!!!

So, Adam’s dad and stepmom are moving to London! It happened really quickly – we were there visiting for the weekend, and Adam’s dad left on Sunday for his first two weeks of work across the pond!

We scored a new TV (both Adam’s parents bought new TVs this past week – anybody else feeling the urge? There might be some big ad push to buy new TVs), and by new I mean new to us. It’s 29 inches, fancy, comes with a remote, etc. You should have seen Adam, two crash pads, and a wheelbarrow getting the thing into the house. He’s amazing!

We also scored a bunch of food that Anne had bought for the week. Now that Dave’s gone to London, she had all this food she couldn’t eat, and she gave us a ton of stuff: chicken parts for broth, carrots, celery, lettuce, potatoes, squash, pears, persimmons, cabbage. These are all yummy late fall veggies, and eating them means eating seasonally, so I’m DETERMINED to eat all this food.

So last night we got home around 5 pm, and I ran in the house, leaving Adam to negotiate the television in the rain, and started in on the cooking. I made a big batch of chicken broth, using only half the chicken parts! Basically, I did this: I cut up 2 carrots, 2 celery stalks, and half an onion, threw them in a pot with the chicken carcass, and filled the pot most of the way with water, salted, then simmered, covered, for 2 hours. Strained with a regular noodle-strainer (most of the chunky stuff will stay in the pot as you dump the broth out), and boom – done.

I am in LOVE with simmering stuff for hours on the stove. It’s like you’re simultaneously getting stuff done and getting stuff done. I made batter bread also – I am also in love with the mixer, which allowed me to make the bread dough in about 5 minutes. The most labor was getting out all the ingredients and putting them back. Then I did the dishes, cooked dinner, and watched The Office and 30 Rock – all while making chicken broth!

Tonight, I’m planning to throw the rest of the carrots, celery, and potatoes in with the broth and make soup. Maybe some noodles in there too, and maybe some tomato sauce. Not sure. Soup is new to me, so I’m experimenting. I’ve got the bread to go with it, and that should be a couple meals at least.

Now I just have to figure out what to do with the cabbage, persimmons, squash, plus I have an excess of cucumbers and radishes right now. Allrecipes, here I come!

My aversion to root vegetables is well documented. So when we got rutabagas, carrots, and celeriac in our last CSA, in addition to all the potatoes, onions, leeks, beets, and garlic we’ve collected this fall, I was a little put off. To the point where it took us two weeks to use them. Luckily, the whole point of root vegetables is that they last a long time.

But I finally broke down and found a couple recipes that would use up a lot of the veggies we had on hand: Roasted Fall Veggies (over at Eat. Drink. Better.) and Potato and Leek Soup (from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian). The best part of these is that we could do part of the cooking ahead of time—very important, since root vegetables take so long to cook.

For the soup we sautéed the potatoes and leeks and then cooked them in veggie stock for 20 minutes. Then we froze the soup until we wanted it, at which point we thawed it out, pureed it with our immersion blender, and added 1/2 cup sour cream and some green onions. It turned out to be the most delicious soup I’ve ever tasted. Seriously. I’m not a fan of soup, but this was rich and thick. We’ve still got enough for at least one more meal in the freezer and I’m really looking forward to having it again.

For the Roasted Fall Vegetables we chopped up a variety of root veggies: rutagabas, beets, celeriac, potatoes, and carrots. We boiled them, then stored them in the refrigerator for a couple days. Then we coated them with an olive oil and spices mixture and baked them for 20 minutes. While the result wasn’t super delicious, it was a pretty good side dish, and a great way to use up a lot of root veggies in one fell swoop.

We also pulled out a couple of the beets and used them for lunch in an Orange, Beet, and Lemon Zest Salad (also over at Eat. Drink. Better.). I discovered that I actually really enjoy beets, as long as they’re cold.

