Aw, Shucks - the Fight for Drakes Bay Oyster Farm

If you've been lucky enough to visit the Point Reyes National Seashore, chances are you also made a stop in at the Drakes Bay Oyster Farm for some ultra-fresh bi-valves.
Whether you like oysters or not (I don't, but all my friends and relations seem to), it's fun to see Drakes Bay and the fascinating operation run by fourth generation of local family farmers.

Sadly, that opportunity may not last much longer.
For the last few years, there has been a huge cloud hanging over the community of Drakes supporters - renewal of the lease to operate an aquaculture business within national parks land. Recently, the National Parks Service denied the lease renewal; and now the matter is going to court.



 If you can make it to Petaluma on April Fool's Day (no foolin'!), enjoy some oysters for me at the fundraiser party there. If not, there's a donation button on their site, so you can throw in a few clams to help the cause.

The Art of Cooking for One

What do you fix for meals, when it's just you?
I'm partial to toast with peanut butter and bananas, myself.
But then, I'm a frequent snacker - so that's not a meal. Pair it with guacamole, chips, homemade soda, and some ice cream from the B & J's carton, and you've got a meal.

Would I serve a guest a meal like that? Nope. And many days, when it's just me in the kitchen, I'd rather serve me an elegant plate with a real entree and side dishes, too.
Saturday night, for instance, I whipped up broiled asparagus, Yukon gold potatoes, and salmon deglazed with fresh orange juice and agave syrup.
While it would have been great to have someone to chat with while snapping asparagus stems, cutting the spuds, etc., the Wailin Jennies on the stereo made for really pleasant company. And flipping through the new edition of Cooking Light kept my restless mind entertained while still paying attention to my plate and enjoying every bite. Not exact substitutes for the great pleasure of good conversation while creating and devouring a meal; but it was a lovely evening.

The key to cooking well for yourself? Be as thoughtful as you would for a treasured guest. If you would dress the table, use good china, put on music, plate the food elegantly, then do. To show your appreciation, you can always volunteer to do the dishes.

Seed Catalog Season

The Cook's Garden catalog arrived in the mail this week, just in time for dreaming about Spring.

Organic, dry-farmed Early Girl tomatoes

Leafing through it took me back to the winters of my childhood, when the ground was too hard to sink a shovel into and bare trees reached towards bleak skies threatening (or promising, on school nights) snow.

We'd sprawl in front of the fireplace with catalogs from Burpees and Parks, making our wish lists and trying to imagine the feel of heat and humidity that the photos of verdant gardens evoked.

These days, I'm not jonesing to turn over damp earth and nestle seedlings into their beds. I'd rather be cooking the ingredients than raising them, a task I leave mostly (and gratefully) to local family farms who bring their produce to my local farmers markets.

But the Cook's Garden folks seem to know this about me, for they've included tempting recipes and alluring photos. And they've called out the heirlooms and the organics. Now the seed of doubt is germinating - what if I can't find purple asparagus or pink-and-white-swirled chiogga beets at the market?
Perhaps I should try growing just a few things this year . . .

The Kitchen Imp Gets Spicy

Are you a serious locavore, but love to cook with flavors from around the world?  Then there's two pieces of good news for you:

One of many Kitchen Imp spice mixes

1.  Chef Laura Stec, author of Cool Cuisine: Taking the Bite Out of Global Warming, understands just how you feel. She suggests a pragmatic approach - buy your meat, grains, and produce as locally as you can, and save your long-distance purchases for spices and flavorings not available nearby.

2.  The Kitchen Imp, a locavore cook based in Seattle, stands ready to help you spice up your culinary adventures with hand-ground and custom-blended flavorings.  When you order from her Etsy store, she'll even include a recipe to fit your selection. And the photos and descriptions alone are worth the visit.

If you want a glimpse into the Kitchen Imp's magic, pre- or post-order, you can Like the Imp on Facebook.

