How to store produce (without using plastic!)

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Save your produce and keep them fresh using each type of vegetable or fruit’s natural growth instincts! The following is a list I put together on my own blog showcasing how to work with your produce and keep them fresh.

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The following is borrowed from the Ecology Center here in Berkeley, who puts together the lusciously abundant Berkeley Farmers Markets three times a week. They’ve made a commitment to being plastic free (Heck ya!) and share the tips below in their brochure on how to take care of produce without plastic. For more at home tips for not using plastic, I highly recommend visiting Beth Terry’s My Plastic Free Life as an amazing resource for living a life free of toxins, pollutants, and high energy wasting plastics.

~HOW TO STORE VEGETABLES WITHOUT PLASTIC~

Artichokes‐ place in an airtight container sealed, with light moisture.

Asparagus‐ place them loosely in a glass or bowl upright with water at room temperature. (Will keep for a week outside the fridge)

Avocados‐ place in a paper bag at room temp. To speed up their ripening‐ place an apple in the bag with them.

Arugula‐ arugula, like…

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Green Beans With Bacon Vinaigrette

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We have beautiful French fillet beans coming from the farm! The key to cooking fresh green beans just right is to parboil them beforehand. This will soften them and prepare them for the saute. Bacon and green beans are a match made in heaven in this dish from Real Simple, but the mustard and vinegar give it complexity and kick! Do you think trimming green beans is a time waster? Check below the recipe on how to trim 2 pounds of green beans in a snap!

 

Ingredients

  • 2 pounds green beans, trimmed
  • 6 slices bacon
  • 2 shallots, sliced
  • 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons whole-grain mustard
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • salt and black pepper

Directions

  1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add 1 tablespoon salt. Add the green beans and cook until just tender, 4 to 5 minutes. Drain and run under cold water to cool; transfer to a serving bowl.
  2. Meanwhile, in a medium skillet, cook the bacon over medium heat until crisp, 6 to 8 minutes; transfer to a paper towel-lined plate. Let cool, then break into pieces.
  3. Remove all but 2 tablespoons of the bacon drippings from the skillet and return to medium heat. I like to pour all of my bacon drippings into a jar to save for adding a hint of bacon flavor to other dishes in the future. Don’t throw it out! Add the shallots and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Stir in the vinegar, mustard, oil, ¾ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Add to the green beans, along with the bacon, and toss to combine.

 

How to trim off the ends of green beans in (even faster than a) snap:

Trimming green beansYou only need to cut off the stem end, where the bean attached to the vine. The other end if fine to eat.  Line up the stems. Sort the beans so that the stems all face one direction. Scoot a handful against your palm so that they’re even and then chop them all off in one go!

With this method you’ll be getting through a whole bowl in just a few minutes!

Caprese Salad

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We have our first tomatoes of the season coming in, and you know what that means? One of my favorite Summertime treats: caprese salad. With simple fresh ingredients and limited cooking, the secret to the perfect caprese salad lies in the quality of ingredients.  So below I’ve got not just how to put together a caprese salad, but what makes for the best tomato, the best mozzarella, and how to create a balsamic reduction.

Ingredients needed:

  • Fresh Mozzarella
  • Tomatoes
  • Basil
  • Balsamic vinegar
  • Salt & Cracked Black Pepper

What makes the perfect mozzarella?

For fresh mozzarella (the type you will need for a caprese salad) there are two dimensions: Flavor and texture. It goes without saying the the fattier the mozzarella (the higher fat content/percentage in the milk used for making it), the stronger the flavor. Check the fat content on the package to find the one that works best for you. Texture change as the cheese ages.  The fresher/newer the cheese, the firmer and more elastic it is. This if the type of cheese that you will likely want for a caprese salad.

What makes the perfect tomato?

