News around your Sonoma County town

CLOVERDALE: Festival welcomes great tomatoes, salsa, pumpkins

The third annual Soil King Tomato Festival will take place from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sept. 24 at The Soil King Garden Center, 320 Santana Drive.

Home gardeners are encouraged to check their vines and plan to enter their locally grown tomatoes in one of the five fresh tomato competitions or one of the six tomato salsa contests.

In addition, The Soil King Junior Farmers' Giant Pumpking weigh-off will once again have categories for both adult and junior farmers.

For complete rules and information, visit thesoilking.com/tomato-fiesta or call 707-894-3500.

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CLOVERDALE: Historical Society speaker series features railroad stories

The Cloverdale Historical Society will present “The Iron Horse Comes to Cloverdale – 1872-1958,” the story of Northwestern Pacific Railroad's time in Sonoma County, on Sept. 14 at the Cloverdale Performing Arts Center, 209 N. Cloverdale Blvd.

The program will begin with live music at 6:30 p.m., followed by special guest speaker Allan Hemphill, Cloverdale resident and board member of the North Coast Railroad Authority. Guests will be treated to local railroad stories of days gone by.

Tickets are $10 and can be purchased online at cloverdalehistory.org or in person at either the Cloverdale History Center, 215 N. Cloverdale Blvd., or the Mail Center, Etc., 207-A N. Cloverdale Blvd. 707-894-2067.

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HEALDSBURG: Healdsburg gallery holds community quilting bee fundraiser

The Paul Mahder Gallery has called for the community to join in making a quilt for North Sonoma County Services to be used for fundraising. Paul Mahder, in conjunction with Bay Area artist Amber Jean Young, is featuring this segment of Young's “ongoing social practice project.”

Group quilting has a long history of gathering community together to create artistic, as well as practical, projects. Many world cultures have a history of artistic padded fabrics that have been used as bedding, clothing, maps and, surprisingly, even armor.

Young's goal is to “engage participants of any gender and of varying skill levels by giving them the opportunity to design their own quilt block and to contribute to a quilt,” according to a Paul Mahder Gallery press release. No sewing experience is required.

The quilting bee takes place from 2-5 p.m. Sept.11. The gallery is located at 222 Healdsburg Ave. For more information call 707-473-9150 or visit, paulmahdergallery.com.

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SONOMA: Peace groups to present TV drama series about British Palestine

Two North Bay groups dedicated to a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict present a four-part showing of “The Promise,” a British-produced television serial about a woman's quest for information in modern Israel/Palestine as she searches for information about her grandfather's involvement during the final years of the British mandate.

The first episodes will be shown from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sept. 24 at Sonoma Valley Regional Library, 755 W. Napa St. The final episodes will be shown in October; dates to be announced.

Admission is free. Donations are welcome.

The presentation is sponsored by Sonomans for Justice and Peace in Palestine and members of the North Bay Chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace.

Discussions follow each episode.

For more information, call 707-933-8594 or visit facebook.com/SFJPP.

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SONOMA: Springs Festival to celebrate Highway 12 improvements

The Springs Festival on Saturday celebrates the completion of major safety improvements and beautification projects along Highway 12 in northern Sonoma Valley.

First District Supervisor Susan Gorin and other officials will lead the celebration with opening remarks at 11:30 a.m. and a ribbon cutting at noon in the new Boyes Plaza Center at Boyes Boulevard and Highway 12 in Boyes Hot Springs.

A community walk at 12:15 p.m. heads along the highway to Flowery Elementary School to cross a footbridge to Larson Park for activities and food vendors from 1 to 5 p.m.

Festival admission is free. Dogs are welcome.

Parking is limited at Flowery, with no parking along the DeChene Avenue entrance to Larson Park.

The Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition will host a bike valet service and a bicycle safety rodeo and give away bike helmets.

Springs businesses, nonprofits and community groups will provide lawn games, a dunk tank, contests, a photo booth, art projects, pop-up shops and information tables.

Rico Martin, the Springs woneder Project artist who transformed the facades of several businesses, will greet the public and sell T-shirts depicting his colorful chicken sculpture at El Brinquito market.

The long-anticipated roadway improvements include curbs, gutters, parking, sidewalks and street lights along a stretch of Highway 12 connecting Agua Caliente, Fetters Hot Springs, Boyes Hot Springs and El Verano.

For more information, visit bit.ly/2ckvk8u.