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Wildflowers have arrived. Here’s how you can enjoy them on the Peninsula throughout spring and summer.
Seeking superblooms? While we may not see dazzling desert displays found in Southern California, there are still plenty of wildflower hot spots following winter’s record rainfall. Dazzling displays of wildflowers are blanketing vast areas of California, often in places where aficionados say they haven’t seen them before. The kaleidoscopic...
A growing trend: The Peninsula eateries filled with lush floral decor
Dine at these seven spots that are bringing the outdoors in. You don’t need to be outdoors to enjoy and appreciate nature on the Peninsula: Local eateries have developed a flair for displaying their green ideals and aesthetics with floral decor. And these days, as the spring wildflower season beckons residents to parks and nature preserves, these eateries are flexing the flower power to create a lush outdoor vibe in indoor settings.
Holding court: How (and where) to play pickleball on the Peninsula
Pickleball’s popularity has skyrocketed in recent years. Here’s how you can get in on the action. When Mountain View resident Monica Engel Williams’ friends suggested they play pickleball while visiting in Arizona, she thought it was a card game. Tennis had been her sport for over 50 years, but once she picked up the pickleball paddle, she couldn’t stop playing.
Holding court: How (and where) to play pickleball on the Peninsula
Pickleball’s popularity has skyrocketed in recent years. Here’s how you can get in on the action. When Mountain View resident Monica Engel Williams’ friends suggested they play pickleball while visiting in Arizona, she thought it was a card game. Tennis had been her sport for over 50 years, but once she picked up the pickleball paddle, she couldn’t stop playing.
Peninsula residents overwhelmingly supported marijuana legalization. So where are all the dispensaries?
Experts say it’s high time for a change in local cannabis regulation, but the future of access in Silicon Valley remains hazy. Walk through the doors of Embarc, Redwood City’s first cannabis dispensary, and you’d be forgiven for thinking you’d entered a boutique pharmacy or hip, third-wave coffee shop. And, in a sense, you have.
Readers share their most memorable Peninsula dining experiences
From milestone meals to surprise interactions with chefs, here are your stories. To celebrate the Peninsula Foodist’s 100th newsletter, we asked our readers to respond to the following question in a survey: “What’s the most memorable experience you’ve had at a Peninsula restaurant? Tell us your story!”
We asked, you answered: Readers dish on their all-time favorite Peninsula restaurant bites
From honey yuzu scallops and khachapuri adjaruli to beef Wellington, these are the dishes you haven’t stopped thinking about. With the 100th edition of the Peninsula Foodist newsletter out April 19, we decided to survey our readers on their all-time favorite bite from a Peninsula eatery. The responses offered an array of dishes covering a wide swath of communities, price points and cuisines.
Seven secret gardens of the 650
Visit these gardens hidden in plain sight around the Peninsula. The Peninsula is flush with large-scale gardens like Gamble Garden, Filoli and Montalvo, but if we look in our own communities we will most certainly spot fertile ground that is tended to by a municipality or a community- or ecology-based nonprofit. Some of these gardens are sowed with wildflowers, some are natively diverse and some are an apothecary’s dream. These are the gardens hidden in plain sight that are there for you when you need them. Nature has the power to restore and heal us, so the next time you’re walking from the post office to the library or attending a birthday party at the local park, look a little closer at the landscape at your feet. Most likely, someone designed that to make you a little less stressed and a little more at ease.
Inside a Los Altos man’s hunt to rediscover Santa Clara County’s lost animal species
Richard Lanman and his colleagues have published groundbreaking research confirming the past existence of local Tule elk, Chinook salmon and American beavers and how they could be brought back to the area. When Dr. Richard Lanman purchased his Los Altos home in the 1980s, Adobe Creek, which snaked behind his...
A new home for plant-based dining takes root in Burlingame
Dine on celery root creme brulee and black pepper miso tagliatelle at Twelvemonth. Hillsborough resident Bob Trahan’s career trajectory is an unusual one. He worked as director of engineering at Meta, then attended culinary school, worked at a Michelin-starred restaurant in San Francisco and ran a home bakery. Now he’s the owner of a new plant-based restaurant in Burlingame called Twelvemonth.
