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Aug 14, 2008
CARPINTERIA
Shell Beans
Shell beans, with a season trailing that of (local) green beans by a few weeks, are a distinctive addition to the beany palette, one worth investigating if you like beans dried or green.
Jul 17, 2008
CARPINTERIA
Thai Lime Leaves
Thai Lime Leaves, Makrut, Hoja de Ocho, Kaffir Lime - the range of names reflects the culinary coverage of this citrus. The leaves, and the zest of the fruit contain a concentrated lime essential oil, which makes them useful wherever this flavor is desired.
Jun 26, 2008
CARPINTERIA
Squash Blossoms
A few years ago there was a lot of talk about edible flowers, things like marigolds and nasturtiums that could be used to spice up the appearance and flavor of a salad or soup. To the best of my recollection, Squash Blossoms were passed over by this trend.
Jun 19, 2008
CARPINTERIA
Swiss Chard
Swiss Chard is the leaves of a beetless beet. Chard leaves are typically larger than beety beet greens, have a crinkly texture and are a bit thicker, but the taste and properties are pretty much the same.
Jun 12, 2008
CARPINTERIA
Sierra
Sierra, like Iceberg, is a kind of Batavia lettuce, but raher than forming heads, Sierra has long open leaves, similar to Romaine, but crisp and with uniform texture like Iceberg. (06/16/05)
Jun 05, 2008
CARPINTERIA
Cherries
When you see cherries at the Market, if you want some, you want to move fast. Their season is very short, given the difference in growing zones serving the Santa Barbara markets, cherries might be available for a month.
May 29, 2008
CARPINTERIA
Summer Lettuces
Summer lettuces are here. "Summer" isn't just a question of Salinas rather than Imperial Valley. On our own farm, the lettuces reflect the season. The cooler temperatures of Winter and early Spring slow the uptake of organic nutrients from the soil. As a result, the lettuces are smaller when picked, with finer-textured leaves.
May 22, 2008
CARPINTERIA
Oregano
Oregano is the spicy member of the Mint family. The commonly known Oregano is a somewhat piquant herb with mint overtones that speaks 'Italian' to most noses and palates.
Apr 11, 2008
CARPINTERIA
Asparagus
Because both texture and flavor of asparagus are distinctive but non-dominant, and the flavor contains
elements from a broad range of edibles, asparagus can be succesfully combined with just about any
savory ingredient you can think of.
Mar 20, 2008
CARPINTERIA
Grapefruit
Grapefruit bring that bit of brightness to otherwise largely fruitless months. Winter months are low in
acidic produce so the acidity of citrus increasingly finds a use in mixed salads.
Feb 21, 2008
CARPINTERIA
Food Labeling
The predisposition to accept cloned livestock as equivalent to naturally reproduced livestock is likely based
on the genetic equivalence of the clone to the naturally reproduced donor of the cell nucleus it originated
from. But this doesn't make the animals identical.
Feb 07, 2008
CARPINTERIA
Pruning
One suspects the grape vine would be better off if it could be convinced to put more effort into fruiting
and infrastructure, and less into new growth. This is where grapes and humans become symbiotic.
Jan 17, 2008
CARPINTERIA
A Bit Bitter
Of the five basic flavors, bitter seems to get the least respect, amounting to neglect. This week's article
talks about endives or chicories, which are popular salad greens in Europe.
Jan 03, 2008
CARPINTERIA
Fire and Ice
This week, we'll celebrate the cold weather by celebrating heat, discussing a family of dishes that depend
on heat to be really digestible, and which, eaten hot, heat us directly from within.
Dec 27, 2007
CARPINTERIA
Overeating
When I was maybe eleven or twelve it came to me as something of a revelation that one could get through
the holidays by eating only the usual amount at meals: the compulsion to stuff one's self, and then feel
miserable for hours or even days afterwards, was illusory.
Dec 20, 2007
CARPINTERIA
Celery
Celery steps into history over three thousand years ago, appearing in Egyptian architectural decorations and being grazed by Achilles horsemens steeds in the meadows under Troy.
Dec 14, 2007
CARPINTERIA
Pomegranates
The pomegranate shares with the persimmon the habit of hiding coyly amongst the foliage, being revealed when colder weather makes the leaves drop, and the fruit, in this case dark reddish purple, and quite spherical, remain to decorate the otherwise bare branches.
