This week a treat! In lieu of a photo, I made a video of our weekly CSA box! I wanted to show what I do with all the variety of vegetables I get – how to store and also, what they look like. Enjoy!
Please excuse my bedraggled appearance. I just returned from a trip to Texas and I just got off the plane. 
Check it out – my friends at Boccalone have been featured in a video other than my own.
Enjoy!
This week’s CSA box arrived Wednesday evening as normal. The flower bouquet which I neglected to photograph is starting to change! I wish I knew enough about flowers to describe what they are but the vibrant reds, purples, oranges, and even color tipped white beauties make my kitchen so happy! In this week’s box:
I’m really excited to start seeing mushrooms! And the agretti greens are extremely unusual and tasty! Hopefully some recipes will follow soon!
There are several different local Bay Area establishments I mention in posts & videos, and I thought it was time to highlight them all!
First up, farmer’s markets! There are so many in the Bay Area, and all are special for different reasons, but my favorite – the one I am called back to nearly weekly – the farmer’s market that takes place every Saturday morning at the Ferry Building in San Francisco. The Ferry Building is a unique and special place everyday: full of restaurants – The Slanted Door, Taylor’s, too many to list! & food shopping stalls – Far West Fungi, Cowgirl Creamery, & San Francisco Fish Company to name a very few. These are open everyday and always have specialty items ripe for discovery.
Are you wondering why I titled this section the farmer’s market when I’m still talking about the everyday sites? That is because every Saturday – rain or shine – the entire outdoor plazas surrounding the Ferry Building transform into an intricate network of stalls from 8am to 2pm. By now I have my favorites – meat from Marin Sun Farms (more on them later), eggs from Petaluma Farms, cheese from Bodega & Yerba Santa Goat Cheese, fruits& vegetables from too many stalls to list, beans from Rancho Gordo (more on this later too!), rice from Massa Organics, and breakfast chilaquiles to top it all off. Honestly I can’t even begin to limit the stalls I love to this list – there are so many amazing farmers here that every where you look you find a new favorite!
If you visit San Francisco, you owe it to yourself to visit the Ferry Building on a Saturday morning for breakfast and wonderful tour of our local produce. It is amazing to see the variety and quality of the produce we are lucky enough to have access to year round. And if you wonder what is in season – then visit – you will find out in abundance!
One of my guaranteed weekly treats is my community supported agriculture (CSA) box from Two Small Farms. Each Wednesday I pick up a box (well technically a bag) full of the freshest, seasonal veggies, fruits, and flowers! AS the name implies, Two Small Farms *is* two farms. The box is built on the freshest produce from both farms, enabling one farm to add more when their crops are plentiful and vice versa. Its a system they seem to have perfected because my box is a treat each week!
I have posted previously about CSA programs, but visit Local Harvest for more information or to try and find a CSA in your area. When you participate in a CSA program, you support farmers in your region and you support their methods of farming!
Expanding on the CSA framework of sharing a local & sustainable product with a subscriber on a regular basis, two new CSA-esque programs have emerged from places that I love. One of them is Boccalone, who I cannot describe better than they do themselves: “Boccalone artisan meats combine sustainably raised, heritage-breed pork, Italian sea salt, and the freshest spices with the rarest ingredient of all: time.”
I have been incredibly impressed by the quality of products I receive from Boccalone every other week. The sausage was delightful, the mortadella like nothing I had ever tasted, and the pepper infused salumi (salame pepato) hits a note my pepper-loving senses have only dreamed of. The exciting news here is you can order these cured meats from anywhere in the US – so don’t hesitate!
Next in the CSA-esque lineup is Marin Sun Farm’s newest method of distribution. Meat is 100% grass fed, no chemicals, no hormones, no corn! For the meat CSA I pick up our box once a month. Everything has been frozen and defrosts beautifully. The bone-in rib eye is amazing – worth eating meat for I assure you! The ground beef has been fascinating because the flavor and quality *is* different! I can’t wait for more each month.
Finally – I could not do this post without a nod towards Rancho Gordo. Heirloom varietals of beans, handgrown with attention and care. This multitude of bean-goodness has changed my perspective on the humble bean forever. Rancho Gordo also ships, so be sure to give them a try – or even email me to ask questions if you are curious – I’ve tried many of their varieties! 
There are so many more wonderful places I want to discuss and share, but I suppose they will need to wait for the next edition of my favorites! Until then – share some of your favorites with me!
I’m a bit late with this week’s CSA post and sadly I hopped to putting the veggies away so quickly this week that I neglected to snap a photo.
The most interesting item in the box this week is cardoons. Cardoons are actually the same species as the globe artichoke but a naturally occurring variant that look like long & sometimes much larger celery stalks. I’m anxious to cook these and see how they taste!
Our box this week contained:
Maybe I’ll even splurge on a dessert with those yummy Meyer lemons.
The other day after a Monday at the office, Brad and I arrived home and remembered – we need to eat dinner! Actually I’d been starving all day so it took no recall for me to remember this event – all I was focused on was what do I have on hand, what will be relatively quick to make, and what sounds fun for this spring Monday?
In the refrigerator I found a package of guanciale – a most amazing piece of cured pork cheek that was in my recent Boccalone box. (More on my Boccalone boxes soon!) We were told when we picked up the meat at Incanto that guanciale was the traditional meat used for spaghetti alla carbonara. And with that promise, I agreed that I would make a batch of carbonara pasta for us – one day.
The fact I must confess is that I generally do not like creamy types of sauces. I’m much more of a fresh and light flavor eater. Plus quite frankly, most cream sauces in the U.S. do a disservice to the concept of Italian cuisine and generally should be avoided – in my opinion! I’ve had cream & egg based sauces in Italy and they certainly brokered none of the complaints I have about them in the states. BUT the point is, I come from a perspective of not really loving heavy, creamy types of pasta dishes and rarely – if ever – concede to create one at home.
Tonight became the chosen evening for a carbonara adventure. Carbonara dishes come together spectacularly easily and when you can use the freshest of local ingredients, you can’t complain about the health detriments (too much). The same day we picked up the guanciale, we picked up a fettuccine from our favorite store that appealed to us. On Saturday at the farmer’s market, I had picked up fresh eggs from my favorite egg supplier. And I had parmesan in the fridge. With those simple ingredients – carbonara was ready to be made!
One note about the guanciale – though I will post much more information about it shortly when I post about Boccalone. Though it would be wildly frowned upon by a purist I am sure, do feel free to use pancetta or bacon in lieu of the guanciale which may be impossible to locate where you live. If however you can secure guanciale – it is worth the effort! We were blown away by the flavors and depth of this simple cured meat.
With those notes, I present to you fettuccine alla carbonara. Enjoy and let me know what you think!
Ingredients (for 4 servings):
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « Mar | May » | |||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
| 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 |
| 28 | 29 | 30 | ||||
