Spring 2017
Open Doors
Opportunity Brewing At 1951 Coffee, refugees gain job skills and employment as their stories are brought into view Story and photo by A.K. Carroll What would it feel like to be separated from your country, culture, and the only home you’ve ever known? Grab a cup of Algorithm cold brew or Verve espresso at 2410…
Read MoreAll Under Heaven
Meet Madame Huang Reporter Anna Mindess finds out how a taste of pressed duck launched Alameda resident Carolyn Phillips on a cookbook career By Anna Mindess | Photos by Scott Peterson I’m in the kitchen of Alameda resident Carolyn Phillips watching her practiced hands wield a wooden Chinese rolling pin to roll out disks of…
Read MoreWhat’s in Season?
By Barbara Kobsar Choosing produce harvested at its peak is your sure bet for flavor and freshness. February At the market, arugula may appear under names like garden rocket, roquette, or rucola. Regardless of what it’s called, this leafy green offers some of the same heat and peppery flavor as its radish and watercress relatives.…
Read MoreForager’s Notebook
Nasturtium More than just a sprawling garden staple Story, recipes, and photos by Kristen Rasmussen de Vasquez Nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus) grows everywhere—everywhere—in the Bay Area, as well as in many other parts of the world. Thriving almost year-round, it dies off only in very cold or very hot and dry conditions. Sprawling and iconic, nasturtium…
Read MoreGrow the Food Forest
Help create the Mother Orchard, a five-acre food forest in El Sobrante. Planting Justice is hosting volunteer days this winter and spring for individuals and groups to join in. Planting Justice is known in the Bay Area for converting backyards and lawns into edible gardens and providing living-wage jobs for men who were formerly incarcerated.…
Read MoreLiquid Assets
Brewer with a Cause Bison Brewing’s Daniel Del Grande builds supply and demand for organics By Derrick Peterman Daniel Del Grande became a brewer the usual way. An engineer by training but bored with his job, he turned his home brewing hobby into a new career, jumping at the chance to buy Berkeley’s Bison Brewing…
Read Moresheepdog trials
WITH A LITTLE “BAA-RAM-EWE”. . . March 31, April 1 &2, 2017, 9am–5pm McCormack Ranch Sheepdog Trials McCormack Ranch, 7680 Montezuma Hills Rd, west of Rio Vista “That dog could use a little ‘baa-ram-ewe’,” one dog-trials veteran whispered to me as a reminder of the secret password the sheep divulged to Babe, the sheepherding pig…
Read MoreGrow+Dye
Interest in the local fiber and natural dyeing movement continues to grow, and for gardener and dyer Deepa Natarajan and nurserywoman and illustrator Helen Krayenhoff, it’s been an especially bountiful season. In addition to starting plants from seed, growing them in their East Bay gardens, and harvesting, storing, and dyeing with fresh and dry material,…
Read MoreGarden DIY
Harvest: Unexpected Projects Using 47 Extraordinary Garden Plants By Stefani Bittner and Alethea Harampolis Published by Ten Speed Press, February 2017 Discover the surprising usefulness of petals and leaves, roots, seeds, and fruit in this beautifully photographed guide written by two local authors and just now out from our beloved local Ten Speed Press. Projects…
Read MoreContents Spring 2017
EXPLORE Grow + Dye With a Little “Baa-Ram-Ewe” Garden DIY Grow the Food Forest Old Fashioned Fun Good Food Awards 2017 EDITOR’S MIXING BOWL DANIEL DEL GRANDE: BREWER WITH A CAUSE GARDENING ON THE FENCE OPEN DOOR AT 1951 COFFEE GOING GREEN AT CORE KITCHEN FOOD JUSTICE AT SUPER JUICED HUNGER ON CAMPUS FORAGER’S NOTEBOOK:…
Read MoreGood Food Awards 2017
Edible East Bay congratulates our local Good Food Award winners, chosen in a blind tasting from more than 2000 producers. In addition to making delicious products, these artisans were honored for respecting the environment and local communities. Orchard Blend #1 was singled out as a winner from the Far West Cider Company, which ferments, ages,…
Read MoreGoing Green
By Plants Alone Produce is both heart and soul at CORE Kitchen By Alix Wall | Photos by Carmen Silva A sign outside CORE Kitchen at Oakland City Center proclaims: “Welcome to the world’s first produce-only restaurant.” Of course vegan and plant-based cuisine are familiar terms already, but CORE Kitchen CEO Corey Rennell wants his…
Read MoreUC Berkeley Food Pantry
The term “starving student” is such a cliché that we regard enduring some hardship while in school as almost a rite of passage. But actually, food insecurity is a severe problem found on many college campuses. Recent studies have noted that one student in five skips meals to save money. As the largest of its…
Read MoreEast Bay Bookshelf
In 2012, Luz Calvo noticed some students at a fundraiser selling donuts with the claim that the fried cakes were “healthy” because they didn’t contain trans fats. A professor of ethnic studies at Cal State East Bay, Calvo was studying how rates of diabetes, cancer, and other chronic and life-threatening illness have been rising among…
Read MoreCircling Back at McCormack Ranch
Old-style rotation of grains and sheep prevails at this Solano County farm Story and photos by Cheryl Angelina Koehler It’s hard to ignore the slim, white giants that stand waving their three long arms over the Montezuma Hills of Solano County. “Their red lights flash like devils’ eyes,” Jeannie McCormack says of the ubiquitous wind…
Read MoreHealth Beat
Juiced for Food Justice Organic smoothies and community spirit flow at Super Juiced by Rachel Trachten | photos by Carmen Silva Emanne Desouky and her partner Rana Halpern share deep roots in community organizing and a strong commitment to a healthy lifestyle. When they couldn’t find an organic juice bar in Oakland, they started one,…
Read MoreEditor’s Mixing Bowl
A year and a half ago, on the occasion of this magazine’s 10th anniversary, I decided to change the tagline below our logo on our cover. One impulse for doing so was to clarify for people outside our region which one of the world’s watery bays our community lies to the east of. I also wondered…
Read MoreStrawberry Shortcake
This recipe is by Brett LaMott, chef/owner of Café Maddalena in Dunsmuir, California. He says, “The shortcake in this recipe is very short, more of a biscuit than a cake.” Dunsmuir is a quaint town and beloved fishing spot on the Sacramento River just south of Mt. Shasta. If you are driving up I-5…
Read MoreHome Harvest
Wishing you had more planting space in your yard? There may be an extra piece of gardening real estate you did not realize you had. Growing food on fences and arbors can enhance privacy and also add to…
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