It’s been a while since I’ve posted here. To be honest, the winter months left me uninspired and a little sick of the repetitive nature of the citrus and squash options. 

Well, the sun is back and so are berries, peaches, and lots of other delicious, fleeting options to shake things up. Went back to the market today and enjoyed cooking a bit as well. Two things I hadn’t done in a while… 

Hope that June finds you well! 

Much love,

Cora

No Supermarkets in January - Week 1 of Self-Imposed Challenge

I started off with such enthusiasm. I had made up my mind to eschew supermarkets for the month, and I was ready to get this thing started. January 1st of this year conveniently fell on a Sunday, which meant the beautiful and expansive farmers’ market out in Mountain View was open for business. Hurrah!

Armed with about 25$ and a few bags, I was on the look-out for the most seasonal foods I could find. Sure, you can find strawberries at a farmers’ market in California in January, but how natural and tasty that is is an entirely different question. Instead, I filled up with a variety of organic apples, kiwi, pears, cauliflower, green onions, fresh eggs, cabbage, carrots, nearly a pound of pork from Full of Life farm and some other stuff I’ve since likely forgotten about.

So far, so good.

After I cooked up a random vegetable cornocopia in preparation for my first day back at work, I arrived at the office on January 2 only to realize it was a holiday. Oh. Who shows up at work on a holiday? This woman, apparently. So… Back at home with the whole day ahead of me, I then had the opportunity to prepare for a few other work lunches as well. With all my other competing New Year’s resolutions, I definitely welcomed the extra time. Jackpot!

That day and for the rest of the week, I tried my hand at creative cooking. Try, try, fail again, my friend. I really do need to begin planning my food shopping with recipes in advance, and then actually follow them. Week two? Yeah.

Left to my own devices, I made rather mediocre:

• Simmered cabbage with pearl barley (from pantry), vine-ripened tomatoes, spring onion sprinkled with minced ground pork and black-eyed peas.
• Roasted cauliflower with tomato and onion.

And then, a few days into the challenge, I realized I had greatly underestimated the amount of food you need to buy at the farmers’ market if it is your sole food source. Oopsies.

Enter rule #1 for my personal challenge - “It’s ok to shop at local stores if you must”. This may seem like a cop-out, but a girl’s gotta eat. I ended up hitting up both Sigona’s and the Milk Pail Market. I also added a stop at Mayfield Bakery and was finally set with a borderline-farmers-market-worthy-list-of-extra-stuff to carry me over until the weekend: organic whole milk, 1 greek yogurt, kiwis, California olive oil, parsnips, beets, dark Levain bread, and, of course, both 70 and 90% chocolates. Yum.

As best I could, I stuck to rule #2 is - “If you go to a food store, buy only what would be available at a farmers’ market.”

Yep, that’s except for rule #3of my personal challenge - “It’s ok to eat chocolate with 70%+ cocoa levels and drink coffee/espresso concoctions”. Within limit, of course. For the safety and sanity of those around me, this exception is a purely preventative measure. You’re welcome.

I topped all of that off with a trip to Williams-Sonoma which is, as I learned, a much more entertaining store if you actually cook. I walked out with a yogurt maker I had been eyeing and got to work on it. This morning, I woke up to creamy, tangy splendor. The deliciousness exceeded anything store-bought that has ever hit my lips. Well, ok, that’s a lie, but that is what I had envisioned, of course. Instead, I ended up with a less tangy product that tasted more like a clumpy version of the whole milk I had used than the yogurt I am used to, but ok. The great news is that I have a whole week worth of the substance left. Mhhh! I’ll have to work on the flavor and consistency a bit next week. Nothing some fresh kiwi, local Ollalieberry honey and chopped walnuts as topping cannot fix.

Does anyone have any tips for better results?

So, here’s the round-up of week 1 of my supermarket-less adventure:

Pros:

• Didn’t buy a single ready-made breakfast, lunch or dinner Mon-Fri.
• Didn’t become a social leaper by still joining friends at restaurants on the weekend, with an eye on trying to keep it as healthy as possible. Just like the occasional chocolate and coffee, this social component is something I am not willing to give up to prove some point.
• I’ve gotten really, really excited about food again. Waiting and a bit of restraint can do that to you. See, I get a CSA box (the mostly fruit option) delivered every two weeks. Usually I have lots of stuff I am throwing out or have just gone to Whole Foods, so the arrival of this box often takes me by surprise. Not so this time around - I know it is coming on Wednesday and I could not be looking forward to it more if I tried. The CSA approach is actually a really great, hassle-free way to increase your fruit and veggie intake, both in quantity and variety. Up until a month or two ago, I had never eaten a kiwi. Now? Well, I don’t know how I ever managed to live without kiwi. I could sing love songs to kiwi, I enjoy it so much. I’m sure you’ll be hard-pressed to find another blog post that mentions the word so often.
• I started to really feel hungry again. Not of the “I could eat” variety, but of the “oh-my-gosh-I-need-to-find-food-NOW” variety.
• After the holiday-induced sluggishness, this food has left me feeling incredibly energetic.