Hot Harvest Nights Cool Off

Just a few weeks ago, I stopped by my favorite local farmers' market after work, and really felt the "hot" in hot harvest nights. At 6pm, it was 90 degrees outside! The market was bustling with shoppers, and full of vendors with height-of-summer produce like tomatoes, eggplant, corn and zucchini. Since then, the days have shortened noticeably and the temperatures have dropped to autumn cool levels.

This market is one of the Peninsula's many locations that keeps a short season, opening in May and closing down in late September. (I hope to catch the very last one, this coming Thursday.) Last year, I wrote an article for Patch.com about where to find markets open year-round, or later into the fall. Now I'll need to consult it again, myself.

While I always feel a bit sad when Hot Harvest Nights shutters for the winter, there is something that feels appropriately seasonal about the decision. Set up on the main street of San Carlos, with businesses on either side, the good light falling on the vendors visibly wanes in the last few weeks of the market season. Could the city bring in lights and draw shoppers throughout the fall and winter? Probably. But the crowds would certainly thin, along with the lovely anticipation of the market's re-opening in May.

A Melon Named Charlene

Two reasons (among so many) to love your local farmer's market:
1. Really ripe, just-picked produce

2. Varieties of fruits and veggies you've never heard of before

After weeks of picking up cantaloupes in the grocery store, and being disappointed that they'd come off the vine so early the stem spots were still hard and no real aroma came off them, I was delighted to find a small, yellow-orange melon at my local farmers' market. I picked it up and the sweet smell leaped towards me. The sign by it read "Charlene." Never heard of that type before, but how can I resist a melon that self-advertises so vigorously?

Charlene was delicious - delicate and a little flowery in flavor. And she told me a joke, too:
Did you hear about the family with the sad puppy? It was a Melon Collie.
(Really, don't blame me for that one. Terrible puns are Charlene's only natural defense system.)

Let the Strawberry Bonanza Begin!

Frosty freezer strawberries

After years of living in the Bay Area, the start of strawberry season still takes me by surprise. April just seems so early. But the berries in my local farmers' markets are the real deal; and they are plentiful.
This weekend I bought a three-basket set of organics, and enjoyed passing them out to neighbors on the way home. Then I ate some more, froze a bunch, and well - snacked on some more.
The frozen ones make great ice cubes, as well as smoothie and yogurt parfait ingredients.
Best of all? From now until the seasons wanes in early fall (really! it's that long), they just get sweeter. This year, I pledge to find even more ways to enjoy them.

What are Grocery Lists For?

Earlier this year, I reviewed Living the Savvy Life from a green perspective (Does Savvy = Green?).  To the extent that being savvy means investing your time, energy and money on what matters to you, rather than just accumulating stuff, I found a close correlation of underlying values. And where food is concerned, the concept of keeping the kitchen a well-organized, clean, and joyful place to spend quality time making what you enjoy eating would resonate with most foodies, including the slow food-ists and locavores.

When I started to work through implementing the good advice from Chapter 10: Food, however, I hit a stumbling block right away. As I detailed in Kitchen Inventory Confessions, getting a handle on what's in my cupboards, fridge and freezer was both daunting and humbling. Loving food as I do, I'm prone to fall into the more-is-better trap here. While doing the inventory exercise helped me pare down a bit, it's got to become an ongoing task.

Hopefully the next step, creating a master shopping list, will help with that maintenance.  It should at a minimum keep me from ever winding up again with two open jars of peanut butter in the fridge, and one waiting in the cupboard. If I can find a really good smart phone app to move the items onto, that will really tip the scales in the battle against overstocking.

To simply the process, I skipped the recommended step of dividing staples by the best stores to acquire them from, meant to help reduce running-around time and increase trip consolidation (green points for driving less). Since 90% of my groceries come from Trader Joes on my commute home from work, the occasional Costco or Whole Foods item is easy to catalog mentally.

