Today, we have access to many of these solutions, honed over the centuries to become a glorious cornucopia of colors, flavors, and textures. There’s even a cheese I’ve heard of made from pig’s milk (although they say it is frustratingly inefficient to milk pigs). But finding good cheese that you enjoy isn’t as easy as you’d think, with all the bounty of the San Francisco Bay Area. There’s a rushed feeling at crowded gourmet cheese counters, even with sampling, that tests your decision-making powers. I have an especially hard time really tasting something when I am amidst crying babies or thinking of the rest of my grocery list.  It is nice to get to know cheeses at a slower pace and, incidentally, slowing down to think about the backstory of the cheeses, the sight and smell and feel – not just the taste – is an excellent escapist tactic. Follow me here: when you are rapt in focus of one thing of beauty, there is a distinct vacation-y feel to the moment, when the busy day fades and you are thinking single-pointedly about flavor. Cheese, to me, can be a complete adventure without physically going anywhere.

Janet Fletcher, the Bay Area’s go-to cheese-oholic, could be your ideal guide into the world of cheese if she isn’t already. With multiple James Beard awards for her prolific food writing, and a cheese column in the San Francisco Chronicle going 12 years strong, she has navigated the far corners of the cheese world. She can help make those sometimes intimidating cheese counters make sense. After her latest World Cheese Tour cheese class at Napa’s Fish Story, I feel a heightened command, when it comes to understanding and choosing good cheeses.

I attended the ‘Notable Newbies’ class last week, which featured cheeses that were new creations in the last couple years, mostly in California. I had never heard of Bianchina, but I am now smitten with this delicate, yet pungent-smelling soft goat and cow’s milk cheese from Nicolau Farms in Modesto. We had one of my very favorite burger cheeses, Valley Ford’s epic-ly golden Estero Gold, and also the younger sibling of famed Original Blue, Point Reyes Farmstead’s newer Bay Blue, made with pasteurized milk with a nod to Stilton. The smell of Bay Blue was of honey, and the protein crystals tucked between pockets of indigo-blue made textural magic in my mouth. The out-of-state contenders were a rather rubbery, but honey-scented and meltable ‘Reading’ from Spring Brook Farm in Vermont, and a completely outstanding gold-flecked cheese called ‘Freya’s Wheel,’ which reminded me of studying Norse Myths in fourth grade, from Sarah Marcus in Oregon.

For each cheese, Janet gently reminded us to take our time. Even with the free-flowing vino from Duckhorn, we still needed prodding to slow ourselves down and cover each of the senses. She told stories of the cultures and bacterias that gave each cheese its uniqueness, including anecdotes about the makers and their land, each inextricably connected. There were two bonuses cheeses to boot, one of them the well-established ”Humboldt Fog” that Janet introduced as “the most photographed cheese in history,” for its distinctive line of ash running down its middle.

I went away with cheese confidence, but also a glimpse into the mystery of the cheese-making process. As Janet put it, “the cheese-making mystery is even more complex than that of wine, but there is a parallel. Through a series of decisions about what type of milk, what type of culture and how much, what type of rennet and who much if any, whether or not to cut the curd, whether or not to drain the cheese, alter the pH, dry it, salt it, age it, what temperature to store it at, how humid the storage, whether to wash it and with what, whether to turn it, spray it, mold it, how long to age it if at all, the cheese-maker can create a vast diversity of cheeses.”

Sign up soon for her almost sold-out ‘America the Bountiful’ class, as well as others through September, including a cheese and beer pairing workshop, all held at Fish Story in downtown Napa, at a long Italianate table overlooking the river. Janet is also available to sign her growing collection of cookbooks – I’m currently drooling over her second edition of Fresh from the Farmers Market. There’s a 10% discount extended to participants who want to stay for a light dinner at Fish Story after the cheese class.

1. Beautiful breakfast.

Breakfast in bed can’t be reserved for once a year, oh no! I’m finding myself drawn to simple, yet thoughtful additions to a warm bowl of cereal – something that can surprise your partner, nourish them for the day, and can be easily enjoyed before getting out of the cozy covers. Midweek romance can be the best surprise.

Soak steel-cut oats overnight to reduce cooking time in the a.m., or try something different, like whole grain polenta as a first meal. I’ve been eating a stone-ground red flint version from Community Grains - an Oakland-based grain company - and dressing it up in ways that have delighted my hubby. The winner has been a topping of homemade applesauce and little squares of aged white cheddar, decking out our polenta and amping up the care quotient, an idea I got from a clever foodie friend of mine. It doesn’t have to be over-the-top sugar bomb breakfasts to be special.

2. Toasts are special, no matter what liquid you choose for the job.

Some of the most memorable romantic gestures are those that expose the thoughtfulness of your partner in unexpected ways. My hubby knows that as much as I love tasting champagne, a sip of it is really all I can tolerate and still sleep a restful night. Trust me, love is a restful night’s sleep. His hot pots of chamomile at the right evening moment have been cause for their own celebration, especially when he’s been reading my mind that a soothing drink was called for.

