Elevated Holiday Gifts & Five Reasons To Stop Hating On Grapefruit
The countdown for Christmas has begun, but as the holiday shopping desperation kicks in, don’t forget that books are the ultimate gifts - they are easy to wrap, ship and force people to disconnect. Here is a round up of my five favorite farming and food books for 2024 for you to consider.
The Blue Plate: A Food Lover’s Guide to Climate Chaos
By Mark J. Easter
An ecologist who studies the carbon footprint of food, Mark Easter found himself making grim climate calculations every time he ate dinner. Then, after visiting a thriving urban farm with a minimal carbon footprint, he began to wonder whether we could shift our climate trajectory by eating and farming differently. The book goes beyond the problems, too. Every chapter dives into alternate ways of raising those same foods.
Kismet: Bright, Fresh, Vegetable-Loving Recipes
By Sara Kramer and Sarah Hymanson
I've had this cookbook for less than a year and it's already dogeared and ragged. When I am wondering how to use up the turnips I bought at the market or trying to decide what to make for Sunday supper, this is the book I reach for. This new book brings cooking books to a whole new level. Fresh ideas to old recipes or bring them back with a different twist.
The Bean Book: 100 Recipes for Cooking with All Kinds of Beans, from the Rancho Gordo Kitchen
By Steve Sando and Julia Newberry
I’m a die-hard “I don’t use bean recipes” snob and bean know-it-all: I’ve been cooking dried beans for decades, eat beans that I’ve cooked from dried at least once a week, and have at least 6 other bean books in my cookbook library, but, somehow, there are 20 Post-It notes on this book highlighting inspirations that I can’t wait to try. The book is really magnificent: it’s not only gorgeous, but comprehensive. It makes a perfect self-gift or a gift for anyone who says “I’d like to learn how to cook dried beans from scratch.”
The History and Natural History of Spices: The 5000-Year Search for Flavour
By Ian Anderson
Spices have been highly valued since at least the Bronze Age, with the so-called Spice Trade, spanning Asia to the Mediterranean, developing from the late centuries. This comprehensive book both reviews spices and their histories of uses, botanical descriptions and classifications, as well as delving into the trade routes and importance of spice through history in driving global events.
AfriCali: Recipes from My Jikoni
By Kiano Moju
AfriCali is not a traditional cookbook, but rather one inspired by the delicious meals Kiano Moju has experienced in life. Moju was born to a Kenyan mother and a Nigerian father and raised in California. While she spent her summer breaks in Kenya, her home in the states during the school year held African house parties where Nigerian jollof rice, moin moin (steamed bean cakes), roasted chicken legs, and plantains were a common part of life. I have been making recipes from AfriCali nonstop and I cannot get over how easy, DELICIOUS and attainable all these meals are. Typically most recipes require a moderate amount of prep and cooking but between the minimal shopping required and the beautiful pictures and straightforward intelligent and personality filled recipes
Seed To Supper Program
Interested in learning to grow the food your family eats?
The City of Hope is offering a comprehensive gardening program called “Seed to Supper,” aimed at helping novice, adult gardeners learn how to successfully grow a portion of their own food on a limited budget. This joint effort between the City of Hope, Foothill Unity Center, Duarte Senior Center , Pasadena Public Library and the On-The-Grow is offered free of charge and quarterly. Each quarter once a month residents will have a chance to participate in hands-on classes covering vegetable gardening fundamentals: soil preparation, garden planning, planting, maintenance, and harvest. Participants will receive a course book and starter supplies.
Classes cover vegetable gardening fundamentals: soil preparation, garden planning, planting, maintenance, and harvest. Classes are taught at the Pasadena Library Hasting Branch and include hands-on garden work days at the City of Hope’s teaching garden - Garden of Hope. We are currently recruiting for our second cohort that starts in February 2025. Click the link below to join the waiting list.
Events & Opportunities
Food For Thought
Words, songs, inspiration and lessons I saved, read, wrote down, and savored this month.
READ - An ancient, Indigenous, legendary bean to give thanks for
READ - Huitlacoche, a Mexican Fungus, is Popping Up On Restaurant Menus Across the US
Words, Lessons & Inspiration
Seasonal Pursuits
When it comes to citrus fruits, lemons, limes, and oranges will always have our hearts, but I think there’s room in there for one more—zesty, bittersweet grapefruit. Once relegated to diet food only, grapefruit adds a wonderful depth of flavor to everything from winter salads to cocktails, and I think it deserves a second look. It’s also got a ton of nutritional value and is chock-full of antioxidants and vitamins (just one has a whole day’s worth of vitamin C). Check out these X grapefruit recipes for ideas, then get ready to get a bigger fruit bowl.
Fun fact: Though you might think adding sugar to grapefruit will help tame its bitterness, it’s actually more effective to add salt. That’s right, salt tricks your taste buds into recognizing more of grapefruit’s citrus vibes than its bitter ones, so it might even work better in savory applications as it does sweet ones.