Have you driven Highway 80 lately? If you were traveling to Sacramento or Lake Tahoe, you may have noticed an exciting new attraction along the way. The Nut Tree in Vacaville -- a part of the history of the area since the 1920's -- has reopened and has new retail stores, restaurants, and rides for children.

One of the new shops in the "Nut Tree Village" is the Capay Valley Valley Farm Shop. The Capay Valley is an area of Yolo County, approximately 100 miles northeast of San Francisco. It's an abundant growing region where fruit and vegetable crops in addition to wheat, wine, beef, lamb, olive oil, honey, walnuts and almonds are produced. Farmers of the Capay Valley joined together to create the Capay Valley Farm Shop in a location convenient to the many drivers on Highway 80.

That the Farm Shop is located in the historic Nut Tree complex is fitting. The Nut Tree history is integral to the California food movement, and Alice Waters has praised the Nut Tree for being important in the creation of California Cuisine. It started as a fruit stand, and eventually became a stopping point for dignitaries, travelers, and locals alike who were looking for good, fresh food and innovative cuisine.

Visitors to the Farm Shop will find Capay Valley produce, seasonally prepared foods including salads and sandwiches, and gift items such as lavender products, honey, and jam. Over the course of a year, the Farm Shop will feature products from 42 Capay Valley farms. Thomas Nelson, a co-owner of the shop, says that the Farm Shop is modeled after the farm shop concept in England, where it is common to have shops convenient for customers with carefully selected local produce and other items.

I visited the Farm Shop several weeks ago, and was excited to have a brick-and-mortar location to pick up some of my favorite Capay Valley items including dried wheat berries from Full Belly Farm, fresh figs, and potatoes. This location is a quick and convenient stop-off for produce, cheese, crackers, wine and sandwiches on any trips east of San Francisco.

For more information:
SF Chronicle, Nut Tree Nostalgia, Feb 25 2005.
Capay Valley Farm Shop, Participating Farmers
Capay Valley Grown Project

Several Mediterranean fruit flies, known as one of the most dangerous and destructive pests to fruit crops, have been found in Solano county which is approximately 70 miles from San Francisco.

In an article in the San Francisco Chronicle on Friday, Solano County Agricultural Commissioner Jerry Howard called the fruit fly "The single biggest threat to agriculture there is."

The main way that fruit flies come into an area is through fruit carried across state lines, and a USDA spokesperson has said that this infestation of fruit flies most likely came from mangoes carried from Hawaii.

When fruit flies are found, the reaction by agricultural agencies is swift and intense. Within days of the announcement, millions of sterile fruit flies had been dropped by plane into the affected area. When female fruit flies mate, they die and sterile fruit flies produce no offspring.

I noticed the fruit fly story last week, but have to admit that the effect of it on our agriculture did not hit home until I read the Eatwell Farm Blog this morning. Eatwell is a polycultural, organic farm in Yolo county. The farm's location is approximately 3 miles from the fruit fly affected area in Solano County.

In order to cease the movement of the fruit fly from the affected area, agriculture officials have placed a quarantine on certain produce within a 4.5 mile radius. This places Eatwell Farm within the quarantine, and they are not allowed to move any tree fruit, eggplant, tomatoes, or peppers off the farm.

Anyone who knows Eatwell from the Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market is aware of the fact that they are smack in the middle of their "Tomato Wonderland" and are one of the main providers of heirloom tomatoes at the market. With this quarantine, it sounds like the tomato season for Eatwell is over.

There are a couple of things that you can do to help this plight. I hope that you will consider doing one of the following:

• If you are an Eatwell CSA member, don't drop your membership. Knowing the farmer, Nigel Walker, he is going to do everything he can to make sure you have a good box each week. This is part of the "through thick and thin" agreement of a traditional CSA. A CSA member prospers when the farm prospers, and takes a hit when the farm takes a hit.
• If you are a Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market shopper, stop by the Eatwell booth this week and buy an item or two that they bring to the market.
• Read the news. I pray that this doesn't affect more farms that it already has, but if it does, it will affect our San Francisco produce supply.
• Adhere to all fruit and vegetable restrictions. The laws set by the state of California are for the protection of our tremendous agricultural economy.

Photo: Eatwell Farm, Jason Meagher, 2006.

corn on the cob

About two months ago, I was sitting with a friend at the A16 chef's bar. For me, it's really the only place to sit in the restaurant when you are dining solo or with one other person. From that vantage point, you can check out what the chefs are doing, and watch the rhythm of restaurant. My friend, Jenn, mentioned that she'd like to try the corn. "You can order it, but I won't have any," I told her. It's one of my quirks: I hate eating corn on the cob in public. In the privacy of my own home, maybe. But I avoid it when anyone is watching.

