Hoedown in Los Altos Hills Caps Summer Season

Los Altos Hills made its annual return to its rural roots Saturday with the Hoedown at .

There was a horse show, featuring participants in the Parks and Recreation Year ‘Round Riding Program, members of the Pacific Ridge Pony Club, and 4-H Miniature Horse Program.

Hollister-based Sidesaddle & Co. entertained with bluegrass and  country music. Former Mayor Breene Kerr and J. J. Harris raised the bar by inviting Kim Andrews and Yana Schlenker, teachers at the in Mountain View, to the hoedown. "We drug 'em here," Harris said, proudly. Schlenker said it was easy to adapt forms of ballroom dance to a barn dance, which included the classic, "Tennessee Waltz."

The focus, as always, is on local when it comes to products at the hoedown. There was apple cider with apples from and with a press from , and demonstrations of spinning, weaving and leather tooling. The 4-H Youth Commission and pony club had a bake sale, and there were activities for the children.

And there was locally produced honey.

How local?

"It's just right up there," Aidan Wing pointed off into the hills toward Page Mill Road, where he maintains an apiary, or beeyard, and lives with his wife, Audra, and two children, Kiara and Jalani.

Jars of honey, labeled by the location and the flowers that the bees primarily visit, were spread out on the table. "Big Sur Sage," then, means sage flowers in Big Sur, where he took his hives.

And what about those jars of "Tropical Hawaii" honey?

"I did a trade," he said. (Phew. We would have hated to be on that flight, if he'd transported his hives there.)