PARTNERSHIP

We made it to issue #2!

It’s terrifying and exciting to launch a new magazine. There’s no way of knowing in advance how it will be received in the community, and whether readers will like it. But we are thrilled and heartened to know that so many of you not only read the first issue, but loved it and absorbed every page of it!

In this issue we’re excited to bring you more stories, recipes and images to occupy your mind and delight your taste buds. This winter is bound to be long, dark, and cold, but hopefully we won’t experience 90 days of non stop rain like we did last winter. Though if we do, it’s the perfect excuse to stay indoors, take an inventory of your liquor cabinet, and try out some of the creative winter cocktails in this issue. We’ve also got a tasty vegetarian salad that features delicata squash, an heirloom variety that grows in winter.

“Winter” is the official theme of this issue, but the unofficial theme is “collaboration” and how it seems to be the secret sauce for success. In this issue we get to know Melissa Boon and Victor Passalaqua, a chef and a sommelier whose teamwork transformed Elk Cove Inn into a terrific place to stay, wine, and dine on the coast. We also learn how Joel Costa and Robert Brust’s combined talents in farming and marketing have put them on the map as the “lettuce guys” of Lake County. And all of our cocktail recipes are the product of collaborations between the creative minds at some of Mendocino and Lake county’s most beloved bars and restaurants.

Collaboration is also at the core of our food and wine community. The combined efforts of hundreds of dedicated chefs, beekeepers, viticulturists, delivery drivers, bakers, market managers and countless others have collectively kept our local food systems humming along in 2023. We thank them for the fruits of their labor and we look forward to another year of nourishment.

Karen Elowitt
Publisher & Managing Editor