On the Table

Recipe for a special day: Choose a Saturday morning in Fall. Make it sunny and set it at a pleasant temperature. Go to the Arcata Farmers’ Market. Walk around the Plaza until you reach the corner of 9th and H streets. Taste six different variations on the theme of salsa. Vote for your favorite salsa. […]

Images of my mother taking care of me when I was toddler are fleeting but certain. We didn’t have each other for very long, but I remember Brooklyn and shopping with her and my aunt, her kid sister, on 86th Street in Bensonhurst, one of them pushing me in a stroller on sunny mornings as […]

Ahh, the sweet indolent unguence of summer fruits. It is not, per se, summer-like around Mad River Road (I am freezing, the cows are blowing steamy clouds and it’s technically fall), but up in Orleans, around Willow Creek and down in Shively the sun shines on unhindered by shivery fog, and crates of drippy fly-tempting […]

A very special season is upon Jews as it is upon Humboldt County. Just when the cycle that completes the Jewish calendar marks the onset of the High Holy Days, we are dab smack in the middle of our glorious Northern California harvest. The Farmers’ Markets burst with colorful fruits and vegetables, grains and herbs, […]

“There are no seasons in the American supermarket. Now there are tomatoes all year round: grown half way around the world, picked when it was green, and ripened with ethylene gas. Although it looks like a tomato, it’s kind of a notional tomato, I mean, it’s the idea of a tomato.” I heard this passage […]

Step One… I am an addict. I wake up in the morning thinking about where I can get my next tasty fix. Powerless against my cravings, I’ve lost my ability to care about anything but my delicious addiction. My personal life is suffering. My sinuses are destroyed. I’ve abandoned my personal hygiene. My days are […]

“Slow down,” she whisperednow guiding my trembling hands“Turn the key slowly.” Pink tender morselGlistening with salty gelWhat the hell is it? Pink beefy temptressI can no longer remainVegetarian (SPAM haiku collected by Keola Beamer, songwriter and slack-key guitarist)     SPAM, like Coca-Cola, is a uniquely American food. Like Coke, it has a kind of […]

Humboldt County, the power is in your hands. Last week, the Journal posted its categories for our definitive annual reader’s poll, the results of which will be revealed in our asskicking Sept. 2 “Best Of” edition. Reputations are on the line. Winners will gloat. Losers will fade into obscurity… or something. To keep it Humboldty […]

Spam! Spam! Spam! Spam! Lovely spam! Wonderful spam! Spam spa-a-a-a-a-am spam spa-a-a-a-a-am spam. Lovely spam! Lovely spam! Lovely spam! Lovely spam! Spam spam spam spam!             “Spam Song” – from the Monty Python Spam sketch   In 1986 I was given a menu from Mr. Whitekeys’ Fly By Nite Club, a memento from someone who’d […]

Now is the season of chard. And kale, and beet greens and other tough leafy greens that you planted optimistically a few months ago, thinking, “This will be the year I healthfully gag down mountains of green organic fibrous leaf, thereby cleaning my system and giving my skin the glow of both health and smuggery!” […]

HOLY SMOKES I AM SO EXCITED. At long last, a small but profound earthquake has shaken up the candy world, which lo these many years has been mired in increasingly desperate combinations of chocolate and peanut butter. Now don’t get me wrong — I’m a red-blooded American. No one can accuse me of not supporting […]

Oh, strawberries. As the opening day of the Farmers’ Market in Arcata approached in April, so did my anticipation of the first local strawberries of the season. How delicious this time of year can be after a dark, cold winter. Bright red, delicate and sweet, what better way to hail the time of warmth? As […]