Another thing he does is fancify water. He pours pitchers of filtered water, adding a squeeze of a Meyer lemon from our tree, then letting half the lemon sit in the pitcher for an hour or two before we sit down to dinner. It’s really exciting when we discover together that a little branch of thyme, thrown in at the same time as the lemon gives the water a whole new aura. I’ve enjoyed a canned whole plum from our cellar, a few cloves (tied in cheesecloth), also a half a beet, and a sliver of fresh ginger make for a nice color and flavor. I admit I came up with these combinations – not he – but he loves knowing the things I like that aren’t complicated to replicate. Of course I’m not saying a champagne toast isn’t a nice thing – it’s just that raising a thoughtful toast in honor of your loved one can be done with coffee, hot tea, or some of this infused water. The more toasts the merrier, I say.

3. Classic dinner dates with ambiance.

There’s always a hot new restaurant to try here in the Bay Area, but the classics have stuck around for good reason. They may not be the edgiest places, but the food is good, the service is polished, and the view – well, I love a good view as much as the next person. I’m speaking here of one place in particular – One Market – where this past week I was invited to the 20th anniversary bash.

I’ll always love the place for its fabulous Weekly Beast menu, but I met more than one couple at the fete who had become engaged over One Market meals. Seeing the warm smile of the ever-perservering Bradley Ogden, you can see how he and his veteran chef/partner Mark Domman and team have made the place sing with passion. One of my favorite flavors they have chosen as a key component in their month-long Anniversary Menu: golden-hued trout. There’s the bright ocean variety, sourced from the Tasmanian Sea, and the mellow golden river trout, which comes to the restaurant from Idaho, representing favorite dishes from the 2005 and 2006 menus, respectively. I sampled it perfectly poached atop a plume of silky squash with slightly sweet whole mustard sauce at the party. It is on the menu all February, served for lunch, grilled with chick pea fries, and, as a start to a memorable dinner, prepared lightly smoked with a potato rosti, pastured egg, and pancetta dressing.

The simple classics are sometimes best. It might take some saving up, but their memories are lasting. I’m looking forward to sharing spoonfuls of butterscotch pudding sometime this month, Valentine’s Day or not, hint, hint…

4. Hiking together.

My favorites dates with my hubby are long and meandering hikes. We take breaks for water toasts to take in the view, to smooch, and to appreciate the bounty and variety of nature. There are so many exquisite places to walk in the Bay Area, but perhaps our favorite memories are of Mt. Tamalpias. There are a network of trails to take, but for a day-long adventure, we highly recommend Fern Creek Trail, ending with tea and nosh at Mountain Home Inn. Bring your camera, or at least the one in your mind’s eye.

5. Solitude, fueled by creativity.

The false concept that we need a romantic partner in order to somehow be validated is way out of date. Romantic partnerships are great when there are equal amounts of admiration, loyalty, and commitment, but they are by no means a necessary ingredient in my definition of success. Whether or not you’ve got a Valentine, some of my most insightful and meaningful moments – ones that have fueled my creativity – have been solo. I think healthy partnerships can be strengthened by alone time, too, whatever the venue. My recommendation would be to gift yourself with some quiet time to sit where distractions are limited. It doesn’t have to be some big spiritual quest but a solo quest to the bookstore, the fabric store, a tea house, or a favored vista point. It could also be closing the door to your room and having a moment alone with no aim to be productive.

6. …a trip to the bath house!

I recommend the relaxed and thoughtful state of mind that a trip to one of the many types of spas in the Bay Area can bring. For $20-30 for a day pass, you can take yourself out to an utterly rejuvinating Korean or Russian spa. Try the Korean spas: PSY in San Leandro, Lawrence and Family Medical Health Spa in Santa Clara (I have yet to go to these, but I hear good things, including the word about excellent food served in the rest area), Imperial in San Francisco’s Japantown, which are smaller than those in Los Angeles and the big East Coast cities, but render me just as restored. PSY has a jade room with geodes, where time seems to fly by…

Also, try the Russian spa Banya Archemedes near Indian Basin Shoreline Park (a great place to sit and contemplate afterwards.) You can add scrubs and massages to your day passes, or keep it simple with the variety of hot  tubs, cold plunges, saunas, steam rooms, meditation rooms, healing stone rooms, and more that are available at these places. If you haven’t yet been, I say give it a whirl (pardon the pun). Most of the world’s cultures have realized the wonders of communal bathing and its regenerative powers. Puritan thinking be gone!

If you’ve got a few extra dollars to spend, point your compass north to Freestone, where Osmosis awaits. The unique cedar enzyme baths there have restored my sense of patience and purpose on more than one occasion. Here’s more about it, from a column I used to write for Inside Sonoma.

I hope whatever way you find to celebrate love brings a full year of passion, inner creativity, and self care! I toast to it!

Depending on who you are and what you’ve experienced at Oliveto, the place might signify salumi or roast meats, ignite memories of chef Paul Bertolli before he started Fra Mani, or remind you of your first experience eating an heirloom tomato. It could be the place you got engaged or the place you just had a blissfully lingering night out with friends. Last night it was the host of a memorable family dinner, our table laden with things like precious agnolotti and linzer torte made with locally grown, whole ground flour.

