Passport to Dry Creek Valley 2009

This weekend is the Passport to Dry Creek Valley weekend up in Healdsburg in Sonoma County.

This event is a wonderful way to try many of the wines of the Dry Creek Valley, as 45 wineries open their doors to Passport holders and couple them with food, usually incorporating a theme.

This event has grown so popular that Passports are sold via a lottery!

We won't be attending because we have rented out our house for the weekend, luckily Healdsburg is open every weekend ;)

Cycling in Sonoma County

A nice article in the Chronicle about one of the best Sonoma County activities - cycling.

Starting in Santa Rosa, we'd ride west to Sebastopol, then north to Graton, mostly on the West County Trail, a paved former rail line now open only to hikers and bikers - no motor vehicles allowed. Along the way we'd sip chai, visit a goat dairy, taste some wine and revel in the scenic bounty of west Sonoma County as buds burst from the trees and wildflowers carpet the land.

Our son Liam is occupying a lot of the time we used to devote to cycling around Healdsburg, but when we get the chance, the Dry Creek Valley is truly a beautiful place to explore on two wheels.

Here's an account of a ride in Dry Creek.

If you are in Healdsburg, the folks at
Spoke Folk Cyclery can help you out with routes and bike rentals.

Fruits coming into bud in Sonoma County

We are blessed with many fruit trees at our Vacation Rental in Sonoma County , near Healdsburg. A walk around the property showed that we have the potential for a good harvest this year.

Pomegranates - which come in in September/October.



Pears - these get ready in the August timeframe and are pickable into October. We have Bosc, Bartlett, and Anjou pears.



Peaches! We are loaded with these babies that come in June.



Our seedless grapes look pretty good compared to last year, when a late frost hurt the bunches. Here's hoping these come in nicely.



Figs. The unusally warm weather in January has brought out some figs very early. Hopefully more buds will come out, but it looks like we may have some as early as June.



Asian Pears! We have 2 trees with Asian Pears - these are fantastic fruits and are very prolific in Sonoma County. They should be ready in July and be available for a few months.



Almonds. A bumper crop on our tree. Last year we only had a few and the squirrels got them! This year I'll try to defend them better. I think these, like the figs, are coming in early.



All of our guests are welcome to dig into these fruits, along with the apples that show up in July-August, the November Persimmons, June Apricots, and of course giant tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and zucchini that populate our vegetable garden!

Even if you aren't exactly Charlie Palmer, a good piece of fruit is a great snack to take out for wine tasting before you visit one of Healdsburg's fine restaurants.

For information on staying at our house - Le Tournesol - call Jill Murphy at 415-515-1095

Healdsburg Area Restaurants make Chron Top 100

The SF Chronicle has come out with 2009's Top 100 Restaurants. Not surprisingly Healdsburg is represented.

First, Willi's Wine Bar in Santa Rosa is listed. There is also a Willi's Wine Bar in Healdsburg. Small plates and good wine, the downtown location is 1 block North of Healdsburg Plaza and is always hopping. We like to sit at the bar and chat up the jovial bartenders and try the oysters, riblets, and other goodies.

Madrona Manor, on Westside Road, is known also as a wedding venue, and focuses on Contemporary American cuisine. Fixed price in the $60-$80 range.

On the high end is of course Cyrus, Douglas Keane's Michelin starred restaurant in Downtown Healdsburg. Get your reservation in advance. Pricey but very very good.

This is only the tip of the iceberg in Healdsburg, if you can't make it to one of these excellent restaurants, you can try one of our other great eateries, from the high end of Charlie Palmer's Dry Creek Kitchen in the Hotel Healdsburg, to the Bear Republic (more known for their excellent beer), Charcuterie, and Scopa. Or if you are just looking to carbo load before a good bike ride, you can try one of my personal favorites - Giorgio's Italian restaurant, a true basic red-checked tablecloth joint.

Limerick Lane Winery

Limerick Lane is a quiet country lane South of Healdsburg, and also the name of a winery on that lane. It also happens to be where our Healdsburg Vacation Rental Home , Le Tournesol is.

Limerick Lane makes a killer Zinfandel, and is a very nice quiet family run winery. Kudos to them - they were written up in the San Francisco Chronicle Travel section this Sunday. Congrats!

Take the train to Sonoma Wine Country!

OK, you can't take a train to Healdsburg - yet.

But voters in Sonoma and Marin passed Measure Q , a bond issue to run a train from Cloverdale to Larkspur, through the heart of Sonoma County's Russian River Valley wine region.

This is good stuff. As a daily commuter on the SF Peninsula Caltrain line, I've grown very fond of ditching my car for nice rail. This line is similar in that it goes through the heart of downtown all the way down the line, taking people to where they want to go, and then "connecting" in Larkspur to the Ferry to SF. From our house in Noe Valley in SF, we could then get to Le Tournesol (our house in Healdsburg) by taking the J church to the Ferry building, the Ferry to Larkspur, then the train to Healdsburg. OK, we'd get dropped off 1.5 miles from home, but there will be a bike/pedestrian path along the rails, and the tracks cross our street about 1 mile from our front door (a mile walk that includes 4 wineries!)

Traffic on Highway 101 in Sonoma County is a nightmare, I predict this line will be embraced much as Caltrain has further south. The best part is that we should see results in a "reasonable" timeframe as the tracks are already in place, they just need to be upgraded and the train cars purchased.

With SMART in place Bourgogne will have nothing on Sonoma!

Planting Winter Greens in Sonoma County

Our Vacation House in Healdsburg has some very nice planter boxes for gardening. We are somewhat new to vegetable gardening despite Jill's experience in floral arrangement.

We took a class a few weeks back at Sloat Garden Center in San Rafael. This gave us some idea what to plant. We got a late start so we went with some starts.




The roster?

Herbs - Parsley, Oregano, Mint. We found a sprig of mint growing elsewhere on the property and transplanted it - it had probably seeded itself from the former owners garden.

Vegetables/Greens - Broccoli, Cabbage, Arugala, Mesclun lettuces, Spinach



It has started raining up in Healdsburg so we turned off our drip systems and will hope for the best. Some of these plants will produce all winter, some will go dormant and show up in the spring. Most of these plants can be cut and will sprout new leaves.

Our hope is to always have seasonal fruits and veggies for our tenants to enjoy. Right now, we are enjoying the last of our Pomegranates and eagerly awaiting the Persimmons (from the tree in the background). Otherwise right now all we have is our ever present Rosemary bush.