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LAKEPORT, Calif. – Grillers, get ready to sizzle in the 10th annual “Grillin’ on the Green” cook-off.

The Westside Community Park Committee is seeking interested grillers to compete this year when the barbecue cook-off and family fun event returns to Westside Community Park, 1401 Westside Park Road.

Sponsors of the event also are sought and will be recognized at the event.

Scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 3, from 5 to 7:30 p.m., the annual fundraiser features food, drink and entertainment for all ages.

Taste competitors’ barbecue fare, dance to live music by the LC Diamonds, and enjoy a car show featuring vintage vehicles from local car clubs. Children may participate in water activities, as well.

Local organizations, individuals and professionals battle for bragging rights each year by preparing their best barbecue recipes for attendees who then cast Peoples’ Choice votes for the favorites.

Additionally, “celebrity” judges will select their favorite grillers in various categories.

This year’s celebrity judges are Lake County Sheriff Brian Martin; Dana Stubblefield, retired San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders defensive tackle; and Luis Castelero, a retired San Francisco restaurant manager who now offers cooking classes from the Finca Castelero venue just outside of Kelseyville.

Interested grilling chefs and team representatives are urged to sign up as soon as possible. Call Cindy Ustrud at 707-263-7091. Entries are due by Friday, July 12.

Event organizers are seeking sponsors of the event and sponsors for grillers this year. Levels of sponsor recognition are $100, $300, $500, $1,000, $3,000, and $5,000.

Opportunities to sponsor a Grillin’ participant are available at the rate of $500. Major sponsors for this year’s event include Lake County News, KNTI, Lakeport Cinema 5, Keeling-Barnes Family Foundation and the Ustrud-Rollins Family.

Information about the event can be found on the park’s Web site, www.westsidecommunitypark.org, or on Westside Community Park’s Facebook page. Additionally, people may call Dennis Rollins, 707-349-0969, for information.

Westside Community Park is a city of Lakeport recreational facility that has been in development for 20 years.

The nonprofit Park Committee is developing the park in conjunction with the city of Lakeport, volunteers, and numerous contributions by individuals and businesses dedicated to constructing a recreational facility for the youth and adults of Lake County.

Westside Community Park is home to the Konocti Youth Soccer League, Westshore Little League's softball league, the Lakeport team of the Ukiah Men's Soccer League and the Early Lake Lions Horseshoe League.
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The Mount Konocti Lookout in Kelseyville, Calif. Courtesy photo.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Mount Konocti Lookout team continues to seek volunteers to help with fire detection this fire season.

A second orientation for volunteers will take place at 9 a.m. Saturday, June 29, at the Kelseyville Fire Protection District Station, 4020 Main St.

This will be the fourth year volunteers have occupied the 45-foot tower eight hours each day from June until the rainy season in October or November.

Volunteers drive their own vehicle to the top of the mountain and climb the stairs to the top of the tower.

If smoke is spotted any time during a watch, it is immediately reported by radio to the Cal Fire station in St. Helena.

Volunteers pick their day of service by checking for openings on an online schedule. A full watch is eight hours, but sometimes four-hour watches can be had.

Those interested in volunteering are asked to contact Jim Adams at 707-245-3771 or Chuck Sturges at 707-349-5311.

A volunteer uses equipment to locate a possible fire. Courtesy photo.
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The East fire as seen during a helicopter flight on Friday, June 21, 2019. Photo courtesy of the Mendocino National Forest.

MENDOCINO NATIONAL FOREST, Calif. – Mendocino National Forest officials said the growth rate on the East fire in the Yolla Bolly Wilderness has picked up.

On Saturday, the fire had grown to 325 acres, with zero containment, forest officials reported. The fire has grown by more than 100 acres since Friday.

Forest officials said moderate north winds Friday night kept the East fire fairly active until 2 a.m.

To the southeast, the Haynes fire is estimated at 23 acres and 90 percent contained.

The fires started June 17 approximately 23 miles northeast of Covelo in Trinity County.

There are 145 personnel working on these fires including smokejumpers, hotshot crews, wildland fire modules, helicopters and support personnel.

On the East fire, crews are working to guide the fire southward toward the Middle Fork Eel River inside the designated confinement area.

The confinement area is between East Ridge, Buck Ridge and Wrights Ridge and totals about 1,000 acres in size.

On the Haynes fire, crews plan to extinguish burning logs and vegetation near the containment lines. As the work needed on this fire diminishes, personnel will be released to be available for other assignments.