Dec 06, 2007
CARPINTERIA
Fuyu Persimmon
December is traditionally thought of as a traditional time of year, so we thought we would indulge our own seasonal tradition of writing about persimmons. Last year, we dealt with the Hachiya. This year, we will talk in some detail about its cousin, the yellower orange, tangerine-shaped Fuyu.
Nov 29, 2007
SANTA BARBARA
Garlic
I suspect there is a tendency in the U.S. to associate garlic with Mediterranean cooking, specifically with Italian and perhaps with Greek or Spanish, if it is familiar, and with the cuisine of Provence, and also with certain styles of Asian cooking, Szechuan Chinese, for instance.
Nov 08, 2007
CARPINTERIA
Curd Cheese
Curd Cheese, is something like the formalization of that temptation, an intermediate stage of a culinary process that has itself been raised to the status of an ingredient, or a dish in itself.
Nov 01, 2007
CARPINTERIA
Market Diversity
Pedal powered ice cream sellers are an example of an interesting economic phenomenon. In past columns we have mentioned several kinds of diversity, biodiversity and product diversity, in particular. The ice cream sellers are an example of what we can call market diversity.
Oct 18, 2007
CARPINTERIA
The Food Chain
There is lots of other life in the garden besides plants. There are some lizards, voles, maybe, mice and rats, the squirrels I am competing with for the walnuts, the birds eating the last of the grapes before taking off for a Winter in Mexico, and on a good day a snake or possum.
Oct 05, 2007
CARPINTERIA
Walnuts
What most of us think of as a walnut has a relatively thin shell, some varieties thinner than others, the hard part being essentially a sphere enclosing a large brainlike nut and a thin shelly membrane, making it easy to get the all the meat out in large pieces.
Sep 27, 2007
CARPINTERIA
Not The Farmers' Market
The WalMart shopping experience is different. We will leave aside the maze of shelving displaying a really bewildering amount of stuff and the effect of the color shifted florescent lighting on packaging that struggles to look real even in daylight.
Sep 20, 2007
CARPINTERIA
Food Regulation
Industrial food production disassociated consumer and producer, so there was no way the consumer could know how his food had been treated and how safe it was to eat. The producer, often enough, did not really care.
Sep 13, 2007
CARPINTERIA
Peel Brussels Sprouts?
Dear Veggie of the Week, In one scene of the sixth Harry Potter book, Harry and Ron are in the kitchen of the Burrow, forced to peel sprouts. What is this about peeling sprouts?
Aug 30, 2007
CARPINTERIA
Have A Pear!
We have reached that stage of modernity which no longer has the technology to preserve such bounty, separating us from our grandparents, and from bees and ants, so we have got to use the pears fresh.
Aug 16, 2007
CARPINTERIA
Fresh Fruit
There is a limit to the amount of fruit a person can eat just as it is, or in compote or pies or cobblers. This week we will look at some nontraditional uses for fresh fruit.
Aug 09, 2007
CARPINTERIA
Farm Subsidies
This week we will again discuss something you would not find at the Farmers Market - farm subsidies. Subsidies are big business in the U.S. - twenty something billion a year paid to less than 0.1 percent of the population - and they are currently in the news.
Aug 02, 2007
CARPINTERIA
Water
Water is pretty easy to take for granted when you have only got to turn a tap to get some. There are parts of the world, fairly large parts, where the supply of water is more problematical.
Jul 26, 2007
CARPINTERIA
Bananas
Bananas have not been available at the Santa Barbara Farmers Market for several years. It is possible to produce bananas in Santa Barbara County, but only just. More than a few miles from the coast it is too dry in the Summer and risks being too cold in the Winter.
Jul 19, 2007
CARPINTERIA
Olive Oil
With all the talk of oil driving the economy, much of the news, and possibly foreign policy, it may take a bit of a stretch to realize that the first oil economy was based on olive oil.
Jul 12, 2007
CARPINTERIA
Eggplant
I do not remember where I first noticed eggplant. I was probably about ten years old, and while far from a picky eater when among familiar foods, I was taken aback by these glossy dark violet stretched spheroids, melonsized, huge for a vegetable, and looking more like the mounted coco de mer on a friend's drawing room table, or something anatomical, than like something to eat.
Jul 05, 2007
CARPINTERIA
Cucumbers
Cucumbers are a kind of melon, and are technically a fruit, but since they are not particularly sweet, they get treated as a vegetable so, like tomatoes, they are a fruitgetable or a vegeruit, for culinary purposes.
