Column Good food doesn’t have to be perfect, just real.

When it comes to food, what is perfection?

Is it a perfectly formed pie, free of burnt spots because the crust wasn’t rolled out evenly? Is it a plate covered with the ideal ratio of starches to proteins? Is it an apple free from blemishes?

Whatever “perfection” is when it comes to food, in today’s society, we’re obsessed with it.

With headlines like “Can Science Perfect Food?” we’re often on the search for the things that will make our food better. We want to control all of the variables, be exactly sure what we get out. This article in question discusses Japanese chefs and scientists deconstructing traditional cooking methods to find the best way to prepare foods.

As the article states, “Knowing the science behind a dish reinforces the techniques used to create it. And, in the eyes of this group of scientists and chefs, this science can lead to a more perfect plate of food.”

This is true. To make good food you have to know how it all works, and why certain ingredients interact the way they do.

Cooking and baking is in fact a way of controlling food; you add a little of this and a little of that, and in the end, you create something completely different than what you started with. As the cook, you decide what happens in the kitchen. The zucchinis don’t magically turn themselves into zucchini bread, now do they?

But does a plate of food need to be “perfect”?

Because we always want society’s version of perfect, and as such, we search for control, we so often turn to mechanization. A bread machine that knows exactly what heat and what time the loaf of bread needs. A coffee machine that merely takes the push of a button to pull an espresso shot. A stand mixer that miraculously whips ingredients together.

Standardization, however, isn’t necessarily the indicator of a good thing.

It’s common to hear of good bakers insisting that their staff learn how to perfect breads by hand before turning to the help of machines in order to assist them in producing larger quantities. That’s because machines can’t do everything; you have to feel, smell and learn your way to good food, that in itself is the perfection, not what the end product may or may not look like.

Cooking and baking is an art, but if we get caught up in too many of the technicalities, we’ll quickly lose that art in our own kitchens.  And if we install too many machines that can do things “perfectly” we’ll lose the knowledge that made us culinary masters in the first place.

This idea of perfection doesn’t just apply to the finished product of our cooking efforts. It also applies to the ingredients themselves. Take a look at the produce section of your local grocery store. See any apples with spots on them? See any misshapen vegetables? Of course not, because they don’t sell as well. In an attempt to cut down on food waste, in France a supermarket chain had to launch an advertising campaign to get people buying “ugly” fruits and vegetables.

Good food isn’t perfect. Dinners aren’t always Instagram-worthy, but that doesn’t mean they’re any less delicious. Fruits aren’t always perfectly symmetrical and perfectly colored, that’s what makes them beautiful. Your picnic sandwiches are rarely (if ever) wrapped in paper and twine and a sprig of rosemary.

When it comes to the kitchen, good food is so often about serendipity. A dish is made delicious thanks to the ingredients you have on hand, not because you followed a recipe like a religion. Sometimes it’s more about the imperfections than the perfections.

We should embrace imperfections. We should embrace ugly foods. Why? Because real food is far from perfect. It’s just food. And it keeps us fueled and happy no matter what it looks like.

Related on EcoSalon

Does it Really Matter What You Eat? Foodie Underground

10 Boring Foods That Should Be Trendy: Foodie Underground

10 Haikus About Real Food: Foodie Underground

Image: Jamaila Brinkley

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ColumnIf we don’t have an appreciation for good food, we can’t live a healthy lifestyle.

Last week I devoured a burrito. And when I say devoured, I mean devoured. It was a breakfast burrito, and at the time it was the best breakfast burrito I had ever tasted. Why? It could have been because it had farm fresh eggs, spinach and sunflower sprouts in it, but mostly it was because I had just gone on an 8-mile trail run.

Sometimes the taste of our food doesn’t really have any relation to the actual food, it’s all about how much our body craves it. Whether it’s a burrito, a bowl of granola or a handful of almonds, if you’re hungry, your body craves it, and that makes it tastes exponentially better.

I was discussing this exact concept with my friend Hilary, and she told me about a recent article she had read called “Is Spinning Making You Fat?”

