Humboldt’s spice rack is stocked with rubs, salts and seasonings for everything from barbecue to Bloody Marys (just add tomato juice and vodka). You need only decide whether you’re going to share the wealth or make them your new secret ingredients. Find them at Eureka Natural Foods, North Coast Co-op, Wildberries and other local markets.…
“You’re making this hard for me,” says a regular who’s sidled up to the standing-only bar that divides the small tasting room from the tap house at the Humboldt Regeneration Brewery. He came to get a growler filled, but with 28 unique beers on tap, and a small littering of empty tasters in front of…
Sixty-five million years ago the Earth changed dramatically when a giant asteroid struck. A mass extinction ensued with dinosaurs disappearing as the planet warmed. Before the asteroid, conifers, like dinosaurs, ruled. Almost unimaginable forests of cone-bearing trees decorated the Earth with as many as 20,000 species, including nine different redwoods. With the global warming that…
They don’t make ’em like they used to. Except when they do. These shops and their hands-on craftspeople take us back to the beauty of reclaimed wood and metal, paper and ink. The Back Porch Locals remember when you could go down to the old recycling center in Arcata and get a door, or an…
Trees, trees, everywhere — and not just evergreens. Maple madness, a little known tradition in Humboldt, offers fall foliage and apple orchards bear the fruit of a festival and award-winning hard ciders. Feast your eyes on Eureka’s sculpture scene (which is looking up), a world record steer, Shakespeare in the redwoods, a rare lunar event…
If you stroll by between 7 am and noon, go around the side to the walk-up coffee window at Sweetness and Light, and you might get a peek at Matt and Tami Toste tempering chocolate or hand dipping the old-fashioned candies that fill the cases at this Ferndale institution. Inside, treat yourself to browsing the…
The one place that’s closer to the source of our scrumptious North Coast fruits and vegetables than our fabulous farmers markets is the farms themselves. And fortunately for us, an increasing number of local farms have produce (and sometimes farm-raised meat) for sale to the public right on their farms. Some also offer pick-your-own, or…
A sketch from the comedy show Portlandia mocks a food-aware couple at a farm-to-table restaurant who demand specifics about their chicken. Unsatisfied with the animal’s name and history, the couple asks the waiter to hold the order until they’ve visited the local farm that raised the animal. Far-fetched joke? In Humboldt County, the source of…
In the buttery warm bakery air, plump loaves rest on cooling racks like hens in a coop. The back door is propped open to let the breeze in as three people work at a wooden slab table dusted in flour. With one eye on the clock, the bakers knead and form dough. “Deli rolls come…
