Too Many Radishes…

…what to do?     Radishes are a great first crop to grow with kids—they come up quickly, are brightly colored, and can be eaten fresh out of the garden­. (Just make sure you wipe off the earth that clings to the fine roots.) They can be directly seeded into the ground all year long…

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Seven Stars of Summer 2012

Seven Stars of Summer 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 Jessica’s seven summer favorites. You can learn more about the Local Foods Wheel and the group’s other…

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Secret Recipes

Recipes can spark the imagination, but more often, we look to them when we want assurance of success in reaching some specified goal, such as, say, making a perfect soufflé. Writing teacher Sondra Hall, on the other hand, uses recipes—or the idea of recipes—as a way to lead kids into the wide world of the…

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Welcome to Wine Country

Welcome to Wine Country It’s right here! By Tom Riley with photos by Stacy Ventura Over the past several years, the New York Times and a host of national glossies have chronicled the East Bay’s emergence as a national tourism hot spot. Much of this reporting has focused on the area’s burgeoning urban food and…

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What's at the Market?

CCCFM celebrates 30 years of good food and community By Barbara Kobsar The longest-running nonprofit organization to operate a farmers’ market program in Contra Costa County is about to turn 30. Contra Costa Certified Farmers’ Markets (CCCFM) was brought to fruition by a small group of Master Gardeners and horticulture students from Diablo Valley College…

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What’s Cooking with Sustainable Seafood?

What’s Cooking with Sustainable Seafood? Getting hooked on best choices through fresh businesses, cookbooks, and practices By Sarah Henry Cathy Phillips wants to eat fish for health reasons—all those heart-healthy and brain-boosting omega-3s for starters—but like many ethical eaters she’s also eager to source seafood that is sustainable, caught close to home, and supports the…

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Opportunity Sprouts at Buttercup Farms

Opportunity Sprouts at Buttercup Farms By Patricia Hayse Haller Central Contra Costa County residents looking for fresh locally grown fruits and vegetables are in luck. A new community supported agriculture (CSA) project is under way in Clayton. Once the summer harvest starts in June, project managers at Buttercup Farms Garden expect to be offering 25…

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Incantations of a Spice Mistress

Incantations of a Spice Mistress: A review of  Quick-Fix Indian: Easy Exotic Dishes in 30 Minutes or Less by Ruta Kahate (Andrews McMeel Publishing 2012) Reviewed by Cheryl Angelina Koehler  I recall an especially poignant question Ruta Kahate posed at one of popular Indian cooking classes in Rockridge five years ago, right around the time her cookbook…

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Charcuterie on the Move

Notable Edibles Charcuterie on the Move: Scott Brennan’s Fifth Quarter By Stephanie Rosenbaum Photos by Nicki Rosario Everything is going mobile these days, so why not charcuterie? Scott Brennan’s Fifth Quarter brings all things fabulously meaty to the farmers’ market. “Fifth quarter” refers to all those nose-to-tail bits left over after the familiar steaks, chops, and roasts…

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GMO LABELING

GMO LABELING: Do we have a right to know? By Kristina Sepetys Illustrations by Otto Thorsen Genetic engineering promises food crops that can resist drought, insects, and disease; crops that can produce more bountiful yields at lower costs while helping to address hunger across the planet. But as with many new technologies, there are unknowns and…

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Editor’s Mixing Bowl

Sunday, April 29: It must be summer . . . or nearly so. After that rainy spell, everyone wants to be outdoors. This morning, my 119-year-old dog Pretzel decided to go stand in a patch of sun on the patio, where she was joined by a friendly doe. (You can see the the photo at…

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Farm to Shaker

Farm to Shaker:  Latest front on the local, seasonal sourcing movement We’ve all grown accustomed to the local “farm to fork” menus that highlight locally grown “organic,” “seasonal,” “artisanal,” and “sustainable” ingredients. But who expects to see those words on a cocktail menu? Oh, you do? Well, then, you may have been haunting Easy Lounge…

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Death of the Pop-Up

Story and photos by Melissa Schilling (Pictured above: Samin Nosrat) “Pop-ups are over!” —Chef Samin Nosrat, co-creator of Pop-Up General Store Could it be true? It was only two and a half years ago that chefs Samin Nosrat and Christopher Lee held their first Pop-Up General Store sale in a borrowed West Oakland catering facility.…

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Contents: SUMMER 2012

Editor’s Mixing Bowl Notable Edibles The Fifth Quarter Buttercup Farms CSA Death of the Pop-Up The Inspired Vegan: An interview with Bryant Terry on publication of his new cookbook Incantations of a Spice Mistress: A review of Ruta Kahate’s Quick-Fix Indian Secret Recipes: Things kids know that we don’t What’s at the Market? Seven Stars…

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A Feast for All the Seasons and All the Senses

An interview with Bryant Terry on food justice and inspired vegan cooking By Kristina Sepetys “I always go for flavor. If it’s not flavorful, I don’t eat it.” — Bryant Terry Piquant red beet tapenade crostini; butter bean and tomato-drenched collards with parsley; gingered black sesame brittle; or moist, rich ginger-molasses cake with walnuts .…

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