Table of contents for Wellness 2024 in Sunset

It’s hard to talk about wellness these days without someone bringing up Blue Zones, the book and TV show that examine communities around the world with the highest rates of longevity and happiness: idyllic spots—Okinawa, Sardinia, Ikaria, Greece, and, in our very own backyard, Loma Linda, California—packed with fit and joyous people. In these places, people tend to prioritize community, plant-forward diets, gratitude, spending time in nature, service to others, play, and, I’m happy to report, sometimes enjoying a little wine, intermittently and socially. I bring this last point up by way of expanding the definition of wellness a bit as we explore it in this issue. In these pages you’ll find a story on the restorative power of snow (spending time in nature!) and a tour of a desert…

TREJO’S SPIRITS TEQUILA ALTERNATIVE Action hero and Trejo’s Tacos jefe Danny Trejo has been sober for over 50 years and has put his name on a smooth and balanced zero-proof tequila alternative that empowers non-imbibers to make perfect Palomas and hangover-free margaritas. $36, TREJOSSTORE.COM NAMARI Inspired by the flavors of amaro, this nonalcoholic digestif from restaurant veteran Brittany Naing (former beverage director at the Dutchess in Ojai) is made with locally sourced chicory, gentian, cloves, coriander, and more. Deeply spiced, luscious, and just the right amount of sweet, it’s ideal for mixing with soda or sipping over rocks. $43, DRINKNAMARI.COM WILDERTON EARTHEN Hood, Oregon–based Wilderton is the first nonalca-holic distillery and tasting room in the nation. Their Earthen bottling is made with pine-smoked tea, peppercorns, and cardamom, and is smooth,…

THE FIRST CLUE that Richard and Kirsten Lee Farmer don’t take their home, or themselves, too seriously is that they named their house in New Mexico after what is essentially an Irish country party pad. “We call it the Ramble after ‘ramble houses’ in Ireland,” Kirsten says from her vibrant home office, with its teal painted ceiling and graphic ikat walls. A ramble is a community gathering spot, a place where residents of a province or small city would get together for entertainment, music, recitations, stories, and jokes. In other words, it’s a place designated for fun, where enterprising people figure out how to bring joy and beauty. And that’s exactly what the creative couple and their young son, Hank, have done since they returned to Kirsten’s hometown, quite by…

Social media feeds continue to be flooded with homes featuring large-scale exotic plants placed in unexpected, one-of-a-kind vessels. The plants are more architectural installations than botanical accents, with tall and twisted branches often plucked bare, and pops of personality exploding at the very tips. Some have referred to this trend as “bonsai adjacent,” while others are quick to call it “horticultural decor,” but no matter how you label it, the look is undeniably chic. Zilah Drahn has captured the attention of interior designers and celebrities with her L.A. business Plants & Spaces, which is quickly becoming the premiere home-staging boutique focused on high-end indoor plants. Here she shares advice on pairing pots with plants and how to keep those vibing vines looking lush. Right Plant, Right Place Before rushing to…

There’s a big difference between a dude ranch and a working cattle ranch, and this new generation of ranches is bringing a modern touch to a storied Western tradition. RANCHLANDS This Colorado agricultural business operates large-scale cattle and bison ranches in addition to hospitality stays focused on preserving the legacy of ranching in the American West. They also have a mercantile with expertly crafted leatherworks. Guests who stay on-site can learn these time-honored crafts like natural dyeing, all of which are geared toward preserving native grasslands while creating meaningful experiences. LONE MOUNTAIN RANCH This petite resort housed inside a restored 1915 homestead in Big Sky, Montana, hosts rodeos and Western concerts for both guests and locals in the northern Rockies. The property opened for its first season this year, offering…

Elisa Angelone is a licensed acupuncturist, an herbalist, and the curator of Den Mother’s global healing therapies. Guests who step into the urban oasis, inside a 1930s Craftsman on Abbot Kinney, get to experience various modalities, from Japanese acupuncture to Ayurvedic bodywork and Nordic bathing. Here she shares her favorite spots in Venice, inarguably the nexus of L.A.’s wellness community. This month: Venice, California The insider: Elisa Angelone, founder of Den Mother STAY Rent a cute Airbnb like The Howland House, on the Venice Canals overlooking the water. Evening and early morning walks along the canals are just magical, and give you a special insight into the ways that some lucky locals get to live their lives. There are very few hotels in Venice, but thankfully the team behind Gjelina…

