You have two days to celebrate Sebastopol’s signature apple, the beloved Gravenstein. This year, there will be nearly a dozen ciders, an artisan tasting tent (additional $20), six chef demonstrations, lots of food booths–all local!–and much more, including a caramel apple eating competition, local arts and crafts, farm animals, a display of vintage farm equipment and a lot of entertainment, including live music, stilt walkers, and puppet shows.

See you there! I’ll be there this afternoon enjoying the fair and then tomorrow will present a cooking demonstration at noon, with EarthWorker Farm’s exquisite salad mix tossed with my grapefruit-apple cider vinaigrette and Normandy Chicken & Apples, a traditional French dish that is perfectly suited to Sonoma County. Want to be my assistant? I’ll be picking one person from the audience to do something easy, fun, and a bit surprising.

It’s become a tradition that the Sunday before the Gravenstein Apple Fair we have a full house on Mouthful and this year is no exception.

Guests include Carmen Snyder, executive director of Sonoma County FarmTrails and manager of the Gravenstein Apple Fair; Ellen Cavalli of Tilded Shed Ciderworks; Alissa Trinei of Manzana’s North Coast Apples; Daniel Kedan, chef and owner of Backyard in Forestville and Tucker Taylor, culinary gardener at Kendall Jackson.

If you can’t listen live, you can hear the podcast here any time.

Michael Lee Brandon Powell, a young man of just 20, has a design aesthetic and passion for fashion that is both contemporary and futuristic as well as evocative of earlier times. To me, he evokes both Oscar Wilde and the Pre-Raphaelite movement. There’s also a resonance with the 1920s jazz era.

Michael Lee Brandon Powell, at a recent Chrysalis rehearsal

Artist Mary Jarvis is producing the event.

The theme of Chrysalis Fashion Benefit is gender fluidity and features Michael’s extravagant creations using repurposed and up-cycled clothing and fabric. The show’s underlying philosophy is the chrysalis itself and its shedding, upon which a gorgeous butterfly emerges. To resonate with the evening’s theme, Michael has been raising butterflies, which will be released during the show.

Things get started at 5 p.m. Admission is $20 per person, which includes the show itself, a stand-up dinner by Worth Our Weight, the butterfly release, an auction of all the garments, and a dance party.

All proceeds benefit the Monarch Butterfly Conservation Fund and Worth Our Weight Culinary Apprenticeship Program.

Snag your tickets here. And I’ll see you there, in my special butterfly outfit. You can add to the fun by breaking out of your own chrysalis and wearing someone you’ve always longed to–a chartreuse tutu, perhaps?