Incident Commander Trainee Terry Nickerson said after Friday’s helicopter flight, “We observed low to moderate activity on the fire which is helping reduce snags and debris in the wilderness in a natural way. We feel this is a great opportunity to manage this incident, at this time and in this location to improve forest health and reduce exposure and risk to fire personnel.”

Nickerson added, “The fire is burning exactly as we want it to.”

The weather forecast shows north winds from 7 to 12 miles per hour and temperatures in the 70s with a cooling trend early next week.

Wilderness hikers are asked to avoid travel near Buck Ridge and Wrights Ridge.
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LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lakeport Police Department will hold its next “Coffee with a Cop” event on Saturday, June 29.

It will take place from 8 to 10 am. At Marcel's French Bakery & Cafe, 105 N. Main St.

Come have coffee and interact with Lakeport Police staff.

There is no agenda and your regular coffee will be covered. Just show up and tell the staff at Marcel's or officers you are there for the event.

The chief and other staff hope to see community members and answer their questions or concerns.

Coffee with a Cop is an event where police and community members come together in an informal, neutral space to discuss community issues, build relationships and drink coffee.

It is a national initiative supported by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, and has been implemented by many cities and towns across the country.
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control has big and little dogs needing homes as the summer season gets started.

Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of boxer, Chihuahua, Doberman Pinscher, German Shepherd, husky, Labrador Retriever, pit bull and shepherd.

Dogs that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are either neutered or spayed, microchipped and, if old enough, given a rabies shot and county license before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.

If you're looking for a new companion, visit the shelter. There are many great pets hoping you'll choose them.

The following dogs at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption (additional dogs on the animal control Web site not listed are still “on hold”).

This male Chihuahua is in kennel No. 2, ID No. 12393. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

Male Chihuahua

This male Chihuahua has a short tricolor coat.

He’s in kennel No. 2, ID No. 12393.

“Capulin” is a male Doberman Pinscher in kennel No. 4, ID No. 12384. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

‘Capulin’

“Capulin” is a male Doberman Pinscher with a short black and brown coat.

He is in kennel No. 4, ID No. 12384.

This female shepherd is in kennel No. 6, ID No. 12343. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

Female shepherd

This female shepherd has a short black and brown coat.

Shelter staff said she smiles.

She’s in kennel No. 6, ID No. 12343.

“Houdini” is a male pit bull in kennel No. 8, ID No. 12386. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

‘Houdini’

“Houdini” is a male pit bull with a short black coat.

He already has been neutered.

He’s in kennel No. 8, ID No. 12386.

“Koda” is a male German Shepherd-husky mix in kennel No. 9. ID No. 12406. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

‘Koda’

“Koda” is a male German Shepherd-husky mix with a medium-length black and brown coat.

He is in kennel No. 9. ID No. 12406.

“Tonka” is a male boxer mix in kennel No. 10, ID No. 12437. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

‘Tonka’

“Tonka” is a male boxer mix with a short black and white coat.

He’s in kennel No. 10, ID No. 12437.

‘Beau’ is a male shepherd in kennel No. 14, ID No. 6745. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

‘Beau’

“Beau” is a male shepherd with a medium-length black coat.

He has been neutered.

He’s in kennel No. 14, ID No. 6745.

This young male Doberman Pinscher is in kennel No. 16, ID No. 12374. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

Doberman Pinscher

This young male Doberman Pinscher has a short black and brown coat.

He’s in kennel No. 16, ID No. 12374.

This female boxer is in kennel No. 19, ID No. 12326. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

Female boxer

This female boxer has a short brown and white coat.

She already has been spayed.

She is in kennel No. 19, ID No. 12326.

“Nikkie” is a female pit bull terrier in kennel No. 20, ID No. 12369. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

‘Nikkie’

“Nikkie” is a female pit bull terrier with a short black coat.

She already has been spayed.

She’s in kennel No. 20, ID No. 12369.

This male Chihuahua in kennel No. 21, ID No. 12397. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

Male Chihuahua

This male Chihuahua has a short tan coat.

He is in kennel No. 21, ID No. 12397.

This female Doberman Pinscher is in kennel No. 22, ID No. 12385. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

Female Doberman Pinscher

This female Doberman Pinscher has a short black and brown coat.

She is in kennel No. 22, ID No. 12385.

“Jack” is a male German Shepherd in kennel No. 24, ID No. 12376. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

‘Jack’

“Jack” is a male German Shepherd with a medium-length black and brown coat.

He’s in kennel No. 24, ID No. 12376.

This male pit bull is in kennel No. 28, ID No. 12355. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

Male pit bull

This male pit bull has a short brown coat.

He is in kennel No. 28, ID No. 12355.

