Growing Risk: Sebastopol Apple Farmers Face Hard Times

Michigan Apple Orchard

It’s 4:17 a.m. and fog drapes over the apple orchards of Devoto Gardens like misty gauze. While most of Sebastopol sleeps, apple grower Stan Devoto is in his kitchen boiling water. “It’s too early to brew coffee,” he says, grabbing a bag of green tea. He drops the tea bag into his favorite mug and reaches for the door.

There’s still 60 miles to drive, a truck to unload, apples to organize, signs to put up, and flowers to arrange, before his day of selling apples at the Ferry Plaza farmers’ market in San Francisco even begins. Behind the wheel of his Toyota Previa, Stan blasts oldies on the radio to keep awake.

Read More About the Growing Risk of Apple Farming »

Get out of Dodge: the ritual


Rituals aren’t what they used to be. Long gone are the myriad of traditional rites of passage once witnessed by and passed on to whole communities and families. In this modern world of ours, ritual is a personalized thing, sculpted to fit our contemporary needs.

Today’s thinking humans don’t find structure for life crises or clear ground rules for human development in chanting, group dances, or sage burning. In our modern age, we are more likely to ask Dr. Phil, Oprah and Dr. Spock how to raise our kids then look to the way of our ancestors. We turn to guidebooks, travel magazines and TV show hosts to teach us how to have fun. Who needs an ancient rituals of a long dead society to tell us what’s fun?

Ritual nowadays is what you make it. For many, the only daily ritual observed is the eating of breakfast, lunch and dinner. And even within these seemingly rigid constructs, there’s variance. Other’s find ritual in exercise, work, make-up application, wine drinking and vacations.

GET OUT OF DODGE: MY RITUAL

Time off from work is such a cherished and special thing, it deserves to be ritualized. The repetition of certain activities verges on becoming a meditation in relaxation. Vacation rituals allow the mind and body to ease into its new state by removing the potential anxiety-provoking decision making process.

Whenever the continuous loop of Los Angeles living and working gets to be too much, my husband and I “get out of dodge” and go to Santa Barbara. We have been making this trip for years and tend to stick to the same steps, while occasionally mixing in some variations when we find new inspirations along the way.

If you’re ever in the Santa Barbara area, here are a few of our tried and true rituals that we love to share with our friends and family. As any ritual nowadays, make it your own.

The ritual:

1) Grab a cup of coffee at the Coffee Bean and drive the gassed up car North for 1.5 hours (without traffic) on the 101.

2) Just past the first Santa Barbara exits, take the Milpas turn off. Meander your way to Superica, Santa Barbara’s most famous taco stand.

Order at least five dishes from the special’s board and never changing numbered menu. (We recommend the #18 quacamole, the #13 cheese bowl, the The #11: Lomito Suiza. See this previous post for more details.

3) Drive to the Presidio Motel


This wonderful, kitchy-cool motel has rates so low ($89-$150) we’re able to come up on a frequent basis.

4) Walk Main Street until feet are tired.

5) take a nap at the hotel. Get ready for dinner.

6) Eat dinner at The Hungry Cat, Santa Barbara.

1134 Chapala St
Santa Barbara, CA 93101
(805) 884-4701


Enjoy a fresh cocktail (the margarita of the day or a Pimlico) while you wait for a table. Order fresh-off-the-boat oysters with a glass of crisp Chablis.

The pub burger is always good (especially after a day of wine tasting), but the ever changing menu continues to amaze us. Finish with cheese or the delicious chocolate bread pudding.

7) Sleep off alcohol. Go for a run in the Santa Barbara hills or go to yoga at Santa Barbara Yoga Center.

32 E Micheltorena St
Santa Barbara, CA 93101
(805) 965-6045

8) Drive to Santa Ynez for wine tasting. Check out Melville

5185 East Hwy 246, Lompoc, CA 93436
Tel: 805-735-7030
Hours 11-4 PM

10)Have an early dinner at the locals favorite Italian restaurant, Grappolo in Santa Ynez. If you crave meat, have a juicy steak and an equally big house made wine at The Hitching Post or drive a bit to find the cozy bar at The Cold Spring Tavern.

Ritual is what you make of it.

Get Out of Dodge


Four years ago, back when Hans and I started courting (and WAY before the movie Sideways popularized wine tasting in Santa Ynez), we began a tradition of spur of the moment weekend getaways to Santa Barbara. We’d gas up the car, fill the trunk with a stack of New Yorkers and a weekend bag filled with casual clothes, grab a couple of latte’s to-go, and get on the 101 north before 10 AM. Once we make it the 1.5 to 2 hours up north, the specifics of the weekend are usually improvised. One necessary stop, however, never changes.

First stop, Superica

La Superica Taco
622 Milpas Street Santa Barbara
Cash only

Named by Julia Child as a required stop in Santa Barbara, Superica is probably one of the best taco stands in America. Simple and unpretentious, this tiny white and sea green shack serves the freshest meat and bean tacos this side of Mexico to lines of dedicated customers that are, more often than not, lined up from the door to halfway down the block. No matter what day of the week or time of day.

