Just around the corner and down the street from where I live on a stretch that includes liquor stores and the dodgy characters who frequent such places, you’ll find Spiral Gardens, a slightly disheveled verdant oasis on a fenced in corner of a formerly empty city lot.

It’s a welcome addition to the neighborhood. For the past six years in this location, the community food security project has developed a four-pronged approach to reaching low-income residents, particularly people of color, on the southwest side of Berkeley. The nonprofit is home to a nursery chock full of edible starts and trees, culinary and medicinal herbs, and California native plants for folks who want to grow their own food. Nursery sales help fund other programs the group offers.

Across the street the urban garden center’s community farm is full of summer bounty, such as tomatoes, greens, and amaranth, in one large collective plot that everyone works on together. Around half the harvest is given free to people in need, such as the homeless and elderly, the remainder is distributed among the volunteers who help the garden grow. There’s a pen with chickens and ducks too.

The organization runs the cheapest produce stand in town; every Tuesday afternoon it offers organic greens, fruit, eggs (supplied by a local jewelry store owner who raises hens), and such from the usual farmers’ market suspects at cost. Note to local readers: The stand serves all comers and appreciates those of means rounding up or kicking in a little extra to support the program.

And on Sundays the nursery-garden provides ongoing free farm classes, such as how to grow food in an urban setting, cooking produce from the garden, and beekeeping for beginners.

Daniel Miller has served as the executive director of this worthy edible experiment for 16 years. It is largely a labor of love. Miller is only paid a few months of the year, he supplements long days at Spiral Gardens with edible landscaping jobs and says he foregoes many standard accoutrements of modern life such as a home he can call his own, a car, and new clothes.

The 42-year-old father, whose Twitter handle describes him as “a gritty optimist dedicated to the compassionate reimagination of how we live,” resides in Oakland. We chatted at the nursery while Miller repotted plum trees. [[Click to continue reading this post]]

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I heard you. Help is on the way. This post is for all you artichoke, eggplant, beet, kale, parsnip, kohlrabi, rutabaga, celeriac, and (your veg of choice here) phobes.

July’s cookbook giveaway sparked so much reader interest — and requests for help with veggie recipes in particular, that I felt compelled, compelled I tell you, to seek out The Homesteader’s Kitchen author Robin Burnside to ask her advice on behalf of you all.

The mother of four and grandmother of six, all of whom can walk to her Big Sur home for dinner, knows a thing or two about feeding family.

Generously, and in the spirit of everyone eating more greens (and other colors of the rainbow too), the natural chef and former cafe owner agreed to answer questions, offer advice, demystify cooking veggies — and share some recipes too.

How nice is that? If you’re in the area, you can thank her yourself this Saturday at Treebones Resort, the cool yurt getaway perched on a cliff over the ocean in southern Big Sur, where she’s throwing her book launch party.

1. Lots of readers seem unsure about how to cook eggplant. Any tips?

The most important step is to choose a fabulous, organically-grown globe at your local farmers’ market. I’m sorry, but it’s just near impossible to find a good eggplant at Safeway. You want to pick an eggplant that has a deep purple color and dark shine. It needs to be firm too. If it’s squishy to start with, it’s just going to taste too bitter.  Eggplant is wonderful grilled. I spend several months a year in Baja California and I find the Mexican climate — lots of hot sun — produces a wonderful sweet eggplant. We pick one from the field after we’ve been surfing, slice it, and throw it on the grill.

A simple way to serve eggplant is to cook it, cut into cubes, and then pair it with caramelized onions and garlic, add some diced fresh tomato, some fresh basil strips, salt, olive oil, and perhaps a splash of balsamic vinegar and you have what we call eggplant caviar.  My son would never eat eggplant any other way.

If people are too intimidated to start with a traditional, big globe, I recommend searching out the smaller Japanese varieties, and using them to make baba ganoush (eggplant dip).

