Tag Archive for 'california'

Wheat Tasting – A First Step Towards Creating A Vocabulary

On January 10, we hosted a wheat tasting in the Oliveto dining room. Our plan wast to begin establishing some basic vocabulary for how to talk about the flavor components of wheat and flour as well as discern how those components vary between different varieties. In attendance were some of the most highly-tuned palates we know…

Tastes Like California Wheat

When we first got involved with locally grown grains over four years ago, one of our long term goals was the pursuit of identity preserved wheat. By this we mean a particular variety grown by a farmer we know and trust, and milled into flour without being blended with other varieties or wheats from other [...]

Market Report #8: Tomato Speculation With Bill Fujimoto

We hit up the Derby Street Market last Tuesday with our favorite produce guy, Bill Fujimoto.

We checked in with Full Belly, Lucero, and…

From Fencerow To Fencerow

After a couple of years of dilly-dallying with our beloved Red Flint ‘Floriani’ corn (growing one acre in 2009, then five acres last year) we’re finally taking the plunge with a much larger crop for 2011. Eighteen acres were planted in Woodland, CA along with another ten acres in Lodi, CA.
Also in the mix are…

It’s Beef Season

UPDATE: See the revised schedule
It is late spring and this is the time to be eating beef. The steers have been eating plentiful amounts of green grass (from our plentiful rains) and several important ranchers have presented us with offers too good to turn down.
First, Mac Magruder’s 8-month-old veal came in a couple of [...]

The Steer Is Here

Last friday, the Oliveto kitchen received delivery of one side of a magnificent four-year-old Black Angus steer. This delivery was noteworthy on many levels but to start, we needed a fork lift to get it off the truck. The animal’s live weight was close to 2,100 pounds, and it dressed-out at 1,237 pounds. At present, we have two 300 pound…

Currently on the menu: California Salmon

Summer Solstice is right around the corner, and California salmon season is reaching its end…until it starts up again in July. The quality of this year’s salmon has been exceptional, with deep color and great flavor. Add a little citrus, fennel, and chervil and…

Red Flint Corn Seed Selection

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…

TJI: The Meaning of Asparagus

If you were still hibernating when we posted that last thing about Kishus, wake up! Spring has begun!
For many of our farmers, one of the tell-tale signs that the season has started (weather wise) is the first asparagus. The very first spring sparagus initially comes from our farmers…

Community Grains

If you’ve been follow the Oliveto Grain Project, you know that over the last two years we’ve been enmeshed in the pursuit of locally grown corn and wheat. This has evolved from a simple query into a full-blown cause and now finally the creation, in partnership with our farmers and miller, of Community Grains….