Organic farming

Citrus Season!

December 21, 2017 by Sarah

Satsuma [sat-SOO-muh] – A loose-skinned, typically seedless, member of the orange (citrus) family.

One of the most bountiful crops in California is citrus. From the Navel oranges to Satsuma mandarins, there’s a citrus variety for everyone. California citrus begins with the oh-so-loved, satsuma (typically available through the second week of January). Throughout the winter months, we will have many varieties of citrus on the shelves of our produce departments in Berkeley and El Cerrito.

Satsumas have a sweet/tart flavor and suprememely refreshing juice. With its smooth, thin, lightly attached skin, satsumas are wildly popular at this time of year.

History: Satsumas may have originated in China but they were first reported in Japan more than 700 years ago.

The ‘Owari’ Satsuma arrived to the United States from Japan, first in 1876 and next in 1878. During the period 1908-1911, nearly a million budded trees from 1908 to 1911 for planting in the Gulf States. The first recorded introduction into the United States was in Florida by George R. Hall in 1876. The name “satsuma” is credited to the wife of a United States minister to Japan, who sent trees home in 1878 from a place that was then called, Satsuma, on the southern tip of Kyushu Island, where it is believed to have originated.

For the next couple months we will be introducing seasonal citrus varieties to our stores on a regular basis. Please swing by our Produce Department, enjoy a tasty sample and experience how amazing California citrus can be when grown organically and harvested at perfect ripeness!

Look out for Satusumas grown by these wonderful farms:
Beck Grove
Serendipity Farms
Capay Organic

Extra Virgin Olive Oil – Burroughs Family Farms

March 7, 2017 by Sarah

Burroughs Family Farms – Extra-Virgin Olive Oil

We recently started selling Burroughs Family Farms organic, non-GMO, cold-pressed extra-virgin organic olive oil [aka EVOO]. This exemplary family-owned farm, situated in the Sierra foothills below Yosemite, is one of our favorite regional producers. We already source quality pastured eggs, organic cheese, and almonds from their property. The Burroughs Family Olive Oil is a blend of Arbeqina, Arbosana and Gretchenina olives (originally from Spain). The oil has a pleasant fruitiness with hints of grassy undertones. It is very versatile and may be used in sauces, salad dressings, as a topping to bread and for low heat cooking.

Here is what Burroughs Family Farms says about their oil:

Our olives are first cold-pressed at temperatures that do not exceed 80 degrees F. This protects the polyphenols, antioxidants, and vitamins that give the oil its nutritional value and its aroma and flavor.

Why extra-virgin olive oil?

EVOO is known to contain stronger concentrations of phytonutrients (especially polyphenols) that have well-known anti-inflammatory properties

EVOO supports blood vessels not only by providing antioxidants like vitamin E and beta-carotene, but also also providing unique molecules like HT that actually work at a genetic level to help the cellular walls of the blood vessels remain strong.

Cholesterol lowering and blood pressure lowering benefits of monounsaturated oil (olive oil contains 75%)

High quality extra virgin olive oil has a smoke point of around 405ºF (191ºC), making it ideal for lower temperature cooking such as light sautés and non-cooked uses such as dressing salads and dipping bread. Such uses protect the nutritional value and beneficial qualities of the oil.

Why California Olive Oil?

As with wine, it has taken years for people to discover that some of the world’s finest olive oils are produced in California. Our family owned and operated farms rest on the rolling hills near Yosemite National Park, where the combination of the moderate Mediterranean climate with good soils and water grows some of the world’s finest quality olives.

Buying California olive oils vs. imports supports our farm economy, and California olive oils have a lower carbon-footprint because their shipping distance is much shorter than that of imports.

Conservation on our farms

Ours is not the easiest way to grow olives, but we think it’s best for our land and for our family who lives and works here. From organic production to state-of-the-art irrigation systems, we do whatever we can to protect air, soil, and water from herbicides, pesticides, petrochemical nitrogen fertilizers, and genetically-modified organisms. All that, plus our hedgerows of native plants support the health of native species and bees who have the most important job – the pollination of the olive flowers.

We do it for the future of our farms. For you, it’s deliciousness and more.

Burroughs Family Olive Oil is certified annually by the California Olive Oil Council (COOC). Year after year it’s labeled “extra-virgin” by the council. To get the seal the oil is lab tested and undergoes a critical analysis by an expert panel. The trained sensory panel (think of these people as the sommeliers of olive oil) ensure that the oil is free of defects in flavor or odor. In the U.S., many oils are labeled “extra-virgin” but do not undergo any such testing.

