Weekend Hippie: Sustainable and Simple Living

Meet Your Farmer: Five Loaves Farm, Santa Barbara

Five Loaves Farm, a three-acre non-profit farm tucked in the foothills of Santa Barbara, is a model community farm—producing organic food for distribution to families throughout Santa Barbara.

During my recent visit farm volunteers were tending to the crops and planting starters under the leadership of Emiko Corey, head farmer at Five Loaves Farm.  The farm uses organic and sustainable farming practices and grows fresh fruits and vegetables then distributes the produce to low-income families through Santa Barbara food distribution programs.

  

“Fresh produce is a necessary part of feeding our community, and should be available to all,” says Emiko Corey.  “Our intention is to grow excellent market quality produce for families who otherwise would only have access to lower quality food.”

Five Loaves Farm is funded by grant, church, and individual donations.  Food is distributed at no cost to the recipients. The success of Five Loaves Farm depends on community involvement and contributions — if you are interested in volunteering at the farm, please email Emiko, the Farm Manager, at emiko.corey@arocha.org or stop by the farm.

Five Loaves Farm Volunteer Mondays

• 6:00-7:00pm.
• 1001 Cieneguitas Road, Santa Barbara, 93110
• emiko.corey@arocha.org

 

Santa Barbara Farmers Market: In Season

 

In Support of Poultry: Organic Pasture Farmer

                                                                                                                                                                         Photo By Paul Wellman
In Support of Poultry

Katherine Anderson, organic pasture farmer; Blue Oak Ranch, Goleta

Featured Recipe: Brined Grilled Petit Poussins

A visit to Katherine Anderson’s Blue Oak Ranch is a lesson in dating. Her heritage turkeys took to me with a peck, a cluck, and a flirty strut. If I turned left, there they were. If I walked right, ditto. “They are full of energy at this age,” says Anderson of her flock, a form of Thanksgiving payday; she raises and processes each just in time for the holiday.

Anderson’s Blue Oak Ranch provides a local—and organic—alternative to factory-grown turkeys and chickens sold in super markets. Her six acres in the foothills of Goleta provide amble natural grazing for her chickens, turkeys, and goats. They roam freely or in moveable pens that allow constant access to fresh greens and fresh air—something industrial-raised chickens never see. She tends to her flock daily, moving the pens to a new patch of pasture, administering a high dose of tender loving care (instead of antibiotics) and tucking them in at night before she leaves for the day. 

Katie Rose Cannery: Pick, Wash, Cut, Cook, Can. Repeat.

                                                                                                                                                                                              Photo By Paul Wellman

Pick, Wash, Cut, Cook, Can. Repeat.

Katie Rose Isaacson, jam maker; Katie Rose Cannery, Lompoc

Featured Recipe: Apple Lemon Jam

After a lifetime of watching her mother make jams, chutneys, and pickles, Katie Rose Isaacson finally canned her first plums. That was a little more than a year ago, and now her Katie Rose Cannery is a fledgling adventure in preservation: that of both her family’s ranch history and delicious jams, fruit butters, jellies, and syrups. “As a child, I was often handed a wooden spoon and told to keep the jam from burning,” says Isaacson. “I’d stand on a chair, stirring bubbling pots of jam while my mother continued to peel and chop fruit.”

Today, her collection of old family recipes and her commitment to heirloom fruit is the foundation for her success. In summer and fall, she stocks up on ingredients from her grandparents’ ranch in the San Julian Valley. “I race the birds to save every last apple, plum, and persimmon,” she says. Katie Rose Cannery is steeped in tradition, and Isaacson’s core values include keeping it local. She sources organic sugar and jars through Isla Vista Food Co-Op and buys organic lemons from Calimoya in Goleta.

But most importantly, it’s her commitment to community that drives her passion for canning and preserving. “Around the holidays in our little valley, jars of jam appear on a doorstep or windowsill, each an original recipe from a neighbor who picked the fruit from their own tree and stood over a hot stove,” says Isaacson. “This is the craft and tradition that I want to bring to my customers.”

