Locals Savor Return Of Napa Valley’s Mustard Celebration
NAPA VALLEY, CA — Wild mustard plants are blooming across Napa Valley, and those bright yellow flowers herald the return of a favorite wine country tradition: The Napa Valley Mustard Celebration.
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Artwork for the 2023 Napa Valley Mustard Celebration by Beverly Wilson. (Photo: Courtesy Jessel Miller)
The celebration returns to Napa Valley in February and March with a wide range of wineries, restaurants, and art galleries celebrating all things mustard. The celebration also serves as an excuse for locals to get out and enjoy social hikes and learn about the biodiversity of the prodigious plant from area experts.
Why celebrate the mustard plant?
Each spring, the wild shrubs grow and thrive between grapevine rows and atop hillsides, painting the valley in bright yellow blossoms. Their cultivation is encouraged as the mustard flower draws pollinators, the extensive roots prevent erosion, and the large plants ward off grapevine pests — all silently essential to growing healthy crops, according to the celebration’s organizers.
The original long-running festival to honor that plant stopped in 2011 due to a lack of sponsorship. After a decade-long hiatus, the celebration returned in 2022 when local gallery owner Jessel Miller reinvented the concept into the Napa Valley Mustard Celebration. Now in its second year, "the celebration will be even better," Miller said.
Miller has already amassed a small army of contributors to help spread the joy of all things mustard in Napa Valley.
Atlas Valley’s Bougetz Cellars labeled a commemorative wine for the occasion for the second year.
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The 2023 Napa Valley Mustard Celebration commemorative wine, bottled by Bougetz Cellars. (Photo: MJ Schaer/Courtesy)
Hurley Farms joined in by producing a line of artisan mustards available for sale and tasting. Miller hopes to join forces with an area olive oil vendor to round out the culinary samplings across Napa Valley, she said. Winemakers, visual artists and authors will be celebrated throughout the event, according to the calendar of activities.
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Artist Beverly Wilson painted the 2023 Napa Valley Mustard Celebration art, for sale to commemorate the event. (Photo: Jessel Miller).
It’s no coincidence that an art gallery owner revived the festival.
The visuals of the valley in springtime are commemorated in paintings and photographs. Napa’s vivid blue skies serve as the backdrop for the stunningly yellow mustard flowers and the bright greens of bud break on grapevines. That level of beauty lends itself to art, food, wine and inspiration for books. A reading from the area's favorite authors is set up for the first weekend in February at the Jessel Gallery.
The Mustard Celebration is what’s known as a “shoulder season” event for the area that thrives on winemaking as well as culinary and visual arts. Miller and partnering Napa businesses plan to continue the tradition for years to come.
“For the first time in the history of the celebration, this is an all-inclusive wine country event,” she said. “I’m thrilled that everyone jumped on board. We’re in our baby year of everyone being on board as wineries figure out how to be involved. For 2024, it will be even bigger.”
Learn more at the Napa Valley Mustard Celebration website and be sure to stop by the Jessel Gallery, located at 1019 Atlas Peak Road, Napa, CA.
The article Locals Savor Return Of Napa Valley’s Mustard Celebration appeared first on Napa Valley Patch.
