Food
Seven hundred people attended the fifth annual back to school event and barbecue hosted by What Now America at deFremery Recreation Center in West Oakland on Saturday.
Banana and apples trees, pomegranate, pear, and plum. Blackberries and strawberries, lemons and persimmons. Thyme, sage, and a host of other herbs. This isn’t a supermarket produce section or a busy Saturday farmer’s market—it’s an edible forest, two of them in fact, planted by students in the courtyard of Oakland International High School.
Donut Savant is an artisan gourmet donut shop. Donut “wholes” made from a buttermilk cake batter are topped with the traditional glazed, cinnamon sugar, powdered sugar and chocolate that donut fans expect. But adventurous eaters can also get frosted coconut, salted maple, buttercream candied ginger, s’mores, lemon zest and key lime donuts.
On Saturday, animals at the Oakland Zoo will suspend their diet plans and indulge in what could easily be this year’s largest animal party, feasting on servings of produce donated by Oakland residents, many of whom will come and watch the animals eat their hearts out between 8 am and 6 pm.
Every Wednesday between 10 a.m and 2 p.m., an organic farmer’s market appears, tucked between the Cathedral of Christ the Light and the Kaiser Permanente offices near Lake Merritt. Operating since May, the Ordway Organic Farmer’s Market, a petite selection of just over a half dozen booths selling fruits, veggies, plants and other fare, is the new kid on the block on an array of farmer’s markets that dot Oakland. However, it is unique because it is among the few that take place midweek, mid-day and and are all-organic.
Summer is the time for cooling drinks, frozen concoctions and delicious bite-sized treats, and Oakland North hit the streets to find some of the tastiest and most original summer snacks in town. Check out the best of our finds this weekend, before summer is (almost) over! Summer treat series: Check our our search for the most refreshing drinks where you’ll find mint lemonade, Italian sodas, Thai iced coffees and diablitos. Summer treat series: Our survey of Latin treats in Fruitvale where you’ll find cream-filled…
Books weren’t the only things flying off the tables at the Temescal branch of the Oakland library on Saturday. In the backyard, boxes full of succulent plums gleamed in the sunshine at the library’s North Oakland crop swap. Gardeners bring their excess yield and set them on the table for others to take. While there, they are free to choose from items on the table that their fellow gardeners have brought to share. Meanwhile, Moms in the basement were giving and getting new ensembles for their kiddos.
This year’s Free Summer Lunch Program for kids and teens begins this week in locations throughout the city of Oakland. The program was established to provide breakfast and lunch to people age 18 and under to fill in the gap that is often left in the number of meals kids receive once the school semester ends.
Festival celebrates Juneteenth, location of new Phat Beets market and plans for a collective kitchen
Saturday’s celebration combined the re-opening of Phat Beets Produce farmers market at its new location, the opening of a new on-site community kitchen collective and the observance of Juneteenth, a US holiday honoring African American heritage and commemorating June 19, 1865, the day many slaves in Texas learned they had been freed by the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863.