Next, we headed back east. We happened upon yet another unexpected cool place on the rural outskirts of Sebastopol: Bill’s Farm Basket. It’s an organic store with produce and dried fruits and other sundries. PLUS, on that Saturday and Sunday, they had BBQ organic chicken cooking outside. Yes, in February. But it’s California… In the afternoon, you can usually wear short sleeves.

You may have guessed by this time that this area of California is rather in-your-face liberal. You’re right. I came across references to the “alternative” town of Sebastopol here and there. Turns out that it has the second-ever Green Party majority in its city council, so it’s pretty much run by the Green Party (Arcata, CA was the first). It’s also a nuclear free zone. It seems like it’s easier to eat organic here than not. And we saw this car and sticker in the parking lot. Apparently, it runs on pure vegetable oil. And it’s a Mercedes station wagon. Go figure.

You may have also noticed that there is a lot of good food in this area, with an unusual devotion to espresso. You’re very astute. On the south side the parking lot, resides this establishment.

Note: I have revisited Wild Flour Bread.

If I could, I would keep this post at the top of my blog, always. Wild Flour Bread was my favorite of all the places we visited on Saturday–and we visited a lot of good places. It’s also my favorite place that I’ve been to so far in the Napa area–and I’ve visited a lot of good places. I love it.

Put simply, no matter where you are in the world, if you book an airplane ticket right now to depart in 3 hrs (providing you arrive btw Fri-Mon b/c that’s when they’re open), rush to the airport, arrive in Oakland or San Francisco, and drive like a madman to Freestone, CA to sample the breads at Wild Flour Bread, it would be completely worth it. You may not even be a bread person, but you will easily become a Wild Flour bread person.

It’s amazing bread. Served warm, perfectly chewy on the inside and slightly crusty on the outside, and so full of flavor. It’s like eating perfection.

And mind you, it’s basically in the middle of nowhere. This is the view across the street.

The view inside is perhaps just as beautiful, but even more breathtaking.

That wood-fired brick oven in the back bakes these organic loaves to perfection.

So, what’d we get? The fougasse (with potatoes, jack cheese, cheddar cheese, garlic, potatoes, and rosemary) and the sticky bun. When we brought our purchases to the communal table, I felt the sticky bun, and said “Oooh, it’s still warm.” I then felt the fougasse, and said “Oh my god, this is warm, too.” It was like Christmas morning.

I think that Wild Flour is a bit like the classic Ben & Jerry’s of breads — they like to throw a lot of big chunks of good stuff in (though there are pure grain breads, too). They also have a tricky way with bread names. A fougasse is usually a leaf shaped lean dough with holes. Our fougasse looked like this.

The ladder-like ( /cough-cough/ pretty-fougasse-like) loaves on the mid-left of the interior picture above had goat cheese, onions, and herbs. It’s called a Goat Cheese Flat. I found that out later.

Anyway, the chunks in the breads are not just limited to potatoes and garlic. When they say there’s cheese in the bread, they mean chunks of glorious melted cheese. So, getting it warm is part of the beauty. The rosemary is also more mellow when it’s warm (it’s stronger when you devour the leftovers later).

And the sticky bun. There’s nothing like it in the world. Syrupy on the edges, chewy, cinnamon-y, wildly folded.

You can’t really tell from the pic, but it’s huge–about the size of a healthy hardcover book. Like the fougasse, it’s whole wheat. They don’t mention this on the menu board, but in a way, they don’t really need to. It is what it is, and it tastes delicious; it doesn’t taste like some lame Whole Wheat Wonder Bread. This the real stuff that just tastes good.

The owner used to work in specialty glass in Santa Rosa, so there’s even stained glass to admire… in the bathroom…

And this bread bunny lives in the window.

They have pizzas only on Fridays and Mondays. Sigh…. they must be spectacular…. (Edit: They no longer make pizza).

We set out from Napa at about 8:45am, and by 9:30am, we reached our first stop: the Marin French Cheese Co on the rural outskirts of the town of Petaluma (Marin County is the county to the west of Sonoma–which is to the west of Napa–so the drive looks something like this).

The Marin French Cheese Co sells under the label Rouge et Noir, and they have been making cheese in the same location since 1865. They specialize in soft cheeses such as brie, camembert, chevre, and quark. Their cheeses are said to be hand crafted in the French style. All their cheeses are pasteurized, though, unlike the some of the illegal-in-the-US unpasteurized cheeses made in France.

They open at 8:30am, but I think we were the first customers on this winter Saturday morning. As we quietly browsed the cheeses, jams, and wine accoutrements (plus a truly gorgeous martini gear carrying case), a worker quietly opened packages of their cheeses to put out as samples…. Probably about 12 in total. This was one of our first breakfasts.

Just as I am not a wine aficionado, I am not a cheese one either, although I do enjoy it immensely. What I’ve noticed from wine tasting, though, is that a winery will often have a certain style that goes through all their wines–certain flavors and tones that permeate throughout its products. At Marin French Cheese Co, the flavor of the farm permeated, in the best way. A brie or camembert might begin with its creamy freshness, but by the end, notes of grass and hay of a farmhouse linger, as if the cheese had its own terroir. Oui, comme les fromages de France.

