San Fran

Cowgirl creamery.

Would love to see one of these in GR

San Fran

Gaia Cafe

I have a special place in my heart for The Gaia. Even without meat on the menu owner, Rick Van Dam, has some of the tastiest food in GR. Their buckwheats are the best pancakes in town served with actual maple syrup. The Gaia cookies are addictive. And of course the mean green burrito. The combination of black beans, brown rice, and house made tomatillo sauce is well worth the lack of pork or ground beef.

It was also the first scratch kitchen anyone was foolhardy enough to let me loose in and where I met and worked with Matthew Millar whose better known for cured meats and pork belly than tofu and seitan.

Lots of history in a place that started out in the room that now houses the kitchen and used a wood stove for heat. It's the place that inspired me. It's the place that made me want to cook.

Respect

First puffballs of the season

Puffballs were probably the first mushroom I successfully foraged. They are easy to spot and identify for an inexperienced mycologist too green to dare eat anything that might resemble the deadly Amanita aptly named the, "Death Angel".

Usually fall is the time to keep an eye out for giant puffballs and I have a few spots in the city that hardy ever fail to produce a nice supply. It was truly a mitzvah to find some in June and they made a nice late afternoon snack

I get a sense of pride scrounging around in parks and maybe even your front yard for wild bits of edible goodness. Right about now I expect to find fairy rings and maybe if I'm lucky some milkies.