Pescadero Wanderings

I've driven around the San Mateo County coast for years, ever since I was a little kid and my parents would head south from our house in Pacifica to visit friends and family in Half Moon Bay, Pescadero and San Gregorio, where my father had an artichoke farm before I was born. There are lots of memories and nostalgia associated with a trip "down the coast" and it doesn't take much to get me interested in spending a day there. So, I couldn't resist an the invitation to visit what has become a must stop for northern California foodies -- Harley Farms Goat Dairy in Pescadero. With friends a couple of weeks ago, we set out on a stunning fall day, a bright sun shining on the glittering Pacific Ocean to the west. In the fields, pumpkins were still scattered about and late-season artichokes were sprouting.
It seems like nothing changes in small town Pescadero. Norm's Arcangeli General Store still bakes artichoke-studded sourdough bread each morning. We were there at 10 a.m when Don Benedetti was getting ready to take a batch out of the big ovens in the back of the store. Across the street, Duarte's was getting ready to open. The case of pies that used to take up room in the waiting area is now gone: if you want to come in and buy a pie you ask the hostess to get you one, Ron Duarte told us: they needed to get rid of the pie case to make more space for waiting customers. But everything else is the same: the funky bar from 1894 and, best of all, the menu, with cream of artichoke soup, cream of chile soup (or the favorite for many, half of one and half of the other), the warm bread and butter, and the ollalieberry pie, of course. This is one of the few U.S. restaurants named an "American Classic" by the James Beard Foundation.
Harley Farms Goat Dairy is just a few of blocks east of Duarte's. It was founded by an Englishwoman, Dee Harley, who settled in Pescadero and married into the Duarte family. Her husband, Tim, runs the tavern and restaurant with Ron. The two are the fourth generation of Duartes to operate the old roadhouse.
Dee took over a dilapidated 1910 ranch (photo above) once run by two brothers from Portugal a few years ago. Without any dairy experience, she got a few goats, thinking it was a convenient side family business while she stayed home to raise her son. Well, it's become much more than a side business. Today, Harley Farms has 200 American alpine goats and the milk that they produce is transformed into much-sought-after, award-winning cheese.
They do a terrific tour that's fun and informative. Who knew that goats could be so adorable? The goats are milked twice a day, 5:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., times when the tours aren't run. But it's so entertaining to watch that Harley set it up so that you can stop by and watch through a glass window. People stand along the road, we were told, at 5:30 p.m. sharp, to wait for the milking event. There's also a charming retail shop, open daily 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., in the old ranch barn where you can buy several kinds of fresh goat cheese. There are "milk pipes" that run through the shop from the milking shed to the cheese-making room where 200 pounds of cheese (photo, above left) is made each day.
I loved the cheese topped with dried apricots and another mixed with herbs, which I spread on toasted Norm's artichoke bread the next day.
It was a day full of lots of adventures, but Harley was a highlight along with lunch at Pasta Moon in Half Moon Bay. If you go, don't miss the to-die-for pizza with their homemade sausage and the delicious porcini pappardelle.

Sebastopol 'shrooms

The town of Sebastopol in Sonoma County is known for Gravensteins, the pretty yellow-green apples with red stripes. Even though many of the century-old apple orchards were uprooted in the last 25 years and replanted with vineyards you still come across plenty of old, gnarled Gravenstein trees when you're driving around the quiet roads here.
Besides apples and grapes a bounty of other fruit is grown around Sebastopol. It was, after all, the place where Luther Burbank operated his experimental farm and developed more than 800 new varieties of fruits and vegetables.
So, it's not surprising that Sebastopol became one of the leading producers of mushrooms a few years back when shitake, oyster, chanterelles and other exotic varieties started to pop up in supermarkets alongside the old standby white button mushrooms.
Sebastopol-based Gourmet Mushrooms produces more specialty organic mushrooms than any other company in the U.S. One of its most popular mushrooms is the delicate, earthy Velvet Pioppini, which has dark caps and an intense forest flavor. (Look for the Mycopia brand at Whole Foods and other fine markets). Gourmet is not open to the public but, just south of Sebastopol there's a small mushroom operation -- New Carpati Farm -- where you can visit, talk to the mushroom grower and pick your own funghi.
Steve Schwartz, the owner (photo above), named the company for the Carpathian Mountains in Eastern Europe where his father was born. His company is a simple operation consisting of a small cave-like hut. Inside, shelves are lined with bricks made of oak saw dust, where he plants fungus spores. A wild assortment of fungi emerge, mostly varieties of shitake and oyster. Schwartz sells them at the Sebastopol farmer's market on Sundays but you can also call him (707-829-2978) and set up an appointment to visit the little hut. There, in the damp and quiet, you do as chefs sometimes do and pick your own mushrooms, the freshest you've tasted.

