SMELL LIKE MT Tamalpais

I went on a hike to the top of Mt. Tam last week with Hall from Juniper Ridge, Dan from Art In The Age, Maggie, whom I met while living in Colorado, and our friend Isla, who works at SF's The Bold Italic. Mr. Newbegin was picking plants for a simple syrup collaboration with AitA (nice Danners, Hall), so we all came along for the beautiful hike. It was one hell of a day. See the rest of Ms. Isla Bell Murray's photos and her interview with Hall here.

What would you consider foraging gold?For me, the beauty of foraging isn't about finding rarities, it's about immersing yourself in nature and engaging your animal senses in the beauty that's all around you. There is endless beauty in the most common of plants — a redwood forest, oak woodlands, sage chaparral, a square foot of wet earth right beneath your feet, overflowing with life and ten thousand species of little critters that we'll never know about.I do find rare flowers from time to time, and when I do, I just sit down next to them and try to drink in every detail, because they're only out for a second and then they're gone. I would never harvest a rare plant. I only work with plants that are utterly abundant and aren't being impacted in any way by the harvesting. Rarities are just that, and they need to be admired for their beauty and left alone.

Pat's Backcountry Beer

Just add water and carbonation beer for the backcountry? Seems suspect, but holy, that's a great/useless idea. For the alcoholics in all of us...

How is such a thing possible? According to the company's website, the beer concentrate isn't made by dehydrating a conventional beer. "Instead, our process (patent pending) allows us to start with almost no water, and carefully control the environment of the fermentation," says the site. The result is supposedly a beer that tastes like a "premium micro brew." Each beer packet makes a single 16 oz. pint.Pat's Backcountry Beverages owner, Pat Tatera, says the beer is just "barley, water, hops and yeast," writes Dvice.com. "If you come into our facility, you'll see fermentors, you'll see a mash tun, you'll see a brew kettle, but you'll also see some equipment that looks like some sci-fi movie, and that's where our very specialized technology allows us to do what we do," he said.