rebuilt from scratch, including all the local permits. Herlinda describes a Belgian monastery where the beer that the brothers produce was for a while the number one rated beer on RateBeer.com. When crowds of beer lovers showed up there, the monks were unhappy with the interruption to their life, which includes a vow not to earn more money than they need to run their monastery. Herlinda describes going to some Trappist breweries there. Herlinda is touring breweries on Bon Beer Voyage Beer Tours. They have rooms on flat-bottomed canal barges that go through the canals in the Netherlands and Belgium. They visited Antwerp, which is gorgeous. She will also attend the Smithsonian ceremony on November 8 in Washington DC, for the opening of the Beer History Museum, where some famous American brewers like New Albion, Anchor Brewing Sierra Nevada and Dogfish Head will be inducted. Fritz Maytag and Ken Grossman will be there. Herlinda wonders why Dogfish Head is in such company.

I denne ukens sending har vi tatt for oss den arabiske våren. Vi snakker om valget i Tunisia og opprørene i Sudan. Hvorfor klarte Tunisia å bli et demokrati og ikke Sudan? Jakob Kirholt styrer showet og med seg har han Snorre Vange og Lea Sofie Westad. Intervju med Bård Hopland, ambassadør i Sudan, er laget av Jakob Kirkholdt

Wet hop beer is the subject and our guests are from Old Possum Brewery, Scott Weiss from Redwood Hill Farm (where they produce great local goat cheese) and now Redwood Hill Hop Farm, and Sandro from Old Possum Brewery. Herlinda Heras and Mark Carpenter are also in today. Old Possum Tap Room and Kitchen is located in Santa Rosa (off Standish at Sutton) and have been open for a year and a half. The got started by transporting wort to local breweries. Later they decided to start producing too. They try to up-cycle whatever they can, their tasting room was built with all used equipment. Sandro is from Trieste in northeastern Italy. He worked in wine, with D'Argenzio in Sonoma County and other places. He still makes wine but he has moved into beer too. There are fresh hops in the studio, see the pictures of the Cashmere hops. This is their third year selling hops to Sonoma County brewers and also to Richmond, San Rafel and Napa. They also have produced goat cheese for 50 years and have brought some of that. They also brought the Fog Belt Wet Hop Beer (pictured), which uses their hops. Since there are so many breweries in Sonoma County now, and so many new hop growers, there are a lot of wet hopped beers. They have to use the fresh hops quickly so their proximity is an advantage. They appreciate the grassy taste and compare it to using dried or fresh basil in a recipe. They have brought Cashmere and Common hops. These are new public varieties. Some varieties are proprietary where the breeders have the rights for as few years. They grow 7 different varieties on about 1.5 acres, and they are expanding. They use the organic matter "goat berries" from the goats to help fertilize the hops. Deer and gophers don't like hops so that's fortunate. The hop shoots can be cooked and eaten as a vegetable, or also pickled. Mark says they're not that good but they're seasonal and people like them. They taste the Old Possum IPA and Mark says he likes the name. Possums are cool animals and they show up at night at his house to eat grapes. They also eat ticks, which is nice. They produce about 500 barrels for the tap room and they are developing their wholesale accounts. They have canning on the horizon. Sandro worked with Dr. Charlie Bamforth at UC Davis. They are located at 357 Sutton Place, off Standish, exit Todd Road, in Santa Rosa. Exit Todd Road, go west, turn right on Standish and left on Sutton They are open Wed-Sun noon-8 or 9 on weekends. They will also be at the Freshtival on October 12. Sandro will make a special IPA for the festival. Sandro is also a winemaker, working for his father in law, Ray D’Argenzio at D’Argenzio Wines. They make Italian varieties Dolcetto, Sangiovese, Barbera, and they even found some Montepulciano in Kenwood this year. Redwood Hill Farms has a herd of goats and the farm is open for visits in the Spring, which is fun when the young goats are running around. His parents started the farm in 1968. Their cheese is famous because it’s so good and Herlinda says it goes fantastically with the Wet Hop Beer. The website is redwood hill dot org Mark reminds us that Hopland was named after the many hop farms that used to be in Sonoma County. They need a lot of hours of light, so more northerly locations are advantageous. There are many in Yakima Valley which is at a similar latitude to hop growing regions in Europe. Hops are coming back and there are 15 growers in the NorCal Hop Growing Alliance.        