As active women that are hyper-conscious about body image, the influence of the media, and women’s issues in general we sat and fumed about it. As women, we’re now afraid of workouts because they will make us look fat? Note that “fat” in this case means muscular butts and thighs. Apparently not something to aspire to if you are to believe the mass media.

But then it got worse. Hilary pointed out that the article mentioned a celebrity trainer forbid his models from going to spin class because it made them hungry.

Hilary and I fumed some more. I thought about that tasty burrito I had eaten in my activity-induced state of hunger. This got me thinking about the extremes of our relationships to food.

On one end we have the problem of overeating. Mass consumption of processed food that leads to obesity. Then we have the other end of the spectrum, where the eaters are hyper aware of every single nutrient, every single calorie, every single carb. While they seem so very opposite, they are in fact one in the same, both an indicator of a lack of appreciation of food.

We are meant to eat. We are meant to be hungry when we exert energy. Hunger is a natural state of being. Overeating, however, is not, and either is starving yourself, or choosing your activities based upon how well they allow you to avoid hunger.

If we are to live truly healthy lifestyles we have to find a healthy balance. Eating is fun. Good food is delicious, a way to bring people together. Enjoying it, if we are privileged enough to do so, is a part of life. Not allowing ourselves the pleasure of food is as bad as eating too much of it.

While it’s easy to demonize one extreme and idolize the other – we abhor anything that might make us “fat” in the eyes of society, yet we put those people who stick to extreme workout routines on a pedestal – they are exactly the same thing. We can’t demonize real food. Humans eat. Humans look like humans when they live healthy lifestyles, not like stick, thin runway models. Ever tried to live on a diet of cotton balls like some of those models do? Yeah, I didn’t think so.

We have to appreciate food for food’s sake, because being afraid of it is just as detrimental as enjoying it too much. Mindless eating isn’t good for your health or your soul, and either is being on a strict regime of water and diet pills.

Embrace real, good food and a healthy lifestyle. Find balance. And if your thighs get bigger because you’re doing spin workouts or going on trail runs, then get yourself a breakfast burrito as a reward for being a healthy, active individual.

Related on EcoSalon

The Beauty of a Post-Workout Meal: Foodie Underground

The Thigh Gap: An Unfortunate Body Image Trend

Women on Film: Body Snark as Universal Women Speak 

This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

Image: Jonathan Lin

The post Eat Good Food and Don’t Feel Guilty About It: Foodie Underground appeared first on EcoSalon.

ColumnFour years of Foodie Underground means a lot of column writing. Here’s a look back.

Something last week made me go and search for the first Foodie Underground ever written. I remembered that it was around springtime, but couldn’t remembered the month. As it turned out, my first column devoted to my vision of good food was published on April 9, 2010 and it was titled “Amateur is the New Black” – this was back when I liked mysterious headlines. I read through, partly cringing, partly laughing. Reading your own writing from several years ago is a good way to induce these kinds of reactions.

Four years. That’s how long I have been writing this column. Four years, especially in the world of internet, is a long time. It’s like Foodie Underground is a toddler (and nowadays it even has its own website). Mostly well behaved, sometimes a little obnoxious, especially on those deadline days that I feel like I am grasping for a subject. Sometimes I simply feel like I am repeating the same thing I say every week, “Eat real food. Cook your own food. Don’t buy processed. Think about where your food comes from. Be creative in the kitchen.” But eventually it comes together, and the following Monday, it pops up once again.

It has been four years of writing about good food, exploring questions of food politics, all with a good dose of snark here and there. And while a weekly deadline sneaks up on you every single week, it’s a pretty fun thing to write. So in honor of Foodie Underground’s 4th birthday, I figured I would pull together a list of some of my personal favorite columns (in no particular order). A little Foodie Underground retrospective so to say.

I hope you enjoy reading as much as I enjoy writing.

1. Formulating the Foolproof Foodie Menu

Hint: it involves mason jars and beets.

2. The 10 Types of Foodies and What to Do With Them

Because everyone loves defining themselves.

3. Things You Wish You Had Overheard a Foodie Say

“I name all of my fresh eggs before I eat them. I find that when my food has a personal identity I enjoy it more.”