This male German Shepherd is in kennel No. 30, ID No. 12314. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

Male German Shepherd

This male German Shepherd has a short black and tan coat.

He’s in kennel No. 30, ID No. 12314.

This female pit bull is in kennel No. 32, ID No. 12383. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

Female pit bull

This female pit bull has a short brown coat.

She already has been spayed.

She’s in kennel No. 32, ID No. 12383.

Lake County Animal Care and Control is located at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport, next to the Hill Road Correctional Facility.

Office hours are Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday. The shelter is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Visit the shelter online at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control.htm .

For more information call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
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“Scamp the Tramp” is the 2019 World's Ugliest Dog Contest winner. Photo courtesy of the Will Bucquoy Photography and the Sonoma-Marin Fair.

NORTH COAST, Calif. – Spirits were high on Friday at the Sonoma-Marin Fair in Petaluma where thousands gathered to cheer for the next pup to win the World’s Ugliest Dog Contest.

It was a close call as the judges called upon the crowd to help them decide and Scamp The Tramp prevailed.

“Scamp defines ugly with cute, winning all of our hearts. Let’s all paws for a moment and celebrate the World’s Ugliest Dog: Scamp!” shared long-time returning judge Kerry Sanders, NBC News correspondent.

Scamp The Tramp was rescued by his fur mommy, Yvonne Morones back in 2014. This is a story of an online swipe right and love at first sight.

Morones discovered Scamp on Pet Finder and immediately melted. It was near his last hour when she pulled in and saved his life.

“It was on the way home that I knew I made the right choice. There we were, two strangers in a car on the way home to a new start. Bob Marley was playing ‘One Love’ and I looked over and little Scamp was bobbing his head. It was like he knew he had found his forever home,” said Morones.

Scamp and Morones are being flown to New York for a live appearance on NBC's Today Show scheduled to air Monday, June 24, during the 8 a.m. hour.

Her prize included a very large trophy, $1,500 and a donated prize match which will be split between the Humane Society of Sonoma County, Angels Fund and Compassion Without Borders.

This is just one of the amazing stories shared with the world at Friday night’s event.

Scamp competed against 18 other dogs, most of which were also adopted or rescued.

The red carpet runners up included second place winner Wild Thang, owned by Ann Lewis and third place winner Tostito, owned by Molly Horgan who also won the Spirit Award.

This year’s People’s Choice Award went to Meatloaf, owned by Denae Pruner.

This year’s presenting sponsor, Amica Insurance was very excited to be involved and provide the funds for the matching gift to support non-profits important to the contestant winners.
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control has numerous young kittens – plus some adult cats – now ready to go to their new families.

The following cats at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption.

This female domestic short hair cat is in cat room kennel No. 3, ID No. 12415. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

Domestic short hair

This female domestic short hair cat has a tortoiseshell coat and green eyes.

She is in cat room kennel No. 3, ID No. 12415.

This domestic medium hair cat is in cat room kennel No. 26, ID No. 12378. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

Domestic medium hair cat

This domestic medium hair cat has a gray tabby coat and gold eyes.

She’s in cat room kennel No. 26, ID No. 12378.

This male domestic short hair kitten is in cat room kennel No. 39, ID No. 12390. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

Domestic short hair kitten

This male domestic short hair kitten has an all-black coat and gold eyes.

He has been neutered.

He’s in cat room kennel No. 39, ID No. 12390.

This male domestic short hair kitten is in cat room kennel No. 39, ID No. 12387. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

Domestic short hair kitten

This male domestic short hair kitten has an all-black coat and gold eyes.

He has been neutered.

He’s in cat room kennel No. 39, ID No. 12387.

This brown tabby kitten is in cat room kennel No. 43a, ID No. 12332. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

Brown tabby kitten

This brown tabby kitten has a short coat and green eyes.

He’s in cat room kennel No. 43a, ID No. 12332.

This male tabby kitten is in cat room kennel No. 43b, ID No. 12333. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

Brown tabby kitten

This male tabby kitten has a short brown and black coat and gold eyes.

He’s in cat room kennel No. 43b, ID No. 12333.

This male gray tabby kitten is in kennel No. 43c, ID No. 12338. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

Gray tabby kitten

This male gray tabby kitten has a short coat and gold eyes.

He’s in kennel No. 43c, ID No. 12338.

This male domestic medium hair kitten is in cat room kennel No. 79, ID No. 12379. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

Domestic medium hair kitten

This male domestic medium hair kitten has an all-black coat and gold eyes.

He’s in cat room kennel No. 79, ID No. 12379.

