It's here! Not only does this issue feature my photo on the cover, but it completes a huge community project here in the East Bay of the SF Bay Area. Our topic was olive oil. I photographed the cover at Alice Medrich's house. She is the famous author of the book, Cocolat, and is known for her delicious cakes and chocolate creations.

There is so much good content to enjoy from stories about California olive growers, olio nuovo, millers, chefs, bloggers, famous cake authors, upcycle baking mixes, and more. We even managed to weave in locally grown seasonal produce like persimmons and pomegranates from farmer's markets. I created, styled and photographed recipes from local chefs in my studio, photographed harvests and milling rooms, tasting rooms, tips for press releases, a miller with his fresh oil, and tasting experts. What a fabulous time and I loved weaving it all into my schedule. Everyone really collaborated well and sent all items long before the deadline which made it all so easy! Many thanks to Cheryl Koehler and Roberta Klugman for all their hard work to get a community together to share the story of food.

Here is my cover photo of Alice Medrich's delicious olive oil cake. It was shot on her beautiful marble table. Best of all we got to eat it right after the shoot. It was so light, moist, and not too sweet. She used the Renewal Mill cake mix so it was sustainable, too.

Check out the magazine issue with so many great photos and recipes at Edible East Bay.

Here is a still-life project to inspire winter's finest ingredients before I made some salads with persimmons, walnuts, and pomegranate.

I loved learning about the varietals of extra virgin olive oil that are dated by the year. A favorite is Picual by Seka Hills, which comes from the picual olive tree. I love its green tomato leaf flavor. And the Bondolio oil is a delicious blend from trees brought in from Sicily. The flavor of the Bondolio oil is the perfect blend of tomato leaf, butter, fruit, and a little pungent olive. All are EVOO and labeled by their harvest year.

The best experience of all was getting to see olio nuovo in real life. Look at its beautiful chartreuse color, which comes from being very fresh and unmilled. This was shot at Seka Hills. Roberta provided the traditional crystal vase and I found the Mary Judge olive oil dipping dishes on Ebay from a collector. I love creating and photographing still-life images on location.

The olives at Bondolio are picked by hand. The workers use white gloves and ergonomic buckets for collecting small batches at a time. The olives go straight to the mill for maximum freshness.

The trees from Bondolio are from Sicily. They are pruned in such a fashion that a bird can fly into the middle, which is very beneficial for the trees. The amount of pride and care for this homestead farm is like no other.

Here is a Seka Hills arbequina orchard that is planted in a "high density" fashion so the olives can be picked with machines.

Here is one more Seka Hills orchard, near their tasting room, that features Picual olives and they are centered around the most beautiful oak tree!

The olive oil is so green when first milled. One of the things I learned was that olive oil loses flavor and color over time so it is best to keep it sealed in a dark glass container and use it up quickly. The highest quality oils show their harvest date and are fantastic as finishing oils.

Olio nuovo is fantastic over many favorite dishes from veggies to ice cream. Olio nuovo means new oil and it is the unfiltered oil of a harvest that lasts just a few months.

Find all of these oils online at

Market Hall

. Or visit the tasting rooms at

Bondolio

or

Seka Hills

.

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