The beauty of these recipes is that none of them took more than half an hour at a time, so any part could be done after work. I think part of my root vegetable hatred over the years may have been that I never wanted to take the time at night to cook them. By cooking things ahead of time, I can work around that issue.

Things are winding down, the snow and cold has really slowed the late harvest, but we have been able to bring a few things in from the field. The on-farm store is open until Nov 2nd this year.

This week we have:
Potatoes – Norland & Russian Blue
Carrots – purple, white, orange
Cabbage – green & purple
Cucumbers
Beets
Spanish Onions
Field Tomatoes
Hot Peppers
Herbs
Squash – many varieties to choose from
Pie Pumpkins
Halloween Pumpkins
Gourds
Ornamental corn

We also have seasonal BC Fruit and Turnips and Parsnips from ‘Peak of the Market’.

As always Local Honey (Lumsden Valley Honey Co), Jams, Pickles and Baking (Sweet Pea, Lumsden Beach) are for sale at the farm.

We are open daily from 9-6.

Every late summer for the past several years my friend, Judith, has invited me for a day of produce shopping at her favorite local farm stands.  Late summer most years means the end of August, the height of tomato season.  Tomatoes on pizzas, in salads, with basil and fresh mozzarella, chopped up for spicy salsas, added to cooked sauces– I’ll happily daydream away the hour’s drive to Concord thinking about every which way I will prepare and eat my tomato haul.  This year, however, Judith and I didn’t get our trek planned until mid-September.  The tomatoes by then were on the wane, yielding center stage at Hutchins Organic Farm to their apples, squashes, dark leafy greens, and various root vegetables.

It was September 20 and summer may not have officially ended according to my calendar, but summer, my friends, was over for me.  In an instant.

I love everything about summer:  the heat, the beach, long days unhindered by a school schedule.  I love watching my skin bronze up, as unpopular as that may be.  I love shorts and sandals and being freed from bundling in layers of sweaters and scarves and gloves and fleece.  I really love summer produce: the first tender lettuces, early peas, beans, strawberries, blueberries, yellow and zucchini squashes, cherries, plums, peaches, butter and sugar corn.

And tomatoes.

I have a very basic, near primal love for vine-ripened garden tomatoes, probably because the sharp vegetal smell of one just picked can transport me to an exact spot in my childhood backyard and those truly carefree hot days.  That smell is better than any time machine promises to be; it’s my very own buttery Madeleine.

That may be why, in my mind, I have long thought of my shopping trip with Judith as “the tomato trek.”  We’ve gone to Hutchins and Verrill farms where they have every size and shape and hue of heirloom tomato, and I’ always go home with loads, sometimes too many to count and too many to eat, a number edging into that danger zone of watching some of them turn into fruit fly fodder before I have a chance to incorporate them into meals.

Alas, the only tomatoes I brought home on the 20^th were a pint box of deliciously sweet yellow cherry tomatoes and three yellow slicers from Hutchins Farm.  Not my usual cull, far from it, because there was hardly a tomato to be had.  Hardly any familiar summer produce at all.

And although Hutchins Farm’s bin after overflowing bin of kale, chard, cauliflower, broccoli cabbage, potatoes, and onions took my breath away, it was not in the best way at first.  Suddenly I was standing face to face with change, seasonal change, a change I had purposely avoided thinking about because leaving summer behind made me sad.  Gone were the big, fresh, tomato-driven salads and the zippy peach salsas I like to serve with our dinner salmon and the fresh corn kernels I love to toss into a side dish of toasted bulgur wheat.

Meaning, really:  gone the warmth and ease of summer, something I find so hard to give up, even for a crisp and colorful New England fall.

Although time seemed to stand still as I looked around me, I don’t think I had stopped in my tracks at the farm stand for more than a few seconds before I felt my attitude begin to turn over, slowly, like a car’s engine finally catching on a cold day, but turn over it did.  Okay, I said to myself, you’re here with a good friend and it’s a beautiful day. You’re surrounded by beautiful food grown by thoughtful people– Jane, allow your attitude to change with the season.

