The Brief

In a sport known for turf battles, SoCal surfing is facing perhaps its most epic turf challenge yet — all the way from the ski slopes of Utah. U.S. Ski and Snowboard, the Olympic organization for those sports, is making a bid to add surfing to its roster.

“When you look at the heart of what we do — supporting elite athletes and growing action sports — it makes complete sense,” Sophie Goldschmidt, the head of U.S. Ski and Snowboard, told LAist in an email. “Surfing is a natural extension of our mission.” (Goldschmidt also headed the World Surf League, a pro circuit, before taking the top job at U.S. Ski and Snowboard.)

Many surfers disagree. Ian Cairns, a former champion surfer and coach who helped develop the sport competitively, said the snow group is “ trying to ski-jack the crown jewels of surfing away from the surfing world.”

“ Effectively what they're doing is they’re skimming the cream off the top,” Cairns said of U.S. Ski and Snowboard’s bid to become what’s known as the National Governing Body for the U.S. Olympic surfing team. “They're going to take the commercial rights and they're going to put those dollars into their infrastructure.”

The backers of USA Surfing say they have proof that their rival U.S. Ski and Snowboard doesn't know anything about the sport of surfing: In a presentation to the Olympic committee, they used a surfing icon that appears to show a surfer facing backward on a board. The surfing organization has made it the centerpiece of their P.R. campaign against the group.

San Clemente native Sawyer Lindblad surfs in the 2024 Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach on March 27, 2024 in Winkipop, Australia. Lindblad is backing USA Surfing in its bid to manage the U.S. Olympic surfing team.

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Cairns and a number of other pro surfers are throwing their weight behind USA Surfing, the comparatively scrappy organization that trains and develops young surfers with Olympic dreams. The San Clemente-based nonprofit — which helped make surfing an Olympic sport to begin with — is not giving up its chance to represent Olympic athletes without a fight.

They recently launched a public relations blitz in an effort to win over Olympic leaders, who will soon decide which organization will represent the U.S. Olympic surf team at the 2028 Games in L.A. At stake is whether that team will have its home base, and the accompanying money and prestige, on the shores of San Clemente or the slopes of Park City.

The backstory: A brief history of USA Surfing’s troubles

Why is an organization focused on snow sports even in the running to take over Olympic surfing? Because USA Surfing has had a tough run of late.

Back in 2017, USA Surfing became the national governing body for the sport of surfing, charged with training young surfers, developing the sport, and nominating athletes to compete on the Olympic stage. But they lost that status shortly after the sport made its Olympic debut, in the 2021 Tokyo summer games.

That’s because in 2019, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee audited USA Surfing and found numerous problems, including failing to disclose conflicts of interest. The audit also found minimal documentation and oversight of how the organization’s leaders were spending its money. As a result, USA Surfing voluntarily agreed to relinquish its control over the U.S. Olympic surf team until after the 2024 Paris games.

Despite the turmoil, the U.S. surfing team won gold medals at both games — Carissa Moore in Tokyo and Caroline Marks in Paris (in case you missed it, the actual surfing took place in Tahiti).

During all that time, and to date, USA Surfing has been training Olympic hopefuls and holding competitions at Lower Trestles in San Clemente — the same place surfers will compete in the LA28 games.

And USA Surfing now has entirely new management. CEO Becky Fleischauer told LAist the organization has done all the things the Olympic committee said it needed to in order to regain its role as the National Governing Body, including adopting financial best practices, improving transparency, and showing financial stability.

Fleischauer called the surfing competition at the 2028 games a “legacy building opportunity.” “We want the Olympics to provide the lift to the surfers, the community, the businesses, and our program,” she said.

Despite the high stakes, Fleischauer declined to diss on U.S. Ski and Snowboard and their bid to intrude on the local surf turf.

“ We never really wanted to be in an antagonistic position with another sport that athletes work really hard to do,” she said.

Ian Cairns, a former surfing champion and coach, is among those campaigning for USA Surfing to oversee the entire pipeline of U.S. competitive surfing, including the U.S. Olympic surfing team. (And yes, that neck brace is the result of a surfing accident.)

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What’s this really all about?

For most of the public, the Olympics are a national ego-boosting spectacle and a chance to watch athletes and sports that usually don’t get much play in the mainstream media. But the Olympics are also big business.