Jun 28, 2007
CARPINTERIA
Farmers' Market
A few years ago, a friend who sold at the Santa Barbara Farmers Markets was shorthanded, and I got the opportunity to find out what it was like to work there.
Jun 21, 2007
CARPINTERIA
Sprouts
When I was little, I discovered Chinese food was based on worms. There were crisp worms and soft ones; the crisp ones were pretty good, except they got soon soggy, while the soft ones were reliably good, whether lightly cooked and that bit crunchy or, more often, cooked really soft.
Jun 14, 2007
CARPINTERIA
How Val Is My Greenie?
Green is currently at the forefront of fashion. Great, you think, people are really concerned, good things are starting to happen. But the problem with fashion as a shaper of policy is that it is superficial and deceptive. The emperors decision to order new clothes was based entirely on fashion.
Jun 07, 2007
CARPINTERIA
Honey
Honey has a long history in Europe, though, with known archaeological evidence of the collection of wild honey dating back around ten millenia, and bee keeping was well established by the advent of the Roman Empire.
May 31, 2007
CARPINTERIA
Apricots
A ripe Apricot is fragile and wont travel well, nor will Apricots ripen much after picking, so to get really good ones, you have either got to grow them yourself or get them from someone who does.
May 24, 2007
CARPINTERIA
Nettle
The Nettle is a very versatile plant, one whose stalks can provide fiber for textile and whose leaves have medicinal uses as well as culinary ones.
May 17, 2007
CARPINTERIA
Couve Tronchuda
We tend to associate the Kales with Autumn and Winter, and most Kales are at their best in cooler weather. However, Couve Tronchuda, or Portuguese Kale, is coming to market now in peak form.
May 11, 2007
CARPINTERIA
Grenobloise Lettuce
Grenobloise lettuce, also known as Rouge de Grenoble, seems hard to find: a brief mention in an earlier column comes in the first page of Web search results, while a reference to our sponsor's Salads page comes in the second.
May 03, 2007
CARPINTERIA
Strawberries
There is a delicious ambiguity about Strawberries. They are a fruit, and fruit is something we associate with Summer, but they traditionally start to appear about now, months earlier than most fruit - berries, particularly - so we associate also them with Spring.
Apr 26, 2007
CARPINTERIA
Mustard Greens
Early Spring sees the first of the really seasonal cooking greens, and one of the first of these is Mustard greens. These come in many varieties, some of which, such as Mizuna and Tatsoi, are often used raw in such things as salad mix.
Apr 19, 2007
CARPINTERIA
Lollo Rosso
You need to be a bit flexible when looking for Lollo Rosso lettuce. It is also known, with increasing degrees of gender confusion, as Lolla Rossa and Lollo Rossa and even, in the English version of a Korean seed catalogue, as Red Rollo.
Apr 12, 2007
CARPINTERIA
Variety & Choice
They said, look at choice. Thirty years ago the British consumer could choose between rolled oats, Shredded Wheat, Wheetabix and Grape Nuts for breakfast cereal. Now theyve got Fruit-Loops and more. This added choice has a value, the Economist said, which should be deducted from current prices before figuring inflation.
Apr 06, 2007
CARPINTERIA
Forellenschluss
Again with the lettuce. Well, as we said last week, it is that time of year. Todays subject, Forellenschluss, is particularly happy in Autumn and in Spring.
Mar 28, 2007
CARPINTERIA
Butter Lettuce
With the recent warmer weather, the lettuces are heading up and rolling out. Butter lettuce should be particularly happy this time of year, producing larger looser heads than during the Winter, and not having to worry about sunburn and heat-induced bitterness, as it will later on.
Mar 22, 2007
CARPINTERIA
Spring Is Here
There a number of natural harbingers of Spring, an orderly succession of budding, blooming and leafing out, and on top of this the suite of migratory birds provide both notice of Springs approach and a direct indication of the weather it is bringing with it.
Mar 15, 2007
CARPINTERIA
Rapini
This weeks vegetable is a somewhat confusing member of the Brassica family, Rapini, which is also known as Broccoli Rabe, Broccoletti, Cime di Rapa, Broccoli Rapa, among other things.
Mar 08, 2007
CARPINTERIA
Parsnip
Despite its unassuming appearance, the Parsnip is surprizingly interesting, and vice versa. For example, its russian name pasternak is shared with the Russian poet and novelist.
