Community Corner

Photo Gallery: Chow-Down, Hoedown for the Ecology Center

The inaugural Full Moon Barn Dance helped fund the Sonoma Ecology Center's Enviro-Leaders internship program.

Foodies and environmentalists from both city and country gathered Saturday for a good-old-fashioned hoedown with a cause.

The first annual hosted 150 guests for a locally sourced dinner at the Circle JR Ranch in Schellville.

After square dancing, lasso lessons and a performance Sonoma's own , guests grabbed their own utensils to feast on produce from the Bi-Rite garden (heirloom tomatoes, carrots, eggplant) and hamburgers provided two of the ranch's cattle, formerly known as 'Luca' and 'Palermo.'

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Proceeds from the evening benefited 18 Reasons, which hosts food and agriculture centric community events as the nonprofit wing of San Francisco's Bi Rite Market, and the 's Enviro-Leaders program, which gives career experience and ecological know-how to about 40 Sonoma high school students each year.

Organizers hoped the event would form a "meeting of the minds" between eco-friendly business folk, said Cece Hugo, who created the event along with HWY 12 Properties business partner Sue Simon and Rosie Branson Gill, program director for 18 Reasons.

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Food, wine, beer and homemade sodas were donated by Bi-Rite Market and Creamery, SodaCraft, HWY 12 Vineyards & Winery, Nicholson Ranch, Kenwood Vineyards and Linden Street Brewery.

Check out a video of the square dance, above.


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