For one thing, there are sponsorships from companies that want their name associated with popular sports and winning athletes. For another, national governing bodies for Olympic sports get money directly from the Olympic committee. Both US Ski and Snowboard and USA Surfing acknowledge that money is part of their motivation.

For the winter sports group, adding surfing would free them from their seasonal confines. “From a commercial perspective adding a summer sport to our winter sport portfolio gives us year-round assets and programming to sell,” US Ski and Snowboarding wrote in its official bid to absorb Olympic surfing. (Goldschmidt told LAist that U.S. Ski and Snowboard also is interested in assuming control over Olympic skateboarding.)

If that happens, USA Surfing would essentially continue to do most of the work to develop and support the nation’s top surfers without reaping the benefits of representing them at the world’s most venerated competition.

“ It would siphon money and opportunity,” Fleischauer, from USA Surfing, said of the possibility of permanently losing control over Olympic surfing.

On the flip side, she said, “We've talked to sponsors who would support us at another level if we were the national governing body.”

Of course, there are those who wish surfing had remained the weird, counter-culture activity it once was, out of the limelight, anti-commercial. But that ship sailed long ago.

Today, surfing is a $9 billion industry, according to an article published earlier this year in the Orange County Business Journal. And many of the top brands have their roots in Orange County. They also stand to benefit if USA Surfing wins its Olympic bid, said Vipe Desai, executive director of the Surf Industry Members Association, a trade group.

“This is about local jobs, the local economy, local businesses,” Desai said. “If this money gets transferred out of state to another region, it's not going to support the business and the culture.”

Big snow, big money

Financially, U.S. Ski and Snowboard is a goliath compared to USA Surfing. The snow group took in over $38 million in revenue in 2024 compared to less than $900,000 for USA Surfing, according to tax statements. But that’s at least in part because U.S. Ski and Snowboard has 10 Olympic sports in its current portfolio with dozens of athletes.

Goldschmidt, the head of U.S. Ski and Snowboard, said the group’s robust infrastructure, including high-tech training facilities and “commercial support” for athletes (read: sponsorships) would benefit elite surfers.

“I respect the passion and pride that people have within the surf community," Goldschmidt wrote in an email to LAist. “This isn’t about taking anything away — it’s about adding to what’s already been built.”

Growing support for USA Surfing

As the date nears for a decision from the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, USA Surfing has garnered some key support for its bid. In June, they announced a multi-million dollar investment from San Clemente-based businessman Kipling Sheppard, intended to kickstart an endowment for the organization.

“Our motivation is simple,” Sheppard said. “It's to keep surfing with the surf community and those that are involved in it day-to-day and make sure that the Olympic ‘lift’ that will occur here in San Clemente benefits the people and the community of San Clemente.”

The International Surfing Association, which is recognized by the International Olympic Committee as the authority on competitive surfing, is also backing USA Surfing. That’s key because surfers have to surf in ISA competitions to qualify for the Olympics. Perhaps an even bigger snub: The World Surf League, Goldschmidt’s former organization, is also backing USA Surfing.

USA Surfing has also clinched a bunch of letters of support from local leaders, including a group of U.S. Congress members, O.C. Supervisor Katrina Foley, and the San Clemente City Council. And they have support from some of the nation’s top surfers. Sawyer Lindblad was among a group of pro surfers who showed up at a San Clemente City Council meeting in August to ask for support for USA Surfing. Lindblad, a San Clemente native, was fresh off her first place win, two days earlier, at the 2025 US Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach.

“ I don't think I would be as successful as I am without them,” Lindblad said of USA Surfing. “ It truly shaped me into the surfer I am today.”

 Kirra Pinkerton, another San Clemente native and the 2022 International Surfing Association World Champion, is also throwing her support behind USA Surfing.  “Obviously all of our goals eventually is to qualify for the Olympics,” she said. “I believe the best way to do that is to stick to what our roots are.”

Asked whether fellow athletes might appreciate the bigger platform and deeper coffers offered by U.S. Ski and Snowboard, Pinkerton said she doubted the snow sports group would find much support in the water.

“ Surfers will back surfers forever,” she said.

The ultimate decision about which of the two groups will represent surfers on the world stage is up to the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee. They’re expected to hold their second and final public hearing on the issue later this month, although the exact date hasn’t been set.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that USA Surfing had lost its status as the national governing body for Olympic surfing prior to the 2021 Tokyo games.

A group of employees at the Los Angeles region’s homelessness authority says hundreds of frontline workers will face layoffs as L.A. County transitions funding away from the agency.

