BusinessWeek.com: Another great article about the raw-milk business by David Gumpert tells how after a Kentucky raw-milk farmer was busted, his shareholders milked his cows, delivered the milk, and paid his medical and legal bills. Now that’s community-supported agriculture. Gumpert has more about all the various raw-milk crackdowns on his blog.
Time : Interesting back story […]

I used to dread Thanksgiving. As a then-vegetarian, I found the whole turkey ritual disturbing and loathsome. I wasn’t a big fan of the sweet, heavy dishes that accompanied it. Watching sports on TV, and football in particular, is a foreign activity to me. About the only thing I ever looked forward to was […]

Grist: Tom Philpott explains why Thanksgiving can often suck, as “people not socialized to cook and eat together can be expected to bare their fangs when they’re forced to do so.” But it doesn’t have to, and we should reclaim it.
New York Times: Peter Hoffman, owner and chef of Savoy, has a long op-ed about […]

Well, I didn’t manage to use up all of the produce in my fridge before I left, but I made a valiant effort, even having leftover kale and a salad together in one meal. I did have to discard some arugula from the Eatwell box that I had let go too long. It’s funny how […]

Salon.com*: A moving great piece by Novella Carpenter about raising two heritage turkeys in Oakland, CA, and killing and eating one of them. (Carpenter happens to be Michael Pollan’s assistant this year at UC Berkeley’s Journalism School.)
The Independent (UK): Food fraud is rampant in England, with farmed salmon passed off as wild, conventional vegetables as […]

A couple of months ago, Man of La Muncha brought home a chocolate bar along with our normal haul of groceries. I pounced on the bar as it emerged from the shopping bag, to find that the flavor was, (ahem), “Bread and Chocolate”. The brand was 3400 Phinney, and the maker was someone […]

Des Moines Register: A rather terrifying article about the ethanol industry’s insatiable demand for corn, which is leading farmers to forgo the soybean rotation that returns much-needed nitrogen to the soil, meat producers to feed as much leftover “distiller’s grain” as animals can tolerate, and everybody to rely more  on genetically modified strains. [Corn Maven […]

It’s never too early or too late to get into the “Bah, Humbug!” spirit of the season. Don’t get me wrong - I enjoy the long weekends and the time to catch up on reading, but when it comes to the big celebrations and dinners, I’m more on the side of the turkeys shown […]

The Times (UK): Britain’s Food Standards Agency is launching an investigation into what seems to be rampant food labeling fraud in the country — unscrupulous producers are conning consumers willing to pay more for organic and “natural” foods. Recently 30 million “free range” eggs were exposed as being from factory hens, and industrial meat is […]

In our semi-anniversary post, we asked what you’d like more of on this blog, and two commenters said cooking posts. Truth is, I’m much better at ranting than cooking. I’m not completely clueless in the kitchen, I’m just wildly inconsistent.
Casting pride aside, I’m going to share last night’s disastrous meal. Man of La Muncha may […]

The New Yorker: Bill Buford’s fascinating Nov. 20 article about Joe Hutto, the man who not only talks to turkeys, but also has conversations with them, is not online. (Sigh.) However, a great, Internet-only audio interview with Buford about wild-turkey calls, hunting, and cooking is available instead. Putt putt!
Des Moines Register: The idea of a […]

Years ago, a group of friends would organize a potluck Thanksgiving for the “orphans” - people who would not spend the holiday with family for whatever reason. Everyone would bring something, either a prepared dish or a healthy appetite, and we would sit in the living room of the venerable 4th Avenue house in […]

The fictional adaptation of Eric Schlosser’s muckraking best-seller “Fast Food Nation” opens around the United States today. As I wrote last month, I caught the sneak preview and although I have a few beefs with it, I do think it’s well worth seeing — especially if you can drag along a teenager, say, or an […]

New York Times*: The youth organization once known as Future Farmers of America is thriving, having dropped any reference to actual farming from its name. The membership has changed as well: more FFA members now come from towns & suburbs and want to be not farmers, but food-industry scientists, seed bioengineers, florists, landscapers and renewable […]

There’s SOLE food and there’s soul food, and rarely do the twain meet. Last night, however, Miss Steak and I got to indulge our tastes for both at farmerbrown restaurant in San Francisco.
Open since spring, farmerbrown is a labor of love by chef-owner Jay Foster, formerly of Emmy’s Spaghetti Shack (a great late-night comfort-food joint) […]