Choosing Citrus

Every week for almost a decade I've been buying citrus from Jorge at the Hollywood Farmers Market. With his tutoring I'm getting pretty good at picking out the best fruit.

Today he had the first pomelos of the season. The first pick is always a little tart, but I dug in his crate and found one which looked a little brown and battered - these tend to be the sweetest.

Then I moved on to his crates of grapefruit. The fruit was firm and boldly colored. I asked if he had any old grapefruits left - the heavy wrinkled ones which are so sweet and full of flavor. He said another customer had got there before me and hunted out the old ones. I was lucky to find a few he'd missed. I bought some of the newer ones as well, but they will be a little tart.

Tangelos

This is one of the things I've learned about citrus - older is better. Not older as in sitting on a shelf for a few weeks, but older as in left on the tree longer to get sweeter and riper. Dry weather during the final ripening is good too, because it intensifies the sweetness. The more patient the farmer, the better the citrus. At home, the oranges on our tree look beautiful, but I don't think they'll be really sweet until March. We also have 11 precious tangelos on an ultra-dwarf tree and I'm reluctant to sacrifice one to see if they're ripe. Jorge suggested I wait until March, which I will unless the squirrel makes off with one, like he did our tangerines.

I had been leaving the tangerines on our little tree to ripen further, but the squirrel started eating them. We do not have enough to share! So I picked the lot and found they were fabulous - sweet and juicy, best tangerines ever. Next year I'll know to sample the first one at Christmas - hopefully before the squirrel thinks of it.

So the moral is, with citrus fruits look for heavy fruit that is slightly battered, maybe even wrinkled. And don't buy them the first week they show up at the market. Tangerines from one stall were tart in mid-December, but this week they were sweet and juicy. Extra time on the trees made all the difference.

Simple Lunches

We've had warm sunny days this New Year, perfect for working in the garden and having simple salad lunches on the patio.

This is the lunch we had today. The salad was romaine lettuce with walnuts, radishes, cherry tomatoes and a mustardy vinaigrette.

The cheese was Humboldt fog from Cypress Grove Creamery. It's a tangy aged goat cheese with a layer of ash in the middle - reminiscent of fog, apparently. I highly recommend it.

The bosc pears were from Ha's Apple Farm, and they were out of this world - juicy and sweet.

When we had this same meal on New Year's Day, we ate tangerines from our garden. Yes, life in Southern California is idyllic.

Trail of Tears

One of the reasons to shop at the farmers' market is to buy organic heirloom beans.

These beauties are Trail of Tears, an heirloom black bean that has great flavor.

They are so named because they were donated to Seed Savers Exchange in 1977 by Dr. John Wyche of Oklahoma. His Cherokee ancestors had carried these beans on the infamous death march from the Smoky Mountains to Oklahoma over the winter of 1838-39. 4,000 people died along the way. It's a horrific event in American history and I'm glad it's not forgotten.

These beans were grown on Finley Farm this summer, so they are still fresh enough to need shorter cooking time than old beans would. I don't soak them, just cook them in boiling water for an hour or so until they're tender.

They make excellent soup, and great black beans.

Pineapple Guavas

If you read this blog regularly, you've probably realized that I'll try anything (vegetarian) once. I even tried pickled okra and found it was surprisingly good.

So when our organic grapefruit provider, Jorge, said he had pineapple guavas, I had to buy some. (Four for a dollar - what a deal.)

They are about 3 inches long, and have a soft green skin. Jorge told us to eat the whole thing except the calyx.

So yesterday morning I sliced a couple and put them on our morning fruit.

While they did taste faintly pineapple-y, I was most struck by the floral-ness. It tasted like I was eating flowers.

I understand a lot of people really enjoy this. I did not. They weren't Larry's favorite either - he asked how many days we would be eating them.

I assured him there were only two left, so only one more morning of fragrant floral fruit.

I'm really glad we tried them because I've always been curious. And now I know they're not my thing.

Last of the peaches

Sadly the stone fruit season is coming to an end.

