Editors Mixing Bowl

Freak out and then freak back in.

Does that sound like something cartoonist Lynda Barry would say? Well, she did, and we spied the message on a clever piece of stitchery that Berkeley artist Mariska Miller (@mariska_sketchandstitch) had on display in her little free library–style front yard exhibition space, the Little Yellow Art Box. Miller had noticed the meme in a caption that Barry had posted @nearsightedmonkey. The sentiment certainly seems fitting in this time when freak-out paralysis is at epidemic levels and freaking back in might be the only way forward.

For instance, grocery prices. Now there’s a freakin’ good reason to freak out. Perhaps you’re already growing some of your own food?  In this issue, writer Rachel Trachten takes us to the Hayward Community Garden where folks from all over the world have brought their traditional gardening wisdom into joyful sharing with other gardeners in that space.

Have you been pondering all that free food growing out in the wilds but fear that you might pick the wrong things and poison yourself along with a few friends and family? That could be a serious freak-out, but our stories about foraging for mussels and rose petals introduce expert guides who love to impart their knowledge of wild foods along with ways to harvest them safely and ethically. Foraging is a great way to deepen one’s relationship with nature, and many foragers who have been reading Braiding Sweetgrass and The Serviceberry by celebrated Potawatomi botanist and author Robin Wall Kimmerer are sharing conversations about how to balance the harvests with acts of reciprocity. As leaders in the ecology space often say, engaging in environmental action is the most effective antidote to despair.

Two of our stories will take you on the road to local u-pick farms: Writer Gabrielle Myers goes to Victoria Island Farms, a spot that’s hidden deep in the San Joaquin River Delta. Visitors can carry pails out to the huge blueberry patches to pick fruit and then come back to taste the farms’ harvests in drinks made at the on-site Sabbatical Distillery. Contributor Barbara Kobsar gives our annual reminder about Brentwood u-picks and farmstands that now await with an abundance of tree-ripened stone fruits. The great food growing out there lasts straight through fall. Freakin’ delicious!

Have the year’s economic and political disasters put a crimp in your summer travel plans? How about freaking back in with some island hopping here at home as writer Meredith Pakier takes her popular Moveable Feast column around to seven of the East Bay’s best Caribbean food businesses.

Starting a new food business is a way that many sturdy souls freak in, and you’ll meet one of them on page 18 as contributor Anna Mindess introduces Masala Gossip, a lively new brand that arose when entrepreneur Dhara Gadi got fed up with her boring job at Google and followed her heart back to cooking. You’ll meet Chef Donna Meadows, whose long culinary career began with her first job in high school, then took her across the Atlantic as the cook on a sailboat, and—long story short—landed her in Alameda, where she founded the new Moxie Steak House. Perhaps her adventures will inspire some young person to freak back in and launch their dreamed-of career in a yet-to-be-imagined new frontier in dining.

So, go ahead and freak out. We all need a chance to rage now and then. But when you find your fabulous way to freak back in, please drop us a line so we can enjoy hearing about it! ♦

Cheryl Angelina Koehler

editor@edibleeastbay.com