Seattle Is "Edible" At Last

We think we're such hot stuff here in Seattle, but Portland and Vancouver got their Edibles many harvest moons ago. So did Cape Cod, the Twin Cities, and the Iowa River Valley. No matter, the first issue of this new full-color quarterly is finally on the stands (at Metropolitan Markets, PCC, Whole Foods), circulation of 70,000, handsomely produced on recycled, ecologically correct, non-glossy stock. Five bucks a copy, but $28 a year for a subscription.

Publisher is Alex Corcoran, who'd previously bought an Edible franchise in Rhode Island. (The concept was launched in Ojai, Calif., six years ago and has grown to 40 local mags.) Editor for Seattle is veteran foodie (Seattle Weekly, Seattle CitySearch) Jill Lightner, and a stable of local food bloggers and photographers (Jess Thomson, Bethany Jean Clement, Jerome Richard, Lara Ferroni, Pat Tanumihardja, Heidi Broadhead).

There's also an EdibleSeattle blog, Fresh Sheet (with a link to Seattlest contributor Cornichon, even).

And, coincidentally, a good feature story in USA Today about agricultural tourism, visiting farms not as a grade school field trip but to learn more about the source of your food. Visitors to Polyface Farm in the Shenandoah Valley can pet the Berkshire pigs, but readers of Edible Seattle know that the next big thing will be swallow-bellied Mangalitsas: foraging pigs from Austria being raised at Rocky Ridge Ranch west of Spokane. Check them out here.