4th of July has always been a weird holiday for me being a Brit. That which is being celebrated is essentially my country on the losing side… so I’ve never been one to jump up and down waving a flag – unless the flag was the Union Jack or unless I was celebrating independence in general!  
All that however, has to change this year having just become an American Citizen. My US passport arrived in the mail days ago. So this year I have planned a big party to celebrate the 4th – and have combined it with my daughter’s birthday party. We have a great view of fireworks from our house and our friends always come up to share the evening.

Receive a four piece creat with any order of $15!  Visti dschocoloates.com

It’s Friday afternoon, June gloom has finally lifted, it’s warm, the setting sun is making everything perfectly contrasted and the bad part is that it’s date night with my wife and I forgot to make a restaurant reservation. I’m in a lot of trouble!

 
I popped in to Mozza today on my drive back from the Santa Monica's Farmers' market to the office on the off chance that Nancy Silverton was available to interview - (I have already interviewed Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich for my fall story) and to my utter surprise the Mozza To Go 'shop' had opened minutes before!  I was their second customer. It really felt like we were all back in kindergarten playing pizza to go!

In our current issue we have an article about Bees and Manadrins under our News Bite Department. I received the following letter pointing out an error in the story and always wanting to make every effort to make amends if we print something incorrect I want to do more than just apologize.As such, I am posting the line from the story that caused the problem and the informative letter from Ericka of Klausesbees in full. Thank you Ericka for putting us straight on this issue of gender. I look forward to tasting your local honey at the farmers' market in the not too distant future.
Lucy Lean
Editor, edible Los Angeles
 
 “…if a bee should happen to stop off on some other variety on his way to a clementine grove, he’ll put them in the family way”.
from Stephen Lewis' News Bite story in the Summer 09 issue.
 
good afternoon - we just read the article by stephen lewis re: pollination and the citrus seed issue - interesting article but BUT one needs to KNOW the colony in order to talk about it - the bee who FORAGES, WORKS, is NURSEY CARE KEEPERS, SOLDIER,and  POLLINATOR is  female. ALLLLLLL FEMALE.  the drone, so aptly called, is just that - a couch potato who NEVER VENTURES OUT except for when he is called on to 'service the queen' or is being 'removed' by the workers because he serves no purpose - he is incapable of cleaning himself, foraging(eating the very honey under his nose in the hive), and as he has no stinger for defense his time is counted the moment he is extricated from the colony by the busy FEMALE WORKERS who are simply fed up with his lounging around non productive life.  in short - HE is not pollinating making way for any seed, as is stated in the article.  SHE  - the SHE BEE is the pollinator, soldier, forager, nursery care keeper, worker.  this is an ALL FEMALE society - ALL FEMALE..... jerry seinfeld certainly did bee keeping a great disservice with his inaccurate self serving BEE MOVIE.  

 
erika wain decker, marketing/owner
www.klausesbees.com

 
U-Pick Organic Cherries - words and photographs by Staci Valentine
 
At the end of a bumpy dirt road there’s a magical surprise.When you arrive at Leona Valley Organics - located in the sun-soaked mountains approximately 10 miles west of Palmdale – that’s exactly what you’ll find.
 

 
The edible Los Angeles Eat the Magazine Dinner Conversational Quiz Answers

DrinkThisTV.com Chardonnay tasting from Bob Asher on Vimeo.

"It's wine not holy water…"

So why does the wine media treat wine, really just fermented grape juice, like something precious? They talk about it with Masterpiece Theater-like reverence and, frankly, most of what they do—from print to web—is boring and inaccessible. Sure there are Web 2.0 television hosts like Gary Vaynerchuck of Wine Library TV, the Emeril Lagasse of the wine world. The guy's not pretentious and he knows his stuff, but his over-the-top shtick can get old fast.

Enter DrinkThisTV, a new web-based television show hosted by the spunky Amy Christine (Director of California Sales for Veritas Imports, sommelier at L.A.'s AOC., winemaker and Masters of Wine candidate) and urbane, mop-headed, self-proclaimed wine snob, Eduardo Porto Carreiro, wine director at L.A.'s Grace Restaurant and nascent winemaker.