The Artichoke Festival has been a mainstay for summer entertainment on the Central Coast for more than six decades, a time for locals to nosh on delicacies and celebrate the crop that helped put the region on the map.
“With deep gratitude and heavy hearts, the board of directors of the Artichoke Festival announces the official closure of the beloved annual event,” festival organizers said on their website. “After 65 unforgettable years celebrating the region’s agricultural heritage, artichoke royalty, and community spirit, the Artichoke Festival will not return in 2025.”
The decision came after months of consideration, and stems from growing financial strain caused by increasing event production costs, insurance premiums, permitting requirements and operational challenges.
The festival began in 1959, and over the years blossomed into a tradition, bringing together families, farmers, chefs, volunteers, artists, and visitors from around the world to celebrate the thorny thistle.
“Ending the festival is one of the most difficult decisions we’ve ever had to make,” said the festival board of directors. “But the financial realities we now face are insurmountable,” Executive Director Linda Scherer called the festival “a labor of love.”
“Watching it grow from a hometown celebration to a regional highlight has been one of the greatest honors of my life,” she said. “The memories we’ve made, the people we’ve touched, and the good we’ve done together will live on far beyond this decision.”
The Artichoke Festival has over the years generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in charitable support, and countless memories.
Proposed budget cuts by the Republican-led administration in Washington, D.C., could be bad news for local seniors, with a plan to eliminate Foster Grandparent and Senior Companion programs, services provided by the Seniors Council in Santa Cruz County.
Clay Kempf, executive director of the Watsonville-based Senior Council, said the move is daunting to programs that serve older adults.
“While other serious cuts to seniors are also of great concern, the proposed elimination of our Foster Grandparent and Senior Companion Programs are especially devastating,” he said.
Kempf said the two programs became part of the Senior Council about 32 years ago.
The program recruits low-income seniors who visit local schools to mentor and tutor students who are struggling academically and socially, grades K-3. The volunteer program has been around for more than five decades, with more than 1 million seniors mentoring millions of kids in all 50 states.
Senior Companion similarly allows low-income seniors to help other seniors.
Kempf said the volunteers typically run errands, help with socialization, and “even a drive around the neighborhood, or just a friendly visit,” he said.
President Donald Trump recently laid off over 80 percent of staff that oversees all of AmeriCorps, a federal service program that recruits volunteers for a wide range of projects nationwide, in areas that include education, health and disaster relief.
“Then a judge came out and said that the layoffs of AmeriCorps staff were illegal,” Kempf said.
According to a 2020 study by the Inner City Fund, some 275,000 Americans were serving their communities that year through AmeriCorps and Senior Corps.
This includes projects such as helping communities respond to and recover from natural disasters, fighting the opioid epidemic, connecting veterans to job and education resources, supporting independent living for seniors and Americans with disabilities and helping families achieve economic self-sufficiency.
At the Senior Council, around 150 volunteers typically put in around 15-20 hours a week each in helping two to three students in the program.
“The question people need to ask is, ‘why this is being done?’” Kempf said of the proposed cuts. “There is no financial reason, no logical reason. We need to call the White House and your elected representatives. In my 25-plus years, I’ve never seen anything like this. I don’t know why it’s happening.”
A new outdoor mural that depicts a slice of Santa Cruz County history now adorns a wall of El Vaquero Winery in Corralitos. Watsonville artist Erika Rosendale said she took on the job of painting Charley Parkhurst (1812-1879), known as One-Eyed Charley, who drove a stagecoach mail delivery route between Watsonville and Santa Cruz.
The colorful work mural depicts Parkhurst in a western hat atop a stagecoach over a rugged mountain terrain with the Monterey Bay, rolling hills and a soaring condor.
“I think it’s coming together pretty well,” Rosendale said as she finished the project last week. “It’s definitely in a high-visibility place.” Rosendale has painted scores of murals around the Monterey Bay and has now completed murals in several European countries.
The week-long project was sponsored by the Freedom Rotary Club. The 45-by-17-foot mural stands at 2601 Freedom Blvd., at the corner of Corralitos Road across from the Five Mile House, which was once a key stop on Parkhurst’s mail route.
Parkhurst became a legend around the Monterey Bay. History books tell of the surprise many had, upon Parkhurst’s death, to learn that the stagecoach driver had been born female. A tombstone stands at Pioneer Cemetery in Watsonville. In 2007, a dilapidated trailer park on Freedom Boulevard in Aptos was transformed into Parkhurst Terrace, a modern affordable housing community for 68 families.