2. Another vegetable folks seem afraid of is the artichoke. How to handle this thorny creation?

Again, you want to look for the freshest globes, which will pack more flavor and nutrients. Regardless of size, look for dark green, heavy and firm chokes that give a little squeak when squeezed.  The artichoke is also surprisingly good grilled. One caution on grilling: Since we know charred food isn’t good for us, it’s important to turn food that’s being grilled frequently and cook over a bed of glowing coals releasing radiant heat — not an open flame.  Cut small ones in halves, larger ones in quarters.

One handy tip before steaming, which is another good option: Dip a washed artichoke in 1 tablespoon of water and lemon juice before cooking to retain color.

For something fancier yet simple to fix, try my Stuffed Artichoke recipe from the book. (Find recipes at the end of this Q&A.) [[Click to continue reading this post]]

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A former ad sales rep for Gourmet magazine (R.I.P.), Lisa Rogovin had what she calls her Eat, Pray, Love moment in 2005, meaning she left an unhappy marriage, sold the house, and embarked on a food-fueled journey around the world, visiting 14 countries (yes, India was in the mix) in seven months.

Before she left on her edible adventure, though, the food enthusiast sewed the seeds for her future happiness, both personally and professionally. She met the man who would become her second husband and she led a group of hotel guests on a culinary expedition of the San Francisco Ferry Building’s fine-food emporium.

Buoyed from her travels, she took up where she left off when she returned. The Venezuelan golf pro became her hubbie, and she launched her own business, In the Kitchen with Lisa, leading intimate food forays around the Bay Area’s culinary epicenters. Her field trips include the Ferry Building’s Marketplace and Farmers’ Market, West Marin food and wine top spots, and, more recently, the city’s Mission District’s eclectic eats.

And for the past two years, every Thursday between 11 am and 2 pm, Lisa or one of her team of seven tour guides, they call themselves epicurean concierges, walks a group who plonk down $75 a pop for the privilege around the Gourmet Ghetto in North Berkeley, arguably the birthplace of California cuisine and the growing food movement.  All while noshing on samples at eight different eateries and getting an insider’s perspective from the area’s food purveyors, restaurant owners, and chefs.

Last Thursday her tour began at Saul’s Restaurant and Delicatessen where, over local pastrami on ACME rye with house-made celery seed soda, co-owner Peter Levitt gave an impassioned overview of the demise of the Jewish deli and Saul’s controversial efforts to provide sustainable, yet authentic, Jewish foods.

Next stop, around the corner to Walnut Square for a quick primer on the evolution of Peet’s Coffee + Tea, (it took an immigrant from Holland to bring decent coffee to the States way back in the 1960s, though Alfred Peet would likely turn in his grave at all the frou-frou coffee drinks his brewing revolution spawned). Something savory? Check. Something bitter? Check.

It’s time for something sweet, so we head upstairs for mini cupcakes at Love at First Bite (what’s not to like?), a quick nod to The Juice Bar Collective (this being Berkeley, food politics are never far away) and then it’s time to don our bon vivant hats as we head into Vintage Berkeley wine shop for a tasting of good drops that cost less than 25 bucks.

Turns out, we’re just getting started. [[Click to continue reading this post]]

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Learning to Love the ‘Hood on Foot: One Edible Adventure at a Time

July 22, 2010 berkeley bites

Getting to know the edible offerings in my neighborhood, on foot.

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Berkeley Bites: Christopher & Veronica Laramie, eVe

July 16, 2010 berkeley bites

This culinary couple met cute at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, no less.
He followed up his gastronomical studies with a stage at the prestigious Georges Blanc (three star Michelin) outside of Lyon, then the two headed to Miami, got married, and went to work at posh nosh spots in South Beach; [...]

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Cookbook Giveaway: The Homesteader’s Kitchen

July 15, 2010 farmers' markets

Win a copy of The Homesteader’s Kitchen: Recipes From Farm to Table by Robin Burnside

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School Food: Japanese Style

July 13, 2010 kids & food

Look what’s for lunch at school in Japan. It’s enough to whet anyone’s appetite.

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