I should have known better than to think that the A16 chefs would give us a large ear of corn to gnaw on. Their preparation is usually rather elegant, and they had figured out the perfect way to serve it. Slicing each ear of corn into rounds about 2 inches in width made the corn into small bits that were easy to eat but didn't give up the flavor that you can only get from corn on the cob.

the A16 chef's counter

A serving of corn was placed into the brick oven so that each piece could cook and get a little charred. After a short while, it was taken out and placed into a large metal bown. Olive oil was added, along with salt and pepper. The corn was tossed around so it could be coated with olive oil, and it was served. Perfection.

I am in Southern California for a couple weeks, and we have had dinner parties at my mom's house for two weeks in a row -- last week a family barbecue and last night, a dinner party with about 12 friends. Both weekends we made a rendition of the A16 corn, and the guests devoured it. It's the simplest preparation and is delicious. I sliced it and mom put it on the grill with great results. We then tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper just like at A16. It was great for our parties because we could cook the corn earlier in the day and serve it room temperature with great results.

I know that this is a seemingly simplistic thing to blog about, but it was a revelation for me.

I entered the blogging community four years ago this month. It's almost trite to try and put it in writing, but I have really gained so much from this blog world. Aside from amazing friendships and tremendous personal growth that is a direct result of having my blog, I have had numerous food revelations -- too many to count -- from fellow food bloggers.

A few of my very favorite revelations? I started going to to My Tofu House on a regular basis after Brett posted about it last year. Every time I de-seed a pomegranate, I want to kiss Elise for mentioning that some people peel it under water. Earlier this summer, Stephanie wrote about Catherine's method of cooking okra, and I've repeated this recipe many times this summer. When Patrick and Holly posted their recipe for preserving lemons a few years ago, I tried it out and have done it many times since. I hope to have many, many more revelations in the next few years in this tremendous food blog world.

On rare days when all the scheduling stars align, I take a long walk during the day with fellow BAB-writer Stephanie. We use walk time to catch up on projects that we're working on, and any other news worth reporting. For months now, Stephanie has been referring to her Library of Cheese project. While I knew that it was a project for Cowgirl Creamery, the nationally recognized artisan cheese shop in San Francisco, I didn't know much more about the Library of Cheese.

A couple weeks ago I was clicking around on the Cowgirl Creamery website to find out more about my beloved burrata cheese -- it's a mozzarella cheese that is made with cream to create one of the most wonderful, buttery, rich tasting delectables that I've ever eaten -- and I found my answers in the Library of Cheese. The Library includes over 250 cheese descriptions. Most entries have history and flavor profiles of the cheese along with information such as the cheesemaker, the proprietor, the affineur, the region the cheese is from, the milk type, the rennet type, the rind type, the texture, and how long the cheese has been aged.

The database is searchable by provenance, milk type, and milk treatment, which is helpful for me when doing a project such as the Eat Local Challenge. The database appeals to the part of me who wants to know all about the Cowgirl Creamery cheeses, but doesn't want to have to ask a million questions to the cheesemongers at the store -- I like to have a little research in my pocket before walking up to the counter.

If you're familiar with any of Stephanie's writing, you won't be surprised that the cheese descriptions are interesting, thorough, and often witty. About the flavor of Serena, a cheese made in the Central Valley of California, Stephanie says, "If classic Italian Parmigiano-Reggiano and tulip-sniffing Gouda were to marry, Serena would be their delicious progeny." And reading about buffalo mozzarella, I found out the following: "Stories, fables, and oft-told anecdotes about mozzarella abound. Some say mozzarella was first invented when cheese curds in a Neapolitan cheese factory accidentally dropped into a vat of hot water. Others yarn that in 41 B.C., Antony and Cleopatra spent a good part of their clandestine courtship feasting on the cheese as they floated in barges pulled by water buffalo."

Whether you're using the Library of Cheese to do research before going to the store, or you just want to browse through to learn about some of the world's best cheeses, check out this wonderful resource!

Kadota figs from Hamada Farm, San Francisco, August 2007

Eating locally, and teaching others about the importance of eating locally, is a topic that is near and dear to my heart. I am a founder of the Locavores (the group who originally invented the word "Locavore" in May 2005), and began the Eat Local Challenge site. The site is a place where bloggers and other Eat Local Challenge participants can write about their experiences with eating locally. I'm proud that we have authors from all corners of the nation, and are adding new authors to represent even more geographic areas.

