Photo: The Chronicle

Everybody loved Soul Food Farm.

When chefs from Chez Panisse first tasted Soul Food Farm’s pasture-raised eggs, they wanted to buy everything that farmer Alexis Koefoed’s hens would give her.

When the Vacaville farm suffered a fire in 2009, supporters raised $35,000 to help Koefoed and her husband, Eric, recoup lost income and rebuild.

And when Koefoed announced that escalating costs of chicken feed would force them to close the 7-year-old operation in September, tributes came in from everywhere.

“I can remember when I first had a Soul Food Farm egg. I thought, ‘This is like a little pocket of sunshine,’ ” says Molly Merson of Richmond, a member of the farm’s community supported agriculture program.

At Soul Food Farm, chickens ran around open fields in an area called Pleasant Valley, producing eggs that captured a lost taste of something real. The farm became a symbol of agriculture restored to its small-scale, homespun roots.

Yet the true cost of producing those chickens and eggs wasn’t always evident, even to those willing to pay $8 a dozen and $30 a bird. For one, feed was already expensive when the drought hit this summer, obliterating what was already the tiniest of profits.

“We could raise our prices, but then we’re really moving away from the philosophical core of why we started this farm, which was to feed people,” says Koefoed.

Slight, with spiky dark hair and elfin eyebrows, Koefoed pads over a carpet of brown and white chicken feathers tangled with oak leaves. Now that her chicken fields are almost empty, she’s reflecting on why a small farm beloved by four-star chefs and a loyal band of customers couldn’t make it.

‘It felt great’

“We were in all the best restaurants, all the coolest butcher shops,” she recalls. “Most of the time it felt great. We worked outside, we were building a business and people loved us.” But, she adds, “We’re older farmers. Physically, how do we sustain it day in, day out?”

Alexis, 47, and Eric, 60, have been practically the sole workers on an operation that at its height produced 1,000 chickens and 600 dozen eggs a week. That typically required 12- to 18-hour days, with barely a day off.

“I’m not complaining. That’s the reality of farming. But I want consumers to know farming is hard work,” Koefoed says.

The couple are keeping their land, leasing some of it to other farmers. They are planting 3,000 lavender plants to use for essential oil and other products. Eric has returned to his previous work as an engineer, and Alexis plans to take a trip to visit farm friends around the country. They plan to rent out their house to visitors who want to spend some time on a farm.

“I cried for a couple of days, and then I got up and I’ve actually been thinking, ‘Wow, Eric and I are going to get some rest,’ ” she says. “There’s not going to be all this pressure on me to be perfect all the time and have the perfect farm, to have a product that had such high expectations from everybody – from CSA members, chefs, the press – that there was never a moment of letup.”

Koefoed’s attention to detail endeared her to chefs and customers. She would check each egg when packing and made all the deliveries herself. Avedano’s, a San Francisco butcher shop that carried her products, lost money on her chickens for the first six months, but stayed loyal.

“That was when I realized how important telling the story of the farmers to the customers was,” says Tia Harrison, Avedano’s co-owner and also chef-owner of Sociale Restaurant.

“I remember telling people, ‘Listen, this is an expensive chicken, but it’s farmed (in Vacaville), and the farmer herself comes in and delivers them. She’s working her butt off, and I think she should make money, don’t you?’ ” she says.

Photo: The Chronicle

Photo: The Chronicle

On the Adriatic coast in Puglia, Italy – Matthew Accarrino’s family home – there’s a saying, “Little fish is good fish.”

Anchovies, sardines and tiny branzini are a major part of the cuisine, says the chef of SPQR in San Francisco, and it’s these little fish that benefit best from the pickling technique popular throughout Southern Italy called scapece, an offshoot of the Spanish escabeche.

“Just like every culture has their noodle, every culture has their version of marinated fish,” says Accarrino. “The whole concept of escabeche is introducing flavor and helping offset the fishiness of these small fish.”

Escabeche is a classic seafood preservation method that Bay Area chefs have embraced in both classic and modern ways.

A happy marriage of frying and pickling, escabeche traditionally refers to seafood and meat that is first cooked and then kept in a vinegar brine. There are also versions of escabeche with vegetables. Overall, it’s an ideal technique to use for late summer dinners and outdoor meals.

“Usually the escabeche is better the day after, and you eat it at room temperature,” says Daniel Olivella, chef-owner of Barlata in Oakland, who grew up in Catalonia, Spain. That means you can make a batch of seafood or vegetables en escabeche one day, then pack them for a picnic the next.

“The most traditional escabeche that I grew up with was sardines,” says Olivella, describing how the fish are first floured, then fried with garlic cloves in oil.
Whether vegetables or little fish, escabeche gets the appetite going. At Barlata, Olivella’s mussels en escabeche are a take on the mussels served out of a can at bars in Catalonia, an important part of the pre-lunchtime ritual called el vermut, or “the vermouth.”

“You get a bag of chips and open a can of mussels en escabeche and serve them with toothpicks,” says Olivella, describing how it’s done in Catalonia. “Then you get yourself a sherry or a vermouth with soda.”

It’s a tradition, like escabeche itself, we could happily learn to adopt here.

– Escabeche recipes on page G8
Zucchini alla Scapece

Serves 6

This dish is adapted from “Cosi si Mangia a Napoli,” an old cookbook from Naples, and one of my favorite vegetable recipes. You first fry the zucchini slices until tender, then layer them with garlic, mint and vinegar, which infuse and lightly pickle the zucchini over the course of a day or two.

