Thursday, July 31, 2008

Weight Watchers



My sweetie has been giving the Weight Watchers program a try, and I'm stepping up to the plate to help her eat according to the program's guidelines. She really doesn't eat a lot--less than I do, in fact--but she has been consistently gaining weight for years and I'd very much like to see her live longer and in better health, so it's worth trying anything.

My mother has worked with the Weight Watchers program on and off for many years. I rebel against what I see as her obsession with her weight, in the way that so many of us react to our parents. Personally, I've been gaining and losing the same ten pounds for the past fifteen years, and I can live with that as long as I don't graduate to a new pants size.

There are things I really like about this program. It's been around for a long time and, according to my mom, if you stick with it, it works. She also says that it's not austere, and that's a very good thing in a diet program. I like the fact that they take a long term approach, one that treats "diet" as a set of day to day eating habits rather than a short term fix for the excesses of our day to day eating habits.

I'm not comfortable with the extreme emphasis on cutting out fat. I know that, personally, I feel better when I don't skimp on the olive oil. I don't think most of us gain weight from using too much olive oil on our salads. We gain weight from bingeing, snacking, and out-of-control portion sizes. And there are some funky things about the website, especially its recipe feature. The points it calculates when you enter a recipe are way out of proportion to the points for the individual ingredients of the recipe. We even tried entering some of the recommended recipes which supposedly had no points, and it calculated points for them.

But we're slowly learning to navigate these quirks, partly by avoiding the recipe feature. I brought a shopping list to the farmers' market yesterday and came home with some spectacular, compliant foods. We made a salad using greens from Alm Hill, jalapeno-style albacore from St Jude, red pepper from Billy's Farm, and cherry tomatoes from Stony Plains. We dressed it with lovely olive oil, scrupulously measured, and a fine balsamic vinegar. It didn't feel austere at all, and it was so beautiful that I had to take a picture.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

The Cutest Potatoes I've Ever Seen



Last weekend Alvarez Farms was selling the cutest potatoes I've ever seen. As you can see from the picture, they're about half the size of a cherry but twice the size of a pea.

Cooks enjoy these potatoes much more than farmers do: they're labor intensive to harvest, but it's fun to cook the tiny self-contained units. I've just been tossing a couple into whatever mixed vegetable dish I happen to be preparing.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Bad Reviews



I recently came across a couple of negative reviews of my shop on a vegan website. That's a wierd feeling, like overhearing someone saying they don't like you.

The funny thing is that I agree with some of the points they made, but I'm not about to put much energy into changing things.

I opened my shop nearly 4 years ago, hoping to get some steady walk-in traffic while also having a space to do prep for my farmers' market concession. For the first two years I was there nearly every day, giving it everything I had, but the traffic just didn't materialize. It's kind of a wierd location, close to a main artery but hard to see and a little out of the way. It's also such a small space that it's nearly impossible to provide a "dining experience," and that's what most people expect when they go out to eat.

Fortunately, my farmers' market business started to take off right around the time that my enthusiasm for the storefront began to decline. The store has become mainly a place to prep for the markets. It's a sweet deal for me: there's enough business to pay the rent, and it's convenient to have someone there making tamales and chopping vegetables during store hours.

I have one employee who doesn't clean the shop as well as he should and often forgets things. He also has an attitude about some of the vegan customers, and I'll admit that I don't entirely blame him: they tend to be high maintenance, and they sometimes have unreasonable expectations. But he can crank out more tamales than anyone I've ever employed, so he meets my needs. I know he alienates some customers, but I have more to gain from his tamale production than I lose from his rough edges, so I'm happy to keep him around. (The rest of us try to do some extra cleaning to compensate.)

There's a lot that goes into the decision to open a restaurant, and the choice of what to serve on the menu. There's a lot of doublespeak in the mainstream advertising industry about meeting the customers' needs, but a business also has no meet the needs of its proprietor, its employees, and its suppliers. I do regret that these people are walking away from my shop having had enough of a negative experience to go online and write a review, but if we can't meet their needs, they'll probably be happier eating somewhere else. In the meantime, we'll be taking care of our regulars, and preparing for our next busy farmers' market.

Monday, July 28, 2008

All Local Veggies



We've finally reached the point in the season where my business can use all local veggies in the mix that we cook on the grill and use in our quesadillas.

Part of me resists the quest to do something "all local" or "all organic," as much as I care about good clean food. We seem inclined to spend far too much time fretting over details like the difficulty of finding local salt, than celebrating the bounty of what we do have.