This female domestic medium hair kitten is in cat room kennel No. 79, ID No. 12380. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

Domestic medium hair kitten

This female domestic medium hair kitten has an all-black coat and gold eyes.

She is in cat room kennel No. 79, ID No. 12380.

This male domestic medium hair kitten is in cat room kennel No. 79, ID No. 12381. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

Domestic medium hair kitten

This male domestic medium hair kitten has an all-black coat and gold eyes.

He’s in cat room kennel No. 79, ID No. 12381.

This female domestic medium hair kitten is in cat room kennel No. 79, ID No. 12382. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

Domestic medium hair kitten

This female domestic medium hair kitten has an all-black coat and gold eyes.

She is in cat room kennel No. 79, ID No. 12382.

The female domestic long hair kitten is in cat room kennel No. 88, ID No. 12402. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

Domestic long hair kitten

The female domestic long hair kitten has an all-black coat and gold eyes.

She’s in cat room kennel No. 88, ID No. 12402.

Lake County Animal Care and Control is located at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport, next to the Hill Road Correctional Facility.

Office hours are Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday. The shelter is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Visit the shelter online at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control.htm.

For more information call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
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NORTH COAST, Calif. – A strong Saturday night earthquake in Humboldt County was felt by thousands of North Coast residents – including some in Lake County – and followed by several hours a cluster of quakes that occurred off the Oregon coast.

The 5.6-magnitude quake occurred at 8:57 p.m. Saturday 17 miles southwest of Scotia and 36 miles south of Eureka at a depth of five and a half miles, according to the United States Geological Survey.

As of 2 a.m. Sunday, the survey had received more than 2,500 shake reports, the majority from around the North Coast but also some from Clearlake Oaks and Lakeport, and some from further south in California.

The 5.6-magnitude quake occurred approximately 30 minutes after a 3.3-magnitude quake that the US Geological Survey said also was located 17 miles southwest of Scotia at a depth of five and a half miles.

From 6 to 7:30 a.m. Saturday, nine quakes occurred off the Oregon coast and were centered about 200 miles west of Bandon, the US Geological Survey said.

That cluster of ocean quakes included two magnitude 5.4 quakes, one 5-magnitude quake, and six others measuring between 3.1 and 4.7 on the Richter Scale, based on survey records.

US Geological Survey mapping showed that the Humboldt County quakes appeared to be on the edge of the North American Plate. Most of the Oregon quakes – including the three largest – were in the Blanco Fracture Zone on the Juan De Fuca Plate, with three of the smaller quakes on the other size of the fracture zone on the Pacific Plate.

The Juan De Fuca Plate is moving east-northeast and under the North American continent. The subduction between that plate and the continent has the potential to generate huge earthquakes and tsunamis, according to a 2017 report from UC Santa Barbara.

The report explains that Juan De Fuca plate’s region “represents the single greatest geophysical hazard to the continental United States; quakes centered here could register as hundreds of times more damaging than even a big temblor on the San Andreas Fault.”

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
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Javier Alvarez, 38, Hopland, Calif., was arrested on Thursday, June 20, 2019, for a human trafficking case in Clearlake, Calif. Lake County Jail photo.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Clearlake Police Department reported that its officers rescued a young woman who was the victim of human trafficking, arrested one of the men who held her captive and are seeking the second.

Javier Alvarez, 38, Hopland, was arrested on Thursday, police said.

At 9:50 a.m. Thursday Clearlake Police officers responded to the 15700 block of 41st Avenue on a report of a person being held against their will, and located a 21-year-old female with minor injuries.

While officers were speaking with the victim, the suspect vehicle was spotted by officers. The two men in the vehicle abandoned it and fled on foot.

Police said that, after an extensive search by officers, they found Alvarez hiding in a backyard in the 15800 block of 45th Avenue and took him into custody.

The second man was not located and remains outstanding.

Police said the second subject has not yet been positively identified but may have the first name of "Armondo."

He is described as an older Hispanic male adult, approximately 6 feet tall, with salt and pepper gray hair and having a thin build. He was last seen wearing a tan and brown flannel type shirt.

Based on the information known at this time, it appears the victim was lured to the area under false pretenses for work.

Police said that, once in the area, the victim was held against her will and physically abused by the suspects over the past week. She was able to contact law enforcement when she was left alone briefly.

Alvarez was arrested on probable cause for numerous felony charges including human trafficking, robbery, false imprisonment and assault.

He is being held on $150,000 bail and is set to be arraigned in Lake County Superior Court on Monday, according to Lake County Jail booking records.

This case is still under investigation. Anyone with information is urged to contact Officer Daniel Eagle at 707-994-8251, Extension 518.