2 pounds medium zucchini, sliced into 1/4-inch rounds
1/2 cup olive oil or light vegetable oil
– Kosher salt
3 cloves garlic, very thinly sliced
3 sprigs fresh mint leaves, sliced very thinly into chiffonade (3-4 tablespoons)
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar + more as needed

Instructions: In 1 or 2 large frying pans, pour enough oil to come up to about 1/4-inch; heat over medium heat. Place one layer of zucchini in each pan and fry until tender and lightly golden, about 4 minutes per side. Use a slotted spoon to transfer to paper towels to drain if you like (or put them right in the baking pan). Finish cooking the remaining zucchini slices.

Place a single layer of zucchini in a small baking pan. Liberally salt the layer and add a generous amount of the garlic slices and mint leaves, then repeat with the remaining zucchini so that each layer gets salted and sprinkled with garlic and mint. Drizzle the top generously with the vinegar, wrap tightly, and let refrigerate marinate overnight or up to 2 days to marinate.

To serve, bring to room temperature. Place in a bowl and season with extra salt and drizzle with vinegar to taste, then transfer to a serving bowl.

Nutrition information: The calories and other nutrients absorbed from brines vary and are difficult to estimate. Therefore, this recipe contains no analysis.

Chiles en Escabeche (Pickled Chiles)

Makes 5 pints

Adapted from “The Art of Mexican Cooking,” by Diana Kennedy, this rendition of the classic Mexican condiment brings in seasonal peppers for a new take on the pickled jalapenos, onions and carrots you see with almost every Mexican meal. This is very spicy; for a milder pickle, remove the seeds and veins from the chile peppers before marinating. The pickles keep for at least one month, refrigerated or can be canned in water bath.

1 pound jalapeno chile peppers, halved or quartered through the stem
1/2 wax, Hungarian, Gypsy, or colorful bell peppers, deseeded and cut into strips
1 pound carrots, peeled and sliced diagonally 1/8 -inch thick
3 tablespoons kosher salt
1/2 cup safflower or other mild vegetable oil
1 large white onion, thickly sliced
10 peppercorns
6 bay leaves
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon cumin seed
4 whole cloves
4 cups apple cider or other vinegar
8 cloves garlic, peeled
6 fresh thyme sprigs
1 teaspoon sugar

Instructions: Have ready about 5 pint jars and lids cleaned well in sudsy water and rinsed.

In a large bowl, combine the chiles, peppers and carrots. Add the salt and toss to combine; let sit for 1 hour.

Drain the vegetables, reserving the juices.

Heat the oil in a large, deep frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the onion, the drained vegetables, peppercorns, bay leaves, oregano, cumin seed and cloves. Cook, turning often, until the vegetables are softened, about 10 minutes.

Add the reserved vegetable juices, vinegar, garlic, thyme and sugar. Bring to a boil and simmer, stirring often, until the jalapenos are soft and lose their bright green color, about 8 minutes.

Distribute the vegetables and thyme sprigs into the jars then pour the pickling liquid on top. Let cool, then cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Nutrition information: The calories and other nutrients absorbed from brines vary and are difficult to estimate. Therefore, this recipe contains no analysis.

Serves 4

This recipe is from Matthew Accarrino of SPQR restaurant in San Francisco, who prepares sushi grade albacore tuna lightly seared over an open flame, tataki-style. You can use a propane torch or gas stove top, with the grate removed, to cook the tuna. You will need to soak the raisins overnight and soak 4 wooden skewers in water for at least 30 minutes before cooking the fish.

1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup cold water
1 cup ice
1 lemon, sliced
12 ounces albacore tuna (or hamachi), sushi quality, trimmed, skinless and blood line removed (see Note)
2 small Japanese eggplant, halved lengthwise
– Kosher salt
– Olive oil for cooking eggplant + 2 tablespoons for onions
4 white pearl onions, peeled and sliced into 1/16 -inch thick rounds, ends discarded
1 small pinch saffron threads
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons white wine
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 teaspoons small capers, rinsed
1 tablespoon golden raisins, covered in hot water and then soaked overnight
– Herbs for garnish (wild wood sorrel and flowers, flowering cilantro or anise hyssop)

Instructions: Place the soy and water in a large bowl with the ice and lemon.

Cut the tuna into loins or strips about 1 1/2 to 2 inches in diameter and 5 inches long. Skewer lengthwise with a roasting fork or pre-soaked wooden skewers. Salt the tuna on all sides. Using a propane torch or stove top flame on high, place directly over the flame. Cook, charring lightly on all sides, 20 to 30 seconds per side, or longer if the flame isn’t too strong. Slide the fish off the skewer and into the soy ice bath; let chill for 5 minutes, then remove, pat dry and refrigerate. Repeat with the remaining fish.

Score and lightly salt the eggplant; let sit for 15 minutes to purge bitterness. Pat dry and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 350°. On t he stovetop, in a pre-heated ovenproof skillet over medium heat, add a film of olive oil. Place the eggplant cut side down and cook over medium heat until caramelized and beginning to soften, about 3 to 5 minutes. Transfer to the oven and cook until the eggplant is soft and caramelized, 4 to 8 minutes. Return the pan to the stovetop and finish cooking over medium heat for a few minutes more. Gently remove the eggplant to a platter, cut side up and sprinkle with a pinch of salt.

Wipe out the pan and return to the heat on low. Add the 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add the pearl onions and cook until soft, about 2 minutes. Add the saffron and cook briefly. Sprinkle in the sugar, then add the wine. Turn off the heat, add the vinegar and swirl to combine. Stir in the capers and drained soaked raisins, and season with a pinch of salt. Let cool to room temperature.

