Cool off with Cucumber Dill Soup

cucumber soup

The calendar says May, but where I live in San Francisco, it’s been feeling like the dead of summer lately. My thermometer says 85, which is unseasonably hot for my otherwise moderate city. Usually, my lunchtime staple is soup, however a warm bowl full of chili may be great in November, but none too appealing [...]

Thinking About Food Miles and Carbon Footprints with Common Sense.

green earth in field

I know this might sound pompous (my daughter’s favorite word these days), but I have some free advice about eating. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist or a brain surgeon to eat in a more healthful, environmentally friendly, sustainable way. You don’t have to be an amazing cook, or use a carbon calculator [...]

What About the Food in the Farm Bill?

I’m relatively new to this crazy Farm Bill thing. I was invited last Summer to an event at Paul Newman and local food activist chef Michel Nischan’s restaurant, the Dressing Room in Wesport CT, to listen to an amazing panel of speakers and participate in a dialog about the 2007 Farm Bill. This incredibly informative [...]

Urban Agriculturalist: Professional Allotment Gardening

After a brief hiatus, Urban Agriculturalist is back! Urban Agriculturalist is a series on the ways city and suburb dwellers use their land as a food resource. Last week, the New York Times featured a few part-time professional urban farmers in areas of New York City where a high demand and low supply of produce [...]

Planting Patriotism: Recreating The Victory Gardens For Modern Times

Rose Hayden-Smith

What’s for dinner? Imagine just looking outside your kitchen window. Imagine United States citizens raising forty-percent of our nation’s fresh fruits and vegetables in home gardens. Imagine sixty percent of Americans actively gardening, harvesting over eight million tons of food a year. No, this isn’t a pipe dream prompted by the current era of high [...]