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Category: News
Second Look Sunday: A Positively Petaluma Weeks In Review
Over the last few weeks many of the stories below were created by us, or scattered over several different media and social media sources. The Petaluma Magazine was created to collect them all in one place with easy navigation either by a click of a mouse or swipe of your finger on your smart devices. The Second Look will be a reflection of some of the posts from the previous weeks.
1000’s are enjoying their free subscription with thousands of positive articles including these highlights from the last few weeks:
- BioPod Classroom: Restoring A Section of Walker Creek Watershed
- Bistro 100 Keeps it 100 in Downtown Petaluma
- City Sports Opens Petaluma Club
- Highland Takes Reins At Petaluma Educational Foundation
- Petaluma’s Double 8 Dairy makes world’s first buffalo milk gelato
- Crab and A Cappella – Saturday, January 31st, 2015
- Video: LumaCON’s First Comic Convention a Success
- Petaluma Celebrates “The Birth of an AVA – Petaluma Gap”
- Petaluma’s Tara Firma Farms Connects with the Community
- Teen Face: Petaluma rower ‘firing on all cylinders’
- Positively Petaluma Welcomes Visual Journalist Ashley K. Collingwood
- Video: Petaluma’s Laurie Figone Appears on Good Day Sacramento
- The Magic of Mentoring Youth – Mentor Me
- Nominate a ‘Good Egg’ & Get Butter & Egg Days Applications In
- Ends January 31! Have Fund, Get Recognized, and Support Your Community
- ‘Farm to Fourchette’ comes to Petaluma
- Congratulations to Petaluma’s Shelina Moreda Winning For the United States
- Petaluma Eats! at Sugo Trattoria by Houston Porter
- Petaluma Pete’s Video Entry to NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Contest Entry
- Positively Petaluma Introduces Petaluma Eats! and Welcomes Houston Porter
- Community Steps Up To Improve Petaluma’s Walnut Park
- Need Something to do this Saturday Night? Check out ProXhibition Closing Reception.
- State is the Norm for Larsen
- Video: Petaluma’s TWit.tv Raises Over $60,000 for UNICEF with Special Guest Petaluma Pete
- Making Music for Music Education: Concerts Will Help
- Young Kayaker is a Quick Study
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VIDEO: LumaCON’s First Comic Convention a Success
Petaluma held the first LumaCON on Saturday, January 17th at Herzog Hall on the Sonoma-Marin Fairgrounds. Turnout was high and some sources reported over 1500 attended.
The event showcased local artists ranging from professionals, including “Pearls Before Swine
Connie Williams, LumaCON Co-Organizer and Teacher Librarian at Petaluma High School recalls, “I saw an article about a Comic-Con and I thought, ‘Why don’t we do that?’ and I broached the subject … and everybody we asked said ‘Yes!’ So once we knew we had a base of folks to do it, then it all developed from there … You know, one little idea sparked it but everybody jumped in and it was totally the group [who made it happen].”
CLICK ON PAGE 2 BELOW TO SEE MORE INFO, PHOTOS, AND SHORT VIDEO SHOWCASING THE EVENT
#Petaluma Celebrates “The Birth of an AVA – Petaluma Gap”
Recently the Petaluma Historical Museum and Library had a fantastic display of our city’s viticulture history. Kaye Chandler did a great job in capturing the display on video (which can be found on the next page of this article). Over the years our town’s rolling hills have evolved into what now is starting to look like the Sonoma or Napa Valley. After reviewing Kaye’s film you realize that Petaluma families have been making wine since the mid 1900s (some sources say for over 150 years).