If you or someone you know is a victim of human trafficking, help is available. If you are in immediate danger, call 911, otherwise, call the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 888-373-7888. For more information, visit https://humantraffickinghotline.org .
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Pictured are Azorean sausage cooked in a traditional dish by lighting rubbing alcohol on fire; dried fava beans, popular in Azorean cuisine; and the ubiquitous rooster, which is a symbol of good luck in Portugal. Photo by Esther Oertel.


Rising above the water along the mid-Atlantic ridge are the Azores, nine pristine volcanic islands scattered like jewels in the world’s second largest ocean.

Gleaming with natural beauty, they sit some 900 miles from the western coast of Portugal.

The nine islands are clustered in three groups: Sao Miguel and Santa Maria are easternmost; Terceira, Sao Jorge, Pico, Faial and Graciosa sit in the middle of the archipelago; and Flores and tiny Corvo make up the western flank.

The Azores are a full third of the way to North America, so it’s no wonder they remained unnoticed until the 14th century when they appear on the Catalan Atlas, the most important map of the Medieval period.

Despite this recognition, they were void of human settlement for at least another hundred years until a sea captain sailing for Prince Henry the Navigator landed in the early 15th century and claimed the islands for Portugal.

It is posited that explorer Goncalo Velho Cabral was the trailblazer in question; however, the historical record provides no certainty of this, though it is confirmed that he gathered settlers and resources to establish colonies on the easternmost islands, Santa Maria and Sao Miguel.

Until recent decades, the people who lived in the Azores were almost entirely self-sufficient, eating what they grew, raised, milked, or gleaned from the sea. Their distance from the European mainland made imported products expensive, as well as difficult to obtain.

In addition, each island was self-sustainable, as there tended to be very little travel between them.

Even today, when air travel between islands is possible, most Azoreans will travel to mainland Portugal, the U.S., or other parts of Europe and the world before going to another island in the archipelago.

Azorean cuisine is rich and hearty, its rustic, peasant quality differentiating it from the food of mainland Portugal.

One-pot soups and stews based on locally harvested vegetables, seafood, or meat, often with bread added for heartiness, are a staple.

Dried beans, particularly fava, tomatoes, and robust vegetables such as potatoes and cabbage figure prominently in Azorean cooking.

With the Azores home to the biggest sea zone in Europe, seafood is abundant, and many a meal revolves around what was gathered from the sea that day, whether, for example, mackerel, lamprey eels or octopus.

Caldeirade de peixe, a fish and potato stew, is popular throughout the islands, as are grilled limpets and fresh lobster.

Tuna, one of the Azores’ most popular fish, are pulled large from the sea.

Azoreans are known for their cheesemaking, and It would be an understatement to say that rich dairy foods are beloved throughout the islands.


The Azores are comprised of nine volcanic islands approximately 900 miles west of Portugal. Note that this a picture of a decorative map that is not to scale. Photo by Esther Oertel.


Fifty percent of the cheese in Portugal is from the Azores, where dairy cows are ubiquitous. (At last count, there were roughly 20,000 of them that graze on the island’s lush green hills.)

Sao Jorge, a semi-hard, aged cheese with a mild but full and buttery flavor, is particularly popular and made on the island for which it’s named.

Cheese served with bread (sometimes with jam or condiments) is a favorite breakfast, snack or appetizer and is enjoyed any time of day.

Cozido (meaning “cooked”) is a quintessentially Azorean dish and can only be had in the geothermally active Sao Miguel town of Furnas, where stew is cooked for hours in the hot volcanic soil.

Massa di pimiento, a spicy, salty, sweet red pepper paste is a popular seasoning, as is flor de acafroa, also known as safflower, a colorful spice similar to Spanish saffron.

Azoreans love their desserts, and pastries and puddings of all types abound. A sweet that’s prevalent throughout the islands is queijada, a tiny tartlet made with flour, egg, butter, and sugar.

The Azores is home to the only two tea plantations in Europe, both on the island of Sao Miguel.

Camellia sinensis, the shrub that produces tea leaves, was found growing wild in the Azores in the late 1800s, and now verdant rows of these evergreen plants are cultivated, rising beautifully above the bright blue Atlantic.

Each plantation has a factory on site to process the tea, with one using the original equipment from the 19th century.

Coffee is also grown in the Azores; Sao Jorge in particular has a microclimate in which coffee bushes thrive.

Though some islands might experience light dustings of snow, temperatures remain relatively mild in the Azores year-round, unusual for such a northerly location, due mainly to its distance from continents and its proximity to the Gulf Stream.

