Dana Velden

Dana Velden is a Zen priest who lived and studied for 15 years at the San Francisco Zen Center. She has been writing for The Kitchn since 2008 and has contributed to The Hidden Lamp: Stories from Twenty-Five Centuries of Awakened Women and The Kitchn Cookbook. She now lives in Oakland, CA among apple, apricot, pear, persimmon, lemon, plum, lime, walnut, and fig trees. It's not at all surprising that her apartment, although very small, is over 30% kitchen.

To read her work for this kitchen, go here: http://www.thekitchn.com/authors/danavelden . To read the Weekend Meditation posts that are the inspiration for Finding yourself in the Kitchen, go here: http://www.thekitchn.com/categories/weekend_meditation

Author photo by Aya Brackett