Letter to the Editor

Wednesday, August 11, 2010 Dear Editor, I really like Edible East Bay, and I look forward to reading about upcoming events, as well as local eateries and food trends. In the Harvest 2010 issue, I was very sad to see the phrase “organic, biodynamic, or sustainable farming” in Mr. Middlebrook’s wine article. Inserting “biodynamic” in…

Read More

eeb goes tête-à-tête with the Foodoodler

Those who claim they can see back through the smoke into memories of Berkeley’s Gourmet Ghetto in the 1970s recall that there was quite a bit more going on than the currentlytold popular history tends to cover, like for instance, that there were other players besides Alice Waters, Jeremiah Tower, and Alfred Peet. Also, they…

Read More

Heritage Wheat

What would it take to revive a local grain economy? Part I By Elizabet h Linhart Money Photos by Teal Dudziak We Bay Area diners can be a discriminating bunch. We like knowing where our food comes from and we want to taste the landscape in every bite. We get a kick out of curing…

Read More

On the Cusp of Greatness?

California’s Intensive Olive Oil Industry By Tim Kingston If ever there was a market sector ready to take off, California olive oil is it, and Dino Cortopassi, founder of Stockton’s family-owned Corto Olive Oil, is doing all he can to give wings to his product. Cortopassi looks every inch the canny farmer and family patriarch.…

Read More

SEVEN STARS OF FALL/WINTER

Jessica Prentice, Maggie Gosselin, and Sarah Klein created the Local Foods Wheel to help us all enjoy the freshest, tastiest, and most ecologically sound food choices month by month. Here are Jessica’s seven best bets for the fall and winter season. You can learn more about the Local Foods Wheel and the group’s other ventures…

Read More

What Do You Do with a Black Futsu?

By Cheryl Angelina Koehler Illustration by Helen Krayenhoff Should you find yourself blessed with a specimen of this uniquely beautiful winter squash, you might do exactly as I did and place it on the kitchen table to admire for several weeks. Then you might give it to an artist friend to paint. And sometime later,…

Read More

A LIFE IN FOOD MADE BY HAND

Lessons with Rosetta Costantino story and photos By Cheryl Angelina Koehler We’re making orecchiette, a pasta shape whose name in Italian means “little ears.” It requires a deft hand, we discover, as we roll the dough into long snakes and cut thumbnail-size rounds, attempting to drag each one with the knife across the cutting board…

Read More

Goats!

Coming soon to a back yard near you? story and photos By Jess Watson I press my forehead into the side of Prima’s warm belly, looking down as I concentrate on the first pull, struggling to break the seal. A stream of hot goat milk from each teat skitters the test container and threatens to topple…

Read More

Reclaiming a Native Harvest

story and illustrations By Gilberto Daniel Rodriguez Through the winding waterways of the Arctic, across the bright South Dakota plains, and into the dense multitudes of an Oakland boulevard, traditional Native food practices are being rediscovered, stengthened, and invigorated.  They find an ally in the Seva Foundation, an East Bay service organization. For over 30…

Read More

One good green idea leads to another at Grand Lake Gardens

By Cheryl Angelina Koehler Joe and Doris Pummill have no complaints about the quality of life at Grand Lake Gardens, a 1960s-vintage retirement community located right at the Grand Avenue/ I-580 interchange in North Oakland. Well, actually, Joe does have one small complaint . . . “You’re so entertained here with all the organized activities…

Read More

Editor’s Mixing Bowl

As you read this, you may have just cast your ballot in the mid-term election, and while it’s appropriate to congratulate yourself for doing so, you are not done yet. You still need to go online and vote for your Local Heroes of the East Bay food community. You’ll find more information on how to…

Read More

Fall-Winter 2010 Contents

Editor’s Mixing Bowl A Letter to the Editor A response to the Natural Wine article in our Harvest 2010 issue One Good Green Idea Leads to Another at Grand Lake Gardens By Cheryl Angelina Koehler Reclaiming a Native Harvest By Gilberto Daniel Rodriguez Goats! Coming soon to a backyard near you By Jess Watson A…

Read More

A life in Food Made By Hand

Lessons with Rosetta Costantino Story and photos by Cheryl Angelina Koehler Rosetta Costantino tends a tomato plant on the deck portion of the garden at her family’s home in Oakland’s Montclair district, where the terrain is as steep as it was in her native Calabria. We’re making orecchiette, a pasta shape that translates from the…

Read More

Mostaccioli con Mandorle

From A Life in Food Made by Hand     Honey Cookies Filled with Almonds, Cocoa, and Anisette In the southern Italian region of Calabria, Christmas celebrations would not be complete without mostaccioli. These hard cookies might be among the region’s oldest sweets, says cookbook author Rosetta Costantino, a native Calabrian who lives, gardens, and…

Read More

Roasted Butternut Squash Salad

    Recipe by Kirstin Jackson Forgo the brown sugar and let the sweetness of winter squash speak for itself this holiday in a salad with fresh Greek manouri cheese, arugula and frisée, roasted pecans, and tarragon. The sweetness of the buttery and floral cheese and squash make a nice contrast to the lemony vinaigrette,…

Read More