This was the last of the peaches, along with golden plums and a delicious pear.

Mmm, pears. I'm going to enjoy the fall fruit season.

Dodger Grilled Cheese

We went to Dodger Stadium last night to watch the Dodgers face their arch rival San Francisco Giants.

It was a beautiful night for baseball. Before darkness fell, we looked out at the backdrop of the Hollywood Hills, the San Gabriel Mountains, and lots of palm trees.

When we got to the stadium, we found our seats and then looked for food. The concessions within a few sections of our seats sold Dodger Dogs, fries (with garlic optional), and grilled cheese sandwiches.

I had the grilled cheese. (Yum - not. You can see it above.) The server offered me ranch dressing on the side. She seemed surprised when I refused it, but why put extra fat on a grilled cheese?

So we sat in the stands, eating a grilled cheese and a Dodger dog, and watched an ad on the big screen for Healthy LA: Children holding signs saying "Feed me healthy food. Give me a safe park to play in. Or treat my diabetes." Etc. The next ad was for Carl's Jr. (a huge bacon hamburger thing).

I wandered around in later innings and found a healthy food truck tucked into a dark corner under a single light bulb. I could have bought a salad (large box of lettuce) for $8. Or a veggie cup (I can't describe it to you because I couldn't see it in the dark) for $6. There was no line here.

Is it any wonder obesity is a problem?

Heinz tomatoes

I was sitting on an outdoor terrasse recently, waiting for my veggie burger, when I noticed the ketchup bottle on the table said "Tomatoes grown from Heinz seeds."

Intrigued, I looked this up.

It turns out that Heinz tomato products are grown from seeds that are rigorously tested and hybridized, but not genetically modified. So that's good.

(Hybridization happens when a human moves pollen from the flower of one plant to a different plant in an attempt to increase certain strong characteristics and diminish others. It's a trial and error process which is rigorously monitored and studied, but which does not include splicing and dicing genes.)

Of course, the ketchup also contains high fructose corn syrup (doesn't everything) which is most likely gmo.

But it's fun that a big company is reminding us that the stuff we eat comes from the earth.

Willy Blackmore wrote about the Heinz tomato on takepart. You can read his piece here.

Olive oil

Mark Twain in Life on the Mississippi (1860s) writes of cottonseed oil being produced on the banks of the Mississippi, shipped to Italy, and re-imported as olive oil.

"It is claimed that (cottonseed oil) can, by proper manipulation, be made to resemble and perform the office of any and all oils, and be produced at a cheaper rate than the cheapest of the originals. Sagacious people shipped it to Italy, doctored it, labeled it, and brought it back as olive oil. This trade grew to be so formidable that Italy was forced to put a prohibitory impost upon it to keep it from working serious injury to her oil industry."

Fortunately, nowadays organic certification ensures that olive oil is made from olives.

EWG organic list

Each year I write about the Environmental Working Group's list of the most pesticided produce in America.

This year they've added genetically modified crops to their list.

As always, let me remind you that it is always better to eat fruit and vegetables. Every cancer study out there says that people who eat more vegetables are less likely to develop cancer. So eat vegetables, even if you can't find/afford organic ones.

However, if you can avoid these heavily pesticided crops, your nervous system and endocrine system will thank you. (Most pesticides are neuro-toxic or hormone-disruptors. This includes the Weed'n'Feed and Round Up you put on your lawn. Don't do it.)

A brief aside on genetically modified organisms (gmos). Wheat, corn and soy are always gmo unless labelled non-gmo or organic. In the produce aisle, however, most foods are not gm. The exceptions are zucchini, Hawaiian papaya, and some varieties of sweet corn. EWG advises people to buy these organic in order to avoid gmos.

The good news is that sometimes really toxic pesticides are taken off the market because they can be detected on foods. Last year EWG singled out green beans because they were often contaminated with two highly toxic organophosphates. Use of these pesticides has since been restricted by the EPA. Unfortunately, non-organic leafy greens still show residues of organophosphates, and EWG recommends avoiding them.