But it's truly exciting to look at a bucket of veggies and know exactly who grew each item. This week we're using beets, kohlrabi, mizuna and bok choy from Boistfort Farm, broccoli and cauliflower from Oxbow, onions and zucchini from Magana, chard from Nash, and kale from Local Roots.

And we're just getting started...

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Ode to Corn



We've been hearing quite a bit lately about the evils of corn, which is implicated in rampant monoculture, tasteless processed food, and an epidemic of diabetes. It's easy to lose track of the fact that corn has so thoroughly worked its way into our lives and our economy because it is arguably the most prolific and versatile plant on the planet.

Corn plays a role in creation myths from all parts of the Americas, and the iconography of quite a few indigenous Central American cultures depict gods with ears of corn incorporated into their figures.

The original inhabitants of the Americas learned that mixing ground corn with an alkaline substance like ash or ground limestone greatly enhanced its nutritional value. When Europeans began cultivating and relying on maize, they failed to make use of this ancient information. Instead they mostly just ground it, much as they'd traditionally done with wheat flour. In Italy this resulted in widespread suffering from pellagra, a nutritional deficiency disease, among the poorer people who subsisted mainly on polenta. But the disease was largely unknown in the Americas for thousands of years before the Europeans arrived, because of the process of nixtmailzation, or mixing corn with an alkaline substance like corn or limestone.

It's ironic that the indigenous Americans processed corn using methods that improved it, while contemporary industry processes it in ways that robs it of its amazing vitality and destroys our bodies and our land.

Friday, July 25, 2008

Premium Pricing



I encountered the term "premium pricing" in a marketing class last year. It describes the practice of charging a particularly high price for an item when it first comes out, so the folks who want it at almost any cost will pay extra to have it right away. It's the phenomenon behind the early high prices on appliances like I-Phones and Playstations.

I thought of the term recently when I saw the season's first blueberries. They were $7 for a container, but it happened to be my birthday, and I really, really wanted local blueberries on my birthday. I didn't think twice about paying the money, in fact, I felt grateful for the opportunity.

Blueberries are now selling for $4 a container, the same as raspberries. I've also seen this phenomenon with cherries, which started at $10 a pound and are now selling for $4, and potatoes, which can start out at $4 per pound before dropping to $2.

I really don't splurge on many things besides local produce (and good chocolate.) For me paying the initial higher price is a way of expressing my appreciation for the bounty of this landscape and the hard work of these quixotic farmers.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

The Peruvian Devil Dance



So there I was, quietly minding my own business, cooking vegetables on the grill, when all of a sudden I was immersed in the sound of drumming, and surrounded by costumed red devils dancing.

They were at the Columbia City Market promoting a performance at the Rainier Valley Youth Theatre, in conjunction with The African ConeXion Project. The theater will be showing an original play hosting two Peruvian guest artists, about a Peruvian ex-pat who returns home from New York and re-connects with his heritage.

El Son de Los Diablos, or the traditional Afro-Peruvian Devil's Dance, was thrilling, especially because of the way it took me by surprise. And the market was a perfect venue for it: a casual community gathering with lots of kids, where anything can happen.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

A Trip to Chocolopolis



Yesterday I visited Chocolopolis, the new chocolate shop on Queen Anne. As I expected, it felt rather boutiquey, but you probably have to go for that feel if you're opening a shop in that neighborhood. It did feel like a shrine and, as someone who experiences awe in the face of the magical cacao bean, I felt appropriately reverent.

The chocolates are arranged by region. I told the salesperson that my all time favorite chocolate bar is Michel Cluizel's Mangaro, and she pointed out that, because it's from Madagascar, I should try other varieties from the same area. It was a good suggestion, and I'll probably take her up on it next time around.

This time I bought a bar made from beans grown in Northeastern Brazil. My sweetie is Brazilian, and I'd never run into a Brazilian chocolate bar before, so I couldn't resist. I also picked up a bar from a company called Askenosie, which had a photo on the front of the farmers who grew the beans. I loved the packaging, which was deeply rustic and had a piece of twine at the top.

I checked out the company's website, which explained that the proprietor personally meets each of the growers who supplies his beans, pays them more than they would receive with a fair trade arrangement, and even offers them profit sharing. The chocolate was good (although for flavor alone, I'd still choose Mangaro,) but I'm really glad to have discovered this company. I'm partial to approaches that creatively circumvent programs like organic certification and Fair Trade, especially when they exceed the certification program's standards, and rely on their own outreach to communicate about the integrity of their practices.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Purslane



The past few years a number of local farmers have begun growing purslane, a leafy green, succulent vegetable. Purslane has been cultivated since ancient times and has historically been a part of European kitchen gardens, but until relatively recently it was mostly considered a weed in the United States.

