Local author wins gold!
Andrea Granahan, my grandmother, got a gold award for The Wandering Widow, the fifth book she’s published in six years. The announcement took place at the 30th Annual North American Travel Journalists awards competition, hosted by the association (NATJA) that fosters high-quality journalism. Granahan will travel to Puerto Rico to their delayed conference in May where she will receive the honors.
After a successful book launch in Occidental last autumn, she's proud of her self-published accomplishment. You can find “The Wandering Widow” in Sebastopol at Copperfield’s Books and in Occidental at Hand Goods, as well as online or buying directly from the source herself. For more information on NATJA or the complete list of travel media award winners and “honorable mentions,” visit www.natja.org.
Can’t pretend - you are what you eat!
Samantha Ramey owns and operates Estero Cafe in Valley Ford and Americana Restaurant in Santa Rosa. Americana has recently reopened for two days a week and is hosting a private dinner for women involved in rural agriculture this month. If out by railroad square, you can try their mouth-watering comfort food Fridays and Saturdays, 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Over here in Valley Ford, the authentic Estero Cafe has held true to their values throughout this challenging time and is getting publicly recognized again for that greatness. [Did you see the last “Made Local” magazine?!] Direct farm-to-table is not a quick or easy task, yet Ramey has managed to keep everything afloat with all the moving parts while maintaining quality across the board.
Community Alliance with Family Farmers hosted the 2022 California Small Farm Conference last month and can be watched on YouTube (CAFFflix). Ramey was on a panel discussing the problems of greenwashing in the local food system. Sustainability is more than a misused slogan. We need to become closer to our food and where it comes from.
Price points get muddied when businesses greenwash or misinform in various ways because people have different expectations based on what a particular restaurant claims. It is not fair to farmers, eateries, or customers to have such a lack of transparency. It's nice to have foods labeled, yet if things are mislabeled, it causes intricate issues.
Marketing can get out of hand by brands misrepresenting themselves. There’s a lot of gray area which obscures the specific details that define “local” and other overused buzzwords, confusing even the best of intentioned consumers. Distrust is destructive for those people with boots on the ground and makes it harder for the ones who do good work.
Ramey is committed to sustainability in the strictly true sense of the word. People like her walk the talk of accountability and we can feel fantastic about eating at restaurants with integrity like hers. Food at both Ramey’s restaurants is fresh, local, mostly organic, healthy but “approachable.” Did I mention delicious? Check it out for yourself!
