February 2023
Celebrate! February is Black History Month. Black history and culture are integral to who we are.
Ignoring Black history is just willful ignorance and the latest battle in the culture war created by Governor Ron DeSantis. Well, what do you want from the guy trying to make Florida be “where woke goes to die”. He’s just one of the latest and loudest of politicos whose version of truth and history are, well, let us say, selective. You know I’m a Miami native. I cannot let my home state — or my country — become where stupid goes to live.
George Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.” I had Santayana in mind when I started writing this to you during Seed Food and Wine, Miami’s glorious vegan food festival, which weirdly coincided with Holocaust Remembrance Day, the bright and the dark sides of humanity together on the same day. So which way are we going to go?
I don’t know about you, but I’m all for brightness. Now is the time to confront America’s past — all of it — with honesty and humility, so we can shape a future worth living, build a society not divided, not willfully ignorant, but in the words of Martin Luther King Jr., “a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience.” Okay, end of sermon. Now for dessert! Celebrate Black History Month with sweet potato pie gone vegan.
Everyone’s a Winner
OMG! I won! ICYMI, I was honored to be a finalist to present at Vegan Women Summit. I was even more honored that so many people voted for me. Ultimately, my proposal wasn’t chosen, but your support makes me feel like a winner. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I want you to feel like a winner, too. Here’s a bonus exclusive recipe for you, newsletter subscribers, a sneak preview and taste from my new book, Miami Vegan. See? Sometimes you open an email and something good comes from it.
February Calendar
February 9 6pm ET ALMOST SOLD OUT! Join me for my free, virtual cooking class, Roots! An Edible Exploration of the Vegetable Underground, hosted by the Pinecrest Branch of Miami Dade Public Library. Register now!
February 10 World Pulses Day Celebrate with beans! Every day is World Pulses Day for me, but if you’ve been bashful, now’s the day to bean up. As Italian cookbook author Marcella Hazan wrote, "In the pursuit of certain lusty gratifications for the palate, no ingredient can take you further than beans."
Beans I love:
Camellia Beans, celebrating 100 years of beans done right
Rancho Gordo heirloom bean purveyor par excellence
Timeless Food organic and awesome
February 10 7:30 pm ET Catch my Friday with Friends interview with Brahma Kumaris Meditation Center Miami.
February 14 Valentine’s Day — shower some love on your sweetie, on a friend, on a stranger, on yourself.
February 20 President’s Day
February 21 Mardi Gras
February 22 Ash Wednesday
February 23-26 South Beach Wine and Food Festival
Check out the new issue of Edible South Florida, with my harvest of plantbased seasonal recipes.