Looking over the list I came up with, some patterns are clear, and not always consistent with how I picture myself as an eater.  Most notably, lots of dairy. Half and half for tea, low-fat organic milk for nightly cocoa, nonfat yogurt for fruit smoothies, favorite cheeses, and eggs are always in stock. Breakfast and snack foods get replenished frequently; so they make the buy-now list regularly. In contrast, meat rarely makes the list, coming home occasionally almost as an incidental.  And with the exception of spinach for salads and favorite fresh fruits for snacks, produce comes home without being summoned by a list. Whatever's in season and looks good hops into the basket (then the trick is to make sure to use it quickly, before it wilts or goes fuzzy in the crisper). As farmers market season ramps up here, it will be interesting to see if we use the master grocery list more or less than during the winter.

The flip side of the list's usefulness, once you've gotten good at avoiding waste from accidental over-buying, is making sure to keep key foods in stock. For me the biggest key to eating well is having the right ingredients on hand when I need them. That includes healthy snacks, fresh fish and produce, gluten-free staples, and basic ingredients for quick dishes made from scratch. If I run out of the good stuff, I'll default to whatever else may be handy, including all the processed packaged foods that shouldn't be in stock at home anyway. So I'm arming myself with a good list to help me make good decisions between runs to the store.

If you've tried an app you really like to help take this tip paperless, please tell us about it!

Vegetarian Tapas Recipes

Vegetarian tapas recipes alone can easily meet your appetizer needs or provide your whole tapas party menu. Though Spaniards love ham, sausage, and salt cod, they also revel in nuts, veggies, and cheeses.

Tapas are traditional Spanish bar food. Long ago, a wine glass arrived on the table with a tapa, or cover, to protect the wine. Now the word means any appetizer served on a small plate, to accompany your wine, beer, or sangria. Usually ordered a few plates at a time, each offers 3 to 4 people a nibble.

The fun of tapas lies in the variety; but it can be easy to fill up more quickly than you realize, especially with the salty stand-bys. For a party at home, make 6 to 10 selections, with enough for seconds on some.

My Favorite Vegetarian Tapas Recipes

Spanish Cheese Plate
Manchego cheese, cabrales, and mahon are the easiest to find in US stores. If they prove elusive, try a small wedge of a mild Romano, a creamy French chevre or blue, and a Dutch Gouda.

Roasted Garlic spread alone on bread, or paired with other tapas.

Roasted Almonds
A small bowl of lightly salted pre-roasted almonds will do. But if you can, find them raw and then oil, salt, and roast them yourself.

Almond Gazpacho
A creamy, cold soup with a touch of garlic. Savory and addictive.

Tosta
Similar to canapes, crostini, or bruschetta. Start with good, fresh bread thinly sliced and toast lightly in the oven at 275-300 degrees. Then top with:

• Goat or cream cheese with tapenade (olive paste) or strips of roasted red peppers
• Roasted Garlic
• Manchego cheese, or gruyere, with roasted red peppers
• Cooked asparagus spears with manchego or fontina cheese, lightly toasted.
• Aioli with fresh tomato slices, or marinated artichoke hearts, or roasted red pepper strips.

Catalan Spinach
A very simple medley of spinach, raisins, and pine nuts.

Olives
Buy an assortment of unpitted, marinated olives. (Usually near the deli, or in jars.) Kalamatas and manzanillas are favorites; but experiment with what you can find. Rinse off any excess marinade, microwave (10 seconds!) or saute very briefly to warm them. Place in a small pretty dish, 8 - 12 at a time. Refresh dish periodically.

What are your favorites?

Tasting Club - Book Review

Dina Cheney's enjoyable book introduces socially-minded food lovers to a new concept: the tasting club.
Patterned after the better known book club model, members get together at each other's homes to sample one particular food at each meeting.
Dina teaches you how to host this type of gathering, including the ideal number of guests, how to set up the space, and what to serve as drinks, palette cleansers, and accompaniments.

