Spring 2024

SEEING AND BEING

Hi Stardust! So glad you’re here as our patch of the planet angles closer to the sun a.k.a. springtime. One of my favorite books, The Life and Death of Planet Earth (2003), tells the story of our planet as a biography, which enables the authors to weave the very micro to the very macro scale into a summary of how fortunate we are to call this place home.

As Anais Nin put it, “We see the world not as it is, but as we are.” Our modern lifestyles can cause amnesia, so we again dedicate our spring issue to the land. Let’s get back to basics and remember how fresh, wholesome food comes from a magical dance between diverse life-forms—living soils, water, pollinators, and human hustle—happening all around us.

This spring issue brings you timely inspiration for the kitchen, garden, and rubbing elbows with other locally minded folks. For luscious seasonal meals, try chicories raw or cooked, and wander among our many spring recipes online (scan the QR code on page 6). Let your inner child play with edible flowers and any veggies at hand to decorate fragrant, versatile focaccia, recipe compliments of Solare Ristorante. Also, thank you to Myles Mellor for his crossword puzzle and to Barefoot Books and Edible Boston for spring’s Edible Kids section.

On the getting-our-hands-in-the-dirt theme, seed exchange programs around the world offer gardeners access, control, and community by sharing crops well-suited to local growing conditions. And California bumblebees get some much-deserved attention. Besides their amazing coevolution with native plant communities and their help pollinating food crops, they are just so gorgeous.

For springtime excursions, join us in applauding the Lodge at Torrey Pines’ 21st Celebrate the Craft food festival this April and their year-round celebration of local purveyors. Research at the San Diego Botanic Garden connects scientists, Indigenous advisors, and visitors in learning about all that plants offer us. When it’s cocktail time, we offer thoughtful and very botanical options from mixologists and creators.

Giving voice to the land this spring, we share a pledge of awareness and action relating to our region’s first peoples and focus our feature story on San Pasqual Valley, an example of how agriculture and biodiversity can shine together. Continuing our series on San Diego County winemakers, we explore regional AVAs because knowing more will make you want to try these wines.

Did you notice our new back page? It’s been redesigned to make room for a mailing label and eliminates wasteful paper envelopes previously used for subscriber mailed copies. Our partially recycled paper and soy-based ink are two other ways this magazine does business in a planet-conscious way. We appreciate hearing about how you keep these seasonal issues like books. Please consider sharing them with a friend before recycling.

If I could wish for one takeaway from this edition, it would be that we each pause to notice our bodies, senses, cultures, and lifestyle choices in connection to the land we rely on for our well-being. May the earth’s miraculous life force inspire us every day.

Katie Stokes

Publisher and Editor in Chief‍

Edible San Diego

‍