Lard

Thanks to my dear friend Robyn, I finally made a pie with lard.

 Or, partially lard. Also butter. And peaches.

We had company.

 And the pie crust turned out pretty good.

 Flakier. Prettier. But not tastier. So I'm sticking with butter-crust pies for now.

But a lard crust would do well for a meat-filled pie. And in case we haven't got time to run to the butcher, I know just what kind to make...

Grocery Shopping 101: The Farmer's Market

I love tomatoes. I like them highly acidic, plump, hard, and with a strong smell. A friend of mine once asked her father what a tomato plant smelled like, and got the reply "a tomato plant smells like a tomato plant." I like my tomatoes to taste like a tomato plant. And I like my tomatoes raw. And mostly I like my tomatoes to be dry-farmed Early Girls from Tomatero Farm. Which, being located in Watsonville, CA, doesn't yet sell their produce in Philadelphia, but does attend my favorite, and previously local, Grand Lake farmer's market.

Which was, for a few years, my weekly grocery stop. And for which I set aside every Saturday morning for every time I find myself back in Oakland, and not just for the tomatoes. So, while tomatoes feature heavily in this post, there's lots of other beautiful produce as well. And some beautiful Oakland people. Who are selling, buying, and eating beautiful produce.

Dry-farming, where the plant gets very little water, and thus spends all its energy producing its fruits, is less productive than normal farming methods, and is also super delicious. My favorite application is tomatoes, of course, but the most excellent strawberries are also grown with this technique - my favorite are Albion strawberries, also from Tomatero Farm's stand.


Actually, I get a lot of stuff from Tomatero Farm.















But there's a bunch of other nifty vendors there too, and one of the wonderful things about farmer's markets is the ability to see, smell, and taste what you're thinking about buying. My tomatoes and strawberries always come from the same stand, but I buy peaches from different folks week to week, depending on what varieties are offered and how they taste.

And some things are more seasonal than others, and you have to get them while they're available. (This being California, strawberries are not one of the seasonal things, but okra seems to be.)

And other things are less seasonal.

That photograph on the right is of chalkboards listing different cuts of meat. I've begun buying meat at farmer's markets more often: it's more expensive, but also more delicious, more sustainable, healthier, and lowers my meat consumption to a more reasonable level. The food festival I went to while I was in California, Eat Real, tried to emphasize those points, but I'd already noticed the improvement in my regular grocery shopping and diet when I got my protein from the market along with my produce. An added benefit is that if I take the time to carefully choose such a wonderful cut of meat, I'll take the time to cook it properly, with good accompaniments, meaning I eat higher quality food and more balanced meals.

And of course, the vendors are always happy to help you make educated choices, recommend ways to cook their produce, and give you plenty of information about what they're selling. They're also usually really awesome.

If, for instance, you need ripe melons for your housewarming party that afternoon, the lady selling melons will go pick out the ripest ones she can find from her huge truckload.

And it's Oakland. There's lots of local "color."

Like the tiniest pink spotted horsie leg-warmers ever, or Jimbo Trout, or whatever those white people are doing.

Also all those crazy local political activists.

Hi dad. Hi mom. Hi lady who wants to take Oakland back. Probably with a baseball bat. Don't be fooled, these people are hardcore.

They're also very serious about their tomatoes.

It's not about the boats.

Despite living in the Bay Area for over twenty years, extolling the amazing local food scene, and being an avid eater, I'd never been to one of the most lauded places in the foodie world - The San Francisco Ferry Building. I've got plenty of excuses - the primary one being that their infamous farmer's market happens at the same time as my local one, and I've got my loyalties - but honestly, with the Ferry Building being a few blocks away from the first SF bart stop, making it about a 15 minute trip from Oakland, I really should have been here sooner.

I went with one of my favorite foodie/cat ladies, Robyn, with whom I spent all last summer attending street food gatherings, apricot and peach picking, and stuffing sausage. This summer our time together has been truncated by my Philadelphia residency, so we've been trying to fit all our gorging into this scant two-week period. We made a lot of headway at the Ferry Building.