Rosendale claimed the Gold award in the National Mural Awards for her sprawling mural titled “Beneficial insects starting their day,” at Planet Fitness in Sacramento.
If the Trump administration moves forward with plans to make sweeping cuts to health and human services as it hammers out its current budget, it will have far-reaching and profound impacts nationwide.
This includes to Santa Cruz County, where one-third of the people who receive Medi-Cal benefits could lose their coverage.
“We believe almost 30,000 people could be at risk of losing their Medi-Cal based on federal policy changes,” Assistant County Administrator Nicole Coburn told the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors Tuesday in a budget update after Gov. Gavin Newsom’s May revision. “That’s very significant.”
Coburn, along with County Budget Manager Marcus Pimentel, gave an update on the budget of the state and at the federal level, where the picture continues to evolve as lawmakers hammer out their respective finances. The supervisors will consider the entire budget in June.
While impending cuts—and the numbers that follow—will not be finalized until the fall, officials nationwide are girding themselves for drastic cuts to a vast swath of programs and services.
According to Pimentel, the state’s overall budget decreased this year by $375 million, not the $12 billion that was originally proposed in January. Still, since half the county’s budget is funded through state and federal sources, that reduction will likely mean reductions to programs such as CalFresh and Cal Works, among others.
“They help fund and protect our public health, support our vulnerable residents, and strengthen our local economy to maintain infrastructure,” Pimentel said. “We desperately rely on these funding sources.”
Some of the cuts are not theoretical.
Coburn says that the county has already lost a $20 million Building Resilient Infrastructure Grant that would have provided $20 million for wildfire risk reduction in six different geographical areas, and $420,000 to improve the Pajaro River Levee at the wastewater treatment plant.
The county’s health services department has lost more than $400,000 in grants, she said.
Further changes to Medi-Cal include more frequent eligibility checks, and a requirement to be employed to receive benefits.
In 2026, there are additional 22% cuts to education, health, housing and labor programs, and a 40% cut to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
That year’s budget also eliminates programs such as Head Start, the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, the Community Development Block Grant, Preschool Development Block Grant and teen pregnancy prevention programs.
“In all, these could have very significant impacts here locally and this board has advocated against these changes, and we are continuing to message that to our federal delegation,” Coburn said.
Pimentel said that the Republican administration’s actions have thrown the state’s economy into a “period of instability,” leaving officials scrambling to change their projections.
Beginning in January, Trump is proposing to freeze Medi-Cal for undocumented adults and make further cuts to long-term care, dental care and in-home supportive services for that population.
Human Services Director Randy Morris called the current economic climate a “somber time,” and said that proposed cuts to rental assistance programs for low-income people could be devastating.
“Rental assistance is the hub of the service wheel of everything else we do to keep people off the streets and into housing or keep their housing,” he said, adding that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is “proposing to reduce rental assistance and other services by almost 50%.” If that happens, Morris added, the state’s ability to help the homeless population “in severe crisis.”
Another reduction is to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)—also known as food stamps—which relies entirely on federal funding. A government proposal to require California to chip in 25%, Morris said, would cost the state an additional $6 billion.
Supervisor Monica Martinez said that the effects of the reductions on children, families and other vulnerable populations are the hardest to take.
“Hearing the potential cuts and the proposed cuts, it feels like a gut punch,” she said, adding that the current climate reminds her of the time before the Affordable Care Act passed and provided insurance to a wide swath of the population.
“We never hoped for a day when we would have to go back to that,” Martinez said. “We all need to work together to make sure that people aren’t falling through the cracks, and here at the county I feel very committed to doing our part.”
We live in a world where, in America, citizens are being taken off the street, put on planes and sent to death camps in other countries. But the unjust imprisonment of our neighbors—the people we see walking down the sidewalks, often based simply on the color of their skin—is nothing new.
While our own prisons don’t yet rival the sheer horror of El Salvador, our own prisoners day-to-day, held within a country with the highest incarceration rate in the world, is shrouded in secrecy. The 2 million men, and 200,000 women, living in confinement in the USA, rarely have advocates, and their voices and stories go mostly unheard.
In 2022, film professor Sharon Daniel began teaching a class at UCSC titled “Reasonable Doubts: Making an Exoneree.” From her office on the hill, Daniel explains part of the impetus behind its inception. Marc Howard, who cofounded the class at Georgetown University, had personal reasons for his interest in the process of exonerating wrongly convicted individuals.