While the Eat Local Challenge was born out of the Bay Area, it has moved across the country and has been adopted by thousands of people nationwide. I often feel like a proud aunt watching the movement gather more and more momentum and gain recognition in traditional media and among the general public.

Each year, we host a month-long challenge focused on eating locally. The challenge has changed months yearly, as we want to try eating locally in different parts of the calendar. In 2005, the challenge was in August. In 2006, May. And this year, the challenge is in September. Much of the focus of the Eat Local Challenge site during September will be on canning, preserving, and putting food up for the winter. I am excited about this because I have never canned anything at home in my life. Already, several of us are talking about getting together for a canning party so that I can learn from some masters.

There are many ways that you can get involved in this year's Eat Local Challenge. You can participate in the traditional, month-long challenge via the Locavores website, you can commit to buying food from the farmers' market each week during September, or you can host a local foods potluck with your friends. Anything that will help you focus on where your food is coming from is a step in the right direction.

Here are some links to get you started:

16 Ways to Participate in the September 2007 Challenge.
10 Reasons to Eat Local.
Local Harvest will help you find local foods as will The Eatwell Guide.
Finally, follow the Eat Local Challenge site throughout September to read about the progress of participants around the nation.

Alemany Farm tomatoes

It's been a busy time at my house this week. Between working full time and preparing for this year's Eat Local Challenge*, I haven't had much time to catch up on my favorite blogs. Perusing the sites this morning, I found several compelling posts from some of our Bay Area bloggers.

In the last couple of weeks, Chowhounds have been hunting for an elusive Korean catering truck that travels around SOMA and the Embarcadero during lunchtime. The Bunrabs have found it and reported on it. I think it might be worth tracking down! The photo of the charred chicken bowl that they posted has set my stomach grumbling.

When I went to Vancouver for the first time this past May, I had tried the Canadian snack called poutine. It's an artery-clogging dish and when it's made correctly it can be addictive -- french fries topped with a peppery brown gravy and cheese curds. Food Hoe reports that Salt House is serving a delicious rendition made with Vermont cheddar, short rib gravy, and fresh herbs.

I am not a baker. I rarely make desserts, and when I do they tend to lean toward the simple and minimalist. However, Dessert First's gorgeous desserts often tempt me into wanting to try something a little more fancy. I think at my next dinner party, I'll have to try my hand at her gorgeous Hazelnut Cake with Roasted Glazed Peaches. Wow.

Oh, and join me at the Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market this Saturday at 10.30 am when I interview James Freeman from Blue Bottle Coffee Company. I'm doing it as a volunteer for CUESA's "Meet the Producer" program.

* Keep an eye on the Eat Local Challenge blog this week to find out how you can participate, or check this blog next Tuesday for a summary of the September challenge.

What could be better than the opportunity to create an interesting recipe using chocolate? TuttiFoodie has teamed up with Scharffen Berger to host an exciting recipe contest that will take place this fall.

THE GIST. Contestants create a recipe combining Scharffen Berger chocolate (cacao content 62% and above) and at least one "adventure ingredient," which can be chosen from a list of 20 ingredients including amchur powder (powder made from raw green mangoes), green tea, mastiha, quince, star anise, and wasabi. The recipe can be savory or sweet, and can be an appetizer, entree, dessert, or beverage.

THE PRIZES. The grand prize winner receives $5000 and will have their recipe featured at Scharffen Berger's Cafe Cacao for a month in 2008. Other prizes include cold hard cash, publicity for your recipe, and cookbooks.

MORE INFO. For more information, check out The Chocolate Adventure Recipe Contest site.

Last Thursday, I made my way to Piccino, a small new pizza restaurant occupying a street corner in Dogpatch, to participate in an interesting new San Francisco ritual. I looked for the minivan full of vegetables, handed over $25 for a giant box of produce, and then sat down to eat dinner with some friends, side-by-side with other food lovers or food industry folks who were also at Piccino to purchase a "Mystery Box."

The Mystery Box was chock full of enough vegetables to feed a family of four for at least a week, and was grown by the farmers at Mariquita Farm, a well-known organic farm in Watsonville. Until March, Mariquita was a popular booth at the Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market on Saturdays.

When Mariquita's owners, husband and wife team Andy Griffin and Julia Wiley, decided to pull out of the market, a roar went up among customers who had been shopping at their market booth for many years. "We stopped going because our restaurant deliveries and CSA were successful enough that we didn't have to go to the Ferry Plaza, but we had customers who were having complete withdrawals and not dealing with it very gracefully," says Julia.