At Oliveto the flour discussion is reaching a fever pitch. It is difficult to imagine that Community Grains, the company Bob founded in an effort to create a local ‘grainshed,’ is getting truly whole grain pastas on grocery shelves and all the while the stocks and stews are brewing for 3-day agnolotti in the restaurant. It makes juggling sound like an exercise in twiddling.

To make a very long story short, Community Grains wants to solve a few problems the Klein’s have noticed in the restaurant and in the greater community. The problems are perhaps best illustrated by a comment that a miller from Certified Foods made to me as we finished off a plateful of completely whole wheat apple pastries and salted chocolate cookies. He said his wife, who is in rice farming, had been called by a UC Davis student on the path to finding the farms that were connected to a single pint on Haine Rice Dream. It took the student and his entire class eight months to retrace the path from farm to food for rice ice cream. Many of the products at the grocery store would require similar diligence to determine their origins.

It is hard to get good flour, but in the process of searching for it they discovered what good flour really is: that which has been milled with the germ and bran intact rather than being separated from the endosperm, which is actually not living cell tissue. Stone-milled flour. I know this because I was recently invited over to the restaurant and found myself in a room of not only food writers but farmers, scientists, bakers, and millers. The dynamic perspectives on this universal food staple made me want to rethink my own kitchen pantry.

Luckily, Community Grain flours, like the Hard White Winter Wheat I’ve been playing around with, can be found on local Bay Area grocery shelves, and are beginning to catch on with Whole Foods. Community Grains pastas are getting better and better with the new Identity Preserved line, which includes a marvelous Fusilli Lunghi. I met the farmer who removed rows of old grape vines in Healdsburg in order to grow Desert King variety wheat. He’s a part of a greater experiment to find out which wheats grow best in which Bay Area micro-climate and which stone-milled flours work best for which uses. Hard Red Winter Wheat isn’t as good for pastry or tea buns, but it can yield an incredible sourdough loaf, for instance.

I encourage you to build sauces around Community Grains pastas, and to use these stone-milled flours in your cooking and baking as much as possible – after all, the simple-starch flours we’ve grown accustomed to are directly indicated for GI tract inflammation and all the health issues that steam from it. This isn’t a dieting or gluten-free issue, but rather represents the greater context around which both obesity and food allergies have arisen. It is a switch in taste, but if handled with enthusiastic openness and willingness to try new recipes, it will be a wonderful transition for you and your family. There are some good-looking recipes on the Community Grains website, as well as tricks from baking master Craig Ponsford, past gold medal winner of the Coupe du Monde de la Boulangerie, he uses exclusively stone-milled flour at his bakery in San Rafael, Ponsford’s Place.

With the Lunar New Year coming up soon, I love resurrecting childhood memories of celebrating with the Tibetan monks whom we often hosted. They were big on sharing plentiful food during this holiday, and the urge has definitely passed to me. I snagged a big bag of Community Grains Hard White Winter Wheat from Monterey Market and have found it works very well for making momos—over-size Tibetan-style dumplings.

Serena’s Momos

Dough
2 cups Hard Winter Wheat Flour from Community Grains
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp baking soda
2/3+ cup warm water (not hot)

Filling
3/4 ground beef or lamb
10 or so fresh shitake mushrooms (or dried and re-constituted)
2 stalks celery with green tops on
oil and butter, about a tablespoon each
fresh ground black pepper
3 TB grated ginger (I recommend using a Microplane)
1 tsp chili paste, or 1 minced, de-seeded hot chili pepper
2 tsp kosher salt
2 scallions, chopped
optional: cilantro or chopped caramelized onions
*basically any combination of herbed and spiced veggies and/or ground meat can be used as a filling. If you don’t use any meat add mashed yam or an egg to keep the filling together. Even though these are far from traditional fillings they are still quite good and fun for experimentation.

Measure out the flour, salt, and baking soda into a large bowl and mix to incorporate. Slowly add the warm water until a dough starts to firm, adding less or more as needed to make a dense dough. If you add too much water and the dough begins to feel slimy add a little more flour. Once a ball is formed, turn out onto a clean counter or stone surface and knead a dozen or so times. Place in a clean plastic bag (I reuse them from other packaging, cleaned and dried, of course) and let rest for 20 minutes to 2 hours, 2 hours if you have the time.

Make the filling by sautéing the celery and mushroom in the oil and butter and add a generous amount of ground pepper. Add half of the salt. Cook until tender and slightly caramelized. Add the ginger and chili paste and stir to combine, then turn off heat and let cool to room temperature. Mix with the raw meat and add the rest of the salt and the chopped scallions and cilantro, if using.

Roll into a snake and cut into 16 even pieces. Roll each piece into a round and place a tablespoon of the filling into the center. Pinch either by pressing into half-moon shapes, or by folding and pinching as if making small pleats. You can also twist the tops in a bun shape. Any matter of folding the momos that doesn’t have any areas where the dough is too balled up will suffice. Folding these is often best taught hands on and gets easier with practice.