To serve: Cut the chilled tuna into 1/4-inch slices, and arrange on plates with the eggplant. Spoon the scapece over top and garnish with herbs. Serve immediately.

Note: Sushi-grade albacore tuna and hamachi are available at Tokyo Fish Market in Berkeley. Sushi-grade ahi tuna is the next best alternative.

Per serving: 223 calories, 21 g protein, 17 g carbohydrates, 8 g fat (1 g saturated), 40 mg cholesterol, 125 mg sodium, 4 g fiber.
Sidra Pickled Sardines

Serves 6 to 8

This recipe for sardines en escabeche is from Bridget Batson, chef of Gitane and Claudine in San Francisco. For this version, instead of cooking the sardines, Batson cures the whole fish first for 2 days, then filets them and pickles them in a brine made with Poma Aurea Sidra, a hard cider from Spain, and Calcot onions, a Spanish variety grown by a few local farmers. The entire process takes about 4 days.

Sardines & cure
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup kosher salt
1 pound sardines, scaled and gutted
– Olive oil
Pickling liquid
2 cups Poma Aurea Sidra (see Note) or sparkling apple cider
1 cup cider vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
1 Calcot onion, white only, or 1 shallot, thinly sliced
10 coriander seeds
5 black peppercorns
2 oregano sprigs
2 strips orange zest
Toast
1 small baguette, halved lengthwise
– Olive oil
1 garlic clove

For the sardines: In a small bowl, combine the sugar and salt; generously sprinkle over the sardines, inside and out. Reserve the remaining salt mixture.

Place the sardines on a small rack set over a rimmed baking sheet to allow any liquid to drain off. Wrap the whole thing tightly, and refrigerate. On the second day, turn the sardines over and reapply the salt mixture. Return to the refrigerator and cure until firm to the touch, about 2 days total, depending on their size. (Larger sardines could take 2 1/2 days.)

Rinse the sardines, pat dry, and filet: Remove the head and tail, then pull the spine out from the inside to remove the bones. Separate into fillets.

Lightly coat a shallow container with olive oil to keep the fish from sticking. Arrange the sardines in the container, skin side up.

To pickle: In a small pot, combine the cider, cider vinegar, sugar, onion or shallot, coriander seeds, peppercorns, oregano sprigs and orange zest; simmer a few minutes, until the sugar dissolves. Remove from heat, let cool, the pour the cool brine over the sardines. Refrigerate for 2 days.

For the toast: Brush the baguette with olive oil, and place on a baking sheet. Broil until golden brown on all sides, about 2 minutes per side. Remove from the oven and rub the cut side with the garlic clove.

Cut the baguette into 6 to 8 pieces, and serve with the sardines.

Note: Poma Aurea Sidra, a Spanish hard cider, is available at the Spanish Table and occasionally at K&L Wine Merchants.

Nutrition information: The calories and other nutrients absorbed from brines vary and are difficult to estimate. Therefore, this recipe contains no analysis.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/recipes/article/Escabeche-tiny-fish-with-a-vast-presence-3848792.php#ixzz2AHAD3itV

“You pull everything out. In the same oil, you add the vinegar, bay and thyme, then turn it off and put in the pimenton. That emulsion of hot vinegar you just pour on top of the sardines, and let it cool off.” Like duck confit, the sardines could keep in the oil for several days, at least, without going bad.

Escabeche was introduced to the Iberian Peninsula by the Moors; in turn, Spaniards most likely brought the method to Southern Italy starting in the Renaissance, when Spain occupied the region. Spaniards also brought escabeche to Latin America and the Philippines; the technique shows up in other parts of the Mediterranean.

Bridget Batson prepares sardines en escabeche at Gitane, the San Francisco restaurant that celebrates the food of the Iberian Peninsula. Sometimes instead of frying them, she will cure the sardines in salt and sugar until firm. She then brines them in a combination of cider vinegar and Spanish hard cider.

“Everybody’s got a different form of it, no doubt about it,” says Batson, who might add carrots or radishes to the pickling liquid to garnish the plate, and has made escabeche with anchovies and mackerel.

Accarrino explains these oily fish “have a softer texture to them. That’s why you see people lightly cooking them and then marinating them.” The cooking firms them up, while the brining imparts flavor.

For a modern take on scapece – with cues from its Northern Italian counterpart, in saor – Accarrino makes a sauce with eggplant, wine, vinegar, capers and raisins to serve with local albacore tuna that he lightly grills so that only the outside is seared, Japanese tataki style.

“Yellowfin and bluefin tuna all have a cleaner, less oily taste than albacore,” he says, which is why albacore in particular benefits from the vinegar-based sauce.

In Italy, Accarrino also learned to make zucchini alla scapece, a traditional Southern Italian dish that also works with eggplant, especially in Sicily, where it’s called a scapici. It calls for frying the vegetables first in oil, then layering them in a dish with salt, raw garlic, mint and vinegar to marinate.

The Mexican escabeche of chiles and carrots has a more intense flavor than North American pickled vegetables, because you first fry the vegetables with herbs and spices in oil. The carrots and onions become soaked with the flavor of fresh herbs and burn with just enough chile heat to make you want to go back for more.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/recipes/article/Escabeche-tiny-fish-with-a-vast-presence-3848792.php#ixzz2AHA5wFpJ

http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Escabeche-tiny-fish-with-a-vast-presence-3848792.php

Many American sommeliers, fond of European wines, have a complicated relationship with California – mostly because the state’s wines can be more fruit-forward and oak-tinged, and potentially have more alcohol, all qualities that make food pairings more difficult.

