First we’ll visit David Little at Little Organic Farm, where we’ll get a personal tour during the height of the harvest season and learn all about his main crop: dry-farmed potatoes. We’ll find out how dry farming fosters superior flavor and is invaluable in the face of drought.

Next we’ll head over to Spring Hill Cheese, a farm that started with potatoes in the early days of the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market and grew into a full-time dairy. The farm now raises 400 Jersey cows for its farmstead cheeses, including fresh curds, quark, and aged cheddars. In addition to a private tour of the dairy with owner Larry Peter, we’ll enjoy some public activities the farm offers in October: homemade ice cream and cheese tastings, a tractor ride, and the chance to dig for potatoes, pick pumpkins, and milk a cow.

The tour costs $25 and includes a pasta lunch provided by our hosts at Spring Hill, with sides made from Ferry Plaza Farmers Market ingredients. We’ll leave from and return to the Ferry Building in a comfortable bus. Please bring cash for harvest activities such as pumpkin picking and potato digging at Spring Hill Cheese. Tickets are nonrefundable.

Our first stop will be the Peach Farm in Winters, where farmer Ed George will give us a tour of his 35 acres of interesting summer crops, such as Marvel Stripe and Lemon Boy tomatoes, Ancho peppers, and Magda squash. Attendees will get to taste the pick of the season, harvesting some of their own samples. Ed will talk to us about how his decision to plant only summer crops helps the land recuperate over the winter and maintains soil nutrients. He’ll also talk about how his relationship with market shoppers keeps him getting up early every Saturday.

Our next stop will be Capay Organic, where we’ll eat lunch by the oak trees. The farm, founded by the current owners’ parents in the early days of the organic food movement, is celebrating its 35^th anniversary this year. We’ll learn about their approach to sustainable farming and discuss the various ways the business has evolved to reach more customers, including through markets, a CSA, and a grocery in the Ferry Building. We’ll enjoy a tractor ride into the fields and taste what the farm’s summer bounty has to offer.

The tour costs $25 and includes lunch made with farmers market ingredients. We’ll leave from and return to the Ferry Building in a comfortable bus. Tickets are nonrefundable.

The tour is geared toward adults. Young people who are interested in attending with their parents and who are likely to enjoy the tour without causing disruption are welcome. Please use your discretion and call if you have questions.

Join CUESA for a trip to two respected Brentwood farms to learn the ins and outs of organic production. First, we’ll visit Frog Hollow Farm, where Farmer Al will walk us through his organic orchard, which has grown from 13 to 130+ acres in the past 30 years. It’s stone fruit season, giving attendees a chance to see pluots, peaches, and nectarines hanging from the trees. From compost production to a native bee project, attendees will see how organic methods yield thriving fruit trees.

Our next stop will be Knoll Farms, where we’ll see how organic practices work on a smaller scale. Known for their ecosystem-oriented farm management and focus on diverse plantings, farmers Kristie and Rick Knoll will show attendees how many different crops can grow on 13 acres. We’ll also get to learn more about their farming philosophy, including the role of biodiversity, weeds, permaculture, and biodynamic methods in creating healthy soils. Attendees will get to enjoy a picnic lunch beneath the fig trees.

Our first stop will be Heirloom Organic Gardens in Hollister, a farm dedicated to cultivating a diversity of plants and to sustainable production methods. Farmer Grant Brians is a founding member of California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF), having participated since 1975. The farm grows over 200 varieties of fruits, vegetables, and herbs, and Grant is always expanding his selection. We’ll tour the farm and learn about how agriculture has influenced the rich history of the region. Grant will also discuss how flavor develops in plants, and the importance of cultivating heirloom varieties within our modern agricultural system.

We’ll then head over to Mountain Feed and Supply in Ben Lomond for a sauerkraut class with Kathryn Lukas of Farmhouse Culture. Kathryn is inspired by the diversity and rich culture (pun intended) of California cuisine, and she produces krauts inspired by food traditions from all over the world. Set in the redwoods, the class will cover the basics of sauerkraut and fermentation as well as the inspiration for Farmhouse Culture’s award-winning krauts. We’ll enjoy lunch made with farmers market ingredients and will have time to explore the shop, which is bursting with canning and kraut-making supplies. Everyone will go home with their own jar of sauerkraut, a recipe, and confidence to start kraut-making on their own.