Feb 28, 2007
CARPINTERIA
Turnips & Rutabagas
Its more roots this week, Turnips and Rutabagas. They are related, but rather than the rutabaga being a variety of turnip, it is apparently the result of a turnip crossing with a cabbage in a rather special way, with the result that the rutabaga seems to have incorporated both the turnip genome and that of the cabbage.
Feb 22, 2007
CARPINTERIA
Fennel
Fennel is a plant that seems at home everywhere, or nowhere. It has been used since ancient times both medicinally, externally as an antagonist to skin parasites and internally as a digestive aid and antispasmodic, and as a vegetable, both raw and cooked.
Feb 15, 2007
CARPINTERIA
Tangerines
Tangerines are clearly distinct from Oranges. Out of the first ten or so Google returns on tangerine, one has to do with the fruit, the rest seem to be related to popular music, while Orange returns a bank account and a phone company.
Feb 08, 2007
CARPINTERIA
Beet
Think beet and we usually visualize something dark red about the size of a baseball, hard or soft, depending; but they come in lots of shapes, sizes and colors.
Jan 24, 2007
CARPINTERIA
Sustainable & Local
Following the usurpation and adulteration of organic by the introduction of the USDA Organic standard, many producers and consumers of traditionally organic produce have begun emphasizing other aspects of traditional organic farming, mainly locally grown and sustainable.
Jan 17, 2007
CARPINTERIA
Salsify
In another country I used to see something in the canned vegetable section called Salsify. The cans were, I think, from Poland, and the picture on the label was a paragon of Communist marketing, ugly enough to convince me not to buy, but mysterious enough that I never forgot the vegetable.
Jan 11, 2007
CARPINTERIA
Acquired Tastes
Whatever seductions of flavor and aroma it may offer, and a dedicated coffee lover could supply a lengthy list of these, drinking a cup of strong coffee is also like being woken by a gong or hugged by a sumo wrestler, there is an unavoidable harshness or heavy-handedness about it. Yet many people can't live without it. And this got me to thinking about acquired tastes.
Dec 21, 2006
CARPINTERIA
Hachiya Persimmon
The Hachiya is different. When it is fruity, firm and a bit crisp, its astringency makes it just about inedible. When it is ripe and sweet, its very soft to runny gel texture makes it seem just about inedible, because it is the texture a lot of fruit assumes when it is spoiled.
Dec 14, 2006
CARPINTERIA
Cold Comfort
When the nights lengthen and the temperatures drop that spells the end of many a crop. Even in nearly subtropical Southern California, a lot of Summer favorites wither and die, or move indoors, as Autumn moves into Winter.
Dec 07, 2006
CARPINTERIA
Almonds
Almonds are nice any time of day, any day of the year, but seem to me to be specially linked to the festivities that bring the year to a close
Nov 30, 2006
CARPINTERIA
Avocado
Ask a California Roll and it will tell you, No fruit says California like the Avocado.
Nov 16, 2006
CARPINTERIA
Sage
We usually associate sage with Autumnal cooking, and particularly with the holidays at the end of this month and next. The reason for this association probably lies in sage's affinity for fat.
Nov 09, 2006
CARPINTERIA
Feijoa
Since it has been at least a week since we presented a fruit, this weeks produce is Feijoa sellowiana, which you will find in the Farmers Market as Feijoa or Pineapple Guava. It is neither a pineapple nor a guava, but it is a fruit.
Nov 02, 2006
CARPINTERIA
Dried Fruit
Removing most of the water from fruit preserves it by greatly reducing the osmotic pressure in it, making it nearly impossible for any spoiling microbe to remain active.
Oct 26, 2006
CARPINTERIA
Jujube
With the Jujube, we are back to discussing produce found at the Farmers Market. Not to be confused with the confection of the same name, the Jujube is a fruit about the size of an apricot, which should be available for the next few weeks at the Coleman Farms stand.
Oct 19, 2006
CARPINTERIA
Foodieism
The beginnings of cooking dealt with the realm of the possible: making do the best you can with the materials at hand, which might be only tree bark and purlsane. In time, some could control their access to food and, freed from want, they might pledge themselves to desire: for them cooking entered the realm of the imaginable, of fashion and of power. A current manifestation of this is Foodieism.
Oct 12, 2006
CARPINTERIA
Spin Ache II
One reason the spinach story received a lot of news coverage is the Airliner Effect. Air travel is much safer per passenger mile traveled than road travel, yet when an airliner goes down, unlike a car crash, it is national news. An airline crash is newsworthy because there are a lot of victims and because it is a rare occurrence.
