Rethinking Your Services
Tips for becoming a successful solopreneur
If you want to increase your earning power as an independent worker, it’s time to get creative about alternative revenue streams. If you have an expertise that people pay for when they hire you, there are other ways you can capitalize on that expertise. Here are some ideas:
A Year in Design
Checking in with last year’s featured designers
Last year we highlighted Sacramento’s newest design superstars, just in time for the holidays (“Fresh Perspective,” by Kibkabe Araya, December 2013). Here’s a look at what they’ve been up to over the past year.
The Battle for Urban Ag
Community organizers fight for rights to sell the food you grow
In a county where 218,510 residents are food insecure (meaning they don’t know where their next meal will come from), and where a local food bank will distribute groceries to 40,000 individuals each month, food activists are continually innovating ways to break the cycle of poverty—for good. The solution is actually under our feet: the soil.
Taste the Vineyard
Lodi vintners are taking a minimalist approach to create all-natural Zinfandels from heritage vines
You might say the old grapevines look otherworldly. With their contorted limbs and thick trunks, these Zinfandel vines look more like squat alien-trees, twisting up out of a sandy 3-acre spit of land in southwest Lodi. “Look how this vine is growing here,” says Stuart Spencer, owner of St. Amant Winery. He’s standing in the dirt at nearby Marian’s Vineyard, pointing to a vine with a hole as big as a fist. “The vine just splits over time.”
Going Native
A breakdown of the Lodi wine scene
Zinfandel from Lodi’s Mokelumne River American Viticultural Area comes in two main styles: west side and east side. West-side vineyards, with their shallower soil, have lusher growth and tend to be earthier or loamier, sometimes pungently compost-like. East-side vineyards have a lower water table, producing smaller clusters and smaller fruit, which generally have more color, tannin and acidity.
Wine Tunes
Family-owned and operated Harmony Wynelands in Lodi is musically motivated
The wine tasting room at Harmony Wynelands in Lodi was built with a far different purpose. Bob Hartzell, an aficionado of old-fashioned theater pipe organs and former president of the California Winegrape Growers Association, built the hall to house his pride and joy – a 1921 organ that was once installed in the Castro Theatre in San Francisco. The room’s acoustics are specially designed to show off the organ’s commanding sound.
Missing Moms
Can an employer require employees to return after maternity leave?
I run a small business. Twice in the past two years, I’ve had employees quit directly after taking maternity leave. Prior to their departures, it was understood that they would return to work. This has caused understandable upheaval in the office. What questions, if any, can I ask employees taking maternity or paternity leave? Can I require them to come back to work in order to take the leave? Are there any options for me to avoid this happening in the future?
Shaken or Stirred?
Cocktails with local flair
Bartenders around the region have provided us with their best bets for holiday cocktails featuring gin, rye and bourbon — spirits that are now being produced locally by craft distillers.
Drop by Drop
After 81 years, microdistillers are gaining ground against Prohibition-era laws
In a makeshift distillery tucked into a Rancho Cordova business park, Greg Baughman mashes and ferments batches of his Wheel House American Dry Gin using a still he designed and built himself, a gleaming vision of stainless steel and copper. But actually sell you a bottle? For that he needs to hire a middleman due to regulatory hurdles dating back to Prohibition.
Election Aftermath
Post election, what does El Dorado County’s future for growth look like?
Election day saw the defeat of measures M, N and O in El Dorado County. These highly charged measures were opposed by a broad coalition of farmers, business owners and civic leaders who believed these initiatives would diminish local control and restrict development decisions to bureaucrats outside El Dorado County. Although the measures were soundly defeated, the question remains, what happens now?