I dette programmet ser Olaug Lillian Bjørke tilbake på fjoråret i Åpne Dører. Du får lytte til vitnesbyrd og får konkrete tall som viser hvordan organisasjonen jobber for å nå målsettingen om å styrke og utruste forfulgte kristne. La deg inspirere av disse glimtene fra arbeidet; der du blant annet får høre om en av de over 500 000 som har mottatt undervisning, opplæring og traumehjelp. Hauwa fra Nigeria var bortført av Boko Haram i fire år, og da hun klarte å flykte, hadde hun en liten gutt på to år. Hun har deltatt på Åpne Dørers traumeseminar, og forteller: «Tidligere hatet jeg gutten min. Men nå forstår jeg at han ikke valgte å bli født; det er ikke hans feil at jeg ble tatt til fange og voldtatt. Jeg har bestemt meg for å elske og ta vare på gutten min, med Guds hjelp.» I programmet får du ellers lytte til Sølvi Hopland og Kor de Ville som synger «Herre, gje meg dine auge».

Today on Brew Ha Ha, brewing legend Don Barkley is sitting in for Mark Carpenter and Herlinda Heras is also in, to celebrate Sonoma County Cider Week. Our guests are Ellen Cavalli from cider maker Tilted Shed and Derek Trowbridge from Trowbridge Cider Old World Winery. Derek Trowbridge was a winemaker first, then he learned to make cider and fell in love with it. His family has been growing apples near Sebastopol for a long time. They do barrel aged cider, as they do in some places in Spain and France. Herlinda notes that cider is more like wine than beer, in the production process. There are yeast lees at the bottom of the bottle of cider just like in certain bers. Don Barkley created Red Tail Ale and Eye of the Hawk, and he also founded the Mendocino Brewing Co. He has opened Hopland Tap, a wonderful venue. He brought a growler of Red Tail Ale today. It has a distinctive flavor. Hopland is the place to get some. Ellen Cavalli says this month marks the eighth anniversary of Tilted Shed Cider. The Gravenstein Apple Fair is this weekend, kicking off the second annual Sonoma County Cider Week. There will be 18 producers total. They made a special cider to commemorate the fair, that you can only taste there. They also have a lot of events, with cider makers, including orchard tours, cidering tours, tap takeovers, cider dinners, etc. You can get tickets at Oliver’s or at the gate. When Tilted Shed launched its cider in 2011, they were one of two producers and now there are over twenty. Ellen describes a special cider, they only made 30 cases, of 2018 pressing of organic dry farmed Gravensteins, with a few other varieties for balance. The alcohol is about 8%, which is like most ciders. It is dry but still tastes like apples. There are also stone fruit flavors. Derek Trowbridge tells about his cider. It is a method called “col fondo” which comes from the Italian language, where it means “with sediment” since “col” means “with the” and “fondo” literally means the bottom, as the bottom of a bottle where the yeast settles. There is a fine layer of yeast at the bottom of the bottle.

