Flourless Chocolate Honey Cake

From A Hive in Your Backyard By Jennifer Radtke of Biofuel Oasis   Using a local East Bay honey gives this cake a complex taste that you’ll never get with sugar. Clara French, who tested the recipe, says it’s incredibly rich, moist, and decadent. A slim slice is all you need, so it’s a treat…

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Editor's Mixing Bowl

On a late January day, when heavy fog and drizzle inspired longing for the wet winters of years past, I called up Alexis Koefoed at Soul Food Farm in Vacaville to see if the Facebook chatter about a ceremony on her farm to invoke the rain gods had some basis. “It started off tongue in…

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Contents

On the Cover: The photo on this season’s cover shows drone honeybees outside a queen-breeding hive. The triangle is a symbol that the queen bee uses to identify her home after she has mated. Inside the hive, she is being protected by worker bees as she lays her eggs. The screen is for hive ventilation.…

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Seven Stars of Spring

BY JESSICA PRENTICE 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 seven of Jessica’s seasonal favorites. You can learn more about the Local Foods Wheel and the group’s other ventures at localfoodswheel.com.…

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Feeding Forward

  CURBING HUNGER There’s an App for That By Sarah Henry Photo by Naomi Fiss Bay Area internet startups are increasingly turning to technology to tackle social challenges, like homelessness and hunger, with the click of a mouse. Case in point: Feeding Forward, an online and mobile interface aimed at preventing restaurant waste and feeding…

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Beyond Salt and Pepper

Oaktown Spice Shop By Sarah Henry Photos by Robin Jolin It took a man from Milwaukee, who started selling spices at age 16 at the renowned Spice House there, to spot a niche need in the Bay Area food scene and fill it. But John Beaver wasn’t expecting to become a spice merchant when his…

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Bonita Fish Market

Something Refreshingly Fishy in Central Berkeley By Sarah Henry • Photos by Robin Jolin Phat Vo, 50, who lives in Berkeley, has been an old-school, rod-and-reel, small-boat fisherman for more than 30 years, selling his local catch to stores like Monterey Fish Market and Berkeley Bowl, where he’s also worked as a fishmonger. “There’s nowhere I’d…

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HEAT Hot Sauce Shop

Some Like It Hot By Sarah Henry • Photos by Naomi Fiss Siriracha shortage? Don’t sweat it. There are plenty of other hot condiments to choose from at HEAT Hot Sauce Shop in Berkeley. At this year-old store, fans of blistering heat in a bottle can choose from more than 300 varieties of sizzling seasoning designed for those…

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Morell’s Bread

Berkeley Baker Finds a Kitchen Close to Home By Sarah Henry • Photos by Robin Jolin For more than 10 years, Eduardo Morell’s breads—a favorite at the Berkeley Farmers’ Market—have had a commute: 35 minutes from the Headlands Center for the Arts near Sausalito, where Morell spent two 16-hour days each week baking his breads in a…

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Food Forays in Fremont

Like many who dwell in the northern reaches of Alameda County, I can go for months on end without giving much thought to the south-county city of Fremont. If I do call up a vision, it’s of the endless subdivisions and strip malls that replaced former farms and vineyards when the region became a bedroom…

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What's in Season?

BY BARBARA KOBSAR ILLUSTRATION BY MARGO RIVERA-WEISS When you’re at the farmers’ market, it’s all about what’s in season. Choosing from items harvested at their peak is your sure bet for fabulous flavor and freshness. February Year round farmers’ markets welcome the first flush of local asparagus in February, as plump spears arrive from near-by…

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A Hive in Your Backyard

Each year, hundreds of people in the East Bay take the bold step of establishing a beehive or two in their backyard for the first time. Their motivation is often a desire to help honey bee populations while promoting greater yields of garden fruits and vegetables from the extra pollination. They also enjoy having the…

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Plight of the Humble Bee

ILLUSTRATIONS BY MARGO RIVERA-WEISS This article grew out of a conversation between Helen Krayenhoff, Edible East Bay’s garden editor and co-owner of Kassenhoff Growers, and Laura Ward, a volunteer research assistant for Professor Gordon Frankie at the UC Berkeley Urban Bee Lab (helpabee.org and The Urban Bee Lab on Facebook). Laura helps with the lab’s…

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Rethinking Money

  A Berkeley mom shakes up the notion of business as usual by Rachel Trachten  •  Photos by Nicki Rosario   “Step away from the system. Trade.” This Facebook message, posted by South Berkeley mom YaVette Holts, reveals her mission to rethink the dollar. Holts heads up three projects that challenge attitudes about money and…

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