I Heart Farms

Will Work for Pork & A Birth Announcement

Pictured here is the newest arrival at Deep Roots Ranch, a little calf named Calvin. If you click the picture, you will see an extra-large version: I wanted everyone to be able to see his underbite. Calvin's mother, the unfortunately named Paris Hilton (Jean and Bob didn't name her), rejected little Calvin at birth (celebrity mothers!). This is not as terrible as you think: he's bottle-fed three times a day, and it makes it easier to milk Paris without separating her from her offspring.

Meanwhile, he tags along after Roy, constantly frustrated in his attempts to find Roy's udders. Roy is patient and forebearing. Life is good.

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ANNOUNCEMENT: to the woman who left the comment that Justin Severino is destined for Saveur magazine, asking where the heck the website is...Justin got down on one knee and proposed to me.

Kidding. He did formally ask me this week to design his website, and that is now a Work in Progress.

I realize that, to some people, if I continue to write rhapsodically about this guy's work, whom I think is one of the most talented chefs I've ever met, I could be perceived as being his shill. That, of course, is stupid and illogical: I only work for people whose products or services are top notch. I'm not paid to rave, it just comes naturally.

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No Reservations: Cleveland Style

The sleeping little prince.

A quick blast from our gossip files. Ruhlman's "girly'man" taunt to Bourdain about his soft hands must have done the trick.

A friend wrote to tell me today that Michael Ruhlman and Anthony Bourdain were spotted, surrounded by more cameras than Pamela Anderson's boob job, at the Cleveland farmers market, buying a pig from the Amish farmer Ruhlman writes about.

I can't wait to hear Bourdain admit, however grudgingly, that Cleveland rocks.

You heard it here first.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: “No matter how big or soft or warm your bed is, you still have to get out of it.” — Grace Slick

Thanks for visiting.

Hey You, Mountain View!

This is a "country style" pork chop butchered the Justin Severino way. It was dinner for three of us a couple of nights ago—for me, for Bob, and for Logan, who eats like a much-older boy than he is. (He'll be three at the end of the month—let me know if you want to send him a birthday card, and I'll e-mail you an address.)

ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE BEST KIND

Fabulous news for those of you in the Mountain View area. Justin Severino and Jim Dunlop will be at the Mountain View Farmers Market starting this Sunday, January 21, from 9 AM until 1 PM. Look for the "Severino's Community Butcher" logo on the white van, and look for a couple of young (compared to me), handsome (scruffy) goofballs with coolers. They are bringing, in Justin's words: "Everything. Every cut of pork, three kinds of paté, sausages, meat in jars, stock," and more. They might even have blood sausages. Justin also says, "Bring hundred dollar bills and don't expect change." Heh.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: “Here is a field open for talent; and here, merit will a have certain favor, and industry is graced with its due reward.” — Claudius

These guys have some serious talent, and more than that, they have complete commitment. Now, y'all tell Justin and Jim I told you to introduce yourselves and say "howdy," and grace them with their due reward. Happy Year of the Pig. (Well, in 31 days.)

Thanks for visiting.

EDIT: If you're here from Chowhound, you can find two of my favorite posts about these guys here:

Pee Wee's Big Adventure (herding pigs at TLC Ranch)

Justin Severino Ought to Be Committed

Google the blog and you'll find lots more, including some photos of the food Justin cooked for some farm dinners. My heroes!

Menu for Hope III Winners Announced

Oh my LARD. This unctuous substance is being sold in sticks ("pork butter") at the Santa Cruz farmers market, courtesy of Santa Cruz's own, Severino's Community Butcher, aka Justin Severino. I've been visiting a lot because we're designing t-shirts together—all about pigs.)

Today the winner of my offering to the Menu for Hope III: I congratulate Josh Friedland, the well-known author of The Food Section, one of the best and most comprehensive food blogs going. (Doesn't he have a great face?)

No farms lately: we've been undergoing a siege here. The antiquated (and cheaply installed) septic system completely failed, and it's been four days of relentless tractors, backhoes, noise, shouting, and no plumbing. NO PLUMBING. No flushing. Dishes in the kitchen sink in two giant pots, camping style. Three days with no outflow. Add to that the cold snap here—and four mornings so far with frozen pipes. It's enough to make a girl snap. And add to that a raging sore throat and the purchase of Emergen-C—well, snap and buckle, and other millinery terms as well. I'm over it, and looking forward to some rest.

But good news has been trickling in, and when I feel a little better, I'll post about that.

Thought for the day: "Opiates and Vitamin C are a girl's best friend." —Me

Thanks for visiting. Go look at the other Menu for Hope III winners here. (What a hoot: my friend, Ore at PotentialGold.com won the dinner at Manresa with the purchase of only two tickets.)

Thanks for visiting.

Sooooey! (Chop Suey?)

The Chinese have designed a stamp in honor of The Year of the Pig, and this is it. Not only is the front of the stamp "scratch and sniff," but the back, when you lick it, tastes like the sweet and sour pork you will smell.

