1. urban foraging
The practice of foraging for free fruits, vegetables, and other “wild food” around the city.

Urban foraging is one of my very favorite hobbies, and it’s something I’ve been doing for as long as I can remember. It’s something I wish more people did, and it’s something I wish more cities would make more possible for people to do! It just so happens to be my personal belief, in fact, that all government buildings should be landscaped with kale and cauliflower; that city streets should be lined with fruit trees; and that public parks should all be planted with with beautiful berries, brightly colored peppers, and edible flowers everywhere. Can you even imagine? What a world that would be!

But until then, we have to make do with what we’ve got. And at the beginning of 2015, I made myself a secret resolution. My Mission: to urban forage a different food from a different place, every single month in 2015.

And you know what? I did it! And I had so much fun. If you’re interested in exploring urban foraging, this is a great little challenge to get you started. You also might want to read this helpful intro post on my “Rules Of Urban Foraging” that I wrote a few years back.

So! Every singe item on this list was collected within 5 miles from my home in downtown Santa Barbara, California. Here’s what I found in 2015 . . .

Month: January
Distance From Home: less than one block // less than one block


Dandelion greens grow everywhere, and as long as you know your neighborhood, they should be safe to eat when foraged in urban areas. Just make sure you wash them well! I love dandelion greens in juices and smoothies.




We found these oranges in an alley behind our house, on an afternoon when we were taking a wagon ride/walk over to visit Jeremy at the shop. Citrus grows everywhere in California in winter, and these beautiful Valencia oranges were large, juicy, and perfectly sweet. A great snack for our journey!


Month: February
Distance From Home: 2 miles // 4 miles


There are 3 kumquat trees that skirt the edge of the Rose Gardens at the historic Santa Barbara Mission, about 2 miles from our home. They produce the biggest, fattest, most perfectly sweet-tart kumquats I have ever tasted, and Waits and I collect them every February.

Most of them go straight into our mouths, because kumquats are “nature’s candy.” But this year I also made some kumquat-infused gin. (DIY infused spirits tutorial can be found here)



River mint is one of my favorite wild treats, and it grows in abundance in all the riverbeds which run from the foothill neighborhoods of Santa Barbara, all the way through downtown SB, and right on into the ocean. Waits and I found this particular mint on a creek walk with some friends, although we gather it nearly year-round whenever we’re near a creek bed. It makes awesome wild mint mojitos in summer!


Month: March
Distance From Home: 3.5 miles // 3 blocks


Beautiful! These gorgeous morel mushrooms were popping up all over the back yard at Waits’s in-home preschool. The children were finding them for almost an entire month, and most of the families were able to take some mushies home. Such incredible little treasures. ♥



There is a giant, I mean GIANT — one of the biggest I’ve ever seen — avocado tree just a few blocks from my house, and it drops ‘cados all over the sidewalk for about 6 months out of the year. I grabbed this perfectly plump beauty, plus a few others, one March afternoon while Waits and I were skating around the neighborhood.


Month: April
Distance From Home: 3 blocks



Loquats are little fleshy fruits that grow in clusters on small semi-tropical trees. They sort of resemble miniature apricots, but the flavor is sweet and very, very tart. Loquats originate from south China, but they are a staple of Southern California, and it’s a fact that no SoCal kid can grow up without many memories of gorging themselves on loquats.

We found this bunch on yet another wagon ride from our house to the store to visit Jeremy. Wagon rides make for great fruit eatin’.


Month: May
Distance From Home: 3 miles


I love edible flowers, and spicy sunbright-colored nasturtiums are some of my favorites. I collected these by the side of the road while running errands around town, but they could have come from anywhere. Nasturtium flowers blanket the yards and parks all over Southern California through late spring.

I like to eat my edible flowers in salads, to preserve and highlight their beauty. So pretty surrounded by all that fresh green! (Nasturtiums are peppery and add a bit of bite, which i adore.)