Staffers from the L.A. Homeless Services Authority, or LAHSA, wrote an open letter to the county Board of Supervisors this week, demanding that no county-funded workers be displaced.

Its members say the transition would hit workers and unhoused clients harder than county officials have acknowledged.

“ A lot of the workers are in this because we care and we want to help our fellow neighbors and don't want to see see all kinds of people homeless on the street,” Jacqueline Beltran, a LAHSA employee who signed the letter, told LAist.

County officials said they are committed to “clearing pathways to employment” for county-funded LAHSA workers within the new Department of Homeless Services and Housing.

“We are continuing to explore all available options,” new department director Sarah Mahin said in a statement.

Mahin said funding and staffing will be finalized in the FY 2026-2027 Measure A spending plan for the fiscal year that ends in 2027. The county released a draft of that plan last month. 

County authorities have said they would fully integrate the services performed by LAHSA into the new Department of Homeless Services and Housing by next July.

The transition

In April, the county Board of Supervisors voted to pull more than $300 million from LAHSA and create a new county homelessness department to administer the funds.

That motion also directed county agencies to consult with Service Employees International Union 721, which represents county-funded LAHSA employees, to try to keep them employed — or prioritize them for transition into the new department’s workforce.

But the LAHSA Workers Coalition said that’s not happening.

The group demands in its letter that the county halt all staffing reductions at LAHSA and argues the county has a legal obligation to protect the workers. The group is made up of employees represented by SEIU 721, but the union’s leaders did not cosign the letter.

The union did not immediately respond to LAist’s questions about it Thursday.

In February, an L.A. County report said the agency had 900 staff positions and nearly 200 vacancies. More than half of the positions were funded by L.A. County, according to the report.

LAHSA reported last month that it employed 686 people.

Demands

Last year, county voters approved the Measure A sales tax to fund homeless services and affordable housing. The ordinance says that contracts funded with Measure A revenue "must not result in displacement of public employees.”

In the letter, the coalition argues the county is out of compliance with that requirement and is urging the board to discuss the matter at its next meeting.

Mahin said Measure A does not prevent the county from restructuring programs but instead “protects public employees from being displaced by outside service providers funded through Measure A.”

The county is facing a deficit of more than $300 million in funding for homeless services, Mahin said, adding that it must make “difficult but necessary decisions about how we invest our limited resources.”

The workers coalition is demanding that existing LAHSA employees be transferred directly to the new department, instead of having to reapply.

They’re also asking the board for a full public disclosure of staffing cuts related to the transition.

In addition to the Board of Supervisors, the coalition sent the letter to several other county and state oversight entities, including the county office of the inspector general, the civil grand jury, the state auditor and the attorney general.

When Terri Huerta called local winemakers about a problem with a meandering vine at Mission San Gabriel in the city of San Gabriel, she thought she'd get gardening help. Instead, she sparked a revival of L.A.'s oldest wine.

Mission San Gabriel's 250-year-old grapevine, one of the oldest living vines in California, continues to produce grapes for the Angelica wine revival.

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The vine in question isn't your typical grapevine. It's a 250-year-old beast with a trunk so massive two people can't wrap their arms around it. Because it served as the source for cuttings that spread throughout California's early vineyards, it’s now known as the Mother Vine.

For centuries, it just sprawled across the mission courtyard like some ancient, living pergola that refuses to quit, with no one taking any notice of the grapes flourishing each season.

But now, thanks to a group of determined local winemakers, that fruit is being transformed into Angelica, a sweet wine fortified with brandy that Franciscan missionaries made there in the 1700s — making it the city’s oldest wine.

A limited edition batch was launched Nov. 28 by the Angeleno Wine Company. There are fewer than 200 bottles for sale, and at $75, it's not cheap. But break that down by the vine's age, and you're paying 30 cents per year of history.

How it started

The collaboration began in 2020 when Huerta, director of mission development at Mission San Gabriel, reached out to the Los Angeles Vintners Association looking for help to manage the grapevine.

The association — a partnership among three L.A. wineries: Angeleno Wine Company, Byron Blatty Wines and Cavalletti Vineyards — sent winemakers Mark Blatty, Patrick Kelly, Jasper Dickson and Amy Luftig to assess the situation. They found something bigger than a courtyard cleanup project. They found grapes. A lot of them.