“It was personal,” Daniel says. “His childhood friend, Marty Tankleff [who cofounded the class with Howard], was convicted for murdering his own parents. He was arrested and convicted, but he was innocent. Marc went to college, went to law school, and got involved with Marty’s case.
“Where he was exonerated due to the help of a number of great people. And then, Marty became an attorney after he was released from prison,” Daniel continues. “And together they came up with this concept for the class, where undergraduate students would work in small teams to reinvestigate potential cases of wrongful conviction and make short documentaries about the cases.
“I got involved in 2022. I heard them talking about their class on a podcast and I was looking for help to find a representation for a gentleman on death row in San Quentin who I was working with,” Daniel recalls. “I was doing a documentary project about his case of wrongful conviction, and we decided to partner. And for the first two years, my students at UCSC collaborated with Georgetown students. We would work together on the cases.”
Originally, the class at Georgetown had classmates studying the law and handling the investigations. When the class expanded to Princeton University, and then to UC Santa Cruz, those Georgetown students were still relied on for their legal expertise.
“At this point, we’re no longer collaborating on the cases with the Georgetown students,” Daniel says. “We have our own four cases. This year, my students are doing all the legal research and reinvestigation, as well as the filmmaking and media making part of the class.”
Wrongful incarceration and overly harsh sentences are no longer just an occasional problem, but are part of an epidemic. Citizens’ lives are being shattered. “One of the cases that we’re working on this year is a case of two very young co-defendants,” Daniel explains. “They carjacked a person to try to get money. One of the young men had a baby to take care of, and no opportunities to get food. They took the woman in her car to the bank, and asked her to take out some money for them. She did that. And then they asked her where she wanted to be dropped off. They took her there, left her in the car. Nobody was harmed, and they got life-without-parole sentences.”
UCSC student Sarina Bozorgnia, 20 years old, was pursuing a major in film. She then switched to the History of Arts and Visual Culture when she heard about the Visualizing Abolition Program that would count toward her certificate. “My mom was a film critic in the UAE [United Arab Emirates],” Bozorgnia begins. “So, I grew up on a lot of film sets. My mom’s organization is called Documentary Voices.” Documentary Voices is the only film initiative dedicated to documentaries in the UAE.
Bozorgnia has been involved in social justice abolition work since her junior year. This important class combined two of her interests: film and social justice. “The case I got involved with had me communicating with them by phone for ten weeks. For our spring break, we traveled down to interview their friends and family, and then we were able to meet them in person. I consider them my friends. It was heartbreaking to see these amazing people in prison. It’s modern-day slavery,” Bozorgnia says.
According to the young filmmaker, the Exoneree program is so important because it shines a light on some of the amazing people who exist within the walls of our prisons. “There are people who don’t belong there and don’t deserve to be there. There’s a ripple effect when you take somebody out of their community. It impacts generations and generations of families. And our system really, really abuses prisoners. I hope people come to see our documentaries,” Bozorgnia concludes.
Making an Exoneree, Screening and Celebration will take place May 27 at 7pm. It will be screened in the Digital Arts Research Center 108, 407 McHenry Road. The event is free and is also available with live streaming. More information at calendar.ucsc.edu.
When certain people talk about making America great again, they aren’t talking about a time when there were human rights for all. As we are seeing daily, while right-wing states ban pride flags and all talk of equal rights, they are saluting just the opposite. They are bringing back hatred and cruelty, attempting to destroy the progress we have made in equality, inclusion and diversity.
I got chills when I read Kyara Rodriguez’s story in our Pride features this week. She notes that in the 1970s, as celebrations of Pride were beginning, LGBTQ+ people were still being arrested for their sexuality. In the 1950s, Weldon Caldwell was sentenced to Atascadero State Hospital for being gay.
“The people before us lived harsher lives beyond our imagination,” Sam R. says in the feature. “They lived for their lives and fought for their right to live beautifully, and we have the privilege to stand where we are today.”
NO GOING BACK signs have been posted around town and that’s what they are talking about. We have to fight the dark forces moving like an evil empire to take away basic human rights, and that’s one of the themes of the Pride celebration that will take over our county during the next couple weeks.
While national agencies are erasing the history of the progress women and minorities have made over the past 50 years, Santa Cruz Pride is celebrating the positive movement.