Month: June
Distance From Home: less than one block


There is a glorious fig tree that overhangs a fence a few houses down. Every year I watch as the figs ripen, eagerly anticipating the sweet juicy fruits which indicate the beginning of summer. Figs are basically like alien fruit. They’re so weird inside . . . but man are they tasty!


Month: July
Distance From Home: 1.5 miles



This is a chayote, and I found it in the back yard of a house I was viewing to potentially rent. Chayote is a South-American vining melon, sort of like a spiny cucumber, and they are super rare around here. So when I saw a vine in that back yard I knew I had to grab one! Waits and I didn’t end up caring for the flavor, but we were still stoked to be able to try something so unique.


Month: August
Distance From Home: 3.5 miles // 8 blocks


I saw these cherry tomatoes on the side of the road in the scorching heat of summer one day, while driving to drop Waits off at outdoor school. I had to swerve to pull over and Waits was like “MOM what are you doing?!” and I was like “TOMATOES” and he was pretty understanding. These were just growing on the side of the road, no doubt the seeds had been dropped by some bird after the tomato had been plucked from a nearby neighborhood garden. We only got a small handful but they made for a wonderful afternoon snack, all sun-warm and sweet and delicious.



Mmm Mmm Mmm Mojitos! One of my favorite summer cocktails. The mint in this mojito was grown in my own yard, but the limes I’d nabbed from an abandoned grove of fruit trees down by the train tracks, on a bike ride home from visiting a friend. These were some of the juiciest, most flavor-filled limes I’d ever tasted.


Month: September
Distance From Home: 4 miles


Nopales are giant cactuses that grow all over Southern California and Mexico. You can eat the actual cactus paddles, but I’m not too fond of them. The fruit though? Amazing!

Cactus fruit, also called prickly pear, can be tough to pick and prepare because it’s covered in very fine hair-like needles that hurt like you wouldn’t believe, if they stick ya. Still, it’s worth it for that incredible, unique fruit!



Prickly pear lemonade with foraged prickly pear, organic lemons, and raw agave. This is summer in a pitcher and Waits can’t get enough of it. Look at that color!


Month: October
Distance From Home: 4 blocks



I love rosemary, and I feel like it’s such a perfectly autumnal herb. I collected this little bundle on a walk back from my neighborhood grocery store. Rosemary grows like crazy around here and people often use it for landscaping, so it’s not too hard to come by. But it reminds me of autumn, so that’s when I like to use it. Rosemary cashews, rosemary roasted potatoes, rosemary chocolate chip cookies. Yes please!


Month: November
Distance From Home: 2 miles


Lavender is so beautiful, and here in Santa Barbara it blooms in late spring and on through summer. Which is why I was so happy to find this lucky rebloom in late autumn! I like to use lavender in DIY beauty products, or make satchels for my linen drawers. It’s such a lovely herb with so many traditional, medicinal, and magickal applications.


Month: December
Distance From Home: all over town


Winter in Santa Barbara is all about citrus. This past December I actually collected an abundance of varieties on my adventures around town — from tangerines to mandarins to regular ol’ lemons. Someone even gave me a Yuzu they had grown!

But the only picture I managed to get was of this little meyer lemon, all smooth and soft-skinned and smelling like heaven. Waits and I grow our own meyers on a miniature meyer lemon tree in the back yard, and we use the lot of them to make a lemon loaf every single Christmas Eve (the tree is so small, we only get 3 or 4 each year). But this was earlier in the month, and it was so nice to get a taste of that wonderful flavor.

And that, my friends, is that. My Year Of Urban Foraging! I had so much fun, I just might have to do it all over again, now that I’m moving to a whole new neighborhood next month. But until then, I want to hear what YOU collected out and about around your own cities this year. Any cool foraging finds? Let us know in the comments below!

Two years in a row I secured a press pass, got everything all lined up, scheduled the time off . . . and then had to cancel my trip at the last minute. Two years in a row I missed my chance, but this year, I finally made it. EXPO!