Sadly, tests in 2008 found that some American-grown summer squash contained residues of organochlorine pesticides that were phased out of agriculture in the 1970s and 1980s. The toxic chemicals are still in the soil in some farm fields. Yet another reason to buy produce from organic farmers who feed the soil, not poison it.

Produce to avoid if not organic:
apples
celery
cherry tomatoes
cucumbers
grapes
kale / collard greens
hot peppers
imported nectarines
peaches
potatoes
spinach
strawberries
summer squash (zucchini)
sweet bell peppers

Produce that is safe to eat if not organic
(Although think of the soil and future generations)
asparagus
avocados
cabbage
cantaloupe
corn (if not gmo)
eggplant
grapefruit
kiwis
mangoes
mushrooms
onions
papayas
pineapples
peas
sweet potatoes

Get a downloadable app of this list, and donate to EWG to support their good work here.

Stretching out the meals

As I mentioned in my last post, we came back from two weeks away to a relatively empty fridge. Three dinners loomed between us and the Sunday Hollywood Farmers Market where we would replenish our vegetables with produce from our favorite farmers.

I couldn't manage lunches, so we ate those out. But thanks to our garden, the dinners were pretty good.

Thursday night I made pesto with basil from the garden, garlic and olive oil from the pantry, and walnuts from the freezer. Tossed over pasta from the pantry, it was a great dinner.

Friday night my jet lag had lessened and I was more inspired. I pulled some cooked brown rice from the freezer before I went to work. In the evening, I whisked it with an egg and a few chard leaves from our garden. First I steamed them and chopped them coarsely then stirred them into the rice along with some salt and pepper. It went into a small casserole dish and a few slivers of old cheddar cheese were scattered on top. It was great.

Steamed carrots alongside. (Carrots last well in the fridge.)

And our out-of-control garden provided the final dish: stewed wax beans.

As you can see in the picture, the wax beans were prolific and large. (They're the green tower to the right of the blue agapanthus flowers.) The beans were too tough to steam, but excellent braised for 30 minutes until they softened and took on some additional flavor.

I trimmed them and cut them in 2-inch lengths. Then I put them in a pot with a 14-oz can of diced tomatoes and a little salt and pepper. I covered the pot and put it over medium-low heat to simmer until the beans were tender, stirring occasionally so it wouldn't stick. Just before serving I tossed in some fresh shredded basil from the garden. The slightly saucy beans were great with the rice, and you couldn't tell that they had started off tough.

That was the end of my inspiration. Saturday night we ate pizza in front of the hockey game. And then Sunday morning we replenished our fridge at the Hollywood Farmers Market.

Cooked

From my old Sunset bread book -
more complicated than Pollan's way.

Michael Pollan was on Democracy Now recently promoting his latest book Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation.

He's always good to listen to about food politics, and his enthusiasm for making bread with the natural yeasts flying around the kitchen has inspired me to re-discover sourdough starter.

It's a fun interview. You can listen to it or read a transcript of it here: Democracy Now

Pain aux Noix

Here's another of my occasional posts on baking my way through Bernard Clayton, Jr.'s excellent book, The Breads of France and How to Make Them in Your Own Kitchen (Bobbs Merrill 1978).

I'm not going to share the recipe with you - this is not a baking blog - but if you like to bake, I recommend you track this book down and give the recipes a try.

These are Pain aux Noix - and they came out looking just like the picture in the book!

They are made with whole wheat flour, additional bran, and a half pound of walnuts in the three one-pound loaves.

They are dense and delicious, full of nutty whole-wheat flavor. They make great cheesey toast, and cheese sandwiches.

I think I have to go eat a slice now.

P.S. I used this bread to make cheese sandwiches to take on the plane when visiting my mother in Montreal. The sandwiches were great, but we didn't need to eat them all. The next day I put the remains of a sandwich on my mother's snowy verandah railing for the birds. This squirrel found it, devoured it, and spent the next day waiting hopefully for us to hand out more sandwiches. (This bread has a lot of walnuts!)

Three Years Today!

Three years ago today, I launched this blog.