The tour costs $35 and includes snacks, lunch, the class, and a jar of sauerkraut. We’ll leave from and return to the Ferry Building in a comfortable bus.

Join CUESA for a tour of unprecedented sweetness. The first stop will be Bella Viva Orchards in Denair, where Victor Martino’s family has been farming since the 1940s. It’s cherry season, and the Martinos, known for both their dried and fresh fruit, will walk the tour through the entire cherry-drying process. The farm dries fruit at the peak of ripeness, retaining flavor that can be enjoyed throughout the year. The tour continues to the organic orchard, where Bella Viva’s famed peaches and other stonefruit are grown. Attendees will eat lunch at the farm and stop by the farm store for dried goodies.

Next the tour will head over to CandyCot Fruit Company for a visit with John Driver. John selected his apricots over many visits to Central Asia, where apricots are intensely flavored and sweet. While these sweet varieties are typically difficult to grow in the United States, John’s CandyCots do well in the California climate and, at an average of 26 degrees on the Brix scale of sweetness, are twice as sweet as some of their grocery store counterparts. Attendees will get to tour the orchards and learn about CandyCot apricots as the farm gets ready for harvest.

The tour costs $25 and includes lunch made with farmers market ingredients. The tour leaves from and returns to the Ferry Building in a comfortable bus.

Buy tickets here.

Like a black dress or blue suit, Belgian endive is perfect for almost any occasion at any time of year. It has a unique, two-tiered growing process. First the chicory is grown outside for about 5 months, the plant tops are then cut off (used for cattle fodder or green manure) and the large roots are harvested and placed in cold storage.  As needed, the roots are then placed in a highly specialized controlled atmosphere building for forced growing in the dark for about one month. We’ve taken the tour, just down the road in Rio Vista, and it is an amazing process to see. Because of this controlled growth, Belgian endive is available year round. We’ve worked with Rich Collins at California Vegetable Specialties for over 28 years.  Read on for an interview with him.

A chicory family member, related to radicchio, escarole and curly endive, Belgian endive, or Witloof (white leaf) originally popped up from overwintering chicory roots in a root cellar. Imagine the delight in discovering crispy, crunchy fresh nubbins in the dead of winter in Belgium. Here’s the back story as gleaned from California Vegetable Specialties website, www.endive.com:

History

Endive — The Accidental Vegetable
In 1830, Jan Lammers returned from the Belgian War of Independence to his farm near Brussels, where he had stored chicory roots in his cellar while he was away, intending to dry and roast them and use as a coffee substitute.

But his chicory roots, resting for months in the dark, damp environment, had achieved a different result. They had sprouted small white leaves. Curious, he tried the leaves and found them to be tender, moist, and crunchy, with a pleasant, slightly bitter taste. Thus, a new vegetable was discovered — endive.

White Gold
It took a while before cultivation was refined enough to grow the vegetable commercially. Legend has it that endive took the world by storm when introduced in Paris in 1872, quickly becoming so popular that it was nicknamed “white gold.”

Georganne Brennan has a delicious recipe for Belgian endive and watercress with smoked trout, featuring a warm shallot/tarragon dressing in The San Francisco Chronicle Cookbook.  In The Chez Panisse Vegetables cookbook, Alice Waters proffers a Belgian endive risotto recipe with Taleggio and Walnuts.

Braised, steamed or boiled, endive pairs perfectly finished with cream, or with a shalloty sauce Meuniere, or Mornay.  Most any configuration of ham and cheese play with Belgian endive.

Raw, try pairing with slivers of fennel and red pepper and a dipping sauce, from a green goddess, Russian, or Anchovy.

Marion Morash in her Victory Garden Cookbook stuffs a breast of veal with a Belgian endive and ham stuffing.  She also has an “extra-easy” chicken and endive recipe in which chicken thighs, Belgian endive, and whole shallots are baked with butter, salt and pepper, sealed tightly.

Ah, Belgian endive, we love you: always in season, and incredibly versatile!

