It’s such a beautiful day that it would be an outrage not to head outside and see what’s going on, and thus, here’s your Afternoon Report:
Apple History
Bi-Rite is loaded with colorful fruits, and, as produce buyer Stephany Gocobachi told me, “We’re just excited about fall.” They’ve got everything from persimmons to pomegranates, and have so many unique varieties of apple that they have to specially train their staff on their various properties. The names alone make them something special (Arkansas Blacks and Sierra Beauties are gracing the produce aisle today) but each also has a unique history.
Take the Spitzenberg, for example. Said to have been Thomas Jefferson’s favorite apple variety, it was originally imported from Germany and then grown at his plantation, Monticello.
Gocobachi was kind enough to gift me one and I can report that it is mildly sweet, but without being mealy like a Red Delicious. You just have to get over its large, lumpy warts — They’re a defining trait rather than an aesthetic flaw.
Literature:
Just in time for Lit Crawl, 826 Valencia releases their quarterly collection of works by the young authors at their writing center tomorrow, with a public reading at 7:15 p.m. Byron Weiss, a Pirate Store Deckhand and occasional volunteer teacher at 826, gave me a few details on the material.
The collection, from the work of the summer students, features all types of writing including lots of poetry and short stories. There’s work from the fiction workshop entitled “The Monsters Both Ate Salads” along with (as Mission Local is of course thrilled to hear) the stories from a journalism workshop. The section is called “People, I Have Your Answers,” and examines what 8 to 14-year-olds find newsworthy. Here’s the cover:
This has been your Afternoon Report—a new series we’re trying out in which we offer a quickie post-meridian rundown of some minor developments in the always-happening streets of the Mission District. Got ideas or suggestions? Let us know what you think by sending an email to info@missionlocal.com.