Harvest time for chestnuts

Up on Skyline Boulevard above Palo Alto, hidden inside the MidPeninsula Open Space District, is a little-known orchard full of old chestnut trees. No one really knows their origin, but the most reliable story seems to be that the trees were planted by a Spaniard about 100 years ago, says Hans Josens, who with his wife, Donna, runs the orchard under an agreement with the district. The grove consists of about 120 trees, including what Johsens calls the "honey tree" where the largest of the green, golf-ball-sized nuts grows.
For only a few weeks in the fall, the orchard is open to the public as a u-pick operation. For certain ethnic groups, particularly Koreans, French and Italians, gathering chestnuts off the ground in the chill of the fall is a nostalgic event that usually culminates later in the evening with roasting the nuts over a fire. For those new to the whole process, the ranch provides gloves, buckets and tongs. For sale are roasting pans and special knives to pry open the pods. The orchard will be open Oct. 11-Nov. 23 this year. The price is $5.25 per pound. Call (408) 395-0337 (no Web site at press time).
The only other chestnut orchard that I could find in the region is in western Sonoma County -- at Green Valley Chestnut Ranch, which is only open two weekends this fall. The first was this weekend and the second will be Oct. 11-12.
The ranch, outside the town of Graton, covers several acres containing about 800 chestnut trees that grew from seeds from a Gold Rush-era tree planted by Italian immigrants in Nevada City. The variety is called Colossal, a type that produces large and sweet nuts.
A friend and I on a foodie jaunt of the area passed by Green Valley (a lovely drive from Graton) the other day and, although the ranch was closed, I took some photos (including the one above) of the lush, gorgeous groves of trees, sagging with the weight of the pods, the ground covered with the nuts ready for the taking. For more information, check out the ranch's Web site.
Before heading out to see the chestnut trees, we had a terrific lunch at a new restaurant, Eloise, in Sebastopol (reviewed recently in the San Francisco Chronicle), and, after seeing the ranch, stopped by another eatery that specializes in local ingredients, the lively pub, Ace-in-the-Hole, in Graton. Ace makes the first hard cider produced in the U.S. , much of it from local apples, including the beloved Gravenstein. The results are delicious.

Academy of Sciences in photos

Photos from a preview tour of the new California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. Frank Almeda, an academy scientist, shows the biodegradable trays used for the two million plants on the undulating hills of the roof. "Claude," the albino alligator in the "swamp' tank in the main hall is expected to draw big crowds.

Golden Gate Park is humming

The new California Academy of Sciences is opening with a weekend-long celebration on Saturday, Sept. 27, one of the most anticipated events in San Francisco in years, especially if you've been watching it being painstakingly rebuilt the least three years. On a preview tour this week with a group of reporters and other press people there was no doubt that the building was worth waiting for. We visited the planetarium, galleries, the aquarium and took the elevator to the roof. When the doors, we all gasped. There before us was 197,000 square feet of undulating hills, the "Living Roof" lined with native plants, all tightly packed in biodegradable trays to keep them from slipping off the slopes, which make up one of the largest roofs of its kind in the world. Renzo Piano, the noted Italian architect who designed the museum, was inspired by the dome-like Grand View Park from the nearby Sunset district hilltop, said museum staffer Frank Almeda. The large deck will be a popular spot for visitors. There isn't the view that's afforded by the deYoung Museum's twisting tower, but it's a peaceful spot where birds, inculding the park's resident hawks, are already flying about. Docents will be stationed on the roof to describe the plant life and Piano's design. Of course, the real destination is under the roof. The institution's mission is to answer two questions and the exhibits are designed with those in mind, said Gregg Ferrington, executive director. "It's to ask 'How did we get here?' and 'How are we going to find a way to stay?" The Academy of Sciences is home to the Steinhart Aquarium, Morrison Planetarium, the Kimball Natural History Museum and a myriad of research programs. The new aquarium houses the world's largest coral reef -- a 25-foot high tank modeled after a reef in the Philippines -- with 500 species of fish. Several galleries highlight how animals have evolved and adapted to their environments. Some of the exhibits will be familiar to Steinhart visitors: the giant sea bass (see photo above) that weighs about 165 pounds, is now 30 years old. A four-story, glass-enclosed rainforest contains hundreds of plants, 40 birds and a tiny, red bromeliad frog. The vegetation is expected to grow into a dense canopy in the next three to four years. There's also the 87-foot long blue whale skeleton, the African Hall with its 1930s-era dioramas (now containing a live exhibit, South African penguins), and, of course, one of the academy's most famous inhabitants, Claude, the albino alligator, who lives in the "swamp" tank just inside the entrance hall.

