Category: Food & Drink

By Alison Steele Spring can’t help but lure one out with its flowers and trees loaded with blossoms and birds. Finding an adventure in nature has been essential for relaxation now more than ever. With summer just around the corner, a picnic is the perfect way to extend your day outside relaxing in the sun. Whether you’re heading to the… Read More

Recipes from a Mountain Garden By Alison Steele Coming into Spring, the hiking paths are lined with nettles, miner’s lettuce, wild garlic, and  plantain. It’s fun to forage for wild greens, adding nutrients to our bodies when we need it most! Mother Earth knows how to grow mineral rich food even if our gardens are still too shady to grow our… Read More

By Greg Roe and Mike Desmidt How can I make gin at home without a still, you ask? Well, you can skip that part, because someone’s already done the distillation for you. It’s called vodka. Gin is pretty much a vodka with botanicals added. Gin distillers extract most botanical flavors using the distillation process, but you can simply steep the… Read More

By Alison Steele When February comes to an end, I start dreaming of the garden. The collards, kales, lettuces, and herbs are thriving, but the thought of round plump fruits and vegetables keep me pulling my seedbox down and fingering the envelopes of home-saved seeds of summer last. I start to notice the new spring crops in Wild Roots Market…… Read More

Catching up with Emily Thomas of Santa Cruz Mountains Brewing By Greg Roe and Mike Desmidt March is brimming with reasons to celebrate: Women’s History Month, International Women’s Day, and St. Patrick’s Day! Ireland also celebrates the legend of Saint Brigid the Patron Saint of Beer and Brewing. The stories say she was working at a leper colony, and to… Read More

New columnist alert! Alison Steele is on deck bringing us delicious home cooking inspired by her Boulder Creek organic garden. A Virginia transplant from 2003, Alison lives with her husband, two children, and cat in downtown Boulder Creek where she raises quail, chickens, fruit trees, vegetables and herbs. On the weekends she teaches reskilling workshops in her garden including knitting,… Read More

By Mike De Smidt and Greg Roe  One of the reasons we enjoy beer and the process of designing and brewing it are the endless possibilities. Fruit, spices, alternative grains (everything other than the traditional barley), you name it; there’s probably somebody somewhere who has experimented with putting it in a beer. One such experiment that has yielded some truly… Read More