Writes Santa Cruz Pride board chair Rob Darrow Rob Darrow:
“That movement has been ever present across Santa Cruz County as queer people across the county have contributed to every significant event in queer history across the nation, including the March on Washington in 1979, the defeat of the Briggs Initiative in 1989, the development of student LGBTQ+ clubs in our schools, changing unjust laws, drag performances, protesting in front of the Supreme Court and standing up for equal rights. This justice and equality mindset is as evident in the people across the county today as it was back in the 1970s and 1980s.”
I can only hope to see our streets flooded with NO GOING BACK hats, truly making America great again.
Other things you don’t want to miss this issue: John Koenig asks locals which historic event they’d like to be a part of in his Street Talk column. It’s so relevant to the 50th anniversary of Pride.
Thanks for reading.
Brad Kava | Editor
PHOTO CONTEST
SO COOL Nothing like great music at Kuumbwa’s 50th Anniversary Concert at the San Lorenzo Park on Sunday to bring people of all walks of life together. Photograph by Maria Choy.
GOOD IDEA
Verve Coffee has joined up with the Grateful Dead to market a new morning mix and GD merchandise. The Grateful Dead blend is said to be “easy-drinking with layered complexity. It opens with a sweet burst of Plum and Nectarine, grounded by warm Black Tea. A clean finish brings it all together, offering a smooth cup that’s as timeless as the music that inspired it.” The band celebrates its 60th anniversary with shows Aug 1-3 in San Francisco.
GOOD WORK
Live Oak, the unincorporated neighborhood of 17,000 people, doesn’t get its due according to Bill Simpkins and Reed Geisreiter, whose families have lived in Live Oak for generations. So they put together an inspiring collection of photos and history on display now at the Simpkins Swim Center. The exhibit is a must-see for Santa Cruz lovers and uses photos from the archives of UC Santa Cruz and Santa Cruz Public Libraries. It’s funded by 2016’s 67 bond Measure S, which aids library projects.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Everyone is happy, it’s a space where you can dress and look however you want.” – Gisel Florentino
Few people’s names are associated with “tests.” There’s the (Hermann) Rorschach Test, which gauges people’s pareidolia, finding meaning in nebulous patterns. The (Alan) Turing Test, where one can (hopefully) distinguish between machine and humans, notably brought to greater attention through the movie Blade Runner. And there is also the (Alison) Bechdel Test, which is applied to artistic works to see if at least two women have a conversation that is not about men.
For Bechdel, having a test named after her was never the goal, but more of a side effect, manifesting after decades of creating comic strips. Her latest work, Spent: A Comic Novel, goes full meta, as it’s about a cartoonist named Alison Bechdel (true) who runs a pygmy goat sanctuary farm (not true) in Vermont (true). She’s alarmed by the news of a planet going through an extreme climate crisis, and a country bordering on civil war (true). Can she save humanity by publishing a self-critical memoir about her own greed and privilege (remains to be seen)?
Bechdel didn’t start by airing out the skeletons in her closet. “I had a lot of practice doing my comic strip (Dykes to Watch Out For),” says Bechdel from her home in Vermont. “It was kind of a soap opera comic strip for many years, which was not about my real life, but just all made up.”
Like all artists, Bechdel began to feel like there were other stories she wanted to tell. Real stories. “I had this kind of shift when I was around 40. I switched over to telling this real story from my life about my dad, which turned into Fun Home (A Family Tragicomic),” Bechdel says. It was a major transformation, as Fun Home hinged on revealing family secrets.
Fun Home became a major success. Spending two weeks on The New York Times bestseller list, Fun Home wasn’t your average graphic novel. Its themes ranged from suicide and emotional abuse to sexual identity and gender roles, all wrapped up within the autobiographical storytelling of Bechdel’s dysfunctional family. Fun Home soon became the studied subject of academics around the country.
Bringing her mother onboard proved to be a little more difficult. Family secrets are secrets, for a reason. Luckily, Bechdel had time, as it took seven years to complete. Partly because she photographed herself as the models for every character in the novel.
“It was a big deal,” Bechdel begins. “It was scary for me to tell my mother I was going to write about my father’s closeted life. Which, of course, revealed a great deal about her. My brothers had fewer concerns and objections, but we had to go through a process too.”
Scholars can analyze Fun Home for decades, but simply put, what propelled it into the social consciousness of America, was its honesty. Every family has its secrets, things that family members circle around and protect. “I think it was a relief for people to see somebody willing to take the chance,” Bechdel says.
