Fall 2006

The Unknown Vineyards of Contra Costa County Story by Derrick Schneider | Photos by Melissa Schneider Imagine an upstart winemaker fleeing Contra Costa County’s prestigious but high-priced vineyards for the dirt-cheap farmland in the unknown Napa Valley. In the early twentieth century, Martinez and Oakley, not Rutherford and St. Helena, were darlings of the wine world.…

Mexico’s Daily Bread Story by Romney Steele | Photos by Gwendolyn Meyer Named by the Spanish, this flat, unleavened corn bread is used for many of the dishes we’ve come to know and love as Mexican food: tacos, enchiladas, quesadillas, and many other antojitos (snack foods). Not unlike unleavened breads from other cultures, in Mexico,…

  On the Cover: “Backyard Pears” by Cheryl Koehler EDITOR’S MIXING BOWL AFTERTASTES Letters to the Editor FOOD FOR THOUGHT Life, Death & Bialys Ripe For Change ON GLEANING   TORTILLAS Mexico’s Daily Bread         OH NUTS! WHAT’S IN SEASON Persimmons & Pomegrantaes         SEASONAL RECIPES By Peter Chastain, Executive Chef at…

Story and Photos by Cheryl Koehler glean (glēn), v.t & v.i. [ M.E. glenen; OFr. glener; LL. glennare < Celt.; cf. OIr. dīgleinn, he gleans] 1. to collect (grain left by reapers). 2. to collect the remaining grain (from a field). 3. to collect (facts etc.) gradually or bit by bit. (Webster’s New World Dictionary)…

Plenty of books on sustainable agriculture have come out in recent years, but if you’ve been waiting for the movie, it’s here. Acclaimed Bay Area documentary filmmakers Jed Riffe and Emiko Omori have produced Ripe for Change, an insightful look at efforts to change the culture of farming in California to a more sustainable model.…

Life, Death & Bialys Review of a book and a lecture series that ask us to ask why “taste matters” On September 7, 2006, the Judah L. Magnes Museum of Berkeley inaugurated a year-long lecture series exploring the role of food and drink in Jewish culture. Ron Hendel, a UC Berkeley professor of Jewish Studies,…

Letters to the Editor: “Berkeley’s food revolution began on the roof of a police car in Sproul Plaza on October 1, 1964” is a catchy introduction to Derrick Schneider’s article “Nowhere Else But Here” in your last issue. Unfortunately, he fails to capture the complex local histories of either politics or food. Schneider’s thesis appears…

The first book of seasons at Edible East Bay is complete. One year ago, Edible Communities Inc. commissioned us to create a magazine that “celebrates the abundance of local foods, season by season.” We have not been slack in our duty, and after a whole year of celebrating, it almost feels reductive to honor a…