Farm-to-Table Dinner

I feel very lucky that my work recently has lead me to visit with small, sustainable farms that produce delicious food. This past week, I was able walk the fields with Fred at Baia Nicchia and Shawn at Terra Bella Family Farm. Baia Nicchia is at the Sunol Ag Park and sells heirloom tomatoes, peppers and other veggies like baby radishes to high end restaurants such as Oliveto. Terra Bella Family Farm in Pleasanton sells through farmers' markets and a successful CSA in the East Bay.

After picking up produce at these farms, I was excited to prepare dinner that night using some of these freshly harvested ingredients including the "micro-green" radishes, yellow squash, and heirloom tomatoes (to go along with ravioli from Santa Cruz Pasta Factory).

I can't say definitively that the food really tasted better because it was harvested that morning, but I can say that it tasted pretty darn good. And perhaps more importantly, I felt more connected to the food after spending some time with Fred and Shawn, learning about and seeing the food they grow.

Summertime Dinner

Summertime dinner from the Mountain View farmers' market:

Meatballs: ground pork from Full of Life Farm, ground beef from Pampero Ranch

Asparagus from Bounty of the Valley Farm

Roasted Bintje potatoes from Thomas Farm

Brunch at 18 Reasons

18 Reasons is a non-profit in the Mission District of San Francisco that is connected to the legendary Bi-Rite Market and that has a great mission:

18 Reasons brings people together to deepen our relationship to food and each other. Through an innovative community center and thought provoking, fun programming, we inspire action and foster collaboration toward creating a just and sustainable food system.

How cool is that?

We recently took our friends to brunch at 18 Reasons with produce mostly harvested from Bi-Rite Farms in Sonoma. We were celebrating our good friend's birthday - and it was nice to be able to celebrate her birthday with delicious, sustainably grown food while introducing her to 18 Reasons and the inspiring work that they do.

Scream Sorbet

I love visiting the farmers' market and being able to know where my food comes from when I cook dinner. It's good to chat with the friendly folks at Happy Boy Farms when I'm picking up squash or tomatoes, and even better when I'm enjoying lettuce from Fat Cabbage Farm or eggs from Surfside Chickens because I've visited those farms. What I have not expected as much (but I'm starting to get used to) is buying processed or prepared food and knowing where my food comes from. Kudos to producers like Scream Sorbet, who are taking the extra step to source locally and seasonally and provide transparency in where their ingredients come from - like this delicious Strawberry Lemon sorbet with Seascape strawberries from Rodriguez Ranch and lemon juice from Sun Rise Farm.

A New Family Tradition: Cherry Picking in Brentwood

Just an hour outside of San Francisco lies an abundance of small family farms in Brentwood that produce some of the most delicious summer fruits and vegetables available in the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition, many of these farms open up their orchards to families every summer for u-pick cherries, peaches and more. A non-profit called Harvest Time maintains an impressive website for agri-tourism in Brentwood, including a great farm trail map of over 40 growers in the area.

We took our 3 year old daughter, Kaiya, on her first ever trip cherry picking at Seko Farms and peach picking at Wolfe Ranch and she had a blast! I had never been to a cherry or peach tree orchard before and it was a refreshing and inspiring experience to see the orchards and share this experience as a family - I hope to make this a new, annual family tradition.

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

Tale of Two Markets

I had not realized how far I have come in wanting to know and appreciating how much I know about where my food comes from until today in two unintentionally divergent food buying experiences while visiting family in LA.

8:30am: Morning trip to Whole Foods to pick up a few things for breakfast.

While trying to find some fresh fruit to go along with our bacon, eggs and potatoes, I walked up and down the produce aisle fully expecting to find something that looked delicious while also local and preferably organic. With apples and citrus still going strong (at least in California), and early berries starting to come in, I figured I'd have my pick.

Instead, I passed organic Washington apples, conventional citrus from California, and berries from Costa Rica. The only thing that I could find that was truly local and organic - strawberries from a vendor 75 miles away in Ventura County - had quite a bit of bruised fruit and a couple packs that were moldy. Ugh. Really? No organic apples or oranges from local farms in California when they are so plentiful at local farmers' markets? Or a better selection of organic berries from one of the dozens of strawberry farms within 100 miles?

I regularly shop at Whole Foods, and although not perfect, I appreciate their commitment or leaning towards environmental sustainability. But wow, what a disappointment.

10:30am: Unplanned trip to the Calabasas farmers' market that we had never been to

Walking the aisles of freshly picked navel oranges, fuji apples, and organic strawberries, I was like a kid in a candy store. Especially after the disappointing Whole Foods trip earlier in the morning, it was so refreshing to have my pick of fresh, delicious, sustainable fruit. Kaiya and I could sample fruit from a variety of vendors from Ventura, Fresno, Bakersfield and elsewhere. And I was delighted to talk to each of these new vendors that I had never met before and learn more about where they were coming from, what they grew on their farm and how it was grown.

I know this is what I do every Sunday at the Mountain View farmers' market, but it was eye-opening to be able to do this somewhere else and on vacation, and to have the experience juxtaposed with shopping at a store that I still respect and value for its commitment to good food.

Shopping at the farmers' market 1, buying food anywhere else 0.