I Heart Farms

What Is the First Word in the Dictionary?

First of all, welcome to all the visitors from Sam Breach's Becks & Posh foodblog, who named my site as the "Bay Area Blogger of the Week" (#17).

So I'm all signed up for the August 2005 challenge that people all over are joining: to eat foods within a 100-mile radius of San Francisco. Technically, it should be "within a 100-mile radius of your home," but the group I joined, Locavores, says San Francisco. (Who am I to argue, especially if it means that the Straus Dairy 2% milk, which I just bought at Aptos Natural Foods, qualifies, even though it's from Sonoma? Hey, I tried to buy Claravale milk, but they don't make 2%, and I just can't drink whole milk anymore.) Besides, the milk is for my tea, which comes from Ceylon or Sri Lanka, and tea is one of the exemptions I am claiming for August.

Farm Gossip, Food News, and More

Some things worthy of mention (with links below):

From the "Local Boy Makes Good" files...I am delighted to report some wonderful news about Geoff Palla (pictured above left), of Meder Street Farms. He cut his hair (gasp!) and won the job as head gardener for Copia, "The American Center for Wine, Food, and the Arts" in Napa, California. My brief visits to Copia confirm what everyone else I know has said: the gardens are the best part of that place. And that's saying something about the multi-million dollar facility. Geoff says he likes the direction Copia's going in, and that includes the Tuesday farmers markets. I'll be visiting in October or so, and will pay a visit.

Music to My Ears

(Pictured here, rows of crops grown by Kirsten and Jasmine at Everett Family Farm, photographed this morning.)

Based in Vermont, The Farmers Diner has a vision of a nationwide network of diners based on this philosophy: "The Farmers Diner™ in Barre, Vermont demonstrates that buying local foods and making them available to the entire community is possible and profitable. Currently at our Barre restaurant over 65 cents of every food dollar we spend is spent with farmers and small-scale food producers who live and work within 70 miles of the diner. From the success of this diner on Main Street , The Farmers Diner™ is building more diners, first in Vermont and then regionally, to continue the good work of reviving a strong rural community."

Slow-Roasted Tomatoes (aka "Godiva Tomatoes"): a Recipe

Very loose instructions: Do this when you've got a couple of hours on your hands. It's slow and lovely, because you have to open the oven every twenty minutes or so, which is like lighting tomato incense in your house.

Preheat oven to 200°. Line a baking tray with foil; spray a light coating of olive oil on the tray.

Cut into quarters (or halves or sixths) lots of small tomatoes. Toss them in a large bowl with a drizzle of the best olive oil you have, light Kosher flake salt, ground pepper, and the scantest bit of sugar (say, 1/4 teaspoon or less for two pounds of tomatoes). I do at least two pounds—usually three, four, or five on two trays. Otherwise, what's the point?      

Scatter the tomatoes on the tray, spacing them as evenly as possible. (Crowded tomatoes take longer to cook. This is not necessarily a bad thing.)

I used small Early Girls (nothing over 2" in diameter, cut in sixths) and some other tomatoes that were not what was labelled; I think they are a Roma-style tomato of one of our favorite heirlooms, the Black Krim. These tomatoes were either small enough to halve, or large enough to quarter. That is the brownish-colored tomato, pictured at top.

Costco, Couch Potatoes, and More

How Costco Became the Anti-Walmart: read this New York Times story before it becomes premium content. (Note: if you aren't a registered user, use these to log in: username: "pidmeoff", password: "pidmeoff1234".)

I went to a Walmart once, in American Canyon (affectionately referred to by one and all as "the armpit of Napa county"). I did so as a sociological experiment. What a dark, depressing place, and what a hateful encounter I had there with a horrible woman. Never again. Walmart is the seventh circle of hell.

In other news, British potato farmers are up in arms over the phrase "couch potato." They staged a protest  at Parliament to have "couch potato" removed from the Oxford English Dictionary "claiming it harms the vegetable's image." The potato had no comment.