Erin Pata's Butterbean Hummus

Butterbean Hummus

Ingredients

• 1 pound butterbeans
• 1/4 cup tahini
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 2 tbsp chopped roasted garlic
• 1/4 olive oil
• 2 tsp cumin
• 2 tsp coriander
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp fresh black pepper
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp salt

Directions

Soak beans overnight in eight cups of water. Boil until soft enough to squish with your fingers. Drain beans, and reserve one cup of liquid for thinning later. Place all the ingredients in a food processor, and pulse until smooth. Add some of the reserved liquid to thin the hummus to desired consistency. Serve as a spread or dip with bread or pita chips.

Roots Organic Farm, Los Olivos, California

An Unrelenting Commitment to Fresh

Jacob Grant, organic farmer; Roots Organic Farm, Los Olivos

Featured Recipe: Rootsy Kale

Jacob Grant knows how to grow a sweet carrot. That’s why chefs, home cooks, and everyone in between call him direct or cluster around his stand at Farmers Markets, plucking produce from the tables, asking his advice on how to sauté Chidori kale, how to pair parsnips, or how he gets his carrots so sweet.

On the leased 25 acres Grant calls Roots Organic Farm, he plants what he likes, changing the variety based on what works best and what’s in season. A lifelong resident of Los Olivos, Grant apprenticed with Shu Takikawa, a well-known area organic farmer, taking what he learned from the expert to create a lifestyle and a cult of devotees all his own; he’s been farming by himself now for eight years.

What makes Grant famous in these parts is the quality of his product. “I make sure everything I put on my table has been picked that day, and I never sell leftovers,” he says. “Shu taught me how to grow with a higher standard of quality than others, and he left me with a lot of tricks on how to keep things fresh.” As for his legendary carrots, “They are just far superior in the fall and winter,” says Grant. “But you have to know when to pick them; that’s the secret.”

Excerpted from: Santa Barbara Independent

Photo by Paul Wellman

 

Shaun Tomson's Surf Creatures

Surf legned Shaun Tomson has just launched a new iPhone/iPad application for kids 3 - 10 years old.  Surf Creatures is beautifully illustrated with catchy, sing-along rhymes for kids. ... The Surf Creatures collection includes 26 children’s rhymes about ocean creatures that live under Tomson's surfboard.

Tomson is known as one he most influential surfers of all time, and was world surfing champion in 1977. Born in Durban, South Africa, he moved to Santa Barbara in 1982. Tomson is an avid environmentalist and global ambassador for the Surfrider Foundation, the world's largest enviromental group dedicated to protecting oceans, waves, beaches—and surf creatures.

Tomson's Surf Creatures is a fun family game, especially since its the first and only APP of its kind to feature Storytalk, a cool interactive feature allowing up to four people to record their own voices so the whole family can rhyme about the surf creatures.

You'll recognize some of the animals—elephant seals and tiger sharks—but there are also the lesser know Zambezi shark, pufferfish, and hammerheads.

My new favorite APP! You can down the APP at iTunes > Download Surf Creatures.

 

 

Big Sur: Hippies, Henry, Hiking, Hot Springs

 

It doesn't get any better than Big Sur for a relaxing get away. The beach, the mountains, great food, and if you are lucky: no cell service, television or Internet.

Views from every angle.

Deetjen's Big Sur Inn is the desired place to stay. Book ahead.

   Locavores alive and well in Big Sur. Try this Mountain Main Soap from the Big Sur Soap Company.





 

More Big Sur artwork. A pen and ink sketch by Michael Allen for Deetjen's Franklin Room journal.

Katherine Anderson's Brined Grilled Petit Poussins

Brined Grilled Petit Poussins

Poussins are young, small chickens that generally weigh between 1-1¼ lbs., making each an individual serving. They are very tender, but can dry out rapidly; brining them preserves their juicy tenderness and boosts their delicate flavor.

