October 5th, 2009 by Catherine Meng
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“Tomato harvest continues, although not at the pace it was just a month ago. We’re still busy harvesting peppers, eggplants, greenbeans, black-eyed peas, and of course, winter squash. We’re also busy seeding and planting many of our winter crops: kale, broccoli…”
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September 2nd, 2009 by Bob Klein
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We got our hand on seeds of three Italian wheat varieties last year, and asked our friendly farmers to grow them out for us in experimental plots. That put into gear a great adventure for us, which we’ll be sharing with you over the next few weeks and months…
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August 18th, 2009 by Catherine Meng
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Our favorite roving produce expert, Bill Fujimoto, visited the Temescal Farmers’ Market last Sunday to check out what the height of summer has to offer. With all the peaches on display, it was a perfect opportunity to get the skinny on how to pick the perfect peach, which has everything to do with background color and branch marks.
He also talks corn, pluots, tomatoes, fills us in on what he’s been doing since leaving Monterey Market, and meets Gabby….
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August 5th, 2009 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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July 14th, 2009 by Catherine Meng
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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…
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June 4th, 2009 by Catherine Meng
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Among other things, Lucero Organic Farm is known for their long stem Seascape strawberries. Ben Lucero has been growing this same variety of strawberry for years, even after he moved his farm inland from the coast to Lodi. Ben believes that great strawberries are the product of close attention and…
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June 3rd, 2009 by Catherine Meng
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Another thrilling episode from the sunny studios of Dirty Girl Productions!
Last time we heard from Joe Schirmer of Dirty Girl Produce, he had just finished planting his first wave of dry-farmed Early Girl tomatoes. It is now June…
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May 31st, 2009 by Catherine Meng
Romano Isole just showed up with some beautiful porcini foraged from the Sierra foothills east of Sacramento. We bought up a whole bunch and Chef Canales plans to have them popping up all over the menu, starting tonight, in such dishes as:
Gnocchi with porcini
an entree of Riverdog Farm pasture-raised eggs poached in olive oil and [...]
May 11th, 2009 by Catherine Meng
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After performing a thorough battery of tests, Chef Canales thinks he’s found just the right eggs to create the lush, deep yellow pasta often only found in Italy. The secret is pasture raised eggs. Hens allowed to pasture ingest a much wider range of nutrients producing eggs that offer a certain richness necessary for our laminated pastas…
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April 30th, 2009 by Catherine Meng
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Joe Schirmer of Dirty Girl Produce has taken Tomato Watch into his own hands! We had intended to cover the details of dry farming this week, but on Tuesday we received an email from Joe and shortly after that a video he shot himself of his tomatoes being planted. How cool is it to see the process of farming truly through a farmer’s eyes?…
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