Place in a steam basket lined with parchment and work in batches (unless you have a giant steamer!). They take about 12 minutes t cook through, but check doneness by sacrificing one and cutting in half to see. Serve hot with chili paste mixed into some soy sauce, strands of quick-pickled daikon, or straight hot sauce. Make double and triple batches and share with friends.

Seeking a silent moment, I went to Glen Ellen, in the valley between Napa and Sonoma. I skipped the fancy tasting rooms and restaurants that would only have fueled feelings of disconnection that difficult change can sometimes incite. After a weekend of writing from my lodge room, and visiting these special places, I felt I could see the world anew, and once more rejoice in nature’s curious beauty.

Jack London Lodge is clean, affordable, and located right on Sonoma Creek, which is running high and mighty this season. From the hot tub you can watch the tall waters press downstream in an orchestral woosh. They just got new mattresses, so sleeping in was very doable even for this early riser with a lot on her mind.

A booking at Jack London Lodge gives you a $15 credit at Jack London Saloon, just next door. It is one of those bars where the wood is shiny with age, the bartender makes you feel you’re at a family pub in Ireland, and there’s unexpectedly good and comforting food. I think I was the only non-local in there.

Jack London State Historic Park is a pristine place, maintained with the idea of preserving the majestic landscape that mused Jack London. Pay a $10 day fee to support their efforts with the House of Happy Walls Museum, Jack London’s cabin, several other historic structures and a network of trails. You’ll find benches punctuating your walk with mailboxes – just open them up and you’ll find some Jack London to read while you sit in nature. The flora and fauna are abundant and rich, worth taking a moment to breathe in the peaceful surroundings.

Before heading home I checked out the Fremont Diner. The rain kept others away so I had the place to myself, and the hostess served me a homemade cheese biscuit with marmalade her boss made from her backyard quince.

The hills were gilded with rainbows on the drive, more than I’ve ever seen.

Everything was right with the world once again, or at least I felt flexibility returning to me – that feeling that I would be able to face changes with elastic skill. Instead of being focused inwardly I was basking in gratitude for the beauty and grandeur I experience every day. Sometimes hardship can cloud that, but even an hour or two “away” can be an effective reset button, if you can take a day away, even better.

There are views and offbeat attractions to punctuate the drive in the most pleasant and intriguing ways. You can sneak a peak at a yogurt-making operation, take a “bath” in cedar wood shavings, or pull over around every corner to snap a shot of the latest jaw-dropping panorama. I’m always glad to ride co-pilot so I can spot hawks and raptors on their telephone pole outposts.

Last week my husband and I were winding our way up the coast to Gualala. He was driving and made an unexpected stop just before we pushed the odometer its last clicks to our destination. He’s usually not so spontaneous, so I was curious what could be so alluring as to override his nature. It was the Sea Ranch Chapel, a unique hobbit-house of a structure that serves as a non denominational prayer space. It is open to the public provided a private event in not in progress. Even after sitting for several hours in the car, a quiet perch inside the chapel was a welcome moment to envision peace for all. My husband used to stop here on family trips when he was little.

James Hubble was responsible for the sculptural space including the outside fountain and the faceted stained glass panels. You can make a small donation for the chapel’s upkeep while inside, but it is not mandatory. Here are directions to the chapel from SF, Petaluma, or Fort Bragg.

I’m counting on curative effects – the undying passion that these winemakers portray, even after the hectic weeks of crush will hopefully rub off on me. Also, a day away to reset my mind will help bring focus back to more serious matters. There’s only so far worrying and biting my nails can go. All I can really do to help is donate to Red Cross.

Wine Road couldn’t be a better spot for unwinding with a local bent and gourmet flair.

There are a huge number of highlights, I’ll name a few:

- Anything Medlock Ames, their biodynamic wines are hard to surpass. This weekend they’re serving a chocolate cupcake covered with salted caramel and a red wine drizzle.

- Quivira, another biodynamic winery (who just so happens to be the source of one of my favorite summer rosés), is highlighting a historic Sonoma artisan, Vella Cheese Company. Try Vella’s dry jack with zinfandel-braised pork.

- Gustafson is tucked away along Skaggs Spring Road, but the trip is well worth the vino, the view and the anticipated crab salad. Crab season does open today, so why not celebrate?

- I’m looking forward to trying J. Rickards Winery, too, a new one for me.

- And I’ll head to Local’s Tasting Room, too, unless slips through my fingers. It’s a good hub, plus they’re serving oxtails.

I feel like getting humane, tasty, environmentally-balanced, socially responsible food is even more complicated than eating Kosher or, vegan, or gluten-free. As I said in my previous beef post, eating should be an enjoyable enterprise, not an SAT retest. However, I believe that there are more of us who see it as a worthwhile endeavor, and want to make decisions about what we eat that are good for our health, the health of the animal and farmer, and the world that will be inherited by our grandchildren. I think it is fun to discover the honey holes of sustainable food; it certainly is a great excuse to go gallivanting! Luckily there are a lot of “sustainable” foods. It’s not just happening in the Bay Area, either: look at New Hampshire. Search around online and in person and you’ll find good food people in every state of the nation.

