Maximize the minimal

It's been a very busy month, leaving me wondered if retired means tired all over again.

This morning, while thinking about the days ahead when I have less teaching to do, and no commutes to Berkeley for a while, I sat down here and decided to catch up on news feeds and the spam blasts about food issues which I really do like to read when I have the time.

So I learned that the weekly Minimalist columns have come to an end. I feel like Mark Bittman has become a friend, so I was happy to read in his farewell
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/26/dining/26mini.html
that he will still be writing for the NYTimes Sunday magazine, and continuing his advocacy for good, accessible home cooking and a healthy planetary food system.

Perhaps I'll find some more time this weekend to review the Bittman opus and do my take on his greatest hits, but right off the top I'd say it's the more vegetables less egg frittata. When you have a garden with some kind of greens year round and friends with chickens (who've been having their winter break of late, alas - the chickens, not the friends) nothing could be more healthful, local, tasty and quick.

See highlights and search all the columns here:
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/features/diningandwine/columns/the_minimalist/index.html

Who owns your breakfast?

and lunch and dinner?

I got an email today from Donnalee asking about corporate takeovers of organic food brands.

With a little surfing I found these maps again:

https://www.msu.edu/~howardp/organicindustry.html

Scroll down to the fourth diagram to see the hold outs. I am happy to say that I eat a lot of meals with Bob, Nancy and the Lundberg family.

The Year in Review

Why have I been away for a while? Well, I'm not exactly sure, but I do know that the emotional effort involved in taking retirement was much more than I bargained for.

Here's a photo summary of my life with food in 2010.


No, I didn't move the sign - the squash just grew.

The highlight of harvest time was participating

in a Slow Food gleaning day.

My tree collard just keeps on chugging. Right now, at Christmastide, it is the most conspicuous edible in the garden.