Q&A with local chefs, cheese mongers and farmers

Featured Farmer:

Rich Collins

California Vegetable Specialties, Inc.
Founded: 1983
Working with GreenLeaf since: 1984

Specialties: Belgian endive, white and red

Earliest Food Memory:

Bologna. I was 3 or 4, standing in front of the deli counter at Corti Brothers market with my mom. This big, burly white jacketed Italian guy with glasses offered me a slice of bologna. I loved it. It was a very kind gesture, and good marketing, too.

Why Farming?
 Ever since I was little, I wanted to be a farmer. I remember driving by Farmer’s Insurance Company when I was 5 or 6, and thinking, “Wow, there must be farmers in there!” My parents, 4th generation San Franciscans, had encyclopedias for us, and the sections on farming were just about worn out. Growing up we had a one acre market vegetable garden, but I needed additional funds as I was entering UC Davis’ Agricultural program. At 18 I became a dishwasher at Restaurant LaSalle in Sacramento. Great place, eclectic staff, from a Ugandan chef to a Swiss maître d’ and a pastry chef with a Ph.D. At a VIP birthday party the chef/owner braised Belgian endive. He said, “This is what you should grow, it sells for $4.00 per pound and no one is growing it in the U.S.”  The next day I went to my seed supplier and asked for endive. He gave me curly endive seeds. I explained I wanted Belgian endive, and in 1978, with one seed packet, I grew my first crop of roots, forcing them in lard cans. I stuck the roots in my 3×5 foot closet, and got about 20 pathetic, anemic sprouts. I served them in a salad to my family to underwhelming praise. I was determined, though, and after college I went to Europe to learn how to grow Belgian endive properly. I knew I needed a niche to succeed in farming, and I found it. People said I could not do it, and in fact, Rebel Farms was our original name. It’s worked out pretty well in the end.

Favorite Belgian endive recipe?
So many! Last night I pan seared halved spears in olive oil, then braised in chicken stock with a touch of nutmeg. Once soft, I grated Parmesan on to finish with the pan covered. Also, any salad combination with mache and/or arugula. I use rice vinegar, shallot, sunflower oil and a touch of Dijon mustard to dress. Adding matchstick apples, chunks of pears, or segmented citrus is always delicious – something sweet to balance the slight natural bitterness of Belgian endive.

Biggest challenge?

The lack of consumer awareness is our biggest competitor. Many people don’t know what endive is. Over 30 years later, we are still answering this litany of questions: “What is it, how do you grow it, what’s it taste like, how do you cook it, and how do you pronounce it?”

California Vegetable Specialties Snapshot: California Vegetable Specialties is a specialty farming company dedicated to the consistent production of highest-quality California Endive. With growing fields throughout Northern California, the company is headquartered in the town of Rio Vista, in the historically rich agricultural region of the Sacramento River Delta, where they produce white and red endive — both conventional and organic varieties. The company was founded in 1983
 by Richard Collins, a Sacramento native and graduate of the Agricultural and Managerial Economics program at the University of California, Davis. He founded the company in 1983 as Rebel Farms- a name he chose in response to the many nay sayers who deemed him foolish for trying to grow endive for the U.S. market. Today, California Vegetable Specialties is the only U.S. producer of endive, selling over four million pounds of endive each year.

FARM TO TABLE

Featured Chef: Gloria Ciccarone

Featured Restaurant: The Huntington Hotel, Big Four Restaurant

Working with GreenLeaf since: 1980

Earliest food memories?

Packing basil leaves in oil with my grandmom. I also remember making stuffed breast of veal when I was 8 years old with my father in our family restaurant, the Avalon Inn, in Bethel, Connecticut. I cut my finger on the slicer when I was 11 one busy Saturday night, and my mother patched me up in the pantry to get through service.

Currently serving?

Beyond being a gorgeous garnish, we marinate halved red Belgian endive in an aged sherry vinaigrette, grill briefly for a slight char, then finish in the oven with a really good Mountain Gorgonzola.

Favorite spring vegetables?

Artichokes, #1 favorite.  I love to make a ragout fennel, favas, spring carrots and onion.  Melt it all together, finish w/chervil and use it as a bed for a nice piece of fish.