Oct 05, 2006
CARPINTERIA
Spin Ache
This week and next we are going to cover something you would be very unlikely to find at the Farmers Markets, E. coli O157 H7. Left on my own, I think I would have written about dried fruit.
Sep 28, 2006
CARPINTERIA
Nuts
It is well known that peanuts are not nuts, botanically speaking, but sort of underground beans. But, botanically, neither is an almond a nut, but rather the seed of a kind of peach with atrophied flesh.
Sep 21, 2006
CARPINTERIA
Herbs
One of the nice things about late Summer is the variety of herbs available at the Farmers Market. We are taking a fairly broad view of herb here, to include any leaf used in cooking for its aroma or flavor, and we will be particularly liberal with cook, while we are at it.
Sep 14, 2006
CARPINTERIA
Figs
Fresh figs are, for some people, a bit like balut. The difficulty has nothing to do with odor, which is of a slightly vinous honey. Rather, it has to do with the look and feel of a fresh fig being so far from what one normally associates with fruit.
Sep 07, 2006
CARPINTERIA
Pears
It is probably a couple of hot spells to go until the season of mellow fruitfulness is upon us, yet pears are beginning to appear in the Farmers Market, and few things are as mellow and fruity as a pear.
Aug 30, 2006
CARPINTERIA
Tomatoes
Tomatoes likely exist in a number of varieties relatively close to that of chiles, yet what do you find at the store?
Aug 24, 2006
CARPINTERIA
Chual
This weeks vegetable is yet another weed, Chenopodium album White Goosefoot, known as Lambs Quarters or Chual, Cenizo, or Quelite blanco in the market.
Aug 17, 2006
CARPINTERIA
The Food Less Traveled
They say that the average American meal has travelled over fifteen hundred miles before it gets eaten. Not really the meal, of course, but its ingredients.
Aug 10, 2006
CARPINTERIA
Portulaca
Portulaca is a plant with many faces, and a name for each. In English it's generally known as Purslane, a word with allusions to folk medicine, things Romantic, and the mediaeval diet.
Aug 03, 2006
CARPINTERIA
Amaranth
Amaranth is very hardy, tolerating heat and drought well, and putting up with cold, if not freezing, weather. Furthermore, it produces masses of seed and tends to be self-propagating: plant it once and grow it forever.
Jul 27, 2006
CARPINTERIA
Oakleaf Lettuce
One of the more delicate lettuces is Oakleaf. It comes in both red and green varieties, but the red one is what you'll see almost exclusively.
Jul 20, 2006
CARPINTERIA
Blueberries
Blueberries are in the news and they 1re in the Market. They are in the news because of their claimed health benefits. They are supposed to prevent everything from macular degeneration in humans to liver cancer in rats.
Jul 13, 2006
CARPINTERIA
Sapote
Sapotes have a smooth yellow green to yellow skin, depending both on the cultivar and on the degree of ripeness. They ripen quite well off the tree, and are very fragile when ripe, so unless you are going to eat them right away, you probably want to choose ones on the firmish side.
Jul 06, 2006
CARPINTERIA
Lemons
From about the end of the First War until the Sixties, Santa Barbara county was one of the worlds major exporters of lemons; lemon groves stretched from Mission Creek by Constance Ave. nearly to Ellwood.
Jun 29, 2006
CARPINTERIA
Peaches
The scientific name suggests the peach is a cousin of the prune, and while this is generally accepted, and naively supported by the similar construction of the fruits, sometimes the peach is put together with the almond in a separate genus, which the similarity of the pits gives some support to.
Jun 22, 2006
CARPINTERIA
From Weed to Wal-Mart
Some local weeds are truely wild, like poison oak or artemesia, but probably the majority of local garden weeds are something like arugula, naturalized escapees from food or fodder imported by Europeans. Mustard, dandelions, many of the clovers and most of the grasses are this kind of weed. Some of these, though weeds, have recognized culinary and even medicinal uses.
Jun 15, 2006
CARPINTERIA
Agretti
Agretti is now, briefly, available at the Santa Barbara and Montecito Farmers Markets. Agretti is also regionally known as roscano or barba di frate and, like arugula is a name that can be used of other similar tasting and looking, but unrelated, vegetables, samphire, for example.
