Typical Spring Dinner

Potato leek soup: Yukon gold potatoes from Full Belly Farm, leeks from Fat Cabbage Farm, onions from Swank Farm

Spinach salad: spinach from Happy Boy Farms, raspberries from Rodriguez Farms, goat cheese

Bread & olive oil: baguette from Acme, olive oil from Soul Food Farm

Local, Organic Popcorn?!?!

Understanding where the food I eat comes from has taken me down paths that I never really thought of... like popping my own local, organic popcorn. My wife loves to eat buttered popcorn and we often have a package of Orville Redenbacher or Jiffy Pop in the house. I have never been interested in buying this kind of popcorn - it's not that I don't like it, I just don't love it and have never been that interested. However, when I saw at the downtown Palo Alto farmers' market that Full Belly Farm had 1 1lb packages of corn kernels grown on their farm in Capay Valley, I was intrigued by buying local, organic corn kernels from someone that I knew and trusted.

As it turns out, popcorn is very simple to pop - heat oil in a saucepan, throw in the kernels, cover and wait for them to pop, and season as desired (who chose salt, butter and grated parmesan). And I can tell you that I have never felt so good eating popcorn. To be honest, it all tasted the same to me. Popcorn tastes like popcorn - salty, buttery and delicious. BUT instead of buying an anonymous package with contents that conjured up images of stomach-ache-inducing movie theater popcorn, I bought my popcorn from Dru Rivers from Full Belly Farm, who I see on a regular basis at the farmers' market and whose farm I plan to visit next year. And that connection made all the difference in enjoying this tasty snack.

Community | Garden | Salsa

I very much enjoy cooking, but I'm not great at it. And I make salsa regularly now, but it's not something super practiced (I hadn't even had salsa until I was 21 and introduced to homemade salsa by my friend Ernesto's family friend Madeleine). But none of this stopped me from entering the SF Food Wars "Salsa Champion-Chip" on 9/12. My schtick... "community garden salsa" - a heirloom tomato, white corn salsa with tomatoes all grown with at our community garden in Mountain View.

It was a gorgeous Saturday afternoon at the Ferry Plaza in San Francisco, and the competition was stiff. I did not have high expectations, but I was pleasantly surprised by the positive feedback on my salsa and the reaction to the idea of actually knowing where the food came from. Tomatoes, garlic and cilantro from our community garden. White corn from G&S Farms in Brentwood. Red onions from Full Belly Farm in Guinda. Jalapenos from Happy Quail Farm in East Palo Alto.

People were attracted to the personal connection with the food. They visibly perked up when I said that I and my daughter grew the tomatoes - that they were actually talking to the person who grew what they were eating. They took an interest in what a community garden is - and seemed somewhat surprised that people like you and me could growth their own food. They asked about the other farms that I bought the other ingredients from - and I happily told them about how I regularly see the folks from Fully Belly and Happy Quail at the Palo Alto farmers' market, and about the first time I was offered a sample raw white corn from G&S and how it tasted like candy, just like they said it would. Hooray for the opportunity to connect people to their food!

Connecting Friends With The Food We Eat

In my own personal exploration of connecting with the food that I eat, sharing that connection with my friends and family has been an equally interesting and inspiring experience. At my daughter Kaiya's 3rd birthday party, I laid out a spread of local farm sourced sandwiches, snacks and fruit, and provided labels so people would know what they were eating and where the food was coming from.

Plenty of my friends and family commented on how good the food tasted, and I often replied that it all came from farmers' market vendors I had come to know and trust. Others noted how pleasant it was to know where the food was coming from. And when a friend jokingly said he wouldn't eat anything unless I grew it in my community garden, I shot back that I may not have grown it in my garden, but I do know and have shaken the hands of the farmers that grew the tomatoes, potatoes, apples and pears, etc. that we were eating. It felt good to spark discussions and to engage people just by spending a few minutes writing down names of a few fruits, vegetables and farms.

Here was the lineup of the food:

• Tortilla espanola bocadillos, with russet and purple potatoes from Specialty Produce and onions from Phil Foster Ranches / Pinnacle Organic, both in San Juan Bautista (along with baguettes from Panorama Bakery that sells at the Downtown Palo Alto farmers' market)
• Chorizo bocadillos with chorizo from G Service who sells at the Downtown SJ farmers' market
• Cherry tomatoes from Veggielution in East San Jose and Full Belly Farm in Guinda
• Chips and salsa, with heirloom tomatoes from Veggielution in East San Jose and white corn from Specialty Produce
  
• Crackers and cheese, including a goat cheese chevre log from Laura Chenel in Sonoma and garlic quark from Spring Hill Cheese in Petaluma
• Gala and fuji apples from Mellow's Nursery & Farm in Morgan Hill
• Warren pears from Phil Foster Ranches in San Juan Bautista