Little Trees – A.K.A. Broccoli

February 1, 2017 by Sarah

In our house, we refer to broccoli florets as “little trees.” We’ve done this since our son was starting to eat solid foods. He LOVES broccoli and other green vegetables to this day (now he’s five)!

With winter in full gear, broccoli becomes one of our winter staples. It’s in the brassica family (along with other cabbage) and is hearty enough to withstand the chilly winter weather.

The word broccoli has Italian origins and stems (pun intended) from the word “broccolo” which means cabbage sprout or flowering crest of the cabbage. The word broccolo is rooted (another pun!) in the Latin broccus which means “projecting.”

Now that we have the etymology covered, here’s one of our favorite ways to prepare our “little trees”:

Steamed Broccoli with Pistachio-Orange Dipping Sauce

Prepare the Broccoli:

Cut 2 heads of broccoli into bite sized pieces. Steam or blanch until just tender. Set your timer for 5 minutes then test a piece with a fork, or knife point. When cooking the broccoli, remember to lightly salt the water, and that the broccoli will continue to cook with residual heat once you remove them from the steam or water, so you want them to be almost ready when you remove them to cool.

Prepare the Pistachio & Orange Sauce:

Ingredients:
2 Valencia oranges
2 cups roasted, salted pistachios (shelled)
1 tbsp. Champagne vinegar (or white wine vinegar)
1 small clove of garlic
1 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. water
¼ cup olive oil

Juice the oranges.
Combine all ingredients in the blender. Blend on high.
Taste the mixture, adjust for thickness (consistency) and salt levels.

If it tastes flat, add a teaspoon more vinegar and a dash of salt. If it tastes too sharp (indicating too much garlic), add the juice of another 1/2 orange and another handful of pistachios.

The consistency of the dip should be like hummus. Add olive oil and water to adjust as needed.

This recipe will be a little different each time you make it because all these ingredients vary… oranges are different sizes and have different amounts of juice, garlic is more or less potent depending on its age and olive oils are different depending on varietal and harvest date. So, play with your ratios each time. Taste along the way. Try the sauce with the steamed broccoli to get the full flavor profile.

If you have a little one in your house, this is a great recipe to make together. At this point our son instructs us on salt level, acidity and overall balance. And he LOVES dipping his “little trees” into this sauce!

See you soon,
Sarah Valor

It’s Raining, It’s Pouring…

January 20, 2017 by Sarah

Rain pounded and the wind howled at our house last night. The majority of Northern California experienced similar storms.

Many of our farmers in the Sacramento, Yolo and Solano counties got more than ten inches of rain between New Year’s day and last Friday. That’s more rain than they got the entire winter of 2014-2015.

Just about everything a farmer does is harder during wet, cold winters. Imagine their work for a moment. I certainly don’t choose to garden during a storm. But a farmer has to be outside tending the land despite wild weather. Harvesting vegetables during storms means walking in the slippery mud while being hammered by the elements. And they can’t pick citrus at all when it’s raining: climbing wet ladders with muddy boots is too dangerous.

Big storms and freezing temperatures almost always damage some crops. Each of our farmers does what they can to harvest as much as possible during the dry spells. While they try to maintain quantity, this type of weather has an effect on produce prices. It’s the result of lower yield and lots of product loss for the farmer.

All this writing about the downsides of rain is not intended as a complaint. These are just the realities people growing our food manage daily during the winter.

January is the month we need lots of rain. Generally speaking vegetables don’t thrive the first month of the year. There is not enough sunlight in the short days. So, this is the way mother nature intended. Moisten the ground now to prepare for later.

After last week’s rains, the Drought Monitoring Center declared the “extreme drought” officially over for most of Northern California, including Sacramento, the Bay Area and Yolo and Solano counties where many of our farmers grow their crops. Click here for more information about the current state of the California drought.

Next time you are in shopping for fruit or vegetables, take a minute to think about the weather conditions of the farmer who harvested that kale or saved that orange from a storm.

See you soon!

-Sarah

Farm Discovery Day

October 4, 2016 by Sarah

We had a blast visiting the McClelland’s Dairy Farm this past weekend. At an event sponsored by Organic Valley, they pulled out all the fun farm toys! We got to spend time with calfs, shake and make butter, drive mini tractors, play in corn pits and drink milk (lots of milk!). Check out the pictures for a diary of the day. It’s always wonderful to see where our food comes from. I couldn’t help but pick up a dozen of their eggs before heading back to the city. Their bird’s beaks never get clipped so they roam the fields and eat tons of bugs and grass…all the good flavor making ingredients that lead to yummy eggs.

