This week on Chopping It Up, Keith sits down with community powerhouse Lisa Palmer to dive into the vision behind the Santa Ynez Valley Community Aquatics Foundation—and why a world-class, two-pool complex right on the high school campus would change lives across the Valley.

From learn-to-swim lifesaving skills for our youngest to aqua fitness and rehab for seniors, from everyday lap swimmers to CIF-ready competition for swim and water polo, Lisa lays out how this project strengthens health, safety, and community connection for ages 1 to 101. You’ll hear about the foundation’s progress, the plan to keep school use secure while opening daily public access, and how tournaments and true “home games” could finally bring that electric, hometown-crowd feeling to the pool deck.

We get real about the goal—$13.7M—what’s already been raised, how local cities are stepping up, and exactly how time, talent, and treasure can push this across the finish line. If you’ve ever learned to swim, watched a kid fall in love with the water, or felt the calm of a good long swim—you’ll understand why this is the kind of legacy project that shapes a community for decades.

Listen in, get inspired, and get involved. Put your hand up—volunteer, spread the word, or give what you can. Search “SYV Aquatics Foundation” to connect and learn more. 🌊🤝

Highlights:

• Why year-round public swim access matters (safety, health, inclusion)

• The plan: competition pool + community/recreation pool

• Secure, concurrent school + public use

• Local support, fundraising milestones, and how you can help

• A vision for Valley pride: from first swim lesson to Olympic dreams 🏅

In this one, we sit down with author (and valley neighbor) Adam McHugh, whose memoir Blood From a Stone is a love letter to the Santa Ynez Valley and a raw, honest look at going from hospice chaplain and grief counselor in L.A. to wine guide and storyteller among our vines. We cover: how grief can become gratitude, why this valley saves souls with big skies and bigger terroir, the punk-rock work behind “romantic” wine, and what it really takes to belong to a place you once only visited. It’s reflective, hopeful, a little history-dorky, and very local.

Listen if you’re into: real talk about loss + resilience, the geology and magic that make SB County wines special, and the winding road from “escape” to “home.”
Grab the book: Blood From a Stone (find it at The Book Loft in Solvang or your favorite indie).
Bonus: Adam teases his upcoming Solvang kids’ book—because this valley makes room for both hard truths and holiday wonder.

Press play, take a deep breath, and fall back in love with where we live. 🎧✨

Clem Boyleston went from building high-tech solutions to hammering out purpose-built knives you’ll hand down to your kids. We talk Santa Barbara → Santa Ynez migrations, the smell of upturned dirt over the pass, and why the right blade is a tool, not a trophy. Clem breaks down performance vs. aesthetics, Damascus vs. san-mai (in plain English), chef knives that actually slice, ultralight backcountry blades, camp tomahawks, and why a great knife should fit your hand like it was born there.

We get into:

• How a Last of the Mohicans obsession became a life in steel

• Choosing steel, heat treat, and grinds for how you cook, hunt, or camp

• The tradeoffs big brands make vs. true custom work

• Everyday carry, indexing, serrations, and real-world safety

• Sharpening that brings dead blades back to life (yep, he offers it)

Where to find him & gift one before the holidays:
• Los Olivos Outfitters (local makers display)
• Alice Hall shop pop-ups & summer BBQs
• Homespun Show — Dec 6, Santa Barbara Community Arts Workshop
• Online: clemsknives.com and @clemsknives

Hit play to meet the guy quietly forging world-class tools right here in the Valley—and maybe the last kitchen or field knife you’ll ever need.

Los Olivos, this one’s for you. Mary Nash (Los Olivos Chamber of Commerce) joins me to spill everything about the 45th Annual Day in the Country—happening Saturday, October 11. We talk why this day still feels like the good kind of chaos, how a town of 1,200 pulls off a festival for thousands, and why the only wrong way to show up is not showing up.

What’s inside:

• 8:00 AM – Kids Run + Fun Run (walkers + dogs welcome)

• 10:00 AM – Parade MC’d by yours truly & Jeff Sieck (bring tractors, classics, bikes, teams, clubs—be in it!)

• All Day – 100+ vendors, food, music, community

• Apple Pie Contest – bragging rights on the line (limited spots!)

• Los Olivos Wine Festival at St. Mark’s—taste the town in one stop

• Scarecrow Fest all October (vote for your favorites)

• Parking supports Youth Empowered (local kids’ athletics)

This episode is your open invitation: dress 1940s, roll a vintage tractor, walk with your team, push a stroller, bring the dog—say yes and show up. We shout out this year’s Grand Marshal: Coastal Vineyard Care, the volunteers who make it happen, and why these neighbor-made days matter more than ever.

