Sunset Publishing Corporation

Want to make this a negative star! Went to the last celebration weekend, which we go to every year since moving from Tucson, AZ. Was fun as usual, however, we filled out an entry for the truck giveaway and today received a message on our home phone that we didn’t win the truck, we were winners. The message included a phone number and extension. Apparently the information was given to DirectBuy and it’s «show up and claim your prize» garbage. I am very disappointed that Sunset is associated with any garbage like this. My daughter, who was home while I was at work was very excited about winning and it turns out to be a come on! REALLY GROSS!!!

My friend used to work down the street from this campus and we’d pass it all the time, I didnt realize that it was so large until going into it. It’s pretty huge. However I guess they’re moving to Jack London Square as the property has been sold. In Silicon Valley I guess this property is a gold mine. Too bad they cant preserve the gardens as it will move to Sonoma as I understand. Well guess I got to see it before it was gone

When a new friend who is into botanic, plants and trees and all beautiful things mentioned that the famous Sunset Magazine gardens were located in Menlo Park I was like ‘oh, that is nice’/ When he added that their gardens are open to the public for FREE and there is FREE parking, from Mon to Fri during business hours, I could not resist to take a lunch break there! Simply amazing peaceful, awesomely curated gardens located in a hacienda from the 1950s.
The receptionist was so chill and cool, she offered me some brochures and told me that, yes, those are their offices (nice work environment folks!) and that gigantic kitchen is indeed the open where they do demos and shoot beautiful pictures we all see inside the glossy pages of Sunset magazine. If you are a foreigner to the California native plants and trees, this outing will be very educational for you. It is a great place to spend your lunch time if you work around the area. From Sunnyvale it took me just 15 minutes to change from computer life to flowers and butterflies. Worth it and FREE! (perfect to show it to out of towners visiting).

The front doors are amazing!
Came too early in the year to enjoy the gardens at their best. Many plants were still in winter dormancy.
Demonstration garden shows segments of the western USA climate zones from the Southwest Desert to the Pacific Northwest. One can walk through them all inside of half an hour but why rush? You can wander among succulents of all sizes in the Southwest zone. At the Northern California zone, a small stand of Coastal Redwoods create an oasis. Both provided a respite from the concrete and asphalt jungle we drove through leaving central San Francisco to get here.
Free admission and free parking in front of «Sunset Publishing Corporation 80» sign on wall of building, during regular workdays, 9:00 — 4:00 PM. Call to double check hours before arriving. [1 650−321−3600] Their website mentions the garden is closed the last two weeks in May and the first week in June for the annual Celebration Weekend festival.

My fiancé wanted to take me here for a while and finally, we found some time and came. Without thinking we came in the DEAD OF WINTER and up, only realized it was the off season. We had fun though taking a stroll together, completely alone in the garden. This would be a great date spot.
So parking we realized is NOT around the corner where we ended up in the employee lot, but instead in front. Duh! Oh well, a short walk around and we proceed to walk up the steps. The doors themselves are huge and imposing, beautiful though in that Middle Ages way. Coming in there is a little receptionist desk with a sort of friendly receptionist. She answered our questions, let us know the good time of year to come and gave us the brochure with a map. The décor inside is modern and very cool. I wanted to completely steal a couch and bring it home. .. now how to do that. .. anyways. Off we strolled through the small garden, reading our map and the signs denoting the time of bush, tree or flower. It was still beautiful and the empty trees while looking sullen waiting for Spring still were impressive. I like the benches around, the roundabouts and all the small details — birdhouses. The small testing gardens in the back were interesting and they even had chickens! WHY??? Everything was very well and done and we enjoyed our short stroll. Afterwards we went to the deli across the street and poked around there.
Good for dates.
Lovely.
FREE!

Dear Sunset… Please help! I have been tearing the house apart looking for a Sunset cookbook from about 25 years ago. Sunset cookies I believe… Since my daughter was a little girl, she had a favorite recipe from it. she made them not too long ago. We cannot find it. She moved and we are not sure who’s house it’s at. Maybe a reader could help also. It was for clove cookies, the were kinda thin and crispy.
Thank you
Brittany Pace

Missed the celebration weekend, but went when Sunset was open to tour the garden. It’s a fairly large garden and the areas are split into different geographical regions. Personally, I liked the desert/​cactus area and the test garden area. There was even a chicken coup. If you’re local and looking for beautiful plants, it’s a nice stop. Also liked how they label the different plants so you know what you’re looking at in the garden.