For those of you unfamiliar, Expo West is the largest natural products convention in the world. It takes place annually at the Anaheim Convention Center, and sees over 70,000 people perusing the thousands of companies exhibiting their latest and greatest natural food, supplement, bath and body, and eco-lifestyle products.

But . . . mostly food.

And she’s right. And it got me thinking, as I drove myself and a trunk full of product samples, and also half of a 37 pound fresh jackfruit, 3 hours home to Santa Barbara.

What would my readers be interested in? Cutting edge food science innovation? (you guyssss the new cheeses are crazy, crazy I say! SO good. Daiya ready-made mac is what dreams are made of)

Or the most creative, most whole-foods-plant-based, absolute healthiest new foods? (like you guys, Miyoko’s Kitchen makes amazing artisan vegan cheeses using whole, natural ingredients and applying ancient, traditional cheesemaking techniques. And they’re SO good!)

And then I realized, that really, I – and my readers too I’m guessing – appreciate both. Because we believe in balance. Because we know that processed foods, though maybe not the healthiest, is also a wonderful treat that make veganism more accessible and more enjoyable. And we know that the healthiest foods are equally as important, to keep us nourished and strong and happy and vibrant. It’s all about balance, and embracing the entire spectrum of vegan options.

But then, I began to think about what’s really important to me. Like if I were to make my “Best Of Expo” list, what would be my most important criteria? Food science innovation? Ultimate health?

And I bet that’s important to you, too.

So this year I’m giving out three awards. #1 – for the Best Food Science Break-Through, #2 – for the Best New Healthy Option, and #3 – the Integrity Award.

Plus pics of all the other goodies, and oh-so-many shenanigans! Without further ado, I present: Highlights From The 2015 Natural Products Expo West

Daiya cheesecake drops in Whole Foods and health food stores across the nation, like ASAP. Like this week.

GO GET IT.

I was a little hesitant to pick these as my winner for “healthy option” because they contain sugar, but in the end I had to do it. These Hemp Heart Bites by Manitoba Harvest were simply my favorite, and I haven’t seen anything else like them out there. Just organic hulled hemp seeds with organic cane sugar, a bit of vanilla and a hint of sea salt.

THESE ARE SO TASTY. They’re kinda crunchy and kinda chewy. They remind me of a Bit-O-Honey or the inside of a Butterfinger, but of course they’re full of protein (10 grams per serving!) and healthy omega 3 fatty acids. These would be great for an after school kid snack . . .

. . . Too bad Jeremy and I ate them all before Waits could try them (they were too good!)

And finally, the winner of my “Integrity Award” goes to One Degree Organic Foods, for their organic, VEGANIC line of whole grain products: cereals, breads, flours, and seeds. Speaking with the folks at this booth was like a big bright breath of fresh air. These are good people, and they really care, and they’re really pushing the boundaries of sustainable food production.

Oh yeah, and they have chocolate rice crispies* so they WIN. (*by which I mean veganic sprouted brown rice crisps made with organic coconut sugar and organic cacao)

You can read more about this amazing company, and their amazing commitment to Integrity, here

And well, that about wraps it up for my 2015 Expo West report. It was a lot of work and a lot of fun, and I just can’t wait for next year!

And I’m sure you’ve seen all the bloggers recapping with all their highlights, so what about you guys – what products are YOU most excited about? Let me know in the comments below!

Oh and PS – Michelle from Vegan Break put together this adorable video => “Vegans Invade Expo”, and it’s funny to me how many times my blue hair pops up in the background. I definitely don’t blend in!

Also you can see Colleen Patrick-Goudreau creepin’ on my beer. Shenanigans!





Cheers!

We’re already planning our next trip.

I packed a lot of it.

