Columns Archives - San Lorenzo Valley Post

Immune Boost: Mushroom and Barley Soup

February 5, 2026February 11, 2026 Robin Hornrecipes, soup

By Robin Marie Horn | Seasonal Eating It’s winter. I don’t know about you, but it seems like everyone around me is sick, getting sick, or getting over being sick. From people at work to kids in the library to shoppers in the mall, why don’t these people just stay home? But since they won’t, we healthy folks need to… Read More

Columns History Local History

Flumes: Lifelines of the 19th-Century Redwood Rush

February 4, 2026February 8, 2026 Mary Andersen

By Mary Andersen In the Santa Cruz Mountains during the 1800s, the air frequently hummed with the thunder of falling redwoods and the distant roar of rushing water. Felton, then a nascent lumber boomtown on the San Lorenzo River, stood at the heart of this industrial activity. Here, flumes – ingenious wooden waterways engineered to defy gravity – transformed the… Read More

Columns Gardening

The Indoor Winter Herb Garden

February 3, 2026February 6, 2026 Bridget Giuffrida

By Bridget Giuffrida Now is a beautiful time of year to lean into cozy, fragrant, hard-working herbs that thrive indoors and bring warmth, nourishment, and a sense of tradition to winter living. Growing herbs inside during the darkest time of year offers not only fresh flavor for cooking and baking but also living greenery for decorating and simple homestead joy.… Read More

Astrology Columns

February’s Celestial Call for Compassionate Warriors

February 1, 2026February 5, 2026 Catie Cadge, PhD

By Catie Cadge, PhD February opens with a Full Moon in Leo, 13°03’, on the 1st, 2:09 pm Pacific time. We are in the heart of “Aquarius season” and the Moon opposes Sun, Mars and Venus (loosely Mercury and Pluto) all in Aquarius, the Sun conjunct the asteroid Vesta at 11°02’ Aquarius. This is a good lunar time to find… Read More

Astrology Columns

A Fresh Start | January 2026 Horoscope

January 4, 2026January 14, 2026 Catie Cadge, PhDastrology, horoscope, January 2026

By Catie Cadge PhD Every January, I think of the words of a Grateful Dead song, “The wheel is turning and you can’t slow down…” Where do we see a fresh start for our wheel moving forward? Where do we see planetary shifts and changes? For this month’s cosmic weather report, let’s briefly look at the next few weeks and… Read More

Columns Real Estate

Reading the Rain | Santa Cruz Mountains Real Estate

January 2, 2026January 25, 2026 MaryBeth McLaughlin

What Long-Term Rainfall Data Reveals About Timing the Market in the San Lorenzo Valley By MaryBeth McLaughlin If you live in the San Lorenzo Valley, you don’t need a forecast to tell you that the rainy season is upon us. You see it in the creeks rising, road damage, and the forest in winter mode. Still, the data behind our… Read More

Columns Food & Drink Recipes

Grandma Ella’s Persimmon Cookies

December 24, 2025January 4, 2026 Thomas Andersen

By Tom Andersen The winds in the Valley have done their annual stripping of the persimmon trees exposing for us winter’s candy. I’m not exactly sure how so many persimmon trees made it into the San Lorenzo Valley, but I’m certainly not complaining. Someone recently told me they were an invasive species in California. They need to go. Shudder at… Read More

Santa Cruz Has Everthing But You Frank Robinson Brentlinger

Columns History Local History

Santa Cruz Has Everything – But You

December 23, 2025December 28, 2025 Lisa Robinson

By Lisa Robinson In 1926, the Santa Cruz Sentinel reported “At last – a Christmas greeting card typical of Santa Cruz!” The cards were devoid of snow or snow-covered holly berries. In fact, the Sentinel pointed out, Santa Cruz was a city “where snowstorms are as scarce as seagull’s teeth.” View the full Santa Cruz Sentinel newspaper clipping below. Local… Read More

Columns Real Estate

Rates Dip, Buyers Stir: A Seasonal Shift in SLV Real Estate

December 15, 2025December 31, 2025 MaryBeth McLaughlin

The MountainEar Real Estate Update By MaryBeth McLaughlin If you’ve lived in the Santa Cruz Mountains long enough, you know we aren’t the only ones who tune in to the rhythms of the seasons — the squirrels do it, too. And this month, our flannel-clad mascot has one oversized ear tilted toward a sound we haven’t heard in a while:… Read More

Columns Food & Drink

Green Tea and Honey Jun

December 7, 2025December 22, 2025 Thomas Andersen

Crafting a Maui Inspired Kombucha Style Beverage By Tom Andersen Yes indeed you can make a kombucha style beverage with green tea and honey as the sugar. It’s called “Jun,” possibly derived from the Chinese word for pure, some say Tibetan origins. Unfortunately, as I discovered, honey is a pretty good antiseptic and antimicrobial. Needless to say, it killed one… Read More