Mariani Nut Company (Yolo County)

Since cow milk isn't really necessary for an adult diet, as it was intended by nature in order to help a calf to gain a ton or two, the various almond, walnut, and other "milks" can work fine for diet and for recipes that ask for milk. Also, cow milk has a lot of sugar; 13 grams per cup on one label that I looked at recently. Last week I purchased some walnut milk, which has only 2 grams of sugar and is not a GMO food. I didn't even look at the producer, which I saw today was the Mariani Nut Company (or Mariani Family Orchards) in Winters, California; founded in 1906.

From the container/label:

Meet the family

For five generations, the Marianis have been farming the land in California. Enjoy our family's labor of love any time of the day for a simply better way to live the good life.

I would venture a guess that the Mariani family, who were originally from Croatia, was either "Istrian Italian" or "Dalmatian Italian." For example, the famous race car driver Mario Andretti was born in Montona, Italy; however this town is now part of Croatia. There were a lot of Venetians who had lived in those regions going back centuries, particularly in Istria. I don't claim to know who has the better irredentist claim to Trieste or Istria, but it has long been in intellectual and historical dispute. In any case, the Mariani family has an interesting history: Our Family Story. There has also historically been a large Croatian-American population in San Francisco and the greater bay. The Mariani Nut Company is located in Yolo County, east of Napa County and north of Solano County. I purchased the "Original Walnutmilk" at Safeway.

Mariani.com

Mariani Nut Company (facebook)

 

 

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I'm backdating this from October 21. I'm not going to be posting much for perhaps five or six months, as my mother's passing has taken an unexpected legal turn. Things are very uncertain for me as of now, and I have to address it.

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V. Fontana & Co. - Colma, California - 100 Years

'V. Fontana & Company: Setting the Foundation in Stone'

Victoria Anderson - Linkedin.com - March 6, 2021

In a town just south of San Francisco, California, resides a city unknown to many: Colma. Colma, also known as the “City of the Dead,” is home to 17 cemeteries that occupy 73% of the city; in other words, the dead outnumber the living 1,000 to one. This tiny, yet unique town is home to V. Fontana & Co., my family’s monument business that has been in existence for 100 years come this April. The business was established in 1921 by my great-grandfather, Valerio Fontana, who emigrated from Italy to the United States in hopes of finding masonry work—the skill and livelihood of his ancestors. Since Valerio’s death in 1961, the family business has been passed down two more generations. What makes V. Fontana & Co. truly unique is the fact that it represents one century of service our family has provided in the U.S, all of which can be traced back to when Valerio originally established the business in 1921.

V. Fontana & Co. is specifically recognized for its custom manufacturing of all types of granite and marble products. Blocks of granite and marble are imported from quarries all over the world where they are transformed into products in our factory to meet customers’ needs. Valerio set the standards high for the business immediately when it first opened, using only the finest quality materials that would literally stand the test of time. Over the past several decades, the business has diversified beyond monuments as the demand to incorporate granite and marble in commercial and residential design has skyrocketed. V. Fontana & Co. is the successful business it is today because of Valerio’s determination to overcome both geographical and cultural boundaries to become accustomed to the American culture and to achieve the “American Dream.”

It all began in 1887, when Valerio was born in the small-town of Saint’ Andrea, located in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. He was one of six children and was born into a destitute family. Valerio’s father required that all of his children work at a young age to lend support to the family’s struggling financial situation. He and his siblings did work that included various kinds of physical labor, one of which was stone cutting. Valerio not only had a knack for stone cutting, but also developed a passion for it. No matter how much work the children did, however, it barely made ends meet. Growing up with a close-knit family, Valerio took matters into his own hands and decided to leave Italy to seek job opportunities to provide a better life for his family. Valerio’s childhood in Italy instilled a strong work ethic in him, which was able to transcend the border with him when he came to North America.

con't....

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www.vfontana.com

 

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San Bruno Mountain can be viewed directly behind downtown, not to be confused with the north Santa Cruz Mountains in the far background

 

I only occasionally post an entire borrowed article, as I know the concern would want their site to be the one cited in any instance. I hope they don't mind me posting the image. At one time, Colma WAS Genoa, Lucca, Bologna, etc; generally a "little northwest Italy." Even today, it represents at least some semblance of a geographical community for our people. Another way of looking at it, historically-speaking, is the whole area surrounding San Bruno Mountain. Crocker Amazon was once more Italian than North Beach, then there's the Excelsior, Bayshore and Hillside in Daly City, Broadmoor, South San Francisco, Colma, and generally all around the perimeter of the mountain.