I packed three wooden wine boxes of unrefrigerated foods. Potatoes and onions and spices (salt, pepper, oregano, garlic powder, curry, and cumin), canned beans and chili, avocados, olive oil, and Braggs. Enough oat milk to last the entire 8 days (a carton per day between cereal, coffee, and Waits’s oat milk sip cup habit). Unopened condiments like salsa, ketchup, mustard, and bbq sauce. Oatmeal and chia seeds, brown rice bread (for me) and hot dog buns (not gluten free). Chocolate, Dandies vegan marshmallows, and vegan graham crackers for s’mores. I know that gluten-free vegan graham crackers do exist, but we weren’t able to find them before we left. We had a hard enough time just finding vegan ones! All of them, especially at the natural foods stores, contain honey. So just a heads up, if you ever get stuck in a s’mores pinch, the Nabisco brand original graham crackers are “accidentally vegan”. I didn’t say they’re healthy, but they are vegan.




I also packed a separate “snack box”, which lived in the back seat, center position, easily accessible from any position in the car. We had a number of long driving stretches and I wanted to make sure we wouldn’t have to keep stopping.

I included a good mix of healthy snacks and tasty treats – everything from homemade raw zucchini chips to cinnamon almonds to roasted chickpeas. Lara Bars and fruit bars and apples and pistachios. Tortilla chips and squeezie pouches and of course – Snapeas. In the name of honesty I should tell you that there was not just the one Costco-sized Snapea bag pictured here, but an entire other giant Snapea bag as well. We’re all three of us a bit obsessed with them and even named our camp in honor of the crispy goodness. #teamsnapea

Here’s what my Subaru looked like, all loaded up:




Apparently we packed everything we own.

But as far as food-related items, we brought a 2-burner Coleman stove and a wine box full of cooking supplies (floppy cutting board, knives, slotted spoons and tongs, skewers, cast iron skillets, can opener, that kind of stuff).

And for refrigerated food, I packed two 48-quart coolers full of everything I thought we’d want or need. I packed veggie dogs and burgers, tempeh, vegan mayo and butter, hummus and hummus and more hummus, a variety of vegan cheeses, coconut yogurt for breakfasts, broccoli and brussels sprouts and bell peppers, cucumbers and sauerkraut and kalamata olives and I’m sure a bunch of other things I’m forgetting, but you get the idea. Most of the food fit in one cooler, which left the other for cold drinks.

And that, my friends, is how we packed a vegan camping trip!



We left late at night, right around Waits’s bed time. The idea was that we could shave a few hours off the drive while he snoozed in the car seat, which would make for a much easier time the following day. So instead of Santa Barbara to Sequoia in one go, we drove Santa Barbara to Bakersfield and spent the night in a teeny tiny motel there. At least the king bed was cool.

In the morning we all woke up early, excited and ready to start our adventure. I was smart enough to have packed leftover coffee from the day before, so we had perfectly iced coffee to wake up to (pretty nice when it’s already over 80 by the time your rise). Coffee:




And breakfast:




And shenanigans!




On the road bright and early:




The I5 through California’s Central Valley is a strange and surreal place. Olive trees and almond trees and slaughterhouses. Oppressive heat. We listened to 90s music and Waits promptly fell in love with The Smashing Pumpkins. He makes his mama proud!




Finally, after much snacking, many pit stops, and a few too many detours, we made it to Sequoia National Park: home of the Giant Sequoia trees, and scene of some of the most breathtaking landscape I’ve ever witnessed.

I really do love California.




This is General Sherman, the largest living organism on the entire planet. Giant Sequoias are unique in that they don’t grow too terribly tall (as far as redwoods go), but they are FAT. Thick from their roots all the way up to the tippy top. You can see a few veeeeeery small people in this photo, and that might help to give you some sense of how incomprehensibly enormous that tree trunk is.

It is 2300+ years old, and standing underneath it feels a little bit like magic.




We spent most of the afternoon exploring the Giant Forest (mostly we were looking for faeries).

