Story of the Month : The Haunting of Soda Springs
Indigenous North American peoples considered mineral springs to be "power spots"—a place to heal their spirit. These cultures utilized the natural waters for purification ceremonies, sacred gatherings, and tribal meetings. Those who lived in the Napa Valley, the Water Going Out Place People ... were frequent visitors to all of the mineral springs in the valley which they knew so intimately. They considered hot springs to be sacred places inhabited by the Great Spirit. (banner pictures: left: The Rotunda at Soda Springs, right: Napa Soda Springs, 1857.)

Napa Valley Farming

(available now from Arcadia Publishing)

Napa, California

Napans tend more than grapevines. The area's diverse soil and mild climate make possible a generous yield of agricultural products. This book traces the cultivation of these products through a chronology of Napa's farming history, from indigenous food plants to the orchards that were planted to feed gold miners -- orchards that would soon function as both therapy and sustenance for the patients in the newly created Asylum. Immigrants from Italy and Germany and Japan and China joined newly emancipated slaves and Mexican citizens who had settled here before the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Together they cultivated the land, picked the fruit, nuts, and hops, cut the wheat, kept bees, and tended livestock on dairy farms and cattle ranches. Each chapter begins with a poem inspired by farming or a recipe reflecting the valley's bounty. The scents of peaches, apples, cherries, pears, prunes, and honey linger in the imaginations of thousands of locals, while the trees, hives, and vines continue to thrive wherever placed.

Read more here...