Besides the public acclaim, and book sales, Bechdel knew she hit a nerve when new fans would come up to her to share their trauma. “It happens a lot,” Bechdel says. “And I always feel bad because I’m not really the best listener. I’m good at sharing my own stuff, but I’m not a therapist. I’m not really that interested in anyone but myself,” Bechdel admits with a laugh.
Then there’s the Bechdel Test. Directors and script writers and authors, have relooked at their art through this new prism and discovered that nowhere in their product do two women have a discussion that doesn’t have to deal with men. Apparently Shakespeare never did it, although it could be argued endlessly. But it’s surprising to see somebody like Quentin Tarantino easily passing the Bechdel Test in many of his movies. “I can’t guarantee that Quentin applies the test to his films, but I remember watching Jackie Brown and thinking, ‘Wow. This movie totally passes the test,’” says Bechdel.
As far as having a test named after her, Bechdel is vocal. “I’ve gotten used to it. I feel like our culture likes to believe that individual people do things, when in fact, it’s always the movement of people, and groups of people, that make these kinds of changes. Like I didn’t make that up, really. First of all, I stole it from friends. And second of all, it’s just like the basic principles of feminism. But I guess it’s easier to attach it to a name. So whatever, I’ll take it,” Bechdel says.
Alison Bechdel will be appearing at 7pm on May 28 at the Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. Tickets: $39. bookshopsantacruz.com
‘I feel like our culture likes to believe that individual people do things, when in fact, it’s always the movement of people, and groups of people, that make these kinds of changes.’
ACOUSTIC AND BEYOND Matthew and the Atlas perform Thursday at the Crepe Place. PHOTO: Dave Watts
MATTHEW AND THE ATLAS
Matthew Hegarty became a fixture in the West London folk rock scene in the late ’00s, drawing inspiration from Nick Drake, Jeff Buckley and Bob Dylan. Bringing the band together piece by piece, Hegarty began playing with pianist Lindsay West and multi-instrumentalist Dave Millar. This formed the original lineup of Matthew and the Atlas. While exploring various styles from classic acoustic folk to electronica, Matthew and the Atlas approach each song with a rustic blend of gravelly vocals and heart-on-the-sleeve lyrics. SHELLY NOVO
Singer-songwriter Jeffrey A. Meyer is a local staple, but he got his start in North Dakota. After years rocking out with Midwestern band The Fillers, Meyer stretched his musical vocabulary as a solo artist, drawing from country, folk, funk, rock and pop. His 2022 debut Wilder Times shows off his diversity and talent. The recent single, 2024’s “L.O.V.E,” is a gem of a collaboration with the always funky G. Love. Once again fronting a group (Jeffrey A. Meyer Band), Meyer says that his is “a complete party band… all five players have something to say.” The band’s new album is Colors of the Mind. BILL KOPP
INFO: 5:30pm, Discretion Brewing, 2703 41st Ave., Suite A, Soquel. Free. 316-0662.
AFRICAN MUSIC
TERGA and DUNIYA
Experience an amazing evening celebrating West and North Africa music and culture.
Opening with TERGA, a North African fusion band that delivers a high-energy, culturally rich sound. TERGA blends traditional rhythms, soulful vocals, and contemporary grooves. Featuring vocals by Chaba Fella Oudane, born in Bab-El-Oued Algiers. a talented Derbouka percussionist with a powerful voice and style. Following is DUNIYA, an innovative band that blends the deep roots of African/Malian music and instruments with modern arrangements and original songs. Their music is highly rhythmic and extremely danceable, interspersed by moments of slower, deeply profound grooves. The concert is being organized by the Center for the Middle East and North Africa at UCSC. BRAD KAVA
UCSC is hosting its annual New Play Festival (formerly known as Chautauqua) to celebrate the theater in all its glory and peril. The festival is a chance for students to experiment with scripts, acting, producing and directing in a creative, developmental lab setting. Performances will range from productions to script reading and can be anything from classic, dialogue-driven plays to dance numbers and digital media installations. The only boundaries are the ones placed by the artists themselves, which is to say the possibilities are endless. There will be six performances over two weekends from current UCSC students and alumni. MAT WEIR
INFO: 7:30pm, UCSC Theater Arts Center B-100 Studio Theater, 453 Kerr Rd., Santa Cruz. Free.
