United States
I'm a Bay Area journalist writing about food and food justice in connection to urban farming, school gardens, education, health, and the arts. As a regular contributor to Edible East Bay and Edible Shasta Butte, I've had the opportunity to delve into issues ranging from regenerative farming to pesticide use on college campuses. I also enjoy writing personal essays about family, marriage, and health, which have appeared in the Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, and East Bay Monthly. Contact: [email protected]
An hour before closing time at the Diablo Valley Farmers' Market, the sausages and savory pastries at Mr. Robinson's Authentic British Bangers are selling out fast. Mr. Robinson-first name David-and his wife, Alison, are serving a long line of customers at their booth, which is decked out with British flags and a logo of a classic British butcher.
Remember When the Southern Pacific Railroad ran along Solano Avenue? No, probably not. But a few people in the neighborhood might recall a treat from the former Larson's Bakery or McCurdy's Ice Cream enjoyed after a movie at the Oaks Theater (now a climbing gym).
"I Love the weirdos and the rarities, and it's why we chose the name that we did: to embrace the curiosities that we find amongst the plants we grow," says Colleen Wheeler, co-owner of Curious Flora Nursery. "We're dedicated to bringing back those oddities that are so hard to find within the nursery trade."
Tom Cloman vividly recalls a time when farmers' markets were few and far between. "There were only nine certified farmers' markets in Northern California when we started," says Cloman, who founded the Richmond market in 1984 and is still president of its market association.
Kelly Cannon moved to Oakland's Temescal district from Brooklyn, New York, in 2021, and like many East Coast transplants, she was astonished to learn what home gardeners can grow here in our mild Mediterranean climate. "As I walked with my dog, I'd see people growing figs, artichokes, or grapes in their front yards," she says.
It's quite a 10th anniversary gift for Preserved owner Elizabeth Vecchiarelli: a new location for her popular culinary shop focused on food preservation and fermentation. As this magazine was heading for press, Preserved was on the verge of opening its new site, a coveted storefront at 5540 College Avenue in Rockridge.
Gustavo Fuentes wasn't keen on the snails eating his lettuce and spinach, so he built a clever vertical planter from wooden pallets to keep the seedlings off the ground. His wife, Felicita Salinas, says they both learned to grow food while growing up in El Salvador.
On a December morning, the rising price of straw is on Brenda Kusler's mind as she deftly spreads straw mulch around baby cabbage plants. She takes a break from the cabbages to help stack and store tomato cages, then notices a tube that's come loose from the rainwater catchment system.
Rain poured down in sheets as a fierce gust of winter wind lifted the Joe's Honey booth right off the ground one Saturday at the Hayward Farmers' Market. Miguel Angel Gutiérrez reached up to grab one of the bars under the canopy and held on tight.
Rebeca Rangel often noticed a delicious aroma of baking bread or sometimes a whiff of chocolate in the air outside her Central Berkeley home. Following the scent, she came to a sign that read "The Bread Project" painted in large letters over a University Avenue doorway.
United States Navy veteran Kelly Carlisle often recalls the hot day out with her 4-year-old daughter in 2009 when she ducked into a plant nursery to cool off and saw something that changed her world. Spying a huge lemon hanging on a tiny tree, she wondered, 'Is that how food is grown?
Julia Dashe has an expansive vision for the 2.5 acres she manages on the grounds of Oakland's Mills College (which merged with Northeastern University in 2022). "Farms are landscapes of the imagination," says Dashe. "Gardening can be an embodied practice for creative expression."
As many did early on in the Covid lockdowns, Barnali Ghosh went walking around her neighborhood, cell phone camera in hand. She photographed flowers and trees and also joined the #GettyMuseumChallenge, creating riffs on famous paintings by matching their shapes and colors to objects around her home.
A homecoming paves the way to a medicinal mushroom business
Chico State Leads the Way in Climate-Smart Farming Practices
On March 16, 2020, Andrea Talley arrived for her shift at Oakland's Mandela Grocery Cooperative to find a line of customers snaking down the block. The pandemic shutdown had just begun, people were panicked, and many items were in short supply. Talley, a worker-owner at the co-op, describes the experience of those days in a surprisingly upbeat way.
Elizabeth Boegel was determined not to be a gardener. "I grew up camping and hiking and gardening whether I wanted to or not," she says. "My dad had a big garden anywhere he went, and my mother would preserve all the vegetables for winter.
When the nonprofit World Central Kitchen (WCK) started hiring caterers and restaurants to prepare free community meals in the spring of 2020, Cocina del Corazón cooked between 100 and 400 meals weekly, providing nourishment for at-risk youth, the elderly, single mothers, refugees, and the unhoused.
Reusing water from washing machines and bathtubs with a greywater system can help Berkeley homeowners save water and money.
A grassroots local food network thrives in Butte County
When Ayse Sercan was training as an architect, the topic of greywater came up frequently. "We talked about the fact that we waste a lot of water that's perfectly usable just because it's a little bit used," says the Alameda resident.
Oakland business owners Cassandra Gates and Elizabeth Vecchiarelli make a habit of circling Lake Merritt together to brainstorm and offer each other morale boosts. "I'll talk for the first 30 minutes, and she'll talk for the second 30 minutes," says Broth Baby founder Gates, explaining the routine she's developed with her friend, the owner of Preserved.
James Albon's wickedly clever graphic novel, The Delicacy, tells the story of two brothers from Scotland whose dream of growing organic food and opening a restaurant in London spins into a tale of greed, selfishness, and ultimately, murder.
