Orange County Food Blog

Another Good Food dispatch from yours truly, this time on the joys of cactus. Near the top:

Dave Lieberman

'Tis the last peach of summer left rip'ning alone...

​That's right, peaches--maybe.

Yes, it's mid-November. Yes, it's already snowing all over the purple mountains' majesty and the fruited plains east of here. People in New York are settling in for a long winter of imported Israeli produce, and even here in the fruit basket of the United States, the farmer's markets are full of hard squashes and fall fruits like pomegranate and quince.

But the Tenerellis, who own a farm in Littlerock that happens to be situated in the most perfect microclimate for peaches in all the Southland, still have peaches, or they did this past weekend. They are the last fresh local peaches available anywhere, a variety called Autumn Lady. While they're not "sink peaches" (the kind you get in August that are so juicy you have to eat them over the sink), these firm, yellow, freestone peaches would be perfect for pie or a beautiful galette, or just to have one more taste of summer before the long seven months' dry spell.

The sooner you can get to the market, the sooner you can partake, and the better your chances that they'll still have some.

Tenerelli Orchards sells at nearly every good-sized Southland farmer's market, including Costa Mesa (Thursdays 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the OC Fairgrounds), Laguna Hills (Fridays 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the parking lot of the Laguna Hills Mall) and Irvine (Saturdays 8 a.m. to noon at Campus Dr. and Bridge St.)

The whole point of a farmer's market is to bring fresh, local food to people with as few intermediate steps as possible. While it's always fresh, sometimes the bounds of "local" get stretched. (Don't get me wrong--I am not about to give up my San Joaquin Delta asparagus--but calling that local to Irvine is stretching the bounds of reason.)

And then there's Rui, the smiling, gracious woman behind the table of R Farms, near the center of the Irvine market, across from the giant hummus booth.

Dave Lieberman

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Rui is one of a network of small-time OC growers who produce food out of their suburban backyards. Sometimes the produce is plentiful, sometimes it isn't. Some of the growers sell to restaurants, either directly or through a cooperative, and some just sell at farmer's markets or farm stands, directly to the public. R Farms is a one-stop operation; she grows them and she sells them.

Dave Lieberman

​It's fall, which means it's apple season here in Southern California.

Tilden Farms from Riverside has Sekai Ichi apples, which are thought to be a cross between Red Delicious and Golden Delicious. They're great for eating out of hand, with a lot of juice and none of the mealiness that tends to plague Red Delicious.

Many vendors have Pink Lady apples this year, which are a cross between Golden Delicious and Lady Williams that originated in Australia. These are chameleon apples: You can eat them raw, you can cook them and you can bake them.

Hannes_2 @ wikimedia.org CC-BY-SA

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One of my beefs (sorry) with the Irvine farmer's market is that while you can get amazing produce, baked goods, fish, even olive oil, there's not much in the way of meat available. So when I took a Friday off to go have breakfast at Break of Dawn and go to the Laguna Hills market, I was stunned to find a big sign saying "GRASS-FED BEEF AVAILABLE HERE TODAY," with a big guy in a Stetson sitting next to it.

It turns out the guy in the Stetson is named Frank Fitzpatrick, and he raises Barzona cattle on Irvine Company land up in Trabuco Canyon, as well as out in the Mojave Desert, and sells the resulting beef under the brand 5 Bar Beef. We had a discussion about the foot traffic at the Irvine market, and a couple of Saturday mornings later, Frank set up shop in Irvine, across the aisle from Dry Dock Fish.

Picture to come once my chica updates her blog...

Maybe there's really nothing to do in La Habra. Maybe Newport Beach was too drunk already tailgating for the USC game to care. But, boy, was there a hell of a difference at the county's two public Hatch chile roasts.

The first one occurred August 22 at the Albertson's in La Habra. It was to be a two-day affair, but when my chica and I arrived Sunday morning around 9 a.m., we were 24 hours too late. According to store management, they sold out of 12,000 pounds of the New Mexican pod in two hours. By six Saturday morn, a line already stretched around the block waiting for the chance to buy 30-pound bags of the stuff. Six tons gone in two hours. Does know one have a life in La Habra.

Now, compare that madness to the insanity of Newport Beach.

Hopefully, gentle readers, ustedes need no introduction to the glory of the Hatch chile; if you do, read this. Salivating yet? Save it, and drive to La Habra this weekend--specifically, Albertson's, where they will be selling 30-pound sacks for $28.99 and roasting them for gratis from eight in the morn until two in the afternoon--or, they run out (and they will). Address is 1800 W. Whittier Blvd., and the phone number (562) 697-6442.

However, if you don't want to take Beach all the way up to the Tierra de Fuego of O.C., you can go to the Bristol Farms in Newport Beach (810 Avocado Ave., Newport Beach, 949-760-6514) the weekend of September 5. No time or prices, scheduled yet, but nevertheless go. And, while you're roasting, argue with any native New Mexicans to give us back our Anaheim chile!