But that’s changing. More sommeliers and chefs insist on capturing a locavore spirit in their wine lists. It’s often just a matter of seeking out California bottles that work well with food.

“For me it’s all about balanced ripeness, acidity and dry extract in the wine so that there’s a good concentration of fruit flavors, but also ultimately the balance is being revealed,” says Peter Birmingham, beverage director of Coi in San Francisco, where chef Daniel Patterson’s food, he says, “is all about the high tension between the acidity in the dish and the purity of the flavors.

“So I try to find those qualities in the wine,” he adds – a situation helped by two cool growing seasons in 2010 and 2011.
Connecting flavors

For spot prawns with charred cucumber and watermelon, for example, Birmingham pairs a Cep Russian River Valley Pinot Noir Rosé.

“The acidity that’s in the wine reveals the lemon flavors in the dish, where you have lemon juice and lemon balm and lemon basil. It’s a very simply sophisticated set of flavors that are so gently coaxed in the wine as well,” says Birmingham, who is also in charge of the beverage programs at Plum and Haven in Oakland.

At Dovetail restaurant in New York City, beverage director Amanda Reade Sturgeon often pairs American wines with chef John Fraser’s food. She doesn’t agree with the oft-touted view that the best value comes from Europe.

“You can find values with California wines,” she says. “Sometimes you just need to look a little harder. Sometimes you can find it with a smaller producers and second labels.”

On the restaurant’s current tasting menu, she pairs a 2007 Derbes Carneros Chardonnay with ricotta gnudi, a type of gnocchi served with truffle Madeira sauce.

“It works nicely with the earthy truffles. It’s a richer style – it’s really elegant and has a tiny bit of age on it.”

Though they’re almost sold out, Dovetail recently had a few lots of California wines from the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s that the restaurant lucked into at an auction. Reade Sturgeon made a point of pricing them around $175 or less, including a 1975 Chappellet Napa Valley Chenin Blanc for $135.

“All of those (wines) were so wonderful to use with pairings because they were so elegant,” she says. “They’ve aged wonderfully – they still have great acidity to them.”

Sang Yoon, chef-owner of Father’s Office in Santa Monica and Los Angeles, has long developed relationships with California winemakers, especially from Santa Barbara and the Central Coast. When he opened the second location of his upscale pub-grub franchise in 2008, he became one of the first to offer wine on tap in the Los Angeles area. Getting wine by the keg for his by-the-glass and carafe offerings necessitated working with local vintners.

“It was a really good way to forge deeper relationships with local wineries,” he says.

Father’s Office is known for its burger and beer pairings, but when it comes to wine, Yoon says the go-to pairing is the Hitching Post Highliner Santa Barbara Pinot Noir. And at Yoon’s Southeast Asian restaurant, Lukshon, the top-selling wine is a Tatomer Gruner Veltliner from Edna Valley.

“Typically when we think of California wines, we think of Chardonnay and French varietals,” not Germany and Austria, he says.

Though he hadn’t previously been impressed with domestic Gruner Veltliner, this one, he says “blew me away. With the flavors of Southeast Asia it’s a down-the-middle strike.”

Jenny Schwarz, an advocate of hyperlocal wines at her Oakland restaurant, Hopscotch, also has a California Gruner Veltliner on her list, one from Livermore winemaker Darcie Kent. Schwarz says it has the structure of an Austrian Gruner Veltliner but with more fruit, making it a good pairing for fried chicken.

Schwarz sometimes has to charge less for California wines than she thinks they deserve, such as a Renard Kick Ranch Sonoma Syrah that’s $11 per glass.

“It should be $15,” she says. “I can sell a Chateauneuf-de-Pape for $15, but customers won’t buy a Syrah for that.”
Local support

Still, she has noticed diners are increasingly interested in supporting local wineries. And though she says the prevailing trend in California is still to make “giant, overly oaked, high-alcohol wines,” she sees plenty of emerging winemakers who are going in an opposite direction.

“It’s very strange to me when we have so much amazing wine in Napa and Sonoma. If we’re so focused on sourcing food hyperlocally, why aren’t we focused on sourcing wine hyperlocally?”

Tara Duggan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: tduggan@sfchronicle.com

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/wine/article/Restaurants-uncork-a-return-to-California-flavors-3848905.php#ixzz2AHBIHN66

Photo: The Chronicle

Mariquita Farm counts the Bay Area’s best restaurants among its customers but no longer sells at farmers’ markets, so the only way home cooks like Forer can bring home the farm’s prized Italian and heirloom varieties is through its CSA.

“The quality of the produce is what drives the CSA,” said Forer, who hosts a Mariquita CSA pickup site from his home in the Mission District, “and knowing that you’re getting the same vegetables as the highest-end restaurants.”

Andy Griffin, the erudite farmer behind Mariquita’s prized vegetables and weekly newsletter, often does trials of new vegetable varieties when chefs bring him seeds from their travels.

Some items have become ingrained in the local culinary scene, such as Padron peppers, which Incanto restaurant chef Chris Cosentino persuaded him to grow. Melissa Perello of Frances introduced Griffin to Calcot onions, a sweet spring onion from Catalan that shows up in springtime CSA boxes.

“Because Mariquita Farm is chef-driven, the CSA is driven, too, by the chefs,” says Stuart Brioza, who buys the majority of produce for his new San Francisco restaurant, State Bird Provisions, directly from Mariquita. That includes agretti, a slightly sour succulent herb that Brioza serves with thinly sliced lamb marinated in fish sauce and jalapeno. “These ingredients challenge you as a chef,” he says.