The first post was about the benefits of starting the day with fresh fruit, especially grapefruits in the winter because of their stress-busting and immune-boosting benefits. (You can read it here.)

I started writing because I was frustrated that my clients were depending on pills not food to get their daily nutrition. "Eating real food can be simple," I wanted to shout from the roof tops. "Plus it's the most important thing you can do for your health."

It didn't occur to me that three years later I'd still have things to write about.

But I do.

And I thank you for tuning in to read them.

I hope my endless enthusiasm for vegetables and whole grains and beans inspires you to add more of them into your daily life.

Because while Turbo Tonic (and other supplements) is a fine addition to a diet, the actual food we eat is the primary contributor to our health.

Winter Fruit

Winter fruit is extra high in Vitamin C, very useful in cold and flu season.

We juice oranges on Sundays, and take tangerines and apples in our lunch bags.

Our bowls of morning fruit are full of the excellent grapefruit we get from Jorge at the Hollywood Farmers Market - both pink and white. I add color with pomegranate seeds, and an extra zip with kumquats from the dwarf meiwa tree mum gave me for Christmas. The fruit is a little larger than a regular kumquat, and a little sweeter.

All these vitamins help us feel stronger during this virus and bacteria laden season. And eating the fresh fruit is much more fun than swallowing a vitamin pill.

Isn't it cute? This is the dwarf meiwa kumkuat we got at Bellefontaine Nursery in Pasadena. It was tough to come home with only one citrus tree - talk about a place of temptation!

Giving Thanks

We had a good Thanksgiving. Tracie visited, the right football team won, and the food was yummy.

As I sat looking at the bounty on the table, I thought of the farmers who grew the food we were eating:

Finley Farms: lettuce, leek

Jared: onions, kabocha squash, garlic

Givens Farms: purple kohlrabi (Tracie's favorite!), green beans

Jorge: pomegranates, limes

Mr. Ha: eggs, persimmons

South Central Farmers Cooperative: beets, cilantro

Spring Hill Dairy: smoked firehouse Mike cheddar

and our own magical garden which provided the pumpkin (self-seeded!), mint and lemons.

Thank you all! You made our Thanksgiving delicious.

Cookbook bonanza

Last Sunday was a bonus at the Hollywood Farmers Market - cheap cookbook day.

I never know when this fundraising event for the Los Angeles Public Library is going to happen. I turn the corner and there are boxes of cookbooks - modern, old, pamphlets, you name it - going for the ridiculous price of $3 or less.

This is what I came home with for $18.50:

Mediterranean Cookery by Claudia Roden

China Moon Cookbook by Barbara Troop

Better Homes and Gardens Cooking with Whole Grains

The Harrods Book of Entertaining by Lady Macdonald of Macdonald (how could I resist?)

My New Mediterranean Cookbook by Jeannette Seaver

Fresh from the Market: Seasonal Cooking with Laurent Tourondel and Charlotte March

Crave - The Taste of Five Senses by Ludo Lefebvre

Farmers

In her 1922 book One of Ours, about a midwestern farmer who enlists in WWI, Willa Cather writes:

The farmer raised and took to market things with an intrinsic value; wheat and corn as good as could be grown anywhere in the world, hogs and cattle that were the best of their kind. In return he got manufactured articles of poor quality; showy furniture that went to pieces, carpets and draperies that faded, clothes that made a handsome man look like a clown. Most of his money was paid out for machinery, – and that, too, went to pieces. A steam thrasher didn't last long; a horse outlived three automobiles.

Summer Fruit

 The Hollywood Farmers Market is piled with peaches, nectarines, plums, apricots, pluots, grapes, melons in more varieties than I can name, and strawberries.

That's along with all the apples and citrus fruit that I now take for granted.

It's hard to limit my fruit shopping. We eat fruit once a day - for breakfast - so we don't need basketfuls. I rarely cook fruit - it's too darned hot to cook, and why waste all that nutrition? So I control myself as I walk through the market buying two of this and two of that, restraining myself to a small basket of strawberries, two - oops actually three - melons.

