you can do so much with wild fennel from the railroad tracks

i sent these photos to dario and he wrote back to say that he was brimming over with pride.

we've been serving the porchetta with mostarda mediterranea (made in berkeley, so perhaps it's mostarda berkleterranea) and marble-sized bintje potatoes from full belly. ridiculous, if you ask me.

i'm so happy for and proud of my friend jennifer--look at what she's created from scratch in a little over four years. amazing.

simply cannot believe how hot it is.

from the ground up

the other day at the farm, we made burgers. but these weren't any old burgers. they were utterly and completely from scratch:

homemade buns, check.
beef from home raised cows, check.
home made mayonnaise made with eggs from homegrown chickens and home-pressed olive oil, check.
homemade mustard made a la minute with home grown seeds and housemade vinegar and wine, check.
homegrown lettuces, check.
home canned pickles, check.
homemade guacamole made with avocados from the tree out back, check.

(we used all of the homemade ketchup up the last time we made burgers, and we didn't have any of the the family made jack cheese, so we went without those condiments).

the amazing thing is that this isn't a special event at the farm. dinner's like that almost every night. these peeps know how to live, if you ask me.

it's spring, and i'm missing all of my far-flung friends. sometimes, the internet is not enough.

it's so easy to get caught up in a way of thinking. we're fed all of this stuff all day long by the media--it's so constant that it becomes subconscious after a while. i mean, my family is from iran, and i have spent some long stretches of time there, and yet, i still think about it in some very stereotypical ways.

i'm kind of ashamed to admit how giddy and surprised i was to realize that an artistic community such as this might exist there today. i love it!

vandana shiva

i just got back from a conversation with vandana shiva at herbst theatre. for many years, this woman has been a humongous source of inspiration for me--someone to look to for guidance and grace. she is an amazing activist, a brilliant scientist, a passionate environmentalist, a defender of women's and human rights, and a spirited author. her manifesto on the future of food and seed is a work of art, and i feel honored to have met her this evening.

i encourage everyone to learn more about her and her work:

navdanya

planting the seeds for change

south end press