Category: Sustainability

Food, From the Archives, Restaurants, Sustainability

From the Archives … A Tale of Tiffins: One Person’s Doggie Bag is Another City’s Lunch Box

I reposted this in 2019 after the then-new California state law allowing customers to bring their own takeout containers for restaurant leftovers, which I’d been doing this for years thanks to my tiffins! In light of all the discussion about food waste and keeping things out of landfills, it seemed a good time to reach into the archives again. I’ve updated the purchase information below, so … Continue reading From the Archives … A Tale of Tiffins: One Person’s Doggie Bag is Another City’s Lunch Box

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Food, Food Waste, Sustainability

From the Archives … A Tale of Tiffins: One Person’s Doggie Bag is Another City’s Lunch Box

In light of the new California state law allowing customers to bring their own takeout containers for leftovers, I thought I’d reach into the archives for this post I did about tiffins in 2014. Seems I’ve been a renegade doggy-bag scofflaw for several years! I’d never heard of a “tiffin” until I saw them several years ago at Luna Red restaurant in San Luis Obispo. … Continue reading From the Archives … A Tale of Tiffins: One Person’s Doggie Bag is Another City’s Lunch Box

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Food, San Francisco, Sustainability

Celebrating Sustainability at the Good Food Awards

The Good Food Awards (GFA) weekend is a great way to discover some of the best of the best – American food and beverage producers that value a better food system, a healthy environment, and authentic products. Sustainability is a subject near and dear to my heart, and it was encouraging to see all the companies that share that mindset. The intent of this entire effort … Continue reading Celebrating Sustainability at the Good Food Awards

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Seafood, Sustainability, Sustainable Seafood

From the Archives: Dive into Dungeness

(Ed. Note: Since the 2017 Dungeness crab season just opened in the Bay Area on November 15, I thought I’d claw back into my CasaFestiva.com archives and serve up this post from December, 2006. Only minor edits have been made to reflect the date of publication.) About Dungeness crab … crabby factoids … buying crab … some potent potable pairings … For many Central and … Continue reading From the Archives: Dive into Dungeness

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Food, Olives, Sustainability

Planting for Posterity

As you may have heard, we’ve been having quite the kerfuffle in these parts about trees. The short story: that big corporation that owns a big local winery has been playing fast and loose with our native oak trees. In contrast to that, I thought I’d offer up some good news about trees and agriculture. Some news about Kiler Ridge Olive Farm, a local olive … Continue reading Planting for Posterity

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Sustainability

Cook Abalone at Home for a Sustainable WOW Factor!

Every so often, it’s fun to do a chef profile for my Local Flavors column in the Tribune newspaper (San Luis Obispo County, California). I ask the chefs to pick a local and/or seasonal ingredient, explain why and how they’re using it in their menus, and how cooks at home might approach the product. Most recently, Chef Leonard Gentieu of Onboard Nautical Events in Morro … Continue reading Cook Abalone at Home for a Sustainable WOW Factor!

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Restaurants, Sustainability

A Line on Sustainable Seafood in Morro Bay

The original version of this article appeared in my “Local Flavors” column in the Tribune newspaper on April 9, 2015. In light of what recently happened with the West Coast sardine fishery (closed because the population has crashed), this is a look at a fishery that not only came back, but is now rated sustainable by Seafood Watch and the Marine Stewardship Council. This article … Continue reading A Line on Sustainable Seafood in Morro Bay

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Food, Sustainability

Off with Your Heads, Pandalus platyceros!

I’d always been curious about spot prawns, the colorful wigglers I’d see from time to time in the live tank at Pier 46 Seafood Market in Templeton. They seemed at once so ethereal, so primitive, so delicate, and so … sharp! Spot prawns, aka Pandalus platyceros, are technically shrimp, and not even prawns at all. That moniker comes from their reign as the largest member … Continue reading Off with Your Heads, Pandalus platyceros!

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Food, Gleaning, Sustainability

Gleaning the County’s Bounty for the County’s Hungry

Come on, admit it. At some point in your life you’ve exuberantly purchased a six-pack (or two) of zucchini starts in the spring, and six months later your friends and neighbors are fearfully hiding from you because you’re always looking to pawn off zucchini the size of small canoes. Examples of such overabundance exist wherever food is grown – from backyard gardens to large commercial … Continue reading Gleaning the County’s Bounty for the County’s Hungry

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Onion, Sustainability

When Life Gives You Onion Waste … Repurpose it!

There’s a lot of buzz about “sustainability,” but a recent panel discussion on January 23 (the latest event in the lecture series sponsored by Cal Poly’s CAFESCenter for Sustainability) proved that it’s here to stay – not just because it’s better for the planet, but because it can also offer businesses some significant savings to their bottom line. Indeed, one of the three tenets of … Continue reading When Life Gives You Onion Waste … Repurpose it!

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