4. Fast Food, Fast Fashion… It’s All About Choice

“If we expect change in the food system, we have to demand it, and that means making a choice every time we eat.”

5. The Summer Bucket List

There’s the 2012 version and the 2013 version.

6. Why Do We Love Markets?

I think I like this one purely for the photos.

7. Everything in Moderation

Including moderation of course.

8. The Beauty of Eating Outdoors

Because eating outside is always better. Always.

9. 50 Pick Up Lines for Scoring a Foodie

“You’re as intoxicating as a home distilled liquor.”

10. The Secret Diary of a Foodie

Dear diary…

This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

The post 4 Years of a Column About Good Food: Foodie Underground appeared first on EcoSalon.

ColumnIs there anything better than all the good food that spring brings us?

Spring represents many things. The end of winter. A time of rebirth. A countdown to summer.

For me, it’s a celebration of good food. Certainly, there is good food to be had all year around, but there is something extra special about spring.

Now is the time when the root vegetables are replaced by more exciting ingredients; a time when every week that you go to the market, a new vegetable that you had almost forgotten about pops up. It’s a time when we come out of our hibernating slumber and shake off the desires of heavy comfort food and start to turn towards fresher dishes. Things start to grow. Fresh herbs come back into our kitchen pots. We start dreaming of dinners outside.

Summer is a time when good weather is a given, when berries and vegetables abound and everything tastes good. Spring is more subtle, a gentle surprise. It comes slowly, certain foods quietly making their way back and into our everyday meals. A radish here, some asparagus there. The culinary cobwebs of winter are dusted off and you experience a new found feeling of inspiration. You want to chop, you want to mix, you want to pull things from the garden.

Spring is a glorious season for food, and it’s a season that begs for simplicity.

Time and time again I come back to my core concept of good food, with good people, from good places. It doesn’t have to be complicated, in fact, most of the time, I don’t even want it to be. When a dish is simple, there’s nothing to hide behind. If the ingredients are bad, then so is the food.

And why make spring food complicated? There are artichokes. There is asparagus. There are leeks. The options are endless, with only a few ingredients. Spring is a time where food preparation doesn’t need to be much more than dusting off the dirt from the ends of the radishes.

Spring is a season where sometimes a dinner table is no more than an open space on the ground. A season where the ray of sunshine shining through the window onto your morning coffee cup feels like the start of something completely new. As the vegetables come back, we too are renewed. Refreshed.

So, if you’ve been considering changing how you eat, now is the time to start. Now is the time to embrace seasonality. Now is the time to start learning about where your food comes from. Now is the time to give up the processed foods. Because spring is the perfect reminder of all the good, natural food that there is around us.

Good food is as close to you as the nearest garden. Somewhere, something is growing. That is the beauty of spring. So make time to go out and celebrate. Go into the season with abandon. Eat well and eat often; spring is begging you to do so.

Related on EcoSalon

Spring into Seasonal Vegetables: Marinated Vegetable Salad

50 Pick Up Lines for Farmers Market

21 Radish Recipes for Spring

This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

Image: Anna Brones

The post Spring, a Season for Good Food: Foodie Underground appeared first on EcoSalon.

ColumnWhat better way to use food, than for good? The Giving Table is a creative way to harness the power of food blogs.

When I discovered the The Giving Table, I knew I had stumbled upon something that was right up my alley.

Those of us that talk, write, and post about food are privileged to be able to do so. While we might be concerned over whether or not cardamom or cinnamon would be a better spice to use (answer: cardamom) most of the world is simply dealing with getting food on the table. As I wrote a few weeks ago, “We have to start to learn how to turn passion for food into a passion for improving the food system, taking the pleasure that we get from eating and transforming it into advocating for real food, not only for the privileged, but for everyone.”

And that is when I came upon The Giving Table, which is attempting to do just that.

Started by Nicole Gulotta, The Giving Table’s tagline is simple: “Doing Good with Food.” Gulotta does that by mobilizing food bloggers and others to participate in social campaigns. Think about all those food blogs and all those food blog readers out there. If you could get them all to put some money towards a good cause, it would be sure to have some impact. Well that’s exactly how Giving Table works. It recently wrapped up a campaign supporting the Lunchbox Fund, an organization who provides daily meals for orphaned and impoverished children in townships and rural areas in South Africa.

