A blog about food, history, data visualization, and more
Back in June, I wrote about setting up garden infrastructure to grow burdock root (a.k.a. gobo, Arctium lappa) so that I could have a local source for recipes in Elizabeth Andoh’s Kansha: Celebrating Japan’s Vegan and Vegetarian Traditions (my review of the book is here.). My plants seem to be doing well, with each one […]
One of my minor frustrations with Elizabeth Andoh’s “Kansha” (my review is here) is that quite a few recipes feature burdock (a.k.a. great burdock, gobo, Arctium lappa), but all of the supply in local markets seems to be grown in Taiwan, even in Berkeley Bowl and Tokyo Fish Market, two markets that have many types […]
The Edible Schoolyard, an educational garden and kitchen at Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School in Berkeley, California, has been my path, so to speak, twice recently. The first time was a cover story in the East Bay Express. The second was an actual visit to the garden, my first visit ever. I wrote a […]
Two years ago, I wrote a somewhat light-hearted piece about the “depluminator,” a device that enabled me to pick plums from limbs high on the two plum trees in my yard. It was really simple, consisting of a rake, a box, and a bungee cord. But it didn’t work very well. I soon learned that […]
(Update, 3/6/17: fixed broken links, updated photos) A few weeks ago, I visited Gold Ridge, Luther Burbank’s experimental farm in Sebastopol while touring the wine country and counting the hours until our reservation at Ubuntu in Napa (which unfortunately closed in late 2011). Luther Burbank may not be a household name, but his work touches […]
A few months ago, I purchased two red onions from the farmers market but was unable to use them before they started to send out bright green shoots. Just for kicks, I planted them in the garden. They grew vigorously, eventually sending up several-foot tall scapes and later some flower buds. A few weeks after […]
The surroundings of Alemany Farm in San Francisco do not bring forth feelings of pastoral tranquility. On one side is 12 lanes of high speed traffic (Interstate 280 and Alemany Blvd), which showers the area with waves of noise. On another side, a large housing complex—a vast space of buildings, cars and concrete. Layers of […]
[Updated below] The edge of my driveway is graced with a plum tree that bursts forth with pinkish-white flowers in the spring and a bounty of fruit in the summer. The fruit is weak in flavor with thick skin and a huge pit. But it can make great jam. The plum tree is tall and […]