San Franola

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Friday Finds | 09

And with that, here are some things that are inspiring our creativity this week:

Nourishmat is rethinking backyards everywhere. 

Great stories about exploring the American Frontier over on Yonder Journal. Kinfolk's new video series Kinfolk Saturdays.

I like my body because it's magic. The reasons why young girls like their bodies.

On Watercress: The Forager

Urban Rough Sleepers improves quality of life for the homeless.

Phil Akashi punched a wall 27,000 times to create a portrait of Nelson Mandela.

Food Huggers help keep your cut produce fresher longer.

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SF Street Food Festival 2013

Click the image above to vote through July 19!

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4th of July Playlist

In getting geared up for the 4th, we quickly realized that no party or holiday is complete without a playlist...and the 4th of July is both. 

Find our favorite 4th tunes here, and be sure to print out this picture of Dave to guarantee patriotic fun all day long.

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The Golden Glass

On Saturday, Team Franola headed down to the Metreon for Slow Food San Francisco's The Golden Glass, a fundraiser for The Ark of Taste and their School Garden Program. The hall was filled with snacks from Bay Area restaurants like A16 and Slow Club, and drinks from local wine makers and beer breweries. Slow Food is committed to preserving regional foodways, and all the provisions were celebrations of California cuisine: fresh and seasonal ingredients prepared in innovative and on-trend ways (biggest trend: meat + fruit preserves). Whether intentional or not, there was a heavy Italian influence as well (where the idea of "slow food" is a deeply ingrained food tradition).

Notable purveyors included Locanda, who shaved the prosciutto for their delicious pizza bianca on the spot:

and Naia Gelato, which got even better with some Franola on top, and was the perfect antidote to the heat wave:

Stay tuned over the coming weeks to see a more in-depth look at some of our favorite food makers from the event! 

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Get Lost In: The Perennial Plate

Coconut: Nose to Tail from The Perennial Plate on Vimeo.

Filmmaker duo Daniel Klein and Mirra Fine are in the 3rd season of their weekly documentary series The Perennial Plate. After looking at local food around their home state of Minnesota and taking a Great American Road trip to discover what "good food" means across the US, they've dedicated their 3rd season to exploring what "good food" means around the world.

Their documentaries are short and visually digestible - around 4-7 minutes each. Viewers are transported to urban gardens in Hong Kong, Coconut plantations in Sri Lanka, and the Basque territory. While the subject matter is different, Klein + Fine are exploring a fundamental and shared human experience.

This episode about coconut farmers in Sri Lanka, for example, shows how the coconut is literally woven in to life there.

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Friday Finds | 08

Happy Food from Yum Yum London on Vimeo.

Guess what? We talk a lot about food in the office. This week, we're sharing that talk with you through our Friday Finds. Have something you'd like to add to the conversation? Let us know on Facebook or Twitter.

Advice on how to talk to your kids about their eating habits.

Small farmers are turning to creative endeavors to keep their farms sustainable.

Hate the stickers on produce? Laser-etched fruit labels are happening in the UK.

This family pledged to only buy products made in Britain and cut their food bill by 20%. Even more reason to eat local.

According to Dr. Elizabeth Thomas from the University of Colorado, Aurora, skipping breakfast could lead to diabetes.

Short on the breakfast inspiration, this tumblr will have you drooling in no time.

Full-fat cookies, fruit snacks and candy bars are on their way out of school cafeterias and vending machines.

The cutlery you use can influence how your food tastes.

The produce we eat is alive, and can defend itself from pests.

Mastering a sea monster: A lesson in grilling an octopus.

In case you need a refreshing drink to go with this heat wave: Cold-Brew Iced Tea.

Happy Weekend, Friends!

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The Art of Almost Homemade

Companies Target Time-Crunched Home Cooks; Why Wednesday is the Worst 

"Prepared-food products that require a few preparatory steps appeal to customers who want to feel as though they're actually cooking dinner, rather than just opening a package, says the Wall Street Journal. One group of women studied by Kraft Foods Group made it clear they wanted to spend at least 15 to 30 minutes peeling or chopping, "to have it count," says Risa Schwartz, the food company's associate director of consumer insights and strategy. ConAgra says the most popular day for use of some of its frozen-meal brands is Wednesday, a day of the week that the Journal describes as the "cooking-from-scratch low point for most households.""

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Fat, Energy, and Obesity

An interesting set of articles (in the New York Times and NPR) have come out recently about the way our modern caloric output affects our health. Sedentary work and convenience food in particular plague those looking to lead healthy lifestyles. A team of anthropologists studied the Hazda, gatherer-hunters in Tanzania, under the premise that their active lifestyle (and by extension, eating the "Paleo" diet) means they burn more calories per day than we do.

(as hilariously illustrated by NYT Cartoonist Anders Nilsen)

Theory: The Hazda (in North-Central Tanzania) are gatherer-hunters, and vigorously active in gathering their food, and because of that they will expend more energy than we do throughout the day.

Results: Hazda have lower body fat levels than Westerners and have greater daily levels of physical activity than we do. The amount of calories they burned daily did not differ from Westerners, though. 

Takeaway: The Hazda most likely use fewer calories while doing other physical tasks. Eating fewer calories per day, and being wiser about where those calories come from, is one of the most important things we can do to fight obesity.

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Primal (adj): Essential; fundamental. 

An essential truth about humans is that we are stinky. Primal Pit Paste founder Amy Cazin was shocked to realize how early on this happens, though: 

When my grade school daughter came home one day with a noticeable body odor, I was surprised because of her age. I thought she was among the minority with this issue, but I found out that other parents were noticing the same problem occurring, even as early as 2 years of age! 

