The 6th Annual Los Olivos Jazz and Olive Festival takes place next Saturday, June 5th, at the corner park by the flagpole from 1 to 4 pm. I remember last year you could hear the music all over town, but the food and drink--which sounds like a lot of fun--requires a ticket.

Live jazz music will be performed by the The Los Angeles Jazz "A Team," with singer Denise Donatelli, and food will be served by 30 different amateur and professional chefs. Twenty-two area wineries will be pouring. All 600 tickets sold out last year twenty minutes before the event began, so they've increased the event to 650 tickets, but if you'd like to go you should probably buy one now.
When the "doors" open at 1pm, you'll receive a souvenir wine glass and plate, and then make your way from canopy to canopy to sample the vintners' and chefs' offerings with music in the background.

The event is sponsored by the Los Olivos Rotary Club. Festival Tickets are $40 and can be purchased in advance at Corner House Coffee in Los Olivos, The Book Loft or Los Padres Bank in Solvang, the Burger Barn in Santa Ynez, and RaboBank in Buellton. More information and tickets are also available at http://www.losolivosrotary.org/ .

LOE Goes to Washington

After months and months of fund-raising, the kids from the eighth grade at Los Olivos Elementary School are on their way to New York City and Washington, D.C. Forty-two students and 18 chaperones head out this weekend for the Big Apple, where they will see the sights, including the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and the Empire State Building as well as a performance of The Lion King. Then it's on to our nation's capital, including stops at the Washington monument, Lincoln memorial, National cathedral, the Supreme Court and Library of Congress.

English teacher Pam Rohr has been taking the class for eleven years now on a trip that they surely remember for a lifetime. Thank you to everyone who bought a holiday wreath, attended an event or in some way supported the class trip!

Like me, you may be wondering what will become of the retail space at the corner of Grand and Alamo Pintado, the former home of the Judith Hale Gallery. Good question. The building, owned by a company in Woodland Hills, is still available for rent.

What it probably won't be is a restaurant (sewage/septic restrictions) or a tasting room. (A rep says Los Olivos is unlikely to approve another one.)

The space in total is about 2100 square feet, give or take a few, but the owners are considering dividing it into three spaces, each in the neighborhood of 700 square feet. What's especially interesting to me is, in the proposed plan, only one of the three spaces would have a door on Grand. A second would have an entrance on Alamo Pintado and a third only from the back. The smaller space with the little door on the right facing Grand would make a cute little store, but that's apparently not what they have in mind when they divide it. I also wondered if someone could rent one of the spaces for a short term…maybe to try out a business or have what's referred to as a "pop up" store, but the owners are looking for a one-year lease, minimum.

Asking price: $3,000/month for the space with the entrance on Grand, $2,500 for the other two. Utilities are NOT included and any assessments or increase in taxes will be passed on to the tenants.

I hope someone great comes in. I'll try to support their business as I do all the businesses in Los Olivos. I hope you will too.

If you haven't tried the strawberries from the stand down on Alamo Pintado, it can only be because you don't know what you're missing. The baskets (three for $6) are bursting with the biggest, reddest, wonderfully ripe strawberries you've ever seen, not a bruised one in the bunch. I was going to add a recipe here for shortcake or homemade vanilla ice cream, but after I rinse them and put them in a bowl, they don't last long enough to get the ingredients together. Better to just whip some cream and dig in! My Los Olivos.

The stand has been there for three years now, and it's open every day from 9 to 5.

By the way, California is the nation's leading producer of strawberries, delivering close to 60 million flats so far this season already. Our neighbor, Santa Maria, is the second largest proudcer in the state, but the hands down leader is Oxnard, home of the 27th annual Strawberry Festival, which takes place next weekend.

If you have more self-control than I do, you might want to try the California Strawberry Commission's website, for a bunch of strawberry recipes. www.calstrawberry.com/recipe. Either way, make sure you run down to the stand before it's too late!

It's springtime in the valley and Los Olivos is surrounded by green hillsides and fields dotted with flowers. There are colts in the pastures and leaves sprouting on the grapevines. Even the roses are enjoying their first full bloom.