Here are a few points that might help you thoughtful eaters out there, and hopefully help the future of our food supply, too.

What: Labels can further confuse buyers these days. There are a few that have meaning, but many are marketing terms, like Niman Ranch’s “Natural Meat” slogan. Oh, you don’t add MSG? Thanks. It is feed-lot beef. Almost all beef cattle in America are started on pasture and “grain finished,” which, in 9.8 out of 10 cases means feed lots. Look for these certifiable labels: Food Alliance Certified, Certified Humane, Animal Welfare Approved, American Grassfed, USDA Grassfed (some ranchers I’ve met see loopholes in this one), and various Organic certifications like the USDA and others (which has nothing to do with animal welfare, “free range”, or grass-fed, however). In general, look for meat from individual ranches that are all about transparency - like this - chances are that ranches who are not up front about their practices have something to hide. Knowing your farmer is always nice, some of them invite you to cool ranch parties if you’re lucky!

When: Beef is seasonal. Stick to stews in the dead of winter. Don’t eat chicken or eggs between mid-November and March unless you raise Chantecler chickens that are cool with cool weather. No big farms I know of raise these awesome birds, but one day I hope I will. Unless you are in the very few places in the world that have green spring grass 12 months of the year (parts of New Zealand, Scotland, and Southern Oregon), stick to eating lamb in the spring. Change is hard, but hey, change is constant. Eating corn-fed T-bones in December is not an awesome idea. Neither is eating mealy tomatoes in the winter that were picked half a world away when they were literally white. Each season is rich with yummy things to eat, but not everything can be eaten all of the time in every part of the world.

Where: In addition to my previous list of Bay Area beef purveyors, I must add 4505 Meats, and a few more Meat CSAs, and, of course, restaurants: True Grass Farms in Valley Ford raises Wagyu cattle and now that the Petaluma slaughterhouse accepts pigs, they are raising happy black hogs, too; Bay Area Meat CSA works with a few awesome ranchers and is right here in Oakland; Sonoma County Meat Buying Club is great for North Bay folks; Clark Summit Farm in Marin has a number of drop off locations and give their pigs a treat of organic whey from nearby Cowgirl Creamery. As for restaurants, a few to recommend run from high end Flour and Water or Chez Panisse to a deli with a take-out counter like Saul’s. A complete list is, well, complicated, because many restaurants that serve some grassfed beef don’t serve exclusively grassfed beef, and other meats that are sustainable. Most of the restaurants in my guidebooks serve some or all sustainable meat. Take a tour with Edible Excursions to taste the delicious side of sustainability. I’ll work on a more complete list, for but now, go to my previous post, and, if you haven’t been to Oliveto, go. There’s a cafe downstairs that is very affordable, and even the upstairs is along the lines of the prices at the Cheesecake Factory above Macy’s where people wrongly think they’ll get a good meal. Oliveto is an amazing restaurant that thinks about the ingredients and the farmers behind each delectable dish. They’ve even started a grain company to bring back heritage wheats and corns.

A few other key points, in no particular order:

-Slaughterhouses are not a danger to your community.

They are not feed lots! They are smaller than most grocery stores, and they are good for your community. They make a local meat system more possible. All ranchers need are more local slaughterhouses, and the USDA’s support getting approvals and inspectors. We, the people need to help these efforts along by giving our support to those ranchers who are patient and bold enough to be working toward making these more local. Kathryn Quanbeck, in Ukiah, was met with a lot of community confusion and downright angst when she laid out plans for a local slaughterhouse there. Finally, she’s got some common sense support. (Currently, cattle raised in Northern California must be trucked to Petaluma, or more often Fresno for slaughter. Some ranches must truck cattle hundreds of miles).  There are actually thousands of grazing acres in the East Bay Regional Parks used for breeding operations, but if there were a longer water cycle here, and if somehow East Bay folks allowed for a small, clean, slaughter house to be erected, we could have an uber-local meat source. Remember, this is land that cannot be used for traditional agriculture. In fact, land must be rested every so often, and raising animals on that resting land improves soil health as long as there are not lots of factory farms or antibiotics involved. (Or GMO alfalfa, but that is for another post. All I’ll say here is please vote for GMO labeling no matter what you think of GMO’s; it is a good thing to know before you eat. It is a really good thing to have labeled, like 22 other countries do. Your vote doesn’t mean NO GMO, it means LABELED GMOs… Monsanto’s lawyers scared off Vermont and Conneticut from keeping it on their ballots so it’s down to us California voters to set a precedent in this country.) Raising cattle or other livestock and agronomy go hand in hand; beef does not have to be contributing to deforestation or habitat loss. If there were more local slaughterhouses, there would be more local ranchers able to farm sustainably across the country, and agriculture would benefit.

-Meat is seasonal, or rather, it should be seasonal.