Here's the Hatch chile festival (scheduled for Labor Day weekend this year):

The American Farmland Trust is holding the inaugural America's Favorite Farmers Markets contest, from now until August 8, in order to raise awareness about the importance of supporting local farms and farmers. The winner in each category (small, medium, and large) gets 500 "No Farms No Food" tote bags to distribute to shoppers, but the main thing is to get the word out about buying local, fresh produce.

Local markets such as Irvine and Costa Mesa are on the roster of contenders, but others including Brea and Fullerton are currently missing... So if your favorite one isn't on the list and you care about the cause, you're asked to print off the flyer and take it to the market manager and encourage them to sign up.

Get votin'!!

I was delighted to discover that an official food holiday falls on my birthday--tomorrow, May 20.

No, not National Fettucine Alfredo Day, National Cream-Filled Donut Day, or National Onion Rings Day--yes, they're all real!--but Pick Strawberries Day.

It is, of course, peak season for the fruit right now (indeed, May is National Strawberry Month). Locally grown strawbs are available everywhere, with some of the plumpest, juiciest specimens being sold at the farmers' markets.

But if you really want to celebrate tomorrow by getting down 'n' dirty and picking your own, head to Tanaka Farms, an organic, family-owned farm that runs strawberry-picking tours.

Bookings are required for weekday tours (Tuesday to Friday) as times vary, but at weekends they're held regularly (reservations only necessary for groups of ten or more), at 9.30am, 11:00am, 1:00pm and 2:30pm.

If that sounds too much like hard work, stop by anyway and pick up something from Tanaka's onsite produce stand.

And what's coming up on Thursday? National Strawberries and Cream Day, of course!
 
Tanaka Farms, 5380 3/4 University Dr., Irvine, (949) 653-2100/reservations (714) 968-6588. Tours cost $13 (free for children aged 2 and under).

As I mentioned recently, Marché Moderne is celebrating two years at South Coast Plaza with a two-night special tasting menu and market for diners. Last night was the first night; I attended--and also Twittered about the experience.

The food was superb, the dishes showcasing top-tier produce from the restaurant's suppliers, who also came to sell their wares at the market.

A corner of the restaurant's rooftop patio was taken over by seven vendors, selling everything from flowers--including real lavender!--from Bonne Fleur to baskets of farm-fresh mushrooms and beets (West Central Produce) to iced crustacea (Santa Monica Seafood).

The proprietors were keen to engage the enthusiastic buyers and browsers in conversation about their produce, and food in general.


As for the tasting menu, it's not cheap--$75, plus $35 for the optional French wine pairing--but it's good. The vegetable course--nothing more than a minimalist line of baby vegetables, Meyer lemon chutney and sauce mousseline--proved that simple needn't mean boring. Also memorable was the yakitori of lobster and sweetbread, a combination that works surprisingly well, and the finale, Amelia Marneau's raspberry-mascarpone soufflé tart. The meat course included a ribeye that was so rare it almost walked off the plate, but I realize that that's the optimum way of maintaining the quality.

The whole evening was a foodie's dream come true... It's just a shame it comes around only once a year.

Ernest Miller is a cook at the Disneyland Resort who also blogs at Culinary Safaris and is enrolled alongside my chica in the Master Food Preserver that has me going to San Bernardino more times than any non-909er should ever have to. He has an interesting request for SAFII readers: anyone has loquats you can give him? As a final project for the class, Miller wants to make loquat barbecue sauce, loquat jam, loquat butter, loquat preserves, and loquat brandy. He has a loquat tree in his Whittier home but has exhausted his supply and knows most Californians let the sweet, syrupy fruit rot on the branch or fall to the ground to await someone's shoe instead of using them. In return, Miller promises to reimburse you with said butter, jams, brandy, barbecue sauce, and preserves (and, in six months, after his loquat seeds properly dry and ferment, loquat liqueur). Interested in helping a foodie out? Contact Miller at...um, his blog doesn't have an email, so just contact me in the comments here or at GArellano@ocweekly.com, and I'll send your message along

And now, loquat!

Spring may have sprung, and Michelle Obama may be receiving bountiful media coverage for her new White House kitchen garden, but Orange County has its very healthy-food hero in the form of local movie producer and director Carrie Gallison.

Gallison recently completed Orange County Treasures: The People's Farm, a 23-minute documentary that chronicles the history of South Coast Farms (the oldest working farm in OC) and the people of San Juan Capistrano, who helped stop it from becoming "another strip mall casualty".

When researching the film, Gallison traced the history of the farm right back to the 1800s, interviewing former SCF residents such as Rita Nieblas, who was born on the farm in the early 20th century.
 
Part of the documentary was shot at Avanti Café in Costa Mesa (winner of the OC Weekly's Best Restaurant award in 2008). In addition to favoring South Coast Farms produce in its cooking, Avanti is a pick-up point for CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) members.