At least a dozen farms run CSA programs that serve the Bay Area, but as Griffin’s wife, Julia Wiley, emphasizes, their boxes are for people who really like to cook.

I recently picked up a Mariquita CSA box and worked my way through a handful of the recipes she offers in newsletters and an online recipe database, and a few from local chefs. Even though the box was heavy on greens, Wiley and the chefs who use Mariquita produce had new ideas for them, such as wilting the frisee for a pasta sauce, rather than always serving it raw in a salad.

Griffin cultivates about 30 to 45 acres in three sites around Mariquita’s home base in Watsonville, providing a mix of microclimates that allows him to grow strawberries in a cooler coastal area and tomatoes and peppers under warmer inland temperatures. The farm’s CSA just started up again last month – a lot of CSAs hibernate in the winter – and Wiley is excited about the spring’s offerings.

“We were able to plant in January and February, and sometimes when it’s super rainy we can’t do that,” she said. That means that this year’s April and May boxes should have more variety than usual. English peas and new potatoes should be coming later in the month or early next month, along with unique items like spigariello, a type of cooking green with a broccoli flavor.

Recent rains, however, have meant a delay in strawberries, which usually show up in mid-April. When it rains on the ripe fruit, the berries get waterlogged.

The box I got last week held surprises like soup celery, which looks like a bunch of oversized, darker green celery hearts; and springtime flourishes like miniature heads of frilly Lola Rossa lettuce, young red chard, striped French Breakfast radishes, and purple carrots, burgundy on the outside and orange at the core.

I simmered the soup celery to make Wiley’s recipe for – you guessed it – soup celery soup, then peeled and trimmed carrots, green garlic and radishes for giardiniere, an Italian-style vegetable relish. Brioza makes cauliflower giardiniere to garnish a plate of house-cured pastrami and beef tongue, in an homage to Chicago deli sandwiches.

The recipe calls for blanching the vegetables, herbs and spices in vinegar, then draining the vinegar and pouring hot olive oil over everything to cook and preserve it. The tender vegetables were suspended in a jar of olive oil like fossils in amber.

More green garlic went into a herb-packed dressing from Sharon Adriana, chef-owner of Gialina and Ragazza restaurants and another Mariquita customer. She tosses the dressing over Little Gems lettuce with cooked farro, avocado and carrot slices that add sweet, crunchy bites and flashes of color.

The other recipes I tried from the farm, including a chard strata and grilled Calcot onions served with a romesco-like hazelnut and garlic sauce, were all winners. And the broccoli, which I boiled and drizzled with olive oil, was among the sweetest and most tender I’ve had.

“(Andy) really pays attention to the flavor of the vegetables. When the vegetables walk through the back door, they look like they were just picked,” Brioza says.

While other CSAs may offer flexible options like different-sized boxes and biweekly deliveries, Mariquita’s requires more of a commitment, with just one size box for everyone, every week. Wiley encourages customers to start with a four-week trial to make sure it’s a good fit.

After 12 years as a customer, Forer is still up to the challenge and even writes a blog called My Farm Box Life. Every year he hosts a backyard pig roast with lots of Mariquita produce and kegs of beer. One time, Griffin showed up to represent the farm.

“They’re an old-school Bay Area farming family,” Forer says. “I think the food community would be very different without them.”

This is the first of this year’s seasonal guides to cooking from a CSA box. For recipes and farm listings, see Pages G4 & G5.

See recipes and more on GXX
Indivia alla Romana (Roman-Style Chicory)

Here’s a general idea for cooking chicory, adapted from “Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini,” by Elizabeth Schneider. This works for escarole, frisee and other types of chicories.

Rinse 1 head of frisee. Blanche in boiling water just until tender, about 2 minutes. Drain, squeezing out water, then roughly chop.

In a large skillet, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil and 1 clove chopped garlic over medium heat. Add a little tomato sauce or chopped plum tomatoes, minced mint leaves, chopped capers, and seeded, minced fresh chili. Bring to a simmer and cook just until sauce begins to thicken, 5 to 10 minutes.

Add the frisee and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer until the mixture is well blended, about 5 minutes. Serve over pasta or alone, as a side dish.
How to participate in community supported agriculture

While a few Bay Area community supported agriculture programs go year-round, most, such as Mariquita, start in the spring. The following listing is for CSAs directly from farms, rather than aggregates that work with several farms; most require at least a four-week commitment. Pickup, delivery and other info is available on the websites.

Eatwell Farm, Dixon. Serves East Bay, San Francisco and Marin and Solano counties. $27/box, plus eggs at $8/dozen. www.eatwell.com.

Eating With the Seasons, San Juan Bautista (San Benito County). Serves South Bay, Peninsula, San Francisco, East Bay. Four sizes of boxes, $19.95-$47.95 per week, plus eggs at $4.50/dozen. www.eatwiththeseasons.com.

Freewheelin’ Farm, Santa Cruz. Serves San Francisco and Santa Cruz. $600-$725 for the 25-week season. www.freewheelinfarm.com.

Full Belly Farm, Guinda (Yolo County). Serves East Bay, San Rafael, Peninsula, South Bay. $18/box. www.fullbellyfarm.com.

High Ground Organics, Watsonville. Serves South Bay. $22/week ($30/week with flowers) during a 36-week season. www.highgroundorganics.com.

Live Power Farm, Covelo (Mendocino County). Serves San Francisco, Marin County, East Bay. $1,150 for the season, May-early December. www.livepower.org.

Mariquita Farm, Watsonville. Serves San Francisco, South Bay, Peninsula. $22/week during a 36-week season. www.mariquita.com.