It was the summer of 2011 when architect Brian Friel walked over to the South Berkeley Farmers' Market expecting to find citrus. He didn't. In fact, several of the items on his shopping list were also out of season, prompting Friel to realize he didn't have a good understanding of local seasonality.
"The mushrooms found me," says Eleana Hsu, co-founder of Shared Cultures, describing a period when she was depressed at her desk job and hiking a lot to lift her spirits. The extra time out in nature spurred her interest in fungi, specifically koji: a mold fungus used to create fermented foods like soy sauce, miso, and sake.
By Rachel Trachten Have you seen someone like me at your local farmers' market-a bedraggled shopper with an overloaded bag on each arm and a bulging backpack bringing up the rear? Even as I'm leaving the market, I can't help making one last impulse purchase, stuffing a few apples or a head of lettuce into my bag.
I'm here at Berkeley farm Urban Adamah, watching a cluster of fellow visitors making what appear to be mudballs, patting them into shape, then dropping them onto the ground. Nearby, another group is plunging their hands into bowls of sliced cabbage, enthusiastically mixing the vegetable with salt.
Carolyn Phinney was a master at overcoming obstacles even before Covid-19. Now the pandemic is yet another hurdle to navigate as she runs a thriving farm in Martinez, donating her produce to emergency food programs and families in need. Phinney is quick to say that she knows nothing about farming.
By Rachel Trachten | Photos by Carmen Silva In the cafeteria at Madera Elementary School, a long line of chatty kids winds its way to a surprisingly elegant serving table. The usual microwaved lunches are nowhere in sight. Instead, the children get freshly cooked burgers or veggie burgers with whole-wheat buns, roasted squash, crisp lettuce, and juicy tangerines.
SPONSORED Kids in New York schools are munching on local farm-grown veggies for lunch. Women ranchers in Oregon are circling up to expand their networks and learn from supportive peers. And farmers in Virginia are using cattle to create healthier soil and safer animal habitats. These changes are coming about thanks to three innovative programs...
Paul Liotsakis says he's once again "on the bleeding edge" of a new concept. The 48-year-old Alamedan joined the organic food industry before standards were set and worked as an installer of solar and wind energy systems before there were permitting laws. Now Liotsakis is championing the GO Box, a reusable alternative to take-out food containers.
In March when everything shut down, school and community gardens were in full spring swing. Neighbors walking past the gardens noticed pea vines curling up behind locked gates and wondered what would become of the food, and what would become of garden-based education. Here's what we learned from some organizations we spoke with.
The process of upcycling works its magic in two ways: first, it makes use of something that would otherwise be wasted, and second, it transforms that item into something of higher quality. The idea of making a valuable upcycled product was percolating for Claire Schlemme back in 2012-2014 when she was in Boston running an organic juice company called Mother Juice.
University of California Berkeley students and groundskeepers see beyond the spotless green fields. Monsanto probably didn't see trouble brewing on a campus beach volleyball court. In the spring of 2017, UC Berkeley junior Mackenzie Feldman heard her coach tell the players not to chase the ball in bare feet if it went off the court.
Joel Devalcourt had been trying to perfect his chili sauce recipe when serendipity led him to a bottle of nut oil. More specifically, it was some La Tourangelle walnut oil that Joel and his wife Yvette found in the pantry of a Berkeley home where they were house sitting.
"How would you get more people who aren't eating butter to eat butter?" Sixty-five UC Berkeley grad students puzzled over this light-hearted question as they vied for just 25 slots in the public health innovations course Eat.Think.Design.
Two roads, one destination / Husband takes the direct approach to life.
If there's been one theme in the 2021 economic recovery, it's that workers are demanding higher wages and better working conditions. But for Gabriel Cole, CEO and cofounder of the Emeryville-based social enterprise company Just Fare, that was the goal long before the shutdowns.
The difference between the chocolate maker-an artisan who uses raw cacao beans to make chocolate-and the chocolatier, Medrich explains, is that the latter is a confectioner who uses the chocolate produced by the chocolate maker to turn out truffles, bonbons, and other treats.
I sit on my mat and stare at the wall as the rest of my yoga class chants om. "Enjoy the sound and the vibration as you chant," says our instructor,
Charlie Costello wants to give you free tomato plants and teach you to save seeds. Last year, Costello gave 400 tomato plants to East Bay gardeners for their schools, urban farms, and homes.
Kathy Juarez, a retired high school drama teacher living in Santa Rosa, is a fan of the cheeses from Petaluma's Weirauch Farm & Creamery. She initially tried them out of loyalty to one of her former students-now cheese-maker-Carleen Weirauch. Juarez was impressed, and even took an opportunity to visit the Weirauch farm.
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Though the look on her face was one of near ecstasy, I struggled to suppress a yawn.
Want to swap a haircut for a new website? Teach your neighbors how to make jam and get your leaky sink fixed in return? With money tight-and an eye toward saving the planet-people are getting creative about sharing their stuff and their skills, and finding new friends in the bargain.
In East Oakland's Jingletown, a new twist on senior housing is in the works. The neighborhood known for its artists' lofts will soon be home to Phoenix Commons, a "cooperative lifestyle community" for older adults. The four-story complex of 41 units will be the East Bay's first senior cohousing development, according to project CEO Chris Zimmerman.
The explosion of East Bay farmers' markets-in spite of impending recession and inflation-demonstrates the area's commitment to local, sustainable and well, tasty, fruits and vegetables. And it shows that people just like to have fun at their neighborhood farmers' market.
"Not the hood, Mom," my teenage daughter hisses. On a sun-drenched Hawaiian beach, Julia backs away as I continue my elaborate preparations for