In 1941, Sunset covered a burgeoning travel trend called the dude ranch. These farms-turned-resorts were, the editors wrote, “open to guests who want a leisurely vacation, who like to ride or want to learn, and who want to shed city ways and be part of a real ranch family for a time. Some people call them dudes, but we like to think of them as explorers of the Old West—and the new.” Over the years, we revisited the topic, including in an exhaustive survey in 1955 that mapped ranches throughout the West. Today the dude-ranch getaway remains a uniquely Western one and still holds a strong appeal among city dwellers who long to be surrounded by nature, crossing earth on horseback away from the rhythms of the city, eating food…

The term minimalism isn’t always associated with gardens, but this stone-on-stone outdoor space in Sedona, Arizona, has a decidedly minimalist feel. Which is not to say it is all about looks alone. Just the opposite: This garden was built to channel and absorb the monsoon rains that hit this part of Arizona every summer. The newly built home and garden was created with VIP clients in mind—the designer’s parents. Colin Cleland, a partner at the architecture firm Schiller Projects in New York, says he felt proud that his parents loved his work enough to have him design the home where they wanted to “age gracefully in place.” The site, Cleland says, was tricky. “It is deeply sloped and challenging both to build on and drain water off of,” he says,…

1. POT SHAPE: Cylinder PLANT PAIRING: Pleomele PLANTER: Bumpy Planter + Feet from Klei Ceramics, $90, kleiceramics.com Drahn recommends a plant profile similar to a Pleomele—tall and skinny, which mimics the cylindrical shape of the coil vase. 2. POT SHAPE: Round PLANT PAIRING: Kalanchoe Schizophylla Painted Pony Ikebana PLANTER: Peaches Studio, $92, peachesthestudio.com The smooth orb shape would contrast nicely with the intricate fern-like appearance of a rare Kalanchoe Schizophylla. 3. POT SHAPE: Abstract PLANT PAIRING: Adenia Glauca PLANTER: Umlaut Ceramics, $40, umlautceramics.com The bottleneck trunk and climbing leaves of a Adenia Glauca would play off the wave details on this Umlaut planter. 4. POT SHAPE: Shallow Saucer PLANT PAIRING: Pelargonium Cotyledons PLANTER: Tiny caudex planter, Mipa’s Pots and Plants, $35, mipaspotsandplants.com A sparsely branched succulent such as Pelargonium Cotyledons…

IT’S a late winter day in Los Angeles. The kind that makes people want to move to Los Angeles: It’s, yes, sunny and 72, palm trees sway against a clear blue sky, beach balls float in the pool, Charles Mingus plays on the hi-fi, and people sit on Eames sofas and sip chilled rosé while nibbling on a vivid super herby frittata and pillowy focaccia in a mid-century modern pool house designed by Pierre Koenig. A deer silently makes its way along the edge of the property. This is the Hollywood Hills home of Kashy and Laura Khaledi, owners of Ashes & Diamonds, a winery known for its excellent bottlings and modernist take on the Napa Valley experience. Today is one of their annual “A&D Classic at the LA Pool…

Adriana Ayales is a rainforest herbalist, medicine maker, educator, and lady-behind-the-curtain at Anima Mundi. Her business is dedicated to facilitating ancient healing remedies to the modern world, and she recently opened up a location of her tonic bar and healing garden on Rose Avenue in Venice. Born and raised in Costa Rica, Adriana has studied global ancestral healing traditions alongside master herbalists and shamans for nearly 15 years. She uses that experience to inform the work at her aesthetic farm-to-pharmacy space, which aims to preserve forms of indigenous botany. “WITH THE RISE OF MICRODOSING AND HERBAL STACKING, I CAN SEE PEOPLE LOOKING DEEPER TO FIND THE TRUE MEANING OF WELLNESS.” You tap into ancestral Indigenous knowledge and make it applicable for our modern needs. What would you say is the…

