Did you start the new year with a wish to eat more vegetables? If not, you still have time to make one. Either way, here’s my suggestion on how to put such aspiration into practice: a vegetable-rich soup. Winter weather in its various versions of rainy and cold is an invitation to have a pot […]
Simona Carini
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Imagine Possibilities. Keep Them Real.
Do you already have a wish for your outdoor activities in 2026? In this column three years ago, I proposed to toss the word “resolution” in favor of “wish” (“Make a Wish Instead of a Resolution,” Jan. 5, 2023). While both require some work on our part, making a wish offers a more positive perspective. […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Summer Abundance
I have a pretty good sense of how much produce I can eat, which usually prevents me from going overboard, but sometimes doesn’t, particularly in the summer. When market stalls and farmstands overflow with an abundance of colorful, flavorful vegetables and fruit, restraint remains parked outside. I often have a surfeit of zucchini or summer […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Riding All the Way
Three years ago, when I wrote about cycling from the Crannell Road exit of U.S. Highway 101 to the end of the Humboldt Bay Trail (“Cycling Along the Water,” March 10, 2022), I was not optimistic about being able to ride past the “End of Trail” sign in the foreseeable future. It wasn’t because I […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Versatile Dark Leafy Greens, 2025 Edition
Today I continue an informal tradition I seem to have established in recent years: celebrating Earth Day with a recipe that uses dark leafy greens, which are nutritious and overall good for our bodies. In 2022, I argued in favor of consuming radish greens, overlooked in favor of the colorful, spicy roots and often discarded […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Winter Squash and Beans for the Season
As we open the calendar to the January page, we may wish to pay more attention to the food we eat and how we nourish our bodies. Then, as the month goes on, our daily to-do lists get longer and such wishes are pushed aside. When life gets complicated, sometimes summoning the energy to plan […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Don’t Worry, Be Walking
Have you ever had a day when everything you touch ends up broken, materially or metaphorically? Your favorite mug slips from your grasp and shatters on the floor. You open the dishwasher at the end of its cycle and find a moving piece detached. Someone misunderstands a word you say and a pleasant conversation turns […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Fall in the Redwoods
As days get shorter, I get more eager to spend time outdoors. In September, I hiked in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park on the James Irvine Trail to Fern Canyon and back via Gold Bluffs Road and the Miners’ Ridge Trail. It is almost a loop, as Miners’ Ridge merges into James Irvine less than […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Endless Zucchini is All Right by Me
Like every year, I planted a few zucchini starters at the beginning of summer. Like every year, I mismanaged the plants and harvested nothing. An exuberant growth of leaf lettuce and arugula provided consolation — and large salads. Fortunately, zucchini and summer squash have been plentiful at farmers markets and farm stands around the county, […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Summer in a Condiment
I hope you are relishing tomatoes in all their glorious varieties, from sun-sweetened cherry tomatoes to larger, juicy heirloom ones. Every year, I imagine the arrival of tomato season as a northward migration. I ate the first tomatoes in mid-April during a visit to Los Osos, in San Luis Obispo County. There is a lovely […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Hiking in the Headwaters Forest Reserve
On a Sunday in early June, my friend Lissa and I planned to hike the Headwaters Forest Reserve’s Elk River Trail, about 10.5 miles. At the time, I didn’t realize our timing was perfect, as this year marks the 7,472-acre reserve’s 25th anniversary. It was established in 1999, after a decade-long effort to protect the […]
Posted inEat + Drink
More than a Farmstand
The first time I drove along Hiller Road looking for the Sea Goat Farmstand (1450 Hiller Road), finally parking near its sign, what I saw reminded me of a fireworks booth, one of the plywood structures that seem to materialize overnight in the days leading up to the Fourth of July. Upon approaching it, I saw fresh produce neatly arranged […]