I Heart Farms

True Confessions

I went down to visit my friend, Justin Severino, at his butcher shop. I haven't seen him in a couple of weeks, and he was sending me home with some stuff, which I told him I'd freeze until the Chinese New Year's moratorium on pork is lifted (fifteen days after the Chinese New Year, on February 33).

So I'm down there for a couple of hours, helping a little and shooting the breeze, and he pulls some bacon he'd cured himself out of the walk-in, and slaps a whole pound into the giant cast iron skillet. Like, 24 pieces of bacon.

Justin shares the kitchen with Companion Bakers, and there were three women baking, one of whom is a winemaker. She breaks open a bottle of very very good zinfandel, and Justin makes the biggest bacon-avocado sandwiches I've ever seen—for everyone in the kitchen: seven people. He puts three strips on mine and his and his wife's sandwiches, and I eat half and wrap up half for Bob.

Then Justin tells me not to ever write on my weblog again about not eating pork for the holiday, and I answered (as though I had not just eaten half of three very thick pieces of bacon) that I couldn't wait for Chinese New Year's to be over.

That's when his wife cried out, "Tana, you just ate bacon!"

Well, so I did.

I'm off the wagon now, and tomorrow hope to make lasagna with the Italian sausage with mushrooms he gave me.

All I can say is it's a good thing I'm not Chinese, or I would be in disgrace. Confession is good for the soul, and so is bacon.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: “You must have been warned against letting the golden hours slip by; but some of them are golden only because we let them slip by.” —James M. Barrie

Thanks for visiting.

P.S. Go look at the last page of the March issue of Sunset magazine: Nell Newman's featured, with a good mention of the River Cafe and Cheese Shop. Yay.

Another Update

Good morning!

News from here: the website I've been working on for two weeks went live, for my friend, chef Suvir Saran. He's also started his own weblog, so go have a peek.

The Butlers at Lindencroft Farm tell me they have almost filled their CSA memberships, so lucky you if you're one of their subscribers.

Marcia at The Tablehopper sent me a note to let me know about a special dinner at a Silicon Valley restaurant. Read on.

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Checking In: A New Farm, a New Project

This is not my photograph, but it is a place I look forward to visiting—maybe this summer.

A dear friend has become a client, and my newest project is to design a website for Suvir Saran. Some of you already know him as the author of Indian Home Cooking, and some might have had the pleasure of eating at Dévi in New York City, where he and Co-Executive Chef, Hemant Mathur, produce some of the most delicious and amazing Indian food on earth.

Suvir called me up on Sunday, and asked if I could help him design a website that addresses his multi-faceted life—as chef, consultant, author, traveler, and now, gentleman farmer. He and his partner, Charlie, have acquired a beautiful piece of property in upstate New York: on 67 acres, they will be raising goats, sheep, and chickens. The name of the farm is also the name of his cookbook, to be released in October: American Masala.

I'll post when we launch the site: we are extremely pleased with the design and look of it right now.

I've Been Culinated!

Pictured here: the farmers markets are filled with winter squash. Because, hey, it's winter!

Welcome to readers of Culinate, a very high-quality new food site on the scene, who featured my weblog today, and many kind thanks to Liz Crain for her appreciation of the work.

Rain has come to Santa Cruz, which is good news, as the very dry January was not looking good for the farmers.

If you're missing my writing, well, I have a recommendation for you—go check out "Firefly" as she writes, earnestly and well, at I Live on a Farm. I fell into it the other night and found it quite enjoyable.

That's all I've got for today: I am going to a meeting about (finally!) getting a website built for Justin Severino, our community butcher. And hey, talk about dirty. Some miscreant at the Santa Cruz Farmers Market on Wednesday slashed the back tire on the company van. I'm assuming it was some PETA freakazoid, who will then go brag of his manly conquest, but it was a rank, cowardly thing to do. SCPD on the spot got a good description, and hopefully something judicious will transpire.

That's all for today.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:  “The profoundest of all sensualities is the sense of truth and the next deepest sensual experience is the sense of justice.” — D. H. Lawrence

Thanks for visiting! Thanks, Culinate!

Hiatus, But First: This

I just completed a new website design for my friends, Linda and Steven Butler, at Lindencroft Farm up in Ben Lomond. I had written about Linda before, back in November—I was so impressed with the beauty and integrity of her vegetables. Every single thing I saw at the farm was gleaming with health.

When I visited Lindencroft earlier this week, I found major construction: Steven had been digging (and digging and digging, with their tractor) lots of new beds for 200 asparagus crowns and more that they are going to be planting. Fruit trees had arrived, and there is a great deal still growing, even despite the frost, the freeze, and the lack of rain. (By the way, "Lindencroft" is a combination of "Linda" and "Steven," and apparently, unbeknownst to me, "croft" means "farm." So technically "Lindencroft Farm" would be redundant, but I recommended including "farm" so people wouldn't get confused.)

The Butlers (no relation to me, but maybe they're related to my Yankee stepfather) are just wonderful people. If you are in their CSA, count yourself as being a very fortunate person. TWENTY kinds of peppers, and FORTY kinds of tomatoes: start there. The list of the seasonal produce makes me drool. And it's their asparagus that secured them a spot in the Santa Cruz farmers markets: hooray for that. (They'll be there in the springtime, and will also have their fire-roasted peppers to offer—lucky us!)