"The vine was full of fruit, and I told them it was just a nuisance every year," Huerta recalls. "They asked, 'What are you going to do with all this fruit?' and I said, 'I really don't know.'”

That's when the group offered to help take it off Huerta’s hands.

Grapes from Mission San Gabriel's 250-year-old grapevine used in the Angelica wine revival.

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Wine history

Although the Napa Valley now reigns supreme as the region’s wine industry, L.A. once was the center for the entire state. Mission San Gabriel’s vine was planted by Franciscan friars after the establishment of the mission in 1775 to make sacramental wine to be used during mass. DNA analysis has since revealed its forebears: It's a hybrid of Spanish Listán Prieto grapes and native California Vitis girdiana.

This vine’s cuttings helped launch the many vineyards that began to crop up around the newly founded grape fields, which became numerous. By 1850, L.A. boasted over 100 vineyards. If you look carefully, even today, the city of L.A.’s seal has a bunch of grapes hanging at the top.

The official seal of the city of Los Angeles.

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The wines were popular with fortune seekers headed north to the Gold Rush. The industry flourished until 1883, when an outbreak of Pierce's Disease destroyed thousands of acres of vines across SoCal. Urban sprawl replaced vineyards with housing through the mid-20th century.

Today, almost nothing remains of L.A. 's once-dominant wine industry — with the exception of the Mother Vine and a handful of its descendants scattered across the city.

Across from Union Station a direct descendant is still growing over tourist and vendor heads. It’s a 200-year-old vine at Olvera Street's Avila Adobe, the oldest standing residence in the city of L.A.

Storing up the grapes

The winemakers started picking the fruit at the Mission in 2020. But it wasn’t enough to make a substantial batch of wine, so the grapes were stored. For the past five years, the winemakers, joined with volunteers, have harvested the fruit each season, carefully packing it away.

In the meantime, they began to dig into mission records for mentions of grapes and winemaking. One day they came across a document from the 1800s, which outlined a recipe for Angelica, a fortified wine made from grape juice and brandy.

"Angelica is said to be made by mixing one gallon of grape brandy with three of grape juice, fresh from the press," it said. "It is a thick, sweet and strong drink, yet of very delicate flavor."

The fortification wasn't just about taste — it was a necessity. In an era before refrigeration, adding brandy preserved the wine, allowing it to survive California's heat and long journeys between missions.

Two of the winemakers, Dickson and Luftig, were especially interested. They’d been making wine from grapes grown locally in the SoCal region since 2018 at their winery Angeleno Wine Company, which produces everything on-site near Chinatown.

They became intrigued by the idea of recreating Angelica. Following the historical recipe, they pressed fresh Mission grapes and fortified the juice with brandy before fermentation. Then they used the solera system — a traditional Spanish method that blends wines across multiple vintages — aging the wine in oak barrels for years.

Initially, they made limited batches solely for the company’s wine club members, which quickly sold out.

This year’s Angelica is the group’s third batch but the first to go on sale to the public. It includes grapes that have been harvested from 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024.

The wine pours a pale cherry color and has a syrup-like consistency. The brandy comes through right away, caramel and warm spices with refreshing acidity cutting through the sweetness. It's thick, decadent and undeniably strong — a small glass (or two) is all that’s needed after a warm holiday meal.

The harvest

Harvesting the grapes doesn't look like the romantic wine country fantasy you see in magazines.

Instead of long rows of vines with grapes easily accessed, harvesters have to pick the fruit from below the canopy.

"Everyone has to bring ladders because we're picking like this," Dickson says, gesturing upward in the Mission’s courtyard. "We're literally placing ladders on ancient monks' tombstones to reach the fruit above the graves."

This year the harvest happened in October.

Volunteers harvest grapes at Mission San Gabriel for the Angelica wine revival project.

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John Pryor, a volunteer, has done multiple harvests. He describes it plainly: "You're not in a vineyard. You're in a garden at a Catholic church. The vines are trellised 12 feet high and go on for a hundred yards."

For his daughter, 27 year-old Meg Pryor, seeing the massive trunk drove home what "old" actually means.

"Whenever we're there, I'm thinking, 'People were doing this a century ago, two centuries ago,'" she said.

John and Meg Pryor help harvest grapes from Mission San Gabriel's historic grapevine for the Angelica wine revival project.

