Last weekend, Jade Chocolates participated in our last show of the year at Manuia’s 1st Annual Holiday Boutique in San Francisco. Manuia Polynesia Revue is a polynesian dance group which participates in shows and competitions covering Hawaiian, Tahitian, Samoan and Tongan dances.
I took up polynesian dancing in college and it has taught me that discipline and dedication can lead to great rewards. I’m an inactive member of my halau (dance group). But once, some year’s back, I lived for dancing. Adding more balance to my personal life is one of my goals for the new year, so back to dancing it will be. Thinking back on Jade Chocolate’s first year in business, I had forgotten to take care of my personal well being and dedicated the majority of my time to the chocolate business.
Here’s a video of a competition at the San Jose Tahiti Fete in 2002. It’s shows only the first five minutes of the Tahitian Otea routine taken from a story of Ariki Tuohea. Our dance tells the story of a mother who is forced to send away her little boy whom the villagers regarded as a monster…and in case you’re wondering, we won first place for our otea routine.
Jade Chocolate’s is offering one free peppermint nib bark for every $20 spent on our website. Spend over $40 and get two for free, or spend over $60 and get three peppermint barks for free. Valid December 8th-10th, 2008.
Buy holiday gifts for the special persons in your life and keep the bark for yourself. Or tuck it into little Susie’s stocking as a little treat on Christmas Day. Also, if you’re sending this to a San Francisco address, you’ll also receive FREE SHIPPING on purchases over $45 or more. It’s just $5 if under $45. So start shopping….
As we approached the Regusci winery, passing the line of walnut and olive trees and tasting room, we came across the farm animals.
Immediately, we were approached by Isabella, the donkey. A very friendly animal. I could have stayed a few more hours just petting the animals, but we came to see the donkey’s namesake, Mrs. Regusci.
We went into a humble home and straight into the kitchen where Isabella Regusci was waiting for her honey buns to rise. She says she’s been cooking since she was 11. Mrs. Regusci welcomed us as if we were family, warm and kind hearted. But she swore like a sailor, which made for an entertaining morning. She’s a great lady, with a strong personality, full of humor and an attitude like no other grandma I know.
It wasn’t even noon and Isabella offered us wine. ‘When in Rome, you can’t say no to a glass of wine on a winery.” I had two glasses of wine along with those homemade honey buns that she made from scratch, and in a wood burning stove! She didn’t even use a timer to time the cooking. That’s what I call getting back to basics.
The Regusci winery was not always a winery. They raised cattle for consumption, pressed olive oil, and had a dairy farm. The Regusci business went through many stages in it’s lifetime. Below is a photo of the vintage glass bottles that they delivered to the doorsteps of their customers. (Notice the phone number on the bottle, 4Fi5.)
Translating my new experience into my own life…
I appreciated the time spent with Isabella Regusci and the time in Napa. It’s giving me some thought into how I would like my own life to be and the direction I want for Jade Chocolates. Jade Chocolates is approaching our 1st year anniversary and I’m grateful for how far I’ve taken the company. I have though, at times, complained about not getting bigger, farther and more well known to chocolate consumers. I live in a modern world where the norm is to the things done at a fast paced. I’m learning that it’s alright to go through a few stages in a business. It’s all a learning experience.
Over Thanksgiving weekend, Danna and I each did simultaneous tastings at Sunshine Foods in St. Helena and Cal-mart in Calistoga. It wasn’t meant to be a weekend long trek, but we decided to pop into one of Danna’s relatives’ house as we made our way back to San Francisco. Turned out that someone was home, and with genuine concern and care, we were offered to stay the night. I didn’t really have the time, with this weekend being the start of the Holiday rush, but we decided to stay and take it easy.
Danna’s family lives in the famed Stag’s Leap area in the back roads of Napa. The house is surrounded by 360 degrees of Cabernet grapes. We decided to stay and get a taste of country life, California style. We stayed up, drinking a bottle (or two) of Clos Du Val Chardonnay–from grapes that grow in the region and had freshly picked fruits and walnuts from the neighbor’s fields. We used a mortar and pestle to crack the nuts and as I was standing there in the kitchen cracking nuts, a feeling of excitement came over me. In a world where everything is packaged and ready-to-eat food products are the norm, it was kind of cool to actually crack the nuts myself. I was fascinated that the nuts came from someone’s yard. “Free food”, I thought. I just paid a whopping $10 for a small bag of walnuts from the grocery store. And here the walnuts were falling off of the trees. Very interesting. But it didn’t stop with just walnuts. In the kitchen were pomegranates, persimmons, huge lemons, and table grapes all from the surrounding area. Pick and eat. From harvest to table. This city girl was fascinated by country life. “Tomorrow, we’ll go walk to see my neighbor, she’s the one with all the fruits and nuts.” exclaimed our gracious hostess. I couldn’t wait, but the wine was making me sleepy. As I retired to sleep, I opened up the balcony and was welcomed to a blanket of a million stars blinking in the sky. Just then, I began a mental note of why city life is so overrated.
When I awoke the next morning, I immediately opened up the balcony door to see the morning view, and what a wonderful sight to see. A thin layer of fog was hugging the vines but was still thick enough to mask the mountains from my view. I couldn’t wait to meet the neighbor. We’ve been told she was quite the character. We had to walk though the vineyard about 1/2 mile to get to the neighbor’s house. Awesome–we walked through the vineyard! The photo on the right are Cabernet grapes belonging to the Regusci Winery.
Read more about Isabella Regusci, the neighbor, in the next post.
Immediately, we were approached by Isabella, the donkey. A very friendly animal. I could have stayed a few more hours just petting the animals, but we came to see the donkey’s namesake, Mrs. Regusci. 