The grind, the hustle, staying in your bag. No matter how you phrase it, it’s exhausting. Which is perhaps why #softlife is making waves in popular culture, and in the world of wellness. A foil to the toxic productivity that plagues modern society, soft living, which originated within a Nigerian community of content creators, is about slowing down and allowing ease and intentional flow into your life. While that all may sound woo-woo, the principles of soft living—prioritizing sleep, taking moments for self-care, and connecting intentionally with others—are really all part of living mindfully. Here are some ways to integrate these principles into your daily life. 1 SELF-CARE Taking the time to develop a proper skin-care regimen isn’t just great for your visage. It’s also about carving out quiet time…

1 DON’T CALL IT A RAIN GARDEN No matter where you live, any chance to capture water within a landscape is incredibly important to the ecosystem. Cleland points out that “a monsoon garden is really a broader response to regional needs, whereas a rain garden is usually a localized solution to an individual property.” Monsoon gardens are intended to respond to a substantial amount of rainfall and flooding and to account for extremes in the climate to avoid inundating the infrastructure of a community. For the Sedona house, the intent was to retain water on the property and not overwhelm the arroyo behind it. 2 TAKE NOTES FROM NATURE For this particular project, Cleland’s team benefited from it being a new construction and did not inherit any poor drainage planning.…

Vancouver, B.C.–based horticulturist Christina Chung, known online as @fluent. garden, introduces a modern approach to edible gardening that follows nature’s lead by growing plants in mixed communities instead of monocultures. In her debut book, The Layered Edible Garden: A Beginner’s Guide to Creating a Productive Food Garden, Layer by Layer ($29.99, Cool Springs Press), she shares advice on how to think outside of the raised bed and grow a polyculture paradise, filled with layers of edible plants that outcompete weeds, share resources, and grow beautifully together. As we plan for the busy growing season, Chung shares inspiration on how to tackle your plot with multi-purpose gardening in mind. PRE-SEASON PLANNING As much as we love a spontaneous seed-purchasing moment, successful gardening goes hand in hand with thoughtful pre-planning. Chung suggests…

The Khaledis’ L.A. home is the ideal backdrop for intimate tastings and Ashes & Diamonds events for a number of reasons. Off the bat, it’s an intimate, social setting where Kashy and Laura can host wine lovers in a relaxed way. It translates the fresh, modern anti-corporate energy they’re bringing to the Napa wine scene. And the stunning house, designed by Gregory Ain, along with the bonus Pierre Koenig pool house, represent the Khaledis’ devotion to mid-century style across the spectrum, from furniture to home design to wine making. “Ashes & Diamonds has been having a conversation with the mid-century era since its inception, dating back to the first wine we made in 2014,” says Kashy. “There was an elegance, refinement, and minimalism that came with wines from that era.…

Sagebrush crushes under my horse’s hooves, wafting a sharp sweetness into the Wyoming air. Towering exfoliated granite, dotted with ponderosa pine, makes way for an expansive azure sky as we ride through Elysian Fields of wild lupine and Indian paintbrush. Meadowlarks sing, and aspens quake in the afternoon breeze. It’s an impossibly beautiful landscape fit for a Clint Eastwood film. A sudden clap of thunder smacks, like clockwork, signaling the arrival of evening in the Laramie Mountains. It’s time to head back to the barn for supper. The storm chases us as we canter along the frontier, and it’s hard not to feel like a poster of an old rodeo. As we make our way to home base at Reid Creek Lodge, on Wagonhound ranch, I’m grinning ear to ear…

This month: North Shore and Upcountry, Maui The insiders: Jeana Naluai, owner of Ho’omana Spa Jeana Naluai is a native Hawaiian cultural practitioner and owner of Ho’omana Spa Maui, which offers authentic Hawaiian lomi lomi massage and Hawaiian spa ritual packages, all done with handmade organic spa products. With generational ties to the land and culture of the North Shore and Upcountry region of Maui, Naluai loves sharing about the unique lifestyle and charm of the region, including the townships of Makawao, Paia, and Kula, which she highlights here. “With the recent wildfire disaster on Maui and the struggle that our community has been through in the aftermath of this tragedy,” she says, “it is an honor to be able to share about some of the areas of the island…