The idea is that vegan kids are normal, and get to have the same fun and fantastic childhood as any other kid. Be it roasting hot dogs over a campfire, or digging into a big chocolate birthday cake, vegan kiddos are not deprived. And we have the photos to prove it! I urge you to browse the hashtag up there (now with over 50 entries, and counting) and enjoy all that massive cuteness and inspiration it provides.

And if you have a wee vegan in your life, please share pics and use the hashtag! Also keep in mind that you can go back and hashtag old pics, and remember that if your privacy settings are restricted we may not be able to see your pics.

Yay! Viva #vkidsdoittoo!!!

Coming soon, more Sequoia, natural eco-friendly vegan camping essentials, Yosemite, and more!

I have always been this way – being raised by my single mother to appreciate and to conserve, compounded by a tendency towards thriftiness that’s totally inherent. I consider this a gift, as it’s given me a whole lot of freedom, my love of secondhand treasures, and a contentedness with having less that I rarely witness amongst my peers.

So yes, I’m an economizer, especially in the kitchen. Which means I’ve had a lot of practice making the most out of leftover odds and ends, eking out a meal from the seemingly discarded bits and pieces, always determined not to let anything go to waste. And during this past year of post-separation/trying to land on my feet/trying to survive on so much less/single-mothering pandemonium, I’ve had to kick my conservation creativity up into overdrive.




And I’ve been pretty creative. That kale up there for example? Each bunch that I buy serves me in three completely separate and wholly unique ways. Three distinct forms of food from every leaf of kale. Triple the serving, triple the nutrients, triple the savings!

It all starts with the whole leaf, as pictured above. From there the first thing I do is de-rib, by separating the soft leaves from the woody stems. The leaves are eaten, almost always as either kale chips or steamed up and served in a heaping pile for dinner, like so:

The stuff that comes out of my juicer looks like this:




Pulp! The liquid, along with many of the vitamins and minerals and antioxidants, have been extracted into the juice, but my kale isn’t finished working yet! There’s still plenty of green goodness in there, and I am determined to get it!

All the juice pulp goes into containers which I keep in my freezer, adding to them each day when I juice, until I’ve amassed a collection of 5 or six full tubs of veggie bits – that includes trimmings like carrot tops and cucumber ends, onion skins and garlic husks, and of course the juice pulp. And at that point, when I’ve got a bunch . . .




I make vegetable broth! I put all those veggie scraps in my big stock pot, cover it with water, add salt and oil to draw out the nutrients, add a bit of kombu or dulse to kick it up a notch, and then let it simmer. What I get is a delicious, rich broth that’s brimming with vitamins and minerals to enhance all my beans, grains, pastas, soups, and spreads. Because I make broth so often I have a ton of it, so I use it in everything from homemade hummus to my breakfast pudla. I even cook Waits’s pasta in it! It adds lots of flavor, plus so much extra nutrition.

Once the broth is strained, the boiled veggie mush gets dumped into the compost bin, where, come to think of it, it continues to work for me and my family. And that, my friends, is the end of the line for good ol’ kale. Not too shabby, right?!

I’ve used kale as my example here, but of course I do this with all my produce. My vegetables are always pulling double and triple duty, between my dinner plate, my juicer/blender, and my stock pot.

Do you have any tricks for making the most out of your produce? I’d love to hear them, so please share in the comments. I’m sure you guys have lots of amazing ideas – let’s compile an awesome resource here!

A few Sundays back I rounded out the first MoFo weekend with a few snapshots from the Portland Farmer’s Market. This precious weekly ritual, our Saturday morning market, is one of my greatest pleasures. Perhaps these new photos will inspire you, the way that my market always inspires me. Fall is such an exciting season!

Purple potatoes

My fellows in flannel, oh so Pacific northwest!

RAW apple pie – breakfast of champions!

Maybe my favorite thing about the Pacific northwest – the apples!

Waits takes an important call.

I had big plans for this pumpkin . . .

BIG PLANS!

Yes oh yes, I am a happy plant-eater!