There has been a growing interest in it lately largely because it contains omega 3 fatty acids, an essential nutrient that's far more common in cold water fish than in leafy greens. The leaves are kind of spongy, and they have a lemony tang.

Last summer I'd regularly pick up a small bag of purslane from Local Roots Farm on Fridays at the Madrona Farmers Market. I'd always think I was going to cook something with it or use it in a salad, but I'd just end up tearing off leaves and snacking on them all the way home, without even thinking about what I was doing.

Sounds like something my body needs.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Zucchini 500 Races at Magnolia



This past Saturday was the annual Zucchini 500 Race event at the Magnolia Farmers' Market. Kids decorate zucchinis with wheels and racing stripes, among other things, and then they speed them down a zucchini-sized racetrack.

The occasion always draws lots of kids to the market, and keeps them busy and entertained. Molly, the market manager, engineers the event at this venue, and also at a handful of other locations over the course of the season. She probably knows more about the aerodynamics of zucchini than any person on the planet.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Chiles!



I spotted the season's first chiles at the Queen Anne Farmers' Market yesterday. These are Anaheims, and I hear there will be jalapenos next week.

For me chiles are the sign that high summer has arrived. Their season starts slowly, with a couple of varieties, and by mid-September Alvarez Farms will have dozens of shapes and sizes in a whole spectrum of colors.

We tend to think of chiles mainly as vehicles for heat, but they have plenty of flavor besides their spiciness. I like my food hot, but it only takes a few hot chiles to make a dish super spicy, so I like to use a range of mild ones along with the hot for added flavor.

The Aztecs refrained from eating chiles on religious fast days, just as medieval Europeans avoided meat on certain days of the year. They were that important.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

The Joy and Tedium of Green Beans



Green beans are in season now. I enjoy eating them, but I hate prepping them. That's a little odd, because I don't dread shelling peas or fava beans in quite the same way, and those processes certainly involve more work. Maybe it's because they always take so much longer than I think they should. They're almost straight and uniform enough to line them up and trim the ends with a knife, but not quite. I always end up cutting off too much that way, so I just do them individually, pulling off the tips by hand.

I catered a wedding last weekend for a very sweet couple who've been eating at my shop for years. They chose a recipe out of my cookbook made up mostly of--you guessed it--green beans. I whined about it at first, then I picked up a case of beautiful mixed purple and green beans from Alvarez Farms. It took a while, but it felt right.

My favorite thing to do with green beans, for my own personal enjoyment, is to make refrigerator pickles. I trim them, then saute some onion and garlic, add vinegar and salt, dilute it by about half, then add them green beans, cook them for a minute, and turn off the heat. They last for a week or two in the refrigerator, but I always finish them long before that.

As far as full fledged canning, any endeavor where people can die if you don't precisely follow directions is not something I should be doing.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

The Hand Truck at the Market



My shop is a block and a half from the Ballard Farmers' Market. This is quite convenient for those frequent occasions when we forget something, or when we're running out of food or supplies.
  1. When we go back for something heavy or bulky, we transport it with a hand truck. This can be tricky, because the market is crowded and I always want to move as quickly as possible because the situation feels urgent.

It's difficult to navigate the crowded market quickly with a hand truck. Having grown up in New York City, I approach it the way I approach moving through crowds there: look for openings and slip into them. But that doesn't always work at the market. People move slowly and erratically, and they stop or step backwards without warning and often without even looking. It's easy to run into someone's foot, even when I carefully chart my path.

I'm trying to slow down. It's never worth hurting someone, even if the supplies arrive a little later. And we want people to be engaged and curious. That's what makes it a great market.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Vertical Farms



The New York Times ran an article today in their science section about the idea of vertical farms, which has been gaining traction lately. As I understand it, vertical farming is a strategy for creating farmland in densely populated urban areas by building agricultural spaces into skyscrapers.

I'm thrilled that some prestigious scientists are putting thought and energy into finding solutions to our food security woes rather than into designing new war toys, but this seems like a technological fix to a systemic problem, a fancy, expensive solution to a crisis of values.

Many of the small-scale organic farmers I know are not planting all of the land they have available because they can't do so in an economically feasible way. It would cost them more to plant, maintain, harvest and market the extra produce than they could make from selling it. If they can't plant additional food profitably on existing farmland, it's hard to believe than someone is going to make it all work on farmland that they have to build from scratch high above a city. This kind of enterprise would have to be highly subsidized, and if we're going to subsidize something, we might as well subsidize a common-sense endeavor like putting seeds in ground that already exists.

