Nov/Dec 2014
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Learning to Eat
The school garden movement could end diabetes and does provide Common Core curriculum. So why is it still viewed as a hippie’s daydream? On a sunny Friday morning in the Wright Charter School garden, first graders bustle about between rows of lettuce, dried sunflowers, corn, scarlet runner beans, and cabbage. The students tease and jostle,…
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Hot Dog Manifesto
Why can’t our festival food be greasy, comforting, local, and healthy? Sure, yes, OK. We all strive to eat locally, seasonally, and therefore—healthily. But even the best of us have our weaker, baser moments, those times when something sort of gloriously unhealthy, certainly greasy, and emphatically who-cares beckons our minds and stomachs. In fact, certain…
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In Praise of Worms
A Letter from the Editor. When I stay alone in hotels, I like to watch morning TV. It’s a childish habit, seeking comfort from voices, even those coming from the screen. And so, on a recent autumn morning, alone in a New York hotel room, I had the early morning news on while I busied…
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Total Animals
Nose to tail, stomach to stomach, perfume to steak: In praise of whole-animal production. ‘Innovation in the meat industry is now about going back to basics and moving away from industrial meat production.’- AnnaRae Grabstein Two hundred years ago, when vast ranchos spread north of the San Francisco Bay, vaqueros would drive cattle by the…
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Folks You Should Know – Juan Hernandez
Executive Director of La Luz Center. La Luz Center executive director Juan Hernandez was raised in the barrio of East Los Angeles. He earned a B.A. from UC Riverside, a fellowship in management leadership from New York, and an M.A. in psychology and organization development from Sonoma State University. Juan served as director of educational…
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Pork Barrel Prophets
European heritage pigs flourish in Sonoma County, but can we afford the luxury of real meat? It’s a drizzly September morning, and I’m slogging through the lush junglelands of outer Forestville. Navigating riparian thicket, leafy overgrowth, and the periodic low-hanging tree branch, I also occasionally notice electric wire threaded near my ersatz hiking path. Just…
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Beer by Bite
Your guide to a totally local craft brew holiday bash. ’Tis the season for the cavalcade of Gerwurtz/Reisling/Cab recommendations to begin their flurry as we collectively wonder what lovely adult beverage will go best with the turkey, ham, and prime rib that mark the groaning boards of the holiday season. But what about beer? Exactly.…
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What Is It?
Qu’est-ce Que C’est is an aperitif by any other name. Those who wish to discipline the sexual organs should avoid drinking those concoctions which are called ‘aperitifs,’” warned Greek theologian St. Diadochos of Photiki sometime in the 5th century. The saint was naturally concerned that drinking before dinner might lead to debauchery thereafter. Taken from the…