Juicing Apples to Save the Gravenstein

Here’s a great idea from the Slow Food Russian River convivium to promote Sonoma County apples. From August until November, anyone can make use of a hand cranked commercial apple press to make delicious apple juice. Our 5-minute video explains the details.

Slow Food saves the Gravenstein Apple

In collaboration with the Russian River chapter of Slow Food and Sonoma county libraries, we explore a simple, clever program to raise awareness of a unique local treasure. In August, at the height of the Gravenstein apple season, free apples are given to library patrons, raising awareness of their taste and seasonal nature.

Blankity-Blank Potatoes & Produce

RussianRiverTV visits a small farm on Blank Road in Sebastopol, CA.

Owner/Farmer Denny Hunt is a part time farmer with a day job and he chose to grow potatoes because they offer a generous harvest ‘window of opportunity’ and so allow time for the 9 to 5 side of his life. Join us now to hear about his start-up adventures and how he is amending the soil on the property that his family has owned for over 100 years.

Special Thanks to Phil Graf for Allowing us to use his archival footage.

Greenstring Farm Event

In the SF Bay Area during the early 70’s when people like Alice Waters, Jeremiah Tower, and Chuck Williams were changing the way we thought about food and cooking, one of the most pressing problems was to find dependable sources for fresh local ingredients. In accordance with the newly developing sensitivity toward the land, it was necessary to build an entire network of producers from scratch. One of the early shining stars in this network of farmers was Bob Cannard of Greenstring Farm in Petaluma, California. Bob’s approach to farming mimics nature by design and is well beyond anything you might call organic. It is imminently sustainable, it is productive, and it is delicious. Fertility increases year after year due to careful attention to natural processes, and the food produced is amazing.

Hearing Bob Cannard speak about the soil is like hearing Euell Gibbons talk like Jack Kerouac writes. The information comes fast from every direction, crossing from the mineral nutrient-cycle to California history to the importance of ducks or the history of the carrot, all in a few sentences.

This event was was held on February 12, 2011 in celebration of the graduation of a new crop of interns from the Greenstring Institute, the educational component of Bob’s farm. With an introduction by Michael Dimmock of Roots of Change, the afternoon was a wide-ranging discussion of some of the issues facing future farmers.

Quetzal Farm: A Working Partnership

Last year it was our great pleasure to meet the fellows who run Santa Rosa’s beloved Quetzal Farm, Kevin McEnnis and Keith Abeles. We visited the farm 3 times across the year and talked to them about marketing, seed sourcing, dry farming, employees, and a host of other things.
Join us as we learn just a little bit more about what it takes to make a living growing food in California, and how these two very different men combined their skills to produce and distribute the goods.

Joel Salatin at Tara Firma Farms

In Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan introduced us to Joel Salatin, a farmer who’s been practicing a complex form of rotational grazing in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. In the past few years Joel has become a folk hero in certain circles of farmers seeking to challenge the conventional agribusiness model. We read as much as we could about Joel’s Polyface Farm, and got to wondering how his methods would translate to Sonoma County’s different climate. I have to admit, I sort of stalked Joel’s schedule for a while, spying a little item that read “private farm consultation- Sonoma March 17”. After some detective work, I discovered that Joel would be coming to TaraFirma Farms in Petaluma, and got invited to a reception and talk at the Institute of Noetic Sciences in Marin.

PART 1: Reception and Lecture part 1

PART 2:  Lecture part 2

The following day, we were fortunate enough to tag along as Joel walked the farm with Craig and Tara Smith, giving his observations of how well they were following his ideas. Joel was incredibly generous and patient with hundreds of questions, from the big picture ideas, down to the minutiae of caring for newly-hatched chicks. After you’ve absorbed this inspiring talk from the evening,  hear Joel’s critique of Tara Firma Farms in the next segment.

PART 3: The Onsite  Consultation

Lamb & Goat Roast

On Memorial Day 2009, Slow Food Russian River organized a lamb and goat roast. Hosted by Rick Theis and Carolyn Johnson at their Sebastopol home, locally-raised animals were roasted in an outdoor wood-fired oven. Special guests on the video include Mary Karlin, Michael Dimmock, Marissa Guggiana, Craig Anderson, Paula Shatkin and LaLoo’s ice cream.

