The Independent (UK): Article by Wendy Fogarty of Slow Food UK says buying organic is only half the battle, and that while bashing “Big Organic” for what it’s not is counterproductive, British consumers still need to get on board with local and seasonal.
Grist: Yolanda Crous’s amusing report from the “green carpet” from the Environmental Media […]

L.A. City Beat: Last month’s E.coli outbreak has hurt spinach farmers, but it’s interesting how fast blame shifted from produce growers to cattle ranchers to feral pigs. This article asks whether attention can be redirected back to the true culprit — feedlots — and if the Central Valley will be forced to change its unsustainable […]

Slate.com: Tyler Cowen critiques Michael Pollan’s book “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” from a macroeconomic perspective and finds it wanting — yet his critique is curiously (and dismally) unsatisfying, too. Cowen says that Pollan’s desire for food-cost transparency is “an unattainable ideal, given the interconnectedness of markets,” and argues that the best solutions to environmental problems are […]

San Francisco Chronicle: Reporting from Turin, Carol Ness calls Terra Madre the “Olympics of the Slow Food movement,” and provides vivid examples of the kinds of connections California farmers and chefs are forging with their European and African counterparts. Mark your calendars: Slow Food USA is planning a massive gathering of regional artisanal food producers […]

The Bay Area food scene is as deserted as New York in August. But instead of barbecues in the Hamptons, it’s slow food in Turin for those lucky enough to be attending Terra Madre 2006 and the Salone del Gusto, which both kicked off today.
Michael Pollan and Alice Waters are there, of course, along with […]

I’ve made some discoveries recently.
First of all — I am not as good at pies as Man of La Muncha is. And the photos of the pies aren’t as good as his either. Damn that Man of La Muncha for raising the bar on pies.
Fine, he had one that looked like Mr. Yuck […]

Do you get seasonal veggies delivered from a local farm, also known as a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) box? Ever feel overwhelmed with what to do with everything? A friend just hosted our first-ever CSA Challenge, a lively dinner party that solved that problem.
Here’s how it works. Pick up your CSA box. Invite several friends […]

We’ve gotten a lot of lettuce in our CSA box during this last month, and the produce is not only plentiful but large. One head barely fit into our crisper. Salad can get dull after a while if one does not mix things up, so the Butter Bitch and I were happy to […]

Last spring, the Butter Bitch and I received a number of gift cards for Bed, Bath & Beyond. We have been together for thirteen years and have a fairly complete kitchen, plus we got a bunch of gifts when we tied the knot, so we weren’t sure what to buy with the cards. […]

It starts like this…
The Butter Bitch and I are driving home from work late one evening in early May. Both of us officially work on the east side of Lake Washington and have worked nearly 12 hours. The sun has set, but traffic is very light at this time of night. Neither […]

I’m not usually intimidated by food packaging. It’s there, it contains the food, sometimes it has pretty pictures or useful words printed on it. But the last time Sir Loin and I were at the Ferry Building, I had to hustle him past the Saint Benoît yogurt stand. The stacks of empty ceramic yogurt containers […]

ABC News: A poll says a majority of American consumers read food labels but don’t change their buying habits based on the labels. It’s an uphill battle.
Texas A&M AgNews: An article about the increasing consumer demand for grassfed beef, as well as the challenges of creating a USDA standard on which both producers […]

Green garlic, also known as scapes or garlic scapes, are the flower stalks on garlic plants. They have a milder taste than garlic bulbs and are tasty additions to sauteés and stir fries. They are tenderest when curly but may be used after the stalks stiffen and straighten. The flavor becomes […]

I’ve been attending a conference in the arid Southwest this week, and as a result have been reading USA Today, a newspaper I never really look at. But, lo and behold, on page 5D of today’s Life section, there’s an article about a couple in Vancouver, British Columbia who decided last year to spend […]

“What’s that sound? It sounds like a foghorn,” my wife yells from somewhere in the house.
I lift my head from the pillow and yell back, “It is a foghorn.” We have not heard foghorns since we shared a room together in San Francisco several years ago. This will be a good day to make […]