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Many cool season vegetables can be planted in our South County gardens in the fall. During our winters, nature helps with the watering, and there are fewer weeds and pests. Cool season vegetables include broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, chard, kale and beets. The UCCE Master Gardeners have Fall Garden Markets scheduled in Gilroy and Morgan Hill, with varieties especially well-suited to the southern end of the county.

The primary way lenders establish the value of a home, either for a purchase transaction or a refinance, is through a Residential Appraisal Report.

Normand Latourelle and Cavalia have brought his $30 million stunning production Odysseo to San Jose. For those who said last year that San Francisco that it was too long a drive to see a spectacular piece of theater, I suggest you run, don’t walk, for an unforgettable event that is now in your own backyard.

Revered in the wine world, Josh Jensen is the winemaker at Calera Wine. He’s graced the cover of Wine Spectator and Jensen’s pinot noirs are known the world over.So it was during their recent Summer Social & Sliders event that I made my pinot pilgrimage to Calera, to sip and savor wine made from grapevines grown in limestone soil at the site of a former limekiln. Arriving at the winery I was immediately awed by the views provided by the majestic Diablo Mountains.My tasting started inside the cool barrel room with a glass of 2014 Central Coast Chardonnay ($20), awarded “Best Value!” by Wine & Spirits Magazine. Next up was a “spunky and fun” 2015 Pinot Noir Rose—just right for summertime picnics.Although 19 different pinot noirs, all estate grown and from different vineyard blocks, are available for purchase, for the day’s event we were treated to a vertical tasting of pinots from the Jensen Mt. Harlan block: two library and one 2012 release.The pinots were poured next to the outside tent filled with gourmet sliders. Surprisingly, the 2005 Pinot Noir ($94) is still a fabulous wine, showing rich and complex layers of ripe raspberry and Bing cherry. The 2009 Pinot Noir ($104) is silky with sweet spice topping the dense raspberry and cherry cola flavors. Layers of sweet raspberry jam and tart rhubarb give way to leathery notes on the finish of the 2012 Pinot Noir ($92).Taking in the views, I savored the tasty bites and sipped these extraordinary wines.

There are two loan programs, both backed by government agencies, that are sorely underutilized by their constituency.

Famous for their California style wines, the vintages Gilroy’s Satori Cellars develops are big and bold with plenty of ripe fruit, bursting with flavor. Satori is like an open-air cantina that you might find in the Caribbean. Like their tagline, “There’s always a party at Satori.” It’s the only winery in our region with bar stools that shimmy up to the shaded tasting bar.

After a four-mile ride over a rough and tumble dirt road, we parked at the trailhead to Shepherd Pass above the small town of Independence on the east side of the Sierra. The sun had just begun to light the peaks 8,000 feet above us as we shouldered our packs. Temperatures in the Owens Valley had been warm, and we wanted to climb above the heat before it arrived.

Whitney Pintello directs this very clever bit of theater by London playwright Michael Wilmot with a bold hand and broad brush.