Ingredients

• 4 fresh poussins
• 1 1/2 tbsp fresh minced rosemary
• 1 tsp fresh minced thyme

Brine:

• 1/3 cup Kosher salt
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup white vermouth
• 2 fresh bay leaves, torn in half
• 4-5 cups very cold water
• 4 cups ice
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1/2 tsp cracked black pepper

Directions

In a large bowl, combine the brine ingredients minus the ice, and stir until the salt and sugar are dissolved. Submerge the poussin halves in the brine, and add the ice. Place the bowl in the fridge, and stir every so often, for two to four hours. Make sure the poussins are either covered by the brine or turned often enough to evenly brine the pieces.

For a wood or charcoal grill, prepare the coals, and when they’re ready, push them off to the sides, forming an outer ring of hot coals. For a gas grill, preheat both areas of the grill on high, and then turn one down to low and the other tomedium-high.

Pull the poussins from the brine, and let them drain for 15 minutes at room temperature. Discard the brine. Rub the chopped fresh herbs all over the halves. Place them skin-side-down over the direct heat and grill for about five to seven minutes. Flip the halves over onto the lower heat or indirect heat area, and continue to grill for approximately 15 minutes or until done. Remove to a platter, cover, and let the poussins stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Santa Barbara Earth Day: Bottom Up by Tim Sexauer

Jacob Grant's Rootsy Kale

Jacob Grant's Rootsy Kale

More about Jacob and Roots Organic Farm

Ingredients

• 1 parsnip, grated
• 1 celery root, grated
• 3 carrots, grated
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 onion, sliced
• ½ tsp salt
• Two oranges, juiced
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• 1 lb Chidori Kale, stems trimmed
• Italian parsley, handful of

Directions

Sauté the grated parsnip, celery root, and carrots with the onion in olive oil and salt. When they’re tender and starting to stick, add the orange juice, and then press in two to three cloves of garlic. Add one pound of Chidori kale (stems trimmed), and cook covered for three to five minutes. Remove the lid, stir, and cook another three to five minutes. Sprinkle with fresh Italian parsley when serving.

Apple Lemon Jam

Apple Lemon Jam

by Katie Rose Isaacson

Ingredients

• 12 cups Granny Smith Apples, peeled and chopped into small pieces
• 6 to 7 cups of sugar
• 3 lemons

Directions

Use a carrot peeler to peel the lemons. Chop the lemon peel into half-inch sections. Juice the lemons, and then combine fruit, sugar, peel, and juice in a heavy-bottomed stockpot. Cover, and let it sit for at least three hours. Bring the mixture to a low boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon. Once the jam is boiling, turn the heat to low—you will need to stir constantly to prevent the jam from burning.

Test the jam for setting by pulling the spoon out of the jam and watching the liquid fall from the spoon. Once it falls off of the spoon in a drippy curtain, it is ready to can. Sterilize jars and lids and can according to the health and safety instructions in the Ball Blue Book of Preserving.

Santa Barbara Garden Exchanges: Summer 2011

Share your harvest, your homemade goods, and meet new friends.

 Share your harvests, meet new friends, eat local! You don't need a garden to attend one of Santa Barbara's many garden exchanges. If you have harvest to share and exchange, bring it. If you don't bring something else to share. You'll meet new friends, learn about organic home gardens, and leave with some great goods. 

Upcoming Exchanges:

Vieja Valley Garden Exchange

• Sunday, August 7
• 11:30 – 1:30
• 357 Arroyo Rd.
• Theme: BUGS
• Special Guest: Biologist Ron Whitehurst of Rincon-Vitova Insectary
• Did you know that ladybugs eat whiteflies? Ron will tell us how to attract beneficial insects such as ladybugs, praying mantis and others to our garden and give us tips on how to control “bad bugs” without using chemicals and pesticides.
• Learn more about the B’s of gardening: Bounty (Sep), Bats (Oct), Baskets (Nov), and Balls (Dec)

 

San Roque Garden Exchange

• Saturday, August 20
• 10-1
• 605 San Roque Rd 

 

East Baja Mesa Garden Exchange

• Saturday, August 20
• 9AM-Noon
• 1270 San Miguel Ave.
• Vermicompost with worms, cherry tomatoes, figs and potted cherimoya trees at the very least.