Craig Palmer and Allen Habel, co-founders of the Experience Rosé Today. Experience Rosé brand, which aims to celebrate all things rosé. The new brand will host an array of events in 2018, all honoring the lauded “pink drink,” with the Experience Rosé: The 2018 Competition kicking things off in the Spring. Focusing exclusively on domestic and international rosé wines and directed by globally-renowned wine expert and educator Debra Del Fiorentino, the competition will take place on Wednesday, April 18 at Soda Rock Winery in Healdsburg. The Experience Rosé brand will offer a collection of curated consumer events beyond the competition as well, including The Great Rosé Pairing for Summer, to be held on Saturday, June 16, at The CIA at Copia in Napa, and The Great Rosé Pairing for Thanksgiving, which will take place Friday, October 19, at Jaxon Keys Winery and Distillery in Hopland. Experience Rosé is all about providing extraordinary experiences for everyone who revels in our passion for Rosé and its infinite possibilities all year-long. Foodie to newbie. Wine maker to chef. Sponsor to volunteer. Because every day pairs better with Rosé. Fill your glass with us. We promise you a fulfilling experience that will be personal, passionate and perfect. Celebrating a wide range of rosé winemaking styles and taking place on Wed, Apr 18 at Soda Rock Winery in Healdsburg, Experience Rose: The 2018 Competition will showcase the best of the best from both domestic and international producers in dry, sparkling and sweet categories. “We’re excited to introduce these new elements around the Wine Competition,” states Del Fiorentino. “Our goal is to create an event that is beneficial to both our wine competition entrants and the attendees to the two consumer events, as we want everyone to have the best experience possible.” The Brand will introduce two new wine events to the general public. On Saturday, June 16, 2018, Experience Rosé will debut The Great Rosé Pairing for Summer, to be held at The CIA at Copia in Napa. Event-goers will have the opportunity to sip winning wines paired with gourmet bites inspired by cuisine from the four major rosé producing regions (France, Italy, Spain and the United States/California). The bites will be prepared by teams of CIA students directed by Lars Kronmark, Professor of Culinary Arts at The Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in Napa Valley. This curated event will also include special arts programming and Experience Rosé Talks – an educational series featuring presentations, panel discussions and pairings.

