I am writing this from the cottage in Mill Valley, California, where I wrote the first draft of Motherland back in the days before Covid. But wait till all those nice folks in Washington discover they can’t make their fruit smoothies every morning.) Glimmering, and dangerous, wrote Mary Oliver in her prose poem Are You Okay? In Southern California and Northern, the ocean is like a bathtub; the waters off Stinson were ferocious today, but warm. This post was originally published on Elissa Altman’s blog Poor Man’s Feast, the James Beard Award-winning journal about the intersection of food, spirit, and the families that drive you crazy.