The Estrellas de Esperanza folklorico group will perform at the Mole & Mariachi Festival on Saturday, Oct. 5
Mariachi, Mole and the Mission: When nuns in the Puebla region of Mexico prepared for a visiting archbishop, they panicked, not knowing what they would feed the important Catholic priest. Legend has it the 17th century nuns at the Convent of Santa Rosa prayed, killed a turkey and ultimately gathered chili peppers, day-old bread, nuts, chocolate and spices to make a sauce. The visiting archbishop apparently loved the sweet chocolate-y sauce with his savory meal, and the tasty culinary tradition known as mole stuck.
Some 400 years later, Santa Cruz restaurateurs will be making the similar dishes this weekend, and likewise look to impress on Saturday, Oct. 5, at the first annual Mole & Mariachi Festival, a fundraiser for the Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks. The event at the Santa Cruz Mission Adobe State Historic Park, which almost closed last year, will feature beer, wine, and dancing. There will also be mole-serving chefs from Manuel’s, El Chipotle Restaurant, Tortilla Flats, El Palomar, Café Carlos Mexican Restaurant, Chocolate and My Mom’s Mole. The event is from 11am to 4pm at the county’s oldest building. Visit thatsmypark.org for more information.
Garden State: Big news coming out of the Homeless Garden Project, as the group prepares for Saturday’s Fall Farm Supper, with food from local chefs, a tour and a panel discussion on “Food, Community and the Health of the Central Coast.”
HGP’s move to Pogonip city park might appear before city council next year. The concept, which has been kicked around for years, went into environmental review in 2010 with Parks & Recreation. If the new HGP location gets approval, the group’s staff can get deeper into planning and then probably start a big fundraising campaign after that. “It’s not going to be immediate,” executive director Darrie Ganzhorn says of the potential change in scenery. “It’s really important not to give people the impression that we’re going to be right there next year.”
Saturday’s event starts at 3pm on the farm, just around the corner from Natural Bridges State Beach.
Harvest Moons: With the fall underway, harvest festivals, like the one at Staff of Life this Saturday from 12:30 to 4:30pm, celebrate browning leaves and beautiful weather with music, drinks and delicious apples. The festival will have pumpkin painting, goblin bowling, face painting and a pie contest.
And Santa Cruz’s Companion Bakeshop and Aptos’ Ashby Confections are heading south to Monterey for the Moon Harvest Dinner, this month’s First Thursday installment at the Independent Marketplace, “an experiment in food, music, art and culture.” Boulder Creek’s Naked Bootleggers—check this fun bluegrass band out if you haven’t—will be performing at the Oct. 3 event.
HITCH YOUR WAGON: On Oct. 20, 11am-4pm, is the the much-loved Wilder Ranch Heritage Harvest Festival. The $10 hoedown at Wilder Ranch State Park pretty much has it all—wagon rides, square dancing, pies, a pumpkin patch and hand-cranked pumpkin ice cream. Games will include snap-apple, in which a kid tries to bob an apple tied to a broom swinging around in the air, and lessons in how to make a doll out of corn husk.