Thus was born the Mystery Box. Julia has a goal of eating at every restaurant that is a customer of Mariquita Farm, and decided to combine this goal with a trip to the city twice a month this summer, parking outside one of the restaurants and selling Mystery Boxes to customers who pre-ordered on the Internet. So far, she has conducted Thursday night box sales at Nopa, Zuppa, and Piccino.

"It's great cross-promotion for the restaurants," Julia told me on the phone on Monday. Many customers pick up their produce and stay at the restaurant to eat dinner. Additionally, the Mystery Box is a great way for the farm to add some extra income and off-load some of their surplus during the high season. Farmer Andy Griffin picked the produce for the Mystery Boxes on Thursday afternoon, and Julia printed up the ingredients list five minutes before driving to San Francisco, giving the farm ultimate flexibility in giving box-buyers the freshest produce that the farm had to offer.

This box contains a massive amount of food -- next time I will be splitting the box with a friend. This week, however, my friend Jeanne and I bought individual boxes. I talked to her last night about yet another recipe to use up some of the produce. "How long," I asked, "do you think you and I have spent on the phone this week talking about strategy to use up our produce boxes?" It was probably at least two hours since last Thursday.

This week the box contained: Godzilla fingerling potatoes, chives, rosemary, basil, Amsterdam cutting celery, erbette chard, Egyptian beets, spigariello, green and white cucumbers, mixed summer squash, poblano peppers, pimiento de padron peppers, purple and white bell peppers, carrots, and fennel. I was delighted to find several things in the box that I have never used before, and have been having fun this week planning new recipes for my produce.

If you don't participate in a CSA, this is a great way to have the benefits of a CSA this summer on a casual, as desired, basis.

One tip: Take along a few canvas bags, as Julia likes to take the boxes back -- they are expensive for the farm, and she'd rather they not go home with us. You can then transfer all your box goodies to your own bags.

The next Mystery Box drop-off will be on Thursday, August 16 at Slow Club.

To purchase a Mystery Box, sign-up through Mariquita's website.

Spend a couple of minutes poking around Google for "the $3 peach" and you will find multiple, tired complaints of the cost of produce at the Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market. At some point, instead of finding new reasons to complain about this nationally renowned farmers' market, a lot of writers began to refer to the cost of some of the peaches at the market.

Echoing my own thoughts, a commenter last year on Michael Bauer's blog wrote, "If I hear one more reference to the $3 peach I will scream."

My issue is not that people are complaining about the market. It's that the complainers don't manage to come up with anything more exciting than an old reference to the cost of a very small percentage of the peaches at the market. I have never spent $3 per peach at the market and I shop there (and buy peaches) as often as I can.

Because this complaint is often a thorn in my side, my ears perked up when I heard that Russ Parsons, writer for the Los Angeles Times and author of How to Read a French Fry, had written a new book, How to Pick a Peach: The Search for Flavor from Farm to Table. Parsons is known for his meticulous examination of a topic once he decides to study it, and in this book he has taken on fruits and vegetables.

Parsons' book gave me answers about why some peaches are more expensive than others, what makes some peaches so satisfying, and taught me about the economics of small farming and the realities of the true cost of a peach.

The book is reference-style and is broken down by section for selected fruits and vegetables. In each section he outlines where the fruit or vegetable is grown, how to choose it, how to store it, how to prepare it, and includes recipes. While he uses peaches as a vehicle for some of the discussion of commercial agriculture, he covers fruits and vegetables from apples to winter squash. The rest of How to Pick a Peach is peppered with discussions of the food industry, the selection of new fruit varietals, and big farming vs. small farming.

Which brings us back to the peach.

Commercial agriculture is most often all about bringing the consumer a good-looking product to the supermarket and small farming is usually about bringing intense flavor from lesser-known varietals to the consumer.

Parsons introduces us to Fitz Kelly and Art Lange, stone fruit growers in the Central Valley who take their fruit to Southern California farmers' markets (Until 2006, Kelly also brought his fruit to the Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market). Whereas most commercial farmers harvest their fruit as soon as it is minimally acceptable to take to market, small farmers push their fruit to stay on the tree until the last possible minute, often gambling entire crops in order to push the flavor a little bit more for the consumers. They pick only the perfect fruit and leave a lot on the tree or on the ground because it's not just right for market.

"The cost of perfection is enormous," writes Parsons. "Whereas the average stone fruit farmer in California harvest about ten tons per acre, Lange and Kelly only pick two or three. This difference in sales volume could never be recouped through normal commercial channels; it is only by direct marketing that growers can get a premium for a great product. Peaches and nectarines at many supermarkets can go for less than $1 a pound, and even good farmers' market fruit might sell for $2 a pound, but stone fruit grown by these two men fetches far higher prices. And people stand in line to buy it. Even at those elevated prices, however, the economics are tough. Multiply an average of $4 a pound by two tons per acre, and you're still barely in the black -- especially when the profit is spread over so few acres."