Jun 01, 2006
CARPINTERIA
Tyranny of the Recipe
In more traditional cookbooks recipes for something requiring a lot of stirring, jam, pudding or polenta, say - will often specify, stir with a wooden spoon.
May 25, 2006
CARPINTERIA
Artichokes
Artichokes are definitely not fast food. They can take nearly an hour to cook and, as usually served, call for picky eating, particularly if the thorny bits have been left on.
May 18, 2006
CARPINTERIA
Fava Beans
For some, the swallow is the harbinger of Spring, for others it may be April showers, but here we'll talk of beans, specifically the Fava Bean . The Fava, like other peas and beans, can be preserved by drying and used year around. Dried, the Fava has an important role in cusine throughout the Mediterranean.
May 11, 2006
CARPINTERIA
Mint
We typically associate mint with beverages, sweets and dental hygiene, but its culinary roles are far broader, and some mints go beyond the culinary, being well established in medicine, as insect repellants, etc.
May 04, 2006
CARPINTERIA
Napa Cabbage
Yet another Brassica, this week it is Napa Cabbage, which has as many common aliases as it does scientific names, but we can disambiguate the situation with a photo.
Apr 27, 2006
CARPINTERIA
Kohlrabi
Kohlrabi is somewhat distantly related to turnips. They are both genus Brassica. It is the same species as cabbage, Brussels sprouts, and others of the cabbage kind.
Apr 20, 2006
CARPINTERIA
Celeriac
This week it is back to our roots. Celeriac is a variety of celery, related to common celery as Beet Root is to Swiss Chard, the former develop mainly the root, the latter the stalk and leaves. The english language Wikipedia article we reference classifies Celeriac as an underutilized vegetable, and suggests its appearance is responsible for this.
Apr 13, 2006
VIENNA
Vienna's
Markets have played a huge role in the development of society. The greek word oikonomia means housekeeping, managing a large, largely self sufficient property with its attendant workforce.
Apr 06, 2006
CARPINTERIA
Organic Produce
Organic has become mainstream, even upmarket, often now seen riding in the same shopping carts as expensive wines and imported biscuits.
Mar 30, 2006
CARPINTERIA
Brussel Sprouts
There is some story about Eleanor Roosevelt, the English and Brussels Sprouts which, as I recall, comes down to the vegetable having more endurance than the diners, it was Winter, it was wartime, and the only veg available was sprouts.
Mar 23, 2006
CARPINTERIA
New Zealand Spinach
You do not want to confuse Australians with New Zealanders, but it is o.k. to treat New Zealand spinach like the ordinary stuff, even though they are much more distantly related, different families, than any two Antipodeans.
Mar 16, 2006
CARPINTERIA
Cold Weather
For the last couple of weeks we have been having trouble getting fresh produce photos, but so far we have not run short of words. This week, unanchored by the specificity of a photograph, we will respond to a number of stimuli ranging from the cold weather to some incidental research on Irish emigration prior to the Great Famine.
Mar 09, 2006
CARPINTERIA
Endive Frisée
I forget what it is just now, but there is a song about something being better the second time around. We hope this applies to Endive Frisee.
Mar 02, 2006
CARPINTERIA
Cabbage
For many people cabbage still seems to be associated with immigrants in tenements, to be the food of poor people whose cooking odor hangs sulphurous and dismal in the hallways.
Feb 23, 2006
CARPINTERIA
Dandelion
Amongst all the other sprouting budding and blooming going on just now, you will have noticed Dandelions recrudescence. If you have a lawn or tidy garden, this may have given rise to a certain amount of hostility.
Feb 16, 2006
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Citrus
A lot of Southern California real estate was sold with Citrus. Starting about 1900, images of oranges and
lemons, the trees and their fruit were prominent in East Coast ads for California property. There is
something about Citrus that suggests a perfect climate sunny but equable, neither desert nor tropics even
to a person who knows nothing about their cultivation.
Feb 02, 2006
CARPINTERIA
Onions
Onions have had a hard time competing with the wave of specious hygenics that has washed over the US in the last fifty years. Raw onions do have a strong odor, but the chemicals behind onion's odor are natural, 100% biodegradable, are not particularly allergenic and will not accumulate in your body fat.
Jan 26, 2006
CARPINTERIA
Carrots
This week it is back to that boring Old World and Carrots. Carrots are a pretty handy vegetable: they put up with poor soil and cold weather, and in really cold climates they can be easily stored through the Winter by clamping, packing them in sand, then covering with earth.
