Chocolate has a way of enticing you. Eating it makes you feel good. It’s smooth texture upon your tongue taking you to another place, even for just a minute. Every. Single. Time. While I’m not big on sweets, I do like to enjoy quality organic dark chocolate every now and…
The Lifestyle of Simplicity in Food and Human Nature – Looking back at an El Niño Winter The give and take of El Niño for Sonoma County Farms Rain has come in torrents, transforming fields into small lakes. The cars that drive down the mirrored streets leave fountains in their…
I know that Super Bowl Sunday isn’t a national holiday, though perhaps it ought to be. After all, football — the most popular sport in the U.S. — seems to be the national religion. The football itself is a kind of Holy Grail to be protected against enemies, and the…
Book Review: Food & Freedom: How the Slow Food Movement Is Changing the World Through Gastronomy. By Carlo Petrini September 2015 192 pages Reviewed by Jonah Raskin Carlo Petrini, the founder of Slow Food, the worldwide grass roots organization, and the author of Slow Food Nation, exudes so much…
Jonah Raskin with butcher, John Richter, at Thistle Meats in Petaluma (Photo Credit: Karen Preuss) Butchers come in all shapes and sizes. They’re not all big and beefy, though they have often been depicted that way in art. They are, however, mostly male and while some have a lot to…
How to Cook a Heritage Breed Thanksgiving Turkey We asked some members of Slow Food Russian River how they’re going to cook their Heritage Breed Thanksgiving Turkey for this coming national festival. Everybody loves Thanksgiving and everybody loves to be part of some sumptuous dinner party with good company and…
The Lifestyle of Simplicity in Food and Human Nature – Autumn As autumn rolls around, and the summer leaves flutter to the ground, stores stock up on Halloween decorations, and ice cream shops start making pumpkin flavored ice cream, the weather in Sonoma County and the rest of the Russian…
I think I must have heard the question, “White meat or dark meat?” thousands of times. After all, over the years I’ve sat down with family and friends to thousands of Thanksgiving dinners. The question I’ve rarely if ever heard on Thanksgiving Day and that I haven’t really pondered until…
Roy and farm-hand Zeb put up hay by hand this year. This required mowing, raking, and stacking the hay in the fields. Although last year Roy cut all our hay with a hand scythe, this year we advanced to a tractor-powered 1950’s sickle-bar mower. This allows much, much faster cutting…
Hi there Slow Food supporters. I am not sure whether you have been up to the Sebastopol Community Apple Press to help out yet this season, but after my awesome day there yesterday, I want to really encourage you to do it before the end of the season because this is…