 

Turnpike Garden Exchange

• Sunday, August 21
• 3-5 PM
• 5081 Oleander (off Walnut, Near Lane’s Farms).
• Come check out Paula and Dave’s  30 year old avocado tree and their wonderful garden.

 

San Roque Garden Exchange

• Saturday, September 17
• 10-1
• 2916 Paseo del Refugio

 

East Alta Mesa Garden Exchange

• Sunday, Sept 25
• 11:30 to 1:30
• 534 Arroyo AVenue

 

San Roque Garden Exchange

• Saturday, October 15
• 10-1
• 424 N. Ontare Rd

 

 

Schedule and Activism Courtesy: SB Food Not Lawns

Shepherd Farms: Why Beans?

 

Santa Barbara Farm Stand: Jalama Road Family Farm Stand

Tucked among the windswept rolling hills of San Julian Valley, just past grazing cattle and the clapboard remnants of the Jalama Road schoolhouse sits Jalama Road Family Farm Stand, Santa Barbara’s newest farm stand. It’s not only a place to stock the larder with fresh veggies, baked delicacies and small batch canned goods, but it’s also your chance to meet new friends and support local farmers.

Read More at Santa Barbara View

For the stand's hours visit the Jalama Road Family Farm Stand Web site.

October > Santa Barbara’s Eat Local Month

   
How far does your food travel to get to your plate? Most food travels an average distance of 1,500 in the United States, and thousands of miles from outside the U.S. to deliver off-season fruits and vegetables. Did you know that you can purchase most everything you need for healthy – and tasty – meals right here in Santa Barbara County.

Santa Barbara’s Eat Local Challenge – running through October – gives you a chance to get to know where your food comes from, and to benefit from the experience of joining with your community to eat locally produced food. You choose the scope of the net, just as long as you eat local.

Santa Barbara’s Eat Local Challenge is sponsored by Edible Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara Certified Farmers Market and epicure.sb.

How it works > Eat only foods produced within a 100 or 150-mile radius of your home, the tri-country region or California. 

Why Eat Local > Why limit your diet to only foods grown or produced close to home? Eating local means you’ll have a wider selection of fresh and flavorful food, and it also gives you a chance to support local farmers, reduce fuel consumption, know first hand the source of your food, and to support our local economy. 

How to Eat Local > It’s easier than you think. If you visit one of Santa Barbara’s farmers market then you are on your way – the modern day farmers market features local bread, wine, eggs, cheese, pork, lamb, beef, olive oil, nuts, butter, and pasta. You can also participate in garden exchanges, buy fruits and veggies from a farm stand, or shop at a market, such as Isla Vista Food Coop, that specialized in sourcing local foods.

Learn more >

Eat Local Challenge Google Group

Epicure Santa Barbara

Eat Local > It’s easier than you think to eat local now – and year round.

 

Summer Supper on Shepherd Farms

Moon rising over fields, lighting the supper spread

Tom Shepherd and chefs lead the dinner with a lesson in local flavors

Fresh from Santa Barbara's Fish Market: the making of a Tuscan-style soup. Chefs Karen Smith Warner and Michelle Molony from Savoir Faire Catering.

Host and farmer Tom Shepherd

Chicken breast stuffed with just-picked herbs

Baked elephant garlic, later spread over chunks of bread

The fields lit by the setting sun

Stuffed chicken cooked under a brick. It was delicious.

 

Pass the vino.

The final serving. 

Brick-flattened Chicken with Sweet Thyme and Roasted Basil Tomato Sauce, Sauté of Fresh Shell Beans, Braised Channel Island Fish Collars with Tomato Confit, Lemon, Lavender and Almond Cakes with the farm’s summer berries.