Strong Points:

• There is very useful background provided on each of the highlighted foods (which have separated chapters).
• The how-to's for each would put any novice at ease.
• The recipes for accompaniments look tasty.
• Gorgeous photos dress up every section of the book.
• The perspective is well-educated on food, but not elitist - you need not be a 'foodie' to enjoy it.

Points to Improve:

• Stong bias for foods from New England may leave some readers at a loss.
• Local foods could be promoted much more strongly. The emphasis on imported foods serves to reinforce the 'good things only come from abroad' fallacy.

Foods Highlighted:
Wine
Chocolate
Cheese
Honey
Tea
Olive Oil
Cured Meats
Apples
Beer

My Twist:
Follow Dina's template, but highlight the best seasonal foods of your local area.

Saute Secrets Video

The first cooking demonstration of the season focuses on fundamentals - how to bring out the best flavors of fresh, local produce.
Laura Stec, chef and co-author of Cool Cuisine: Taking the Bite Out of Global Warming, teaches technique to host Angelina Le Grix, using broccoli from the farmers market.

Fruit Smoothies - Not Just for Breakfast Anymore

This December, I'm thankful for the farmers market strawberries in the freezer. Without them, making fruit smoothies in the winter just wouldn't feel right. Although half the fun of smoothies is the free rein to experiment, to 'customize the food creation experience' (also known as playing with your food), I played around with ingredients just until I found my favorite combination, then stuck with it.

My Fruit Smoothie Blend:

• One nice, ripe banana
• A few chunks of frozen mango
• A few frozen organic strawberries
• Several dollops of plain, nonfat yogurt
• Some not-too-sweet juice, like pomegranate or limeade

Do I measure? No. Every batch comes out a little different, letting me sample and comment as if I had actually been innovative.
I throw all these into a Vita Mix or a regular blender, let them sit to temper a bit, then blend til it's soup. Mmm . . . cool, smooth and sweet like a milkshake, with less of a sugar rush, and ever so much more virtuous. Refreshing in the summer, and a little dose of summer in the depths of winter.

Servings
My version, as described above, serves two. You can also make the whole batch and freeze half, to serve one person twice. Just let it thaw sufficiently to stir all ice crystals in and get the lovely creamy consistency back.

Calories
About 100 per serving, if you use just fruit and non-fat yogurt.

Fat
Zero grams! But considerably higher if you substitute ice cream or a creamier yogurt (really not necessary, if you use a good brand).

Fiber
About 3 grams per serving. Mostly that's soluble fiber, plus a wee bit of insoluble (you need both for a high-fiber diet ). To work more in, try a sprinkle of ground flax seed.

Carbs and Sugar
Some people are worried about all the sugar in a fruit smoothie, either because of diabetes, the candida diet, or a low-carb diet like Atkins.
Bear in mind the sugars in the yogurt are low, and you are having a half banana, 2-3 strawberries, a few mango chunks, and a splash of juice in one serving. If your diet allows that, you are not only ok but also getting the benefit of the calcium, phyto-nutrients, and fiber. Pairing it with some low-fat protein might make it a healthy breakfast food, even with health concerns to watch. And a half-serving, frozen, would make a nice treat when you crave ice cream.

Is there any protein?
Yes! Fruits and vegetables do have protein; and dairy can be a vegetarian protein source, too. Most Americans get too much protein, not too little; but if you are a vegetarian body builder or other type of athlete, try adding some of your favorite protein powder.

Can you make a vegan fruit smoothie?
Yes. With yogurt, the standard version fits well into a lacto vegetarian diet (ie, no meat, but dairy is allowed). In that way, it is like a mango lassi at an Indian restaurant.
To skip the lactose, try a soy substitute, or almond milk or rice milk (plus ice). If your substitute comes pre-sweetened, be aware of issues with candida and diabetes. On the plus side, this version would have no cholesterol.