People’s Grocery, West Oakland. Serves Oakland, Berkeley. $15-$25/week. www.peoplesgrocery.org.

Riverdog Farm, Guinda. Serves East Bay and Napa and Solano counties. $20/week. www.riverdogfarm.com.

Shooting Star CSA, Fairfield. Serves East Bay, San Francisco, Solano County. $22-$24/week May-November. www.shootingstarcsa.com.

Tara Firma Farms, Petaluma. Serves San Francisco, East Bay, and Marin, Sonoma and Solano counties. Price depends on contents; can include eggs, dairy, meat, bread. tarafirmafarms.com.

Terra Firma Farm, Winters (Yolo County). Serves East Bay and San Francisco. $14-$32/week. terrafirmafarm.com.

- Tara Duggan

What’s in the box?

1. Turnip greens, 2. red chard, 3. frisee, 4. Little Gem lettuce, 5. Lolla Rossa lettuce, 6. broccoli, 7. Calcot onions, 8. soup celery, 9. purple carrots, 10. green garlic, 11. French Breakfast radishes.
Little Gems Salad With Farro, Avocado, Carrots & Green Garlic Dressing

Serves 6-8

This salad is served by Sharon Adriana at her San Francisco restaurants Gialina and Ragazza. Adriana also uses raw kale, a CSA perennial, instead of the lettuce. To do so, remove the ribs from a bunch of lacinato kale. Omit any tough ends of the ribs, then finely slice the ribs and tear the kale leaves into small bite-size pieces, then toss both in the salad. You will have leftover dressing, which can be saved for another use. It will keep at least one week, refrigerated.

1 stalk green garlic, white and light green parts, chopped
1/2 bunch tarragon, leaves only
1/2 bunch Italian parsley, leaves only
1 1/2 cups olive oil
1/2 cup Muscatel vinegar (see Note)
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
2/3 cup farro
2 bunches Little Gem or other tender, small-head garden lettuces, leaves separated
2 avocados, cut into large dice
2 to 4 medium-size spring carrots, peeled and sliced into thin rounds
— Salt and pepper to taste

To make the dressing: Place green garlic, tarragon, parsley, olive oil, vinegar, mustard, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper into a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth. You will have about 2 cups.

For the salad: To cook the farro, bring a small pot of salted water to the boil. Add the farro and cook until tender, 16 to 18 minutes. Drain, rinse with cold water until cool, then drain well.

Place the lettuce in a large salad bowl. Add the avocados, carrots and farro. Add half of the dressing, or to taste, and mix. Add more dressing, if desired. Season to taste with salt and ground black pepper, and serve right away.

Note: Muscatel vinegar made by the Spanish brand Unio is Sharon Adriana’s favorite for dressings and adds a complex, fruity note. It’s available at Whole Foods, at San Francisco’s Rainbow Grocery in the bulk section, and at many specialty stores. If you can’t find it, use Champagne vinegar.

Per serving: 340 calories, 5 g protein, 19 g carbohydrate, 28 g fat (4 g saturated), 0 mg cholesterol, 169 mg sodium, 4 g fiber.
Spring Vegetable Giardiniere

Makes 3 cups

This recipe from Stuart Brioza is based on his cauliflower giardiniere, which he serves with pastrami and pickled beef tongue at his restaurant, State Bird Provisions. Here, instead of cauliflower, we use some of the vegetables from the Mariquita Farm CSA box. Because this recipe requires you to pour hot oil over vegetables that have been blanched in vinegar, it’s important to use a high pot, such as a stockpot, so that the oil doesn’t splatter on you or spill over the top.

2 cups olive oil
2 cups cider vinegar
2 tablespoons kosher salt
3 to 4 cups spring vegetables, such as carrots (cut into 3-inch pieces), radishes (halved, if large), green garlic (cut into 2-inch pieces) or your choice
1 clove garlic, sliced
1/2 cup sliced red onion
6 peppercorns
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
2 bay leaves
1 sprig rosemary
1 hot dried chile pepper

Instructions: Place the olive oil in a small saucepan over medium heat and bring to 275° on a candy thermometer.

Meanwhile, combine the remaining ingredients in a stock pot and bring to a rolling boil. Strain, reserving the vinegar for another use.

Return the vegetable mixture to the pot and immediately and carefully pour the hot olive oil on top – be careful because it will sizzle and possibly splatter.

Let cool to room temperature, then transfer to a large jar and chill overnight; bring to room temperature before serving. The giardiniere will keep in the refrigerator for 1 month.

Nutrition information: The calories and other nutrients absorbed from marinades vary and are difficult to estimate. Therefore, this recipe contains no analysis.

Grilled Calçot Onions With Salvitjada

Serves 4

This recipe is adapted from Jonathan Miller, a private chef who works with Mariquita Farm. Mariquita grows calçot onions, a particularly sweet type of spring onion from Catalonia, Spain, but this recipe would work with any type of spring onion. In Spain, the calçots are roasted over hot coals on wire grills until blackened, then allowed to steam until the interior is fully cooked. To eat them, hold one end of the onion and pull on the greens to slip off the blackened outer layer. Serve them with salvitjada, a roasted garlic and hazelnut sauce; the original recipe for the sauce came from “Catalan Cuisine” (Harvard Common Press, 2005), by Colman Andrews.

Salvitjada
1 head garlic
— Oil for the garlic + 3 tablespoons
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
10 hazelnuts
10 blanched almonds
1 tomato, seeded and finely chopped
1 parsley sprig, minced
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
— Pinch cayenne
Grilled onions
12 to 20 calçot or other small spring onions, or 8-12 large ones

To make the salvitjada: Preheat the oven to 400°.

