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Farmer’s market bashing on “Marketplace” … Huh?
Ah, the first farmer’s market of the season. We are very fortunate, as we live in both a coastside and rural community. The twice weekly Coastside Farmer’s Market is chock full of local, organically grown fruit, vegetables, plants, eggs, honey and other beautiful, seasonal treats. I didn’t realize how much I’d missed seeing the familiar [...]
All you knead
KNEAD baking company is a well-kept secret tucked away in a city you may not even know about. Ojai, California, population 8,226, is hidden in a cleft of rocky hills in Southern California’s Ventura County, about 30 miles southeast of Santa Barbara. It’s a place where Hollywood stars like Reese Witherspoon or Ted Danson can [...]
A Passion for Flavor – in five chapters
Ronit and Shuli Madmone are the owners of Whole Spice, which has a sweet little shop in the Napa Oxbow Market as well as a thriving online mail order business. They are purveyors of super high quality spices — the kind you often can’t find anywhere else. They know more about flavoring food than almost [...]
Truffle Tales Part 3
This was it. The moment of truth. Would the truffle scent have made its way through the porous eggshells and infused the eggs with its special stank?
Truffle Tales – Part 2, Bring on the Funk
Truffles. There is no aesthetic value to these foodstuffs. They look like a chunk of dirt, or perhaps an animal dropping. All their value is in one thing — the undeniable, imitable olfactory experience they provide. It’s the aroma that puts [...]
Truffle tales – Part 1
There she was, making this line of white powder with a knife, leaning over it to get it as close to her nose as possible, desperate not to waste any of this highly expensive, addictive substance. I suppressed an urge to hand her a dollar bill [...]