Brown rice. Kale. Sprouts. Once an alternative strain of American cuisine associated with vegetarian communes and college co-ops, "hippie food" has come a long way over last half-century, now commonly found on mainstream grocery shelves, restaurants menus, and school lunch trays. But it took the help of some free-spirited food freaks to get it there.

In his new book Hippie Food: How Back-to-the-Landers, Longhairs, and Revolutionaries Changed the Way We Eat, San Francisco Chronicle food writer Jonathan Kauffman unpacks the rich and often misunderstood history of natural foods, organics, and other counterculture fare. With curiosity, reverence, and humor, he makes hippie food seem downright hip again.