🌱 Healdsburg Winery Activists + Electric Cars For Local Farmers

Hello, people of Healdsburg! Simone here with your fresh Thursday edition of the Daily. Keep scrolling to catch up on everything you need to know about what's happening in town today.

First, today's weather:

Mostly sunny. High: 65 Low: 36.

Here are the top 3 stories today in Healdsburg:

1. Ford, as in Ford the auto company, has chosen one vineyard in Sebastopol and two in Healdsburg — Bevill Vineyard Management and Vino Farms — as the testing ground for its new fleet of electric vehicles. Vineyard workers will be given brand-new "Ford F-150 Lightning Pro pickups" and "E-Transit cargo vans," as well a few other "Ford Pro Intelligence products and services," to use on the job. Ford's goal being to "demonstrate how electric vehicles and web-based fleet management tools can have a positive impact on the agriculture industry in terms of increasing productivity, improving sustainability and lowering the total cost of fleet ownership." The pilot program is a collaboration with the Sonoma County Winegrowers association, who's using it to see if they can "further their sustainability goals and begin their transition to fully integrated all-electric fleets with on-site charging." Pretty cool! (Yahoo! Money & Ford Authority & Sonoma County Winegrowers)
2. Nonprofit magazine In These Times just published an in-depth piece of activist journalism on the farmworkers who've been standing up to Healdsburg's Simi Winery to demand better working conditions, especially related to wildfire and smoke exposure. Anayeli Guzman and Margarita Garcia, two of the movement's leaders, talk to the magazine not only about how some local wineries allegedly treat their workers, but also how they treat the land and environment. From the story: "Indigenous farmworkers... often have access to traditional ecological knowledge passed down through millennia — about how to live in right relationship with the land, water and one another — but lack the power to steward and heal the land. Now, farmworkers are organizing to change that." (In These Times)
3. Healdsburg son and state senator Mike McGuire, recently named majority leader, just saw his bill to halt a "toxic coal train" planned for the railroad that runs along the Russian River, including through Healdsburg, passed by fellow senators with flying colors. Now it goes to the state assembly — and then the governor — for approval. McGuire has described the initiative he's fighting as "one of the largest environmental threats the North Coast has seen in decades — a proposal from a secret, clandestine operation, hiding behind an anonymous LLC out of Wyoming, that wants to ship millions of tons of coal through the Northern California counties of Marin, Sonoma, Mendocino, Trinity, and Humboldt." Another sister bill he's pushing would ensure the rail line and the land surrounding it instead be dedicated to SMART passenger trains and the planned 316-mile Great Redwood Trail. (Press Democrat; paywall)

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Today and tomorrow in Healdsburg:

Thursday, January 27

• Sonoma County Economic Development Board Presents: 2022 Economic Perspective (8-9:30AM)
• Healdsburg American Association of University Women (AAUW) Forum: "Interpreting Works of Art - Your 'GPS' for Visual Literacy" (10-11:45AM)
• Virtual Advanced Spanish Conversation Class at Sonoma County Library (1:30-2:45PM)
• Teen/Tween Studio at Healdsburg Center for the Arts: Painting & Drawing (3:30-5PM)
• Healdsburg Running Company Thursday Night Run, Feat. Post-Run Beers & Beignets From Parish Cafe (6PM)
• Virtual Documentary Film Discussion Group at Sonoma County Library: "Three Identical Strangers" (6-7PM)

Friday, January 28

• Meet the Artist at Upstairs Art Gallery: Willow LaLand, "Bold Flavors in Fauve" (11AM-6PM)
• Gypsy Trio Live at Hotel Healdsburg (5-8PM)
• Healdsburg High School Boys' Basketball Home Game Vs. Maria Carillo (7:30PM)

From my notebook:

• Healdsburg's Costeaux French Bakery stars in a new Press Democrat story on how North Bay restaurants are tackling inflation pressures. The bakery's president and CEO says they've "continued to see price escalation essentially across the board... from packaging supplies and materials to food items." As a result, Costeaux is now reportedly "now looking at pricing changes, including raising menu prices between 3% and 10%, depending on the product." (North Bay Business Journal)
• Healdsburg couple Lisa and Michael Rhodes are featured in Sonoma Magazine for some especially classy renovations they made to their 1898 Queen Anne home "perched on a prominent corner just four blocks from the Healdsburg Plaza." Take a look inside. (Sonoma Magazine)
• The Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue org down in Petaluma says they're preparing for the upcoming "baby season." If you know any young humans who might wanna get in on that, the org is looking for spring interns. Applications are due this coming Monday. (Facebook & ConstantContact)
• A teacher at Healdsburg Elementary School's Fitch Mountain Campus is interested in started a lunchtime "catch club," and is hoping to collect any "unused baseball mitts" that neighbors might have lying around. "If you have one you’d like to donate, please drop it by the school office," campus officials say. "The idea would also be to let students use the mitts if they don’t have one for playing in Healdsburg Little League." (Facebook)
• Healdsburg Bagel Company is now selling their homemade matzo ball soup by the quart. You can order it on their website. (Facebook & Healdsburg Bagel Company)
• Last night's city Senior Citizens Advisory Commission meeting, which lasted two hours, is available to rewatch online. (Facebook)
• You can also watch the Healdsburg Museum's annual meeting and historic preservation awards from last week, featuring a bunch of cool before-and-after shots of local buildings that were recently restored. (Facebook & YouTube)
• Another big travel mag stopped by Healdsburg and can't stop gushing. They especially loved the Harmon Guest House, Black Oak Coffee and Willi's. (Travel + Leisure)
• Healdsburg High School's Class of 2001 is planning their 20-year reunion for July. "Please fill out this form so we can gather some info and make this the party of the decades!" organizers say. "Also we will soon be collecting photos and video via google drive so start scanning in those dusty old photos from your albums and converting those VHS to digital!" (Facebook)
• Jordan Winery & Vineyard in Healdsburg is celebrating its 50th anniversary by ramping up marketing and sales efforts in New York City and abroad. (North Bay Business Journal)
• Here's the latest update on the affordable housing project being planned in the big empty lot between Big John's and Planck Coffee on Dry Creek Road. It will reportedly "consist of two-four story buildings, a promenade area that backs up to the Foss Creek wetlands, and a total of 58 living units" — 10 percent of which will be used as supportive housing for people experiencing homelessness. There's still time to submit feedback if you have any. (SoCoNews Healdsburg)

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— Simone Wilson

About me: I was born and raised in Healdsburg, CA, where I was the editor of the Healdsburg High School Hound's Bark. I have since worked as a local journalist for publications in San Diego, Los Angeles, New York City and the Middle East. I'm currently a senior product manager for Patch.