In the many aerial images of San Francisco's skyline facing southward that we've seen for decades, San Bruno Mountain just stands there in the background like a phantom that nobody really notices. It's 1,319 foot peak is taller than the tallest building in San Francisco (the Salesforce Tower, designed by the late famous Cisalpine-Argentine architect César Pelli, is 1,070 feet). One of the best kept local secrets is the little parking lot at the top of Radio Road on San Bruno Mountain. If anyone hasn't been there, you should wait for a nice day, and bring a camera!

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Sonic Drive-In Boneless Wings Commercial 2015 History Channel

Sonic Drive-In Boneless Wings Commercial 2015 History Channel 

Commercials YouTube channel

Sonic Drive-In Boneless Wings Commercial 2015 History Channel. Sonic Drive-In Boneless Wings TV Commercial, 'History Channel'. Leonardo da Vinci is served some of "Mona's Famous Wings," but is unsatisfied with his eating experience. Determined to find a better way to eat wings, Leo draws up the first design for boneless chicken wings. Just as he finishes his design, Mona returns for Leo to finish painting her portrait.

Commerical details

Making history come alive, if even in a silly way. I thought this ad was a good attention-getter. Although the attractive "Mona" was a bit more Bensonhurst than Florence.

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Famous Cisalpines outside of Padania: Part 5

From the video description: Jeno Paulucci and Neil Cavuto discuss the Great Depression in relation to modern hard times (2011).




From the video description:

While Joan Veon passed away in October of 2010, this may be one of the most important videos that you watch this year.

This explains how the One World Government is here now and how those countries that refuse to be a part of it can be taken out.

Up until September 1994, Joan Veon was just a businesswoman. As a result of attending the United Nations Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, Egypt, she received her “wake up call” as she found there was more going on at the global level than most Americans knew, understood or were being told.




From the video description: On the March 26, 2014 edition of "Nature of Reality Radio" I welcomed Michael Cremo who is the co-author of the book "Forbidden Archeology" and a regular guest on the History Channel show "Ancient Aliens." We discussed how much of mainstream archaeology and history is either fraudulent or not telling the whole truth...

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California Wine 2013

Yesterday, the San Francisco Chronicle published its annual 'California Wine' section. It was subtitled 'Sunny days - Now's the best time in years to enjoy the state's bounty.' In it were numerous articles about regional wines, corresponding foods, fall events, wine tasting, and different grapes. Unfortunately, this group of articles isn't available as a separate section online; but here is the link to their "wine" homepage.

No aspect of regional northern California culture brings out more the long standing local Cisalpine heritage than the wine industry. Not just the older wineries, but newer ones; as well as Cisalpines who came here in later times like Robert Mondavi. One of the wineries featured is the Fanucchi Vineyards in Fresno County.

In one of the articles entitled 'A toast to California wines', it states "California wine is booming as never before. You can see it clearly in the numbers. As we'll relate in the following pages, the state's wine industry remains on a nearly two-decde surge of popularity, accounting for more than $34 billion in sales last year."

In another article from the section entitled 'California wine enjoys a long boom', a sub-section shows the following facts:
*California's wine economy
-$61.5 billion in overall economic impact in the state
-330,000 jobs generated
-$12.3 billion in wages
-$14.7 billion generated in state and federal taxes

I often like to try foreign wines, and it's easy for for locals to forget that we live in very likely the best wine producing region in the world. One interesting development in recent years has been the growth of wine in Sonoma County; although I don't really know if it actually comes close to challenging the famous Napa County wine region in sales. Another interesting aspect of this industry is that there are big growers who don't even have a label of their own, and find it profitable enough in the farming end of the business.

The wine community of Lodi in the Central Valley--a city named after Lodi, Lombardy--had a full page ad to promote their wines, with their website LodiWine.com. If you're near a Chronicle distributor, you could just walk in and purchase the Sunday paper of August 26; especially if you wanted to attend some of the late Summer and Fall events. I find sfgate.com to be hard to search and navigate. Lastly, St. Helena is the heart of the wine industry in North America. It truly is a great place to visit. Our people were predominant in making this industry from it's inception.

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