california

Tender Greens Uses Close Farmer Relationship To Offer Affordable Farm-to-Table Fare
Jeff Gangemi Aug 22, 2012 California 0 comments
When Erik Oberholtzer opened Tender Greens in Culver City, California six years ago, the daily food and fashion e-newsletter Daily Candy promoted the opening among its audience of foodies.  Oberholtzer and business partner and fellow chef Matt Lyman had expected a good opening day, but they were overwhelmed by the response! “We had a line out the door a half hour before we opened. We had to close early 'cause we ran out of food,” Oberholtzer says.  “Those lines from the first day just never left – they just grew and grew and grew,” says Oberholtzer, who was executive chef at Shutters on the Beach in Santa Monica before starting Tender Greens. The farm-to-fork restaurant,...
Are Wine Producers Ahead of Food Producers in Sustainable Farming Practices?
Jeff Gangemi Apr 18, 2012 California 0 comments
An interesting piece by Reuters reporter Leslie Gevirtz points to how the growing demand for organic and sustainable food is affecting wine production and certification.  In many ways, it seems, wine producers have been several steps ahead of food producers in their commitment to sustainability. Gevirtz quotes Gladys Horiuchi, a spokeswoman for the California Wine Institute, who says that more than two-thirds of California’s acreage and production is certified as sustainable. But like food producers, who face economic hurdles when seeking organic certification, wine producers may not be able to afford the process of getting a seal of organic approval, even though consumers are...
More Politics of the Plate: Avoiding the “Commodity Trap” of Industrial Agriculture
Jeff Gangemi Dec 07, 2011 California 0 comments
This is part two of our conversation with Barry Estabrook, food journalist and author of Tomatoland. In yesterday’s post, Barry discussed how transparency can help remedy some of the modern-day farm labor abuses. He also named some of the great local producers in and around his home state of Vermont.   Today, Estabrook shares some of the small, local producers that are going against the grain of large-scale industrial agriculture, particularly in the Central Valley of California.  “I talked with a famous organic farmer, and he went on about how good we have it in Vermont — how easy the food movement in Vermont is,” says Estabrook.  “He was comparing it to the Central Valley...
Food Artisans Strike Back Against Restrictive Regulations
Jeff Gangemi Nov 09, 2011 California 0 comments
With 9% unemployment being the new normal, starting a small food business from home has helped lots of folks make ends meet.  Of course, when the words “food business” and “homemade” occupy the same sentence, regulators traditionally get worried. So worried, in fact, that they’ve outlawed the sale of homemade food products in many states.  Of course, that hasn’t stopped creative folks across the country from skirting those laws in recent years. “Clubs” in San Francisco and “swaps” in Brooklyn have helped foodies get the homemade fare they’ve been searching for. But some small producers are taking the fight through legislative channels, helping to create “so-called cottage food...
Eat Your Heart Out at Oakland’s Eat Real Festival
Jen Robinson Sep 27, 2011 California 0 comments
The first of three days at the Eat Real Festival in Oakland was the stereotypical California day: a balmy, sunny 85 degrees. Unfortunately, I chose to attend the festival the second day when the temperature plummeted over 20 degrees and the coastal fog of the morning lifted into heavy cloud cover. Luckily it didn’t rain! On Saturday, September 24th in Jack London Square, the scent of meat roasting over open coals against crisp fall air tinged with sea salt was divine. Within a few hours of my arrival, every Bay Area foodie was packed shoulder-to-shoulder in the square, waiting patiently for homemade tamales, organic bánh mì and hand-dipped corn dogs. Eat Real coordinates festivals annually...
Food News: Egg Laws, Food Safety Bill & Fracking
FarmPlate Jul 13, 2010 California 0 comments
Only Free-Range Eggs in California. A new law says egg producers located outside California that want to sell their eggs in-state must meet the same humane requirements for their chickens as California egg producers. The law says that hens must have enough living space to be considered "cage-free." The cage-free ruling will most likely increase the price of California eggs for the consumer because the farmer’s overhead costs will be more expensive. However, the upside is that humanely raised chickens can improve food safety because hens living in stressful conditions have reduced immunity to illness, and their eggs can put the consumer at risk. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the new...
A Look at Food Waste in California
FarmPlate Apr 06, 2010 California 0 comments
In California, more than 6 million tons of food products are thrown away every year by farms, restaurants and supermarkets. Food shelters, on the other hand, do not have the supply to meet the ever-increasing demand. A recent examination by California Watch and the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism took a close look at California’s food system to try to identify the reasons why these unwanted food products are not channelled to food banks and other organizations where donations are greatly needed. The examination concluded that many grocery stores are more likely to throw away food than to donate it to local food banks because of liability concerns. Often, stores will donate...