I've heard that Zabar's has had some success with rooftop tomato gardens in New York but they're a special case, growing a premium product to sell to an existing customer base.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Kitchen Margaritas



Berry season is margarita season and, for those of us in the foodservice industry, it's also a time to explore our culinary creativity by mixing tequila with whatever ingredients we happen to have on hand in the workplace.

I made a lovely batch the other day with the season's first blueberries and a fancy demarra sugar, which I had left over from a catering gig. Past efforts have made use of tamarind and coconut milk and, in the absence of fresh berries, jam comes in handy. Lemonade is also a convenient standby.

We do tend to burn ourselves more often on margarita kitchen days, but the season is short and the risks keep us from descending into full fledged debauchery.

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Summer Beets



Beets are coming back into season, along with potatoes, broccoli, and cauliflower, These lovely specimens were grown by Local Roots Farm, in Carnation.

It occurred to me that many of the veggies we think of as winter fare are also available during the summer, we just think of them as winter produce because this time of year they're one choice among many, while six months from now they'll be bigger fish in a smaller pond.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Romanesco: The Fractal Vegetable



This week Tolt Gardens, also known as "Let Us Farm," had romanesco for sale at the Columbia City Market. On the evolutionary spectrum, romanesco lies somewhere between broccoli and cauliflower. It's pale green, and tastes a little like both.

It's most striking feature is the spiral ring of florettes that climbs to its peak, forming what mathematicians call a "fractal." As I understand it, that's a pattern that occurs with striking frequency in nature, and consists of shapes that mirror one another, but occur in decreasing sizes.

Nature is amazing.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Local Bounty



After a rough start, we've finally reached the point in the season when fruits and vegetables are bountiful, and there's something new to see virtually every day.

I love to barter. In fact, I try to never turn down a trade with a food vendor. I even trade for things I don't particularly want. Someone on my crew will eat it.

Sometimes I come back from the market and I look at all the stuff I've acquired and I wonder what I'm going to do with it all. What a wonderful problem to have. Too much great food.

By the way, "Local Bounty" is the title of a cookbook I'll be publishing with Book Publishing Company this fall: vegan recipes based on local, seasonal ingredients.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Sicilian Olive Oil at the Local Market



On Saturday I arrived at the Magnolia Farmers Market and discovered that I'd forgotten to bring cooking oil. I frantically looked around and discovered that the folks from Mondella Ristorante were selling olive oil. This seemed strange, because the market is restricted to local products, but I was so glad to see something that would work for my purposes that I bought first, and asked questions later.

The oil smelled exquisite, too good, really to be using on the grill. You're not supposed to use olive oil when you're cooking on high heat, so I used it sparingly and tried to keep the burners on a lower setting than usual.

At the end of the day I went up to the folks who were selling it and asked what the story was. They said they imported it directly from a friend of the family in Sicily. They must have gotten some kind of special dispensation from the market administrators, in fact, I'm surprised they're letting them sell it there at all because they're usually so strict about only allowing items that have been locally produced, but I'm thrilled that it's available to me there, with such a short supply chain.

I brought the rest of the bottle home. It has that wonderful bite in the back of your throat that you get with truly well-made olive oils.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Patty Pans



Patty pan squash has begun showing up on market tables. That's the variety of summer squash that looks like a flying saucer. Sunburst squash are yellow patty pans.

My business is named "Patty Pan." I was looking for a catchy vegetable name, and I figured the alliteration worked well for Coca Cola, which is the most widely recognized brand name in the world.Of course everyone always asks me if I'm Patty. I've even begun answering to "Patty," because it's easier than correcting people. Sometimes I keep a squash on my market table so I can point to it and say, "No, that's Patty."

I don't even like patty pan squash all that much, although I'm happy with it as a name for my business. But for dinner I'm partial to the denser, heartier varieties of winter squash, like delicatas and hubbards.

Monday, July 7, 2008

Sea Beans



This time of year Foraged and Found Edibles sells sea beans, or salicornia, which are edible pods gathered from tidepools. They don't actually grow or live in the ocean, but they fall in the water from plants that sometimes grow quite far away, and the tides carry them to our beaches.

They're very salty, having travelled in sea water. It's good to soak them for a bit before using them, to make them somewhat less salty. After you soak them, they still keep a trace of saltiness on the inside, which I enjoy.

