Our Staff and Regular Contributors

Publisher and editor Cheryl Angelina Koehler launched Edible East Bay in 2005 in conjunction with Edible Communities co-founders Tracey Ryder and Carole Topalian. She is the designer of this magazine and many others across the Edible Communities membership. Her writing appears in most issues of Edible East Bay and has also been published in the New York Times, SF Chronicle, Lonely Planet, Berkeleyside Nosh, and numerous Edible Communities publications. She is the author of Touring the Sierra Nevada, published by University of Nevada Press in 2007.

Writer and editorial advisor Rachel Trachten writes about food and gardening in connection to social justice, education, business, and the environment. She takes time out from magazine work for choral singing. View her stories at racheltrachten.contently.com.

A longtime food professional and editorial advisor to Edible East Bay, Roberta Klugman is known colloquially as the Olive Oil Guru. As a native North Dakotan, she never takes the miracle of the Bay Area’s year-round gardens for granted.

Book reviewer Kristina Sepetys is a writer and consultant living in Berkeley. Her work focuses on the intersection of food, farming, energy, land, water, and sustainable resource use.

Quarterly contributor Anna Mindessis an award-winning journalist who writes on food, culture, and travel for publications including the Washington Post, Atlas Obscura, and Berkeleyside. She also works as an American Sign Language interpreter. Follow her on Instagram @annamindess and find her stories at clippings.me/annamindess.

Columnist and veteran journalist Barbara Kobsar has authored two cookbooks focusing on traditional home-cooked meals using local produce. You’ll find her each week at the Walnut Creek Farmers’ Market selling her Cottage Kitchen jams and jellies made from farmers’ market produce.

Urban sketcher Cathy Raingarden has won numerous awards with Edible Communities’ Best of Edible. Find more of her work at cathyraingarden.com and on Instagram @cathyraingarden.

Gardening writer Claire Bradley authors a blog called “Botany on the Balcony.”

Digital designer and staff illustrator Charmaine Koehler-Lodge is a lifelong artist who grows most of her family’s food in their rural Pennsylvania garden.