Mothers' Day Bouquet

I should know by now that on any given occasion, Dana will pop in with a beautiful bouquet from her garden, but I am always surprised and delighted.

We spent a pleasant morning gathering supplies for Rick's paella. We went to The Barlow, a group of apple packing sheds in Sebastopol, which have been nicely converted into shops. There are two breweries, several wine tasting rooms, a coffee roaster, a distillery, restaurants, artists' studios, a glassblower, and assorted other places that OilMan didn't have the patience to explore.

The distillery, called Spirit Works, was our immediate goal since Rick is in the business of making ethanol. They have a beautiful working copper still, which took two years to manufacture, on view through big glass windows. Glass jars contain the aromatics and botanicals that are added to the ethanol for gin--cardamom, coriander, juniper berries, rosebuds, and a couple of other things which I couldn't identify.

We strolled on the the Farmers' Market, one of the best in the area in our estimation. We bought some lettuce and fava beans and a couple of loaves of wonderful bread from the Full Circle bakery in Freestone. (In fact. as far as we can tell it is the ONLY thing in Freestone! But a lot of people go there for the wonderful bread and the cinnamon rolls that are as big as your head!). A group of guys with a harp, maracas, a drum and a guitar sat around their booth, making music when there were no takers for their Bodega Goat Cheese from the Yerba Santa Dairy.

Last stop was Santa Rosa Seafood for fresh clams, mussels and shrimp.

Later today all this will come together in one of Rick's fabulous paellas, cooked in a traditional pan on the barbecue….