It was hard to choose among the cheeses, but in the end, I ended up getting their yellow buck chevre with its grassy notes and their fresh blackberry quark, which was rather purple-ish and jammy and sweet–too sweet for Chad, who said he couldn’t even taste the cheese. But I’ve always liked to mix cream cheese with jam, and this was the apotheosis of that combination. There was also a buttery “Breakfast Cheese” that was tempting.

Outside, there is also a duck pond to spend time at for a picnic. They sell sandwiches and wine and there’s a small deli section, but of course, you can bring your own breads and wines, too.

The above picture suggests a somewhat busier landscape than there really is….

I wish that I could go to Della Fattoria every Sunday morning. The streets of Petaluma, in the southern part of Sonoma county, may be a bit overbleached by the sun, but inside Della Fattoria is the coziest cafe you could want. Colorful, but mellow.

You can come with friends to linger and sip from large bowls of coffee or hot chocolate, or come alone, as I did, to enjoy the communal table and read the newspapers that are strewn about or read a Wine Spectator to understand wines just a little bit better, as I did.

There are cases of pastries… and shelves of bread… and jars of cookies and candies for sale, though it is a rather small space. I chose the Breakfast Bread Pudding made with their polenta bread and bacon and sundried tomatoes and cheeses. The rich aroma matched its creamy consistency, and thank goodness for the apple to provide some tart contrast.

The cinnamon bun, on the other hand, was a sweeter contrast. Much more like rolled up croissant dough saturated in butter so that the swirls were slightly crisp on the outside and almost juicy with butter on the inside, it was also a rich pleasure.

Many of the pastries and breakfast items are much less indulgent, so don’t be put off by the festival of butter above.

I was tempted to buy a poached pear tart to take home with me, but I bought a loaf of their Meyer Lemon Rosemary Campagne bread instead.

I was a bit disappointed with it. When I tried it at home, the interior and crust were too gummy for me too enjoy, and the interior was a bit dry. It is, perhaps, a sign of control on the part of the bakers that they only TOP the bread with the lemon and rosemary (and olive oil and coarse salt), but some flavoring in the rest of the bread might have masked the consistency problem. This may be how it normally is, how it is on off day, or if they gave it to me while it was still warm and put it in the bag, it could have been softened by steam on the way home; this happened when we made breads at CIA, and I took a loaf home that hadn’t cooled completely. I didn’t notice it being warm at the time, but who knows. Their breads are baked in brick ovens heated with wood fires, so I would be willing to give their breads another try… after a sampling of the poached pear tart.

Oh, and breads such as these should have almost translucent spots that show that the starch gelatinized properly. I tested it. This one passed.

Like Napa, Sonoma is a town, a valley, and a county. When I woke up this morning in Napa, it was a little foggy, but I thought it might make for atmospheric drive so I aimed for the town of Sonoma. As if I’d wandered into Oz, Sonoma was surprisingly clear and sunny, with a mostly blue skies and rolling green hills.

This is just outside the town of Sonoma. I know what the word means, but I don’t know what the sign means.

The downtown is centered around a square, which has a park and City Hall in the center.

I was just on a morning mission to scope out the town, so I just walked around the lovely square, which is lined with shops on the outside.

Sonoma Cheese Factory is a landmark on the square. They’ve been making cheese since 1931, and are known for their Sonoma Jack.

Lots of jack. Lots of free samples. After I tried them all, I settled on the hot pepper one.

Adult cheese whiz.

Although it’s great fun to drive around wine country and visit what you find in the greens hills and valleys, a benefit of stopping in towns is that there are often stores operated by wineries that have tastings. Drunk driving is a big problem here, so such stores let you drink and rest and explore until you can drive again. In contrast, killing time in a rural winery’s parking lot is little fun.
I was excited by the popular Basque Cafe.

But I was in the mood for walking and the display was a little too monochromatic for me, so no tastings were made. I am curious about what they put in that gateau basque on the upper right, though…

The square is quite large, and it was a good stroll to see the variety of establishments. I was impressed to see an art house movie theater.

I was also impressed by the prospect of a quilt shop… or maybe the idea of it–I didn’t seek it out.

And how to get them hooked young….

The girl & the fig is probably the best known restaurant in town, and you’ll see their products, such as spreads and sauces, everywhere in the valleys and beyond.

With so much competition, having an historic garden can’t hurt.

There were also quite a few arcades around the square lined with little shops. Yes, this one has a store called Scandinavian Trends with a gnome in front of it.

Sonoma reminded me a lot of Healdsburg, which is a town in northern Sonoma County that is also centered around a square. The weird thing is that, despite the variety of stores and architecture, these towns also remind me of New England, with their modern quaintness and traditional quirkiness and assortment of jams for sale. The main difference is that New England rarely ever gets this dry and sunny.