I Heart Farms

The Chef's Farmer: Peter Jacobsen

I only know "Robert40" (his username) virtually, but I owe him a debt of gratitude. It was on Tuesday that he posted at a food forum we frequent, asking "Who is Peter Jacobsen?" He'd done some research, and in Googling, had produced a list of dishes at French Laundry, which you may or may not know is generally regarded at one of the best restaurants in the world. You may or may not know that Thomas Keller, the chef, is the subject of one of my favorite food-themed books ever, The Soul of a Chef, written by Michael Ruhlman, who is (not surprisingly) one of my favorite writers. (Certain foodies will know Ruhlman to be a buddy of another favorite writer, Anthony Bourdain, whose Dr. Jekyll and Mister Foul Mouth make me certain he's got a heavy Gemini influence in his birth chart.)  Ruhlman's work with Keller resulted in their collaboration on The French Laundry Cookbook, famed for its labor-intensive devotion to producing dishes with incredible flavors.

Like Manresa in Los Gatos, when you go to French Laundry, you are advised to do the chef's tasting. Thomas Keller is devoted to bringing forth the essence of his ingredients, and to bold and flavor combinations, and he is famed for his resourcefulness in finding the best purveyors of the ingredients he seeks.

More Tidbits

Pictured here: I think it's cilantro sprouting at Ella Bella Farm last week. (The next photograph is also out at Ella Bella Farm.)

• Here's a treat for you. I found a beautiful essay online: "My Grandfather's Earthworm Farm."

• If you are on the central coast of California, and are a farmer or a business that supports organic/sustainable agriculture (restaurant, market, etcetera), it's not too late to get listed in the CAFF Local Food Guide. CAFF is the Community Alliance with Family Farmers, and you might have seen their "Buy Fresh, Buy Local" sticker campaign. they produce a food guide listing CSAs, farmers markets, farms, restaurants, caterers, and even school programs that support buying from local farms. Just click here to go to their site to sign up. The deadline is Monday, October 31. 

Who You Callin' Bossy?

From the "There'll Always Be an England" files: cows that milk themselves.

I can't wait to hear what Ron Garthwaite thinks about this business.

And the latest edition of EatFeed is all about autumn.

That's all for now. Just a quickie.

Thanks for visiting.

Gobble, Gobble

Last night, I made soup from the beautiful Marina Di Chioggia pumpkin from Crystal Bay Farm. It was a labor of love, requiring both the food processor and the blender, and a great deal more stock than the recipe I used stated. I think this is a dense pumpkin: the pith and seeds were not wet and stringy at all.

I roasted a head of garlic, too, and threw some of that in, along with coriander, cumin, and a little cayenne. (The spices were a variation on a recipe from A New Way to Cook.) For kicks, I topped it with some of the Bodega Bay goat cheese I got from Ferry Plaza last weekend, and that was a great match. You can see how the spice darkened the color, which was so bright it surprised me when I cut into the pumpkin.

I would make this again, but I think I'd organize differently. There is no way two pounds of pumpkin fits in a food processor, much less with the addition of chicken stock. So I'd purée in batches. I might also roast the pumpkin with a bain-marie, and let the steam help soften it.

We also had a small roasted chicken from TLC Ranch, along with roasted carrots, potatoes, shallots, and orange bells.

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Today I am researching regional Thanksgiving recipes. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday: gratitude makes such a nicer showing than greed and compulsory gift-giving. I'll have more to say about it all later, but wanted to take the opportunity to share a coupon code from LocalHarvest.org for $5 off the price of a turkey. They have heritage turkeys (woo hoo!) -- just plug in code #TRK2005 at check-out, and you will get the discount.  

The Tomato Curator: Cynthia Sandberg

Last month, I got an e-mail from Cynthia Sandberg asking me to come up to photograph her tomato stand. Having never seen it in full flush before, I jumped at the chance. It seems that Sunset magazine was coming for a visit, and Cynthia had gussied everything up: "It's never looked better here, and I just want to get some pictures. You're such a good photographer--would you do it for me?" Happy to oblige!

