Grist for the Mill
Early September, and nights have turned cool, skies have cleared of smoke, and daytime temperatures only flirt with 90 degrees. September will no doubt bring more 100 degree days, and yet the one autumn note still missing, that irrefutable scent of fall, will come to our nostrils.
Fall conjures harvest, even in this clime where— blessed us—each month of the year allows some harvest or another. Since my husband Earl and I started this magazine twelve plus years ago, we have eaten the local harvest. Right now, as summer-ripened tomatoes make my eyes vibrate with their deep colors and my mind immerses in magazine production, it’s hard to recall eating any other way.
And yet, truth is, Alzheimer’s disease has fashioned a different relationship with food. One way the trajectory of Earl’s disease can be marked is by his food choices and our behaviors around food.
First, bananas. He’s always liked bananas. He’s finished countless multi-mile runs by peeling a banana and downing it. Now bananas mark and sooth many an agitated expression of the disease. His record is eating seven bananas in an hour. I worried about overconsumption, his doctor reassured me. Eventually, as his trousers went up one size and then two, I came to leave just a couple of bananas in the fruit bowl and hid the rest of the bunch in the pantry. When the contagion of his agitation swooped me up too, I often reached into the pantry and pulled out a banana in hopes of calming us.
The same with milk. He drank it like an adolescent athlete, some days a whole gallon. Once he drank a glass of milk that was half maple syrup, a clear demarcation line half way up the glass. His face never revealed when the one flavor gave way to the other.
As for meals, one night I prepared a fulsome dinner, spatchcocking a chicken and grilling it, roasting a bounty of vegetables that had taken an hour to wash and chop. We sat down and ate, talking about each bite. I had no sooner gotten our plates in the dishwasher and scrubbed the roasting pan when Earl asked, perfectly innocently, “What are we having for dinner?” I came to rely on the one-pot approach, everything seasonal into a crock or soup pot or into a salad. We visited Bacio’s to-go counter or OM Foods to bring home the healthful meals those expert cooks prepared.
Now that Earl lives in a memory care community, the texture of his meals is soft, the portions measured. You couldn’t say the meals use local, or real, or even seasonal ingredients. He enjoys them. So I have come to appreciate the many impediments, logistical and personal, to eating real food, locally and seasonally sourced. Alzheimer’s is a relentless and ruthless thief, a wracking and humbling disease. But there are moments: as Earl’s teeth crunch into a just-picked apple, and in chewing it, he releases the full measure of this fall’s juice, his pleasure makes me see that here and now are all there is.
These pages are a way to share that here and now: meat, almonds, apples, beets harvested in fall. We hope you savor them.
Candace Byrne
Editor
AN APPLE A DAY TRIO
Not unlike the change in morning air, thick and warm summers eventually give way to a cool, crisp autumn. Heavy, warm, dripping peaches are reduced to pit piles lying before three trunks in orchards or sunshine memories stuffed into canning …
CHICO’S CHOCOLATE
Simple Yet Surprisingly Complex Craft Bean-To-Bar Chocolate
Even if one doesn’t know a whole lot about chocolate, clearly chocolate-covered cups of sweetened peanut butter are different from Rusty Bogart’s elegant bars of molded craft chocolate wrapped in gold foil and colorful …
DAVID CHANG DOES IT AGAIN
Photo courtesy of Netflix
For better or worse, if you’re a life-long learner living in today’s world then you’re a digital content consumer. You binge-watch documentary series and infotainment television, and endlessly click through YouTube how-to’s in an effort to educate …
HARVESTS ON BRUSH ARBOR FARMSTEAD
Heritage breeds like Red Wattle, Tamworth, and Berkshire thrive on the Cottonwood farmstead. Photos courtesy of Brush Arbor Farmstead.
The sun, waking a little later each morning, waits until after the sixth hour to light the sky and warm the ground. …
HERBALISM TO THE PEOPLE: THE ELDERBERRY APOTHECARY
Nicole Carroll (left) and Rachel Ricard are the entrepreneurs behind The Elderberry Apothecary. In addition to offering workshops and hosting fairs, they work to craft a wide variety of herbal products. Photo by Kala Riddle.
Elderberries, the heavy, grape-like clusters of …
INCENTIVES GROW HEALTHY SOIL
Kelly Osborne greets shoppers at Chico Farmers’ Market one recent Saturday. Her farm, Capay Rancho Herb Company, received a Healthy Soils Incentives grant. Photo by Candace Byrne.
Addressing climate change is one feat nobody can accomplish alone. The California Department of …
LOCAL SOCIAL #FALL2018
Tehama Field to Fork loves Julia’s Fruit Stand
@TEHAMAFIELDTOFORK
Apple crush
@LASSENCIDER
Pomegranate crush
@HILLSIDEPOMS
We’ve got a crush on the OM Foods Vegan BLAT
@ILOVEOMFOODS
PERMACULTURE RENEWS OROVILLE
Projects Draw Workers and Allies
Matthew Trumm stands in his homestead’s permaculture demonstration garden surrounded by vegetables the chickens “planted” in the process of cleaning up last year’s garden.
Tour with Matthew Trumm through the many projects he has fostered in …
TOASTED WALNUT & BEET DIP
Illustration by Charmaine Koehler-Lodge
This beautiful dip comes from our sister magazine, Edible East Bay. Serve it with assorted raw vegetables, crackers, or breads.
TOASTED WALNUT & BEET DIP
½ pound beets1 cup walnut pieces or halves1 cup grated Parmesan cheese2 tablespoons apple …
WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU ALMONDS, FLAVOR THEM!
The Savory, Spicy, Salty and Sweet Almonds of Sohnrey Family Foods
It’s harvest time at Sohnrey Farms, and the almond laden trees beckon the tree shaker. Th e annual ritual of harvest has been a norm for the past 100 years …