* These pictures are coming out totally desaturated when I upload them to WordPress. It’s seriously depressing and I’m sorry. We can’t figure out what to do about it! SAD FACE!

Random pretty lady shows off truly gargantuan beets!

Waits insists on helping to carry the goods! Little guard baby. =)

What’s your favorite autumn fruit or veggie??

Little did I know what I would discover out there . . .



The first time out we went straight for the marionberries. These suckers are hybrid blackberries that were developed right here at Oregon State University. They are huge, and they are juicy, and they are all sorts of delicious. Waits did less picking, and more munching.

As an aside, I’ve made it a habit of asking the farmers to charge me for an extra 1/4 pound of berries, which is probably really high but it makes me feel much better about the number of berries that find their way into my little buddy’s mouth. Probably a good tip for most parents!




It was awesome, the berries were awesome, and good times were had all around. But here’s the thing: at the front of the farm, where you pay for your haul, there’s this farm stand . . .

Cherries, Blueberries, Raspberries, Blackberries, Strawberries, Onions, Garlic, Kale, Collards, Taters, Broccoli, Beets, Heirloom Tomatoes, and on and on.





All from surrounding farms, all organic, and SO CHEAP! Seriously, like, insanely cheap. Organic kale in the stores around here is $2.99/bunch. At the FarMar it drops to $2.50/bunch, and the bunches tend to be bigger. But at the farm? $1.50 a bunch! That’s half the price of store bought kale!

I had no idea, and I certainly wasn’t prepared. So I grabbed what little I could, and I vowed to return as soon as possible. With a plan.




The following week we were back, with our same picking companions, hunting blueberries this time around. It was a gorgeous day on a gorgeous farm, and the blueberry fields were a long, lovely walk away.






It was a little early in the season though, and the munchkins kept plucking unripe hard green berries (and trying to eat them). So we scrapped the berry-picking pretty quickly. Which was fine, since we had other things in mind . . .


Produce Stand!

I had my sights set on broccoli. Amazing, organic, beautiful broccoli for $1.50 a head (not per pound, but per head, which was more than a pound apiece, easily). At that price? I wasn’t going to let that opportunity get away from me. I bought almost all of it!


See, just a few weeks earlier I had been out on a walk in my neighborhood, and had stumbled across an enormous stand-up freezer for sale. Just what I’d been wanting! I bought it on the spot, and Damian picked it up when he got home from work. A little re-organizing in the garage, a little scrubbing with vinegar, and it was up and running and ready to go. I am SO EXCITED at the new possibilities for food preservation. SO EXCITED I TELL YOU!

And the very first project was my broccoli. I washed it, trimmed it (juiced the stalks), and set it out on parchment paper to freeze.



This step prevents the produce from sticking together and freezing into one huge block. Very important!

Once it was frozen I transferred it to glass jars.



Those are each gallon jugs, which I’d picked up for a crazy discount ($1.50 apiece; I nabbed 15) when my beloved neighborhood produce market and herb shop went out of business recently. Two gallons – that’s a LOT of broccoli!

Now, I’ll continue to buy and eat fresh produce for the duration of summer and fall. But when winter rolls around, I’ll be able to dip into my freezer stash for local, organic fruits and vegetables. Eating local foods, and buying food that’s in season, is great for the environment and great for the local economy and really great for your wallet! I’m excited to share more of my preservation adventures, as the summer continues to unfold, and the bounty keeps on rolling in.

In the meantime, get thee to your local farm for the best bargain produce you’ve ever encountered!

This year I’m really excited about the “wild crafted” harvest – that means foods grown and gathered from wilderness. Fiddleheads, ramps, sea beans, sorrel, mushrooms, and more. And oh! The nettles, of course!

Strawberries are beginning to show up, and this Saturday I saw cherries. It’s such an exciting time in the season! The floodgates are about to open . . .

<3 this skirt I made many years ago.

Damian captures me shopping, from afar.

