I Heart Farms

Suvir's New Cookbook: American Masala

My friend (and client), Suvir Saran, has begun his book tour for the debut of his second cookbook, American Masala, a collection of 125 recipes with Suvir's unique take on classics like mac 'n' cheese, meatloaf, vegetarian enchiladas, etcetera. The photography by Ben Fink is luscious—incredible.

Suvir was in Seattle yesterday, and is in San Francisco today. Tonight he will be appearing from 7:00-8:00 tonight at Books, Inc. at Opera Plaza. Here are the details.

Tomorrow he'll be in Los Angeles, and you can see the rest of his touring schedule here. Laguna Beach, Austin, Dallas, Chicago, and New York follow, concluding on October 18.

Then I hope he gets a nice long break at his farm, also called American Masala.

You can read more about the cookbook and get some recipes from his most recent newsletter. Yum!

Go, please, and see his photos of the chickens and alpacas and goats and llamas in this photo album.

That's all for today. Autumn is here to stay, I think: we had our first big rain last night, and the air has changed.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."  —Thomas Alva Edison

Thanks for visiting.

P.S. If you use the Amazon link to buy the cookbook, you're helping buy "knife guys" (knight figurines) for Logan. And as he would say, "NANKS!"

Russ Parsons Is a Big Ol' Copycat!

Take that, Farmgirl Fare! Think you're the only one with access to adorable lambkins? Huh? I think not! (This little one belongs to Rebecca King: I visited the ranch yesterday with a friend.)

I have been luxuriating in several days off from my part-time job as a web consultant....and I had two perfect days in a row this week.

On Monday, writer Russ Parsons came to town, promoting the book I've been shoving into everyone's hands at the farmers market. I've enjoyed our small correspondence over the years, since I first met him at eGullet. Before they kicked me off, that is. (Hi, Jason Furlough! I owe it all to you!)

The Capitola Book Café contacted me several weeks ago, asking if I'd like to help promote some of the upcoming readings they were sponsoring, and I jumped at the chance to work with Russ's book, just because of the esteem in which I hold him. Knowing his own fondness for farms, I wrote to invite him on a tour of some of the farms I love. He accepted, and that's what we did on Monday.

Food "Movements"

Pictured here: a mother and her child peer at goats and sheep at a farm next to TLC Ranch, where I spent the afternoon on Wednesday. All photos in this post were taken at TLC Ranch on that tour.

I'd been invited, along with Ms. Christina Waters, whose coverage of food, wine, art, films, and more in Santa Cruz (and far beyond) is one of my more entertaining weekly reads. I hadn't been aware that it was a tour especially for families affiliated with the Weston A. Price Foundation. (If I'd known that, I wouldn't have brought beer to the picnic lunch.) There must have been twenty kids—the oldest of whom was eight, and with several toddlers in the crowd.

We walked over a mile, for three hours, looking at the littler pigs, the chickens, the roosts and boxes where they lay (children gathered eggs), and the whole tour culminated in one lusty, unmistakable display of the prowess of the biggest boar on the ranch, affectionately and accurately called "Assmaster," who took the opportunity to jump on a sow (pictured above, "dead center," so to speak) who hadn't realized just what "piggyback" really meant until that point. Yes, Mr. DeMille, he was ready for his close-up. I'm talking CLOSE UP: ten feet in front of the amazed crowd. "Daddy, what is THAT? What's he DOING?"

Ahem. Onward. (Christina, there were other comments I'm too chicken (ga-hilk) to post here, but I'll fill you in soon.)

For the record, the reddish guy on the right, who is touching a tree on both ends, is the boar in question.

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.

Menu for Hope III: A Keller Offer

Better late than never, as those of us whose babies were nearly three weeks overdue like to say.

This year's Menu for Hope (the third year of its existence) food bloggers all over the world will raise funds for the United Nations World Food Programme, a worthy cause indeed: they reached nearly 100 million people in 2005. Our nitwit American government would have us believe that hunger cannot be quantified, thereby reducing the very personal experience of hunger (gnawing, ragged, desperate, ugly hunger) into a pleasant little bit of scientific code involving "food security". As in, you are no longer hungry, you have “very low food security.” Or, as a little boy at a shelter in San Francisco described his hunger, “my stomach is touching my back.”

The Cheese School with Wil Edwards and Alex Fox

Expectation: very high, and exceeded. Wildly.