I like to pickle them by preparing a vinegary marinade, diluting it a bit with water, then simmering the beans in the marinade for a minute or two before letting them sit for a while to soak up the flavor. Last week I also prepared them with fresh pasta and morel mushrooms, another seasonal treat on my local forager's table.

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Raspberries!



The season's first raspberries began appearing this week on local market tables, a few weeks later than usual because of the nutty weather this spring. I LOVE raspberries, but they do terrible things to my stomach, even one single raspberry, so I just admire them from a distance.

When you're standing next to a table covered with berries, you can smell them, and that doesn't upset my stomach, so I enjoy them that way.

It's been a very slow couple of market days because of the holiday. Both market organizations cancelled their Friday markets this year, but the Thursday and Saturday markets were also pretty dead. Even the berry people had stuff left over at the end of the day and, rather than carry it home, they were giving it away to other vendors.

It's hard to say no to a free flat of berries, even when you can't eat them yourself. My staff enjoyed them.

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Farmers Wanted



I've been seeing this sign for years outside a car lot and repair shop on 67th and Aurora. I believe it's the same spot whose owner was distributing flyers at one of the markets three or four years ago for a market operating every day of the week. I have yet to see a single farm stand there.

It seems like a difficult spot for a farmers' market, not least because a cement barricade makes it impossible to turn in there if you're going northbound on Aurora.

It can't be easy to start an independent market in a town with two solidly established market organizations, and existing markets nearly every day of the week.

Friday, July 4, 2008

Quality Onions at the Corporate Store



I've written before about the fact that I do use some industrial ingredients in my products, especially when the price is right and they haven't traveled that far. But yesterday the label on the big bags of onions at the wholesale foodservice grocery where I shop said, "Green Giant," and I figured it was time to draw the line.

In the next bin I found somwhat smaller bags of onions, Walla Walla Sweets for about twice the price as the industrial onions, but still quite reasonable. I picked up a couple of bags. They were a pleasure to peel and I used one when I cooked my lunch and it was very tasty.

I wondered how this quality product happened to end up at the industrial warehouse. The label had the logo for an organization called The Food Alliance, so I checked out their website. It's an independent group based in Oregon that certifies farms and producers on their use of sustainable practices, looking at everything from land and pesticide use to labor practices.

One criteria they use that I especially liked was "continual improvement." These folks seem to not be looking for 100% perfection, but rather a sincere commitment to doing things right in the context of a system where so much is wrong.I also appreciate the fact that they take a nuanced approach to the issue of organics, recognizing that some pesticides are worse than others.

I'm assuming that their role as a trade organization helped to place these onions at the industrial foodservice grocery, and seeing them there gave me hope.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

You Must be ROASTING Back There!



I hear it all day from customers, as soon as the weather climbs above, oh, about 60 degrees. I wonder if it's compassion, or schadenfreud, or just another way of expressing the fact that they're feeling hot themselves.

Doing markets year-round, I've found that there's very little window between when folks complain about the cold, and when they complain about the heat. It'll be 45 degrees in January, and they'll say, "Can you believe how cold it is?" Let's see. 45 degrees in January. I don't find that hard to believe at all.

I've come to the conclusion that life in the Pacific Northwest is so good for so many of us, that the weather--whatever it is--is one of the only things we've got to complain about. As for myself behind the grill, I'm not in Arizona or Saudi Arabia where it's 110 degrees, and I'm not stoking a boiler in a basement somewhere. I'm cooking beautiful vegetables at a farmers' market, surrounded by magnificent food in a deeply life-affirming environment.

But then I become the person who complains about the people complaining about the weather...

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Pint o' Cherry Tomatoes



This time of year my favorite treat on market days is a pint of mixed varieties of warm cherry tomatoes. Other people nosh on fruit, I'm a sucker for cherry tomatoes, especially the Sun Golds.

At the moment I'm getting them from Billy's Organic Farm, whenever we're at the same markets, in part because theirs are so exquisitely tasty, but also because they're just about the earliest ones to have them available.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Peppers!



I saw the first peppers of the year this past weekend at the stand for Billy's Organic Produce. He had mostly purple peppers and a couple of green ones.

I've been noticing a pattern when different varieties of produce come into season: one farmers will have them available a few weeks earlier than everyone else, then, after a few weeks, they're everywhere. Sometimes it's because this particular farmer has the right kind of soil or the ideal microclimate, and sometimes the particular item is something they specialize in, so they give it extra love and attention or they know some tricks for coaxing it out early.

Before long everyone's tables will be filled with colorful baskets of peppers and chiles.