Revel in the ethereal glow of nighttime cherry blossoms at Saratoga’s Hakone Estate and Gardens
The Japanese gardens hidden in the Santa Cruz Mountain foothills host evening viewings of spring blooms. Hidden off of Big Basin Way near downtown Saratoga, Hakone Estate and Gardens feels like a secret oasis in the Santa Cruz Mountain foothills. Catch the gardens during the day and it’s a surprisingly convenient and beautifully maintained respite from the traffic and chaos of Silicon Valley.
Dragon tales: Meet the Redwood City couple spreading joy with homemade inflatable dragons
Megan Gardner and Taylor Pope’s pandemic pet project has turned into a full-blown pastime. They call him Posty. He’s been a postal worker (hence the name), a cyclist, a wedding guest and a Jedi. He’s been the Virgin Mary. He’s been both President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. He’s a large, blue, inflatable dragon. And he’s not alone.
How two former tech workers are channeling their love of coffee into a new Menlo Park business
The Coffee Lab is opening this month as a space dedicated to educating people about the science behind coffee. A new laboratory is about to open its doors in downtown Menlo Park. Its two founders have painstakingly assembled a collection of state-of-the-art techno-wizardry: We’re talking microscopes, lasers, and reverse-osmosis filtration systems. Wall-mounted televisions display readouts and measurements from sensors. There are white lab coats, plant specimens and seed samples. You may think this is the product of the latest venture capital-backed Silicon Valley biotech startup, but it’s not. This lab’s mission is to connect people more deeply to America’s favorite beverage — coffee.
Inside Cupertino native Barbara Boissevain’s decadelong quest to photograph Peninsula salt ponds
The photographer’s striking aerial and ground-level images are part of the forthcoming book ‘Salt of the Earth’. Environmental photographer Barbara Boissevain was shooting photographs from a helicopter over the Bay when she first saw the subject that she would choose to record over the next 12 years and compile a photography book about.
How Peninsula residents have transformed their yards with native gardens
The free Growing Natives Garden Tour April 1-2 enables the public to visit over 40 private and public gardens landscaped with California native plants. Here are three you can see for yourself. A rise in gardening and home improvement projects brought on by early pandemic shelter-in-place orders has also spurred...
10 Peninsula restaurants offering Easter brunch feasts
Dine on honey pineapple ham, Maine lobster frittatas and carrot cake pancakes for the holiday. Springtime has arrived on the Peninsula, which means Easter is on its way. Whether you celebrate the Christian traditions the holiday is associated with or simply appreciate Peeps and a good egg hunt, Easter provides a good excuse to gather for brunch. Here are 10 spots pulling out all the stops for their Easter brunch festivities. Reservations are required or encouraged for most.
Fresh off a Grammy win, Palo Alto native Molly Tuttle talks about her ‘bluegrass roots’ and how the Bay Area influences her music
The singer-songwriter returns for back-to-back shows at The Guild in Menlo Park. Although Molly Tuttle moved out of the Golden State more than a decade ago, the acclaimed musician will always be a California girl at heart – and in the hearts of her Peninsula family, friends and fans.
Remote work rises and Caltrain ridership plummets: How Silicon Valley has changed three years since COVID
Annual report illustrates how the increasing cost of living is impacting residents — and driving them away. Each year, Joint Venture Silicon Valley, a regional nonprofit think tank, publishes its Silicon Valley Index, a report chock-full of data points attempting to paint a point-in-time portrait of the region. This...
From ube macarons to tira•mac•su: Meet the Santa Clara-based baker infusing new flavors into the traditional French macaron
Macaron de Jayne started as a college study abroad fundraiser. Nearly a decade later, Jayne Baltazar is bringing her innovative desserts to customers across Silicon Valley. Jayne Baltazar’s first forays into baking macarons began as an effort to get to France. As a college student at San Jose State University nearly a decade ago, Baltazar was eager to study abroad in Paris.
Eichler’s experimental utopia in Palo Alto remains virtually unchanged since 1954
The historic Greenmeadow neighborhood provides a rare opportunity to explore 22 blocks of pristine midcentury modern homes. Joseph Eichler’s work in Palo Alto’s Greenmeadow neighborhood was unlike most other subdivisions in the city at the time: He developed the south Palo Alto neighborhood with 270 similarly styled midcentury modern homes (now known as Eichlers) built around a centrally located community center that would serve as the core of neighborly activity.
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