I caught up with Gulotta to learn more about the inspiration for The Giving Table, how it works and how she sees the food world changing.

Anna Brones: What inspired you to launch The Giving Table?

Nicole Gulatta: As a food blogger, I was looking for ways to give back in a meaningful way. I started researching nonprofit organizations that worked in the food realm but couldn’t find what I was looking for online, so I created The Giving Table to act as a resource. Over time, it’s evolved into a platform to empower other food bloggers to take action and help improve the food system.

AB: Give us the basics for how it works?

NG: Food bloggers develop content for their websites every day and attract loyal readers through their engaging storytelling and delicious recipes. The Giving Table’s “donate a post” model works in tandem with this content, and fits seamlessly into existing strategies. It’s a regular post with a deeper message. Every post includes three sections—a narrative, a recipe, and a call to action—and guidelines are provided for every campaign so our messaging remains consistent. The day of the event, bloggers help spread the word on social media, and reach out to their networks to join us.

AB: When we talk about “good food” it very quickly gets labeled as a pretentious thing. What can we do to democratize the subject of food?

NG: I think people assume it’s pretentious when they haven’t experienced it for themselves. Eating locally is about building community, supporting regional food economies, and being empowered by cooking for yourself and your family. When you think about food in a local way, it’s a lot more natural than how we function now. Farmers markets offer direct access to growers, rather than the barriers you find in supermarkets with food packaged by companies you know little about, yet control the majority of our food supply. Education tends to work in most sectors when it comes to changing perception. When people are aware of the issues and have tools to positively impact the system (like cooking at home or participating in Meatless Monday, for example), the tides will start to shift.

AB: What are some of your favorite food activism organizations?

NG: Share Our Strength focuses on eliminating childhood hunger in the U.S, which is a silent epidemic gradually coming into the light. There’s a relatively new organization supported by Tom Colicchio called Food Policy Action that rates members of Congress based on how they vote on food policies. It’s amazing to see how your representatives have voted on certain issues. On the animal welfare front, Mercy for Animals and The Humane Society are on the front lines exposing animal abuse and our broken factory farm system.

AB: Who is a food activist that you look up to and why?

NG: Alice Waters is inspiring. She’s created an entire movement to change how we approach food in the classroom, and it all started with one garden in Berkeley.

AB: Let’s say you talk with someone who is passionate about food and wants to start taking steps to make positive change in the food world. What’s the one thing that you suggest they do?

NG: I believe in the power of small changes. Buying a few more organic groceries, incorporating more meatless meals throughout the week, and cooking more at home are all great ways to start making a difference. Over time, what began as a conscious choice (and maybe even a struggle) to change, will feel like second nature. I also think it’s important to find out what’s going on locally and get involved in some way, whether it’s volunteering with a local food organization or getting to know farmers at your weekend market.

AB: Do you feel positive about the future of food politics or not?

NG: I feel mostly positive. Even a few years ago, we weren’t having conversations about GMOs and food labeling and obesity. Now it’s a normal topic of conversation around dinner tables and in the media. People are becoming more interested in what they’re eating, where it came from, and whether or not it’s healthy. Eventually, things will change because consumers demand it.

AB: Favorite thing to make at home?

NG: My standard answer is usually risotto, but lately I’ve been enjoying composing giant salads with a lot of different flavors and textures. Sometimes there’s nothing better.

Related on EcoSalon

10 Remarkable Nonprofits You’ve Never Heard Of

United We Share: Collective Consumption for the Greater Good

Foodie Underground: Kitchen Table Connections

This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

Image: Giving Table

The post Doing Good with Food Blogs — The Giving Table: Foodie Underground appeared first on EcoSalon.

ColumnGood food is a question of real food, even when you’re not at the dinner table.

“Time for a break.”

We had reached the top of Mt. Rose, a 3,000 foot climb in about 3 miles, and there was a perfect rock with a view that was calling our name for our summit snack.