SATURDAY 5/24
POP PUNK
ADDALEMON
For almost two decades, Sacramento has had a resurgence in the punk scene. Originally the area was known for groups like the Groovie Ghoulies, Pressure Point and The Knockoffs. More recently, acts like Dog Party, Destroy Boys and Kind Eyes are kicking ass. Add to the flock pop punkers Addalemon, who made a name for themselves playing up and down the West Coast. The band dropped their debut EP in 2018 and a year later released their debut full-length, Ripe. Their latest EP, Bad Idea, is a six-song, 20-minute ripper influenced by the ’90s and 2000s sounds of Blink-182, Lagwagon, and The Get Up Kids. MW
INFO: 8:30pm, Blue Lagoon, 923 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $10. 423-7117.
REGGAE
STEEL PULSE
50 years ago, Steel Pulse formed in Britain and soon found a home in the burgeoning UK punk scene, which always had a strong link to reggae. They’ve been outspoken in their anti-racist views from the start, recording “Ku Klux Klan” as their first single and participating in the Rock Against Racism movement, founded after Eric Clapton went off on a drunken, racist screed onstage. They’ve had the musical chairs you’d expect from a 50-year run, but lead vocalist and founder David Hinds has stuck around through the entire half century, and he continues singing truth to power. KEITH LOWELL JENSEN
INFO: 8pm, Catalyst, 1101 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $44. 713-5492.
MONDAY 5/26
THEATER
FRESH INK
Presented by the playwrights’ collective 36 North, Fresh Ink is part of a five-week summer series kicking off this Monday. Experience some of the newest in local playwrights reading their scripts followed by a “talkback” segment after featuring the writer along with local directors and actors. Each part of the series will be presented on a Monday at 7pm with “The Furniture Plays,” “Solo Voices,” “Works in Progress” and “Potpourri” to follow throughout the summer. MW
INFO: 7pm, Actors’ Theatre, 1001 Center St., Santa Cruz. Free. 431-8666.
TUESDAY 5/27
FOLK
DANIEL RODRIGUEZ
Psychedelic folk artist Daniel Rodriguez achieved critical adoration and success with his band Elephant Revival until an inter-band romance ended—and, along with it, his place in the group. The singer-songwriter—with his rich, emotive voice—bounced back, guesting with The Lumineers on the Rodriguez-penned “This Is Life,” reimagined as a Christmas tune. The partnership continues to be fruitful as Lumineers frontman Wesley Schultz produced the upcoming Harboring Pearls, set for release in August. A fantastic single, “Graduation,” released earlier this month, bodes well for the new collection of songs with his usual perfect balance of lyrical cleverness and earnestness. KLJ
Amigo the Devil leaves his heart on the stage with raw, honest lyrics and dissonant and daring melodies. ATD—or, rather, songwriter Danny Kiranos—leans into the unpolished. Influenced by the authentic artistry of Leonard Cohen, Chavela Vargas and Tom Waits, Kiranos prioritizes an expression of truth over commercial appeal. In a gruff, low voice, he sings dark tales of heartbreak, doubt and loneliness. Although self-described as ‘murder-folk,’ Amigo the Devil is hard to categorize, blending emo, punk energy and Americana style. SN
There were grate expectations. Cremes of the crop. Fondues and don’ts, wheys to go, bleu feelings and harvarti parties.
At last month’s 19th annual California Artisan Cheese Festival, up the 880 in Sonoma, small producers conjured big flavor across seminars, tastings and tours.
“People came hungry, curious and ready to connect,” says Candace Allen, Beehive Cheese Company exec and president of the California Artisan Cheese Guild. “The energy was electric—proof that artisan cheese is more than food, it’s a community.”
Next California hosts the national American Cheese Society 2025 Annual Conference, July 23-26.
Pro tip: Volunteer like I did, meet a bunch of interesting cheese heads and curd mongers, support a worthy nonprofit, and earn free access to a swath of experiences. cheesesociety.org
OFF THE PIE CHARTS
Beckmann’s Bakery (1053 17th Ave., Santa Cruz) has claimed another slice of competitive glory at the National Pie Championships, which has been assembling since 1995, and happened in Orlando last month, hosted by the American Pie Council, whose motto is: “We all love pies.” Beckmann’s six ribbons—yes, a half dozen, some of them repeat victories—were awarded for their peach pie, cherry pie and pumpkin pie for best in those categories, on top of nods for the time-honored bakery’s strawberry-marionberry pie (for “mixed berry”) berry bomb (for “berry”) and—debuting in Santa Cruz this fall—rum-laced chocolate pecan (for a special syrup recipe slot).
