You know you are in Texas when one day it’s 75 degrees (pleasant) and the next it’s 101 degrees (not so pleasant). We hope our Summer issue will distract you from our madcap Texas weather with some stellar stories and recipes.
We first wrote about the nonprofit Café Momentum and Chad Houser in spring 2012, just as they started their first pop-up dinners to raise funds to eventually open a restaurant that would be staffed almost entirely by justice-involved youth. In 2015, after many dinners, they opened their restaurant in downtown Dallas. Fast forward to April 2025, and the prestigious James Beard Foundation honored Café Momentum’s founder Chad Houser with the 2025 Humanitarian of the Year award. Congratulations to all who have been involved in this effort to help youth not just have a seat at the table, but set it for all of us to dine.
Similarly, Stone’s throw Farm was named the 2025 nonprofit beneficiary of Fort Worth’s annual Foodie Philanthropy charitable dining event. It’s inspiring to see so much local talent rise to the occasion and be rewarded for it. In our summer heat, Daniel Cunningham writes about global peppers and the local growers who are making these equally hot (and delicious) treats available to us through their passion for breeding and growing. Teresa Rafidi’s wonderful cover shot brings these peppers with deep histories up close. Meda Kessler writes about Timberview Farmstead, where marvelous things are happening on a former golf course, proving that we’ll never be wrong when we restore land to nature.
Tomatoes are best this season, when you pick them right off the vine or buy them from your local farmers markets. In our seasonal recipe section, Meda’s recipes and photos will make you eager to spend time in the kitchen—but not over a hot stove!—making, among other treats, a luscious Cheesecake Tomato Tart submitted by Chandra Ricetti of the Bastion Restaurant in Fort Worth, a cold cherry tomato and noodle dish, or a simple tomato sandwich.
In our Summer 2016 issue we started our first North Texas Farmers Market Guide. Back then, it was only two pages of markets—now it’s four. We urge you to explore the guide and visit markets close to you and also ones that are out of town. This would make a great day trip! In closing, I’d like to emphasize that each of our articles is written and photographed by real human beings. No AI here. No one can tell the stories better than these exceptional people who are committed to showing and telling the wonderful stories of local food. And Edible Dallas Fort Worth appreciates how much time and energy they put into making every issue better than the last.
Let’s be kind to our neighbors, both here and abroad. We are all part of a big, glorious world that is just waiting for us to all come together. Peace to all.
Nanci Taylor, Publisher
NANCI TAYLOR is a third generation Texan whose family came to the state in the 1800’s to pursue cattle ranching and Texas has remained her home. She was born in San Antonio, but ended up in North Texas where she nurtured her Texas roots while attending college and raising two sons in Dallas. Proudly following in her parent's footsteps, Nanci plants and harvests the bounty of her own backyard garden in Old East Dallas. She keeps a busy calendar attending local food and ecology events, and on weekends she spends her time visiting with growers and food artisans at farms, shops and farmers markets around North Texas.