Don’t worry if you missed the event. McClelland’s eggs and Organic Valley milk and dairy products are available at our stores.

Apple Season is Here!

September 7, 2016 by The Natural Grocery Company

Roxbury Russet Apple

Ashmead’s Kernal

Belle de Boskoop

Red Gravenstein

Every year at the Natural Grocery Company we bring in different types of organic, local heirloom and biodynamic apples, most of which we get from The Apple Farm in Philo, CA and Filigreen Farms in Booneville, CA. At the peak of the season we may have more than 50 different types of apples available at our El Cerrito store, with more varieties to come as the season changes. Right now we have 44 varieties at El Cerrito Natural Grocery Co. From The Apple Farms’ Ashmead’s Kernal, Roxbury Russet and Belle De Boskoops to Filigreen Farm’s Kidds Orange Red, Red Gravenstein and Pink Sparkle. With all of these apples in abundance one might ask, what makes these two farms and their apples so special? They are both certified Biodynamic, a method of organic farming originally developed by Rudolf Steiner that is described as a holistic understanding of agricultural processes. This type of farming has an astrological sowing and planting calendar. Choosing to plant, cultivate or harvest based on both the phase of the moon and the astrological constellation the moon is passing through. One of the first sustainable agriculture movements, it treats soil fertility, plant growth and livestock care as equally interrelated tasks emphasizing spiritual perspectives. The whole farm is conceived of as an organism. Soil, plant, animal, human. Biodynamic farmers focus on the open pollination of seeds (with farmers thereby growing their own seed) and the development of locally adapted varieties. Biodynamic Farming has about 20% smaller yields than traditional organic farming but the flavors really stand out! Some think of it as Organic 2.0!

Now, about those apples! Ashmead’s Kernal and Roxbury Russet are funny looking apples. Their rough brown skin looks like that of a russet potato. They are juicy and tart and as they age and start to soften and wrinkle, their flavors intensify. Look for these to make an outstanding juice or applesauce! Belle De Boskoops are tart and fragrant. They are a great cooking apple as they tend to hold their shape. They also have four times the vitamin C as a Granny Smith! Kidds Orange Red is aromatic, sweet and sharp. Great for juicing, drying and eating out of hand. It is also one of the parents of the Gala apple. Red Gravenstein is a natural mutation of the Gravenstein apple. Extremly floral with a sweet/tart taste, this is one of my absolute favorite apples. The Red Gravenstein is a little sweeter than the Gravenstein and is a great cooking apple. Try making a pie using half Red Gravenstein and half Belle De Boskoops! Pink Sparkle is a variety that is new to The Natural Grocery Company. Just under the skin, there are lovely pink polka dots in the flesh! Traditionally used in cooking, this apple purees well, so it would be great to make an applesauce or apple butter! Tart and slightly sweet, this apple looks like it was grown upside down with a broad base and narrows near the stem.

Come in and taste a new kind of apple as we will be getting in more varieties every week! This really is a special time of year at The Natural Grocery Company. I don’t know of any other stores in the area that can come anywhere close to carrying this many varieties of local organic apples. Can you?

By, Casey Goode, Produce Manager at ECNG

Dry Farming

August 10, 2016 by The Natural Grocery Company

Every summer our customers and employees anxiously await the arrival of the best tasting tomatoes we have all year. The Dry Farmed Early Girl. But what is dry farming and why do these tomatoes taste so much better than the others? Dry farmed tomatoes are planted during the last rains of spring and never watered again. Their root systems go deep (up to 30 feet) into rich organic earth to get water. This extensive root system also picks up extra minerals, thus creating a very flavorful tomato. Dry farming is all about conserving and retaining soil moisture to support the crops without supplemental irrigation. A drawback is that dry farming creates smaller yields to those crops grown using irrigation, but the flavors can’t be beat! Dry farmed tomatoes are usually smaller because the plant spends a lot of it’s growth potential on it’s root system. This causes the plant to produce an intensely flavored, meaty tomato.