For a caprese salad, you will want a firm tomato with tender unblemished skin (as you will not be peeling them). Especially good tomatoes will feel heavy for their size and will be filled with juice when you cut into them. If you are growing them yourself, pick them off the vine just as their color is starting to change from orange to red.  Keep them indoors out from direct sunlight (but not in the fridge) for 4-5 days.  This will help them develop but not overripen and draw out more flavor.

How do you create a balsamic reduction?

A balsamic reduction will intensify the complex flavor of the balsamic to a state of become almost a glaze or sauce on its own. To create a balsamic reduction, pour 1 cup of balsamic vinegar into a sauce pan and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat.  Once hot, drop the temperature down to low and let it reduce down to half its original size (about 10-15 minutes), stirring consistently and watching it carefully. Burning it is an easy task, so keep the overhead fan on with all that vinegar in the air and watch it carefully.  You will know that it’s done when it coats the spoon when you take it out but the reduction is still pourable. If you end up going too far and it’s not pourable, stir in a little water and cook back down to the desired point. Use on your caprese salad, or as a drizzle over beef.  If you love balsamic, check out the balsamic black pepper strawberry jam recipe here!

 

Directions for the Caprese Salad:

  1. Make your balsamic reduction (see above) and let cool down to room temperature.
  2. Cut your tomatoes into thick slices.
  3. Cut your mozzarella into slices of the same thickness as the tomatoes.
  4. Lay your slices of cheese and tomato interchanged on a plate, layering leaves of basil in between.
  5. Drizzle the balsamic reduction over the salad, sprinkle with salt and cracked black pepper to taste.

 

 

 

Garlic Scapes?

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What the heck is a Garlic Scape?

Kathryn Lukas from Farmhouse Culture wrote this a few years back:

This was my question to Christine last week as she handed me a bag of curly garlic scapes. We were both in a rush so there was only time for this quick explanation: flower stalk thing of a garlic plant- delightfully tasty. I was left to experiment on my own all week and am here to enthusiastically report that garlic scapes are fantastic!
First I finely chopped them into eggs much like I do with green garlic and the results were similarly wonderful. The tips of the scapes are little bulb-like seed pods that I found a bit tough so I used them as garnish. In fact the whimsical shape of scapes inspires the visual imagination and you may find yourself wanting to embellish everything you cook with them. Their mild flavor makes it quite possible to munch on them raw in whole stalk form, so why not?
You can also add scapes to salads, soups, vegetable stir frys, and just about anything you might be inclined to pair with garlic. A goggle search uncovered several pesto recipes that I have yet to try but that sound divine.
Apparently we are quite fortunate to have this short seasoned treat at all. Scapes are found only on hardneck varieties, not the softneck varieties that most California farmers grow. The stalk is removed to encourage bulb growth and until recently scapes mostly landed in compost piles. Thanks to Christine and Eric’s love and knowledge of garlic, we get to play with this sublimely delicious plant in our kitchens.

Carolyn Cope pulled together 7 different ways to cook with garlic scapes. Check them out here.

Olallieberry Pie

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This recipe sounds absolutely divine!  Deb from East of Eden Cooking shared this mouth watering treat for Summer. Check out her full blog and other recipes here.

Julie Holler from Vallecito and her family have been growing olallieberries for many years — they are in now for just a short time!

Crust

  • 2  1/2 cups all purpose flour, more for rolling out the dough
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup cold butter
  • 1/2 cup plus 1 Tablespoon cold vegetable shortening
  • 1 Tablespoon vinegar (optional)
  • 1/4-1/2 cup ice cold water

Filling

  • 8 cups ollallieberries or blackberries
  • 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
  • 3/4 cup flour
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • pinch of salt
  • milk or half & half, and sprinkle of sugar for the top of the crust

Instructions:

  1. Prepare pie crust dough: I use my food processor. Whirl dry ingredients, flour and salt in food processor with blade attachment just until mixed. Cut cold butter and shortening into cubes, add to food processor. Pulse until shortening is the size of small coins; pennies, nickels and dimes. Do not over mix. Add the vinegar and just enough cold water through feed tube until the dough starts to come together. Do not over mix. Pour dough out on floured work surface. With as little handling as possible bring dough together into a ball. Cut ball in half and wrap halves in plastic wrap. Place the dough in the refrigerator for 1 hour, prior to rolling out.
  2. Prepare berry filling: While the pie crust dough chills, gently rinse and clean the berries. In a large bowl gently combine berries, flour, sugar, cinnamon and pinch of salt. Frozen berries can be used. Thaw and drain before combining with the filling ingredients.
  3. Preheat oven to 400°.
  4. Prepare bottom pie crust: With a floured rolling pin, on a floured work surface roll out half of the pie crust dough. As needed, add small amount of flour to the surface when rolling out the dough. Roll dough, in a circle, until it is 1 1/2 inches larger than the 9 inch pie pan circumference. Place dough in bottom of pie pan, forming to contours of the pan. Do not stretch dough. With knife, trim the dough to the edge of the pie pan.
  5. Prepare top crust for pie: Sprinkle flour on work surface. With floured rolling pin, roll out the second half of dough. As needed, add a small amount of flour to the surface when rolling out the dough. Roll out dough, in a circle, until it is 1 inch larger than the 9 inch pie pan circumference.
  6. Finish pie preparation: Gently fill dough lined pie pan with berry filling. Only add accumulated berry juice to within 1/3-1/2 inch of top of pie pan, discard the rest. Place top crust over the berry filled pie pan. Trim any overhanging dough to 1 inch wider than the pie pan. Fold overhanging dough under the bottom crust, making a double layered edge. Crimp or flute the edge of the pie crust. Brush milk or half & half over the top crust and crimped edge. Lightly, sprinkle sugar on top of the crust. Cut 3-5 steam vents in the crust.
  7. Bake: To catch any berry juice that may overflow during baking place the pie on a large sheet pan that has a rim, and comfortably accommodates the pie. Immediately bake the pie at 400° for 15 minutes. Reduce oven to 375° and continue baking for 30-45 minutes until crust has browned and berry juices are bubbling. Check the pie during baking and cover the edge of the crust with foil if it is browning too quickly.
  8. To plate: Cool pie for a least one hour. If you can wait, the pie will be easier to serve and hold it’s shape if you let it cool 3 hours. A scoop of vanilla ice cream is a wonderful addition to a slice of Olallie pie.

The Story of the Murphys’ Onion

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We recently harvested our onion crop – a bumper crop this year and surprisingly so because we planted them in January. This incredible specimen is a true Murphys’ heirloom from the Vogliotti family. They were Italian market gardeners and also our neighbors for a good many years. It was one warm summer day, twenty year’s ago or so, that we went to visit Josephine Vogliotti. She was the last living member of her family at age 96 – her brother Ernie was 102 when he died

. The family was famous for their “vege-tables”, as she liked to say, selling them to the miners by horsecart in the day and later to folks that would come out to the ranch. For several years we’d been growing “their” tomato, the Camalay, and we would often bring her down a couple to enjoy and as always she would hold one in her hands and smell deeply, exclaiming “this is one of ours, isn’t it?” Those were precious moments and still today, after 22 years of growing and saving seed from that tomato, her words spring a tear. It was on one of these visits that Josephine directed us down to the cellar (where she hadn’t been for many years) to a jar on the shelf filled with onion seeds. We took those seeds home and germinated them just as she instructed (the first week after the full moon in August!). Luckily a few sprouted and that year we grew our first Vogliotti onion. After many trials and near losses, we were able to successfully bring this onion from near extinction to plenty. We have subsequently grown, harvested and shared many of the seeds with gardening friends to help preserve this now unique variety. The story goes that the onion was bought from Burpee seeds as a Red Weathersfield in the late 1890’s and continually grown at the ranch until the early 1990’s. They grew it for 100 years because of it’s flavor! We consider it be the best tasting summer onions ever. Eaten raw it is sweet and mild flavored, wonderfully so that it is perfect in a Greek salad or in a sandwich (with no oniony aftertaste!). Equally delicious sauteed or caramelized.
We posted a recipe to try it out on here

Pickled Red Onions

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This recipe comes from one of my favorite books, Chez Panisse Vegetables.  Pickled onions and carrots are great on a hot day, on the side of a dish as something to renew your palate between bites of your main meal, but mostly- I just want to pile these over some black bean filled tacos.