Save me, Oatmeal!

That candy jar on the counter. Those leftover meeting treats in the lunch room. The bag of Cornnuts lurking in my cupboard. It’s just too darn easy to graze all day without thinking.

Steel-cut oats with apple chunks

In the late morning and the afternoons during the cool months, I see more and more co-workers leaving our shared kitchen with a steaming bowl of oats. Some are pre-cinnamon and sugared, some plain from a tin of instant, some cooked at home and re-heated in the microwave.

My oatmeal snack is always steel-cut oats, slow cooked at home on the weekend and ready on demand at the office. Since I buy the organic oats in bulk at the grocery, each serving costs less than a nickel. The cooked oats themselves have no sugar and no fat but quite a bit of fiber and vitamins. A cheap, convenient, super food.

But I don’t gravitate towards a bowl of bland virtue, ever. What attracts me so many mornings and afternoons is the lovely texture – a mix of creamy and chewy – and the blank canvas for flavor. Often I am satisfied with just butter and a touch of salt. Or a drizzle of honey, with chunks of fresh apple and a sprinkle of cinnamon. Or a dollop of jam. Or a spoonful of peanut butter. Sweet or savory, only imagination and available ingredients limit the options.

However I serve myself, I’m always grateful for the satisfied taste buds and nice level blood sugar. Best of all, my bowl of comfort keeps me safe from the mindless snacks I don’t actually want but can fall prey to if they sneak up on me when I’m hungry and unprepared.

Food by the Boatload

When visitors to Venice complain about the high cost of meals there, I don't hear much recognition of the effort it takes to get food into the city. Yes, prices are higher at restaurants that cater to tourists. And yes, the two-tier pricing system, for drinks and snacks taken al banco (standing at the bar) v. with table service requires decision-making that Americans are unaccustomed to.

Boat on Venice canal unloads to produce stand

But the high price of food overall is not a racket, despite the assumptions of many shocked travelers. Four euro for a can of Diet Coke! (Or 1.50 on the street.) Two and half euro for a single avocado! Seems exorbitant, until you consider what it takes for edibles to reach the neighborhood shop or cafe.

Everything that makes it to the city's interior streets  finishes its trip by handtruck, in small loads with a person attached. That person hand-lifted each parcel off of a small boat that fit through the small canals.

What actually surprised me, given the logistics, was how affordable many staples remained. We had an apartment with a nice kitchen, and so were able to pick up rice, polenta, fresh fish, salad greens, and wine on our strolls through various neighborhoods. The comparability in pricing of some basics to grocery prices at home made me realize how much of our food costs go to the overhead that large stores carry. By practicing those savvy shopper skills we often forget at home, we ate simpler, fresher meals that we lingered over and enjoyed tremendously. That really took the bite out of the occasional restaurant bill.

Floating Farmers Market

In Venice, one reason food costs so much is that it all comes to the islands via boat. Often from a big boat to a little boat, then by a handtruck to a cafe, hotel or storefront. In the case of items like canned soda, all that handling can drive the per-item cost way up.

When the process can be short-cut, food items stay much more reasonable in cost. For example, a boat that fits in the canals and only has to travel from the nearby farming area (such as San Erasmo) can offer produce at rates I would find a pleasant surprise in a grocery store in the United States.

People who live in cities with lots of tourists and inflated costs for basics must always find ways to adapt and manage. In the case of Venice, the best solutions also seem to come with the bonus of beauty. The floating farmers market by Campo San Barnabo fits the bill in every way.

National Food Day

Today was Food Day in the US, an event simultaneously disheartening and encouraging.

On the down side, having to declare a day to focus on real food suggests just how far we've wandered from having a real food culture. Would France have a Food Day? Or Italy? No - they have agri-tourism, stores closed mid-day to facilitate long, sit-down lunches, cafes with sidewalk tables for the simple pleasure of lingering over a cup of coffee while people-watching, and protests when a McDonald's is proposed in any historic venue.

