RSVP

The RSVP deadline has passed.

Have Questions? CONTACT US

Ingredients

• 1.0 oz. Ventura Spirits Strawberry Brandy

• 0.5 oz Ojai Jelly Apricot Syrup

• 0.5 oz Limoneira Lemon Juice

• 2 - 3 oz. Flying Embers Brut Nature

• Optional: 1 Driscoll’s strawberry slice for garnish

Steps

1. Place brandy, syrup & lemon juice in a shaker.

2. Add ice and shake.

3. Strain into your favorite cocktail glass.

4. Top with kombucha.

5. Garnish with a lemon twist and/or strawberry slice.

6. Enjoy!

how to buy

• Book available for pre-order at www.BetsyChessBooks.com (available late June)

• Option to have book autographed with special message

Forward

by Henry Dubroff

When Betsy Chess asked me to take a look at an early draft of her personal memoir, she described it as a way to tell her family’s story so that future generations might understand how the Blanchard family had come to be part of the fabric of Santa Paula.

As I began to read the early drafts and as the extraordinary events of 2020 unfolded, it occurred to me that Daughter of the Land might be a richer text by placing her personal history in the context of larger developments. For anyone but a gifted story teller this might have been a daunting task. But Betsy knows how to manage a complex narrative and she has natural good judgement, so this personal history also tells the story of changes that have taken place in the culture of California’s Central Coast during nearly a century and a half.

It should be said that I’ve known Betsy and her family for many years. Limoneira, the company that her great-grandfather co-founded in 1893, has been the subject of much reporting in Pacific Coast Business Times, the business journal I founded in 2000. I’m honored that she quoted from a special publication we designed for the 125th anniversary of Limoneira. I was delighted when the board elected her to its board of directors, a move toward gender diversity that was probably long overdue.

What makes Daughter of the Land special, in my view, is that it takes the opportunity to look back at history to speak about our time. Beginning with a serious illness she suffered at age nine—we begin to understand how life was before there was a vaccine for polio and we perhaps learn a bit about what the COVID-19 survivors are facing. We learn more about the women who created the civic culture of Santa Paula and fostered it patiently through the floods, freezes, droughts and more recently fires, that disrupt an idyllic place from time to time.

We get a glimpse into the early years of a young woman growing up at a prosperous time in a family of substance and heritage. But Betsy’s gift is to look back not with nostalgia but with a growing awareness of bigger issues like farm labor, race relations, the role of women and a company’s social responsibilities. She has performed a valuable service by looking at these issues from the perspective of the twenty-first century.

Betsy Chess has had a life well lived. She’s been more successful than she suggests and she’s impacted the lives of thousands. That alone would be enough. But Daughter of the Land does something else. It places her life in the context of her family’s past and our extraordinarily disrupted present in her unique and confident voice.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Born in Santa Paula, California, Betsy attended high school at the Bishop’s School for Girls in La Jolla and did both graduate and postgraduate work at the University of Southern California, earning a Master of Arts degree in Modern European History.

Since 1988, she has pursued a dual career both as an agricultural journalist and non-profit arts manager, editing and publishing the Central Coast Farm & Ranch magazine while serving in top executive positions for the New West Symphony, the Rubicon Theater Company and the Museum of Ventura County.

Betsy has been recognized numerous times for her work in the arts and the community. She has earned five Paul Harris awards from the Rotary Club of Ventura; received a Woman of Vision award from the Ventura Interfaith Ministerial Association; and an Arts Star award from the Ventura County Arts Council. Additionally she was honored by Women’s Economic Ventures as a Trailblazer; chosen Ventura County Volunteer of the year by the American Society of Fundraising Professionals; and named one of “25 over 50” by the Ventura County Star newspaper.

In 2016, Betsy was elected to the board of the Nasdaq-listed Limoneira Company, the third woman to serve in its 128-year history and the first woman on the board since 1974.

Chess lives in Ventura, not far from her native Santa Paula, with a Portuguese Water Dog named Arrow, Cubby the barn cat, and seven backyard chickens. Betsy is an avid reader, an accomplished equestrian, a gardener and creative cook, and a musician of sorts. She is grateful to have shared her experiences in this debut book.