Cons:

• I ran out of food both in terms of the day (afternoons at work were difficult if I had under-budgeted my healthy snacks) and the course of the week. I was thus forced to go to local stores, which I do love, but which minimizes the challenge I’d set for myself.
• I bought a cheap “nut butter machine” that broke the first time I used it. I really, really miss my simple peanut and almond butters, and want to make them myself since the Whole Foods machine is off-limits this month. Anyone have a good recommendation?

Well, on to week two!

Disclaimer: I used other staples I already had, if few, in my meals as well. Lots of raw almonds, some sea salt, lentils, beans, etc. No need to waste that $! :)

As part of CUESA’s Growing Inspiration Farm Tour, the afternoon found us at Swanton Berry Farm. The swift change in climate from Hollister’s heat to the cold wind of Santa Cruz county was noticeable, particularly for the strawberries that grew on earth at Catalan Family Farms but were engulfed in plastic to retain heat at Swanton.

To begin with, we were served a scrumptious salad made of romaine lettuce with pinto beans, grilled squash, corn, onion and poblano chile with tomatillo creme fraiche dressing, prepared by the CUESA market chef Sarah Henkin. As the salad was being mixed, I grew more and more excited. It looked absolutely delicious and I was not let down. I still surprise myself when I notice myself looking forward to vegetables, but it’s the truth. The salad was accompanied by a cauliflower soup made of Swanton produce and a sinful but utterly tasty strawberry shortcake. Mhh mhh mhh!

With our bellies filled to the brim with organic delights, we began receiving an intro to Swanton. The farm has a fascinating history proving the conventional wisdom that you can’t grow strawberries both organically and in a commercially-viable way wrong. Thank you for paving the road for the abundant organic berries we get to eat now! What a huge, historic achievement, particularly because strawberries are part of the infamous dirty dozen.

Faced with the difficulty of limited access to water on the California central coast, the farm continues to grow berries on self-sustaining land with reservoirs, a little waterfall, etc. We toured different plots including canopies of cane fruit such as blackberries, olallieberries, and loganberries, as well as kiwi trees, broccoli, cauliflower and mustard seed, and again were granted an inside look into the challenges of and lessons learned in organic farming. Who knew there were people an hour from San Francisco losing sleep over protecting their livelihood from wild pigs?

A few interesting take-aways from the afternoon:

• Did you know that strawberries are not fruit, but a false fruit? Fascinating stuff. 
• Cane berries do not grow like strawberries from little plants close to the ground. I had no idea. Goes to show you how much I know! I have much to learn as I re-connect with my food.
• Modern agriculture treats the soil food grows in like a petri-dish. It tries to kill all living matter in the soil prior to planting seeds or plants, while organic agriculture values the nutrients already inherent in the soil. Those nutrients then end up in your food. Bingo!

If you’re in the area, you should check out Swanton Berry Farm and indulge in some u-pick action. This farm deserves special recognition for offering their employees a merit-based retirement plan option and addressing some of the physical hardship of manual labor, which has resulted in them retaining employees for 30+ years instead of the regular 4-5 year turn-over after which most individuals switch from farm work into a different industry like serving at a restaurant or washing cars. Swanton Berry Farm makes it a goal to humanize this very tough business and to make the faming business sustainable not only for the environment, but for the individuals choosing this line of work.

Kudos, and thank you for the tour!

In many ways, I am out of touch with where my food comes from. I can admit that I used to prefer meat in a shape completely unrelated to its natural form (think nuggets or patties instead of bone-in meat) and only touched vegetables with a sweet undertone or the faintest of flavors. Iceberg lettuce and I, to the horror of my holistic medicine Dr. mother, used to be real tight. Though now I make a substantial effort to eat locally, non-packaged foods, and am eating less meat instead of only that which doesn’t tell the story of its origin, I have always been a city mouse and have never had any connection to farming. In recent months, as I’ve found myself drawn more and more to farmers markets, organic foods and have even (gasp!) started to cook, though, I’ve become entirely fascinated with how we can individually and at large reconnect with our food, our roots and our health.

