Grist for the Mill

Ah, paper. No beeps, no rings, no vibrating.

Instead of screaming for your attention like the news feed on your smartphone, we’ve planned this issue as we do every edition of Edible Monterey Bay—with the intent to gently invite you in and make reading to the very last page irresistible. The idea is simply to apply great storytelling and photography to compelling topics and to deliver beautiful and informative ads from companies worthy of your business.

In this issue, we’re especially pleased to put one of our most prolific and talented contributors on the other side of the lens. John Cox, the executive chef at Post Ranch Inn’s Sierra Mar restaurant, has been with us since the very beginning, when he provided the stunning cover photograph of the craggy backside of an abalone shell to go with his culinary and natural history of the locally famed mollusk.

For Deborah Luhrman’s profile of Cox in this issue (pg. 42), you’ll see we’ve flipped the abalone shell over and, in a cover shot by Kodiak Greenwood, show a striking dish that is helping bring notice to the singular Big Sur cuisine that Cox serves at Sierra Mar.

We hope the story inspires you to dig into our digital archives or past hard copies of EMB to read Cox’s own articles and essays on our local food scene. Some of our personal favorites aside from the abalone piece (Fall 2011) are his stories on the food ways of Big Sur’s Esselen people (Fall 2014), cooking jellyfish (Summer 2014), his up-close and personal experience of learning where his pork comes from (Fall 2012) and his fine-dining chef’s guide to holding a local and organic dinner party on a budget of $5 per guest (Summer 2013).

As we write this letter, much-needed rains are in the forecast, so Kathryn McKenzie’s profile of the unusual and storied Salinas River and those working to protect life along it (pg. 34) is particularly timely as well as a fascinating story in itself.

Finally, we’re delighted to congratulate the Monterey Bay Certified Farmers’ Markets on the occasion of the organization’s 40th anniversary (p. 29) and all of our 2016 Local Heroes on being voted the best in their categories in an online poll of our readers (coverage begins on p. 9). You’ll see a lot of new faces among this year’s heroes, as well as some repeat winners—and all are thoroughly deserving.

So curl up with this magazine and enjoy. And then please take it on your local explorations as a guide to the great things to see and do in our area. And when you do, please tell the proprietors of the businesses you discover or are reminded of through this magazine that we sent you. But if you’re out and about and find you’ve left the magazine at home, you can, if you must, always pull it up on your smartphone.

Best wishes for a happy and healthy spring,

Sarah Wood and Rob Fisher Publishers

edible

monterey bay

PUBLISHER AND EDITOR Sarah Wood Sarah@ediblemontereybay.com 831.298.7117 or 831.238.1217

CO–PUBLISHER AND

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Rob Fisher

DEPUTY AND

DIGITAL EDITOR Deborah Luhrman COPY EDITOR Doresa Banning LAYOUT DESIGN Melissa Petersen EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Rosie Parker SOCIAL MEDIA Katie Reeves

AD DESIGN Bernard Fernandez Bigfish Smallpond Design • David Ball Jane Bolling Design • Marilet Pretorius Melissa Thoeny Designs

CONTRIBUTORS

Angela Aurelio • Jordan Champagne Jamie Collins • Dina Clark • David Dennis Bambi Edlund • Zoe Fisher • Philip Geiger Margaux Gibbons • Kodiak Greenwood Ted Holladay • Michelle Magdalena Camilla M. Mann • Kathryn McKenzie Katie Pofahl • Andrea Riordan Patrick Tregenza • Amber Turpin Patrice Vecchione • Patrice Ward Lisa Crawford Watson

ADVERTISING SALES

ads@ediblemontereybay.com Main number: 831.298.7117 Shelby Lambert 831.238.7101 Kate Robbins 831.588.4577 Ola Rocha 802.734.7635 Sarah Wood 831.238.1217

DISTRIBUTION Mick Freeman

CONTACT US: Edible Monterey Bay P.O. Box 228, Carmel Valley, CA 93924 www.ediblemontereybay.com 831.298.7117 or 831.238.1217 info@ediblemontereybay.com

Edible Monterey Bay is published quarterly. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used without written permission of the publisher. Subscriptions are $28 per year at www.ediblemontereybay.com. Every effort is made to avoid errors, misspellings and omissions. If, however, an error comes to your attention, please accept our apologies and notify us. We also welcome letters to the above address. Thank you.