Who loves avocados?

Avocados, those delicious sources of protein, vitamins, and "healthy" fat, are getting a moment in the sun.

The East Bay Avocado: Invisible No Longer

Big thanks to Cameron and Sarah and their avocado tree in the Mission neighborhood of San Francisco, the main reason I was included in this article by Jillian Steinberger.

And apart from the author missing the fact that I did NOT start Shareable (though I will be writing for them), and that those mo foods recipes were actually from Jae Brim, it's a pretty good article. Also, photo credit to Enki Andrews should have been included.

Look for the paper version (Edible East Bay) in stands.

Cottage Food Operation

The new California Cottage Food Law went into effect January 1, 2013, allowing small businesses like mo foods to make certain value-added products in home kitchens and legally sell them to consumers. Finally!

Check out the California Department of Public Health website for more details, such as which food products are considered safe, how much permits will cost, and where vendors can sell their deliciousness.

Even though mo foods has stopped producing, we fully support this effort to bring more home-made tastiness to the world, and to give small food businesses the chance they need to connect with their customers. Bravo, California, bravo.

Lemon seedling starters

Though this post has absolutely nothing to do with business or sharing, it does cover reducing waste, and is so adorable I had to propagate it (pun intended).

Egg cartons make great seedling starters because they're free, biodegradable, and tidy, but using left-over lemon peel halves is just as good, if not better looking. You can also use egg shells, which will be a little smaller, or rolled newspapers to choose your own size.

Kudos to apartmenttherapy.com for the idea.

New Taste Marketplace is back!

Yup, Elianna Friedman handed the reins over to Michael Davidson (the Grilled Cheez Guy) and he has put together a stellar line-up of vendors for the next New Taste Marketplace on June 23.

We'll be there too, selling some of our tasty preserves and giving out information to vendors on Share | Kitchen and other options for accessing commercial kitchen space in San Francisco.

This event is going to go all day and then transition into Behind the Cart at 6:30. Plus it's Pride Weekend! Save your energy because you'll need it this weekend. :)

mo foods partners with Koutáli

We were pleased to contribute our Spicy Pickled Oranges to Koutáli's inaugural event, 25. An Unconventional Feast last month. And we're excited to see the interesting classes they're offering next, from coffee brewing and wine tasting to making cupcakes--yum! We're also honored to be highlighted on their blog this month, and look forward to seeing what other collaborations emerge. Keep your eyes on Koutáli because they're smart and they like to eat well!

Is junk food really cheaper than healthy food?

Mark Bittman of the NY Times has written an excellent article contradicting the notion that junk food is cheaper than healthy food.  Slow Food's recent $5 challenge and the corresponding abundance of delicious $5-10 meal recipes they continue to post also serve to dismantle this claim.  Bittman goes even further, quoting Marion Nestle to point out that the problem is less about eating junk food, and more about not cooking for ourselves.

Bittman is relentless in tackling the barriers to eating well:  food deserts; lack of time (spent watching television instead, for example); thinking of cooking as "work"; the addictiveness of hyperprocessed food; ubiquity of fast-food restaurants (5-to-1 ratio of fast-food outlets to supermarkets), aka "food swamps".

The conclusion is that changes need to happen at the cultural and political levels.  Organizations like Cooking Matters and Fresh Approach work with families and communities, combining education, incentives, and outreach.  Politically, we need to pay attention to the powerful marketing by the fast-food industry, and start to understand the effects of US farm subsidies on our overall agricultural system.

Kudos to Bittman and the NY Times for a great analysis of many of the issues contributing to healthy food access.  At Share | Kitchen, we plan to offer workshops discussing these very topics.  Stay tuned!

Share | Kitchen

If you have been following our active Twitter stream, you'll know by now that mo foods is evolving.  Our adventures this past year have led us from tapping our local resources to create tasty products, towards becoming one of those very resources for the greater SF Bay Area food community.  In our search for a commercial kitchen with which to expand mo foods and legally sell at the underground markets (SF Underground and New Taste Marketplace), we realized that there currently just aren't very many options.

We'll give a hearty shout-out to those that exist and are already supporting many of our vendor friends:  Eclectic Cookery in the Hunter's Point Shipyard, La Cocina incubating low-income vendors, even the Artisan Kitchen in Richmond has a lovely open warehouse.

Into this mix we add our new project, Share | Kitchen.  This space will be a food community hub, offering a commercial kitchen for rental, pop-up dinners, cooking classes, and food justice workshops.  We are developing relationships with local farmers and hope to be able to house a monthly CSA box distribution site and seasonal ingredient sources for our vendors and chefs, exemplifying the farm-to-table stream.

Right now we're refining our business plan and talking to investors as we look at potential locations.  Would you like to join us on this adventure?  Shoot us an email at mofoods, and stay tuned!