So Logan and I lit out for Ben Lomond, and spent a couple of hours at Love Apple Farm. Yow!

Cynthia and I have become good friends, and it's way beyond our mutual love of tomatoes. Of which she grew 145 varieties this summer. You read that correctly: one hundred and forty five kinds of tomatoes, nearly all heirlooms. Earlier in the year, I bought six seedlings from her, including an Anana's Noir, which is one of Cynthia's favorites, as well as Julia Child, Cuor Di Bue, and others. Alas, the snails ate off all the paper labels, and we planted mystery seedlings.

Autumn Is Here

THE GREATEST PUMPKIN PATCH EVER
Logan and I got out to two farms yesterday. In the morning, we returned to Crystal Bay Farm, out in Watsonville and close to Claravale Dairy and Vanessa Bogenholm's strawberry farm. Farmer Jeff Fiorovich was there: the happy prisoner of the pumpkin stand he'd told me about earlier in the summer. He called his wife, Lori, out to meet us, and Logan added two new members to his international fan club.

I'll have an extensive list from Jeff later, with all the varieties and descriptions, but check out the Beautiful Farms gallery for a peek at some truly beautiful and unusual pumpkins and gourds. More to come there.

Jeff and Lori clearly live for the Halloween season: their patch is decorated with ghoulish masks and oddities to delight the children who visit in droves. While we were there, a preschool group of a half dozen or so toddlers took a tour, while Lori and Jeff hung out with Logan and me. Lori took Logan to feed the goats and her pony: strawberry leaves are a favorite with the Nubian sisters. Jeff showed me the many varieties he's growing, and all I could think was, "This guy is as geeky about pumpkins as I am about fonts!" (I mean this in a good way, of course.)

Slow, slow, quick, quick, slow!

Pictured at left: Chef Ben Sims shopping at the farmers market.

I'm Back.
The hiatus for the past week and a half is unintentional, and believe me "I'd Rather Be Blogging" than enduring another minute of the continuing circumstances in our family right now. But today I have a free morning and the energy to write about last weekend, which was all about Slow Food and real food. Following this will be a couple or three other little blog entries that I want to keep separate.

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A Date with a Sturgeon.
With Logan abruptly out of town over the weekend, we found ourselves with actual grown-up free time for the first time in a long time. The last time Logan wasn't here all weekend, Bob had to work. Not this weekend. He asked me out to dinner on Friday, and I knew this was the perfect opportunity to go to Ristorante Avanti, one of Santa Cruz's best restaurants, to try the food of the new chef, Ben Sims. I'd run into owner Cindy Geise at the Wednesday market downtown, who introduced me to Ben, formerly of Oswald (drool, slurp) and Chez Panisse. A native Santa Cruzan, Ben is considered to be the perfect fit for Avanti, who have been serving local/seasonal menus for nineteen or twenty years now.

Three Farmers & a Chef: Harvest Dinner at Theo's

Without going into details, the equivalent of a Category Two hurricane has been plowing our family for a couple of weeks, and I have been unable to post much lately. But things took a turn for the better on Thursday night last week, and Bob and I went to a special Harvest Dinner at Theo's here in Soquel, which is one of the best restaurants in Santa Cruz county. I've been wanting to go for over a year, since I did some photography for them in exchange for a gift certificate. Kirsten, my farmer friend at Everett Family Farm, provided all the incentive needed when she told me that Chef Nicci Tripp had requested to be paired with their farm, and that his multi-course menu would cost only $40. With the exception of the blueberries and figs, all the fruits, vegetables, and herbs were grown by Kirsten and Jasmine.

Nicci is said to be an inventive and talented chef, and Theo's is well-known for its wine list and elegant menus. To say they enjoy a cult following is no exaggeration: one man flew in from Los Angeles to attend the Harvest Dinner.