A Tall Glass of Water

Annie Leonard has done it again!
With  The Story of Bottled Water, the creator of The Story of Stuff packs all you really need to know about bottled water into eight entertaining minutes. It's refreshing as, well, a tall cool glass from the tap.



She even includes some bigger-picture steps to take than my simple tips for switching back from bottled to tap water at home (including making your own soda with juice, tap water, and a seltzer machine). Cheers, Annie!

Produce after Dark

For my trip to San Luis Obispo, the one event I looked forward to with the most anticipation and curiosity was the Thursday farmers market, held from 6 to 9pm.  In March that equals dusk to dark, mostly.  Markets in my area target daylight-only hours, reducing their season if they start in the afternoon.  How would they keep the customers, once the light got sketchy?

As it turns out, there are four parts to the answer:

1. A street fair atmosphere - music and performers at several locations.
2. Open, lit businesses on either side of the closed-to-traffic downtown blocks.
3. Lots of hot food vendors, providing an after-work supper to shoppers.
4. Great local produce (such as the kiwis in the photo, from the only local farm growing them), at tables that often added their own lighting as the sun set.

As spring ripens and summer blooms, I expect the decent offerings of produce will expand to a real bounty.  As it was in mid-March, the greens from "America's salad bowl" were plentiful, with accompaniments of local citrus and other odds and ends.

Green Wine

Everyone seems to define the new buzzwords "green wine" a bit differently.  To some, organic is the key.  To others, using primarily IPM (integrated pest management) and preserving local habitat.  Some also count practices like not burning the vine clippings,  powering vineyard equipment with biodiesel, and growing some varietals without irrigation.  Like most products using the 'green' label in marketing, you really just have to ask the producer what they mean.  In the case of Wolff Vineyards in San Luis Obispo, the answer gets quite lengthy, pairs well with amusing anecdotes, and comes with a palate cleanser of great views and fresh breezes.

The Wolff family's 125 acres of Edna Valley vines produce quite a variety of grapes, including two whites and several reds.   None of the finished vines are mass produced, or marketed too far afield.  The family of vinters prefer to have a small, loyal following of repeat customers.
While the 55 acres of dry-farmed chardonnay intrigued me the most, the family has been implementing a host of restorative practices on their land, well-summarized on their website.  Getting the full story is just one good excuse to visit.

First Strawberries

Strawberries have been on groceries shelves here in the Bay Area nearly all winter.  But that doesn't make them in season, locally.  Lucky for me, the season for growers vending at my local farmers markets is incredibly long (generally April - October, with a bit of a shoulder extension in good years).  I only have to quick-freeze a couple quarts to hold me through the dry spell.

Finding myself a few hours south, and close to the Salinas valley's produce bounty, I was delighted to discover one variety on offer at the San Luis Obispo Thursday evening market.
I brought home a three-pack, about 3 quarts worth.  About 2 quarts worth, after snacking on the car ride home.
The first strawberries of the season always surprise and delight me.  They lack the height-of season exquisite sweetness of mid-summer berries, but make up for it by reminding me what that distinctive mix of acid and sweetness brings.  And by giving me months of simple, ripe pleasure to look forward to.

Big Sky Cafe

A recent work trip introduced me to San Luis Obispo, California, a charming college town (Go, Cal Poly!) nestled among gorgeous hills still green from winter rains.  For a place its size, it offers an impressive range of good eats.  Top honors this trip go to Big Sky Cafe, which was so good the first night that I returned on my only other free night, to try a bit more of the menu.

Although the interior is upscale-casual, the prices are very reasonable, the service friendly and efficient, the menu is clearly the star.  Three names appear inside the printed menu:  the head chef, the sous chef, and the pastry chef.  And all of them deserve credit the beautifully composed and ingeniously designed dishes.

Using the tagline 'fresh market cuisine,' the back of the menu thanks all the local producers of the noticeably high-quality ingredients utilized.

The Morrocan vegetable tagine over couscous was lovely, though not as stunning and complex as my first night's entree, a lamb shank with roasted vegetables (and potato-zucchini latkes!) that rivaled a fine osso buco.

The dessert menu, like the appetizers, salads, sides, and entrees offered, was not extensive.  But I would rather have a modest menu of great choices, with nightly specials rotated in for variety, than a huge inventory of mediocre fare.  The descriptions bordered on food porn; and the desserts lived up to their descriptions.  Shown above are the meyer lemon panna cotta (with blueberries and a pine nut crust) and the beignet with a dark chocolate filling (best shared by three non-diabetics).  The first night's delights, a Chinese 5-spice creme brulee with a garnish of sugar-cooked citrus slices, and an 'amor brujo' chocolate tart, were pure rapture.

Although I'd like to explore more restaurants in SLO, I'll need at least one meal each visit at Big Sky.

Reality and Revolution - Thanks, Jamie Oliver

Generally speaking, reality shows exhaust my patience in the first few minutes of contrived drama.  But I just couldn't resist watching the first episode of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution.  It's clearly scripted and edited to be the classic hero's journey, full of tremendous obstacles to overcome.  But it also portrays some truths about our industrialized food system in a way that millions of Americans not inclined to watch a documentary can swallow.  Using a British celebrity chef as the instigator for school lunch reform and general education in small town USA is clever - our notable home-grown slow food advocates (Alice Waters, Michael Pollen, etc) just don't carry the star power needed with those outside the choir.
The first episode provoked a number of visceral reactions from me, while watching, and a bit of cynicism on reflection; but my lasting impression is one of gratitude and relief.   When a show like this makes it to network TV, I have hope that a revolution in food policy and practice really is possible.