Biggest challenge?

Keeping staff fresh and excited, and the customers happy at the same time. Also, making my hair look good every day- a challenge in a kitchen.

Wild celery, or smallage, is an ancient, hollow stemmed, leafy plant. It’s different than lovage, which is milder and sweeter. Bitter and intense in flavor, wild celery was used medicinally, in religious ceremonies, and as a flavoring agent by Egyptians and Greeks. Its seeds were used as a condiment, and the roots were considered a delicacy in the Middle East. Milder celery varieties appeared in the early 1600’s, thought to have originated in Italy, where farmers mounded dirt on plants as they grew to produce lighter colored, tenderer stalks. Modern celery is self-blanching. In 1623 cultivated celery is first mentioned by the French horticulturalist Olivier de Serres. The Chinese, who were using wild celery since at least 5^th century A.D., developed their own celery varieties with thinner, more strongly flavored, juicier stalks.

Celery root, or celeriac, in its present form dates back to the early 1600’s, when larger roots were developed from the wild plant. This knobby root is a different plant from celery proper. Its rustic look belies it’s subtle, delicious flavor. In prime season August through March, celery root is adaptable to many uses, raw or cooked. Once peeled, store in acidulated water to preserve its creamy color. Beyond classic Remoulade, consider a more Waldorfian blend with apples, walnuts and celery. Try a toothsome mixed root slaw with colorful purple kohlrabi, scarlet turnips, or rainbow carrots in the mix. A creamy, smooth celery root puree is perfect for your winter plates, and a lush soup hits the spot in cold weather. Paired with long cooked meats, a rich mixed gratin with celery root, potatoes and yams is enticing. Janet Fletcher, in her book, Fresh From the Farmers’ Market, has a great recipe for steamed mussels with celery root and aioli. Georganne Brennan makes a colorful, interesting blood orange and celery root salad  beautiful served over mache, frisee or Belgian endive. Last, consider a wintry leek, potato and celery root tarte tatin.

Q&A with local farmers

Featured Farmer: Christine Coke (pictured here with her son, Olivier)
Featured Farm: Coke Farm
Location: San Juan Bautista, California
Buy and Eat Local: Within 95 miles of San Francisco
Founded: 1982
Working with GreenLeaf since: 1984
Specialties: Celery root, braising mix, baby beets, Meyer lemons, lettuce

Earliest Food Memory:
Liver – the one I hate the most … liver and spinach. I was a skinny, anemic baby and my mother thought that was what I needed. On a sweeter note, mashed carrots, oh, and chocolate!

Why Farming:
It’s fun, never boring. I learn new stuff every day.

Favorite Celery Root recipe?
Celery root remoulade. I’m Swiss and it’s a deli staple back home. When I got here there was none and when Dale asked me to marry him I told him he would have to grow lots of celery root. He agreed and it’s one of our staples. I use lots of lemon juice and sometimes walnut oil.

Biggest challenge?
Wearing so many hats. Beyond all that’s entailed in growing, there’s mastering human resources, accounting, sales, prioritizing and balancing it all with personal life.

Coke Farm Snapshot: Coke Farm has been producing outstanding organically grown fruits and vegetables for over thirty years. In August of 1981, prompted by a doubting conventional farmer who speculated that strawberries could not be grown organically, founder Dale Coke planted his first strawberries on the home ranch near Aromas, California. Dale started planting more crops and joined the Santa Cruz chapter of C.C.O.F. (California Certified Organic Farmers). Coke Farm expanded by growing more and different crops, selling more organic produce to local stores and to the San Francisco Bay Area restaurant trade. By 1990 Coke Farm had grown to a 200+ acre farm, harvesting over fifty crop varieties each year and shipping daily out of a cooler on site in San Juan Bautista.

FARM TO TABLE 

Appropriately prized in Europe as a versatile, subtle workhorse, leeks are gaining ground stateside.  Our sales increase annually, and when possible we “alpha” them.  This means when a local grower of organic leeks can offer a price close to conventional, then we sell only their leeks. Their sales go up, and you get to use really pristine produce!