LASTLY: If you haven't subscribed to Small Farms Blog, please consider doing so. It will help me move up in the ratings, which would be a nice thing for visibility, which will help the word about beautiful small farms get out. It's free, and you can unsubscribe any time you like.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: "To get milk and eggs, you must not frighten the cow and hen." —Tibetan proverb

Sickening. Hopeful.

Watsonville farmworkers force hospital to go 'Code Red'

A dozen farmworkers were thought to have been exposed to a "toxic pesticide" known as Guthion, and the Watsonville E.R. had to close its doors to prevent other humans from being contaminated.

Doesn't that sound awfully like "Silkwood"? Doesn't it sound horrible that food that will appear on someone's plates will have come in contact with Guthion, even briefly, for any reason?

It sickens me.

Someone will come along shortly to tell me about inert Guthion really is, I'm sure.

Meanwhile, check my new links. Check out BuyBlue.org: Bed, Bath and Beyond and even Costco get better ratings than, oh, Circuit City or Safeway (surprise!). Knowing this has helped me cut my spending at Safeway ridiculously. And I mostly buy stuff so discounted that they can't make much money off me anyway.

I vote with my dollars as often as I can. You might have heard me say it before: I like to spread the love around.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:"A difference in taste in humor is a great strain on the affections." —George Eliot

Farming with Horses

Small Farmer's Journal has a great article that made it all the way to Yahoo's front page news today, about how farming with horses is on the rise. Citing the rising cost of gasoline and the fact that the animals can produce their own replacements, some farmers are returning to plowing with horses.

The Yahoo article will expire, but that link will work for a while.

I have to find one of those farmers!

EatFeed.com: The Best Little Food Podcast in the World!

Thanks to being a featured podcast yesterday on the iPod homepage, EatFeed.com enjoyed a huge blast in visitors. Let's hope the new people catch on to the quality programming, and enjoy listening to foodie chat and interviews while they're cleaning their houses, like I do. (Okay, not on my iPod, which I don't have, but on my good computer speakers.)

Anne Bramley is the brilliant mind behind the programming, and she's having a contest that fits right in with this  blog. The Farmer's Market Recipe Contest will run until August 1, noon CDT.

If you haven't check it out yet, I encourage you to do so. Bramley works farms and farmers into the programs as much as she can: she's a farm geek like I am. I think it's got an NPR feeling to it, and think you'll like it.

Know another blogger who likes the farmers market? Give them a heads up!

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: "If people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny." —Thomas Jefferson

Locavores & the August 2005 "Buy Local" Challenge

I just signed up with "Locavores" to be a part of the "Buy Local Challenge" (link below) for the month of August. The idea is to eat for an entire month from your local foodshed: within 100 miles from your home. Luckily, I live within a hundred miles of San Francisco, Monterey/Carmel, and the Salinas valley, home to ranches. Luckily, I live in the county in California with more organic/sustainable farms than any other county, and one that sits on the Pacific Ocean, as well. Hans and Heidi are my local fishing outfit, and I usually pick up some salmon at the farmers market.

I admit that I am making some exemptions, as neither Bob nor I are willing to do without really good tea, and I own so much already. I'm also making an exception for spices I already have. And for forgetting that I'm signed on to be part of the effort on a daily basis. But mostly I think we'll do well.

I also signed up as the first person from Santa Cruz county to join the "Locavores" group, and I will not be alone. How about you? Even if you're not in California, can you join us?

Jen, at "Life Begins at Thirty," has more information, and is helping coordinate with bloggers who are participating. Not blogging? Sign up at Locavores. (Jen is the perfect choice. Thanks, Jen.)

Note: Thanks to the folks at MakeReady.org for linking to me, where I found the Locavores linked.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: "You don't have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces - just good food from fresh ingredients." —Julia Child

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LINKS

Buy Local Challenge (2004)

Locavores: Celebrate your foodshed!

Make Ready

Pictures on Walls

From the PicturesOfWalls.com website, this photo.

Yes, we still love the chicken farmer.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: "There is nothing like good food, good wine, and a bad girl." —Fortune Cookie