Brookside Farm – Profile

The farm was originally a nut tree orchard. The Toms sold almonds and walnuts to local bakeries (for 25 cents a pound!) Gradually the orchard gave way to a widening variety of produce. The farm eventually became profitable when they started selling at a number of farmers markets…

Winter Solstice Report from Brookside Farm

After a particularly beautiful batch of Brookside Farm’s Meyer lemons arrived last week, we followed up with Welling Tom to find out what else is going on at their Brentwood, CA farm. Here’s what he had to tell us:
“Our Meyer lemons are some of the few things we currently have available. We also have a few Oroblanco pomelos already picked. Growing in the field, we have …

This Just In: Brookside Farm’s Flavor King pluots

As often as I come across a “perfect” piece of fruit, however, I rarely employ the philosophy of showcasing its perfection by serving it untouched; as Chef Paul Canales says, “the customer is not paying me to shop for them – I’m here to cook!” Only once or twice a year does a fruit come along that I feel is featured best by serving on its own, without setting it in a composed dessert context. That time has come…

Late Winter Update from Brookside Farm

Last Saturday’s cold snap in the Bay Area affected Brookside Farm in a completely unexpected way. For the past couple of years, we’ve been ordering our tomato seedlings exclusively from Kassenhoff Growers, located in Oakland. The owner/operators have been our friends for many years, and…

Tomato Season 2010 off to a slow start

This year, because the rainy season went so long, we’ve pushed the dates for the 2010 Tomato Dinners back to September 15 – 19 and are watching and waiting. Recently, we’ve seen the first few cherry tomatoes and…

Reports From Our Farmers – Spring 2010

One of the wettest on record, the spring of 2010 has created some unique challenges for many of our farmers. We already know that the height of tomato season is estimated to hit later than usual & so we’ve pushed back our Annual Tomato Dinners to…

Dead Ripe – “It actually means something”

‘Tis the season of abundance and acute ripeness, as summer crops put all their remaining energy into their final fruits and seeds in one last attempt to be sown back into the earth. The farms themselves seem at their most beautiful, and the harvest months have a certain celebratory cheer about them, the true pleasure in a job well done…

Turning from Tomatoes & Toward the Persimmons to Come – Autumn 2009

We queried our farmers last week, just before the Autumnal Equinox on September 22nd, to get one last report as the tomato season comes to a close and to find out what is planned for the cooler months of fall.

Welling Tom of Brookside Farm had this to tell us:…

This Just In: Vitellone & Chanetrelles

Primarily raised on mother’s milk with some grass-feeding, the meat has been aging in our meat locker. Chef Canales has been tweaking the aging times, to find just the right balance between the delicate veal and the characteristic aged-meat flavors. Tonight we will be using the loins, and Friday we will be serving the rib eye. They will be on the menu as tagliata, served with braised Torpedo onions from Brookside Farms in Brentwood. These animals are fairly small, and there isn’t…

Tomato Watch Week 16 – First Tomatoes

We received the following e-mail yesterday from Welling Tom of Brookside Farm in Brentwood: Yesterday (Sunday, July 12) we sold our first tomatoes of the year at the Montclair farmers’ market. It was only a couple weeks ago when we were still watering them, so these tomatoes (Early Girls) were still larger and more water-plumped than ideal, but they were not bad, and people at the farmers’ market have been…