For two weeks now, I’ve poked and squeezed on a bowl of fresh persimmons, waiting and wishing them to ripen. That day finally arrived this week. So what do to with these gorgeous orange globes? It’s the holiday, so yes, I could make a sweet bread. But it’s not even Christmas...

Editors spend a ginormous amount of time coming up with end of year top ten lists. The top movie according to unnamed major film critics is The Social Network (not sure I agree). Pitchfork says the top album is Kanye’s West’s, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and the Country...

Start your New Year off right with a virtual tour of the grocery store on My Great Kid radio. Whether your resolution is weight loss or just trying to eat healthier for you and your family, this recent radio podcast will help. My great Kid  is hosted by Staci and Steve Bockman, two of my...

I adore Indian food, but for some reason I usually get a craving for curry somewhere between putting my feet up on the coffee table to watch the news and pouring a glass of wine. It doesn’t help that for me Indian recipes are as complex as a new yoga pose and they take way too much prep...

I was running late this morning (as usual), so I opted for no socks. Bad move. Gray slush oozed over the lip of my clogs, as I stepped out of the car in the grocery store parking lot. The snow-plow driver grinned and waved as frowned and sloshed toward the glass doors. Luckily I remembered my...

QUIZ: Should you buy?: A. organic apples or B. organic oranges? (Answer below). If this question is on your mind as your wander the produce aisle, you are not alone. Shopping for produce is often an apple and orange argument. Do you waste money on fresh produce?  Do you struggle when trying...

Eight months ago, I met a group of people who live life at the end of the rainbow. They didn’t get there by following a pot of gold. They got there by following their passion and staying true to the legacy they inherited. For brother and sister, Jim and Linette, heirs to the Crosby Mint...

I recently posted a commentary on WellWise.org about Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign, titled Feed Kids’s not Palin Politics. Sarah Palin took exception to Michelle Obama’s anti-obesity work to get healthy food in schools, educate parents and get families moving. A...

SIGN THE FOOD DEMOCRACY NOW PETITION & TELL USDA NO TO GM-ALFALFA. Just when organic foods are getting more affordable, agricultural policy makers could change all that with the approval of genetically modified alfalfa. Within a few days, the USDA will announce the final policy on...

Are the nation’s prime agricultural areas big enough to support both genetically modified crops and organic crops? Who has the most to lose?  Organic or GM? Questions mount as to how these two ag-policies can co-exist. Listen to this recent NPR report to see how this debate affects...

Here is a recipe for when the snow is feet deep and your toes would much rather be buried under a few inches of sand than stuffed inside a winter boot. The amount of clams, salmon and scallops can be easily bumped up or down if eating alone or sharing with a friend or two, or three. Add a...

Chris Bedford is co-founder and President of the Sweetwater Local Foods Market – Michigan’s first farmers market to exclusive sell locally grown fruits and vegetables raised in a manner that enhances biological diversity and builds soil health AND meats, eggs, and cheese from animals...

In the beginning, there were no food labels, only the earth and the sky. But God wanted more, so on the third day He said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. Read...

Get the processed slop out and fresh salads in to your local school cafeterias. Last week, 500 schools got a fresh facelift when Whole Foods announced that it awarded grants to schools to fund more than 500 salad bars. Now it’s your turn to put your money where kid’s mouths should...

From the NY Times: Agricultural subsidies have helped bring us high-fructose corn syrup, factory farming, fast food, a two-soda-a-day habit and its accompanying obesity, the near-demise of family farms, monoculture and a host of other ills. Yet — like so many government programs — what...

A recent op/ed in the Iowa City Press Citizen mentioned my book Eating Between the Lines. It’s humbling to be included in the same paragraph as Michael Pollan and Elson Haas as Iowa City opens an all-year farmer’s market. I congratulate their community for taking this next vital...

Eating Between the Lines was published four years ago. It’s tough for first-time authors to get enough traction, but I am happy to say it is still selling, thanks to the support of so many of you. In fact, the book sold as many copies in the past year as it’s first year. And, EBL...

According to the Olive Oil Times, a very large, very powerful Italian olive oil company is being investigated. In Italy, the Forestry Department (Corpo Forestale) is responsible for preserving the environment, but also for protecting the purity of olive oil production. It’s an odd...

It snowed this morning and my first instinct was to run outside in my bare feet and shake the snow from the peach tree branches and cover the tender shoots in the garden. Instead, I watched the flakes fall. It was a good snow, downy and damp. The flakes were light enough so the peach...

There is no greater voice in this country than that of mothers. It’s time we got loud about what is in our food. Last year, in her cheerful but don’t mess with me way, CBS anchor Katie Couric explained the issue pretty well on national news, here is the clip, and she testified for...

I have one of those mother’s…you know the type…beautiful, talented and accomplished. She is a hard act to follow. In fact she is so gifted, that my sisters, brother and I couldn’t possibly have inherited all her talents, so we split them up. When we were kids, we moved...