There are also environmental benefits to dry farming. Dry-farmed growers are reducing water use by not irrigating. Further, as water resources in California become scarcer and more strictly regulated, growers will also find themselves exempt from these water regulations, since they are not using irrigation water, or, in most cases, water for frost protection. Dry farming is the way crops were grown in the United States more than 100 years ago. Tomatoes are also not the only crop that are dry farmed. Right now we have local Dry farmed Macintosh apples from Watsonville and a great selection of dry farmed wines at the Annex! Among these are 3 wines from Yamakiri Vineyards here in California. Papillion de Nuit, a Syrah, is grown on the Mendocino ridge. Yamakiri Sauvignon Blanc is grown in the Yorkville Highlands and the Yamakiri Rose is grown in the Anderson Valley. There is also a dry farmed, Biodynamic wine at the Annex right now. Enrique Mendoza’s La Tremenda is grown in Alicante, Spain.

Come on down to The Natural Grocery Company and stock up on all of our dry farmed goodness! Remember, dry farming = great flavors!

By, Casey Goode, ECNG Produce Manager

Winemaker Interview

July 29, 2016 by The Natural Grocery Company

Yamakiri: Lisa Bauer Interview

By Jake Wright, Annex Wine & Beer Buyer/Manager`

Some of my favorite wines here at Annex Wine & Beer come from Lisa Bauer of Yamakiri Wines. A relative newcomer to the winemaking world, Lisa managed by pluck and luck to bring forth distinctive, unique wines that speak vividly of the places they come from and the hands by which they are made. Her wines have been a hit with our customers. At our recent spring wine tasting, they were clear standouts.

I am grateful Lisa chose our store to hawk her wines. That is how I met her, when she walked through the door with a business card, a firm handshake, and a great story. When I tasted her wines, it was clear I was experiencing something special. Some wines are distinctly a reflection of their maker, and Lisa’s are no exception: outspoken, gregarious, and willing to push the edge. Yet the wines (like Lisa) also have depth, a soulful dimension that invites reflection. Camaraderie and reverie in the same glass.

Lisa’s first career was in the world of recycling, first in San Francisco and finally at UC Berkeley. Her wine appreciation evolved over the years, but at the core of her experience is memories of her German father who imported wines from Germany. It was with her father in 1979 that she made her first trip to the Anderson Valley. One destination was Navarro Winery, because they had German varietals like Riesling and made wines like Edelzwicker. Thus Lisa began a love affair with the region where she now lives.

As her own wine palate matured, she found herself appreciating European wines more and more. She sought out smaller wines shops and learned from their proprietors. Then, following her close-to-the-land, DIY spirit, she started to make wine at home. Her first attempts were by the book, with lots of measuring and manipulation. By following the rules, her wines turned out good, if a bit jammy to her taste.

Around this time Lisa acquired some property near Yorkville, high above Highway 128 in southern Mendocino County. In 2009, an abundant year for grapes, a neighbor offered her some free Pinot Noir—second pick—she jumped on it and pulled in a quarter ton. This wine she started with native yeast and very little manipulation, and the results were stunning. She knew she was on to something.

At the bottom of her road, another neighbor had a field of derelict grapes. These grapes—Sauvignon Blanc—were feral, unkempt, and feeding the birds. Her winemaking friends, seeing the quality of the grapes (even in their neglected state), asked Lisa to ask the neighbor if they could pick them. The answer came back no; another ask, another no, and so on. After nearly giving up, Lisa finally asked if she could pick the grapes for herself, and the answer was “yes: but you have to take all of them.”

Now, 2½ acres of grapevines would yield a far larger amount of fruit than she had ever worked with before. A little spreadsheet analysis, a candid call to a custom crush facility, and some good advice from friends convinced her that she could do it. “But I didn’t think I was going to sell it. I thought I was just going to have a whole lot of white wine to give away as gifts.”

When Lisa first tasted the young wine, she thought “this is delicious!” A professional winemaker friend, Alex Crangle, replied “yes, these are really good grapes. And they were abandoned? Can you drink all this? You should sell it.”

“What?! I’ve got to get permits, I’ve got to get licenses, I’ve got to…” But the allure of having a saleable product proved too enticing to refuse. Jumping through the hoops, Lisa was in business.

At this point Alex Crangle became Lisa’s winemaking partner in the emerging adventure. It is a creative partnership, with each bringing balancing strengths and talents, but resting on a shared philosophical bedrock. It began with Lisa sharing what she wanted: a dry wine that tastes of terroir, with nothing added to it, save a small amount of SO2 [sulfur dioxide] at bottling. And she had an idea that she would find older, dry-farmed, ignored vineyards as sources. Then Alex handed her a copy of One Straw Revolution, by Masanobu Fukuoka. She had read it back in her co-op days, but this time she read it “with completely different eyes.”