Trim the top layer off of the garlic to expose the cloves, then place on a square of aluminum foil. Drizzle with oil, then seal the foil to form a packet. Roast until the garlic is tender, about 40 minutes.

Meanwhile, place the hazelnuts and almonds on a small baking pan and roast until browned, 7 to 9 minutes. Watch carefully because they can easily burn. Let cool.

Pulverize the hazelnuts and almonds with a mortar and pestle, then transfer to a large bowl. Add the pulp from the roasted garlic, the tomato and the parsley, and mash until smooth.

Transfer to a bowl and stir in the 3 tablespoons olive oil, the vinegar, salt and cayenne. Mix well; let stand at least 2 hours at room temperature before serving. You will have about 1/2 cup.

To make the onions: Preheat a grill to medium. Grill the calçots until well blackened on all sides, about 15- 20 minutes. Remove from the grill and wrap them in a paper bag or newspaper, then place in a plastic bag. Set aside to steam 1-2 hours.

To eat the onions, hold the calçot in your left hand by its blackened root base and in your right hand by its inner green leaves at the top. Pull the green leaves and slip off the blackened part, discard it, and dip the white part in the salvitjada.

Per tablespoon of salvitjada: 101 calories, 2 g protein, 4 g carbohydrate, 9 g fat (1 g saturated), 0 mg cholesterol, 136 mg sodium, 1 g fiber.
Julia’s Market Strata

Serves 10

This recipe is adapted from the Mariquita Farm web site. Assemble it the night before, then bake it the next morning. Julia Wiley makes it with 2 cups sliced mushrooms, which she sautes with the onion, but I made it with just the greens.

— Butter or oil to grease the pan + more to saute the onions
1 loaf day-old crusty baguette, sliced and cut or torn into large pieces
2 cups grated cheddar, Swiss or other melting cheese
— About 1 cup chopped onion, green or white
1 clove garlic or 1 stalk green garlic, chopped
2 bunches Erbette or other chard, washed and coarsely chopped
1/2 pound broccoli di cicco, coarsely chopped
— Salt and pepper to taste
2 cups whole or 2% milk
4 large eggs

Instructions: Butter or oil a 13- by 9-inch baking pan. Place all bread pieces that will comfortably fit into the pan only up to the rim. Sprinkle with about half the cheese.

In a large frying pan or wok, saute the onions in oil until tender; add the garlic. When the onion is translucent, add the chard and broccoli and cook, stirring, until the chard is mostly wilted but still bright green, about 4 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, and spoon over the cheese in the baking pan.

Whisk together the milk and eggs; pour evenly over the vegetables and cheese. Cover with plastic wrap, pressing the vegetables and bread down into the custard; refrigerate at least 1 to 2 hours, or overnight.

When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350°. Remove from refrigerator and remove plastic. Bake for about 40 minutes. Remove from oven and scatter remaining cheese on top. Return to oven and bake until cooked through and browned on top, about 20 minutes more.

Cut into squares, and serve hot or warm.

Per serving: 184 calories, 12 g protein, 10 g carbohydrate, 11 g fat (6 g saturated), 112 mg cholesterol, 340 mg sodium, 2 g fiber.

Tara Duggan is a San Francisco food writer. food@sfchronicle.com

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/04/15/FD881O1T0C.DTL

But Dafna Kory of Inna Jams, who started her business in 2010 without prior food service experience, increased her annual production from 8,500 to 30,000 jars within two years. After piecing together work space in rental kitchens, she’s about to open her own kitchen and canning facility with the help of a Kickstarter campaign.

Kory will share some of her skills and experience as an instructor at the new Food Craft Institute, a school for artisan food companies opening in Oakland’s Jack London Square in April.

A nonprofit affiliated with Oakland’s Eat Real Festival, the annual street food festival, the institute will offer its first “master course” in jam, followed by courses in pickling, charcuterie, and coffee roasting and coffee bar management.
Apprenticeships

Each course, which costs $2,750 (scholarships are available), will take place over 12 Saturdays or Sundays. Participants will first receive training in business and food safety and science with teachers like author Harold McGee, and then have mini apprenticeships at established local businesses like Frog Hollow Farm and Blue Bottle Coffee.

“We’re interested in re-establishing the food craft artisan as a premier profession in the United States,” said Marcy Coburn, director of the institute, who hopes salami and pickle makers will be seen in the same light as chefs.

Food craft – the current term of choice now that “artisan” has been co-opted by fast-food chains – is basically the transformation of raw ingredients into shelf-stable products like tomato chutney that fetch a higher margin than their perishable raw counterparts, such as fresh tomatoes. The institute’s goal is to ensure that the creators of these prepared foods, which tend to be made from sustainable ingredients, also maintain sustainable businesses.

“How do you get 20 or so artisan food businesses that are around in the Bay Area and make sure there are 15 left in 10 years’ time?” said institute founder Anya Fernald, who points out that companies that use California-grown inputs – produce, meat or grains – have a particularly hard time making money.

Though customers perusing displays of organic, locally made jams and pickles might assume the company is making a fortune from their $12 jars, many food crafters have a hard time paying themselves a salary. Companies that start out with someone tinkering away in their home kitchen often don’t know how to make the leap from a farmers’ market stand to wider distribution. That’s why about 25 percent of each master course will be devoted to business planning.
Learning from the best

“This is not only business boot camp but boot camp with the Bay Area’s best food artisans. It’s a way to learn directly from them how they are running their businesses,” said Susie Wyshak, former “food forager” for Foodzie and Buyer’s Best Friend, who will teach some of the courses and is the author of the upcoming book, “Good Food, Great Business.”

