Now more than 2 years old, edible Shasta-Butte gets better and covers more territory with each issue. The most recent issue — Summer 2009 — hit stands in late June, so with the fullness of summer’s fruit and vegetable bounty upon us, it seemed timely to rerun this segment, originally recorded and written in July of 2008. Congratulations on two great years, edible Shasta-Butte. Many Happy Returns!
Take “real food, community and sustainability,” season it with almost pornographically voluptuous photography of local foods, pair it with refreshingly well-crafted and interesting stories about the people who grow, raise, make or sell local food, and you will have something close to an issue of edible Shasta-Butte. “A local business celebrating the abundance of local foods, season by season,” founded by husband-and-wife team Earl Bloor and Candace Byrne.
If you are familiar with what are known as the edible Communities Publications, you will know that edible Shasta-Butte is not alone in the world. At most recent count 44 edible (not literally, but the photos do make you hungry) magazines, which are all published quarterly, are being produced across North America — from edible Manhattan to edible South Florida to edible Vancouver and many more in between, rural and urban.
Candace and Earl are editor and publisher respectively of edible Shasta-Butte. They are both academics by profession, she an instructor of English at Shasta College Tehama Campus, and he the Dean of Mathematics, Engineering, Science and Health Occupations at Yuba College. While I am sure they are fabulous at their day jobs, I can’t help but feel they have hit on some sort of perfect confluence of academics, food, social-activism and community connection in their creating of edible Shasta-Butte. As academics, Earl and Candace have lived and worked in multiple places. He is Canadian by birth and she is native to New York. While living on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, they became interested in edible Cape Cod, and eventually Candace began to write articles for the publication. When the couple both settled in the North State in 2002, Candace began writing for edible Sacramento, “which was great!” she says. “But one day I said to Earl, ‘our region is so different from Sacramento and so rich in resources -– we should just start our own publication!’” And they did.
In the fall of 2006, with the help of Tracey Ryder and Carole Topalian, they began collecting article ideas, contacts and a library of photographs to draw on for the first few issues. “Even in the initial phases, we had tremendously positive feedback for the publication. The local farmers were overwhelmingly supportive. For instance, Carol Albrecht from Chaffin Family Orchards offered to write a four-part seasonal series entitled ‘A Sense of Place’ depicting life on the Chaffin family farm in Oroville.” The first issue of edible Shasta-Butte hit stands and local farmers markets in the spring of 2007 and among other articles featured the first in Carol Albrecht’s series, a profile of Maisie Jane Hurtado, a feature about Big Bluff Ranch in western Tehama County and an excerpt from Barbara Kingsolver’s book “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.” The subsequent six issues have been every bit as jam-packed with stories about farmers, ranchers, growers, cooks and other food producers in the North State. “One of our passions is telling/celebrating these stories of local food growers and providers as a way to encourage people to support local farmers and producers. We focus on the wealth of local, seasonal produce in our Cooking Fresh pages and recipes,” says Candace.
The whole idea behind the edible Communities Publications began in 2002 when company founders Tracey Ryder and Carole Topalian created edible Ojai (CA) as a way to celebrate and provide a forum for farmers and other food producers in California’s Ojai valley. In time, the concept of the publication took off as a great idea for any distinguishable farming region. Soon edible Cape Cod started up, followed by many more, including edible Shasta-Butte, which had its debut issue in the spring of 2007.
Despite the title, according to Earl and Candace the magazine actually covers the six counties north of Butte County: Butte, Glenn, Tehama, Trinity, Shasta, Siskiyou. While they list a staff of seven on their masthead, Earl and Candace regularly write articles for each issue as well as edit, lay out and publish each issue. It is work they enjoy: “We’re really proud of the connections with local farmers and growers,” says Candace. “People have been so generous and responsive with their ideas. We’re also very happy with the stories and ideas people bring to us and we take a particular interest and joy in the photography and original art in each issue. The hardest part is choosing among the many stories to run in each issue.”
As a gardener, what I like about the stories I have read thus far (which is most of them) in edible Shasta-Butte is the insight they give me into plants and other gardeners in the North State. While edible Shasta-Butte focuses on people who grow food at a much larger level than my home garden, and on people who specifically provide that food in some way to other people, I am often inspired by the stories and the plants or techniques they discuss. I am totally enthralled with an ongoing series by Wolfgang Rougle about edible wild/native plants in the North State and how to prepare them – such as milk thistle soup or summertime grains and greens.
edible Shasta-Butte has a good handful of subscribers. “We really value our growing list of subscribers. They are just as important as our many wonderful advertisers in supporting our mission and aligning themselves with our purpose,” Candace tells me. Between 8,000 and 9,000 copies are printed of each issue of edible Shasta-Butte. These are sent to subscribers as well as delivered to complimentary stands around the region.
“Studies show that each issue of an edible magazine goes through seven different hands, which is an amazing testament to the interest sparked by the magazine and its concept. The mission and topics hit home for most people in some way,” Candace explained. My copies of the magazine don’t go through seven hands because I keep them, all together, well-worn and dog-eared at the pages with bits I want to remember. Am I selfish? Maybe. But I happily tell friends when the next issue is out and point them in the direction of where to find their own copy — edibleshastabutte.com — to subscribe or find a full list of distribution locations, including most public libraries and farmer’s markets in our region as well as many natural food stores.
In a North State Garden is a radio- and web-based outreach program of the Gateway Science Museum – Exploring the Natural History of the North State, based in Chico, CA. In a North State Garden celebrates the art, craft and science of home gardening in California’s North State region, and is conceived, written, photographed and hosted by Jennifer Jewell – all rights reserved jewellgarden.com. In A North State Garden airs on Northstate Public Radio KCHO/KFPR radio, Saturdays at 7:34 a.m. Pacific time and Sundays at 8:34 a.m. Pacific time. Podcasts of past shows are available here.
