Delta as Culinary Journey: The Delta Heritage Forum

Notes: • Event includes morning coffee and pastries; a full lunch and a vintage cake tasting. • Event check-in is from 8am to 8:45am on November 5. • Event cost is $55 plus $5.64 Eventbrite fee.

The Delta Heritage Forum is an annual event celebrating Delta stories, nurturing collaboration, and inspiring new thinking and initiatives in the Delta heritage community.

The 2026 Forum theme is “Delta as Culinary Journey,” and the event will present a kaleidoscope of food/cultural stories centered in the Delta, both historic and modern.

Morning coffee/pastries, a full lunch and a vintage cake tasting will be offered during the event.

Speaker lineup:

Opening and Welcome: Diane Burgis, Chair, Delta Protection Commission

Delta as Food Source and Inspiration: Darrell Corti, President, Corti Brothers

Foodways of the Delta’s Original Inhabitants

Austin Stevenot is a Northern Sierra Mewuk cultural practitioner, enrolled member of the California Valley Miwok Tribe, and Director of Tribal Engagement for River Partners. He discusses the foodways of the Original People who flourished in the California Delta.

Rich Collins - California Endive, Rio Vista

A pioneer in Belgian-style endive production in the Delta, Rich Collins defied the skeptics who claimed this European vegetable couldn't be successfully farmed in the United States.

Ken Beer - President and owner of The Fishery, Galt

In partnership with Dr. Serge Doroshov, known as the "father of sturgeon aquaculture,” Ken Beer pioneered commercial sturgeon and caviar production in the Delta region.

Family Farming in the Delta – Looking Back, Looking Forward

Steve Heringer is a fifth-generation Delta farmer. Since 1868, the Heringer family has grown pears, row crops such as corn, sugar beets, tomatoes, and more recently, wine grapes. Mr. Heringer speaks of the past, present and future of family farming in the Delta from a multi-generational perspective.

Roti Quesadilla? Punjabi-Mexican Culture in the Delta

• Dr. Karen Leonard of UC Irvine discusses the historic Punjabi-Mexican American community, a unique cultural (and culinary) fusion of early 20th-century immigrants in California's Delta and Central Valley regions.

• Local culinary arts educator Nena Rasul describes the Punjabi/Mexican food traditions of her family.

Sweet Success + a Vintage Cake Tasting

Barbara Pagni Denton, author of the memoir/cookbook Sweet Success: How Industry, Immigrants, and Working Women Shaped a Town shares a vivid narrative of Crockett, a C&H Sugar company town, as it evolved in the 20th century.

• A collection of vintage cakes, whose recipes are shared in Denton’s book, will be served.

The History of Locke’s Chinese Demonstration Garden

Stuart Walthall, Chair of the Locke Foundation, discusses the profound role the community garden played in the life of Locke’s Chinese residents. He describes the legacy town’s present-day demonstration garden, which showcases vegetables, fruits and herbs grown by the original Chinese residents of Locke.

Closing remarks: Elizabeth Patterson, Chair, National Heritage Area Advisory Committee