Known in Wales as “poor man’s asparagus”, leeks are one of the most easily digested allium family members.  Their mild, refined flavor enhances and melds other ingredients together in a subtly beautiful way. They do take a long time to grow, and must require mounding of soil as they grow to produce optimum white blanched shanks.  The two major leek challenges are in dead of winter, when slower growing means harvest may be pushed to meet demand, resulting in shorter, less blanched, lower yielding leeks, and in spring, when their DNA pushes them to bolt in an effort to flower and produce seed, during which time texture is challenged and we may have to deal with a wood “stick” in the center.  As with all things produce, timing is everything and Mother Nature has the final word.  Every season is different but in a perfect world there are enough leeks planted at the right time to endure a steady supply of perfectly sized, non-bolting, high yielding leeks.  That’s what farmers aim for, and what our buyers strive to supply you with.  Because leeks are a biennial (setting seed in their second year), they can be particularly tricky.

Whole or halved and braised leeks make an elegant and tasty statement as a simple plate veg.  As days warm (they will), leeks vinaigrette makes one tasty appetizer, and Vichyssoise can hit the spot.  For cooler days, a creamy leek tart or warm soup is welcoming.  Try a leek and pork pie, or the Scottish Cockaleekie, a casserole combining chicken, leeks, herbs, stock and prunes.

Mary Risley has a knock-your-socks-off recipe for Cream of Leek Soup with Stilton in the San Francisco Chronicle Cookbook, Volume 2.   Gerald Hirigoyen, in his cookbook The Basque Kitchen, has a mouth- watering recipe for Monkfish or Salmon in Red Wine with Leeks and Pancetta.  Or whip up a hearty creamy pasta gratin with sausage, leeks and dried porcini.  Last, with spring onions, ramps and green garlic abounding, a multiple onion soup would not be out of order.

History

Cultivated by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, leeks were thought by Emperor Nero to improve his singing voice.  Leeks somehow made it to Britan, and in Saxon times the word leac was the generic term for any type of garlic or onion.  Also grown for centuries in cooler Northern China, where the tender blanched julienned heart is a classically rolled into Peking pancakes.

Q&A with local chefs, cheese mongers and farmers

Featured Farmer:

While we’ve got one month until official spring and barring meteorological catastrophe it looks like an early landing this year. Our stalwart partners Rick and Kristie Knoll say the dry, cold winter in Brentwood bodes well for bumper crops of stone fruit. It also means a later start for them on their unparalleled green garlic, known by many as THE green garlic.  “We’re a bit behind seasonal norm this year. Our green garlic was frozen to the ground for six weeks, and needs another couple weeks until we really get going on harvest”, said Rick. We will augment from Capay.

Initially the Knolls developed it for themselves to eat, valuing its anti-bacterial, anti-viral properties and consuming it raw for highest medicinal value.  The “stinking rose” has grown into one of their top 3 crops.

Knoll green garlic is recognized as the “green” standard, for many reasons. To start, as anyone who’s visited Knoll Farms has seen, it’s grown with “beyond organic” practices.  It’s irrigated with an amazing biodynamic brew and grown in rich soil that has benefited from over 3 decades of mindful, educated stewardship. The Knolls have developed their own strain of green garlic that is prized for its aromatic, relatively mellow flavor. While carrying some pleasing initial heat, the often fiery aftertaste of other garlic varieties is absent. The Knoll’s also have successive planting, harvest, cleaning and packing details honed to a fine point. Once the crop comes on, you can plan on consistently sized, clean, fresh green garlic with unparalleled flavor. Green garlic takes 5-6 months on average to mature, which means land is tied up for a long time, and this makes it a more expensive crop to grow than those with a shorter growing cycle. There may be less expensive green garlic out there, but none consistently better tasting or cleaner.

Beyond pairing with any permutation of pasta, pesto or pizza, this spring harbinger is a welcome addition to soufflés, soups, risotto, sauces, puddings, aioli, and stews. Basically the herbaceous nature of green garlic brightens any dish made with mature garlic cloves, from roasting proteins to vinaigrettes and marinades, to any sautéed vegetable.