While we have a rich history in viticulture, 2015 marks the birth of a new American Viticulture Area (AVA), The Petaluma GAP. An AVA is a designated wine grape-growing region in the United States distinguishable by geographic features with boundaries defined by the Alcohol and Tobacco Trade Bureau and United States Department of Treasury. The geographic features that distinguish the Petaluma GAP is the wind and the fog. The “GAP” refers to the wind gap named after a coastal mountain opening that stretches east from the Pacific through the town of Petaluma and then roars south to San Pablo Bay which makes this AVA ideal for growing certain grapes (Pinot, Chardonnay & Syrah). The AVA designation allows the wine makers to label their bottles indicating the grapes in the wine came from this region.
On Friday, January 30 from 6-8PM located at the Healdsburg Public Library the “The Birth of an AVA – Petaluma GAP” event will be hosted by the Wine Library Associates of Sonoma County and the Petaluma GAP Winegrowers Alliance. This is a great opportunity to have some wine and learn about the region. Tickets are $35 per person but only $25 for Wine Library and Alliance members. You can reserve tickets by calling (707) 433-1660 or purchasing tickets on Eventbrite.
CLICK PAGE 2 TO SEE KAYE CHANDLERS VIDEO AND THE PETALUMA GAP MAP
#Petaluma’s Tara Firma Farms Connects With The Community
Tara Firma Farms opened in 2009, with a philosophy that focused on rotational grazing, stress-free animal life, and sustainable farming practices. Six years later, the farm is still going strong and giving weekend tours to anyone who wants to see how the farm works.
The tour begins at the farm’s small store, which is filled with produce from local organic farms and meat from Tara Firma, before proceeding to walk visitors across the farmland, stopping to see the baby chicks and pigs, while giving the public the opportunity to ask questions about the farm. The baby chicks and pigs are a great draw for children and the information on the tour gives both kids and adults a chance to learn about the process of food and sustainable farming. Visitors also learn that the farm has a membership program, which people can join in order to sign up for various food delivery packages all over the bay area and become more connected to the farm.
After the tour Tara Firma member Jim Bloom tells me, “It’s amazing how much we’ve destroyed our food culture through over-processing and it’s horrible, so finding folks like this is amazing. The tour’s been fantastic. It’s really great property, it’s great seeing how they produce, and getting out here.”
As an environmentally focused farm, Tara Firma concentrates on creating a stress-free environment for the livestock in addition to rotational grazing. Besides appealing to animal lovers, when there is no stress on animals, there is no need to use chemicals and medications on them. When talking about the farm’s open-door policy Tara explains, “We’re open seven days a week. People can come and sneak around and look in the closets and the drawers, or whatever, ‘cause we don’t use antibiotics, we don’t use any kind of sprays on the land or the animals. Probably the closest spray we have is tea tree oil and water on the baby pigs in the winter … and they love it and it smells like a spa in the pig pen.”
CLICK PAGE 2 BELOW TO SEE SHORT VIDEO ON TARA FIRMA FARMS
Positively Petaluma Welcomes Visual Journalist Ashley K. Collingwood
We would like to introduce Ashley K. Collingwood an aspiring Petaluma journalist to our team of contributors. She earned a Bachelors in Arts Degree in Journalism at the University of Oregon. In 2014 she was in the top 10% of her class and recognized by the National Honor Society for Journalism.
Ashley is a visual journalist, photographer, videographer and graphic designer. This makes her a great fit for what we are trying to accomplish and that is to capture and share great things going on in Petaluma. When she was a Petaluma High School student she is noted to have contributed to Teen Life blog in The Press Democrat
Please join me in welcoming Ashley to our team of contributors and look for her articles in the very near future.
For more information about Ashley click here to go to her website.
VIDEO: #Petaluma’s Laurie Figone Appears On Good Day Sacramento
Our very own Dessert World Champ Laurie Figone appeared on Good Day Sacramento sharing secrets on how to make her Mojito Marvel Money Bars that give all the flavors of a Mojito in a creamy dessert.
The video will appear below and may take some machines a few seconds to populate.
Also check out her website that has a ‘Recipes’ tab where she shares many of her great recipes. Click here to see her dessert recipes. She will be releasing her cookbook in the near future.