Get involved & sign up (parade, vendors, pie, Wine Fest tickets):
👉 losolivosca.com
👉 Instagram: @losolivosca

Come for the parade, stay for the pie—leave feeling like you live in a snow globe. 💙

This one hums. Jonathan “John” Firey grew up in an Oklahoma bluegrass family (matching velvet suits and all), turned down basketball scholarships to chase songs in Nashville, became a session ace, and quietly racked up thousands of shows—from the Ryman and the Grand Ole Opry to guitar records that ended up in big-box stores (yep, that haunting instrumental you heard while shopping might’ve been John). We talk adoption, a surprise pregnancy, and the moment he and his wife chose the Santa Ynez Valley so they wouldn’t miss their daughters growing up.

John takes us inside the Granada Theatre’s sold-out David Crosby tribute (30-piece orchestra, goosebumps), his instrumental album Taste of the Valley (melodies written in a dusty Jeep pull-off), and why the Valley has its own unnameable sound—part dirt road, part ocean air, all heart. He’s a humble showman who’d rather hide behind the guitar, but the stories spill: church Sundays, denim every day, and the kind of artistry that doesn’t chase fame—it chases truth.

If you love songs that feel lived-in, press play. Then queue up CaliAmericana Vol. 3: David Crosby and Taste of the Valley on your favorite streamer. And if you’re local, say hey when you spot the tall guy in all-denim rolling a Jeep down Grand Ave. Tap in—this episode sings. 🎧🎶

Some kids pick a lane. Aidan built a freeway. At 20 years old, this UCLA cello phenom can make a room go silent with a bow stroke—then turn around and free-dive 60 feet in the Channel Islands hunting halibut with a spear. We go from Bach to big water: blind orchestra auditions, chamber rehearsals, and the dream of recording film scores… straight into kelp forests, 🐠 white sea bass runs, 🐙 urchin ecology, and the moment a 14-foot great white slid into frame. Then—curveball—Dodgers fandom and the wild micro-economy of modern sports cards, including how Aiden tracked down my brother’s one-of-one rookie card and handed it to me like it was Excalibur.

This episode is about craft and courage: showing up, knocking on doors no one thinks to knock on, and saying “teach me.” If you’ve ever needed a nudge to chase the next thing—music, ocean, or otherwise—Aiden’s your sign.

🪈 Music, grit, and gills. 🎵🌊
🐟 Follow Aidan: @aidanjwoodruff (spearfishing) | @aidanjwcello (music)
🎧 If this hit you: like, subscribe, share with a friend who loves symphonies and saltwater.

From a shuttered “Buy Wise” in 1966 to the beating heart of the Santa Ynez Valley, this one has it all. Alfred Holtzhoy takes us inside his family’s immigrant-to-owner story—dad a German-trained master butcher who turned a small shop into El Rancho Market, the place where tri-tip became currency, the butcher counter stayed alive, and a quick egg run still takes two hours because you see everyone you know. We dig into the Valley as it was (no stoplights, farm boys, Danish Days), the genius of fresh-squeezed OJ (that FMC juicer!), make-your-own nut butter, the birth of the Jordan sandwich (yes, it’s real and it’s #1), Mississippi Caviar lore, house-roasted coffee on a Loring, and why Hatch chile season now feels like a holiday. It’s the history of a grocery that became a community—part butcher, part café, part living room—and a love letter to the people who kept it all cooking. 🛒

Wildfire isn’t a what if in the Santa Ynez Valley — it’s a when.

In this episode of Chopping It Up, I sit down with Dave Gonzales, a man who’s been running toward the flames since 1973. With more than fifty years in the fire service, Dave brings the kind of wisdom you can only earn by standing on the line, reading the wind, and making split-second decisions when everything is on the line.

This is a conversation about preparation, protection, and perspective. We dig into:

• The tools that matter most — apps like Watch Duty and PulsePoint that give you real-time intel when every second counts.

• Defensible space and fuel loads — why bark mulch, oak leaf “duff,” and overhanging branches are hidden tinderboxes, and how to harden your home before sparks ever fly.

• The M&Ms — Memories and Medicine. The two things you grab first when it’s time to evacuate.

• Go bags & bug-out plans — how to pack, when to leave, and why waiting until the “Go” order is too late.

• Animals and trailers — from loading horses at night with just a headlamp, to calming them with your own energy, to keeping trailers road-ready so you can move fast.

• Everyday spark hazards — dragging chains, catalytic converters in tall grass, weed whackers hitting rocks, even a horseshoe striking stone.

But more than that, we talk about community. About how neighbors with trucks and trailers show up before you even call. About why saying thank you to firefighters and law enforcement matters. And about what it means to live in a valley where people open their doors to strangers in need, no questions asked.

This isn’t about fear. It’s about respect — for the land, for the fire, and for each other.

Because when the sky turns orange, the time for preparation is over.