Vegetable economics

Last week we talked about the overflowing bounty now on display 

at our farm and all the farmers markets stands, and indeed this is that time 

of summer when we get almost giddy about fresh produce.

You can so easily go to the farmers market (or your backyard farm) 

without a specific plan of what you will cook and as you gather what's available, 

your meal will start coming together in your mind. 

(Check out this video from Zagat shopping a Farmers Market with a chef):

All good tips–that is, if you can make it home 

with your treasures before stealing some bites. 

Recently at the Tuesday Farmers Market in Sonoma, a customer 

was inquiring how to store the raspberries he was buying. 

The farmer smiled and said, "Who knows? Most everyone just 

eats them before they get home." 

We know what he means, as our raspberries from the farm 

often don't survive the trip to the restaurant and not because 

they are too delicate to travel, just too delicious to resist!

these managed to make it to the restaurant
and you can enjoy the Summer Crisp of local berries with lemon verbena ice cream
now on the menu at the girl & the fig

Considering how irresistible all the fresh vegetables are this time of year 

and even though we know you are  getting creative, we wanted to share 

some great tips for freezing produce (yes, you can). 

Ok, it's true it may seem like blasphemy to talk about freezing produce 

now when everything is so fresh, but it's a good solution to 

the "I couldn't stop myself from buying everything in sight" affliction 

(or when you can't keep up with what you are growing), 

and later in the year, you'll be glad you did. 

This step-by-step process from what to select, how to cut, blanch and freeze 

is courtesy of Kenji Lopez-Alt, Chief Creative Officer at seriouseats.com 

where he "unravels the science of home cooking" at the Food Lab.

hard to resist buying it all, right?

On the subject of "vegetable economics," there's also the idea 

of using all the parts of the vegetables you have.

San Francisco Chronicle food writer Tara Duggan has a new book, 

Root to Stalk Cooking: The Art of Using the Whole Vegetable.

An introduction to the concept by San Francisco Chronicle Food Editor 

Miriam Morgan explains it this way: "Head-to-tail cooking, the term 

for using every part of the animal, is the mantra of 

sustainably conscious chefs these days. 

Now, a new book translates that into the vegetable realm...

Celery leaves? They go into slaw. Apple peels and cores? 

Make a jelly and flavor bourbon. Too many lemons? Here's how to freeze the zest.

Along with the recipes, the book weighs in on how to 

evaluate organic versus conventional produce; store and prepare produce easily; 

and add meat, fish and chicken into the picture."

There are more good tips on how to use all of a vegetable, including a few recipes.

radish leaf salad with corn, tomatoes & salted cucumbers
photo by Clay McLachlan for San Francisco Chronicle

Our chefs know all these tricks and continue to be creative 

all the time with the bounty we bring them from the farm.

They know all about what to do with lots of cucumbers and tomatoes, 

including the current salad of the season: cucumber vinaigrette, summer herbs, 

lemon cucumber, snap peas, a recent soup special and this week's Plats du Jour entree.

 tomato cucumber gazpacho at the girl & the fig

this week's Plats du Jour features a tomato tart

And they are always inspired by what is currently growing at the farm.

Now, our popular Panisse Cake, which at other times of the year 

is presented with chickpea purée, sautéed garden chard 

and marinated sheep's milk feta is now served 

as basil panisse cake~ tomato coulis, cherry tomatoes, 

marinated feta, mizuna, featuring our current garden stars.

Our panisse cake this past winter

current version of Panisse cake using the farm's
basil and tomato 

What are you growing at your farm or finding at the farmers market

that is inspiring you right now?

And do you have any tips for what you do when you have too much?

Farm bounty

photo courtesy of Oak Hill Farm in Glen Ellen

Well known food writer Mark Bittman recently wrote 

 in the New York Times, "Its a Buyers Market" saying: 

"Although there are areas of the country where farmers’ markets feature 

 loads of fresh vegetables year round (yay Sonoma!), 

those of us who live in regions with a different set of blessings 

experience long stretches when farmers’ markets (at least those that remain open) 

offer only cider, apples, root vegetables, frozen meat and things like

 candles and sweaters made of the coarsest wool. 