All that filming must've worked up an appetite: according to Gallison, Avanti's owners Tanya Fuqua and Mark Cleveland "fed me and my crew yummy organic meals and even sent us home with bags full of great food." Nice work if you can get it!

A free screening of the documentary is being held this Thursday, March 26, at 7:00pm at the San Juan Capistrano Community Center, 25925 Camino del Avion, San Juan Capistrano, (949) 493-5911. DVDs will also be available. To see the trailer, CLICK HERE.

Catch up with Garrison's future plans--which include more in the Orange County Treasures documentary series--on her website.  

It takes quite the personality to motivate about 10 suburbanites to get up early Sunday morning, drive an hour and a half to San Diego County, and end up in the unincorporated community of Rainbow for the honor of picking weeds for nothing, but that's the type of gal Donna Buono is. The San Clemente resident runs Morning Song Farms, which supplies damn-good restaurant Old Vine Café with much of the veggies and fruits for their wondrous meals, and operates a CSA (community-supported agriculture) program at two Orange County spots in which folks pay a modest fee for organic produce that varies with the season. Due to interest from her customers in seeing where their food originates, Buono invited her customers to stop by last weekend, with the caveat she'd put them to work because weeds never rest.

The drive to Morning Song Farms is relatively simple: a bit off I-15, with curvy roads that dip and rise through her property until you reach her two-story farmhouse (watch out for the 25 or so chickens that practice the joke again and again. Buono greeted about 10 guests with a gruff "Introduce yourselves to everyone, and start picking weeds." She dressed like a stylish South County mom--boots, nice shirt, big belt, and cut bob--but joined everyone in getting down and dirty.

Most folks stayed two hours, uniting in the joy of an overcast, warm day in stunning scenery that soothes nerves like a good cuppa mocha. At the end, Buono allowed folks to take whatever ripe fruits or veggies they wanted--passion fruit, oranges, macadamia nuts. Like a cliché, I spent about half-an-hour with my chica picking clean Buono's chile de arbol plant, laden with thin, vicious peppers perfect for chili flakes. The only place you'll taste chiles of this type this good are in a couple of Mexi backyards, but if you want them, better hurry: they're almost out of season.

For those of you interested in Morning Song Farm tours or their CSA program, email Donna at Donna@morningsongfarm.com. In the meanwhile, Homer as a hippie, when he eventually turns into an organic farmer!

I can never hate Northgate Gonzalez Markets. Its story is one of the great Orange County immigrant success tales, its aisles the first one I remember walking, the hometown of its founders--Jalostotitlán, Jalisco--always fighting for Mexican supremacy in Anaheim against Arandas, Jalisco and my El Cargadero, Jerez, Zacatecas. My mom still does a lot of her shopping there, although no longer for the best bargains--the honor for that is Super King Market in Anaheim, where she shops amongst women in hijabs for most of her Mexican produce and Middle Eastern-derived snacks. And that leads to the purpose of this post.

I went to the Northgate off Fourth Street in SanTana this past weekend, the one that was the sight of a gentrification battle over a decade ago--but that's not the purpose of this post, either. Needed eggs, and was pleasantly surprised to find they stock organic eggs (those produced by chickens fed an all-organic diet). Mexicans, of course, are the original organic foodies in Southern California, but it was nice to know that capitalists think they can make a quick buck off Mexicans in the current health-food craze.

Then I saw the price: $5.29 for a dozen large brown eggs. And that's when I realized that Northgate is ripping its prized clientele off--big time.

Don't get me wrong--I like Mother's Market, our homegrown Whole Foods. I make it a point to support businesses that subscribe to the principles of the Slow Food movement--we all are sinners (except for the do-gooders at Avanti Cafe), so I understand slip-ups or exceptions occur from time to time. But I was still surprised when I saw Cacique cheese on the shelves of Mother's location in SanTana amongst organic, fair-trade offerings. I'm very familiar with the brand, having eaten the queso fresco my entire life because Mami conditioned me to eat every meal accompanied with a thick slab of the wet, creamy cheese. But there's nothing organic about the cheese--doesn't say anything about the website or the packaging. Perhaps Mother's figures its hippy-dippy clientele base will mistake the cheese for a vintage fromage?

Mother's definitely doesn't offer Cacique to attract more Mexicans. The price I saw yesterday was $5.95. At Northgate Supermarket, just a couple of minutes away on Fourth Street, the same wheel of Cacique was going for $4.49, almost a buck-fifty less. I don't mind paying more cash for organic, fair-trade stuff that tastes better than its mass-produced peers, but I also don't appreciate ripoffs. Get on the Mexican ball, Mother's--and, while you're at it, fix the spelling errors on the sign hawking cactus. In Spanish, it's nopales, not napales--and in English, it's cactus, not catus.