Easy promise to make Sonoma Valley luncheonette is a popular spot with an attractive pitch 3
HEALDSBURGTRIBUNE.COM
OUR 161ST YEAR
NO 36
New sport in town Flag football finally comes to Healdsburg 5
Pachanga and art Local markets, music, meetings on the Calendar 2
SEPTEMBER 3, 2026
On a mission for honeybees ● Local nonprofit in global campaign By Christian Kallen
Photo by Maryann Frazier
Forming connections in Kenya Healdsburg beekeeper Candice Koseba shares some of her colorful bee stamps with Maasai women in Kenya, and in return they teach their visitors how to do traditional bead work. This exchange of ideas between very different people lies at the heart of BEE in Kenya. See story at right. — MORE PAGE 12
‘macbitches’ delivers on its promise ● Young playwright strikes a nerve By Christian Kallen Few plays telegraph the plot dynamics and setting as clearly in their title as macbitches. We
know it’s got to be a cutting play about theater people vying for a key role in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, probably college-age—a sort of Mean Girls in the drama department. That’s pretty much what it is, according to playwright Sophie McIntosh. “I think the title helps; it sets the tone in that way,” she said. “Like, If you don’t like the title, you won’t like the play. But if you’re interested in the title, you will be, I hope, interested.” McIntosh, from her current
home in Brooklyn, called the Tribune to talk about macbitches, its success and the context of her work. Only 28 years old, at least nine of her plays have been produced since her gradschool days at Columbia (she’s originally from Wisconsin). Among her other plays is Benevolent, about girls in a 1917 reform school. It is currently being staged in New York for a second time and, says McIntosh, “it has gotten more press — More on page 4
Candice Koseba is a rare Healdsburg figure who earned her local reputation in something other than wine, dining or olive oil. Her specialty is bees, and honey of course, and from her Dry Creek Valley homestead she oversees a thriving collection of local bee hives. Not just the traditional stacked or slotted flat boxes one sees, known as Langstroth hives, but hives made to recreate a natural hive site. Sometimes a natural hive even appears, as in the cleft of an old tree on the property. This is the headquarters of Sonoma County Bee Company, which develops organic honey products as small-batch honey, candles and pots made of beeswax, lotions and salves and even health tonics. “Value-added hive products,” as Koseba calls these items in her marketing. At the end of the dirt driveway lies the nexus of a global connection, much like the widespread range of bees. Next
weekend, on Sept. 12, the nonprofit group she helped found will hold its second annual “BEE in Kenya Dinner,” complete with art auction, live music, honey tastings and whole roasted goat from chef Michael Degen, former sous chef at Healdsburg’s Scopa Restaurant. It’s all in keeping with the Kenya connection and an ongoing project to encourage bee economies in the Maasai Mara region. By its full name it’s Beekeepers and Educators Engaged in Kenya, and it provides yearly tours to Kenya for interested and professional beekeepers seeking to expand their horizons. All the funds raised go to “helping provide beekeeping equipment, training, educational resources, and opportunities that strengthen both communities and the landscapes they depend on,” according to BEE in Kenya. — More on page 6