Jan 19, 2006
CARPINTERIA
American Food
Indigenous agriculture in Mexico, Central America and the Andes developed a large range of products, fruit, vegetables and grain, dating from roughly the same time as similar developments in the Near East. It is difficult to see how the development of agriculture in the Americas was not completely independent from that in the Old World, yet even emminent geographers seem to overlook this.
Jan 12, 2006
CARPINTERIA
Russian Kale
Russian Kale is yet another Brassica, but one whose leaves, rather than flower buds, are eaten.
Jan 05, 2006
CARPINTERIA
Cauliflower
Cauliflower fully achieves the heady state that last time's Heading Broccoli attempts, reducing the stalks to near zero length attached to a sturdy core.
Dec 15, 2005
CARPINTERIA
Broccoli
Cooler weather favors most members of the cabbage family, and Broccoli is no exception. It should be abundant and of fine quality for the next several months.
Dec 08, 2005
CARPINTERIA
Pumpkins
Now that the season for their decorative use is past, it is possible to take Pumpkin seriously as food.
Dec 02, 2005
CARPINITERIA
Persimmon
This years persimmon crop is very sparse, but if you look hard, you can probably find some at the Farmers Market
Nov 17, 2005
CARPINTERIA
Squash
Zucchini is about as exceptional as beach weather in Santa Barbara, but just about when beach weather becomes special, so do Summer Squash. As soon as rain and cooler temperatures come on, it is finito, so the next few markets will probably have the last outdoor grown zucchini until next Summers squash.
Nov 10, 2005
CARPINTERIA
Cavolo Nero
Cavolo Nero is probably the tenderest Kale, having a thin leaf without any of the almost silicate resistance of Scots Kale or the veination of Russian.
Nov 03, 2005
CARPINTERIA
Scots (Curly Kale)
Scots Kale is exceptionally high in calcium and a good source of antioxidants including beta caratone and lutein. It is also got the usual dark leafy measure of iron and so forth, and unlike spinach, Scots Kale has a negligible amount of oxalic acid, so the calcium it contains is fully available.
Oct 27, 2005
CARPINTERIA
Parsley
Real parsley is funny stuff, especially curly parsley, which seems often destined, like a pretty but vacuous person, for mere decoration, being found hanging around the edges of the society of cheeses or meat, and its company little valued in their presence.
Oct 20, 2005
CARPINTERIA
Perilla
Todays veg. is a lettuce with many names. We sell it as Perilla, but readily agree with last weeks customer that it looks like Kentucky Limestone, because it is called that, too, as well as Rousette and several other things.
Oct 13, 2005
CARPINTERIA
Apples and Artichokes
One of the things about autumnal fruitfulness is that produce comes thick and fast. Thick happens other times of the year, but autumn's bounty can be especially fast, with some items being at their peak, or even available, for only a few weeks. For this reason, ed willing, we're going to present two products this week.
Oct 06, 2005
CARPINTERIA
Apple Grapes
Over the next couple of weeks we will occasionally go out on a limb, presenting fruit as the Vegetable of the Week, theres some interesting fruit at the farmers market now, and it would be a shame not to mention it.
Sep 29, 2005
CARPINTERIA
Peppers
Peppers Capsica, are members of the Solanum family, which includes potatoes and tomatoes - as well as a lot of ornamentals, deadly nightshade and tobacco, are probably the most diverse genus of edible plant.
Sep 22, 2005
CARPINTERIA
Cannelini Beans
Despite their pharmaceutical appearance, Cannelini Beans are OTC, taste good, and nutritious.
Sep 15, 2005
CARPINTERIA
Passion Fruit
Passion Fruit are about the size of a turkeys egg, a smooth brown purple when first picked, they shrivel, pucker and turn a somewhat mottled brown underlain by purple as they ripen off the vine.
Sep 08, 2005
CARPINTERIA
Romaine
Romaine has a reputation for sturdiness, but there are limits, apparently, for the commercial examples doomed to the waterlogged indignity of a supermarket cooler. The water isn't just external, either. Good supermarket Romaine can be really attractive, long full dark green leaves contrasting with the nearly white firm vshaped center rib.
Sep 01, 2005
CARPINTERIA
Juliettes
Our featured tomato is Juliette. It's not exactly an heirloom variety, but it's qualities fit right in - a refreshing sauternes like tomato quality with fairly high acid in a small package containing a high ratio of almost crisp flesh.
