Results matching “farmers” from Jeanette Hada's Wellness and Happiness Blog
I've really come to love this house with it's beautifully painted rooms. Naoki finished the Venetian plaster in the sun room and recently the star room. He did a wonderful job and they look wonderful and bring a warmer feeling to the house.
Life has been busy with family and business. We've been blessed in both areas. Naoki's mother and sister came for a brief nine day stay. They really enjoyed all the tasty fruit (navel oranges, pummelos, fuji apples, and oro blancos) that are in season from the farmers market in Campbell. I made a garlicky spinach pasta with fresh Meyer lemons from our yard one night. It came out very well, though I would have liked it to be spicier...recipe to follow.
In business, I feel very fortunate and again blessed to be working with so many incredible people. My listing in San Bruno thankfully sold and the seller is buying a lovely place to call home in Sacramento. Four deals have closed this year so far and with another in escrow, there is much to be appeciative for. Although the news is always painting a bleak outlook, they are usually behind in reporting how things are looking up.
Back to talking about home... We have nearly 50 fruit plants/trees in our yard now. The potatoes are sprouting in the crop circle Naoki made. The blossoms are radiant on Aislee's white peach / white nectarine tree and on the Georgia Peach tree we adopted from a home in Palo Alto. I'm looking forward to making fruit pies if the fat squirrels don't get to them first.
The old avocado tree that came with this house bears California Diablo avocados. They're smoother and creamier than Hass and have a thinner skin. They take two weeks to ripen once picked from the tree. Hopefully we'll have more growing as I love avocado sandwiches on toasted bread with Japanese mayonnaise (Kewpie brand) and slices of cold cucumber! So good!! I could go off on a tangent when it comes to avocados... Actually it looks like I did.
Ok, on to the pasta recipe -
Boil your preferred pasta al dente (slightly undercooked) as you'll be adding it to another pan to mix in with the garlic lemon sauce.
1. In a large sauce pan drizzle a tablespoon of grapeseed oil (olive oil is fine too) and a pat of butter, heat on medium flame.
2. Add crushed garlic, approximately 5 - 7 cloves
3. Sprinkle a teaspoon (or more depending on your heat preference) of red pepper flakes
4. Add a few pinches of salt to meld flavors, more can be added later to adjust
5. Careful not to burn the garlic, give your mixture a few pushes around your pan.
6. Once garlic is crisp, add spinach and pasta.
7. Mix everything well til spinach is cooked, adding a touch more oil or butter as needed.
8. Finally add thinly sliced lemon wedges of one lemon or juice lemon and add it's zest.
Current fruit obsession - muscat grapes (available for a limited time at Nijiya Markets, Bristol Farms, and Whole Foods), oranges from Twin Girl Farms (available at our local farmers markets), and strawberries.
I'm sorry, nothing really new to report other than my food cravings. I won't look for and include photos as that would just cause me to go out unwrap my truck, which takes 20 minutes to get the buckles, lock, and cover taken off, and drive through the Cinco de Mayo traffic on my street to battle rush hour traffic to buy fruit.
This weird, but interesting looking citron is called a "Buddha's Hand" and was purchased at today's farmers market at the Ferry Building in San Francisco. It's scent is similar to a Meyers lemon, but more intense and slightly sweeter. I brought one home to show Naoki, since he has an interest in photographing strange things (you'll probably see it on his blog later)
Along with my buddha's hand lemon, I picked up one "pain epi" wheat bread (it's shaped like a stalk of wheat) at Acme Bread Company, and two organic oranges to make cranberry/orange relish. While walking back to the office, I broke my bread in half to share with someone on the street and stashed the other half in my bag containing the buddha's hand. The aroma of the fresh baked bread and citrus together created a wonderful smell!
The best part of eating that bread this evening was the light lemon taste it took on from the oils in the citron. It was perfect alone, though I did eat it with a small piece of pepper jack.
