On the edge of the town of Marysville in Yuba County, there’s market with an inventory that would rival Asian grocery stories in big cities. In the back corner, you’ll find a small, bustling kitchen in the back corner. That’s where I became a fan of the dishes made here, and the woman behind them.
https://media.blubrry.com/californiafoodways/content.blubrry.com/californiafoodways/Yuba_Lee_s_market.mp3
In February 2020, I went to Sonora to join the Mother Lode Jewish Community in their Tu BiShvat celebration, honoring trees and the harvest. Just weeks later, the Covid pandemic would stop in-person gatherings like these, and create tensions so many communities are still navigating. So I returned, to see how the people I met…
https://media.blubrry.com/californiafoodways/content.blubrry.com/californiafoodways/Tuolumne_MLJC.mp3
There are plenty of people who -- in order to pursue their passions -- have jobs on the side to support themselves. It’s pretty common to hear about a novelist who does PR, an actor waiting tables. But a rancher? For this story we meet a mother and daughter in Sierra County whose supplemental work…
https://media.blubrry.com/californiafoodways/content.blubrry.com/californiafoodways/Sierra_mp3.mp3
The soil in Tehama County is unfit, and the temperatures are all wrong, but the monks at the Abbey of New Clairvaux are still trying to make wine here. It’s part of their ancestry. Cistercian monks have made wine in Europe since the 12th century. In California, they’re turning to those traditions to try to…
https://media.blubrry.com/californiafoodways/content.blubrry.com/californiafoodways/Tehama_monks_mp3.mp3
If you want to recreate the Gold Rush experience — without all the terrible conditions — you can pan for gold, even descend into mines. In a few places, you can even eat the most prized meal of the Gold Rush, with a kind of bizarre combination of ingredients. That’s what I went off to…
https://media.blubrry.com/californiafoodways/content.blubrry.com/californiafoodways/ElDorado_mp3.mp3