All clips written by Roger Coryell, owned by their publishers
Mendocino County Sheriff Matt Kendall spent much of Tuesday morning’s regular Mendocino County Board of Supervisors meeting explaining what his new $4.5 million cannabis enforcement grant won’t be used for.
Six machines work after dark, moving through 200 acres of organic vineyard outside Hopland. Nobody sits on them.
Zac Robinson stopped at the end of a vine row on Monday, July 27, and pointed at a cluster turning from green to purple. Veraison, the last color change before…
Before Angela Godwin moved north in 2024 to become Mendocino County’s agricultural commissioner, she did what any numbers person would do: she looked up her new county’s crop reports. What…
Fire season’s cutest fuel crew is working Caspar right now: 43 sheep the size of golden retrievers, eating the brush around the community center and growing next year’s wool while…
Mendocino County Sheriff Matt Kendall and the president of the Mendocino Cannabis Alliance aren’t often on the same side of the county’s cannabis arguments. But on one point they agree:…
Sheriff’s deputies serving a search warrant at an illegal cannabis grow this week near Covelo arrested one armed man and found nearly 10,000 marijuana plants and the banned pesticide carbofuran,…
The federal money that paid Mendocino County farmers to grow food for their hungry neighbors ran out at the end of May.
A 31-year-old Covelo woman was fatally shot at a large illegal marijuana cultivation site outside Covelo, and investigators believe multiple people were involved in her killing, the Mendocino County Sheriff’s…
Pickup trucks lined University Road at the Hopland Research and Extension Center on the morning of June 30, their drivers gathered in the shade at the edge of a sunny…
Steve Amato is still out working his 38 acres of cabernet off Feliz Creek Road. He prunes. He sprays. He suckers the vines. He mows the grass between the rows…
Plants sold at Costco stores around California this spring, the Ukiah warehouse among them, harbored the glassy-winged sharpshooter — an insect that can spread Xylella fastidiosa, the bacterium behind the…
LEE MARTINELLI SR. IS 87, and he can read his family on the trunks of his vineyard the way other people read a photo album. On the 60-degree slope of…
Up on the ridges above Willits, Steve Amato has been counting lights. "These hills used to light up at night," the president of the Mendocino Cannabis Alliance said last spring,…
Drive north through Hopland this spring, past Ukiah into Redwood Valley. You'll notice gaps. Where Cabernet and Zinfandel twisted toward the sun last October, now there's bare dirt, stacked rootstock,…
If you have spent any time around wine people, you have heard the phrase: It starts in the vineyard. DaVero Farms and Winery is taking that one step further, straight…
John Burgess / The Press Democrat The Medlock Ames estate vineyard in Healdsburg received the first Sonoma County Regenerative Organic Certification for practices including no tilling of the rows and…
One of Sonoma County’s most familiar farm names received statewide recognition this winter. Lee and Wayne James of Tierra Vegetables in Santa Rosa were named Legacy Farmers of the Year…
The mornings across Sonoma County smell like harvest—diesel, damp leaves and cider. Trucks roll before dawn not just to crush pads but to apple sheds and pumpkin patches. October is…
Cider pressing with Ethic Cider. Go on a Fall Farm Adventure Sept. 27 & 28 with Sonoma County Farm Trails. (Sonoma Farm Trails_
Expect some candid crop talk at the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday. The newly released 2024 Sonoma County crop report is on the agenda, and it shows the…
The weather’s not the problem. Highs in the 70s and 80s, nights in the 50s, and barely a whisper of rain — classic Sonoma September. The Harvest Moon on Sept.…
Farmers in Sonoma County are staring down another dry season, but a new round of opportunities is opening up — from funding and field days to policy surveys that will…
Did you know sea otters can eat a quarter of their body weight in food every day?
The crow of a rooster at dawn used to be the sound of farm life. In Sonoma County this summer, it’s more like the sound of a crisis.
The aroma of apple fritters greets visitors before they reach the gate at Ragle Ranch Regional Park, signaling arrival at the Gravenstein Apple Fair. The event celebrates its 52nd year…
Are pre-dawn roosters and vineyard booms crimes — or just the price of country living?
Giuseppe Martinelli arrived in Forestville in 1887 with calloused hands and a cart full of Zinfandel cuttings. Today, his great-great-granddaughter Tessa Gorsuch crouches in the same dirt, examining grape clusters…
Let’s start with a truth that holds steady no matter what storm is brewing in the sky or the headlines: Sonoma County is a farming place. Not just because we…
Water is life in Sonoma County. It fuels our vineyards, sustains wildlife, and keeps our communities thriving. But for months, landowners, farmers, and environmentalists have been locked in a legal…
Martinelli Winery in Forestville, a family-owned landmark, is known for its bold Zinfandel and Pinot Noir. As Julianna Martinelli, a board member and part owner, explains, “Our wines aren’t wimpy;…
Imagine Sonoma County without Crane melons, Bernier garlic, or Russian River pinot noir. Local farms shape the landscape, economy, and culture. But their future is uncertain, and what happens next…
Sonoma’s Mediterranean staples: olives and grapes thrive in local soil
This month’s Nonprofit Nook spotlights Joint4ces, a Sonoma County nonprofit transforming veterans’ lives by connecting them with opportunities in agriculture. Founded by Sunny Welch, with Dante Graham as vice president,
Bears. Fast, agile, hungry, smart bears. Mud. Snow. Hornets. Mountain lions and wild boars. Mildew. Driving a tractor between steep sloping muddy rows in the dark. Mendocino Ridge is not…
In the oak-covered foothills of Hopland, in eastern Mendocino County, you’ll find a unique property called Campovida. This farm and winery isn’t just a place; it’s a testament to vision,…
Guinness McFadden, founder and owner of Blue Quail Wines and McFadden Farm in Mendocino County’s Potter Valley, is a pioneer in organic wine growing and farming. McFadden began farming 50…