Spring 2001

Lupine and poppies along the Chalk Hill Road Welcome to our sixth issue and a springtime focus on bees, honey and beekeeping. The bees are warming up earlier in the day as Northern California wine country soaks up the sun rising now further each morning to the north. The occasional storm will come in off the Pacific to refresh the wildflowers and the vines. Spring is a season when it's still nice to have a wool sweater and a windbreaker handy. As the bees get about their business of making honey and pollinating our fields and orchards, I hope you enjoy the introductions to our far-flung beekeeping friends, people who continue our prehistoric relationship with the family Apoidea. This quarterly online magazine of California food and wine arts will be published seasonally, posted on the solstices and equinoxes. We will introduce you year-round to the food and wine artisans, the picnics and the places which make Northern California wine country (and Sonoma County in particular) such a wonderful place to live and visit. I intend for this fledgling publication to be a conversational and interactive journal of our lives and times in this most scenic and tasty part of the Golden State. It is to this end that I welcome your comments or contribution of words. Welcome! Jack Burton Editor chefjack@sonomapicnic.com 709 Fitch St. Healdsburg, CA 95448       Credits: I would like to thank all the people who have generously given their time and enthusiasm to this issue: Feature Writing:     Bibiana Goodrich   Livengood Tree Farm, Sandpoint, Idaho     Matyas E. Kreidler     Renee Kiff   Manager, Healdsburg Farmers Market     Frédérique Lavoipierre   Garden Writer     Jack Burton Recipes:     Jack Burton Photography:     Jack Burton     Terry Rusinow Artwork:     LEVI     Janette Burton   Manager, Jimtown Store Poetry:     Penelope La Montagne     Doug Stout   Healdsburg Literary Laureate Typing:     Marci Murphy   Murphy Business Services HTML and Imaging:     Jeffrey Kopp

A Spring Poem By Doug Stout Inadvertently I bow to the daffodils Lined up along the path Doug Stout is Healdsburg, California's literary laureate. This piece is from a little book of poems entitled Healdsburg Haiku, written by the members of the Healdsburg Arts Committee and published by Running Wolf Press. Visit The Author's Desk to read a review of Healdsburg Haiku with an introduction to our town's lively arts community.

sonomapicnic.com Issue #6 Copyright © March 2001 by Jack Burton While all rights to this publication are reserved, sonomapicnic.com invites you to print a copy or two of any part or all of this magazine for your own personal enjoyment or to pass along to a friend. If you are interested in using any of the stories, recipes or interviews for re-publication, or for placement in our "Market Plaza" section, please contact the Editor for rates and details. (All photos not otherwise credited are by Jack Burton.)