Aug 25, 2005
CARPINTERIA
Cranberry Beans
Fresh Cranberry Beans are now available from Coleman Farms. These beans are fully mature - they'd be ready to germinate next Spring and they're ready to dry for later consumption.
Aug 18, 2005
CARPINTERIA
Pipicha
Pipicha is an herb from Oaxaca, Mexico. The tender aromatic pine needle-like leaves can be eaten as they are, accompanying meals as a condiment.
Aug 12, 2005
CARPINTERIA
Beets Etc.
Deciding on a topic this week was a bit like shopping at the Market: look around for something fresh and figure out what to do with it. So the nominal subject this week is Beets, but as it happens the other things in the photo,apart from the Formica, came from the Market, so we can talk about them, too.
Jul 01, 2005
CARPINTERIA
Curry Leaves
Curry Leaves, the leaves of the Sweet Neem, are like pie apples, curry pastes are made with them, not of them. On their own they have a rather metallic taste which somehow engages other spices synergistically.
Jun 22, 2005
CARPINTERIA
Green Onions
Green onions that arent Scallions. Call them Fresh Onions on analogy to Fresh Garlic.
Jun 09, 2005
CARPINTERIA
Basil
Warmer drier weather has brought the first outdoor Basil to Santa Barbara Farmers Markets.
Jun 02, 2005
CARPINTERIA
Epazote
Encouraged by warmer weather, Epazote has returned to the market. A favorite of Mexican cooks, Epazote is one of a number of things that grow along fences or beside the road and are shunned by most other animals.
May 19, 2005
CARPINTERIA
Loquat
Loquats were popular eighty years ago both as fruit and as landscaping and are often found in gardens of 'lower' and 'upper East' Santa Barbara. The trees are up to twenty feet tall, with large dark green lanceate leaves and, at this time of year, are laden with clusters of russet-orange fruit the size of an apricot.
May 11, 2005
CARPINTERIA
Nasturtiums
Is it a vegetable? Some may object, but Nasturtiums have a long culinary history, leaves, flowers and seeds playing a role in many cusines, from the Middle West to the Middle East, Mediaeval England to Midtown.
May 05, 2005
CARPINTERIA
Little Gem
Little Gem, or Sucrine, is a small lettuce often described as 'a combination of Butter and Romaine'. It is crisp, like Romaine, and sweet, like Butter, but the texture and the flavor are still its own.
Apr 28, 2005
CARPINTERIA
Arugula
Arugula is a mustardy, peppery crisp bright green leaf usually thought of as a salad ingredient. If you like tangy salads, then Arugula is worth adding.
Apr 21, 2005
CARPINTERIA
Tango
Tango is a lettuce, it's not Endive Frisee. Because of their similarity in color and head shape the two are often confused.
Apr 06, 2005
CARPINTERIA
Sorrel
It's no coincidence that Sorrel tastes like Sourgrass - they are closely-related members of the Oxalis family.
Apr 01, 2005
CARPINTERIA
Endive and Escarole
This week it's a double-header: Endive in it's leafy and frizzy forms, Escarole and Frizee. These two are siblings, their leaves differing in shape and texture, but essentially identical in flavor and nutrition. Members of the Chicory family, and closely related to Belgian Endive and Radicchio, Escarole and Frizee contain an important amount of iron as well as the usual leafy vitamins, and much more of these - iron particularly - than any lettuce.
Mar 25, 2005
SANTA BARBARA
Garlic
It's not Scallions and it's not Leeks; the texture of Fresh Garlic lies somewhere between.
Mar 17, 2005
FARMERS MARKET
Shahi
Shahi is an upland cress from Iran. "Upland" here means "grows on land", to distinguish these cresses from their close relative Watercress.
Mar 10, 2005
COLEMAN FARMS
Broccoli Spigarello
Its strong but not dominant flavor mixes well with other cooked greens, and it would work very well in either a 'white' or a 'red' lasagne, or in ravioli or calzone. Like kale and cabbage, it goes well with beans and is happy in minestra.
Mar 03, 2005
CARPINTERIA
Sugar Snap Peas
Sugar Snap peas are doubly paradoxical: fresh peas - a taste of late Summer - and no shelling required. The pods are fleshy, sweet and tender, so leave the peas in and 'eat the lot'. You may want to pinch off the stem, but otherwise the only preparation required is a quick rinse.
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