Dinner at the end of the road

The word is out about Drakes Beach Cafe. During the first months of its operation, locals who live in West Marin began making the trek to this remote, often foggy beach near the end of the Point Reyes peninsula, not to hike or enjoy the views, but for dinner. They began telling their friends and, simply through word-of-mouth, the cafe became a hit.
A young couple, Ben Angulo and his wife, Jane Kennedy (in the photo above), took over the National Park Service concession in late 2005 and transformed it into something quite different than the hot dog and hamburger shack that it once was. Angulo highlights local and organic food from nearby farms and cheese makers as much as possible. At lunch, he serves clam chowder and sandwiches. The hamburgers are made from Niman beef and the delicious crusty bread served along the chowder is baked in nearby Point Reyes Station by Brickmaiden Breads (there's still hot dogs on the menu, too). On Friday and Saturday evenings, the couple covers the nine tables in white tablecloths, decorates the place with fresh flowers and candles and serves a four-course fixed price meal.
Last Friday evening I had a lovely dinner there with friends. We had a first course of dungeness crab cakes, followed by a roast beet salad with marscapone cheese and toasted hazelnuts. The third course consisted of red peppers stuffed with eggplant, corn and mushrooms. And, the main course was a choice of a fish, Hawaiian Opa, with broccoli and sauteed leeks or an organic Berkshire pork chop with roasted peaches, fig chutney and baby arugula. The price for the meal was $47.
The cafe does not have a liquor license (park service rules) so customers bring their own wine. Dessert is extra and, in keeping with the local food theme, the night I was there it was a scoop of ice cream from Straus Dairy in West Marin.
My dinner came at the end of a day poking around West Marin's food purveyors (research for a San Francisco Chronicle article). In Point Reyes Station, I started with a knock-out cappuccino at Toby's espresso bar, a scone at Bovine Bakery, and then sampled some fresh cow's milk cheese at Cowgirl Creamery around the corner inside Tomales Bay Foods, the old hay barn that is Cowgirl's original plant (they've since expanded with a new plant in Petaluma).
I drove up Highway 1 a few miles along Tomales Bay toward Marshall, stopping at Tomales Bay Oysters (photo at left below) and Hog Island Oysters to watch the workers transfers oysters from the storage tanks to sacks for sale. I had a bowl of clam chowder at Nick's Cove (the "hot" spot in these parts, reopened in the last year by San Francisco restaurateur Pat Kuleto, after a gorgeous renovation of an old bayside eatery).
Before meeting friends for dinner at Drakes Beach Cafe, I drove out to the Point Reyes Lighthouse (six miles further out from the cafe), where I hadn't been since high school (which was a long time ago; I think the old beam was actually still in operation then, yikes!). If you're going to see the lighthouse, make sure you allow for enough time. The ranger at the visitors center there said the most common mistake made is by those who stop at the Point Reyes headquarters visitors center at Bear Valley or people who stop at the towns of Inverness or Point Reyes Station is to leave too late in the day. It's about a 45-minute drive to the lighthouse from the Bear Valley center and those two towns. Then, when you get to the lighthouse parking lot, it's a half-mile hike and a climb (308 stairs) to the lighthouse, which closes at 4:30 p.m.
It's also one of the foggiest and windiest places on the west coast so dress accordingly. It was 80 degrees and sunny in Point Reyes Station when I left at 2 p.m. It was another world at the lighthouse: cold, windy and so foggy that the fog horns were blaring and visitors couldn't see more than a few hundred feet into the distance. Still, it was fun.
From 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. the cast iron tower (photo at top on left) that houses the huge, old lens, built in France in 1867, is opened up and a ranger talks about the history of the place and the isolated lives of the lighthouse keepers who lived and worked in the harsh weather. A newspaper report at the time inferred that they often went mad. And, after just 20 minutes in the tower, with the wind howling and the fog horns wailing outside, I could see why.
And, they didn't even have the chance for a wonderful meal at the end of the day at the Drakes Beach Cafe.

The Presidio: How Much Change?