Rick, a huge green garlic proponent, says, “when a big restaurant uses only three pounds a week, I laugh. I wish restaurants would replace the butter ramekins with a raw green garlic-infused olive oil. That would be awesome. People would go nuts over that. I’ve seen chefs throw the green part away and that drives me crazy.”

GreenLeaf is proud and grateful to have been one of Knoll Farms primary customers for well over two decades. As with all our great grower/partners, we have helped each other grow.

Rick and Kristie are working on a book about their crops, focusing on growing methodologies, and will feature lots of recipes and pictures. Stay tuned, and eat your green garlic.

Q&A with local farmers

Featured Farmer: Rick Knoll
Featured Farm: Knoll Farms, Brentwood
Founded: 1979
Working with GreenLeaf since: 1983
Specialties: Green Garlic, Figs, Rosemary, Apricots, Plums, Cardoon, Fava Leaves

Earliest Food Memory:
Eating oatmeal with our pig, Mr. Sheen, on our ½ acre garden growing up. We got a little pig, and it became a pet. It would smell my mom making oatmeal for me, and would start squealing and butting the back door. He wanted some too. We loved him, he let us hug him, and he got his oatmeal. In time he reached 350 pounds and my dad was afraid he’d step on us. One day he disappeared. It wasn’t until much later that I found out he had turned into bacon and pork chops.

Why Farming?
It just evolved. I was a corpsman in Vietnam. Just out of the service I was in Southern California earning my doctorate in organic chemistry. I met Kristie, who helped me deal with my compromised immune system. We got into organic gardening, juicing, had chickens, started eating more raw food. The goal was to do post doctorate work and become a professor. I ended up working for an aerospace company in Pittsburg. Kristie and I found a 10-acre farm with a little house in Brentwood. In addition to growing good food for ourselves we soon had planted over 600 fruit trees. In six years we  gained enough confidence to switch to full time farming.

Favorite green garlic recipe?
Our favorite is to chop super-fine and put it on just about everything. We don’t believe in cooking it a lot. We’ll drizzle bread with olive oil, heat it, then dump a whole bunch of green garlic on and cover until it just wilts. Or smear fromage blanc on a baguette and heap raw green garlic on it. It’s fantastic raw in an arugula salad.

Biggest challenge?
Apricots. Without using organically approved fungicides (sulfur, copper) it’s the most difficult thing … even with. If weather is ripe for brown rot to grow, there’s really nothing you can do. From first bloom it takes a month to know you’re not going to get any fruit. As a farmer, it can be heartbreaking.

Farm to Table

Featured Chef: Ken Frank

Featured Restaurant: La Toque

Working with GreenLeaf since: 1998

Earliest food memory?

Making breakfast w/my grandfather in Eagle Rock, CA. He grew up on one of the first farms in San Fernando Valley, had a butcher shop, and was the cook in the family. As a kid it was amazing to me watching him flip flapjacks up in the air, never missing the pan.

Currently serving:

An amuse bouche of Lemon Ricotta Potato Gnocchi, crisped and topped with a dollop of green garlic confit which is cooked simply and slowly in olive oil to let it be green garlic.

Favorite winter vegetable?

Parsnips.  A very under-appreciated vegetable.  So sweet!

Biggest challenge?

Service. A difficult lesson learned a long time ago is that service is more important than your food.

You can never turn away from it. It is a constant pressure, a challenge, and a great joy to instill and maintain great standards. I believe we have really good service.

Back in the early ‘90’s GreenLeaf asked Kurt Rasmussen of Ya-whooo Organic Farms to grow micro-greens; we had seen them in a magazine article, and were intrigued.

Kurt said: “After 6 months of trial and error I figured out how to do it. I don’t bend too good, so I started growing in raised containers. 1/3 of my crop is grown inside, 2/3 outside under shade cloth. I can better control bugs, irrigation and light by growing this way. I’m the instigator of micro greens in this area.”

“Micro greens are so nutritious because all the energy from the seed is concentrated in the plant at this early stage of development. I grow in dirt vs. hydroponically so the flavor and nutrients are concentrated.  I tried doing hydroponics but for me they didn’t grow worth a hoot, and the end product had so much more water in them versus how I grow. I also use EM, food-grade effective anaerobic microbes, which work symbiotically with the soil and even help prevent bad organisms from growing.  It’s like probiotics for your stomach. You have to grow healthy soil to grow healthy food, and my micro greens are so healthy!”

