Eggs

For 2011, I will offer an eggs only CSA to those who are interested. Members will be able to pick up in Oakley, Walnut Creek, Danville and Orinda.

The hens are all pastured and happy in Brentwood. Eggs are $6 a dozen and members can sign up for weekly or alternate week deliveries.

Greens and Beans

I love bitter greens with beans: white bean and rapini soup, mustard greens and garbanzos, pinto beans with lamb's quarters....I think they are a great compliment to one another. Below is a recipe I really recommend from Alice Waters.

White Bean and Wilted Greens Soup
From the book Chez Panisse Vegetables by Alice Waters
Serves 6
Cook Time 2 hours
1½ cups dried cannellini or Great Northern beans
2 medium tomatoes
1 medium yellow onion
1 small carrot
3 cloves garlic
~ Olive oil
2 bay leaves
1 small piece prosciutto, with rind, or smoked bacon
6 cups chicken stock
3 tsp. salt
1 bunch (about 1 pound) spicy greens (arugula, mustard greens, or turnip greens)

12 sage leaves and fresh Parmesan cheese for garnish

Soak the beans overnight.
Peel, seed, and chop the tomatoes. Set aside.
Peel and cut the onion and carrot into small dice; peel and chop the garlic very fine. Place the onion, carrot, and garlic in a nonreactive soup pot with some olive oil and a splash of water; cook until translucent. Add the bay leaves, drained beans, and prosciutto or bacon, and cook for a few minutes more. Add the tomatoes to the beans and stew for another minute or so.
Pour in the stock and bring the soup to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer and cook for about 1¼ hours, stirring occasionally. Add the salt after about an hour. The beans should be fully cooked, soft but not falling apart.

Add the greens, washed and cut into 1-inch strips, and simmer, uncovered, for another 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, heat some olive oil in a small frying pan. Fry the sage leaves in the oil for a few seconds, a few at a time (more than a few seconds and they’ll turn black). Drain on a paper towel or absorbent cloth.

When the soup is done, ladle it into soup bowls and serve, garnished with a few shavings of Parmesan and the fried sage leaves.

I also think that peppery greens are delicious with either sweet or astringent fruits. So, arugula with Fuyu persimmons, tangerines or Fuji apples and a light vinaigrette are a favorite of mine.

The 2011 Season has Begun

Yahoo!
Another year of eating locally has begun. February 22 is the first day of the season. We will be getting many delicious greens, as usual for this time of year. We will have Fuji apples, Dancy tangerines, arugula, tatsoi rosettes, fava leaves, wild radish greens and stalks of green garlic.

Since it's still cold, try this recipe for
Green Garlic Soup from Chez Panisse.

Ingredients
1 pound green garlic (about 8 to 10 plants)
1/2 pound new potatoes
2 medium onions
1/4 pound unsalted butter
Salt
2 quarts chicken or vegetable stock

Instructions
Cut the garlic into thin rounds or half-circles. Unless very tough, the lower foot or so of the stem and leaves are fine to use. Peel the potatoes and cut into 1/2-inch cubes. Peel and chop the onions into small dice. Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed pot, add the onions, and cook slowly until translucent and tender. Salt, and add the garlic and potatoes. Cook these together for 5 minutes, then pour in the stock and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer and cook the soup until the potatoes are tender. Check the seasoning. This soup can be served rustic and chunky, or puréed.

Eat Outside the Box in 2011

Eat Outside the Box will start up in 2011 on February 21. We will have pick up sites in Oakley, Orinda and Walnut Creek. Contact me if you are interested in signing up.

Fall

As leaves begin to fall so do CSA member numbers. I don't really understand this phenomenon. In September and half of October we still get plenty of summer produce. The weather gets cool and people tend to cook more. So, what is the reason that when fall arrives, membership falls with the leaves?

I assume people get busier since kids are in school. Parents have to go to sports events, after-school activities and help kids with homework. But, really, it makes so much sense to me to continue a CSA membership at this time of year because eating home cooked food brings a sense of peace to a family. Sitting down for a meal during this hectic time of year is calming. Cooking is almost meditative.

Oh, well.

Tess's Grapes

This morning I juiced some Black Emerald grapes from Tess's Garden. Wow. It was a beautiful ruby color and was so refreshing. My son Duncan and I drank it all in about ten seconds. I am wondering how it would be to make grape jelly using these or other seedless grapes. I may give it a try.

My crabapple jelly was less than successful. It didn't gel. I'm pretty sure it's because I reduced the sugar. I'm going to pick more crabapples and do it again.

By the way, Tess's Garden is trying to raise funds to build a commercial community kitchen in Brentwood, Contra Costa County. They are listed on the Pepsi Refresh Challenge this month. Vote for them. There will also be a fundraising bar-b-que at the garden on August 28.

Keep eating local.

Fruit, fruit and more fruit

Wow, it is certainly high season for stone fruits here in Contra Costa County. We started getting cherries in early June and have moved on to apricots, peaches, plums and nectarines. So juicy and sweet when they are harvested at the peak of ripeness. But most consumers buy these delicacies in the supermarket. Many producers sell to wholesalers from far distances who want a fruit that ships well. As a result, the fruit is picked unripe with the hopes that it will ripen on the shelf.

My sons had never had a peach directly off a tree before we moved to California in 2000. As a result, they didn't think they liked peaches or other stone fruits. Once they met some of the farmers who grow our fruit, they decided to try a peach. I'll never forget the day several years later when one of my sons encouraged a friend to try a peach at our house. "Really," he said, "you won't ever taste a better peach. They're the best." I can't remember if his friend agreed, but I do. Bring on the stone fruits!