Which is all fine, but it mostly serves to enhance the excitement 

we can feel when we hit the big time: a farmers’ market loaded 

with stuff that was picked not only nearby but yesterday."

Well, it's that time of year for sure. August 7 was the half way point for summer. 

So here we are at that glorious "moment" when all our winter labors prepping 

and spring toil planting at the farm pay off at the table. 

Our chefs may stop by the farm on their way to the kitchen 

to pick what's ripe and are then inspired to get creative. 

Executive chef John Toulze picking tomatoes
on his way to the girl & the fig kitchen

A recent bounty of pluots in the orchard brought about 

some especially innovative specials at the girl & the fig including 

chilled garden pluot soup with local honey, sweet crème fraîche, oat crumble 

and then grilled pluots with frisee and roasted cherries as a special salad.

Chilled pluot soup
bottom photo

pluots at the farm

Right now there's just so much to pick, whether at a farm like ours, 

your backyard garden patch or the Farmers Markets. 

You can get super creative or actually, considering how "eat-it-right-now" 

delicious everything is, simple may be best. 

One of our friends, Kristin Jorgensen who writes "The Sun Eats" column in Sonoma Sun 

offered her "last ditch month-long guide, crusade if you will, 

of what you must do to soak up every juicy morsel 

of what is left of this amazing Sonoma summer" 

with great tips on easy ways to enjoy the bounty surrounding us. 

Our favorite bit of advice from Kristin, one we subscribe to as well, is about tomatoes. 

She wisely says: "You need to eat more. I promise, you'll be sorry if you don't. 

Have them at every single meal." 

photo courtesy of Quarter Acre Farm in Sonoma

She's right. We are doing our part for you 

with the 800 tomatoes we are harvesting from the farm. 

Not only are we featuring our tomatoes and cucumbers 

in this week's Plats du Jour entree, 

but we are sharing a bit of the farm with you too—while they last, 

you can pick from a box of heirloom tomatoes at the restaurant and take them home!

overflow from our 800 tomatoes plants
to share with you!

this week's Plats du Jour features (upper left photo):
garden tomato salad made from our farm cucumbers,
smoked house-made mozzarella, avocado vinaigrette, arugula

Tomato Row at the farm

Kristin has some great ideas for what to do with tomatoes 

including the quickest way to create a sauce 

you can use for anything—from cold soup, a topping for grilled bread 

or steak, to toss with noodles —and not have to turn on the stove! 

It "cooks in a sunny spot on a window sill" while 

you are out having whatever summer fun you enjoy. 

never too many, right?

There are a lot of great ideas and suggestions available
(including tips top be a savvy Farmers Market shopper)

 for what to do with the abundance of produce available right now, 

but the absolute best resource we've seen recently 

is the "Farmers Market Recipe Generator, 

"essentially a one-armed bandit of ingredients and techniques,

offering more than 50 combinations of things 

you’re most likely to find in a market or your C.S.A. basket."

photo courtesy of Quarter Acre Farm in Sonoma

And check out a cool new resource which is 

probably very busy at this time of year: CropMobster.

From their website: "How It Works:

Taking part in the CropMobster™ community is a great way 

to help local farms, food sellers and producers and create affordable access 

to fresh food, free donations and other items of surplus and excess 

that may be at risk of going to waste." 

If you have too much and want to share, or if you are on the lookout 

for what's fresh and bountiful, check out their latest alerts.  

photo courtesy of Oak Hill Farm in Glen Ellen

It's just that time of year—overflowing baskets, lush farm beds, 

bountiful, plentiful—truly "a buyers market," as Mark Bittman said. 

Go out and pick what you have growing, forage at the farmers market, 

bring it home and you hardly need to open a cookbook—chop it, 

drizzle some good oil and sprinkle some of the fresh herbs

 you no doubt got as well, toss and enjoy. 

Or maybe, do what many of us confess is the true summer pleasure: 

slice that juicy tomato or peach or whatever you've got...
stand over the sink and savor. 

Then repeat.

What's are you enjoying now from your farm?

Any creative recipes to share, or 

do you just throw together the best salad of the year?