Guests sit at picnic tables in a tented “dining room” while they wait for their number to be called. For anyone interested in good food, the wait is worth it. The ingredients are fresh, the combinations classic, and the soft, spongy tacos are made to order by hand.
The kitchen is just large enough to hold the cashier, the tortilla maker that forms each round of dough in her hands and presses them in an ancient looking press, and two grill men that flip fresh onions, chorizo and steak with a huge metal spatula on the flat top.

In some ways, the long line of customers out the door is a good thing. By the time we get to the order window, more than enough time has elapsed for us to discuss our order, memorized our selections (each menu item has a number) and organized by number in descending order. Hans and I definitely have some favorites on the menu, but we always try to order at least one new plate in hopes of finding a new Superica gem.

With our living room floor under the final stages of re-construction, we were forced to leave town for a day in order to allow our newly stained floors 24 hours to dry. Happy to take a trip north, Hans and I left our apartment in the morning and were at Superica by Noon.

With our stomachs growling and ready for food, we carefully planned our meal. We ordered some classics:

The #11: Lomito Suiza:

Grilled chorizo and melted cheese served between two tortillas.
A gorgeous sandwich of pork and cheese.

the #13: Queso de Cazuela,

a bowl of melted cheese flavored with tomatoes and spices and served with warm tortillas. It’s a warm comforting dish that, despite having nothing to do with artichoke, strangely tastes of one.

The #16 The Superica Especial:

Roasted chile pasilla stuffed with cheese and marinated pork. I usually have to fight to get a couple of bites before Hans polishes it off in mere seconds.

The #18 Guacamole:

Another dish I have to fight to get my share of. Straight forward and supremely fresh, this guacamole is all about ripe avocado, a squeeze of lime and a hint of tomato. Perfect on its own, or revelatory when paired with other dishes.

This trip we tried a few new dishes:

The #1 Tacos de Bistec.

Strips of grilled steak served on tacos, this dish was a little disappointing to look at, but once doctored up with a little guacamole and a touch of cheese from the Queso de Cazuela, I was in heaven.

The special of the day: Tamal de Veracruz.

Truly a life-changing tamale. Soft, moist and undeniable elegant, this tamale was unlike any of the dense (almost dry) corn tamales I’ve eaten at the Hollywood and Larchmont farmer’s markets, Superica’s Tamale de Veracruz is a love letter to the delicacy of corn with its juicy corn kernels, zucchini and onion in a fluffy bed of corn masa. I was surprised by how light the cream sauce was and how balanced all the ingredients of this dish was.

After a fully satisfying meal at Superica, we headed north to Santa Ynez for some wine tasting. Big fans of the tasting room at Melville, we decided to mix things up and taste the wines of two unfamiliar producers.

First stop was the tasting room for Longoria.
Longoria Wine Tasting Room
2935 Grand Ave. Los Olivos

Established in 1982, Longoria is a family run wine business located in Santa Barbara county. The tasting room is small and intimate, located in a tiny room in one of the oldest buildings in he
art of the village of Los Olivos. The tasting fee was $10 and unfortunately, the woman helping us had no personality and dribbled something like a half an ounce of wine into our glass–barely enough wine to swirl or to properly taste.

We were impressed by the acidity and complexity of 2004 Syrah (chewy, spicy and had great acidity) and bought a bottle despite hating the woman that sold it to us.

Our next and last stop on our mini-wine tasting tour was Bridlewood Winery.
Bridlewood Winery
3555 Roblar Avenue, Santa Ynez

A much more impressive tasting room, we were greeted by a knowledgeable and skilled employee. With a $10 tasting fee we were pleased by the reasonable pour (a generous ounce) and the quality of the wine. Balanced and true to the varietal, the Bridlewood portfolio surprised us both with their delicately nuanced flavors. For someone that tends to stay away from palate punching Zinfandels, I found theirs to be quite pretty and actually surprisingly light–especially for a California producer.

We purchased the 2004 Six Gun Syrah—a silky red with nice tannin, a hint of spice and bright cherry with balanced acidity and minimal oak.

We drove back to Santa Barbara and checked into our favorite cheap motel, The Presidio.

Still under the final stages of a year long remodel, the Presidio has all the charm of a boutique hotel without a high price tag. The young couple that runs the place are charming and for under $100 ($89 to be exact) we stayed in a clean room with charming details.

We promptly hopped into bed, watched an hour’s worth of bad TV and took an epic nap before we headed out to town again for dinner.

The Hungry Cat, is, without a doubt, one of my favorite LA restaurants. Stripped of any fancy details, the Hungry Cat is dedicated to serving East coast inspired dishes (Maryland seafood is where it’s at), amazing wines, and incredible handmade cocktails. Now that Hungry Cat has a location in Santa Barbara, there really isn’t any other place we’ll go to. The cocktails are gorgeous, the food is fresh (we ate sea urchin so fresh and off the boat it practically walked on its spines across the table) and downright inspiring.

Thanks to the friendly staff and passionate kitchen staff, Hans and I had a memorable meal of off-the-boat oysters served with freshly grated horseradish and sea salt, Oyster chowder full of silky oysters and chunky potatoes, Tuscan Monkfish stew, a mind-blowing cheese plate and the I-can’t-believe-I’m-scraping-the-sides-of-this-dish-to-get-at-every-last-morsel chocolate bread pudding.

After a day of gorging and lazy napping, Hans and I return to the buzzing world of Los Angeles. I can’t wait for our next Get Out of Dodge.