For this reason, the Azores are rife with fruits such as bananas, passion fruit and a variety of citrus, which thrive in the islands’ rich microclimates.

Resourceful Azoreans make liqueurs from such exotic fruits, and wine is commonly made from grapes grown in home vineyards.

The island of Pico, whose volcano is the tallest mountain in Portugal, is renowned for wines made from grapes grown in lava-rich soils which were favored by Russian Czars in the 19th century.

Its vineyards surrounded by centuries-old stone walls are now UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Pineapples, typically smaller than those here, are extremely popular and are grown in greenhouses (or “estufas” in Portuguese) throughout the islands.

In a method discovered during an accidental greenhouse fire, smoke is infused into the estufas when the pineapples are ten or eleven months into their 18-month growing cycle. This forces all the plantings to flower simultaneously, which makes for an easier harvest.

The Azores, and particularly the island of Faial, are known for the explosion of blue hydrangeas prolific there in the summer months thanks to the acidity of its volcanic soil.

Introduced to the Azores in the 17th century, hydrangeas now grow abundantly in the wild and are a popular point of interest for flora-appreciating tourists.

And speaking of Faial, I spent one recent afternoon with Azorean friend Noele DaRosa, who generously shared her memories of growing up on that beautiful island.

Typical of the Azores, her family was self-sustaining, and I enjoyed hearing memories of, among many other things, her mother’s homemade cheese, her father’s winemaking, and their gathering limpets from the sea for a favorite childhood dish.

DaRosa hired me some years ago to prepare a Portuguese birthday luncheon. Creating Bacalhau con Nata (Salt Cod with Cream) and Caldo Verde (Green Broth Soup) for her celebratory meal was my first introduction to food from that part of the world.

The recipe that follows for Caldo Verde is thusly inspired, and I owe a debt of gratitude to DaRosa for that and for the magnanimous sharing of her time and recollections.

Pictured is handmade lace, a popular handicraft in the Azores, as well as a replica of a crown used in the many Catholic festivals from May to September in the Azores that honor the Holy Ghost. Photo by Esther Oertel.


Caldo Verde

The original recipe includes a quarter pound of sliced Portuguese sausage, which can be added if a meaty version is preferred.

6 cups vegetable broth
5 medium starchy potatoes, like Yukon Gold, peeled and quartered, about 5 cups
1 small yellow onion, finely chopped, about ½ cup
1 tablespoon coarse salt, or to taste
1 bunch, about 1-1/2 pounds before trimming, Swiss chard, cut into thin chiffonade (flat-leaf kale or collard greens may also be used)
5 tablespoons olive oil

In a 4-quart stockpot, combine the broth, potatoes and onion. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low, season with salt, then simmer until the potatoes are very tender, about 20 to 30 minutes.

Trim the chard leaves off the central stem; wash and drain leaves. Cut into thin chiffonade, with the strands no longer than a couple of inches in length. Continue cutting until you have about 6 cups. Set aside.

When the potatoes are cooked, puree the contents of the soup pot to a smooth consistency. Return to a boil.

Add the reserved greens and the olive oil. Simmer until the greens are bright green and tender but not mushy, about 5 minutes.

Though variations in the ratio of broth to potatoes varies from cook to cook, the soup’s consistency should be like light cream. If too thick, it can be thinned with water, beginning with about ½ cup. (Note that Portuguese soups typically thicken as they cool due to the starch they contain.)

Esther Oertel is a writer and passionate home cook from a family of chefs. She grew up in a restaurant, where she began creating recipes from a young age. She’s taught culinary classes in a variety of venues in Lake County and previously wrote “The Veggie Girl” column for Lake County News. Most recently she’s taught culinary classes at Sur La Table in Santa Rosa, Calif. She lives in Middletown, Calif.
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NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a solar flare on Oct. 2, 2014. The solar flare is the bright flash of light on the right limb of the Sun. A burst of solar material erupting out into space can be seen just below it. Credits: NASA/SDO.

The sun is why we’re here. It’s also why Martians or Venusians are not.

When the sun was just a baby four billion years ago, it went through violent outbursts of intense radiation, spewing scorching, high-energy clouds and particles across the solar system.

These growing pains helped seed life on early Earth by igniting chemical reactions that kept Earth warm and wet.

Yet, these solar tantrums also may have prevented life from emerging on other worlds by stripping them of atmospheres and zapping nourishing chemicals.

Just how destructive these primordial outbursts were to other worlds would have depended on how quickly the baby sun rotated on its axis. The faster the sun turned, the quicker it would have destroyed conditions for habitability.