Fukuoka is known for his natural, no-till, “do-nothing” organic farming techniques, and through this lens Lisa saw the potential in the abandoned, derelict, and marginal vineyards she was discovering. This of course dovetailed into her earlier work ethics: “That’s also my recycling background. That’s ‘waste not, want not.’ If I hear about something not getting used, it pains me.”

So with a nod to Fukuoka, and acknowledging her own land, her Yorkville property that often sits just above the fog line, Yamakiri—Japanese for “foggy mountain”—was born. Under the heading “Found Wine,” their website sums up their approach:

Our intent in making wine is simple: we tend older vineyards, pressing them into gentle use. We seek low-till and dry-farmed vineyards for their depth and low yield. We let native grasses grow because vitality and diversity in the vineyard translate to a distinct expression of terroir and produce wine with a light footprint. We work closely with the land and its stewards in an effort to craft exceptional and unique wines.

Speaking of “found” wine, Alex knew of a few barrels of Syrah that were rejected by one winemaker for being “too smoky.” But Alex and Lisa saw the potential. And, as Lisa observes: “Alex really, really gets how not to mess with wine. He’s patient, and he has a palate that allows him to taste forward and anticipate what it’s going to taste like.” This wine became the stunning “Papillon de Nuit.” Alas, it is truly a unique wine, since the vineyard that it came from has been torn out.* Then came a rosé, a blend of press rosé and red and white, and before Lisa knew it, she had a product line.

Still, it hasn’t all been roses. “A lot of the older vineyards I had my eyes on died last year. They didn’t make it; they couldn’t last through three years of drought.” And while Lisa loves the concentrated flavors older, dry-farmed grapes give, there is a lot more work involved. Nevertheless, she’s looking ahead to planting her own vines on her property, to be dry farmed biodynamically, but thinking forward to warmer and drier conditions that appear to be in store for California.

When I ask Lisa to describe her wines, she demurs. “I’m not good at characterizing in any one way. They’re like children. They all have their own character.”

But I press her, to speak generally if possible.

“They are just at the edge of what the varietal dictates. I like pushing that, expanding that. We pick at lower brix. I don’t like high alcohol, I don’t like anything heavy or jammy. I think it obfuscates the rest of the flavors that are there. Racy, edgy, the complexity of the grape, not anything else.”

I can certainly agree to that, and I think a lot of our customers find that to be true, as well. Finally, I ask her: how does it feel being a small fish in big pond?

Here is where Lisa lights up, the scrappy passion coming through: “It’s clear to me, that in the midst of all the hype and drivel and marketing bull**** driven by these massive companies, there’s still room for human interaction and small producers that have unique products and interesting stories. I think that’s pretty cool. And I never thought I would be on the receiving end of it… I was always one of those people looking for that product. And now I’m making it. How cool is that?”

Very cool. And the proof is in the glass, right under our noses.

In stock:

Yamakiri “Papillon de Nuit” Syrah

Mendocino Ridge 2012

$23.99

*As of this writing, we have seven bottles left to sell before it is gone forever.

Yamakiri “Filligreen Farm” Pinot Noir

Anderson Valley 2014

$27.99

Yamakiri Rosé

Anderson Valley 2014

$18.99

Yamakiri Sauvignon Blanc

Yorkville Highlands 2014

$23.99

For more information, visit: http://www.yamakiriwines.com/

NEW cheeses from Prairie Fruit Farms!

June 17, 2016 by Sarah

Frog Hollow Stone Fruit

May 29, 2016 by Sarah

We wait patiently every year for the Frog Hollow flat bed truck to pull into our driveway with stacks of perfectly ripe, organic apricots, peaches, plums, pluots and nectarines.

Frog Hollow is a family run farm in Brentwood, California. Not only to they grow impeccable, tree-ripened produce, they also make amazing conserves (with low added sugar), tasty (and pure) olive oil and dried fruits.

Swing by either market to buy their most seasonal fruits!

Photos borrowed from the Frog Hollow website.

Citrus Season!

Extra Virgin Olive Oil – Burroughs Family Farms

Little Trees – A.K.A. Broccoli

It’s Raining, It’s Pouring…

Farm Discovery Day

Apple Season is Here!

Dry Farming

Winemaker Interview

NEW cheeses from Prairie Fruit Farms!

Frog Hollow Stone Fruit

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