Twenty years ago I could not sell individual flavors like arugula, basil, or cilantro, so I decide to make a combo and call it Rainbow mix, which is a combination primarily of red cabbage, bok choy, beet tops, mixed tender greens, kohlrabi, and broccoli (which contains 45 times more anti-oxidants than regular broccoli). It took off and now I grow over 20 flavors, including, beet tops, bull’s blood, mizuna, cilantro, celery, wasabi, herb mix and insanity mix.  It just got warm enough to plant basil.”

Between Kurt at Yah-whooo and our friends down south at Fresh Origins, we offer over 35 flavors of micro and petit greens for you to use on your proverbial palate as you create your culinary art!  Consider
micro Thai basil, mustard Dijon, radish, red shiso, fennel, peppercress, mirepoix, tangerine lace, plus slightly larger petit licorice mix, Asian mix, pea greens, chives, shiso, hearts of fire, popcorn shoots, and petit French breakfast radishes and mixed carrots- wow!

Weekly interview with local farmers, chefs and cheese mongers

Featured Farmer: Kurt Rasmussen
Featured Farm: Yah-Whooo! Farms
Founded: 1989
Working with GreenLeaf since: 1992
Specialties: Micro Greens!

Earliest Food Memory?

Rhubarb pie, when I was 6 or 7.  Rhubarb grows pretty good in Denmark, where I grew up in the countryside. During the war, food was rationed, but we did okay because we had a big garden with potatoes, leeks, carrots, and cabbage. In the winter I got pretty sick of cabbage. We had pigs, chicken, ducks, geese, and the farm next door had cows.  Everything was organic back then- with our animals we always could make great compost for the garden.  We would pick wild raspberries and wild strawberries in the summer- little ones, packed with flavor.

Why Farming?

I just found it interesting.  My wife had big garden, and was selling Asian beans to restaurants.  I expanded the garden, and got certified organic in ’89. Ya-Whooo is one of the oldest certified organic farms in Solano/Yolo county, number Y45, and they’re up in to the thousands now.

Favorite micro green recipe?

Rainbow mix is great with a fish dinner or sandwich. It flavors up the whole thing.

Biggest challenge?

The weather. I can’t grow enough in the wintertime.

Looking in to the future?

I see consumer interest growing- more retail stores carrying micro greens.

Farm to Table

Featured Chef: Executive Chef Kevin Gin
Featured Restaurant: Bridges Restaurant
Working with GreenLeaf since: 1994

Earliest food memories?

When I was 4 or 5 years old, steamed striped bass, Chinese style, cooked by my mother. I grew up in the Sunset district of San Francisco. I also remember being introduced to Rice Krispy treats by my cousins and loving them.  When I was eight I made a big batch and ate ¾ of the pan. I have not touched one since.

How are you currently using Yah-Whooo micro greens?

Besides as a garnish, we use it as a component in our heirloom beet salad, mixed with frisee and beet threads.  This goes next to a large dice of citrus marinated mixed beets, combined with Fuji apple, goat cheese, watercress, finished with a great extra virgin olive oil.

Favorite spring vegetables?

English peas. I never had anything but frozen until I grew up.  To me, the difference between fresh and frozen is night and day.

Biggest challenge?

Making time to continue training my excellent crew. I have high standards and want everyone to keep expanding their skills. I’m fortunate to have very low turnover. Many of my cooks worked their way up from dishwashers. Without my staff we would not have achieved the success we have. All of them have great attitudes. High volume and high standards for fresh, cooked to order foods means making sure I’m designing dishes which work, ones that we’re proud to serve. I’m always working on teaching additional skills to my cooks, so that we can all grow and keep improving ourselves and our food. Sometimes there’s a language barrier in trying to translate more nuanced philosophy/techniques; I wish I was multi-lingual!

Looking into the future?

Hoping for continued success and growth of the restaurant, my staff, and myself. Personally, I’m old enough to appreciate that I can still keep learning and developing philosophically and spiritually,