Hello my fellow Hemp nuts! Are you ready for the cannabis bonanza?!Today in the studio we have Dr. Jan Roberts, LCSW, The illustrious actor/comedian, performing and being creative every week in Manhattan - Greer Barnes! And thank you to Miles who is keeping our sounds and video running smoothly. The unapologetic farmer, oddly enough apologizes for not making it today. And of course, I’m cannabis researcher, Jahan Marcu!Segments:The Check In - How are we doing?Our word of the day is: gatra-bhanga - ancient sanskrit or hindi word meaning “body disintegrator.Research Focus/High Science: CBD and Morphine-seeking behaviorCannaBusting Finding or Fiction We will test your knowledge of recent cannabis news and scienceListener Q&A Mind MunchiesWORD OF THE DAY:Gatra-bhanga ancient sanskrit or hindi word meaning “body disintegrator.HIGH SCIENCE/RESEARCH FINDINGS: Thank you to Sarah Russo and Dan Goldman for both texting me about this article and bringing it to my attention.https://www.leafly.com/news/health/cbd-can-help-with-heroin-addiction-study-findsResearchers in NYC (Shout to Mount Sinai) teamed up with a team in Spain. Dr. Yasmin Hurd is one of the authors of the paper, she is a colleague of mine. I have hosted panels that she has been on. She’s one of the enlightened drug abuse researchers. And someone I am hoping to work with on some of the institutes work. The work was published in the journal of neuroscience this week.TAKE HOME MESSAGE: The study in rats, translated into its human potential could mean that after abstaining from opioid use for a time, CBD could prevent relapse. But may have no effect on first wave of opioid addiction, CBD may not prevent the development of addiction but may help break the cycle or relapse after abstinence.Cannabis and its benefits remain controversial Reports exist showing THC can both help or hurt regarding opioid useLittle research exists on CBD’s effect on opioid or heroin use Rats were trained to self- administer heroin, they learned very quickly Ratswere trained using environment cues Rats were given CBD during different phases of drug abuse cycle drug addiction cycle involves maintenance, extinction, and relapse CBD has no effect on any part of opioid use during first part of experiment After two weeks off of heroin, rats were challenged in “treatment tank” CBD protected rats from seeking out morphine when placed back in the “treatment tank” The effect lasted two weeks- which is amazingRen, Y., Whittard, J., Higuera-Matas, A., Morris, C. V., & Hurd, Y. L. (2009). Cannabidiol, a nonpsychotropic component of cannabis, inhibits cue-induced heroin seeking and normalizes discrete mesolimbic neuronal disturbances. Journal of Neuroscience, 29(47), 14764–14769.http://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4291-09.2009CANNABUSTING: Finding or Fiction?When you hear strange things about Marijuana...Who you gonna Call?! CANNABUSTERS1.Newsweek reports arrests are up at LAX for flying with cannabis. https://www.newsweek.com/can-i-fly-marijuana-lax-california-laws-arrest-plane-air-travel-weed-14232932. Did you know JFK smoked pot in the white house?While in the white house he suffered from severe back pain and addison’s disease, some claim Kennedy used cannabis to treat his conditions but there is no supporting evidence for this myth. He was taking several medications to help him function.“On the evening of July 16, 1962, according to [Washington Post executive] Jim Truitt, Kennedy and Mary Meyer smoked marijuana together. … The president smoked three of the six joints Mary brought to him. At first he felt no effects. ”According to Mr. Truitt, “They smoked three of the joints before he (J.F.K.) told her: ‘No more. Suppose the Russians did something now.'”The most widely referenced account of Kennedy’s supposed marijuana use was not primarily linked with his health or with medical treatment. Rather, it was an anecdotal account of JFK’s supposedly being introduced to recreational pot use by one of his mistresses that was published in the National Enquirer tabloid in 1976 and referenced in the 1984 book The Kennedys: An American Drama by Peter Collier and David Horowitz. That latter work drew the following criticism in the aforementioned New York Times letter to the editor:3. (Fiction/Satire) Idaho Scientists Develop First CBD Infused PotatoThe biggest Idea in Idaho since the state decided to allow televisionhttps://www.theboisetimes.com/post/idaho-scientists-develop-first-cbd-potato4. Man sues Albertsons, claiming he was wrongfully terminated over medical marijuanaTom Lee's attorney says he was fired from his job, because he was using medical marijuana legally."He was doing a lot of work," Carden said. "One particular palette tipped as it got to the higher shelf and a couple cases of ramen noodles fell. That was the big disaster that happened, we lost some ramen."https://www.12news.com/article/news/man-sues-albertsons-claiming-he-was-wrongfully-terminated-over-medical-marijuana/75-eb49add2-3b3f-45d7-b737-f45472b9f1965) Why are voters in Portland, OR upset with their cannabis program this week? Oregon voters expected the revenue from pot taxes to go towards rebuilding disadvantaged communities. Instead, most of the income was used to backfill police budget shortages.https://mjtodaymedia.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0543f0e8e0f2124691d18ca68&id=da8ca463b9&e=87a9448f47SCIENCE FINDINGS OR FICTIONWhere did cannabis come from? Is it Tibet?https://mjtodaymedia.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0543f0e8e0f2124691d18ca68&id=2dff439837&e=87a9448f47LISTENER Q&AChelsea from the Emerald Pharms dispensary calls in from Hopland, CA to ask about cannabis and Autism research.Jason calls in to ask about the dangers of benzene and naphthalene in cannabis products.MIND MUNCHIES“A lot of happiness depends on a leisurely breakfast” - John GuntherSOCIAL MEDIATwitters:@Newhemptimes@jahanmarcuFacebook:https://facebook.com/emeraldpharmsInstagram:https://www.instagram.com/newhemptimes/LinkedIn:(NHT doesn’t have Linkedin but CMH does): https://www.linkedin.com/company/irccmh/Patreon:www.patreon.com/newhemptimesWebsite:www.newhemptimes.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this week's episode of Blood & Wine, Brittany and Tyler dig into two cases where the key piece of evidence is missing, the body: The Murders of the O’Hair Family and The Disappearance of Baby Kate. Featured Wines: The Vintage 2017 Layer Cake Shiraz from South Australia and the 2017 Bonterra Equinox Red from Hopland in Mendocino County, CA

