The kitchen garden was a relatively new concept on the American restaurant scene when chef David Kinch of Manresa and Cynthia Sandberg of Love Apple Farms began their partnership in 2006, but it has since grown in popularity. While a number of chefs have embraced the farm-to-table movement, few have integrated their cooking with a single farm as deeply as Kinch has. And few farmers are as responsive to the needs of a chef as Sandberg and her crew.
Articles by Stett Holbrook
The New Santa Cruz Mountain Winemakers: Mica Raas
The Watsonville-based vintner takes on a winemaking establishment that he says isn’t doing the Santa Cruz Mountains appellation justice.
The New Santa Cruz Mountain Winemakers: Lindsey Otis
Lindsey Otis’ travels as a winemaker have taken her all over the world, but she finally found her place in the Santa Cruz Mountains, close to home. After graduating from UC-Davis’ prestigious oenology program, she headed to France. She then spent time working at Saratoga’s Cooper-Garrod winery and later Bonny Doon Vineyard in Santa Cruz. She moved to New Zealand. She made shiraz and riesling in Australia. Back in the States, she worked in Napa Valley at Silver Oak Cellars, makers of one the region’s bestselling cabernet sauvignons. But Napa wasn’t for her.
The New Santa Cruz Mountain Winemakers: Denis Hoey
It was while enjoying a glass of wine with his then-girlfriend and future wife, Claire, that Denis Hoey realized he wanted to become a winemaker. He had been helping out at Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard, and one day he got the last bottle of grenache rose to come off the bottling line. That day, the satisfaction of a hard day’s work, the beauty of the wine and the pleasure that came with enjoying it with somebody he loved sealed the deal.
The New Santa Cruz Mountain Winemakers: Kenny Likitprakong
Everything about Kenny Likitprakong’s story is filled with independent attitude. Growing up in Healdsburg of Thai, Chinese and Jewish ancestry, he exercised his passions for skateboarding and snowboarding in tandem with plenty of world travel. His umbrella Hobo Wines group is named partly in homage to songwriter/vagabond Woody Guthrie and the free spirit of wandering.
Reviving Spirits, Soquel to Sonoma
If all goes well, Dan Farber’s grandchildren will raise a glass and toast him for a job well done. That’s a long way off. His kids are still in grade school and he doesn’t have any grandchildren yet. But Farber, 48, is working for the ages. The fruits of his labor are meant to outlast him.
Big Ag Wins Kudos for Being Green
Researchers at Stanford University are trumpeting new findings that they say show agriculture’s so-called green revolution has greatly reduced forest clear-cutting and resulting climate-warming emissions—an unforeseen benefit to industrial agriculture. Because agricultural “advancements” like fertilizers, genetically engineered crops and pesticides have boosted yields, there has been less need to slash and burn for additional fields, and this has meant fewer carbon emissions, the report says.
Lockheed’s Legacy Worries Santa Cruz Winemakers
For Santa Cruz Mountain winegrowers, the Lockheed fire that burned 7,800 acres of wild lands above Bonny Doon recently came at exactly the wrong time. Of course there’s never a good time for a wildfire, but the grapes in local vineyards are starting to ripen, a developmental stage called veraison, and they’re particularly vulnerable to “smoke taint.”
