Sebastopol, California
Back in October, Alex and I had a little staycation up in Sebastopol. We have been there a handful of times, mostly passing through for photo sessions or weddings or on the way from Santa Rosa to the Sonoma Coast. This time, we went enjoyed a stay in the town and visited the shops, farms, and redwoods in the area. Then in December, we returned to Sebastopol for a tour of Radical Family Farms and another whirl through town. See both trips below!
The Sebastopol Farmers Market happens each Sunday and features a couple of our favorite vendors:
Big Spoon Sauce Co. (makers of my favorite non-spicy chili crisp, and many other spicy flavors as well)!
And Radical Family Farms. More on them towards the end when we come back for the full farm tour!
Fall is in full swing in October.
Continuing to rep our friends Vernon Street Farm at farmers markets around the world!
After the farmers market, we visited the Barlow, which is a small district of formerly industrial warehouses now converted into breweries, restaurants, and shops.
We always like the drinks and food at Fern Bar!
Very cute apple-themed tributes to Sebastopol’s history as orchard central. Now it has just as many vineyards as orchards, if not more.
Then we drove out to farm country.
A visit to Wild Flour Bread, a very delicious bakery with a full garden on the side that you can walk through.
Across the street is a farm with its own pumpkin and flower stand out front.
Then we visited a couple shops in Occidental, where we spotted the Big Spoon chili crisp again.
A lovely hike through Armstrong Redwoods, which suffered a huge fire a few years back, but the redwoods endure!
Finally, ice cream at the Guerneville Bank Club (in a former bank) and taking a peek inside the Sonoma & Napa guide book we purchased from one of the shops earlier. Hello Leslie Wiser, farmer/owner of Radical Family Farms!
A little walk through the bookstore in town the next morning.
Coffee from Retrograde, a peek inside the newspaper-box-turned-little-free-library, and that was it for our brief staycation!
Beautiful fall Sonoma vineyards on the way back down.
Fast forward December, and it was time to return to Sebastopol for a tour of Radical Family Farms! We first heard about them during the pandemic and became members of their CSA (community supported agriculture), with a weekly box of produce that featured mostly Asian heritage veggies. It was great and it was a lot, for us to consume, and also for Leslie and the farmers to produce and distribute. They no longer offer the CSA but are still making weekly appearances at the Sebastopol Farmers Market and diving into other value added products too.
We joined in on TAP-SF (Taiwanese American Professionals – San Francisco)’s tour of the farm. Leslie Wiser is the farmer-owner behind Radical Family Farms and she is Taiwanese/Chinese German American.
We were greeted by the neighbor’s sheep and the farm dog Bear!
Chili peppers and seed saving have been a big focus of this farm season. You’ll also see the variety of chili sauces and chef collaborations at the end of the tour.
The plant nursery is mostly empty now in December, but it will start up again for the spring.
Leslie practices regenerative farming, which is incredibly labor intensive and goes above and beyond the ‘organic’ designation in many ways.
She found some hulu gourds in the compost pile and gave them away as perfect fall decor! Plus, a sampling of the delicate chrysanthemum blooms which can be dried and used for tea.
A sichuan peppercorn plant, known for its distinctive numbing mala flavor. And hello from the very cute alpaca next door!
Here are just a few of the hot sauces that Leslie produced this year! She made some products with a packer and many others in limited quantities with local chef friends (hello Henry of Oramasama and Chris of Piglet & Co.). We picked up a couple of different products to take home and will look forward to catching Radical Family Farms at local farmers markets and with restaurant collabs in the next farm season coming up soon! Thank you to TAP and to Leslie for the wonderful tour.
Afterwards, we went back to the Barlow for some shops and a milkshake…
.. and then we visited Psychic Pie on Nate of Big Spoon Sauce Co.’s recommendation. Pizza by weight!
And they provide scissors (most underrated kitchen utensil)! Very delicious. Would do again.
Visit Sebastopol and say hi to our favorites:
Sebastopol Farmers Market (Sundays)
Big Spoon Sauce Co.
Radical Family Farms
Anna Wu is a wedding and portrait photographer based in San Francisco. She compulsively documents and blogs all of her daily adventures. Follow her on instagram and view more of her professional work at annawu.com.