On the plus side, the event was well-organized and clearly articulates a manifesto for constructive change. In addition, the publicity includes a host of excellent resources for interested Americans.

The real tests of Food Day's success will be what we do after this inaugural year, and how many years it takes to make the exercise obsolete.

Tomato Watermelon Salad

Tomato Watermelon Salad

Some culinary surprises are good - like almond gazpacho, for instance. As lovely as that was, however, the best discovery of the summer had to be tomato watermelon salad, garnished with a mild feta cheese and lardons, and drizzled with a red jalapeno vinaigrette.
I could have eaten mine and then stolen the other three plates, had my family dawdled. Alas, they devoured every bite also. Like summer itself, we were sad to see it go so quickly.

Purple Cauliflower

purple cauliflower - Vancouver, WA farmers market

One of the many things I like about farmers markets is the interesting varieties of produce there. While grocery stores tend to carry just the most well-known, easily recognized fruits and vegetables, family farmers like to experiment, and bring the results to the market to share.  Where else would you find Armenian striped cucumbers, dry-farmed Early Girl tomatoes, corni di toro peppers, white eggplant, or even romanescu?  And, of course, someone who can tell you what that odd fruit or veggie is, and how to enjoy it at home.

Berry Seasons

Blueberries and marionberries in Vancouver, WA

Having lived in the northwest for so many years, the biggest shock for me at the farmers market has been the length of strawberry season in central California.  In Seattle, strawberries are glorious for a full month, in a good year. That month very rarely begins in late May, but more typically in mid-June. In the Bay Area,   I have found them beginning as early as February and as late as November. They tend to be a bit too firm and acidic at both ends of the season, but truly succulent at the peak, from June through August.

Blueberries start earlier here too, and seem to peter out a bit earlier than in the Northwest. Up there, marionberries, raspberries and blackberries arrive in late July and can last through early September. In fact, the invasive  species of Himalayan blackberry perfumes the air in August, along bike trails and within public parks. Why go to the farmers market for them when you can take a bucket to the rampant overgrowth within a few blocks of most people's houses?

For a locavore, California's longer seasons for many types of produce makes adhering to a target area (whether a home county, a 100-mile radius, or whatever metric one chooses) a bit easier. But at the same time, there is something about a very short season for a culinary treat that makes it that much more exquisite when it arrives.

Local Strawberries, All Year

Eating locally necessarily entails eating seasonally, as well - for the most part.  In fact, one of the joys of being a locavore is learning what ripens when in your area, anticipating that time, and making the most of it while it lasts.  Asparagus arrives in the market in spring, and for six weeks we put it in crepes, soups, salads, and grill mixes.  Tomatoes show up in the spring here too, but don't pop with flavor until late June or July (right into September, some years). For months, we go tomato-wild, indulging in caprese, tomato sandwiches, and a multitude of pairings.

organic strawberries fresh from the freezer

For many types of produce, just having them fresh in season satisfies me.  But there are a few items, like strawberries, that I want to use all year long. In season, I put them into many dishes; but in the winter, only into my stand-by breakfast and healthy snack, the fruit smoothie.  For years I bought bagged frozen berries from the grocery, feeling sheepish. Then I realized what a bargain a half-flat of organic strawberries at the season's peak really is; and I started freezing my own.  With a little forethought, it's easy to put up an ample supply for the winter.

Tips:
1. Don't cut or wash them until you are ready to freeze them.  If you need to store them first, put them while they are cool and dry into an air-tight container in the refrigerator.
2. When ready, de-leaf and cut them up in batches, then wash but do not dry.
3. Lay them on a tray, not quite touching, and place that in the freezer.
4. Wait a half hour or so, then transfer them to a bag.  The little layer of frost on each one keeps them from clumping up too much in the bag.
5. Put the bag in the freezer right away, to avoid thawing and clumping on re-freezing.