When I stumbled upon a tweet about CUESA’s Growing Inspiration Farm Tour, I signed up immediately. After much excitement on my part in weeks leading up to the event, we arrived at Catalan Family Farm on Sunday morning. The Catalan family welcomed us to a degree almost unheard of, allowing us to prance through their fields as they taught us the ins and outs of their farming practices in Hollister. In between trying lemon cucumbers in total disbelief (“What is that? What? Cucumber? No - it couldn’t be!”), eating a leaf of dandelion green straight from plant to hand to mouth (arugula spicyness x10) and feasting on the most vibrant, colorful spread of freshly picked, sliced and diced watermelon, cantaloupe, strawberries, tomatoes, salad, grilled corn, a variety of agua fresca, chips and homemade tomatillo salsa (another first!), I picked up so many different tidbits of information about farming, organic foods and general attitudes about eating and working. Without further ado, here are a few of the points that I wanted to share:

Catalan Farm & Family

• The founder, Maria Ines Catalan, was the first Latina woman to own a certified organic farm in the state of California.
• One of the approaches of practices of organic farming is crop rotation. The interesting part about this is that when Maria began receiving formal training in organic farming, she found that it didn’t differ from the way her grandfather had farmed in the past. Crop rotation helps to avoid the imbalance that can be created as different nutrients are taken from the soil with every plant.
• Becoming a certified organic farm or applying to sell produce at farmers markets is a difficult and costly process for small farmers who face multiple barriers just to stay afloat- language, literacy, stigma, money - particularly the cost of land in California, water scarcity, and so forth. Succeeding against these odds is, needless to say, a true challenge. Maria’s triumph over these difficulties has led her to create the Pequenos Agricultores en California (PAC), a non-profit through which she assists others who are fighting the same battles she has triumphed over.
• Fun fact: The Catalan family prefers to bite into a fresh tomato when working in the fields on a hot day. According to them, it’s more refreshing and more nutrient-rich than Gatorade! Alright! Now just to face that teeny-tiny problem: How can we get everyone to adopt this attitude?

Of course, I have several pages of notes from this tour, but I’ll cut it short for now.

Above all, this fascinating farm tour allowed me to see things I had never seen before. I didn’t know how a pepper plant looked or that a cold Northern California summer would do wonders for strawberries but leave tomatoes green. Granted, I was one of very few individuals in their 20s or 30s that had joined the tour. I think that’s precisely the problem. Yes, my mother would surely know these things, but I had never seen them with my own eyes. Have you? Has your child? I think it’s about time.

My extensive thanks go out to the Catalan Family Farm for welcoming the tour group with open arms, providing the freshest produce I have ever eaten, and sharing their wisdom with us. I cannot say enough positive things about this experience. They enabled me to learn with my ears, hands and tongue. “Try it!” was the response to every question about their produce. Hospitality at its absolute best.

In honor of National Farmers Market Week, which started today, I would like to share my first visual ode to the farmers market.

Much inspired by Michael Pollan’s works and movies like Food, Inc., I have re-discovered the joy of natural food. In a time where new, questionable food-like products are popping up in American supermarkets, which now carry on average 38,718 items, I have ventured into the land of local farmers markets instead.

Mind you, I never learned to cook growing up, though I am certain my grandparents and mother, being very active in the kitchen, would have appreciated my help and attention. Years later as I sit squarely in my mid-twenties, the lack of proper cooking utensils in my kitchen bears witness to this, and presents a challenge onto itself.

Recently, though, foraging the markets for organic vegetable varieties that are not known to me has taken me on a sensory journey brimming with new smells and stunning colors. Despite supposed advances in food science, there truly is no artist greater than nature.

This weekend, I shopped at two abundant markets - CUESA’s renowned Ferry Building Farmer’s Market in San Francisco on Saturday and on Sunday, Urban Village’s California Avenue Farmers Market in Palo Alto.

In this initial documentation, vibrant heirloom tomatoes and Chinese long-beans take center-stage alongside organic German butterball potatoes, mixed greens, apples, white peaches, radishes, free-range eggs, and more. After braising and drizzling and cooking and reducing and generally flailing in the kitchen like a misguided flounder, I stumbed upon a simple truth: with produce as fresh and flavorful as this, there’s not much you can do wrong.

Here’s to good health and reclaiming the kitchen, one in-season fruit or vegetable at a time.

(Click on each image for larger version.)