Cattle eat different things at different times of year if they are allowed to fulfill their instincts as roaming, 4-stomached grazers. In the summer and fall, grasses are dry and seedy. As Monica at Local Butcher Shop says, “it’s like the cattle are on a spaghetti diet.” There’s lots of fat marbeling and back fat, so this is the time for quick-cooking cuts, T-bone steaks and grilling. In the winter, the same animals will be much lighter, since the grasses are green and filled with water. That’s the time for stew and slow braising.

-There are tons of types of cattle, and genetics are important. Biodiversity isn’t just a cool gourmet thing.

My favorite types of cattle are Ancient White Park and American Highland, two breeds that represent hundreds of years of selective breeding and carefully considered decisions. There are dozens of other great breeds, too, like Prather Ranch’s Herefords. (I was born to be a farmer, and will one day find my way out of the city and onto a ranch…) These breeds have strong genetics, which mean they can survive well in their environments and don’t need heavy medication just to stay alive, as many of the breeds at factory-style farms do. The Highlands are even fine in the snow! We need many types of cattle so we can have a local beef system everywhere. There are types that like the dessert, types for mountains, types that are better foragers… Depending on the rancher’s experience and the kind of land and climate at their ranch, they can choose a breed that suites their area. Look at all these other heritage breeds, here.

-Being a rancher is tough business.

Especially if you want to do things in a way that is balanced. If you raise these hearty heritage cattle breeds, assuming you have all the land you need and water, etc., the slaughter houses charge you penalties for animals that are over or under their desired size. That’s one of the key reasons why there are so many special breeds that are critical or threatened. When we eaters sit down to a steak, we’re not thinking about the extra $400 it cost the rancher to slaughter this animal because it was a different shape. It costs about ten times the amount to slaughter a grass-fed animal as it does a feedlot animal when all is said and done, according to Mac Magruder, who sells his animals to Oliveto, Golden Gate Meats, and others. It has been a great detriment to our food system to have products too streamlined. Nature is not uniform and our current food distribution system has tried its utmost to make it that way. It hasn’t been healthy for us, the animals, or the land.

-Labels are confusing.

Organic means that the cattle were fed organic feed (feed that was not treated with pesticides), and were not given antibiotics. This can be, and in most cases is, feed lot beef. Organic does not mean “humane,” but there are some definitive reasons why organic labeling is important. As some ranchers I’ve talked to thus far have told me, the certification is more relevant to produce farming and the dairy industry, especially when they have hundred of acres of pasture land that then must expensively be certified organic. Humanely-Raised is a hard certification to get, but probably the best one to look for. It means the cattle weren’t ever in a feed lot, weren’t fed corn (which they can’t properly digest and makes them sick), and were slaughtered with specific, low-stress techniques. ”Grass-fed, corn finished” is pretty meaningless – practically all cattle that end up on a feed lot spend their first year on pasture eating grasses, meat destined for McDonald’s burgers and Niman Ranch alike. In fact, Bill Niman has no ties with Niman Ranch beef, which is fed corn for 100+ days. “Fresh,” “natural,” and other vagaries are completely meaningless. They are marketing terms.

Basically, buying beef that is raised by conscious farmers,  fed things that don’t make them sick, that are never in feed lots, that are slaughtered in a humane-as-possible way is doable. Think of it as an exciting and delicious adventure. You certainly don’t need to eat beef every day, but eating this kind of beef will help turn around the system and make it more possible for harmonious beef to be accessible to more people.

“Wine is a lifestyle,” Kerry told me, confirming the overlap in winemaking between observing both nature and society. His job includes doing articulate surveys of geography and making critical conclusions about the market. It’s a uniquely character-driven process, where big egos tend to leave residue in the glass. Kerry’s job is to help direct the personality of the winemakers who hire him, so that he can help them craft a fluid narrative no matter what the crop is doing in a given year. He links winemakers more closely to their land and the fruit it produces.

In an ideal harvest, the winemaker will need to do very little to transfer the grapes and a sense of place into the finished wine. He can disappear, so to speak, as a conveyor of the terroir. In mixed harvests, which are more prevalent now that so much Northern California soil has been mono-cropped with grapes for generations, the winemaker has to reveal his or her clever side. Kerry’s vast experience has led him to be a sort of handyman-detective-philosopher of wine, and I’ve heard him referred to as the “wine doctor” more than once. His forward-thinking ideas, grounded common sense, and keen fascination with the subtleties in each step of the process have helped dozens of wineries in the area, and also internationally.  He’s working on bringing good winemaking techniques to India, currently.

It’s never been especially tasty to imagine all the toil that goes on behind our plate, I’ve even heard you don’t digest as well if you are upset or distracted will dining.  But this does not mean that ignorance is bliss. In celebrating delicious foods, there must be some pause given in the name of longevity. Although the industrialization of food originally brought many benefits, I have yet to meet someone who thinks the system is honky dory today. GMO seed farmers, dairy ranchers, urban farmers… the cross section of food folks I’ve talked to all seem to be saying the same thing, that the future of food and farming is in jeopardy.