Reading about the hard work, thought, and even the chance that goes into getting our peaches to market made me want to go and hug my favorite stone fruit farmers: the farmers from Tory Farms, Woodleaf Farm, and Blossom Bluff Orchards.

Most peaches at the Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market do not cost $3 each. But even if they cost $3 or $4 or $5, after reading this book I would bet that you'd find room in your budget for one or two.

Several varietals of Far West Fungi mushrooms

On Sunday, I participated in the CUESA Coastal Harvest Farm Tour -- a tour of Far West Fungi Farm and Yerena Farms in Moss Landing.

Walking on to the Far West Fungi farm was like no other farm I'd other seen. It can as aptly be described as a laboratory as a farm. Forget all images of fields of mushrooms growing as far as the eye can see: these mushrooms are grown in low warehouses and all production takes place inside buildings.

John and Toby Garrone, the farmers at Far West Fungi, grow hardwood mushrooms on their farm. These are mushrooms that naturally grow on trees or stumps: shiitake, several types of oyster, king trumpet, maitake and lion's head.

Toby Garrone shows the inoculation process

To grow a hardwood mushroom, the farmer must create a food source. Unlike fruits and vegetables, fungi do not use photosynthesis to grow. So, instead of getting their food source from the sun, the mushrooms take nutrients from the tree stump on which they are growing.

Much of the initial inoculation and start-up process of the mushroom cycle involves re-creating a tree stump-like environment for the mushroom. At Far West Fungi, this is done with a combination of sawdust, rice bran hulls, oyster shells, and water. John Garrone told us that commercial mushroom growing often takes part around an area that produces by-products like wood chips because so much of the mushroom process can use these waste products.

The mixture is put into special plastic bag ("One of the most expensive parts of the process," says Toby Garrone), is sterilized, inoculated with mushroom spores in a clean room, and is watched for proper mycelium growth before being taken to incubation rooms.

Incubation room, John Garrone, and clean room

As I mentioned at the outset of this post, a lot of this process reminds me of a laboratory. Temperatures and air flow are constantly being monitored. Strains of mushrooms are cultivated in petri dishes. And the initial growing process takes place in a clean room where workers must strip down and don sterile suits in order to keep unwanted bacteria spores from entering the process.

Once the mushrooms enter the incubation stage, they are separated into their different varietals. Shiitake have the longest incubation period on the farm at 90 days.

Growing rooms

After incubating, the mushrooms enter the growing stage. At this point, the shiitake mushrooms are taken out of the bag altogether, while the maitake and oyster mushroom bags are fashioned with a collar which will direct the growth into a cluster, keep moisture in and allow in oxygen.

Unlike button mushrooms which grow in complete darkness, the hardwood mushrooms that we saw incubate and grow in dimly lighted rooms. Water sprays go off at regular intervals to keep the room humid and moist.

From start to finish, the entire process of bringing a mushroom to table takes anywhere from three to five months, dependent on the type of mushroom and the growing conditions. A fascinating process that I would encourage you to see if you ever have the opportunity.

In addition to the Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market, Far West Fungi also sells at the Palo Alto, Alemany, Civic Center, and Mountain View farmers' markets.

Yerena Farms

After a great, mushroom laden lunch at the Far West Fungi farm, we set out for Yerena Farms, a farm that you may know from the Ferry Plaza Farmers' market as one of the outstanding organic berry vendors. We were taken on a tour of the 19-acre farm by Polli Yerena, a quick-to-laugh and hard-working farmer. Yerena has been farming for over 30 years. He employs four full-time workers to farm the land, and much of the rest of the work is done by family members. We walked through the fields and greedily tasted many different types of berries.

Visiting the farms through CUESA gives me such a greater understanding of where my food is coming from. And visitng with a large group is very efficient for the busy farmers -- instead of giving us all individual farm tours, they can spend a dedicated amount of time educating many visitors instead of a few at a time. I am constantly amazed during farm tours like this about how willing the farmers are to disclose many different parts of their business in the name of education. It's a great way to get to know our Bay Area farming community.

This summer, CUESA is conducting two additional farm tours:

Valley Orchard Farm Tour
Sunday, August 26
Tour Lagier Ranches, our local almond producer, and Hidden Star Orchard in Linden.

Milk and Honey Farm Tour (SOLD OUT)
Sunday, September 16
A tour of Spring Hill Cheese in Petaluma and Marshall's Farm Honey

Both tours are $25 each and include lunch made with farmers' market ingredients.