This critical piece of the sun’s history, though, has bedeviled scientists, said Prabal Saxena, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Saxena studies how space weather, the variations in solar activity and other radiation conditions in space, interacts with the surfaces of planets and moons.

Now, he and other scientists are realizing that the moon, where NASA will be sending astronauts by 2024, contains clues to the ancient mysteries of the sun, which are crucial to understanding the development of life.

“We didn’t know what the sun looked like in its first billion years, and it’s super important because it likely changed how Venus’ atmosphere evolved and how quickly it lost water. It also probably changed how quickly Mars lost its atmosphere, and it changed the atmospheric chemistry of Earth,” Saxena said.

An artistic conception of the early Earth, showing a surface pummeled by large impact, resulting in extrusion of deep-seated magma onto the surface. Credits: Simone Marchi.

The sun-moon connection

Saxena stumbled into investigating the early sun’s rotation mystery while contemplating a seemingly unrelated one: Why, when the Moon and Earth are made of largely the same stuff, is there significantly less sodium and potassium in lunar regolith, or moon soil, than in Earth soil?

This question, too, revealed through analyses of Apollo-era moon samples and lunar meteorites found on Earth, has puzzled scientists for decades – and it has challenged the leading theory of how the moon formed.

Our natural satellite took shape, the theory goes, when a Mars-sized object smashed into Earth about 4.5 billion years ago. The force of this crash sent materials spewing into orbit, where they coalesced into the moon.

“The Earth and moon would have formed with similar materials, so the question is, why was the moon depleted in these elements?” said Rosemary Killen, a planetary scientist at NASA Goddard who researches the effect of space weather on planetary atmospheres and exospheres.

The two scientists suspected that one big question informed the other – that the history of the sun is buried in the moon’s crust.

Killen’s earlier work laid the foundation for the team’s investigation. In 2012, she helped simulate the effect solar activity has on the amount of sodium and potassium that is either delivered to the moon’s surface or knocked off by a stream of charged particles from the sun, known as the solar wind, or by powerful eruptions known as coronal mass ejections.

Saxena incorporated the mathematical relationship between a star’s rotation rate and its flare activity. This insight was derived by scientists who studied the activity of thousands of stars discovered by NASA’s Kepler space telescope: The faster a star spins, they found, the more violent its ejections.

“As you learn about other stars and planets, especially stars like our Sun, you start to get a bigger picture of how the Sun evolved over time,” Saxena said.

Using sophisticated computer models, Saxena, Killen and colleagues think they may have finally solved both mysteries. Their computer simulations, which they described on May 3 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, show that the early sun rotated slower than 50 percent of baby stars.

According to their estimates, within its first billion years, the Sun took at least 9 to 10 days to complete one rotation.

They determined this by simulating the evolution of our solar system under a slow, medium, and then a fast-rotating star. And they found that just one version – the slow-rotating star – was able to blast the right amount of charged particles into the moon’s surface to knock enough sodium and potassium into space over time to leave the amounts we see in moon rocks today.

“Space weather was probably one of the major influences for how all the planets of the solar system evolved,” Saxena said, “so any study of habitability of planets needs to consider it.”

A closeup view of Apollo 16 lunar sample no. 68815, a dislodged fragment from a parent boulder roughly four feet high and five feet long. Credits: NASA/JSC.

Life under the early sun

The rotation rate of the early Sun is partly responsible for life on Earth. But for Venus and Mars – both rocky planets similar to Earth – it may have precluded it. (Mercury, the closest rocky planet to the sun, never had a chance.)

Earth’s atmosphere was once very different from the oxygen-dominated one we find today. When Earth formed 4.6 billion years ago, a thin envelope of hydrogen and helium clung to our molten planet. But outbursts from the young sun stripped away that primordial haze within 200 million years.

As Earth’s crust solidified, volcanoes gradually coughed up a new atmosphere, filling the air with carbon dioxide, water and nitrogen.

Over the next billion years, the earliest bacterial life consumed that carbon dioxide and, in exchange, released methane and oxygen into the atmosphere.

Earth also developed a magnetic field, which helped protect it from the sun, allowing our atmosphere to transform into the oxygen- and nitrogen-rich air we breathe today.

“We were lucky that Earth’s atmosphere survived the terrible times,” said Vladimir Airapetian, a senior Goddard heliophysicist and astrobiologist who studies how space weather affects the habitability of terrestrial planets. Airapetian worked with Saxena and Killen on the early sun study.

Had our Sun been a fast rotator, it would have erupted with super flares 10 times stronger than any in recorded history, at least 10 times a day. Even Earth's magnetic field wouldn't have been enough to protect it.