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Understanding who most of those workers were centuries ago means confronting some difficult issues. Huerta of Mission San Gabriel acknowledges the mission system relied on Indigenous labor, and the vine's hybrid nature suggests native plant knowledge may have contributed to its development.

But she doesn't shy away from the complexity.

"You can't tell Mission history without including all the parts," she says. "You can't tell one story without telling another story. Winemaking has always been a part of L.A. history. The grapes were brought by the Franciscans. They didn't just start here in California. They started in Mexico, so its complexity makes it interesting, but it also makes it controversial."

Going forward, Angeleno Wine Company plans to release a limited batch of Angelica as a seasonal offering each year, as long as the Mother Vine continues to produce fruit.

The Supreme Court has cleared the way for Texas to use a new congressional map that could help Republicans win five more U.S. House seats in the 2026 midterm election.

The decision released Thursday boosts the GOP's chances of preserving its slim majority in the House of Representatives amid an unprecedented gerrymandering fight launched by President Donald Trump, who has been pushing Texas and other GOP-led states to redraw their congressional districts to benefit Republicans.

The high court's unsigned order follows Texas' emergency request for the justices to pause a three-judge panel's ruling blocking the state's recently redrawn map.

After holding a nine-day hearing in October, that panel found challengers of the new map are likely to prove in a trial that the map violates the Constitution by discriminating against voters based on race.

In its majority opinion, authored by a Trump nominee, the panel cited a letter from the Department of Justice and multiple public statements by key Republican state lawmakers that suggested their map drawer manipulated the racial demographics of voting districts to eliminate existing districts where Black and Latino voters together make up the majority. For the next year's midterms, the panel ordered Texas to keep using the congressional districts the state's GOP-controlled legislature drew in 2021.

But in Texas' filing to the Supreme Court, the state claimed the lawmakers were not motivated by race and were focused instead on drawing new districts that are more likely to elect Republicans.

In November, after the panel blocked the new map, Justice Samuel Alito allowed Texas to temporarily reinstate it while the Supreme Court reviewed the state's emergency request.

The mid-decade redistricting plan Texas Republicans passed in August sparked a counter response by Democratic leaders in California, where voters in a special election in November approved a new congressional map that could help Democrats gain five additional House seats. A court hearing for a legal challenge to that map is set for Dec. 15.

The rest of the redistricting landscape remains unsettled as well. Lawsuits are challenging new gerrymanders in places like Missouri, where there is also a contested referendum effort. And other states, including Florida, Indiana and Virginia, may also pursue new districts prior to the midterms.

Last week, a federal court ruled to allow North Carolina's midterm election to be held under a recently redrawn map that could give Republicans an additional seat.

Another wave of congressional redistricting may be coming soon depending on what — and when — the Supreme Court decides in a voting rights case about Louisiana's congressional map. After the court held a rare rehearing for that case in October, some states are watching for a potential earlier-than-usual ruling that may allow Republican-led states to draw more GOP-friendly districts in time for the 2026 midterms.

Edited by Benjamin Swasey
Copyright 2025 NPR

Growing up in Whittier, tamales have always been part of who I am — whether from local bakeries like La Moderna, where my mother always orders the day after Thanksgiving, or our annual tamalada with family friends, where we churn out hundreds in slightly drunken assembly-line fashion.

Over the years, I've explored beyond the traditional Mexican versions: El Salvadoran styles from What's That You're Cooking in Orange County to the Chinese lo mai gai found at dim sum spots across the city. My pursuit of new tamal variations is relentless, especially this time of year.

So when I heard about a $27 lamb neck tamal in Venice, I had to know: could an elevated, chef-driven approach ever justify that price? Since a few other restaurants are also recreating the humble dish with a high-end approach, I decided to go and try them.

What I discovered was that these aren't replacements for traditional tamales — they're explorations of what happens when fine dining ambition meets this centuries-old form.

Si! Mon (Venice)

Si! Mon opened in 2023 in the former James Beach space, a collaboration between chef José Olmedo Carles Rojas and restaurateurs Louie and Netty Ryan, known for Venice-adjacent mainstays Hatchet Hall and Menotti's Coffee Stop. Si! Mon offers Carles Rojas' take on Panamanian fine dining, drawing on Panama's melting pot of Chinese, French, Spanish, African and Caribbean influences.

For the holidays, Carles Rojas is offering a $27 lamb neck tamal — a clear departure from the Mexican versions most Angelenos know. And while the price might cause some sticker shock, it’s worth considering what goes into it and how much food there is.

