Meet the Makers

Each of our featured makers is dedicated to crafting unique, locally-made goods that tell a story. From small businesses to solo artisans, these talented individuals pour their hearts into every product. Get to know the people behind the items you love and discover the inspiration, craft, and care that goes into every piece they create.

 

Rainy Day Chocolate   

Jennifer and Chris Sund belive the world is a small place, and everyone deserves to have amazing (ethically sourced) chocolate. Rainy Day Chocolate is one of Sonoma County's first Bean-to-Bar chocolate makers, and multi award-winning confectioners.
REDWOOD HARVEST / HARVEST SPICE CO.
Based in Guerneville, Erin Norton creates a wide variety of products from freeze dried spice mixes to tinctures to balms and soaps.
Samantha & Ryan Ramey are a husband/wife duo with a passion for all things food and they believe that food should be both comforting and delicious. The flavor of food simply comes from freshness, quality, and preparation. Their passion is bringing all three of these ingredients together for you.
Joanne and her husband Dan were running a flower nursery in 1999 when they bought a house in the middle of an apple orchard in Sebastopol. Over time, Joanne’s love of growing vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers blossomed, and in 2009 she created Little Apple Treats’ first batch of apple cider vinegar. Who knew all the possibilities held in one tiny apple? Today, Joanne continues to create recipes, and they’re produced in their own certified manufacturing facility, just steps from the farm. Creativity and craftsmanship meet curiosity and innovation with every tasty new product they make.
 

Big Spoon is influenced by Lani’s Cantonese upbringing, Nate’s near-decade of life abroad in China, and their collective exploration of New York City’s three Chinatowns together when they were in graduate school.

The two of them began mixing their own chili crisp in their Brooklyn apartment in 2019 and sharing jars with friends and family. In 2021, they scaled the recipe for the first time to raise money for AAPI-led community relief organizations, when attacks on AAPI elderly were at an all-time high.

Today, they have combined their backgrounds in visual storytelling and cocktail mixology (the requisite NYC media professional survival skills) with their love for local, seasonal produce to create a community-driven sauce brand that showcases their favorite flavors.

Lani and Nate were both raised in Northern California and made Sonoma County their home in 2020, where they’re fortunate to live in close proximity to an abundance of small scale producers and adventurous diners. They’re still mixing batches of chili crisp by hand at a rented kitchen space in the town of Occidental, surrounded by coastal redwoods.

 

 The beginning of Il Fusti started with purchasing a 6 acre property in Sebastopol in 1984 and shortly thereafter planting over 100 olive trees replacing the overgrown land. The now estate owner, and father of Il Fusti, Paul Bellomo, loved to plant these trees with his daughter Gianna. They frequently dreamed about how one day these olive trees would produce some of the finest olive oil in California and they would run a family business selling their oils to the public. As the years passed, this dream was realized by Paul and his wife, Suzie.

 

Jeannette and her mom were always the 'go to' people for birthday and wedding cakes.

Years ago, Jeannette was a single mother working two jobs and selling homemade jewelry in her 'spare' time. For even more income, she would make birthday and wedding cakes for friends and family. 

One month, after her third cake request, Jeannette jokingly said to her mom 'We should start our own business.' As a JOKE, she printed up some business cards. Well, next thing you know she was getting phone calls weekly, and then daily, looking for her to bake cakes for events. Suddenly, she was a single mom with 2 full time jobs, a part time jewelry maker, and now a Custom cake maker!

The momentum just kept building. After 6 or so months without any decrease in demand, she stopped making jewelry and quit one of her jobs so that she would have some time for her kids and herself.

Fast forward to today, Jeannette owns and operates Society Bakery in Sebastopol where she serves up some of the most delicious food in the County.

 

Retrograde Coffee Roaster was founded in 2014 by baristas Danielle Connor and Casey Lanski. Back then, they roasted their coffee out of their home kitchen and would truck their coffee cart around to countless farmer's markets and events.

Retrograde is going back to the basics of what Danielle and Casey love: specialty coffee, community connections, and hand made provisions. Our focus is in the details with our small batch coffee roasting and value-based approach to everything we do. 

 As the Retrograde team moves forward, they maintain their focus on the details and how they impact the world around us. They strive to improve the lives of others by extending kindness to all, creating sustainable careers in coffee, giving back to our local community, schools, organizations and non-profits and committing to taking care of our Earth through green business practices.