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Welcome

Welcome to our second annual edition of Edible Austin COOKS! We hope you enjoy reading it with as much pleasure as we had in its creation. We’d like to thank our contributors as well as our story subjects for their hard work and talents shared. You can find full bios and contact information for our contributors, plus many additional recipes and resources online at edibleaustin.com. And please support our advertisers, who make this all possible.

Just Call it Food...

I’d like to address our current national language of food. Since when do basic words such as “food,” “cheese,” “meat” and “produce” need to be modified with words such as “good,” “natural,” “healthy,” “organic” and “whole,” in order to assure us that they are the “real” deal? Without these modifiers, we’re left to wonder if our food is fractured, unhealthy or unnatural. And I don’t believe that I’m alone in noticing the exhaustive use of the words “sustainable” and “responsible” when describing farming and other lifestyle practices that aren’t threatening the health of our people and the planet. Why can’t we start modifying the reverse? Perhaps if we were shopping in the “fake food” aisles or buying food from “irresponsible farms” we’d pause and wonder exactly what we’re ingesting and where we’re investing our food dollars.

Click here to read the rest of Marla Camp's Publishers Note

It must be raining somewhere...

Rain is part of the hydrologic cycle of energy that we call "weather." As water evaporates from the surface of our earth, it must just as assuredly fall, somewhere.

And there are pauses in the cycle. There are dry cycles and wet cycles. But timing is everything when your livelihood depends on water falling back to earth to grow the crops that feed your family and nourish your business when your business is farming. May marked the seventh month of the driest seven-month period on record for Central Texas over the past 150 years. As frustrating as it is to watch the home garden wither and the ants crawling out of the woodwork in search of moisture, nothing can compare to what a farmer goes through in periods of drought. It makes the hard work of farming harder.

What can we do to help our local food producers weather these periods of uncertainty? Buy your food directly from the farms and farmers markets. They need your support and your food dollars more than ever. The berries may be smaller (but no less sweet!) and the peaches may not be as plentiful, but there will be food to buy and it will be delicious.

Bee Local

Now’s the time to order your bees, especially if you have fruit trees that will be blooming soon. Hives can be hosted in school gardens, church gardens, community gardens and, of course, in your own backyard (or your neighbor’s). Local urban farmers are already hip to this. In fact, I'll go as far as saying that it’s the new food trend in Austin. Honey with your home-grown vegetables and eggs?

Be sure to read Marla's publishers note below to read more about her new entry into the world of beekeeping.