San Francisco's Presidio, a vast military post-turned-national park dating from 1776, is the largest historic renovation project underway in the United States. In the area of the Main Post alone there are more than 100 buildings in different states of repair.
This summer, everyone seems focused not on renovation but on a possible new building, specifically, the Contemporary Art Museum proposed by Donald and Doris Fisher, The Gap founders. The Fishers would like to build a 100,000-square-foot museum (larger than San Francisco's Museum of Modern Art) on a prime corner of the post's Main Parade grounds, steps away from the stately Montgomery Street Barracks, built in the 1890s (photo above). It would house their collection of 1,000 pieces of major artwork. There's now a tennis court and 1960s-style building with a bowling alley on the site.
Should a modern glass-and-concrete structure go up in an historic setting such as this? Should the Presidio Trust board, the agency that oversees and manages the park, reject the proposal or direct the Fishers to one of three alternate sites?
To help people decide, The Presidio Trust is conducting free 90-minute walking tours of the Main Post on Wednesdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. through Aug. 27. Meet at the ground floor of the Officers' Club.
It's a good tour. The one I took on Wednesday was led off by a Presidio Trust archeologist who discussed recent findings around the Officers' Club -- where three-foot thick adobe walls were uncovered that may date back to the late 1700s.
From there, two Presidio Trust staff showed us around the Main Post, stopping at the Parade grounds, the 1930s-era Presidio Theatre, the site of the Contemporary Art Museum, the proposed Park Lodge (a plan also under discussion, but less controversial) and the recently renovated Funston Street homes (photo below) that date from the Civil War.
From the questions that rose from the 50-or-so people on my walk, there was no question that the art museum is a hot topic. Most reflected the views of the neighborhood groups who are opposed to the plan: they seemed disturbed by the Fishers' proposed location. The building would be too big, too modern and incompatible for the historic Main Parade.
Many seemed open to alternatives, such as Infantry Terrace, an area tucked in the forested glen just a few hundred yards east or at the Sports Basement site near Doyle Drive and the Crissy Field marsh. This is a discussion that's going to be in the news a lot this fall. Decide for yourself. For more, see the Presidio's Web site.

The Poky Road to Mendo

I'm not an early riser but I've found that adding a little extra time into driving plans makes a weekend qetaway more pleasant. When you can stop along the way for a long lunch, a walk or a visit to a park or museum -- and not rushing to get somewhere -- it feels like a real vacation. The strategy is to get an early start on Saturdays and Sundays; on weekdays, hitting the road early could backfire. It might mean bumping into commuter traffic.
Last Saturday, an early start served me well. I'd told friends in Fort Bragg, Mendocino County, that I'd arrive a little before dinner time. The next morning, I left San Francisco at 8 a.m.
I wasn't sure what my plans were, except to stop at the Downtown Bakery in Healdsburg for breakfast and then take Highway 128 through Boonville and slowly make my way to the coast.
I never made it to the bakery because when I got off Highway 101 in Healdsburg, a big sign pointed to the town's Saturday morning farmers' market. The market was in full swing, a jazz band playing and hefty slices of tangy, delicious carrot cake being passed around to shoppers to celebrate the market's 30th anniversary. The array of produce and fruit was astounding, all of it tempting. I bought some local juicy peaches, tomatoes and tiny, deep-red strawberries.
Back in the car, my small cooler now half full, I headed toward Cloverdale and the drive northwest. The Anderson Valley, one of my favorite places in California, was glorious on this mid-summer day. I loved milling around at Bates and Maillard Farmhouse Mercantile and getting a snack at the Mosswood Market. I wasn't in the mood for a lot of wine tasting but stopped at Husch (photo below) because I enjoy their sauvignon blanc and the friendly atmosphere of its cozy, flower-covered tasting room, on old grain shed.
When you're in the area, make a quick detour to the Philo Apple Farm, (photo at the very top, left) a popular place for its cooking school, but open to visitors who want drop in for cider, jam and other apple products. If no one is around the honor system applies: just sign your name, write your purchase on the log and put your money in the cigar box.
The drive to the coast, through the shady redwood groves, is always a thrill, particularly the first glimpse of the Pacific at Navarro. I stopped at Russian Gulch State Park (photo below) for a quick look (tell the ranger you aren't planning to stay long and they'll let you in without paying the $6 day use fee)

and then headed to Mendocino, where the annual Music Festival had the streets and sidewalks busy. If you get to town and are looking for some wonderful bread for a picnic stop by the bakery at the town's most heralded restaurant, Cafe Beaujolais. A tiny bakery at the back of the restaurant's pretty garden opens at 11 a.m. and by 1 p.m. most of the bread (and there is a large menu of varieties, including bagels) is sold out. You get to peek in and see the bread being pulled out of the brick hearth.
Finally, I wanted to take another look at the Point Cabrillo Light Station, where last year, while researching the book, I spent an hour. This time, I walked the gentle sloping half mile road from the parking lot to the light station and took my time in the museum, which has some fascinating photographs of the Native American tribes who lived in the area and the wreck of the Frolic, the opium-running ship that ran aground near the shore here -- factor in the founding of Mendocino. The light station was home to three hard-working lightkeeper families, who operated the large lens -- with hundreds of prisms -- with kerosene lamps. The entire station has been restored, including the families' homes that have been turned into a bed-and-breakfast inn -- and the lens is back in operation, its light visible up to 15 miles from shore.