That barely perceptible self-tweak was all I needed to nudge me into fall.  That, and the bounty of the farm stand.  Food and the excitement of working with it can usually hasten my attitude adjustment.

I began anticipating cooler days, not loving the inevitability but not fearing it either.  I would accept that the fresh, light, clean flavors of summer were moving aside to make way for fall’s winy, spicy, complex ones.  Salsas would be yielding to stews, grilled meats to braises, citrus notes to complex peppery-anise-musky ones– food to keep us warm from the cold, and a more complicated kind of cooking that would help to give shape to the impending longer, darker days.

Summer’s foods and preparations – slicing a tomato, tossing a salad, shucking corn, lighting a last minute barbecue grill – unchain us from the kitchen a bit, afford us some freedom to experience the weather and every second of daylight.  Cool weather cooking reins us back in as we spend time peeling and cooking root vegetables or sautéing down sturdy greens.  The roasting, braising, stewing, assembling casseroles, simmering pots of soup or spaghetti sauce of fall and winter give us just that little extra challenge.  Cooking like this requires creative thought and time, lots of both, for planning, preparation and execution.

But what better opportunity than a cold, short weekend day (or any day of the week), a day so cold and dark that you’d rather be inside than out, for cooking?  Sure, you could get lost on the internet for a couple of hours, or you could hunker down in front of the TV…but why not flex your creativity muscles in the kitchen instead?

In the middle of Hutchins, finally freed from my expectations, my creativity went into overdrive:  kale and meaty mushrooms could be turned into a ragout, white turnips roasted with fingerling potatoes alongside a fresh chicken, cauliflower pureed into a creamy curried soup, rutabagas mashed and used as a bed for saucy braised short ribs.

The rutabaga actually was my best inspiration that day.  Above their wooden crate was this sign:  “Rutabaga, the Rodney Dangerfield of vegetables.”  Meaning, I suppose, this yellow turnip gets no respect. Turnips white or yellow are humble and assuming, so lowly in fact that they are often passed over for showier offerings with better names.  Now that’s a shame.  The next time you pass a rutabaga in your market, pick it up.  If you’re lucky enough to find an organic one it won’t be waxed and it’s skin will feel soft and appealing, not rough and gnarly as you might expect.  Let it’s hint of apricot yellow flesh make you pause, as I did, to consider how delicious it could be when mashed with butter, salt and pepper, and served with your favorite fall stew.  Rutabaga makes a peppery and slightly sharp alternative to mashed potatoes, holding its own with bold favors.

In the end I didn’t make stew.  A few days after bringing home the rutabaga, I looked at it resting in the fridge and thought immediately of duck.  Sliced medium rare duck breast served over the mashed yellow turnip with some kind of dried fruit sauce (dried cherry and port, as it turned out, cherries being the fruit on hand) served on top.  Maybe a side of braised chard with crisped bacon.  The final dinner, a collaborative effort, was even better than I imagined it would be, full of assertive flavor.  And the turnip was the star, ready for it’s close up, humble no longer.

Not humble but incredibly easy to make.  Here I offer three purees (or mashes) – rutabaga, cauliflower, white bean – for the fall and winter dishes you come up with.  All make a nice change from potatoes, so have fun experimenting with them, mixing and matching with different meat or vegetable dishes.