There’s hope in new ideas where distribution is more localized and pricing done in a way that allows farmers the room for a “healthy measure of inefficiency” necessary for long term sustainability. But few people are aware that the antibiotics given to animals to enable a life in a multi-story box aren’t filtered out of the watershed, that herbicides like atrazine, a potent carcinogen, are still used widely even though the town where it is manufactured is one of the worst superfund sites in the Midwest, and that genetic diversity – the key to disease resistance and crop specialization for varied environments – has waned by staggering numbers in the past century. Here’s one studied National Geographic photographer’s talk about heirlooms and the loss of species. Corn, which pollinates by wind, is especially threatened. If you don’t believe me, read more about the ancient varieties of corn being contaminated by GMO strains.

Yes, its a bummer to talk about. Not so-called “dinner table conversation,” but it also can’t be ignored. I think a great place to start refining personal ideas of eating is around beef. There are slews of folks who have decided not to eat it at all because it requires too many resources, but I’m talking to the folks who still believe in good beef.

Just what constitutes good beef, though?  Doug Stonebreaker of Prather Ranch Meat Co. sells beef from Shasta’s Prather Ranch, a closed herd where ranchers are veritable cowboys and cattle rove open grassy planes, fulfilling their inherited behaviors. This way there is little or no need for medication or dietary supplements to ensure a healthy herd, and with a little organic barley enhancing the food at the height of maturity the fat marbling is consistent, ensuring a tasty end result. Temple Grandin’s insights are put to use every day at Prather Ranch. (I’m looking forward to visiting soon and sitting down for a podcast, too!)

Local Butcher Shop in Berkeley is a leader in offering “good” meat to the community, only selling beef that is raised and slaughtered within 150 miles of the shop and fed grasses from the same land. They offer transparency at every step of the process.

There are a number of other resources for beef that are given more consideration than the lot farms you pass driving down the 5, but there are considerable obstacles in the economics of it, lack of social pressures, and plain old confusion. Eating consciously has become an intellectual pursuit, and sometimes we just want to sit down to dinner.

The folks at Oliveto are hosting panel discussions to clarify some of these confusions, and making them accessible to pretty much anyone with $10 to spare. Come out Saturday, September 8th for the panel on beef, and again on the 16th for a similarly in-depth discussion about tomatoes.

I can say that even with all I’ve seen and heard about the future of food, a good recipe is still a good recipe. A table of glowing faces sharing a meal is still a miraculous joy. We do the best we can, but armed with a little knowledge and understanding we can eat better, for the long term future of food.

Here’s a little shopping guide for the Bay Area with butchers where it is encouraged to ask questions about your meat before you buy:

Avedano’s – local butcher, also homemade brisket and sandwiches, 235 Cortland St., SF
Prather Ranch Meat Co. – unparalleled beef raised with the future of food in mind, SF Ferry Building and more
Star Grocery – independent butcher in the back of the shop will chat while serving you, 3068 Claremont Ave, Berkeley
Ver Brugge – friendliest place to buy meat, almost all local, another chatty place, 6321 College Ave, Oakland
Local Butcher Shop – strictest standards, supplies Chez Panisse and Flour and Water, 1600 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley
Marin Sun Farms – sustainable practices are put into action right in our backyard, Pt. Reyes, Oakland, Meat CSA and more
Fatted Calf – take a whole animal butchery class or learn to cure meat, 320 Fell St., SF, and Napa
Golden Gate Meat Company – one of the leading suppliers of better restaurants, SF Ferry Building
Little City Market – old school family operation, dozens of homemade sausages, 1400 Stockton St., SF

This fertile stretch of land comprises the cities of Livermore, Pleasanton, Sunol, Dublin, San Ramon, Danville and the eastern edge of Castro Valley. It’s a huge span that gets rustic and rural just a few minutes from the main thoroughfares. Many people driving through, like my vinophile friend who attended the annual Taste of Terroir event with me last week, don’t know much more of the area than what they’ve seen from the highway.

Then there’s my father’s take on the area, which he ties to Concannon and Wente. Back in the early 70’s they were two of only a handful of reputable American wineries together with places like BV and Inglenook in neighboring valleys. (I’ve recently been flipping through his wine notes from back in the day – what a different perspective!)

Livermore Valley is home to one-hundred-year-old Mission olive trees, but wasn’t consistently cultivated for agriculture in its more recent history. Now measures have been taken to reserve land for growing wine and olives and many varieties of sun-loving produce once more. Earlier this year, a drought tolerant Demonstration Garden Trail was dedicated.

You’ll find dozens of fine wineries, an array of worthwhile restaurants, and plenty of farms to pick the best corn and cherries of the season.

