All the news that's fit to eat
By Chris Mittelstaedt Change has come slowly but steadily to the foods we’ve eaten over the last 70 years. While there has been no acute onset to clearly demonstrate the difference between the food of today and yesterday, if you take a look at local agriculture, you can see the fingerprint of change in all partsof the [...]
By Chris Mittelstaedt Maybe you think I write too much about my kids. I kind of agree, but man, do they give me good material. Last week, for example, when I told them we would be getting pluots for this week’s cases, they ran with it. “Plupups?” my daughter said. “No,” I said, “pluots.” “Dad’s getting plu-pots [...]
By Chris Mittelstaedt It’s summer and I’m 12. We’ve been riding around the block for the last month on our banana-seat bikes. We are a motorcycle gang, with playing cards duct-taped to the back struts of our bike frames, clicking against the spokes menacingly, like souped-up game show prize-wheels letting anyone watering their yard know [...]
By Chris Mittelstaedt We’re so organized it’s almost bewildering. All week long we’ve been going down the checklist helping the kids get ready for camp. “Sleeping bags?” “Got it, Dad!” “Flashlight?” “Daaadd! I’ve got it!” All three of my kids are heading into the Sierras for two weeks. There will be songs, canoeing, archery—it brings back memories [...]
I was recently given a copy of Robert Palter’s The Duchess of Malfi’s Apricots, and Other Literary Fruits. It’s a great reference book if you like those moments of clarity when writers unravel the human condition in simple observations of nature, like the blush of an apricot or the fragrant night-flowering of a plum tree. [...]
By Chris Mittelstaedt My daughters are in a rock band. One plays bass and the other drums. My 10-year old drummer has a problem with The Go-Go’s song “We Got The Beat.” “I keep losing my beat,” she says. “Have you looked in the root vegetables bin?” I chuckle. “Dad, not that kind of beet,” [...]
By Chris Mittelstaedt It must be May because I find myself having that recurring elementary school dream again. It’s the one where I’m out on the blacktop in red shorts with white piping, socks pulled up to my knees for speed, waiting in a three-point crouch for the start of the shuttle run. I’m gazing [...]
By Chris Mittelstaedt I’m still processing the post-dinner conversation with my kids during which they debated whether feet were officially weird and whether vegans who watch the TV show Glee should be called “vleegans” or “vegleegans.” “Dad,” my daughter calls while flossing her teeth, “did you ever want to change your name?” She’s staring intently [...]
I was soaking my hands in a mixture of Palmolive and probiotic yogurt when I got the call. This was the moment I had been waiting for. Three weeks undercover playing a retired hand model making a comeback was taking its toll. “Hello?” The voice on the other end of the line whispered. “I’m scared.” [...]
“Dad,” my daughter says as I get home from work, “Mom was on a field trip with us today and said ‘Hey gang!’ It was so embarrassing.” She looks at me unblinking as if I should understand. “Dad!” she shakes her hands at me, “It’s sooo Scooby Doo!” She stalks off before I can respond, [...]
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