Mashed Rutabaga

• 1 medium rutabaga, quartered
• 1 Tbsp. softened butter
• salt and pepper to taste

With a paring knife, cut off the outer skin of the rutabaga about ¼ “ down into the flesh to remove all the fibrous parts.  When each quarter has been peeled, chop each into eighths and place the pieces into a saucepan filled with cold water to cover and then some.  Salt the cold water, cover the pan, and place over high heat to bring the water to a boil.  Once boiling, crack the lid a bit and reduce the heat so the water comes to a steady simmer.  Simmer rutabaga pieces until very tender when pierced with a fork.  This will take anywhere from 25-35 minutes.  When tender, drain the rutabaga, reserving some of the cooking liquid in a bowl or glass measuring cup.  Return drained vegetable to the still hot pan, add the butter, and begin mashing pieces with a fork.  Taste for saltiness, then add salt and pepper to taste.  Using an electric hand mixer beat the rutabaga a bit longer until a bit fluffy.  Unlike mashed potatoes, rutabaga will not get very smooth.  But if it looks a bit dry, thin out with some of the reserved cooking water.  Can be kept over a low flame or a double boiler for a while as you assemble the rest of your meal.

Cauliflower Puree

• 1 head cauliflower, 2 to 2 1/2 pounds
• 1 quart chicken or vegetable broth, or water
• 3 tablespoons butter
• salt and pepper to taste

Pull the leaves off the cauliflower, quarter it, and remove the wedge of core in each section. Separate the florets into smaller, regular pieces (about 1 1/2 inch) and put them in a saucepan. Cover with broth or water (I like the extra flavor of the broth, but it’s not necessary), and cook for about 15 minutes, or until you can poke a paring knife into the stems and and still feel a little firmness there.  You do not want mush, so start checking at 10 minutes. Stir the cauliflower well a few times so that it cooks evenly.  Drain, reserving the cooking liquid in a small bowl or glass measuring cup.  Put half of the cauliflower into a food processor, add about ¼ cup of the broth to it, then process until smooth.  Add the rest of the cauliflower on top, another couple Tbsp. of the broth and purée again,  stopping to scrape down the sides of the work bowl and stir the purée a few times.  Add more liquid only if needed.  The goal is smooth and silky with some body, not soupy. When you have the desired consistency, taste for seasoning then process in the butter and any needed salt and pepper through the feed tube. Again, this can be kept over a low flame or a double boiler for a while as you assemble the rest of your meal.  (Depending on what you serve with it, a pinch of curry powder or some grated parmesan cheese can also be added when processing with the butter.)

White Bean Puree

• 1/2 carrot, finely chopped
• 1 good sized sprig of fresh rosemary
• 2 15-ounce cans* cannellini (white kidney beans), rinsed well and drained
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Add beans, carrot, and rosemary to the saucepan along with the chicken broth. Set over medium heat, cover and bring to a simmer.  The goal here is not to cook the beans (they are cooked already), but to soften the carrot and rosemary. When simmering, keep covered and reduce heat to low.  Stir and check often over the next 20 minutes.  When the carrots are soft and the rosemary leaves are falling off the stem, remove from heat.  Puree mixture in processor or with a stick blender right in the pot. If this seems thick, you may thin it with extra broth.  Return to saucepan if necessary, taste, and correct seasoning with salt and pepper.  Drizzle top with olive oil but do not incorporate it at this point, cover, and keep puree warm over a double boiler until ready to serve.  Stir in olive oil just before serving.

*You can of course use dried beans that you have soaked overnight then cooked and drained.  You’ll need about 4 cups cooked beans.

©2009  Jane Ward

Lovely rows of fall organic veggies are now planted and growing in the Bluebird Victory Garden.  We invite anyone in the community to Adopt-a-Row as the Fall Season is getting underway in our Southeastern Region. Live green organic vegetables include Purple Top Turnips, Collards, Kale, Leeks, Green Onions, Garlic, Edible Snow Pea Pods, Brussel Sprouts, Cauliflower, Parat Giant German Radishes, and Sweet Potatoes.

Herbs are thriving and growing in several boxes and local growers have a wide variety including fragrant lemongrass, thyme, basil, Stevia, mints, parsleys, and more.

We invite you to join us in the community garden this fall at Bluebird.