The lamb was provided by Red Hill Farms in Petaluma CA.

The goats were provided by Salmon Creek Ranch in Bodega Bay CA.

By utilizing local livestock, the event celebrated the small producers who are preserving farmland as well as humanely raising their animals. A delicious afternoon was had by all. We encourage you to support these and other local farmers and ranchers. It makes sense on many levels: taste, carbon footprint, and sustainability.

Gleaning, Slowharvest Style

We first learned of the Slowharvest Gleaning project through Paul’s wife, Hilda. She had been out gleaning with Aletha Soule, who we previously only knew of as a very successful and creative ceramicist.  It seemed she was doing something interesting on the side and so we got involved and, together with Aletha and a few others, produced this primer on Gleaning. Don’t hesitate to take it literally and start something in your own neighborhood. ~Bob

Naked Ladies

The surest sign of the dog days of summer here in the Russian River valley are the naked ladies. Out of the parched earth, just when most wild plants are gasping for moisture, pale green spears of amaryllis belladonna push skyward to remind us that our native plants are adapted to this Mediterranean climate. Further research reveals that they are in fact native to South Africa, and have spread throughout the temperate regions of the world.

In the wet winter the amaryllis bulbs produce abundant green foliage that dies back in May, almost as if the plant has forgotten to flower. Finally in mid-August, as the stalks reach about 2 feet high, dramatic pink blossoms explode with aroma, a welcome treat for my hungry bees. I find naked ladies a perfect color contrast and blossoming partner with lavender: just as the bees are exhausting the purple lavender, the naked ladies are ready to visit.

The fact that amaryllis belladonna is poisonous comes as a mixed blessing, because that makes these hardy beauties also deer and gopher resistant. Go for a drive around west county this month and enjoy them in unexpected places.

Chuck Williams

Michael Pollan’ s article in the NYTimes last Sunday about how we love cooking shows on TV but don’t cook anymore got me thinking about Chuck Williams. Pollan introduces his article talking about the new movie about Julia Child “Julie & Julia” ( I hope to see it tonight), and the revolution she started in American cooking with the publication of “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” in 1961. My impression of that period of American culinary history is seen from the hardware angle, relating to the other simultaneous revolution started by Chuck Williams, the founder of Williams-Sonoma stores and catalogs. Williams was a cohort of Child in the early 60’s, and from his hardware store in Sonoma introduced copper pots, slicers, roasters and appliances to San Francisco ladies who were just getting caught up in the French cooking craze. During my stint as Williams-Sonoma’s main photographer from 1994 to 2004, I had the opportunity to hear plenty of Chuck lore and work along side him on several occasions. Pollan takes a jab at Williams-Sonoma as the place we go to get outfitted for our weekend BBQ adventures, but I think he’s missing the mark on our cooking demise. How can we talk about local food and sustainability if people aren’t cooking? The produce for sale at farmers’ markets proliferating around the country requires food prep and cooking. Here in Sonoma county there are plenty of foodies carrying on the fascination with real food in the footsteps of Luther Burbank, MFK Fisher and Julia Child.

-Paul

Sustainable Living…

Sustainable living…What does that mean? Is it just about food? Just about dirt? If you talk to a vineyardist, it seems to be all about dirt and bugs. Many of us have adopted a fairly narrow view of things. We’re specialists and we have to be to survive in our chosen field. That’s all right but let’s relax for a moment and realize that we really want a sustainable world. Sustainable jobs, sustainable health, we want our families to endure and prosper, we want good and healthy neighbors, not enemies.

So I went looking for accepted, useful and thoughtful definitions and low and behold, I found this marvelous Graphic on Wikipedia :

I invite you to study it with me and comment if you care to. It covers more ground than I had considered in the past and has opened up new realms of speculation for me. Let’s rethink our world and begin again to shape it directly, shall we? ~Bob