Sam Levy from Fern Bar Sam Levy from Fern Bar, a new locale in Sebastopol, is our first guest today. Ron Lindenbusch from Lagunitas is also in the studio today. This is Fern Bar's third week of operation. Sam Levy is one of the partners there. He used to be bartender at the three-star restaurant Meadowood. Steve says it's about time to bring back the fern bar. They were popular starting in the late 1960s in San Francisco. Sam Levy tells about how fern bars may have become a bit kitschy but they are ready for a comeback because of their strengths. Among many attractions, they have live music, but casually, not as a full-scale music venue. A young listener called to issue a "geek alert" to ask Steve what is a Fern Bar. Sam tells about how they were a popular style beginning in the late '60s. Henry Africa's was the first big one, and TGI Fridays is in the style too. Herlinda says its cozy, with couches and chairs and a jazz trio. Sam mixes a cocktail in the studio, a Tequila cocktail he calls a Guerra, made with tequila blanca, grapefruit juice, lime juice, elder flower liqueur, Aperol and Thai pepper shrub. The next drink is called Chaiwalla, a chai-infused blend of rums, which includes burning sage. He wants his cocktails to be refreshing and not produce a hangover from too much sugar. They have a Type 75 license because they will start brewing their own beer. Their seven-barrel tank system will produce three different beers. His partner Victoria who was wine director at Meadowood. She has put the wine selection together with a lot of the popular local varieties and also some more exotic unfamiliar wines. Sam makes a lot of non-alcoholic cocktails as well. He thinks it's important to have strong flavor combinations because other cocktails can rely on the booze for flavor, but not if there is no alcohol in the mix. The new Hopland Tap House Ron Lindenbusch is in to talk about his new Hopland Tap House, on the grounds of the old Hopland Brewery. Reading from the Ukiah Daily Journal, "When Ron Lindenbusch was tavern manager at the former Hopland Brewery, the famous brew pub on the 101 that featured one of California's original micro brews, the infamous Red Tail Ale..." It was a time that Ron always remembers was packed with fun. The new Hopland Tap House is now open. Ron moved to California in 1984 he was "fresh out of Missouri" and tasted the beer. He visited a little brewery in Hopland and had a "transcending mind-blowing moment." It's the opposite of the classy look of a fern bar. Ron says it's a wonderful feeling to be back in that building. He worked for Tony Magee at Lagunitas for 23 years. When he drove by and saw it had a "for lease" sign out front, he had to stop to make a call. They're going to grow hops and have music from local bands. It is open now even as they are still working on the kitchen. Don Barkley was the original brew master at Mendocino making Red Tail Ale and now he is making it again at Napa Smith. Everyone is really pleased that all these great brews are coming back.

As we approach the end of another year, now my 6th On The Wine Road, I'd like to reach back to share a version of this previous post. It's been an extreme pleasure to meet many fascinating personalities in the wine business. This recording highlights those who have expressed their passion about the wine industry, from Napa Valley and Sonoma County to Hopland and places in between. The winery owners, winemakers and growers I have chosen speak eloquently, philosophically, poetically, and often spiritually about wine and vineyards. I'm confident that if you listen it will make the wine you love taste even better. Cheers! Guests include Greg LaFollette of Alquimista Cellars, Julie Johnson of Tres Sabores, Ulysses Van der Kamp of Van der Kamp Vineyards, Mark Topel of Topel Wines, Jean-Charles Boisset of Boisset Family Estates, the late George Macleod of MacLeod Family Vineyard (who we lost earlier this year), Delia Viader of Viader Vineyards and Winery, Gary Breen of Campovida, and Randy Ullom of Kendall-Jackson/Jackson Family Wines.

Jeremy Marshall from Lagunitas is back on Brew Ha Ha with Steve Jaxon and Mark Carpenter today. (This is part 2 of the show recorded last week, since there is no new show for today’s date, Thanksgiving Day.) Mark begins with a Lagunitas beer called Sparkling Swan, made with Concord grapes and some wine grapes typical of Sonoma County, like Petit Syrah. This beer is slightly sour. The beer has purple-pinkish foam and is 6.5% alcohol. Jeremy’s title is Brewmaster. He shares that one of his colleagues changed that to Brewmonster. He says now he also does some marketing activity, such as today’s show. He loves those aspects of his job and he makes sure that some others can do the routine jobs of brewmaster.They also mention that Ron Lindenbush has acquired the site of the original Mendocino Brewing Company in Hopland. Red Tail Ale was born there. He has turned it into Hopland Tap which is open now. Steve asks for an update on Lagunitas. Jeremy says that their home base is always in Sonoma County but they have opened a brewery now in Chicago which is founder Tony Magee’s home town. Jeremy says it’s better to be in business with a brewer (i.e. Heineken) than a bank. Mark agrees it’s a good brewing company and compares it to Anchor, which is owned by Sapporo now but the beer is still made in San Francisco as always. Mark says Lagunitas with the big “IPA” on the label, really launched the style around the world more than any other brewer. Mark says this was a big risk that Tony took, before there was a real demand and he deserves credit for creating that demand. Jeremy remembers how Lagunitas caught some flack at the time of the Heineken deal, but that he and Tony thought of it differently, and instead of being taken over by Heineken, “...we was going to take over them.” Jeremy says, “The fun thing about craft beer is, it’s how all that big beer used to be when it was artisinal and by hand and everything was always about the beer in the glass at the end of the day. You get caught up in billboards and marketing and you lose sight of the fact that it’s all about the beer.” They describe how to make sour beer and how to prevent the souring microbes from getting into the other beer in the brewery. They also tasted the Lagunitas Mango beer. Jeremy finds it a little sweet. The full name is Mozango. The Moz comes from Mosaic hops and the “ango” part comes from Mango and they used the Z instead of the S because it just looks better. Steve asks about the Beer Circus, an annual Lagunitas event that Jeremy describes. It’s at the Petaluma Fairgrounds this year. It has grown so much that they can’t do it at the brewery anymore. It attracts about 5000 to 8000 people. There are side show acts and lots of good music. Jeremy says, “this is an attept at a very playful beer festival.” “Oh Hell yeah,” replies Steve.  

