Santa Cruz Mountains Gin Columns Food & Drink 

Mountain Fermenter: Making Your Own Gin, Santa Cruz Mountains Style

By Greg Roe and Mike Desmidt How can I make gin at home without a still, you ask? Well, you can skip that part, because someone’s already done the distillation for you. It’s called vodka. Gin is pretty much a vodka with botanicals added. Gin distillers extract most botanical flavors using the distillation process, but you can simply steep the… Read More
Wisteria Arbor pathway Column: Josh Reilly Columns Gardening 

Spring Gardening: Arbors and Trellises

By Josh Reilly “Arbors and Trellises” sounds like the title of a 70s soft-rock album, brimming with meaning. A reference to lofty, light weight, airy structures, often geometric and angular in form, but built to provide living space for winding, cascading plants, all curves and knots, billows and waves, tendrils and holdfasts. Things that prefer to live up in the breeze.… Read More
Chocolate Beetroot Cake Alison Steele Column Alison Steele Columns Food & Drink 

Recipes from a Mountain Garden: Wild Blackberry and Beetroot Skillet Cake

By Alison Steele When February comes to an end, I start dreaming of the garden. The collards, kales, lettuces, and herbs are thriving, but the thought of round plump fruits and vegetables keep me pulling my seedbox down and fingering the envelopes of home-saved seeds of summer last. I start to notice the new spring crops in Wild Roots Market…… Read More
San Lorenzo Valley Water District consolidation Columns Local News Water 

Long Term Engagement or Shotgun Wedding? SLV and Scotts Valley Water Districts Explore a Merger

By Jayme Ackemann Last month, as the San Lorenzo Valley was beginning to worry about debris flows and a lack of precipitation, the SLV and Scotts Valley water districts threw out a pretty significant trial balloon: A merger proposal. At the District’s February 4th board meeting, directors and staff hashed out a loose framework to study a merger. So loose,… Read More
H Orientalis Lenten Roses Ben Lomond Column: Josh Reilly Columns Gardening 

A March Garden

by Josh Reilly In February, a gardener’s anticipation borders on intolerable. Especially in those parts of the SLV subject to frost. A lot of what we see growing happily in Santa Cruz, right now, undamaged by frost, is under threat here. Alas, many winter-flowering plants are a lost cause here, with a few very worthwhile exceptions (see below). Flower buds… Read More
Classic VW bus after the CZU fire Column: MC Dwyer Columns Real Estate 

Real Estate: Home Is Where the Heart Is

SLV Homes By M.C. Dwyer Life events are often the motivating factor behind people’s decision to move, and emotions usually play a big role in the decision-making process. In addition to managing all the rational details of a home purchase or sale, it’s important that people be assured when they’re outside of their comfort zone – learning about new neighborhoods,… Read More