One of my all-time favorite vegetables is asparagus. I love it in salads, soups, pasta, wrapped in prosciutto…pretty much any way you can think of preparing it. If you love asparagus as much as I do, then head on over to Stockton this weekend for the Asparagus Festival. Beginning today through Sunday, you can see bands like Papa Doo Run Run and The Tubes (as well as other entertainment all day long) and, of course, eat your way through Asparagus Alley. According to the Asparagus Festival Web site, last year, more than 45,000 pounds of asparagus was consumed from deep-fried asparagus (45,000 orders), Asparagus Tri-tip Sandwiches (9,000 orders), Asparagus Burritos (4,000 orders), and pasta dishes (8,500 orders). Yum!

You can buy tickets online or at the festival.

Adults (18-59): $12.00
College Students with Proper ID: $7.00
Teens (11-17): $7.00
Children 10 & Under: FREE with paying adults
Seniors (60 and older) & Persons with Disabilities: $7.00

Following is my favorite way to prepare asparagus. It’s simple, delicious and pretty healthy too!

Roasted Asparagus

1 pound asparagus
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400°F. Simply cut off the ends of the asparagus (maybe 2 inches), place in roasting pan, drizzle with extra virgin oil and add salt and pepper (maybe 1 teaspoon of salt and ½ teaspoon of pepper). Toss well and roast for 17 20 minutes, depending on the thickness of the asparagus. That’s it! So simple and delicious and you don’t need mayo –it’s perfect on its own.

By Kim Bedwell 

Contented Acres is a small quaint organic farm located on hwy 33 between Santa Nella and Gustine, CA. Farmer Bill Nunes is loaded this fall with fresh goodies like, red russian kale, mustard, elephant garlic, walnuts, lettuce, bok choi and so much more!

See for yourself and stop by Bill’s farm stand open:

Sundays & Thursdays / 9:00am ~ 12:00 noon

Call or e-mail for your questions (209) 535-0484 / aenunes@prodigy.net

tell him Kat and Anna sent you!

It’s that time of year when we’re all starting to harvest our gardens. Those of us that have them, of course. *sob* Bet you won’t find naughty little root veggies like this at a grocery store.

Whatever will you do with them? Salad topping, of course. Here’s how…

½ cup of carrots.
½ cup of onions.
½ cup of peppers.
½ cup of tomatoes.
½ cup of shredded bacon.
¼ cup of roasted sunflower seeds.

Fry up the bacon and then crumble it up. Dice the veggies and blanche or steam lightly. Then toss the bacon, veggies and sunflower seeds together. Voila. Sprinkle over salad. Keep it in an airproof container in the fridge to keep it crunchy.

See, porn is good for you!

P.S. Yes, yes, I know. FRACAS would give you carrot cake. Pfft. She’s having Internet troubles so I hijacked her blog. Tee hee. Besides, carrot cake takes way too freaking long to make. It’s faster to get it at Costco. I don’t DO cake-making. Judy does. Tra la la… what to post next….

[photo credit]

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The season is drawing to an end. We still have a good selection of fall crops available. And of course there are PUMPKINS! The on-farm market stays open until the 2nd of November and Lincoln Gardens will be attending the Regina Farmers Market Indoors until we run out of produce to sell (maybe November 8th)

What we have this week:

Cauliflower
Beets
Carrots (regular, purple, white)
Cabbage (green & purple)
Field Tomatoes (some are still green but we have a good supply)
Peppers (HOT)
Potatoes (Norland, gourmet red, russian blue)
Onions (green & cooking)
Squash (too many to mention)
Pumpkins (cooking, sugar-pie and halloween pumpkin)
Swiss Chard
Herbs
Watermelon, Cantaloupe & salmon-dew (like a honey dew only pinkish inside)

We also have BC Apples and turnips and parsnips from Peak of the Market (Manitoba)

We have gourds and ornamental corn for sale also. We will also sell the corn stalk bundles for Halloween decorating starting this week. These look great propped up around the front door on trick-or-treat night!

