December 22nd, 2011 by Catherine Meng
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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 …
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August 17th, 2011 by Pastry Chef Jenny Raven
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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…
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June 3rd, 2011 by Bob Klein
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For our first field trip of 2011 we visited two farms in Contra Costa County––both in Brentwood. First we stopped at Brookside Farm, owned and operated by the generous and kindly Tom family: Anne, Quong, and Welling. Welling showed us what’s in bloom and described to us a little of the journey from earth to table. The Toms grow some of our Early Girl tomatoes, greens,…
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May 18th, 2011 by Bob Klein
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The predominant explanation for toasted pasta from Puglia, is that after the wheat fields are harvested and burned to remove the chaff and weeds, gleaners would come and pick through the ashes for the remaining charred kernels of wheat, which they would then mill and make into pasta. Chef Jonah found…
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April 13th, 2011 by Bob Klein
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We love our Floriani Red Flint corn, we think it makes the very best polenta. So, when we started to ask farmers to grow it for us several years ago, we found that the Rominger Brothers were up for the adventure. Their first crop, about an acre and a half, yielded 2,300 lbs pr acre, but we thought…
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April 6th, 2011 by Catherine Meng
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We just got a hold of 23 different types of extraordinarily beautiful dried beans. This is not the kind of thing you’d think of at the beginning of spring, but these are real beauties. We’ll be serving Pasta e fagioli on the menu for the next…
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March 9th, 2011 by Catherine Meng
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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…
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January 7th, 2011 by Catherine Meng
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We contacted Jim Churchill of Churchill Orchards in Ojai, CA to find out how this year’s citrus crop is shaping up. He provided us with a good idea of what to expect over the next few months & also filled us in on the HLB quarantine in Ventura County:…
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July 29th, 2010 by Bob Klein
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Yesterday, I drove up to Rominger Brothers Farm in Winters, CA to visit our Floriani Red Flint corn and to see how our first crop of Otto File (another revered Italian heritage variety of corn for polenta) was doing. It just feels good to be up there, and I always learn something–occasionally amazing:…
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June 2nd, 2010 by Catherine Meng
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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…
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