The stone fruits tend to be hard - flavorful but not completely ripe. I leave them on the counter for a few days until they are fragrant. I check them each every day, looking for mold, squeezing gently for ripeness. When they are really ripe, I either put them in our morning fruit, or refrigerate them until we need them.

Melons, however, can be bought completely ripe and ready to eat. Last Sunday morning we bought strawberries and cantaloupe at Finley Farms stall and ate them for brunch. They were so sweet they tasted like candy. The accompanying omelet was a good counter-balance with heat from a homegrown anaheim pepper and some salty cheese.

We had the remaining strawberries and melon for breakfast on Monday morning, Tuesday was grapefruit and last week's Santa Rosa plums - finally ripe and incredibly juicy. Then on to the nectarines and peaches, and the other cantaloupe we bought. We still have a white Japanese melon that Mr. Ha says is good to eat now but if we can wait a week or two until it is soft it will be unbelievably sweet. Let's see how long we can wait.

Summer fruit: there's nothing like it.

Eat organic

I'm fortunate to be able to eat a wide variety of organic produce. It helps to live in southern California and shop at the Hollywood Farmers' Market.

I know that not everyone is as lucky as me, so here is the annual list of foods that are safe to eat even if they are not organic.

Every year the Environmental Working Group tests US-grown food for pesticide residue. Although we don't know what long-term use of pesticides does to the human nervous and endocrine system, there are standards as to what is too much to consume.

The first list, The Dirty Dozen, refers to foods that should never be eaten unless they are organic, because the pesticide residue is too high in the conventionally-grown kinds.

The second list is of foods which have a minimal level of pesticide residue when conventionally grown.

Notice that greens must be organically-grown. Don't let that stop you from eating greens. Instead ask your produce manager or favorite organic farmer to stock organic greens. They're available, they're delicious and they're healthy. And even at $2.50 a bunch, they're a better deal than a multi-vitamin.


Dirty Dozen: eat only if organic
apples
bell peppers
blueberries
celery
cucumbers
grapes
green beans
kale / greens
lettuce
nectarines - imported
peaches
potatoes
spinach
strawberries

Low Pesticide Residue: These 15 foods are lowest in pesticide residue, and are considered safe to eat even if not organic.
asparagus
avocado
cabbage
cantaloupe
corn (probably gmo if not organic)
eggplant
grapefruit
kiwi
mangoes
mushrooms
onions
peas
pineapples
sweet potatoes
watermelon

Organic corn

Finley Farms had organic corn on the cob on Sunday - the first of the season. We grabbed some to eat for dinner that night, boiled and served with butter and a little salt and pepper. Yum.

I only buy organic corn. Non-organic corn (or no-spray corn) can be grown from genetically-modified corn kernels. I don't know what genetic-modification will do to my body or to the earth, but I don't trust it. Also, I don't want to give a dime to the multi-nationals who create gmos.

Eating only organic corn means most of the year we eat it frozen. And then for a couple of months we enjoy it fresh off the cob.

Shoppers often rip open the top of ears of corn to check for complete ears and insect damage. I don't bother. I figure most organic corn has insect damage - because it's not sprayed with poisons that kill insects. And the kernels might be a little erratic from faulty pollination - because it's grown in a field not devised in a factory. I prefer my food to look real.

Which is a good thing, because we brought a caterpillar home with the corn. You can just see it hiding in its little hole in the front cob on the left.

It's a harmless little thing, as long as it's not eating my corn. I threw it over the fence to the neighbor's chickens. You can also just put it in the trash or kill it and add it to the compost.

You can see the top ends of the corn where the silk tassels emerge looked pretty unsightly. It's caterpillar damage. Not harmful. I just cut the end off the cobs and serve the beauties you see below.
In fact, until I showed Larry these pictures, he did not know that the corn we brought home had a little editing done before I served it to him, delicious and sweet and beautiful.

So remember, organic corn can be ugly. But cut off the ugly part and you have something truly delicious, and you can feel good about where your food dollar is going.