Raley’s recently nabbed the coveted Retailer of the Year award from Wine Enthusiast, thanks to Director of Alcohol and Beverage Curtis Mann

Right in California’s agricultural heart, innovative nonprofit Green Tech Education and Employment is growing something other than crops – it’s cultivating Sacramento’s next generation of skilled workers.

In the heart of Roseville near Denio’s Farmers Market and the All American Speedway, a multi-million dollar renovation is revitalizing the Placer County Fairgrounds, recently rebranded as @the Grounds.

The Sangre del Dragon project started in August 2016 when Sac High seniors Leo Lopez, Angel Roque, Benny Perez and Jordan Salvador were given an assignment to create a business plan for hot sauce.

What happens when a high school business plan assignment turns into reality? For a team from Sacramento Charter High School, it’s just the beginning of a budding hot sauce business.

The Capital Region has a couple of homegrown video game success stories, but most growth is taking place in its community of indie developers. As the region seeks to brand itself more as a tech hub, these gamers want to ensure their industry is part of the push.

Rob Winkler, CEO of 5th Planet Games in Rocklin, offers his insight into changes in the local game development industry.

While California boasts some of the highest numbers of female farmers in the U.S., at 33 percent of the state’s total farmers, that’s still only one in seven farmers. Yet, the women who have chosen this profession don’t see themselves as statistics. They see themselves as hard workers feeding their communities.

Comstock’s recently spoke with three women about the joys and challenges of running small farms.

Here in America’s farm-to-fork capital, consumers tend to understand this connection through our region’s rich agricultural heritage and California’s role as the nation’s largest agricultural producer. Local chefs like Brad Cecchi showcase seasonal produce and proteins from local farmers and ranchers who respect the land they farm and animals they raise, through practices intended to keep the land productive for generations to come.

Bennet Omalu is a forensic pathologist who lives comfortably in Sacramento with his wife and two young kids. Chief medical examiner of San Joaquin County and a clinical professor at the UC Davis School of Medicine, his life today contrasts sharply with being a malnourished infant during Nigeria’s Civil War.

As Sacramento’s craft beer scene exploded, breweries opened on the outskirts, but now breweries and beer bars are migrating to the grid.

There’s a pervasive myth that selling crafts is an easy way to make money, but even savvy entrepreneurs have to play the odds of a mercurial marketplace.

I’ve heard him introduce himself as Woodrowe. I’ve heard him introduce himself as Radio. The first time I met him, he didn’t introduce himself at all. He just sat down next to me and started rapping. Then he started beatboxing (mouth percussion, for those who may not be familiar). He was clearly a talented artist, but the layers of his story began to unfold in our following conversation.

Ethan Martin didn’t take a traditional path to his position as director of user strategy for local digital creative agency Bukwild. In his younger years, he thought he’d map and maneuver challenging ski runs around a mountain town for a living. Instead, as an adult, he finds himself navigating design challenges for a digital creative agency in Old Sacramento.

Why is Auburn beer blowing up? Besides the amenable climate, perhaps the appeal lies in the area’s clean and balanced water that originates as the Sierra snowpack.

In a historic brick building on Lincoln Street in Old Roseville, FourScore Coffee House is open for business after a two-year hiatus. Now expanded and remodeled, the family-run coffee shop features a funky portrait of President Abraham Lincoln in sunglasses, reclaimed wood tables built by a local craftsman and brick pulled from the K Street demolition in Sacramento that made room for the Golden 1 Center.

Ask Elena Katnik’s advice on opening a family-run business, and she’ll caution against it. But not because it hasn’t worked at TEAMride, a popular Sacramento-based spin studio.

As a photographer and owner of the Morrison Hotel Gallery with locations in New York, West Hollywood and Maui, Peter Blachley understands how powerful the arts can be. So when he heard about Image Nation, a local photography program to help veterans, he wanted to get involved.

The historic D.O. Mills Bank building, owned by the Cameron Family since 1922, is in the midst of massive transformation. The bank, slated to open this year, will be a three level 30,000 square-foot culinary destination. 

As a child, working in her family’s print shop in Grass Valley, Judith Berliner’s job was to help her father produce custom maps and limited-edition books on the antique machinery. She now works those same presses as owner of Full Circle Press.