Santa Barbara Farm Stands: More Featured Farm Stands

Featured Farm Stands:

Fairview Gardens Produce Stand, Plow to Porch: Urban Farm Stand, Avalon Farms Farms Stand

Download Weekend Hippie's Guide to Santa Barbara Farm Stands 

View Santa Barbara Farm Stands in a larger map

Fairview Gardens

• Daily: 10a - 6p
  
• 598 North Fairview • Goleta
• (805) 967-7369

Known far and wide, Fairview Gardens Produce Stand has been a fixture in the Santa Barbara sustainable agriculture movement for over a decade. The self-service produce stand sits adjacent to Fairview Gardens' fields and the Center for Urban Agriculture.  Located on one of the oldest organic farms in California, the Center for Urban Agriculture at Fairview Gardens is an internationally-respected model for small-scale urban food production, agricultural preservation, farm-based education and community supported agriculture ( CSA ) for Santa Barbara and Goleta. Visit the farm stand and learn more at Fairview Gardens.

Plow to Porch Organics: Urban Farm Stand

• Tuesday - Friday: 10a - 5p
  
• Weekends: 12p - 5p
  
• 3204 State Street • Santa Barbara
• 805-895-7171

Pam Pleason's Plow to Porch Organics is an urban store-front farm stand: an extension of her CSA, and the only one like it in Santa Barbara. It's a great alternative when you can't make Farmer's Market. She brings together produce and provisions—granola and pies—from local growers. 

 

Avalon Farms Farm Stand

• Daily (but random): 10a - 5p
• 999 Veronica Springs Road • Santa Barbara
• 805-680-1218

Mark & Laurie Constable are the farmers (and owners) at Avalon Farms. The Farm Stand features what's fresh on any given day, and is a nice extension of their popular CSA (community supported agriculture) program. Bring cash, it's self-service. I brought home bags of blood oranges and some beautiful and yummy heirloom tomatoes. Visit them online at: SB Veggies

. 

Santa Barbara Farm Stands: Now Open

Featured Farm Stands:

Shepherd Farms and Ellwood Canyon Co-op Farm Stand

Just in time to take advantage of a truckload of summer fruits and veggies, Santa Barbara Farm Stands are open, packed full with a variety of fruits and veggies, affordable and a convenient alternative to Farmers Market.

View Santa Barbara Farm Stands in a larger map

Download Weekend Hippie's Guide to Farm Stands

Shepherd Farms

Visit Tom Shepherd's organic fields when you stop by his his just opened Farm Stand. The  stand features Shepherds' Greens—everyone's favorite—carrots, ultra sweet strawberries, and other seasonal fruit and vegetables. Plus once there, you'll have a chance to see his organic farm. 

 

     Shepherd Farms' Stand

• Monday, Wednesday, Saturday
• 11 AM - 3 PM
• 6701 Casitas Pass Road • Carpinteria

Tom has been a leader in the local food movement since the early 1970s, ensuring we move away from industrialized food production towards sustainable agriculture. Located on Highway 192 at the base of Shepherd Mesa, his forty acre farm sits on the richest alluvial soil in Carpinteria Valley. The mild climate is perfect for tender salad greens, sweet strawberries, root vegetables, and all row crops. Shepherd Farms also has avocado and persimmon orchards and a greenhouse for winter tomatoes and peppers.  

Ellwood Canyon Cooperative Farm Stand

Newly opened, and stock full of great produce, the Ellwood Canyon Cooperative Farm Stand. features produce from Ellwood Canyon Farms, Ebby’s Organic Farm, and Out of Step Farms.  The three farmers grow on a common property, so the farm stand collaboration makes sense.

 

     Ellwood Canyon Farm Stand

• Saturdays and Sundays
  
• 10 AM - 5 PM
• Langlo Road (end of road)  • Goleta

The farm stand is self-service, so bring small bills, pay for what you take, and enjoy. The prices are right and the veggies fresh, so it's worth the drive if you live in Santa Barbara. 

Farmers Market: San Francisco Style