Craig Palmer and Allen Habel, co-founders of the Experience Rosé Today. Experience Rosé brand, which aims to celebrate all things rosé. The new brand will host an array of events in 2018, all honoring the lauded “pink drink,” with the Experience Rosé: The 2018 Competition kicking things off in the Spring. Focusing exclusively on domestic and international rosé wines and directed by globally-renowned wine expert and educator Debra Del Fiorentino, the competition will take place on Wednesday, April 18 at Soda Rock Winery in Healdsburg. The Experience Rosé brand will offer a collection of curated consumer events beyond the competition as well, including The Great Rosé Pairing for Summer, to be held on Saturday, June 16, at The CIA at Copia in Napa, and The Great Rosé Pairing for Thanksgiving, which will take place Friday, October 19, at Jaxon Keys Winery and Distillery in Hopland. Experience Rosé is all about providing extraordinary experiences for everyone who revels in our passion for Rosé and its infinite possibilities all year-long. Foodie to newbie. Wine maker to chef. Sponsor to volunteer. Because every day pairs better with Rosé. Fill your glass with us. We promise you a fulfilling experience that will be personal, passionate and perfect. Celebrating a wide range of rosé winemaking styles and taking place on Wed, Apr 18 at Soda Rock Winery in Healdsburg, Experience Rose: The 2018 Competition will showcase the best of the best from both domestic and international producers in dry, sparkling and sweet categories. “We’re excited to introduce these new elements around the Wine Competition,” states Del Fiorentino. “Our goal is to create an event that is beneficial to both our wine competition entrants and the attendees to the two consumer events, as we want everyone to have the best experience possible.” The Brand will introduce two new wine events to the general public. On Saturday, June 16, 2018, Experience Rosé will debut The Great Rosé Pairing for Summer, to be held at The CIA at Copia in Napa. Event-goers will have the opportunity to sip winning wines paired with gourmet bites inspired by cuisine from the four major rosé producing regions (France, Italy, Spain and the United States/California). The bites will be prepared by teams of CIA students directed by Lars Kronmark, Professor of Culinary Arts at The Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in Napa Valley. This curated event will also include special arts programming and Experience Rosé Talks – an educational series featuring presentations, panel discussions and pairings.

Når man møter et menneske som står på kanten; som kanskje vurderer å ta sitt eget liv, er det aller viktigste å være åpen, og å bare våge å være der. Gjesten i denne episoden kommer fra Kirkens SOS, som daglig tar imot flere hundre henvendelser fra mennesker i krise.

Når man møter et menneske som står på kanten; som kanskje vurderer å ta sitt eget liv, er det aller viktigste å være åpen, og å bare våge å være der. Gjesten i denne episoden kommer fra Kirkens SOS, som daglig tar imot flere hundre henvendelser fra mennesker i krise.