It’s a been a soggy spring here, perfect for writing and cooking. Rather than repost some of the recipes I’ve recently published, I am linking out and sharing some unpublished secrets behind the recipes. Yellow Squash and Corn Casserole. I loved this recipe on the farm last...

Last week, I had a surprise on my doorstep–a box of organic produce from Door to Door Organics. Summer’s bounty at my door, what could be better? Kale, Swiss chard, Japanese eggplant, lettuce and of course the ubiquitous late summer zucchini. With a few fill-in ingredients from the...

This time of year the Campagna region in Italy is laden with tomatoes. The rich red volcanic soil from Vesuvius is the perfect host for sweet vines that line the road from Gaeta to Naples. We know them stateside at San Marzano in a can. When I lived in Gaeta, every August I so wanted to...

The Organic Trade Association facebook page asked followers today, if you are what you eat, what food ingredient would you be? A lot of organic foodies must be incognito berries, broccoli and beans. A couple of people said kale, they must be organic dinosaurs (just kidding). An overly...

To be honest, I wasn’t too sure about this Harmony Valley product when I got it. Meat analog products and even frozen vegetarian burgers have a certain queasiness factor that can be hard to overcome. And in the bowl, well, it looked a lot like other meat-analog products, pardon the...

The recent launch of Pan Am TV series on ABC has stirred up a plane full of memories of my years as a Pan Am flight attendant from 1979-1984. During the pre-show buzz, someone asked me why this is such a big deal for me, for other Pan Am crew members and even for passengers who flew the...

The last of summer’s berries, peaches and nectarines are in stores, but as I look to the West, colder weather and snow are not far behind. I like to make this tart in late summer and early fall when fruits are their peak, but but it also works just as well for fall apples and pears. The...

When I asked fellow crew members to name a quintessential Pan Am dessert, the unanimous answer was Cherries Jubilee. So in honor of those brave men and women who lit Cherries Jubilee fires in first class cabin in 1960′s, I came up with a new Pan Am Cherries Jubilee recipe. This recipe is...

If you’ve been watching the new Pan Am television show, you’ve seen the glamour, great uniforms and destinations like Paris, London and Berlin; the intrigue of the CIA using Pan Am as partner in espionage (yes it happened) and even the liberties that some rude passengers took with crew...

A study released last month by the Breast Cancer Fund showed that Campbell’s Disney Princess and Toy Story Soups contained the highest BPA levels among  12 foods tested. A follow on study in Pediatrics showed that the timing of exposure is significant, young girls exposed to BPA in the...

Finding a calorie-free sweetener to stir in your coffee is not a big deal, there are enough pink, blue, yellow and green packets around to find one that will make do. But for baking, to stir in your favorite cake recipe, not so much. Yes, there are a few options out there that use the stuff in...

I cringe this time of year when I go into a supermarket and see pre-baked pies. You can have your turkey with a pop up timer or those French fried onions on green beans, but a store-bought pie is just wrong. This year, I bartered with a good friend−she gave me pitted Colorado sour cherries...

This the season for cookbooks. But the joy of cooking can often get lost in this star-studded world of celebrity chefs and their best selling cookbooks, written by behind the scenes food writers with the help of molecular-cuisine sous chef working harder than Kris Kringle’s elves and...

It’s been a few months now since the founders of Swerve, a non-calorie, baker-friendly sweetener company, asked me to give their product a try. It’s taken me that long to pin down a chocolate chip cookie recipe that works well enough for public viewing. I started with the basic...

What will beef producers think of next to eek out as much money as they can from the American consumer? While shoppers scrape up enough money to pay for a roof over their head and put food on the table, it’s unsettling to find that every miniscule gram of tissue and tendon is being...

A favorite pastime while living in Italy was to wander through the pottery shops in Vietri. The terraced city that hangs on the hillside is a classroom, where potters learn to steady their hand to form the clay and paint primitive fishes, handsome roosters and purple grape clusters on...

The first week of May in Colorado is a permission slip of sorts to begin thinking seriously about gardening. Though it's not usually safe to plant anything as tender as a tomato plant before Mother's Day, this year is spring barged in early and barred the door to any late snow, so this weekend the planting begins. Seed packets sit on my kitchen counter, full of summer's promise, waiting for black soil and a fresh drink of water.

It's grilling season and you can smell it in the air at dusk. No matter where you live, where your family history is written from or what is in your refrigerator, grilling is the universal friend of summer.

What happens when your child has an allergic reaction at school? Will an adult step in and take action? Other than calling 911, there might be little that can be done. The Asthma and Allergy Foundation (AAFA) is calling for a change in policy that can save children's lives.

This recipe was posted in Denver Life Magazine, January 2012 for a new sweetener, Swerve. It’s an amazing sugar substitute that can be used one-for-one just like sugar. The recipe has been a popular one, so I reposted it here. The cake isn’t entirely guilt-free, but it’s a...