Invitation: attend Farmstead Cheesemaking cheese tasting and cheese making class, featuring Wil Edwards, recently of Harley Goat Farms Dairy, with Alex Fox, wine director at Myth restaurant in San Francisco.

Jubilation: seven amazing cheeses, all but one farmstead, paired with five or six or seven (who's counting?) wines chosen by a gifted sommelier.

This event was presented to me courtesy of my new friend, Marcia (rhymes with "Garcia") Gagliardi, aka tablehopper, who was working with Tutti Foodie, a new presence in my foodie world. They're doing good stuff—finding products and writings and events that they share with their subscribers. Of which I am one,  and think you should be, too.

NaBloPoMo, Joel Salatin, Harold McGee, & Food

Jen over at Life Begins at 30 asked who'd join her in NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) and I thought, "Why not?" Except, hello, there is no way I'm putting a picture of Yoda or a gun on this blog. So I made my own: I am a hoarder of Dover woodcut clip art, and this lady''s just been waiting for her chance to climb out of that folder. It's true that I no longer use quill and ink for my correspondence, but I did once, and it's the writerly spirit that's called for here. (Besides, who ever saw Yoda write anything?)

I'm sure I'll find some way to cheat.

Usually I stick blog recommendations at the end of my posts, but today I'm so excited that this one is going right up front. Harold McGee has been blogging since August. HAROLD McGEE! (That's him in the photo with me in the lefthand column). Here is a great little snippet, from an entry on organic vs. conventional agriculture:

"Organic agriculture, with no pesticides or mineral concentrates, usually exposes crops to more stress, and its produce is usually higher in phytochemicals."

I have to wonder though, if human nutrition matters more than sustaining the earth's ability to produce food. Pesticide use producing antioxidants and phytochemicals seems counterproductive: I guess you'll need your antioxidants to combat the cancer that the pesticides could cause. (You'll have to read the whole paragraph: I can't print the whole thing here.) And I imagine Harold will find his way here to let me know what I'm missing.

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Michael, You RUHLman

(The caption on the photograph is Rulhman-written.)

I knew this day would come.

Michael Ruhlman is blogging. (And he owes it all, well, a little molecule or two, to me.)

Why do I love Michael Ruhlman? Because he is a fine, fine writer with sensibilities I respect and with which I resonate. He supports the production of food that is both sustainably grown and humanely raised. Because he is ardent and articulate in his deconstruction of idiotic policies (like the ban of foie gras) that take the focus off the true atrocities in American agriculture and factory farming.

Whatever he turns his attention to is something worth knowing about: not just food, but his books on his house, the craftsmanship of making wooden boats, or saving children's lives (I admit I have not read it—I'm too squeamish, and especially about babies)...he is a thoughtful man.

Simultaneously, Ruhlman is not above a certain kind of King Henry VIII gluttony when confronted with the opportunity to do a faceplant in some pork belly confit—you can hear it on the podcast by Hungry Magazine. (Have some wine while you're listening...he does!) He seems to enjoy puncturing the veil of his choir-boy persona. (I knew guys like Michael Ruhlman in school...innocent faces, teacher's pets, and oh, could they instigate.)

Udderly Wonderful

Have I got treats for you! Well, besides this photograph of the ducks at Free Wheelin' Farm yesterday. These are Campbell Khakis, and I think they're darling. So does the farmer, Amy Courtney, who tells me they're three months old and aren't laying yet. Ducks are so funny.

Last time I was out at Deep Roots Ranch, Jean and Bob showed me a wonderful book of all these people with their farm animals...I'm talking the biggest bulls and horses you've ever seen. Stunning work by a photographer named Yann Arthus-Bertrand. Today I stumbled across a site with all the photos online: here is the section on cattle, pigs, donkeys, goats, and sheep. Speaking of pigs, do you think people really resemble their pets? Maybe not. Maybe so. And here are the horses. I just love his work.

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Another cool link: The Vertical Farm Project.

Roxana Robinson on pigs, Michael Ruhlman on pigs and chefs

One of my favorite denizens of Readerville.com is Roxana Robinson, who writes so beautifully in the Gardening Lit thread. (I linked there to a post about her vegetable garden.) I begged her permission to reprint this little piece about pigs, which she graciously granted me.

She writes: More news from the rural countryside.