My father pulled out his purple stuff sack, which we had both taken care to properly pack before an early morning departure. Two bags of trail mix, one bag of raw walnuts and dried figs, one stainless steel container of pre-cut fresh peaches, one bag of locally made landjaeger (a semi-dried sausage with European roots that is specifically intended for a hiking snack) and two bars of dark chocolate.

I learned at an early age that trail food didn’t mean sacrificing on good food, and much like my father, I am always known to overload. There will always be a bar of dark chocolate in my pack, and if something unfortunate happens and I am stuck in the wilderness for an unintended amount of time, I will certainly not go hungry.

There is a beauty to eating outdoors, whether you’re on a hike, a long bike ride or multi-day camping trip. Food is simplified, and even the most basic ingredients can feel like luxury.

Some people think eating outside sucks. I think those people don’t know what’s good for them. Just like a post-workout meal tastes better than anything you have ever consumed, trail food can be as simple as an apple and a handful of nuts, but with a good view, you’re eating the most amazing snack you ever invented. Well, as long as dark chocolate is involved.

And while for me, eating good food is simple because I believe in the pleasure of always eating well, it’s also a question of good health. Which is why when it comes to being active, it’s unfortunate that so many opt for processed foods when they are in need of an energy kick. Gels, energy bars, any substance with an electrolytes; in the active sports world we have a tendency towards packaged goods boasting benefits. But are they any better than real food?

“… a lot of the stuff athletes put in their bodies while training and in a race is stuff that wouldn’t be serviceable to eat at home,” nutrition expert and founder of Skratch Labs, Allen Lim told the Denver Post in an article about athletes and nutrition. “Real food is what works best, and the simpler the better.”

While most of us are not high performance, endurance athletes, if we’re active it’s easy to be seduced by the colorful packaging and purported benefits of all the “sports food” out there. But at the end of the day, is sucking down an energy gel instead of eating some honey as bad as going out for fast food?

Probably not, but the sports industry is just as large and complex as the industrial food world, and mass producing huge quantities to ship around the world comes at a cost.

The solution? Just like in every other part of our lives, stick to real food. Make your own energy bars. Drink water, not some neon colored thing said to boost your electrolytes. Eat fresh whenever possible.

And always pack dark chocolate.

Related on EcoSalon:

Fig and Almond Energy Bites

20 Foods to Give You Energy

This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

Image: Anna Brones

The post Real Food is Good Food, Especially on the Trail: Foodie Underground appeared first on EcoSalon.

ColumnIt’s called the “slow food movement” for a reason: good food takes time. 

I had an hour on my hands for lunch. But then one espresso turned into a second, the cafe owner and I waxed ecstatic about Stumptown coffee and craft roast, and soon an hour had turned into an hour and a half. These things happen.

I happen to have that serious affliction where I start talking about food and I can’t stop. Apparently it’s contagious. Get talking to an artisan producer and you could spend the better part of an afternoon in a conversation about the how and why of what they make. Go to the market and you’ll probably end up chatting about how to put your rhubarb to use. Visit a small brewery for a tasting and the brewer could turn into your new best friend.

These are things that don’t happen at your well-equipped supermarket or fast food chain. There is a pace to shopping and eating locally, seasonally and organically. It’s a pace determined by people that love what they do and what they eat and share a common bond with those that believe that good food takes time.

There is no denying that there is a general trend to more authentic food, even fast food companies are working hard to make their food look more natural in order to bring in a clientele that doesn’t want to buy anything that seems too over-processed. Domino’s pizza with a more rustic look, Egg McMuffins with a much less formulaic shape and such. But here’s the clincher: actual natural food will never be fast.

It’s called Slow Food for a reason. Good, real food takes time; on the farm, at the market, in the kitchen and around the table.

There was a time when we lived in harmony with daylight hours and the seasons. When a meal wasn’t a drive-thru away. We ate food only when we prepared it ourselves, and we were healthier because of it. Nowadays we buy a quick snack, eat it on the go, and are so busy checking our email over lunch that we forget what we’re even eating.

This is no way to live.

