What's New: Spring 2006

Shop with the Chef Offers "Variations in Green"
On the first Saturday of each month, beginning April 1 through October 7, 2006 the Cabrillo Farmers Market in Aptos will continue to offer an educational component to weekly shopping trips. Now in its second season, Shop with the Chef pairs a different local gourmet chef each month with farmer’s market attendees as they embark on a culinary exploration (disguised as a walking tour) through the market. Local vendors help teach participants how to choose and cook the best fruits and vegetables, and buying tips and strategies for picking the best eggplant, arugula and heirloom tomatoes are shared. At the end of the tour, a cooking demonstration is conducted, featuring fresh produce selected during the outing. Featured recipes vary from month to month, and participants are free to sample the tempting dishes once completed. Shop with the Chef is sponsored by CASCC, the Culinary Alliance of Santa Cruz County.

Preserving (Food) History, One Can at a Time
Did you know that a Watsonville food processor assisted the Post Cereal company when it experimented with adding freeze-dried strawberry slices in its product in the 1960’s? (Post realized the process was too expensive and the idea was shelved). Did you know that dried apples from Watsonville were shipped to Germany and used for apple strudel? “Pick Now, Eat Later”, a new permanent exhibit at the Agricultural History Project’s Codiga Center and Museum pays tribute to the Pajaro Valley’s critical role in canning, drying, freezing and freeze-drying fruits and vegetables for the nation’s food supply. Frozen food producer Bird’s Eye, along with the company’s local employees, raised the funds for the exhibit. Interactive maps, vintage artifacts and historic photos round out the display.

Boulder Creek History Comes Alive With New Walking Tours
If Santa Cruz County were to represent the United States, the San Lorenzo Valley would be considered “the wild west”, and in particular the town of Boulder Creek. Once home to 26 saloons, gambling houses, brothels and hotels, the rootin’, tootin’ town hosted a group of hardy pioneers who logged “red gold” – centuries-old redwood trees which grew in abundance. In fact, in the early 1870s the town was famous for its 14-mile lumber flume and redwood-hauling narrow gauge railroad. Today, local historian Barbara Kennedy narrates a fascinating guided walk along the main street. A member of the Santa Cruz County Historic Resource Commission, Barbara ’s two-hour tour captures the essence of historic Boulder Creek and the resident lumbermen, railroaders, and proper ladies who populated this mountain town. After the trees were clear cut, when the logging flume was abandoned and the trains stopped running, some of San Francisco ’s better-heeled families built vacation homes in Boulder Creek, attracted to the low-key lifestyle and natural beauty.

Counting Cows and Calves: The California Gray Whale Migration a Site to See
Springtime is prime time for one of the greatest shows in the marine world: the annual California Gray Whale migration. The whales travel 70 to 80 miles per day at a rate of three to five miles per hour. Their 10,000 to 14,000-mile round-trip trek is the longest known distance any mammal migrates on an annual basis. The coast of Santa Cruz County offers some of the best whale watching in California . The migrating whales, up to 45 feet in length, can be seen “spy-hopping” and breaching as they migrate along this beautiful coastline in the nutrient-rich waters of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Each year, spectators wielding binoculars line the coastal bluffs in Davenport , on Santa Cruz County ’s rugged north coast, as the whales pass closest to the shoreline during their travel through the Monterey Bay . Venturing out by boat, however, affords the best views of the whales – as well as sightings of sea lions, sea otters, orcas, humpback whales and blue whales. Whale-watching tours depart regularly from the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf and the Santa Cruz Harbor.

Santa Cruz Area State Parks Offer WI-FI Access for Visitors
Santa Cruz County’s Natural Bridges State Beach and Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park now offer wireless high-speed internet access (Wi-Fi) so that visitors can stay in touch with family, friends, or the workplace, if needed while on vacation. The FreedomLink Wi-Fi access from SBC Communications allows users to communicate via e-mail and instant messages with family and friends, share digital pictures of their vacation, obtain driving directions or locate hiking trails or nearby restaurants and other attractions. Wireless-enabled laptops or personal digital assistant (PDA) devices can be activated within about 200 feet of a SBC “hot spot” located in the park. California state parks and SBC Communications Inc. offer the service at more than twenty state parks throughout California . The project is the largest Wi-Fi deployment of its kind nationwide. According to the Travel Industry Association of America (TIA), increased usage of the Internet and the popularity of e-mail as a form of communication is evident among many travelers, as 22 percent of travelers used the Internet or e-mail while on a vacation trip in the past year.