As a sophomore in an institution, you start to get the feel of how things are done, where the good food is, where the fun places to hang out are, etc. Well, my 2^nd year of attending Sunset’s Celebration weekend shined; I remembered the fun, free food & other freebies last year and looked forward to what was in store.
Three words: Artisan Food Pavilion. Brand new this year, this program featured some lovely samples from cheese, chocolates, baked goods, jams and jellies, olive oil & vinegar from various Bay Area vendors. Some of our favorites included r&j chocolate toffee, Fiscallini Cheese Co for their fierce horseradish goat’s milk cheese among others, Kika’s Treats-​some even gluten and dairy free!, and Recchuchi confections for heavenly bites of chocolate, hazelnuts, salted caramel & earl gray tea. And so many other vendors my sun burned brain couldn’t remember (but we loved).
Note to junior self next year: scout out parking closer to the event… go earlier, put on more sunblock and bring water! And use the facilities before we go.
We didn’t have a chance to see much of the Outdoor Test Kitchen but sat in the year old courtyard and listened lightly to various chefs.
Among the usual but wonderful suspects include the magazine’s test kitchen and samples, the travel & feature (this year it was vacations in a can (mobile homes), the test garden, and various vendors hawking their outdoor wears and lei making lines.
My fellow travelers’ tummies and I loved our ate-​cation thoroughly. We rest until next June.

Everything good that I liked about the Celebration Weekend 2009, wasn’t back for 2010 .
We got there when it opened, to avoid the masses and long lines to no avail. It was like the staff was not prepared to open, or was worn out from Saturday. Everyone was crabby, the line to get in was around the block, will call wasn’t friendly, there was no sparkling wine to taste, the line to walk thru the Air Stream was at least 40 people deep, and instead of showcasing «Life in the West» they had a huge display of glam camping from Montana?@#$%$@#? Seriously Montana, Sunset you do know you could camp in a similar Yurt in Big Sur, California, right? And if I could afford to get me and my family to Montana for holiday this year, we would be going to Hawaii — NOT camping in Montana.
Plus it was a whopping $ 16 per person to get in, for that you get a couple of reusable grocery bags and Safeway giveaways, and the privilege of buying lunch, beverages, & Sunset Advertisers Trat.

Never in my life have I seen a magazine supposedly about «Life in the West» be so out of touch with living life out here. Their motto should be «Life in the West, as lived by a bunch of vapid, upscale people from back East who think that Napa Valley is all that matters and day trips amongst the unwashed masses are quaint.»
One upon a time, Sunset Magazine truly did celebrate life in the West –showcasing the beauty, destinations, and even people of the West. Now, it’s magazine of unattainable pipe-​dreams and modern elite bourgeois living.
Sunset Magazine’s originations are historic, and strange. Beginning in 1898 as a promo magazine similar to ones found in the seat pockets of every major airline, Sunset could be found on the Southern Pacific Railroad’s «Sunset Limited» rail route, which ran between New Orleans and San Francisco. Sunset’s goals were to showcase the West, dispel wild-​west myths, and possibly get people to buy some of the vast amounts of land that were owned by the Railroad. In 1914, the magazine was sold to the employees, and became a stand-​alone, still featuring articles on life and living in the West, but also including poetry and fiction by authors such as Jack London and Dashel Hammet, along with original art by painters such as Maynard Dixon and Georgia O’Keeffe, as well as it’s now traditional «how-​to» articles on making life better in just a couple of steps.
In 1990, Sunset Magazine was sold to Time Warner, who hired an editor-​in-​chief who set about «freshening up» the magazine by turning it into a clone of «Martha Stuart Living.» Casting aside articles of substance or value, empty-​calorie articles about «cheap» two hundred dollar bottles of wine, quick and easy meals for fewer than fifty dollars, the best places to go slumming amongst the unwashed heathens, and Alaskan Helicopter vacations for less than the price of a house began to appear. Recently, my favorite example of this was an article covering inexpensive gifts you could give for under thirty bucks. In the middle of these «gifts» was a box of chocolates that a reader could obtain for twenty-​five dollars. Funny, I picked up the same box of chocolates at our local grocery store for five dollars… But hey, when you’re aristocratic, and elite, money is no object– right?
If you are to contact the editors about inclusion of an article, or perhaps with a suggestion of a destination of substance not involving the vineyards of Napa Valley (such as Virginia City, Nevada), you will be met with a piercing, cold stare, or the phrase «Our readers are not interested in such places.»
As of the writing of this article the economy is in a nose-​dive, thanks to eight years of Republican looting, plundering and the general raping of this country of ours. As you read these words, you can smell the desperation oozing from the headquarters in Menlo Park. Their demographic customer-​base is drying up, as they lose their jobs, and the houses they paid bloated prices for (as a flip investments –not to actually live in) lose value more and more each day.
Without a doubt, the party of the Aristocrats is over.
But denial is a wonderful thing, and it’s served like breadline soup at Sunset Magazine. The hurting economy is what happens to other people –the little people. But denial is also like a glass wall, waiting to be broken by the slobbering monster of reality. Sunset Magazine will either get with the times and cater to the real people of the West, or fold. The choice is up to them.

Went here with my mom to see what the Sunset Gardens are all about, since I’m a loyal subscriber to the magazine. This is the corporate hq of Sunset, and though the gardens weren’t perfectly manicured (maybe because the print business is down), they were interesting, and it was free to stroll around the grounds, admiring the different gardens and checking out the test kitchens. I probably wouldn’t go out of my way to see the gardens, but if there were a food related event here, I would go.

