Lots of eating to be done this weekend and BiteClub's on the case.

Taste of Petaluma
If you don't get down to P-town nearly as often as you should, call this a perfect opportunity to see what you're missing in the dining department. If you're a local, consider this a convenient smorgasbord of hometown faves. Either way, this weekend's Taste of Petaluma has more than 30 opportunities to nosh and nibble your way around town.

Here's the 411: Things kick off on Saturday, Sept. 27 at 11:30am and run until 4:30pm. For $40 ($35 in advance) eaters get 10 tickets (along with some other goodies) to sample small dishes, local wines, beer or other beverages. One ticket, one taste. A handy map directs you to the grub, along with what's on the menu.

Well worth a ticket to try:
- Zoe's Meats (killer charcuterie) at Aurora Colors Gallery
- Kashaya's wood fired pizza next to Vino Grigio
- Pazzo's goat cheese tart
- Kay Baumhefner's tomato and bread soup at I Leoni
- The old school is new school Chicken Cordon Bleu (a favorite last year) from De Schmire at Sienna
- Out to Lunch Catering at Jungle vibes

Dessert
- Divine Delights petits fours and Korbel champagne at Haus Fortuna
- Gelato at Powell's Sweet Shoppe
- Viva Cocolat's house made milk toffee truffles with Valley of the Moon port

Check out the website for a full menu of all the deliciousness and tickets. And as you're stuffing yourself silly just remember that it's for a good cause -- that being the Cinnabar Theater in Petaluma.

Farm Trails
I've become a serious CSA junkie. As in my Friday delivery from Canvas Ranch is cause for a weekend of eating and cooking celebration: Roasted kale! Carrot soup! Zucchini bread! Homemade tomato sauce! I've never been so giddy with joy at getting a hefty bag of fruits and veggies (and bread and cheese and flowers) in my life.

Whether or not you're among the CSA converted or just farm-curious, this weekend's Farm Trails is a choice opportunity to visit local producers of fruits, veggies, cheese and meat who aren't often open to the public as well as a handful of restaurants. Gush about organic greens, play with the goats or just wander about.

Some of my top picks;
- Angelo's Meats/Bud's Custom Meats: For the inner carnivore in all of us
- Canvas Ranch: Walking tour, pick strawberries, CSA gushing
- Crane Melon Barn: The famous melons
- Gabriel Farms: Pear and apple tasting & a Ska Klezmer band from 3-5pm on Sunday
- Healdsburg Walking Tours: HIdden Culinary Treasures
- Spring Hill Jersey, Peter's Pumpkin Patch: Pumpkin ice cream, cheese and a petting zoo
- Tierra Vegetables: Because I never get there often enough
Get maps and details on classes, workshop and visits from the Farm Trails website.

Bonus: Handcar Regatta
Erasmus P. Kitty presents the Great West End and Railroad Square Handcar Regatta and Exposition of Mechanical and Artistic Wonders. Oh my goodness the fun you'll have (for free!) including music performances by the Lemon Lime Lights and the Hubbub Club marching band, Uni and her Ukelele as well as Mister December, Dr. Solar and plenty of sideshow curiosities. The vibe is 1860's medicine show meets groovy crafters, tinkerers and creative types. Get your imagination (and perhaps a costume) on from 11am to 6pm on Sunday in Railroad Square. Stark's Steakhouse will be serving up grub and the Roshambus is scheduled to be pouring. And wherever the Roshambus is...that's where the party is. Did we mention it's free?

Peter Jacobsen doesn't get mad at the herds of snails that have made Swiss cheese out of his organic kale. He gets even.

At the edge of his 1.5 acre Yountville orchard and farm, the dentist turned dirt-under-the-nails grower pulls open the lid of a wooden box to reveal hundreds of the slimy pests. Instead of baiting or poisoning them, Jacobsen invites them to his makeshift snail hotel, treating them to a diet of greens and cornmeal. Fat and happy, these garden troublemakers are eagerly snapped up for swanky dinner menus. Revenge is best served in a bath of butter and herbs.

Walking around the small backyard plot dense with rows of tomatoes, squash, flowers and fruit trees, Jacobsen casually acknowledges that he makes his living working with some of the best chefs in the country. The produce on his property along with that of next door neighbors, Hill Family Farms, grace the tables of The French Laundry, along with spots like Angele, Auberge du Soleil, La Toque and Redd.



Having close personal relationships with farmers has been a hallmark of top chefs like Alice Waters and Thomas Keller for years. Keller, in fact, has a network of farmers around the country producing everything from cheese and meat to veggies and fruit for the restaurant.

It's a philosophy gaining traction throughout the restaurant biz as chefs seek out more and more specific products grown to their own exacting organic standards. Around Wine Country, a handful of local chefs have even gone one step further, managing onsite culinary gardens or even their own farms. Among them: Zazu, Restaurant Eloise, The French Garden, Julia's Kitchen at COPIA and Zin come to mind, though there are certainly many others.

For Jacobsen, there's plenty of trial and error involved in the process. Chefs aren't always clear about exactly what they want, he says. Often they'll ask for a particular size, texture or color but leave it to him to refine and experiment with the produce to get everything just right--like lavender that doesn't taste soapy or pears that hold up to a salad without becoming mush.

Throughout the year, Jacobsen grows everything from onions, rosemary and basil to pears, figs, plums, tomatoes, berries and lettuces for the restaurants.

Just across the street, the Hill family (who are primarily involved in winemaking) are also producing small lots of organic produce and edible flowers. Walking around with her pet chicken, six-year-old Joselyn Hill points out the various types of flowers, fauna along iwth her brother, Ryan. She makes sure we see her special orchard treehouse as we tour the farms gathering as many goodies as our little baskets with hold. These are seriously pedigreed plums and figs, after all.

As Joselyn chatters happily, I stop to consider the fact that her playground is the chef's garden for Thomas Keller. Her chicken pecks at fallen blackberries and tomatoes that almost made it to one of the best restaurants in the world.

I've never been so jealous of a kid, or a chicken in my life. I'll savor my purloined plums as consolation.



Jacobsen Orchards, Yountville. Closed to the public but you can purchase his organic seeds for your own gourmet garden here. Hill Family Estate tasting room, 6512 Washington Street, Yountville, 707.944.9580

The bacon has hit the fan.

Seems that longtime PD food writer and cookbook author Michele Anna Jordan isn't too happy about Windsor's most recent attempt to create the World's Largest bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich.

Chris Smith recently wrote about the flap which boils down to the fact that Jordan (who wrote the BLT Cookbook and was part of several other World's Largest BLT attempts locally) was not part of the most attempt. Exactly why she wasn't there is the subject of much consternation.

And trust me, consternation is only the very tip of the 146-foot sandwich here. There are some seriously unhappy folks on both sides. I've got a string of emails that are bordering on War and Peace in length. I've had some very emotional phone calls. I ate an entire bag of M&M's last night worrying about the whole thing, which McNibs thought was absolutely hysterical. It's about a sandwich. Sheesh.

I want to believe that this was a serious case of mis-communication rather than intentional malice because I know most of the folks involved. They're all good people. The bottom line is that BLT or BTL or whatever you want to call it, this weekend's event was bigger than its players -- it was about fun, community and most of all about helping a group of culinary students at Windsor high school who really needed the, uh, dough. Everyone agrees that's the most important thing.

It would really stink to have people who've individually contributed so much to our culinary community permanently at war. So let's bury the bread knife if we can. Or at least have a tomato fight to sort it all out. I'll host.

NOTE: Comments will be closely monitored. I won't tolerate name calling or intentional nastiness. Let's heal. Please.