For more on Laurie Figone see our previous post VIDEO UPDATE: #Petaluma’s Laurie Figone gets her shot on the big screen on TNT’s “On The Menu”.
Nominate A ‘Good Egg’ & Get Butter & Egg Days Applications In
The 2015 Butter & Egg Days Parade will be here before you know it so mark your calendar for April 25. The Petaluma Downtown Association has updated their site for this year’s event.
GET YOUR NOMINATIONS FOR GOOD EGG IN BY FEBRUARY 25
The downtown association is working hard to get things tied up for the Good Egg nomination and ceremony but provided us with a copy of the form that will be used for this year.
The Good Egg Award is presented annually to a Petaluma citizen whose ‘egg-ceptional’ effort over time has helped preserve and contribute to the positive promotion of the city of Petaluma, its history and its people.
To nominate a “Good Egg”, send a nomination form or letter to: The Good Egg Award Committee, c/o Petaluma Downtown Association, 210 Lakeville Street, Petaluma, CA, 94952. All applications must be received by Wednesday, February 25 at 5 p.m.
Your letter should identify how your prospective Good Egg has helped to promote Petaluma and its history within the community and beyond. They may have done this by working to preserve Petaluma history, promoting Petaluma’s distinctive resources, or helping others to remember and honor historic Petalumans or Petaluma achievements. This needs to be someone who has contributed to the preservation or promotion of Petaluma’s history.
Click this link to download a 2015 Good Egg Nomination Form and print it out.
Here is the video of 2014 Good Egg John Crowley, owner of Aqus Cafe Foundry Wharf.
CLICK ON PAGE 2 BELOW TO GET IMPORTANT LINKS AND DATES FOR THIS YEAR’S PARADE
Congratulations To Petaluma’s Shelina Moreda Winning For United States
You may recall in June last year we interviewed Shelina in an article Herding cows on motorcycles to pro racing internationally: An interview with Shelina Moreda. This interview led to Ken Wayne anchor of KTVU channel 2 to interview her on the local news station.
Shelina Moreda reports today that she placed first winning the Losail Asian Road Racing Series representing the United States and breaks her personal record for fastest time on the Losail International Circuit in Qatar. She posts “I WON!” and was grateful hearing our national anthem playing for a woman winning in the middle east in a sport that is dominated by men.
Even though she stated having challenges with her bike setup she states that when they fix those issues she will even be able to go faster. She thanks all her supporters and credits her fans for contributing to her success.
To get an idea of the course here is a video on a preliminary run.
Post by Christopher Bell.
VIDEO: #Petaluma’s TWit.tv Raises Over $60,000 for UNICEF With Special Guest #Petaluma Pete
Petaluma’s internet TV personality Leo Laporte, The Tech Guy, of Twit.tv completed a grueling 24-hour special on New Years Eve to raise money for UNICEF. During this fundraiser he not only had his head shaven, but he also got a tattoo on his hind quarters to raise money (Ouch!). Maybe he has set a new fundraising craze that will go viral, like the Bucket Challenge for ALS, and call it the UNICEF Tuchus Tattoo Challenge. A big kudos goes out to Leo, his crew, and supporters for raising over $60,000 for UNICEF.
Raising money was not the only the good news about this story. Leo, dressed in his one-sie pajamas, also added hometown flare and spirit to end the New Years Eve coverage. On the ‘TWit’s 24 Hours of 2015 – Hour 23’ Episode his guest was our very own Petaluma Pete (aka John Maher). To make the appearance John pushed his piano from Buffalo Billiards to their Brick House studio located in the heart of the downtown 140 Keller Street in Petaluma. John was at the Petaluma Bounty Penny Harvest for 2015 which was a fundraiser to help provide healthy food for all (more information on that is on our Things to Do In Petaluma on New Years Eve post on December 27, 2014).
CLICK PAGE 2 BELOW TO VIEW THE VIDEO