The Sun's blasts would have decimated the atmosphere, reducing air pressure so much that Earth wouldn’t retain liquid water. “It could have been a much harsher environment,” Saxena noted.

But the Sun rotated at an ideal pace for Earth, which thrived under the early star. Venus and Mars weren’t so lucky.

Venus was once covered in water oceans and may have been habitable. But due to many factors, including solar activity and the lack of an internally generated magnetic field, Venus lost its hydrogen – a critical component of water.

As a result, its oceans evaporated within its first 600 million years, according to estimates. The planet’s atmosphere became thick with carbon dioxide, a heavy molecule that's harder to blow away. These forces led to a runaway greenhouse effect that keeps Venus a sizzling 864 degrees Fahrenheit (462 degrees Celsius), far too hot for life.

Mars, farther from the Sun than Earth is, would seem to be safer from stellar outbursts. Yet, it had less protection than did Earth. Due partly to the Red Planet’s weak magnetic field and low gravity, the early Sun gradually was able to blow away its air and water.

By about 3.7 billion years ago, the Martian atmosphere had become so thin that liquid water immediately evaporated into space. (Water still exists on the planet, frozen in the polar caps and in the soil.)

After influencing the course for life (or lack thereof) on the inner planets, the aging Sun gradually slowed its pace and continues to do so. Today, it revolves once every 27 days, three times slower than it did in its infancy. The slower spin renders it much less active, though the Sun still has violent outbursts occasionally.

Exploring the moon, witness of solar system evolution

To learn about the early sun, Saxena said, you need to look no further than the moon, one of the most well-preserved artifacts from the young solar system.

“The reason the moon ends up being a really useful calibrator and window into the past is that it has no annoying atmosphere and no plate tectonics resurfacing the crust,” he said. “So as a result, you can say, ‘Hey, if solar particles or anything else hit it, the moon’s soil should show evidence of that.’”

Apollo samples and lunar meteorites are a great starting point for probing the early solar system, but they are only small pieces in a large and mysterious puzzle. The samples are from a small region near the lunar equator, and scientists can’t tell with complete certainty where on the moon the meteorites came from, which makes it hard to place them into geological context.

Since the South Pole is home to the permanently shadowed craters where we expect to find the best-preserved material on the moon, including frozen water, NASA is aiming to send a human expedition to the region by 2024.

If astronauts can get samples of lunar soil from the Moon’s southernmost region, it could offer more physical evidence of the baby sun’s rotation rate, said Airapetian, who suspects that solar particles would have been deflected by the Moon’s erstwhile magnetic field 4 billion years ago and deposited at the poles: “So you would expect — though we’ve never looked at it — that the chemistry of that part of the Moon, the one exposed to the young Sun, would be much more altered than the equatorial regions. So there’s a lot of science to be done there."

Lonnie Shekhtman and Miles Hatfield work for NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.



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Ladies of the Lake Quilt Guild member, Thelma Elliott, pieced this traditional quilt titled “Pineapple” using a scrappy pineapple log cabin design. Quilting was by Stephanie at Friends Around the Block. Photo by Suzanne Lee.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Ladies of the Lake Quilt Guild invites entries for its 18th annual Falling Leaves Quilt Show.

The show will be held Saturday, Oct. 5, and Sunday, Oct. 6.

Entry forms are now available online at http://www.llqg.org/quilt-show.html .

The Web site includes all the information needed to enter quilts and other items in the show.

The deadline for submitting entries is Aug. 10. There is no limit on the number of items you may enter but each quilt or other item entered must have it's own entry form.

Now is the time to get those unfinished pieces completed for the show. Perhaps they need to be quilted or have a binding or a sleeve attached.

With more than 20 categories, there is a place for that special item you have waiting to be displayed.

One does not need to be a member of the guild to enter quilts. There is a need for quilts of all sizes as well as vignettes. Vignettes are small items such as baby quilts, doll quilts, table runners, placemats, garments, totes/purses or small wall hangings.

Quilters may choose to have their quilts or vignettes judged or enter quilts and vignettes without judging. Many quilters find it beneficial to have their quilts judged, learning much from an impartial evaluation. The judges are very positive and will award ribbons in every category.

The 18th annual Falling Leaves Quilt Show will be held at the Lake County Fairgrounds in Lakeport. The hours on Saturday are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Sunday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The guild welcomes all quilters, prospective quilters, and quilt lovers to its meetings and events.

For more information about the quilt guild, contact Terry Phelps at 707-274-1855 or visit the Ladies of the Lake Quilt Guild Web site at www.LLQG.org .

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