Caroline welcomes Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee, filmmaker, musician and composer whose award-winning films have been featured on PBS, National Geographic, The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, exhibited at the Smithsonian and screened at festivals worldwide.   Offering two of Vaughan-Lee's films as Fund Drive enticements – “Elemental” a feature documentary, protecting what we love, and “Living Library Vol 1” – a collection of 14 short films. “The 14 films on this two-disc dvd set make up a Living Library of global stories, exploring the threads that connect culture, ecology and beauty. The following films are included: Celeritas, Yukon Kings, Barrio de Paz, Laugh Clown Laugh, The People's Grocery, Silent Crescendo, A Thousand Suns, Path of Freedom, Karma Kitchen, Not Just a Piece of Cloth, Ubuntu, A Game for Life, The Ocean Inside, and What Would it Look Like? “   And at end of the hour, as part of the Fund Drive, Delia Carroll will be proffering access to the North American Permaculture Convergence at the Solar Living Institute in Hopland, CA (happening September 14-18th). Featuring Community-Based, Nature-Inspired, People-Powered Solutions to Climate Change, Resource Depletion, & Economic Instability: 100+ Speakers, 70+ Workshops, Music & Entertainment  The post The Visionary Activist Show – 20 year anniversary! Sane Reverence Assuming Cultural Narrative Lead – Power of Story – Beauty and Destruction Neck and Neck * Betting on Beauty appeared first on KPFA.

Caroline welcomes Martin A. Lee, author of “Acid Dreams” and “Smoke Signals,” just returned from Poland, “giving a full report on what happened at the International Cannabinoid Research Society conference.” Honoring imminent Terpestival (educational terpene cup) at Emerald Pharms (Hopland – Real Goods – Solar Living Center) that will take place July 23 and more, that we may be endogenously and entheogenically prepared for the RNC and the DNC at this wild time of Dire Beauty, for which the plants would like to guide our species back to conscious kinship.   Link to Martin A. Lee's “Project CBD” website with more information on his books and upcoming events. More information on Terpestival (Saturday, July 23, 2016 from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM (PDT) at Solar Living center – 13771 U.S. 101, Hopland, CA 95449) Further reading: Article on Solar Living Center / Hopland / Emerald Pharms   The post The Visionary Activist Show – Caroline Hosts Martin A. Lee appeared first on KPFA.

Mengden e-post som strømmer inn i løpet av en dag er i ferd med å bli uhåndterlig for en del av oss. Hva skjer hvis vi mister kontrollen over innboksen? Medvirkende er Bjørn Hopland fra Smart Endring, Aksel Tjora fra NTNU og Hilde Wibe fra Abelia. Programleder Elisabeth Skarrud.

Introduced by Richard Heinberg, here is the talk Rob Hopkins gave to the Permaculture and Transition Network convergence at Hopland, California.

Mike Ruppert, Editor and Publisher of www.fromthewilderness.com and author of Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil spoke at SolFest at the Solar Living Institute in Hopland, California in August 2005 where this interview occurred. Ruppert, a former Los Angeles narcotics police officer, has been a teller of truth as he sees it for many many years. He was shot at, his life was threatened and when he reported it to LAPD Chief Darly Gates, Gates responded (through an aide) that he was too busy to see Ruppert, and that he'd see him in a week to 10 days if he (Ruppert) was still alive. At that Ruppert resigned from the LAPD. He has retained, and possibly strengthened his committment to telling the truth.He was one of the first independent investigators to look into what really caused the tragic events of 9/11/2001 and has continued to be a leader in the movement to uncover the 9/11 cover-up. From the beginning of this investigation and discussion he has claimed that the peaking of oil and natural gas and diminishing natural resources were central in why some people in high places in the US plan and carry out such terrorizing actions in order to convince people that the US needs to attack, for instance, Afghanistan and Iraq, in order to control what oil there remains. This is not the only reason, but one of the main ones.In this recent interview he shares that, in his opinion, the issues of peak oil (the end of cheap oil and therefore the end of the industrial world as we know it) and gas and climate change now overshadow any other issues facing us because the survival of humans and other life on earth are at stake. Our very survival is the issue due to the natural and political threats facing us. He explains what he sees happening geopolitically in the world in terms of China, Venezuela, Iran, etc.. It is Ruppert's opinion that the US economy will collapse by December 2005 (and this was before the hurricane tragedy that just happened in Louisiana and Mississippi). As usual, Mike Ruppert, has much of interest and importance to say.