Raw, vegan hand pies at my market? Are you serious?!

Oh yea, it’s true!

The solstice is tomorrow: the very first day of summer! How will you be celebrating?

What seasonal produce have you been enjoying lately? What are you looking forward to?

Happy Summer Solstice!

Last year was the first the I focused on really eating seasonally, getting the bulk of my groceries straight from the farmers. I’ve never felt so connected to my food, so tuned in to my surroundings.

Spring is all about new radishes, tender greens, raab and rapini. There’s wild-crafted mushrooms and last autumn’s leftover taters. Mostly, there’s that whiff of promise. Shallots will make way for snap peas, and strawberries will follow before we even know it.

Chard, anyone? Such a lovely rainbow!

Hot new food trend = kimchee (Korean spicy pickles). It’s everywhere! I say, hooray for more fermented veggies. Always love it when healthy goes mainstream.

These guys are new to the market this year and their kimchee is divine.

See? Radishes, greens, and leeks. That’s a quintessential spring spread!

Happiest little market-goers.

This year I also made a weekly stop at the very wee, but very fun, year-round Farmers Market. There’s not a whole lot that grows through the northwest winter, but it helped me so much in staying mindful around my food. There’s always new and strange hardy greens, fermented foods and artisan (raw!) crackers, exotic cultivated mushrooms, fresh-baked breads, and homemade hot soups. Waits and I braved all manner of bad weather and always had a blast.

Spring!

Mushrooms are so strange . . .

Darlings, what are you most looking forward to in the coming season? Do you have a favorite Farmers Market, and has it opened yet this year?


To any tech savvy readers, I use Photoshop to re-size my images and then save the files to my desktop. Somewhere between iPhoto and the end product – somewhere in Photoshop – my pictures are getting dulled and de-saturated. Help help! I’m just clueless if there’s no baking soda involved . . .

This is what my kitchen looks like Saturday afternoon, midsummer. Heaven!

I’ve written a lot about my adventures at the Farmer’s Market this year, and I’ve often referenced the ‘game’ that D and I always play. We make it our mission each and every week to find at least one *special* item amidst the many. Ideally it’s something I’ve never cooked with (or never eaten at all!), but maybe it’s something just come into season, all new and nostalgic and treasured (hello, berries!).

So along with all the standards and staples, these are the specials we picked up each week. I love how this list paints the progression of the seasons.

*Star means I’d never cooked with it before.
**Double star means I’d never even eaten it!

1) Mustard Greens**

2) Asparagus

3) Fennel*

My spin on a clasic soup: Split Pea With Fennel And Potato.

4) Raspberries

5) Yellow Zucchini** & Escarole*

6) Fava Beans**

My first ever experiment with Favas – fresh Farmer’s Fava Bean Dip.

7) Sylvan Berries**

8) Blueberries & Sugar Snap Peas

9) Peaches & Shiitake Mushrooms*

Raw peach and berry tart with cashew cream.

10) Snow Peas & Abalone Mushrooms**

11) Cubanelle Peppers**

12) Italian Artichokes

Steamed Italian Artichoke served with a chunky three-olive dip.

13) Brussels Sprouts* & Maitake Mushrooms*

14) Pickling Cucumbers* & wild-gathered “Chicken Of The Woods” Mushrooms**

15) New Zealand Spinach**

16) Japanese Eggplant* & King Oyster Mushroom*

Vegan nigiri with seared Japanese Eggplants.

17) Miniature Honeydew Melon** & Parsnips

18) Yellow Finn Potatoes** & Long Beets**

19) Spaghetti Squash**

Waits helps me prepare my very first Spaghetti Squash.

20) Romanesco*

21) Walnuts

22) Tat Soi**

23) French Fingerling Potatoes

24) Black Truffle Salt**


Question: I treated myself to some ohh-la-la fancy Black Truffle Salt from the very last Farmer’s Market. What on earth should I do with it??!