Wyshak said one pitfall many producers make is to set prices too low at the beginning because they often start out selling directly and don’t plan ahead for when they will sell retail and make a smaller margin. Also, they often don’t know how to plan for costs like employees, marketing, storage and shipping.
A new product line

Though already the owner of an established business, Kendra Kolling of Nana Mae’s Organics plans to enroll in the institute for help launching a new product line. She and her husband, Paul, farm 350 acres in Sonoma County to produce 30,000 cases a year of organic apple juice and apple sauce. But competition from large-scale canning companies made them want to diversify to Farmer’s Wife, a gourmet line of fermented soda, hard cider and preserves made with Nana Mae’s fruit.

“We’re not making a killing at this, which is why I’m trying to be smarter,” said Kolling. “A customer who is paying $19 to $30 a pound for cheese doesn’t really think twice about picking up a little jar of preserves to go with it, whereas the mom in the applesauce aisle is a different consumer,” she said.

Another instructor at the Food Craft Institute will be Minh Tsai, founder of Oakland’s Hodo Soy Beanery. He started out selling his fresh, organic, handmade tofu at farmers’ markets in 2004 and by 2009 had opened his own 12,000-square-foot production facility. But Tsai thinks opportunities have changed – for example, the proliferation of farmers’ markets means that sales at each market are lower.
‘Amazing food’

“Every single artisan believes that they’re making amazing food,” said Tsai. “There’s no doubt about that. The question is more if they’re making a food that can gain entry into this market.”

As for Kory, she is excited to move into her new kitchen so she can continue to grow. She plans to rent her kitchen out to other small business owners, maybe like those who get their start at the institute. One of the tips she has for them is simple but often overlooked.

“This really sucks,” she said. “But you have to sit down and create your cash-flow chart so that you can see how much money you have and so that you can see if there’s a point in time, in six months or nine months, where you will run out of money.”

San Francisco Chronicle

The milk, from Diamond M Dairy near Petaluma, is vat-pasteurized like the milk for its yogurt, at the lowest legal limit of 145°, which producer Benoit de Korsak says preserves flavor and nutrition. Regular pasteurized milk is heated to at least 161°, while ultra-pasteurized milk goes to 275°.

Since Jersey milk is rich, St. Benoit’s milk contains around 5% milk fat, compared to regular whole milk’s 3.5%. That, and the freshness – it has just a 15-day shelf life – mean it’s pretty delicious and sells out quickly, so call ahead.

The non-homogenized milk comes in liter glass bottles ($3.99 plus $1.50 deposit) at Whole Foods Markets, many Mollie Stones, Rainbow Grocery, Bi-Rite Market, Cal Mart and Berkeley Bowl, as well as at farmers’ markets: Berkeley and Ferry Plaza on Saturday; Palo Alto, Temescal and San Rafael on Sunday; and Berkeley on Thursday.

San Francisco Chronicle

I grew up to the aroma of my mom’s coffee cake, with its brown sugar and cinnamon streusel, and the sound of the coffee percolator. I’m always trying to re-create that memory. This recipe is one I’ve played around with a lot. Though it’s plenty decadent, it also uses a combination of all-purpose flour and whole wheat flour. Mix and match whatever dried fruits, nuts and whole grains you may have frittering away in the pantry.

Filling and topping
1/2 cup chopped dried apricots, or whole cherries or currants
1/2 cup rolled oats or 1/4 cup stone-ground cornmeal
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2/3 cup sliced almonds or chopped walnuts, pecans, or unsalted pistachios or cashews
1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon brown sugar, lightly packed
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
Coffee cake
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup plain low-fat yogurt or sour cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (regular whole wheat flour is fine too)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

To make the filling and topping: Soak the apricots in hot water for 20-30 minutes or until soft, then drain thoroughly.

Combine the remaining filling and topping ingredients in a small bowl, squishing the butter with your fingers or a pastry blender until the ingredients are well combined. Set aside.

To make the coffee cake: Grease and flour a 10-inch Bundt pan and preheat the oven to 350°F.

Place the butter and sugar in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until creamy, 2-3 minutes. Add eggs, yogurt, and vanilla and almond extracts, then beat again until smooth.

Whisk or stir together the all-purpose flour, pastry flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl, then gradually add to the butter mixture while on low speed, until just combined.

Sprinkle half of the topping evenly over the bottom of the prepared pan. Pour one-third to one-half of the batter evenly on top, then sprinkle with the remaining topping and all of the apricots. Add the rest of the batter in large spoonfuls, then use a flexible spatula to gently spread the batter to an even thickness (it helps to grease the spatula first); it’s OK if some of the filling mixes in with the batter.

Bake until a toothpick inserted into the thick part of the cake comes out clean, 40-45 minutes. Let cool on a rack for 10 minutes, then use a thin knife to loosen the edges of the cake. Invert it onto a serving platter and let cool briefly before serving.

Serves 10-12

1 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Pinch kosher salt + salt to taste
Freshly ground pepper to taste
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 to 3 fennel stalks, very thinly sliced, or 1 small head of fennel, cored and thinly sliced
1-ounce chunk of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Whisk together the lemon juice, salt and pepper in a salad bowl until the grains of salt dissolve. Whisk in the olive oil in a steady stream. Add the fennel, a little more salt and plenty of pepper to taste, then toss to coat.

Using a sharp vegetable peeler, shave the Parmesan in thin shards over the salad.

Toss gently, then adjust seasonings.

Serves 2