Editor’s Mixing Bowl

 

 

I HAD MY FIRST GLIMPSE OF 2026 WHILE TRAVELING ALONG THE DANUBE. The grüner veltliner and riesling vines hugging the astonishingly steep slopes above the river were bare of their leaves, as were the apricot trees in orchards stretching out along the bottomlands. We tasted the Wachau Valley’s renowned fruit in some pfannkuchen (crepes filled with apricot jam), and it was no surprise that two jars of the jam came home in our suitcase along with a bottle of the inky dark Styrian pumpkin seed oil that visitors to Central Europe often discover.

Other souvenirs? A slew of observations common among travelers from the United States inclined to feel struck by the Danube region’s huge sweep of history: rising and falling fiefdoms; recurring periods of political unrest; roiling social, artistic, and scientific movements that have changed the world. While crossing the bridge from Buda to Pest among my fellow travelers—a group of dedicated vegans—I thought about Attila the Hun, who on his 5th century river crossings did not likely meet people who would choose to eschew meat as an act of environmental consciousness.

Dropping back inside our swirling political maelstrom here at home, I wondered what the stories in this spring issue might offer as solace. We don’t have any grand calls to action, but as my daily walking partner reminds me, shopping, cooking, and eating together can bring us in closer touch with each other and breed better understanding. Our daily sustenance also connects us to our agricultural workforce, 80 percent of which is estimated to be immigrant here in California. In this issue, we have three features on farmers’ markets, where farmers, vendors, and managers are are helping to keep our food systems functioning: Writer Rachel Trachten interviews vendors and managers about the role of the markets as business incubators, and jam maker Barbara Kobsar introduces kohlrabi and rhubarb. Our friends at StopWaste tell us how the markets help us waste less and eat better.

This issue includes many more invitations to explore our little region. Columnist Meredith Pakier takes us on an insider’s tour of Vallejo, a diverse and revitalizing city, where lower rents are offering new opportunities. Writer Camille Morgenstern and artist Cathy Raingarden present a roundup of places where parents can enjoy eating out with their kids, and there’s a gorgeous farm-to-table story by returning contributor Matthew Green on Top Hatters Kitchen and Bar in San Leandro. There we meet chef DanVy Vu and follow her to the magnificent hidden Stonybrook Canyon Farm, where she harvests produce weekly. Her “peasant cooking,” as she calls it, is informed by her Vietnamese roots, and her excitingly creative dishes and drinks earn Michelin ratings for her restaurant year after year. Find the story here.

A real delight this quarter has been getting to know cookbook author and cultural anthropologist Niloufer Ichaporia King. Through conversations and much time spent with her James Beard Award–winning 2007 cookbook, My Bombay Kitchen, I learned about a fascinating life in food and how this octogenarian continues the traditions of her Parsi culinary heritage as it’s traveled from Persia to India to the Bay Area. At Chez Panisse, her (almost) annual Parsi New Year dinner marks the spring equinox with a celebration of Navroz, noted by UNESCO as “an affirmation of life in harmony with nature, [the] awareness of the inseparable link between constructive labor and natural cycles of renewal, and solicitous and respectful attitude towards natural sources of life.”

May spring bring its promise of renewal to you and to our beautiful world.

Cheryl Angelina Koehler
Editor