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Eat this now

Seasonal Pantry at your fingertips

Fresh From Our Farmers: Middleton Farm

Thursday, at 12:22 by

Nancy Skall of Middleton Farm  grows what may be the best asparagus I’ve ever tasted. Stalks range from about the diameter of a chopstick to that of your big thumb and shoppers in the know reach for the fattest ones. The thinnest stalks are not, as many restaurant menus imply, baby asparagus. They are actually the shoots of older plants. For the best-tasting most-tender asparagus, get fat stalks and either roast them in a hot oven or grill them over hot… Read More »

Fresh From Our Farmers: Healdsburg Market Opens

Thursday, at 9:18 by

At 9 a.m. Saturday morning, the legendary cowbell will ring in the first Healdsburg farmers market of 2013. The opening of this market heralds the beginning of the abundant season, when we’re no longer gasping with delight at those first precious radishes and instead are racing to keep up with everything from fresh favas and green garlic to strawberries and zucchini. This year, the market opens with a new de-facto partner, SHED, located across the street from the market’s north… Read More »

Fresh From Our Farmers: Sebastopol Berry Farm

Friday, at 4:14 by

As days shorten and evenings turn cold, there’s a sense of dismay among those of us who eat seasonally: Summer fruit is over, we sigh. But not to worry, not yet. Gravensteins may be gone and peaches, plums and nectarines are winding down, but there are plenty of melons, grapes, pears, and raspberries and likely will be for several weeks. “We’ll have raspberries until the first hard frost,” Gloria Vigil of Sebastopol Berry Farm says, adding that such a freeze… Read More »

Fresh From Our Farmers: Redwood Empire Farm

Sunday, at 7:46 by

For eight years, Jeff Russell has farmed in east Santa Rosa, on Rincon Valley land purchased decades ago by his great aunt. Today, fruit trees–including French prune plums–planted more than a hundred years ago and likely purchased directly from Luther Burbank are still productive. Russell chose Redwood Empire Farm as a name that embraced this region’s history. In 2007 Ariel Dillon, who grew up on a farm west of Petaluma, joined Russell in his farming endeavor. Dillon and Russell married… Read More »

Fresh From Our Farmers: The Return of Bloomfield Farms

Sunday, at 7:43 by

Call it Bloomfield 2.0, Bloomfield Reborn or the Return of Bloomfield: Bloomfield Farms is back. For fifteen years, the farm–eighty acres hidden in plain view near the intersection of Roblar and Valley Ford Roads in Bloomfield–thrived. Under the direction of Mike Collins, one of the world’s leading permaculture authorities, the farm provided such restaurants as Berkeley’s Chez Panisse and natural foods businesses like Amy’s Kitchen with high quality certified organic produce. Yet with no farm stand and no presence at… Read More »

My favorite peach recipes, plus yours?

Wednesday, at 12:59 by

As promised in today’s Fresh From Our Farmers, which focuses on Dry Creek Peach & Produce and which you can read here, here are some of my favorite peach recipes from the Seasonal Pantry archives. If you have a favorite recipe using peaches, tell us about it in the comment section below. In today’s column, I also promised Johanna Monroe’s recipe for Hungarian Sweet Peppers, which you’ll find at the end of this post. Wild Arugula with Peaches, Prosciutto & Drunken… Read More »

Share Your Favorite Summer Dishes Here

Wednesday, at 12:11 by

In today’s Seasonal Pantry, which you can read here, I ask for your favorite ways to enjoy summer’s bounty. What do you do with Gravenstein apples, other than eat them? Do you make pesto at home? What is your favorite way to enjoy summer tomatoes? Got a trick with melons? Do you make Santa Rosa Plum tarts or galettes? Where do you get most of your summer produce? What are you drinking this summer? Please share here.  

Fresh From Our Farmers: Dry Creek Peach & Produce

Tuesday, at 9:24 by

For a few short weeks in mid summer, Berkeley’s Chez Panisse, perhaps America’s most iconic restaurant, serves a single Arctic Gem white peach as its fruit plate. Occasionally, there may be a few berries alongside but more often it’s just an Arctic Gem and a knife. The peach is from Dry Creek Peach and Produce, located on Yoakim Bridge Rd. in the heart of Dry Creek Valley in Healdsburg. “Every year we begin working with Chez Panisse,” Gayle Sullivan says,… Read More »

Making Flavored Waters At Home

Wednesday, at 3:00 by

For reasons that remain a mystery to me, only half of today’s Seasonal Pantry, which you can read here, was published. Here’s what is missing. Later today, I’ll have photos from the July 11 water tasting so be sure to check back. Rethink Your Drink Waters  There are the waters from the public tasting on July 11. The quantities listed are for one gallon of tap water, but the quantities are not meant to be precise–feel free to vary quantities… Read More »

Fresh From Our Farmers: Occidental Bohemian Market Opens

Thursday, at 10:56 by

When the Occidental Bohemian Farmers market opens for its 2012 season on Friday afternoon at 4 p.m., it will be with several vendors that sell only at this market, along with a few farmers that sell county wide and a few that attend just one or two other markets. Star Mountain, based on Coleman Valley Rd., launches the season with radishes, scallions, basil, arugula, dill, flowers and Meyer lemons.  Hands Full Farm  has eggs, flowers and two jams, strawberry and… Read More »