I have been subscribing to Sunset magazine for a few years now and am always intrigued by the plants, gardens, barbecues they feature in the magazine. So, I went there on my lunch break (around 1pm) on a Friday and I was all alone. =) I heard it can get crowded on the weekends so I was really happy for the solitude.
The landscape features a large lawn perfect for taking pictures and for kids to play. They have a ton of plants and a map that lays out the property and species. I don’t have a green thumb but appreciate pretty flowers and plants.
I will be returning with my camera (Rebel XSi yay!) in the near future on another lunch break.

I went to my first Celebration weekend 3 years ago and have been back every year since. Lovely gardens, beer and wine tasting, Eco education, lots of food. I also enjoy the magazine. I had received double issues at one point and just placed one phone call and they added an issue to my subscription. I wish I could bring my dog. Heck if people can bring babies with the baby SUV’s, I should be able to bring my pup. Oh well 5 stars anyway because its fun, there are drinks, and sunshine.

We went to the Sunset Celebration Weekend again this year. Although the weather was hotter than we expected it to be, we loved the festival. There is more food and drink than you could ever imagine! And numerous companies are there to give away samples. The festival includes everything that is inside the magazine, but in real life, like food demonstrations, how-​to barbeque, gardening tips, and travel/​tourism information. And I love that there is an admission fee to the festival as well. I think it sorts out the riff-​raff. If you aren’t willing to pay the lousy 12 bucks to get in, then you shouldn’t be there!

Normally, I’d probably not seek Sunset gardens out on my own. However, my Mom visited for the 4^th time, and since we’ve done all the usual tourist spots, I thought we’d check out Sunset.
It wast totally worth it. The gardens, located in the back of the publishing house, are open during normal business hours M-​F. We went on a sunny Friday, and I was impressed by how pretty it was.
The gardens are centered around a large plot of grass. As you walk around the square grass area, you experience plants from each region Sunset Magazine represents– The southwest desert lands; Southern, Central, and Northern California; the coast; and other areas East of California. Each «region» has different beautiful plants, which are labeled. My mom found the labels convenient for her future gardening plans.
I’d suggest you even pack a lunch and eat it here on the green, then explore the rest of the gardens. Don’t forget the «test garden» around the front, with all the veggies and flowers that are being grown for the actual magazine.

Celebration weekend is so much fun, there are always interesting demonstrations and vendors doing fun things, and you come away with a ton of free samples!
The Idea house is always interesting as well, this years was a beach themed home with all the room in tents!
The building and grounds are totally interesting, but a little covered up by the event.

Came here for their annual Sunset weekend. It was my first time and it was fun! We went to every booth, signed up for contests, sampled their foods, and got some cool freebies!
Oh! And please please please can I come work here as a food tester!!! I love to cook and would love to get out of the tech industry.

Been to their HQ once, for a BMW and Wine event. The nighttime event was cool, it was held in their backyard garden, under a tent. BMW eye candy, but the best part was the food! Very tasty, very good; some were cold, but what to expect from finger food that gets cold by the time you arm your way through the crowd. Oh, did I say this BMW event was FREE?
The HQ is in the middle of a neighborhood area, sort of weird, but at night it was very hard to find. Even harder when they didn’t really have signs from their parking lot to the BMW event held across the street. Then again, we got there early, so that we could be the first to eat without having to fight the crowd.
UPDATE: May 2007: Thanks for their Celebration Weekend. First time visitor. Got free passes from friend of a friend who lives in Menlo Park, as MP residents gets a letter for free admission, otherwise $ 11 at the door with $ 1 discount.
It’s a street/​parking-​lot fair of different booths, chef demos, freebies, cheeses, etc etc etc. While most street fairs are free, this one isn’t but it’s ok. You get a lot of freebies to munch on so it’s worth the $ 12, but I didn’t even pay that.
There are food booths available for food purchase, but in the 3hrs we were there, we had so much free food/​snacks/​drinks that why spend any money past the admission gate?!?
Made off with samples of some sunscreen, bread mix, olive oil, chips, clips, blah blah blah. Ate free stuff from Safeway (panini was awesome), cheese samples, Lipton drinks (full bottle), nachos, hot sauce, duck, salsa, various sauces, and others I don’t recall.
Anyways, go at least once to check it out!

Publishers of Sunset Magazine. I’m annoyed that they’re always sending me letters to renew their magazine. Can’t they take a hint that I’m just not interested? Originally (many many years ago) I had subscribed to the magazine for a year just to see if I liked it. I did like the food section but then realized that it was sooooooo small and didn’t justify me getting the magazine just for that purpose. The magazine includes gardening and home improvement as well which I was just not interested in. I never read those sections. So I did not renew my subscription after the year’s end. They kept sending me renewal slips until finally, I relented when they offered me a subscription for $ 12/​year. I thought, well a buck a month, that’s a good deal, so signed up again. Naturally, the same thing happened and I only looked at the food section. That year came and went and it just wasn’t even worth the buck a month anymore. They are still sending me renewal slips. I got another one today. They just can’t take a hint!