Can someone please get me some? (Hmmm, my nephew lives in China. Maybe he can score some for me.)

I've been busy, ramping up on two new web designs for new clients, and hope to get out to a farm soon.

That's all for today, and thanks for visiting.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: “Designs in connection with postage stamps and coinage may be described, I think, as the silent ambassadors on national taste.” —William Butler Yeats

The Making of "The Making of a Chef"

If it's true that Michael Ruhlman's The Making of a Chef is being made into a film (Ruhlman and his friend, Richard LaGravenese, just completed the scriipt), then this begs the question: "Who will play Michael Ruhlman?"

I vote for Hugh Jackman.

Who would you like to see in the role? Anyone who mentions Adam Sandler is banned for life.

Go Vote. Or Not.

Apropos of nothing, except perhaps my mood, here is a photograph of the full moon rising on New Year's Day evening.

What a surprise to hear that my blog was nominated as one of the Top Five Blogs (Rural) in the annual Food Blog Awards. Please go and vote for either Farmgirl Fare or Lucullian Delights, don't waste your vote on me: I don't want or need or deserve a win in this category.

My recommendations:
Best City: Becks Posh Nosh (Sam Breach: San Francisco)
Best Food Industry: Egg Beater (Shuna Fish Lydon)
Best Group Blog: The Ethicurean, hands down
Best Humor: How in the hell did MattBites and David Lebovitz get omitted from this list?! No recs! (Though I myself voted for the Food Whore.)
Best New: How in the hell did MattBites and Michael Ruhlman get omitted from this list? And a Rachael RAY blog "best" of ANYTHING? Dark times indeed. No recs!
Non-Blogging: Leite's Culinaria, of course. Gorgeous. (CHOW? Gulp. Nope. Nazis run the forums.)
Original Recipes: Stephen Cooks
Best Overall: La Tartine Gourmande
Photography: Again, no MattBites? No StillLifeWith? No recs!
Best Single Post: hands down, Gluten Free Girl's YES. Adam's post is pretty clever, too, but nothing approaches the inspiration and care that GFG employed in her post.
Best Recipes: 101 Cookbooks, of course.
Best Restaurant Reviews: again, BecksPoshNosh. Sam is the best.
Best Blog with a Theme: Meathenge.
Best Writing: Kitchen Notebook. What a lovely site to visit.

That's all. I am disappointed in  a lot of these categories, and disappointed that some really high-quality blogs are not on there—but maybe I should blame myself, because I was too busy to see that quality material was nominated. Derrick Schneider's blog, An Obsession with Food, for one, deserves an award. And the Eat Local Challenge as a Group Blog would have been nice to see. (Though I still would vote for The Ethicurean.) I'm disappointed that Cookie Crumb's "I'm Mad and I Eat" wasn't nominated for humor, too.

There should be a Best Activist blog, I think—for those of us who are having to strip the wool from people's eyes about what constitutes real, clean, humane, sustainably-grown food, and what food-from-a-box means, environmentally and socially and even emotionally. (Hint: Rachael Ray cooks with cake mixes, frozen vegetables, and Bisquick, for God's sake. See a comment below about that—I am not a saint, and I use frozen vegetables, but I absolutely will not support a multi-millionaire who recommends these products in a recipe or on her show.)

Now, where was I?

Oh yeah, big news coming up about some people here in town doing fabulous things with farm-fresh, real-life food. Watch this space for yet another reason to be visiting Santa Cruz.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: “Ultimately the Emmys are a popularity contest.” — William Devane

Thanks for visiting.

The Year of the Pig: Not So Fast!

Pictured here: these little piglets, the size of puppies, were less than a week old when I photographed them yesterday. There is nothing in the world cuter than a tiny baby pig.

After reading over 400 new posts on blogs this morning, I noticed that some people are jumping the gun on this Year of the Pig thing. Make no mistake: I love the Year of the Pig. I am the Year of the Pig. My previous phone number was HOG-SING (and it was palindromic, too). My favorite radio station: KPIG, (107 OINK 5).

But officially, the Year of the Pig does not commence until February 18, 2007. That is unusually late for a Chinese New Year: most begin in late January. So our Year of the Pig won't last even a full calendar year, alas.

Nevertheless, given that TLC Ranch has nearly 400 mentions on my blog, and Justin Severino, the chef-turned-butcher who processes all TLC Ranch meat, has over 400, I think it is safe to say that pigs and pork will continue to provide lots of fodder, so to speak, for the Year of the Pig, in all its glory.

Feeding Time at TLC Ranch

Click here and watch a funny little slice of life at TLC Ranch, where Jim Dunlop is raising 130 pigs right now.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: “A babe at the breast is a much pleasure as the bearing is pain.” — Marion Zimmer Bradley

Not according to Jim, who describes the piglets as more like wolves than puppies. A mother's work is never done.

Thanks for visiting. I'll have more soon.