Here are my favorite summertime tastes of Livermore Valley:

Wente Vineyards – Some people know, others don’t, but if you haven’t visited Wente Vineyards you’re missing a fantastic experience. The Wente’s still run this keystone company. Special cave tastings include smelling butter, melons, apples, spices, and other flavor notes while tasting wines to enhance your understanding of their famous chardonnays. You can also visit for a meal at their stellar restaurant – one of the best winery restaurants in Northern California – for a concert, or to stroll around the grounds which are planted with crops destined with the kitchen. Karl Wente’s Nth Degree line is particularly rich in personality, and in addition to a handful of awards and 90+ point ratings, was titled Most Innovative Pairing at Taste of Terroir, together with the Restaurant at Wente Vineyard’s delicious lamb sausage bite, smothered with an curry barbecue sauce that made me want to run home and try to make some myself. Not to go on and on about awards, but Wine Enthusiast designated the Wente Estate Winery of the Year for 2011. I’m definitely not the only one who’s impressed. 5050 Arroyo Road, Livermore, 925.456.2400

Niles Pie Company pies made with fruit from Terra Bella Family Farms – If you’re not a local and able to pick up your weekly Terra Bella CSA box in Pleasanton, these pies are a tremendous way to taste the bounty of this special family farm. Terra Bella grows some of the best farmed tomatoes I’ve ever tasted. Seek them out whenever possible – they frequent several farmers markets. Niles is one of my favorite tiny towns of the Bay Area, where these pies are made from scratch. Various pick-up locations, 510.789.0393

Darcie Kent Petite Syrah – A lovely version of one of Livermore Valley’s signature grapes. Taste inside her Wine Gallery on the grounds of Concannon Vineyards where you can see her paintings of the single estate vineyards from which she sources grapes. 4590 Tesla Road, Livermore, 925.583.1552

Double Barrel Wine Bar – A welcoming place to sample wines by the glass and nosh on a bowl of steamed manilla clams. Not exclusively local, but great options to taste things that are hard or even impossible to buy. The Steven Kent Cabernet Sauvingon can be hard to get your hands on, and although it’s not from Livermore, it is cool to see Sean Thackrey wines on their list. (He’s a uber-small lot producer of cult fame from Marin.) Wood Family Cabernet Franc is another local pour. Their cocoa-rubbed pork belly on a potato gaufrette made to pair with McGrail Vineyard’s Cabernet Reserve was my favorite bite at Taste of Terroir, and was also named the Judges’ Best Pairing. 2086 1st Street, Livermore, 925.243.9463

Steven Kent – Not to be confused with Darcie Kent. This is his middle name – since wine giant Gallo owns Mirassou, his last name, he can’t use it on his own wine. The Mirassou Family are one of the valley’s wine royalty, having made wine here for a handful of generations. His top end wines, especially Cabernet Sauvignon, demonstrate his uncanny finesse. You have to buy 6 bottles at a time for most of these vintages, but you can arrange a tasting in the Reserve Room and sample the goods with one of the knowledgeable winery hosts. The 2009 Premier Cabernet poured at Taste of Terroir garnered the People’s Choice Award. 5443 Tesla Road, Livermore Valley, 925.243.6440

Les Chenes Estate Vineyards – Visiting the Dixons and their family winery is always a treat, especially on a lazy summer day. In front of the tasting room Candice shows her prowess for rose gardening, employing a gravity-driven watering system used at Lincoln’s Monticello. With his science background and the couples’ years of growing grapes where ever they lived, Les Chenes reasonably-priced wines are exciting to taste. There’s a great diversity of styles at play, you can try opposite ends of the red scale from Primitivo and Mourvedre Rose. I love the vinegar I had on a trip last year made on the estate, and several handmade mustards tempt the picnic basket. This is an easy place to linger. 5562 Victoria Lane, Livermore, 925.373.1662

Frog Hollow Farms – Always has something growing, but the world pays special attention to Farmer Al’s peaches, cherries, and Warren pears because they are just that outstanding. Each peach tree gets its own special treatment so the right amount of fruit of coaxed to ripeness – that means butressing branches and thinning young peaches, just a couple of the considerations. Tarts and jams and dried fruits made on the farm make standout gifts, but if you see any upcoming chances to visit the farm, take it. You can the goods online, in their Happy Child CSA box, and at local farmers markets, otherwise. 11435 Brentwood Boulevard, Brentwood, 925.634.2845

Organic Corn at Dwelley and Smith Family Farms – Really these should be separate entries, and both farms do much more than grow corn. But right now is the height of corn season and the sweet cobs I’ve been getting from these guys are having me munch on an ear sans cooking. Before I can even get to making dinner. So seek out Brentwood corn from these passionate organic farms is you can before the summer wanes. None of the corn varieties on either farm are genetically modified or designed to resist chemical pesticides. Most corn we eat these days is, as hard as it is to believe. I can’t resist tangentially mentioning that all those things we eat with maltodextrin, and many of those other modified starches and sweeteners come from that nasty, unpredictable GMO corn. I’m trying to make it habit to know I am eating corn when I am eating corn, which is actually not the easiest task… Brentwood is good corn central. And Smith is now doing Friday morning farm tours! Dwelley Farm: 515 Delta Road, Oakley, 925.634.6508, Smith Family Farm: 4400 Sellers Avenue, Brentwood, 925.625.5966

Unlike most Northern California Wine Country guidebooks, I included Livermore and Suisun Valleys in addition to the more famous counties, and you’ll find plenty more things to do and taste in Livermore in my wine country book.