Cazin was dissatisfied with the natural deodorants out there, and made it her mission to create a natural deodorant that she would feel comfortable letting her daughter wear. Thus, their slogan killing the odor without killing your body.

Dave picked up a sample at ExpoWest a few months ago: I picked it up because of the packaging and the scent. I had never seen a thyme and lemongrass scented deodorant before. I kept on using it because it actually worked. Crazy, right? 

Straight from the Miskie mouth. 

  (all photos from primalpitpaste.com)

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Loving Lately: Swiss-Miss.com

Lately, we've been loving Swss-born, NYC-based designer Tina Roth Eisenberg's blog Swiss Miss. It's the perfect mix of good design and great inspiration. 

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Friday Finds | 07

Well, the summer solstice is upon us and it's officially summer! This week's Friday Finds will help make sure that you get your summer kicked off right.

Time put together a list of the 12 all time greatest summer reads.

A look at the summer solstice around the world.

It's not summer without a good popsicle (or 33).

Summer in America's Great Outdoors: a summer photo project put on by the White House.

This hot tub cinema just took summer movie nights to a whole other level.

A picnic bag that becomes a blanket when you unzip it. (We've got our eyes on the San Franola Orange one, of course!)

Tips for a heart healthy summer.

And as a special bonus, we put together a playlist of our favorite summer jams. Don't see your favorite summer jam on here? Be sure to let us know what it is on Facebook or Twitter and we'll add it in!

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Google Nutrition Search

Google recently integrated nutrition information in to search. This is great, because it means that people will have greater access to what's in their food and how that affects their bodies. However, upon closer examination of the screenshots provided on Google's blog revealed some common misunderstandings about how people should think about nutrition. 

As you can see in the first two images, the food's calorie count is what's immediately presented to the searcher. Conventional wisdom states that calories are created equal, and that to loose weight one must simply cut caloric intake. But wait…a cupcake has only 16 more calories than a banana?! Calorie counting ignores the physics of calories in versus calories out; in reality, not all calories are created equal. You can see in the third image that users can in fact view the nutrient breakdown of their foods, but it takes a firm commitment to balanced nutrition to go beyond the calorie count. 

For more information and a little humor, Robert Lustig breaks it down for Stephen Colbert on the Colbert Report here.

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Check out these amazing photos of morning around the world. Clockwise from the top: Yucca Valley, Egypt, China, Alaska, Tuscany, and Antarctica.

All images via BuzzFeed.

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Summer Reading: Sugar Nation by Jeff O'Connell

Jeff O'Connell is a health and fitness journalist who was diagnosed with prediabetes. He had always been thin and exercised regularly, and this diagnosis shocked him in to researching the disease. He realized that there were subtle lifestyle changes he could make in his daily routine to have an positive impact on his health. 

Sugar Nation is his journey through understanding type 2 diabetes and prediabetes. O'Connell examines the medical side of the disease, as well as the information published by health practitioners, drug companies, and food producers to show some gaps in the conventional ways the medical system treats diabetes (notably, that less than 1/3 of US medical schools require students to take a nutrition class). 

Taking a step back and looking at your personal health & nutrition habits is always a good place to start when dealing with a disease. Macro and Micronutrients play a much lager role in our health and wellness than we think. However, we always recommend seeking the advice of a medical professional when necessary. 

Check out the book trailer here and an interview with O Magazine here.

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Saturday Reads | 06

There's been a lot of food related news happening recently, so our Friday Finds this week is dedicated to that (but the ducks were just too cute not to share).

Mary Weinstein makes a DIY High Fructose Corn Syrup kit for her masters thesis project.

An interview with Kelsey Timmerman on his new book Where Am I Eating?

Pay Amazon $299 a year and you'll never have to go to the grocery store again.

Time curated a list of apps that will help you make healthy eating choices.

Chobani redesigned their packaging for the UK market. Super sleek.

An opinion piece urging the appeals judges to look at the bigger picture and stand behind NY mayor Michael Bloomberg on his sugary drink ban.

This infographic shows you how to make healthy & tasty baking substitutions.

In GMO news: Scientists debate a new study on non-GMO fed pigs.

A chocolate plantation in Bahia, Brazil.

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Jamie Oliver's TED Prize wish: Teach every child about food | Video on TED.com

As life goes on, we have to take a look, step back, and readjust the balance.

- Jamie Oliver, on the state of our food system.

In his talk, Oliver shares stories from the first season of his TV show in Huntington, West Virginia. He points to a three-point problem in our current approach to food and eating: Home, School, and Main Street (handily conceptualized as a triangle diagram in his talk). 

He points to sugar as a particularly troubling part of our diet - especially in cafeteria food served in schools. In order to make tangible change in our food system, Oliver argues that we need to play a more active role in teaching our children about the value of food. If we look back at last week's TED Talk with Birke Baehr, this idea has legs.

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At San Franola, we love dads. Our story starts with Dan, but San Franola wasn't even a twinkle in his eye when this photo was taken in 1983 in Cleveland, OH.

Upon seeing this photo, Dave had two main takeaways:

"Dad, why didn't I have a cape?!" (That's older brother Ben rocking the superhero look.)

"I broke one of my own rules of style - why am I wearing an undershirt?

Do you have a great photo of you and your dad? Share it with us on Facebook or Twitter, and Dan's favorite photo will win a v-neck for Dad.