Though last week fracas asked you to choose whether you like to eat male or female (eggplant), this week is all about inspiring you to get back to your roots.

Vegetables, that is.

There’s nothing like fall to inspire hearty stews and soups made from an abundance of hearty root vegetables, and this week, Friday Food Porn is all about getting back to your roots… only I’m not exactly sure which root.

It’s a strange little photo, and I’m not sure exactly where I found it, either. I’ve had it sitting in my images folder for some time, and it’s always been left buried there because frankly, I’ve never been able to decide what I think it is. It looks like it could actually be a few different vegetables (albeit grown a bit on the wild side).

Never to fail me, is WordPress to my rescue.

Now that you’ve done that, go ahead and cook up this week’s recipe. After all… no matter which it is, you can always toss it into the pot anyway; that’s the beauty of soups and stews!

Hearty Rutabaga, Carrot, Parsnip and Sausage Soup

2 tablespoons olive oil
6 ounces smoked turkey sausage, cut into 1/2-inch dice
1 large onion, chopped
3 small parsnips, peeled, diced
1 medium rutabaga, peeled, diced
1 large carrot, peeled, diced
1 14 1/2-ounce can beef broth
1 14 1/2-ounce can chicken broth

1/4 cup half and half
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme, crumbled
Salt and pepper

Heat oil in heavy large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add sausage and sauté until brown on all sides, about 7 minutes. Transfer to plate using slotted spoon. Add onion to saucepan. Reduce heat to medium and cook until tender, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes. Add parsnips, rutabaga and carrot and cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add broths. Bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer until vegetables are tender, about 40 minutes.

Purée soup in batches in processor. Return to saucepan. Mix in half and half and thyme. Season with salt and pepper. Add sausage. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.) Heat through. Ladle into bowls and serve.

Fraccy Tips:

1. Omit the final step and serve it chunky style.
2. Omit the final step to serve chunky style, and thicken with a paste of flour and broth. Now… you have a stew! 

If you’re looking for other Food Porn Recipes to use up your evidence veggies… head over here. It’s like there’s a party in the veggie drawer, and you’re invited!

[Recipe Source]

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We have started to harvest the pumpkins and the pumpkin patch is taking shape. Watch for more info about this attraction as the month progresses.

Some comments I have heard lately make me wonder if customers think that the veggie season ends at the September Long Weekend. But we continue the harvest well into the fall, so if your family is looking for fresh, local produce visit our farm store or our vendor stall at the RFM for all varieties of vegetables.

This week we have:
Corn
Field Tomatoes (roma & regular)
Cabbage (green & purple)
Cucumbers (pickling & slicing)
Beets
Beans
Carrots (white, orange, purple)
Onions (green and cooking, Walla Walla, Kelsie, Candy)
Potatoes (Norland, Russian Blue, All-Red)
Peppers (hot banana, italian green, green bell, yellow bell, jalapeno, habanero, chillies of all sorts)
Squash (Hubbard, Spaghetti, Celebration, Buttercup, Ambercup)
Sugar Pumpkins
Swiss Chard
Broccoli
Cauliflower (white & cheddar)

By Christine Moravec 

I’ve been on a discovery kick lately, trying to familiarize myself with vegetables that I don’t usually incorporate into my diet.  For example, my mom passed along an awesome recipe for celery root salad; I have to admit, I found a strange pride in having to identify the large root to the cashier at the market. 

This week I’d like to share a recipe that highlights kale – another vegetable that I’m “embracing.”  Now don’t get me wrong, the addition of sausage automatically gives any dish points in my book, but I’m now a huge fan of kale and am happy there’re leftovers of this soup in my fridge!