Wrapped in a banana leaf, the tamal uses a lighter, softer masa enriched with the lamb neck’s braising liquid. Rojas pulls the meat, tosses it with sofrito until it takes on a sauce-like consistency, then adds Indian-style quick-pickled dates for sweetness and olives for brine. Finally, the tamal is finished in Si! mon's wood-fired oven, adding subtle smokiness.

My verdict? After taking that first bite, I can tell you… it’s worth the splurge. One tamal is meant to be shared between two people, which partly explains the price point (though I had no problem finishing mine solo). I’ve had plenty of Central American tamales over the years — Salvadoran versions with their silky masa, Nicaraguan nacatamales loaded with vegetables and pork — but Carles’ take pulls out all the stops. This is a deluxe, bells-and-whistles vision: sweet, salty, and deeply savory all at once, comforting yet unlike anything I’ve tasted before.

Yes, it is a high price, but I’d say it reflects the time, technique and premium ingredients behind it.

KOMAL (South L.A.)

A Guatemalan-style chuchito tamal from KOMAL at Mercado de Paloma in South L.A.

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KOMAL is L.A.'s first craft molino (mill), founded by Fátima Júarez and Conrado Rivera, former employees of Michelin-rated Holbox, who opened this masa-centric counter inside South L.A.'s Mercado La Paloma. The name is Nahuatl for "comal," the traditional flat griddle used to cook tortillas.

I wanted to try the chuchito ($11), a regular menu staple at KOMAL. Júarez refers to the dish as a gift — both for the unwrapping it requires and the labor of love behind it. Each one takes more than 22 hours to make, starting with nixtamalizing heirloom corn to create the masa. (Nixtamalization, an ancient Mesoamerican process, involves soaking and cooking corn in an alkaline solution to improve its flavor, texture, and nutrition).

The result is a fluffy steamed tamal filled with tender pork and crowned with roasted pepper and tomato sauce, pickled cabbage and vegetables, and crema. The dish honors her kitchen team, most of whom are from Guatemala, and it's KOMAL's way of putting their heritage front and center on the menu.

KOMAL’s strawberry tamal dulce comes bright red and crowned with pineapple and fruit compote.

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Komal’s tamal verde at Mercado de Paloma comes stuffed with tender chicken and topped with zippy green salsa.

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Beyond the chuchito, Júarez is offering three special tamales as holiday pick-ups for Christmas and New Year's: a deep, complex tamal rojo filled with sweet corn and squash calabacita, a vibrant tomatillo-based tamal verde filled with chicken, and a tamal de leche made with oranges and strawberry jam, a sweet version that hints at the pre-Hispanic tasting menu they're developing.

After the holidays, these tamales will transition to appearing exclusively at Komal's planned ancestral and ceremonial dinners in 2026 — making this a rare chance to try them before they become part of a more formal dining experience.

Available by the half-dozen ($45) or the dozen ($90), they can be ordered for pick-up at KOMAL on Tuesday, Dec. 23, or Tuesday, Dec. 30.

Campesino Café at The Ecology Center (San Juan Capistrano)

Aaron Zimmer, head chef of Campesino Café at The Ecology Center, works within a unique constraint: everything on his menu comes from the 28-acre regenerative organic farm surrounding the restaurant. That includes the corn he grows, dries, harvests and processes into masa for his tamales.

For the winter season, Zimmer is offering two versions that reflect what's abundant on the farm right now. The shelling bean and cheese tamal ($21) features beans from one of four varieties they grow on-site — shelling beans are harvested before they're thoroughly dried, prized for their creamy texture and delicate, earthy flavor. The cooked-down beans are incorporated into the fresh masa with cheese, then topped with chili con queso made with pickled giardiniera from their summer harvest.

Campesino Café’s tamal duo pairs winter squash in walnut mole with a shelling-bean-and-cheese tamal topped with chile con queso.

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The winter squash tamal ($21) features squash finished with a walnut mole sauce. The sweet, nutty texture, combined with the squash's sweet, earthy flavors and soft, fresh-tasting masa, creates a highly multidimensional bite.

Both are wrapped in masa and steamed in corn husks, then topped with whatever's available in the larder at any given moment, such as freshly grown cilantro or pickled onion.

It's a hyperlocal, intensely seasonal approach that makes each tamal a snapshot of what the farm is producing — versatile, sustainable, and entirely tied to the land it comes from.