Where to Find California’s Native Plants in Your Beer

Long-haired brewers, tattooed chefs, and curious vermouth makers aren’t the usual folks wandering around the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden. Nor does the tour guide typically encourage her guests to pluck the hummingbird sage, woolly bluecurls, and wood mint to see how much they smell like lemonade, tarragon, and dank forest floor. But that’s exactly what this gaggle of flavor-seekers was doing on an afternoon last February, as they investigated the native plants available for crafting one-off bites and brews to serve during the annual Botanic Garden Beer Garden.

Now the venerable institution’s primary fundraiser, the Beer Garden, which started in 2014 and returns on March 16, is one of the most engaging food and drink festivals on the Central Coast calendar. Not only does it feature a tightly curated selection of restaurants and breweries that integrate the California landscape into their creations, but the experience rolls out like a meandering hike, as attendees wander about a mile to explore the lineup of booths that are tucked into picturesque corners of the property, with live acoustic music as entertainment along the way. 

I’ve heard about the event since it began, but I never attended until last year. After nearly a quarter-century of hitting every food and drink festival I could, I’d burned out a bit on the generic format, which often just devolves into drunk fests within an hour or so of starting. And even though I’d heard great things about this Beer Garden, I could never snag a ticket anyway, as they sell out almost immediately upon release. (That’s January 4 this time, so mark your calendar!) 

But for the 2023 edition, I was invited to be part of the volunteer committee that organizes the event, and I happily lent my connections to restaurants and breweries in order to spruce up the posse of participants. That role also required my attendance, so I obliged, and was wowed beyond my high expectations by the offerings and the vibe. 

Amid a steady onslaught of inventive and delicious dishes — charred oysters by Little Dom’s Seafood; elk burgers by Dutch Garden; Tyger Tyger’s umeboshi/miso/cucumber bite with iced juniper/lavender green tea — the most mind-bending creation was by Chef Jeremy Tummel of La Paloma Café. Hearing that you could source creek water for recipes, Tummel actually captured fresh rain, stabilized it in a seaweed-based gelatin, and then enhanced the transparent mold with chia seed, honey, and wood mint, a native plant growing just feet from his booth. He called the creation “Box of Rain” — one of my favorite Grateful Dead songs, incidentally — and served it on a banana leaf.

The tastiest and most complete dish had to be Convivo’s miso short rib with brown-butter risotto and crispy black-sage gremolata. I spent a few minutes listening to Chef Peter McNee explain how he made the cube of meat so structurally sound on the outside yet silky-soft once chewed, another bit of textural mystery for me. It involved brining and smoking and braising and more than I could follow, at least being a few sage-infused beers deep at that point. 

This year, the list of brand-new participants includes Single Fin Cider and the nonalcoholic beverage Tilden — it’s not all beer! — as well as Dawn/Dusk, which will be serving both food and drink. Strange Beast and Empty Bowl are coming for the first time, Barbareño and Bibi Ji are returning after a few years off, and my highlights from last year, La Paloma and Convivo, will be back as well. There are about 25 participating vendors overall, too many to name here, but they’re all taking that ingredient tour soon to envision their native plant creations. 

I really don’t tell you this to sell more tickets. As I mentioned, it always sells out fast. Instead, consider this a warning that, if you’d like to take part, mark your calendars for January 4, when the 250 tickets go on sale.

See sbbotanicgarden.org/classes-events/beer-2024.