If we care about what we eat, we have to be willing to engage. Food brings people together after all. We talk, we share, we learn–be it a recipe or a better way to grow basil. If we care about our food, we have to be willing to slow down. To enjoy the moment, even if the moment is as simple as eating an apple and a handful of almonds.

“Not everyone has that kind of time,” you say.

But we have time to watch television, check Facebook, text our friends, and a whole other laundry list of things that inevitably become a time suck. Adding a couple of extra minutes in your day to ask a question about your food, or spend a few more moments enjoying your meal is a good thing. Carve out time everyday to tend to your kitchen herbs and you’ll be all the happier for it. It’s all a way to reconnect to what we’re eating and where our food comes from.

Because, the more natural you want to eat, the more time you are going to have to spend. But don’t worry, it’s time well spent.

This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

Image: Anna Brones

The post Foodie Underground: Good Food Takes Time appeared first on EcoSalon.

ColumnA new year, a new commitment to food and community.

The end of 2012 was a whirlwind. In the world of current affairs, December wasn’t what you would call an uplifting month. It seemed that everything and everyone was in transition, trying to get in one last gasp of air before the end of the year. It was easy to feel overwhelmed. It was on the heels of this that I went to visit my friend Sara for a night of good food and conversation; a night of foodies so to say.

Sara is the kind of friend that immediately upon arrival points and says, “the tea and chocolate is in that cabinet,” upon which you open the pantry door to find a multitude of mason jars with whole grains and more kinds of black tea than a tea shop. In the morning your coffee is already poured. We get along well to say the least.

We had a lot to talk about. New projects and ventures. Recent cooking endeavors. What we wanted for the new year. All those topics that are best had at the end of a long week and over a meal of comfort food.

As her boyfriend cooked up a risotto with green beans and shallots (news flash: risotto is basically an upscale macaroni and cheese, with the same comfort food benefits that you need in the dark of winter), the conversation inevitably turned to politics and community. When you’re making food, it often does.

The environment? Yeah, we need to work on that.

Women’s rights? Yes, more of that too please.

Food justice? Where do we even begin?

When it comes to change, we often look to our political leaders, quickly getting upset when change doesn’t go the way we want it to. We get frustrated when things don’t go our way, upset when tragedy strikes and angry at the current state of affairs. What is the way to change that? Build community. Interact with our friends and neighbors. Help someone who doesn’t have a meal.

Food brings us together, and as Sara pointed out, there’s a true benefit to what she called, “kitchen table connections.”

“It’s not macro or micro, but kitchen table,” she said. This idea of the kitchen table as a place not only for conversation, but for affecting change, stuck with me.

Just like the town hall was once a meeting place and epicenter of community building, maybe in our over digitized, high-paced world, the kitchen table is the place for us to reconnect. Not just a place to think about what we’re eating, but also who we’re eating it with.

So many things in this world are beyond our control. What is in our control? Making our community better. Having perspective. Helping a friend. Celebrating the present. Respecting others. Showing kindness. These are things that we can all do–and we should all be doing more of.

In the new year, it’s time for renewal. A reconnection to living well, but also sharing that with others. For me, the kitchen table is the place to start. A place where we focus not only on food, and where it comes from, but being in the moment and truly connecting with those around us. We eat and we celebrate. We eat and we mourn. We eat and we live. The kitchen table is the hub of life, the place where good ideas begin and plans are put into place.

That’s what the Foodie Underground column is going to be about this year: bringing our attention back to good food, from good places, with good people. Food isn’t just about nutrition and ingredients: it’s an all encompassing experience that activates our senses and forces us to interact. Be it a new food trend or just another way to make a simple meal at home, this year is for thinking about how food ties us to community, and how we can continue to build that momentum to truly affect positive change.

Host a dinner party. Plan a picnic. Take a friend to a local farm for a goat cheese tasting. Whatever you do, remember that food is a catalyst for conversation and community. Let’s do more of it.

So welcome back dear Foodie Underground reader, it’s a new year, and I am excited to get the conversation and kitchen table connections going.

This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

Image: miss.libertine

The post Foodie Underground: Kitchen Table Connections appeared first on EcoSalon.