Editor’s Mixing Bowl

Editor’s Mixing Bowl

I enjoy recalling the day seven years ago in August when the opportunity to create Edible East Bay first appeared. I went to San Francisco to meet Edible Communities co-founders Tracey Ryder and Carole Topalian and was so spellbound after the meeting that I got on the wrong ferry. I crossed the bay two more times that day before finally regaining my bearings, and really, nothing has been the same since. 

Looking through the articles gathered into this issue, I see a collection of stories about people who have been similarly seized by the compulsion to jump into a new endeavor. In each case, the vitality this person feels has the potential to delight or enliven others. To describe it in the terminology of traditional Chinese medicine, the chi has been quickened, and that quickening in the body has the potential to reverberate into a larger sphere.

In some of these accounts, an opportunity fell into a person’s path, in the way one did seven years ago for me. In others, an idea grew gradually until it flourished. There are more then a few tales here where memories of childhood delights called out for those items to be re-created and shared for the pleasure of others. Some of the narratives are about people dealing with a compelling issue of health—their own, another person’s, or that of the planet—and have been driven to seek and act on new insight into better food choices, better preparation techniques, and better ways to grow food for the benefit of many.

The accounts I find most moving are those where someone was propelled into action by a deep calling to make a difference in their community or in the world. While working on one of these stories, I was shaken out of a complacency that had come from a growing sense of helplessness over the direction our material culture is taking us.

I’m pleased that the work of putting together this issue has resulted in a change in perspective for me, and I like to think that it might do that for you as well. Please read and enjoy, and if you feel moved, please act.  Here’s a list:

First, use the end of summer as an excuse to go out and indulge in some frozen confection or other delight described on these pages.

Then peruse our listings of the many harvest-season festivals, celebrations, classes, contests, and tours for events you don’t want to miss.

While you are out and about, be sure to patronize our advertisers and tell them you saw them in Edible East Bay.

And last but not least, let yourself get swept up by some new idea, or by one you have held for a while and not yet acted upon. Be brave and curious, and by all means, let yourself care deeply and passionately about things that matterto you

Salut!

Cheryl