Italian Kale Soup

1 lb   smoked Italian sausage (I recommend spicy, it adds a kick!)
2   yellow onions, chopped
12 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tsp  dried crushed red pepper
1 cup  dry white wine
8 cups  vegetable broth
2 cans  diced tomatoes in juice
2   potatoes, peeled and diced
2   carrots, diced
1 can  kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 large bunch kale, stems removed and chopped (8+ cups)
2  green bell peppers, diced
3 tbs  red wine vinegar

Cook sausage in oversized pot over low heat for about 10 minutes.  Increase heat to medium; add onions and sauté until translucent.  Stir in garlic and dried red pepper.  Add wine, stock, tomatoes (with juices), potatoes, carrots and beans.  Bring to boil.  Reduce heat to medium and simmer until vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes.  Add kale, bell peppers and vinegar to soup and simmer until kale is just wilted, about 5 minutes.  Enjoy with warmed whole wheat French bread and a glass of merlot!

By Melinda McRae

Soil Born Farm Fifth-Annual Autumn Equinox Celebration 
Saturday, Sept. 22 from 4:30 – 8:30 p.m. 

Soil Born Farm, an urban agricultural oasis nestled in the heart of the city, is inviting the public to join them for an evening of great music, seasonal and organic food prepared by prominent local chefs, and sample exceptional wines from a variety of local wineries. 

Fine Food:
The Waterboy
SpataroEsquire Grill
Mulvaney’s Building & Loan
Magpie Caterers
Kasbah Lounge
Tapa the World
A Healthy Kitchen
Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op
Piatti Locali
Slocum House
Regionale Produce
Basil’s by the Lake
Paragary’s Bar & Oven
Eileen’s Kitchen
Quarry Ponds Market Hall
Hawks
Spirit of Sacramento

Wine Tasting:
Bogle
Hey Mambo
Boeger
Lolonis
White Knight
Davis Wine
Plungerhead
Jewel

Music:
Mind X Quartet
Spillit Quikkers

Silent Auction:
Bid on an abundance of items including art, gardening supplies and gift certificates.

Location:
Soil Born Farm
3000 Hurley Way, Sacramento
(916) 486-9686 

Tickets:
Tickets are $50 per person and available in advance at the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op, 1900 Alhambra Blvd., or from Soil Born Farm (916) 486-9686.  Tickets will not be available at the door and space is limited.  Sponsored by the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op — all proceeds benefit the Soil Born Farm Urban Agricultural Project 501(c)(3).

East Bay Culinary Center Cooking Class
Saturday, Sept. 22nd, 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Fun With Fall Vegetables!
Chef, cookbook author, sacatomato.com co-founder and culinary educator Ann Martin Rolke will be signing her books and demonstrating how to make yummy dishes using seasonal ingredients, including:
*Pork Chili With Sweet Potatoes
*Nutty Pumpkin Lasagna With Almonds And Sage
*Butternut Squash & Black Bean Enchiladas

Samples will be provided, but space is limited to 40 participants — the fee is $40.00

East Bay Restaurant Supply Inc.
522 North 12th Streett, Sacramento
MON – FRI: 8am – 5pm
SAT: 9:30am – 5pm
(916) 440-0620 – Main

Now that all of the summer crops, sans a few pepper plants, are out of the ground and into the compost, we have a lot to do.  Planting seedlings of broccoli, cauliflower, onions and kohlrabi. Seeding broccoli raab, tuscan kale, lettuces, spinach, fennel, and shelling peas.  The chickens are helping out too.  They finally have ventured down the hill out of the backyard for the first time on their own.  Two brave girls got in the action tilling the soil in one of the raised beds and adding some nice nitrogen to the mix. The weather has been soooo odd.  A heat wave brought fast germination for all of the seeds but the brassicas seem uncomfortable.  Thank goodness for a good rain and some more normal fall weather patterns. Row covers seem to be good for the spinach and lettuces but the fennel are having a rough go at it.  I only see a few brave little guys peeking out of the sunniest part of their bed. Up go the hoops just in time for our first frost.  It’s amazing that our entire street was covered in white the other morning and then a few blocks down the hill, nada.  The joys of living in the dunes.