There are always treasures to be found at each of the local farmers markets in the Bay Area. Today was our first time exploring the one held in downtown Campbell. We decided last Sunday while at Santana Row's Farmers we'd follow one of the friends we made at the Twin Girls Organic Fruit Stand to his new location and purchase some of their fresh pressed, organic pomegranate juice. As usual, we arrived 30 minutes to closing. We found our friend, Isaias, and puchased a bag full of Fuyu persimmons, red/black pluots, two pomegranates (cracked, how Naoki likes them), and two bottles of the pom juice.
If you've ever tried and liked POM at your local grocers, you will LOVE Twin Girls freshly pressed pomegranate juice! The first sip will make you pucker, but after your initial taste it really becomes so deliciously sweet. It would make for a wonderful popscicle, drizzled atop vanilla ice cream or even a fruity vinegarette dressing. One thing to keep in mind though, it's best to drink it in a small glass. While it is preferable to drink after it's just been pressed, it does contain a high amount of sugar. There's also a potent amount of antioxidants, but a little does go a long way.
More on the health benefits of these jeweled fruit -
- High in potassium, vitamin C, folic acid, fiber and polyphenols
- lowers risk of heart disease by preventing the formation of plaque
- preserves nitric oxide, a chemical that regulates blood flow and maintains healthy blood vessel health
- combats free radicals that may cause stroke, hypertension and Alzheimer’s disease
- high levels of antioxidants may prevent premature aging
- polyphenols may slow or even prevent the development of cancer
Fresh and delicious, but not so pretty to look at, Artic White Nectarines were had at this past Sunday's farmers' market in Santana Row. We arrived for the last 30 minutes and most of the more asthetically pleasing fruit had been taken. Still those yummy, organic white nectarines from Kashiwase Farms hit the spot! They were sweet and still firm, although they were a little bruised. I've heard (and I don't know if it's true) that the ugliest fruit are often the tastiest. In this case, it was true. The two red pluots I purchased from them were also excellent and still lovely to see.
In my earlier posts, I showed a chart from EWG. When purchasing peaches and nectarines, going organic is best, as they absorb the most pesticides in conventional farming. These fall into the medium/moderate category on the the glycemic index. Consuming fresh fruit is often preferable over drinking fruit juice, which can raise blood sugar levels. Fiber from fruit can help time-release the sugars found in natural fresh fruit, making it easier for the body to digest and keep blood sugars at a healthy level.
Nothing beats the taste of a freshly picked strawberry or tomato grown in your garden, or in our case, balcony planter. I never believed it til actually trying it for the first time! Our local farmers market carries a fabulous assortment of tasty, organic produce, which I believe probably tastes even more amazing right after it's picked.
We purchased organic baby tomato seedlings and wild strawberries plants from Whole Foods in Campbell earlier this spring. It was the first time I'd ever grown something edible.
Beautiful white peaches from Kashiwase Farms (Organic, specializing in stone fruit, almonds, and Asian pears (yum!))
Today we headed to the Farmers Market at Santana Row. Thankfully the crowd was light, as I believe most people were swarming around downtown San Jose for the Grand Prix racing event. There were quite a few certified farmers there and a handful of organic vendors as well. We left with decent sized bags of delicious white peaches, white nectarines, shiney red plums, juicy strawberries, and one crisp, j-shaped Armenian cucumber - all organic of course!
Afterwards we made a quick stop over at the Great Mall in Milpitas for something to eat and to get a bit of exercise in. Window shopping at a mall that's the size of four football fields definitely counts as exercise.
This particular mall has a mix of really cool and some seriously junkie stores. I usually have a lot of fun visiting the accessory shops that sell all types of sparkley stuff. It's a bad case of "Magpie Syndrome", being attracted by things that glitter and catch the light. Maybe it was from being full or from shopping the day before at the Gilroy Outlets, but I couldn't find anything to purchase even though there were some excellent sales going on.