One of our first stops was Cowgirl Creamery's permanent stand. Cowgirl Creamery is the creator of some of my favorite cheese, including the intensely creamy, rich Mt. Tam, their triple-cream. I'll probably do an entire post about cheese later, since it's been such a huge part of this trip, but our Cowgirl Creamery cheese monger (in the red hat) was fantastic and very patient with us as we took photos, sampled cheeses, and discussed the benefits of dating a cheese man.

The Ferry Building, in its most recent incarnation, is less of a ferry terminal and more of a marketplace for elite, Bay Area foodie shops. It's on the tourist circuit, because of its location, but it clearly caters to those educated about the local food scene. Most of the restaurants and cafés use ingredients from the other market vendors, which is a lovely form of mutuality, advertising, and deliciousness.

We bought some walnut-cranberry bread from Acme, which has stores and distributors all over the Bay Area, but originate from Berkeley. We each got a truffle (by which I mean, a small piece of chocolate) from Recchiutti, which seemed to be fairly standard high-quality chocolates. We agonized over beans at the Village Market, a grocer that sells canned, dried, and preserved things. We admired the truffles (by which I mean, a small piece of fungus) at Far West Fungi, and discussed the local mushrooming scene, which has been around at least since my father first arrived in San Francisco, went camping with his friends, ran out of food, and were taught mushroom hunting by a strange man in the woods who turned out to be a major deal in the wild mushroom collecting circles.

By this time, all the food we were eating was making us hungry, so we stopped by Frog Hollow Farm to get some of their notorious peaches in the form of a small lunch.

These peaches, really, they were amazing. The Cal Reds particularly. The best peaches I have ever eaten. The best texture, the best taste, the best juiciness, the best color, the best fuzz. All of it.

 Frog Hollow's market stand has a selection of pastries, fruits, coffee, and small lunch items to choose from. We, of course, got a bag of peaches for later, and then were tempted by the pastries and lunch menu.

I ordered the peach bruschetta, which is the best bruschetta I've ever had, and a strong contender for the best foodthing ever.

Their fromage blanc is from Cowgirl Creamery (I identified it just by taste, which made me feel sort of awesome and a lot dorky. I am a supreme cheese nerd.) and is a mild, fresh, creamy cheese. For some additional flavor, they whip in some of their Frog Hollow olive oil and chopped walnuts to make a really fantastic spread that they put over toasted bread (I think from Acme). They top it with thick slices of fresh peach, with a little pepper over the top.

Here, just look at it. It's delightful.

This wasn't just the best part of the Ferry Building, it might be the best part of my life.

As delicious as the peach bruschetta was, it wasn't quite an entire meal. So we found the empanada guy, and each got a flaky, wonderful pocket of goodness. Mine was filled with mushrooms from Far West Fungi; Robyn's had grass-fed beef from Prather Ranch, another Ferry Building vendor.

One of the primary reasons for our visit was to check out Boccalone, specifically to get some of their nduja - a spreadable sausage.

There's just something about pork that's so photogenic.

I bought a cone full of thinly sliced meats to snack on, which was beautiful and tasty. It's a little funny to see meat served in such a manner, but well worth the novelty.

After the cone of meat, we headed back to the East Bay with our bounty. Along the way we picked up another foodie/cat lady friend, then we sat in the sun in my parents' backyard and had a late lunch/tea/pre-dinner.

The spread:

Walnut-cranberry bread from Acme; Cowgirl Creamery's Pierce Pt. and Bijou, both cheeses bought from Cowgirl Creamery; nduja from Boccalone Salumeria; Cal Red peaches from Frog Hollow; Sicilian pistachios in honey, purchased from the Village Market; and Early Girl tomatoes from Robyn's fridge.

A perfect day of foodie decadence.