  • 2 large red onions
  • 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • 1/2 cup water

Even more so than usual, you should definitely start this one with a super sharp knife! Did you know that dull knives are far more dangerous than sharp? To get this one perfectly, give your knife it’s due care. Peel the onions and cut them in half lengthwise.  Slice them very thin– as close to paper thin as possible.  Put them in a heat-proof container. Put the vinegar, sugar, and water in a small saucepan and bring to boil.  Add the boiling hot brine to the onions and leave to cool at rom temperature.  Drain just before serving or pack them into a jar and can-preserve them for later.

Garden Update

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New potatoes are in from the field. It was a splendid sight to see Chef Webster and Farmer Eric hard at work forking out these red specimens of health and beauty. They appear in the CSA boxes this week as well as in the grocery and on the menu. Here farm meets kitchen in the elegance of the farmer’s fields…. the very best way to get a sense of what will appear on the weekly menu.

Most of the produce is coming from the farm. Hooray! We love this time of year with all of it’s green abundance. Think big salads with arugula, asian greens, lettuce, spinach and thin slices of radish!

Plenty to choose from – let your imagination guide you on your next visit to the grocery.

Announcing our new Grocer, Kaedence Eaton. Kaedence currently manages the CSA program and we are excited to extend her hours and expertise into the grocery.

Produce update:
Katy Apricots are in, as well as white and yellow peaches, white nectarines, plums, blueberries and strawberries.  Plus, artichokes and broccoli, carrots and English peas!

Make sure to check out our recipe to use those carrots, peas, and onions: Chef Beverly’s Pot Pie 

Chef Beverly’s Pot Pie

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Straight from our kitchen!

To make the filling:
Make a mirepoix: saute celery, carrots and onion with olive oil. Add in dusting of flour to soak up the fat, then add stock, heavy cream, salt and pepper. Add pre-cooked turkey and let it get thick.

To make the topping: 
2 cups flour
1.5 TSP baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 lb butter
mix and let it chill in the fridge
add heavy cream 2 cups until it gets to sticky and dough-like then crumble it on top of the mix and bake to golden brown at 350 for 25 minutes

Summer Squash Tartines

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Are you loving that buttery zucchini as much as we are? Here’s a great recipe that takes all but 5 minutes to prepare.

  • 4 slices of rustic, whole wheat bread
  • olive oil for brushing
  • 1 clove garlic, peeled and cut in half
  • 4 oz goat cheese, softened
  • 1 Tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 small summer squash, sliced
  • 1/4 cup cherry tomatoes (optional)
  • 1 Tablespoon fresh rosemary, chopped
  • kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper
Preheat broiler to high. Lightly brush the four slices of bread with olive oil, and place them on a rimmed baking sheet. Broil for 2-5 minutes or until bread is toasted. Watch carefully to avoid burning the bread. Remove toasted bread from the oven, and rub each slice with the cut garlic clove.

In a large skillet, heat the remaining olive oil to medium high heat. Add summer squash, rosemary, salt and pepper and saute until squash is cooked and golden in places. Remove from pan. If using, add the tomatoes to the hot skillet and stir until tomatoes are warm and soft. Remove from heat.

Spread 1 oz of goat cheese onto each slice of bread. Arrange summer squash and tomatoes over the top of the goat cheese. Serve tartines warm.

Recipe from Jelly Toast