The wins all came within the commercial super gourmet echelon of the showdown, which also cultivates amateur and professional divisions. Their edge, per Beckmann’s Business Development Operations Manager Tony Stumbaugh, involves some madness. “Where we’re insane is we make more than 200,000 pies every year, by hand,” he says, noting all-natural butter crusts help too. “The fact we’re able to pump out such high volume and be consistent with quality is a testament to our bakers.” beckmannsbakery.com.
SPOON FEEDINGS
I may have buried the lede (though this is a food column, not a horseracing report): Journalism, the bay colt who turned 3 on Monday, won the Preakness Stakes on Saturday, setting up a potential showdown against Sovereignty in the Belmont Stakes (Sovereniiety finished first just ahead of Journalism at the Kentucky Derby). I repeat, Journalism won!…
The makeover at local favorite watering hole and red meat capital, The Hindquarter Bar and Grille (303 Soquel Ave, Santa Cruz) is complete and represents a nice upgrade that doesn’t mess with the great value-fine steak formula that’s made it so popular for so long. thehindquarter.com…The BBQ Kauaiian at The Pizza Series (226 Mt Hermon Road, Scotts Valley) sounded good enough that I skipped my standard cupping pepperoni for a thick and caramelized-cheesy slab of smoked bacon, Black Forest ham, shaved jalapeños and fresh pineapple. Detroit-style delish, thepizzaseries.com…
Bummer alert: The since-1959 Central Coast tradition that is the Artichoke Festival is no more, with organizers citing increased event production costs, insurance premiums, permitting requirements and operational challenges…International spirits houses like the parent company of Johnnie Walker and Smirnoff are posturing for a tariff hit, countering anticipated $150 million annual losses with a $500 million cost-cutting move…In-N-Out is removing artificial dyes from its strawberry milkshakes and pink lemonade, going for natural coloring, while switching to a ketchup recipe that swaps out high-fructose corn syrup for real sugar…Author/intellectual/media personality Clifton Fadiman, close us out: “Cheese is milk’s leap toward immortality.”
Born in Bosnia, Lejla Borovac came to the United States with her family in the early ’90s to escape war. She studied marine biology at UCSC but says she ultimately found her calling in hospitality. Her industry career began locally in several restaurants in various front-of-house positions, and from there progressed to living and working in both San Francisco and New York City. Borovac then went back to school for an MBA and a year ago opened Hook & Line along with business partner and chef Santos Majano, the mastermind of the kitchen.
A seven-year manifestation from idea to reality, Borovac says their restaurant is a passion project and a great way to dovetail her love for hospitality and the environment. She defines it as a modern California seafood eatery in a space perfectly embodying that, oceanic tile complementing clean design with dark furniture set against white walls and intentionally subtle nautical décor. Featuring mostly local seafood with culturally eclectic preparations, Borovac says best apps are the lemongrass mussels with fries in coconut fish broth and stone crab claws (the most sustainable local kind) paired with sesame sweet chili aioli.
Highlighted mains are local black cod with spring garlic and caper butter sauce and squid fried rice with roasted asparagus. Hook & Line also offers a popular raw bar, with several types of oysters on the half-shell and rotating ceviches like the current halibut leche de tigre. Dessert favorites include sponge cake with macerated strawberries and the chocolate torte with dulce de leche and Chantilly cream.
Tell me about chef Majano’s background.
LEJLA BOROVAC: He comes from a farming family in El Salvador, where he developed a deep reverence and passion for local seasonal ingredients. His 20-plus years in the restaurant industry includes Michelin star level restaurants. He was the executive chef in the same space before us, and has come back full circle to open his own restaurant and fulfill a lifelong dream to showcase his own cuisine.
Detail the inspiration behind your bar program.
We feature a lot of amaros and vermouths and incorporate them into many of our cocktail recipes. These spirits are renowned for pairing well with seafood. Our beverage program also showcases small production spirits, seasonal cocktails, craft beers and organic/biodynamic wines produced with minimal intervention.
I got chills when I read Kyara Rodriguez’s story in our Pride features. She notes that in the 1970s, people were still being arrested for their sexuality.
There were grate expectations. Cremes of the crop. Fondues and don’ts, wheys to go, bleu feelings and harvarti parties At last month’s 19th annual California Artisan Cheese Festival.
