Smithsonian magazine has deemed Healdsburg one of the best small towns in the United States to visit. In fact, it's rated No. 2, right behind Chautauqua, N.Y., which is harder to pronounce but apparently even more charming.
"Poised between Calistoga and the wild Pacific Coast, with damp morning fogs and blistering afternoon sunshine, the place is so fertile anything grows," Susan Spano wrote in the magazine's April issue. "The eat-local movement inspired by Bay Area chef-restaurateur Alice Waters has fully flowered in Healdsburg.
"Four celebrated Sonoma County wine regions nearby -- Alexander Valley, Russian River Valley, Dry Creek Valley and Chalk Hill -- helped drive the gastronomical renaissance," the story continues. "But these days growers with small family farm biodiversity in mind are pulling up vines on prime grape-growing land worth $200,000 an acre to plant many-colored baby beets, hops, Belgian endive and Meyer lemons, and make way for sheep and free-range chickens.
"Chefs from town forage at Preston Vineyards in the Dry Creek Valley for wild salad greens like stinging nettles. Area farm families are finding ways to hold on to their land by producing homemade comestibles, from sausage to vinegar, and marketing them on the Internet instead of letting food manufacturers mash their crops into jars with big-name labels."
The piece gushes over all kinds of things in Healdsburg, including Healdsburg Plaza, Fitch Mountain, a food store called Shed, wine-tasting lounges and the Healdsburg Museum.