Text and Photos by Denise Woodward and Lenny Ferreira

While I make coffee in the morning, I like to open our kitchen door to let in the warmth of the sun or the coolness of the winter rain. Today, I could smell the remaining footprints of our last winter rains mixed with the scent of springtime jasmine.

After two days of icy cold rains, we were blessed with warm weather and slivers of sunshine. I was excited. I grabbed a quick cup of coffee, kissed Lenny good-bye and headed out with camera and notepad in hand, to explore the Alemany Farmer’s Market.

This market is not terribly far from our house so I had no excuse not to visit. As I turned the corner, I caught a glimpse of the market and got very excited. There was a sea of colored tops and vendor stalls, which was a very pleasant surprise as my last market adventure was near rained out. When I found parking immediately, I knew this trip was meant to be.

As soon as I started walking from my car, the foggy air was filled with the aroma of fresh brewed coffee, a hint of spicy food and the distant sounds of steel drums. I was immediately taken back to a far away land; I was no longer in the middle of San Francisco. I was completely ready to jump in.

When I arrive at a market, I first take a walk through, to see who is there, what is available and scout out the best prices. There was no fluff, no tourists, and the prices were right. I later discovered it was the first farmer’s market in California. Started in 1943, the Alemany Market has been dubbed the “people’s market.” It has all sorts of product, but also great just-cooked food and lively entertainment.

This market supports small family farmers and it is about 50% certified organic. There is fresh produce for a variety of backgrounds like Chinese chives, bok choy and daikon, and Latin-inspired sugarcane and guavas. The final days of winter were still evident in piles of root vegetables, citrus, apples and hard squashes. But, there was a small glimmer of spring in the early season green garlic, strawberries and bright tulips.

I fell in love with a small organic farmer, Tomatero Farms. They had an abundance of everything I wanted: broccoli, beets, wild arugula, wintergreens, kale and super sweet carrots. The staff at Tomatero are young, upbeat and very personable, and promised that the hints of spring would be budding at the market in only a few short weeks. I am so excited to be cooking with their produce this week and am equally excited to learn that they dry-farm their tomatoes. Can Summer come soon enough?!

This market also had an assortment of food vendors. I love street food and this is a great place to get some amazing food. Not only were there freshly shucked oysters but also amazing tamales, wood-fired pizzas and Malaysian-style crepes.

Entertainment was around every corner. I listened to a steel drum player who took me back to the days when I use to travel to the Caribbean. I watched the old woman who was entertaining small children with her dancing cat while she played her saw. And, finally, I was taken back to a movie I loved, The Visitor, when I heard drums beaten over at Princess Aisha’s stand, lovely background music to set off her pretty Shea products and baskets.

Alemany Farmer’s Market is more than a farmer’s market. It’s a place where everyone can meet up and fill their baskets with produce and a bit of community spirit. I’ll be returning soon.

Alemany Farmers Market,100 Alemany Blvd, 101 Saturdays, 6AM-6PM

Denise and Lenny are a foodie couple who share their culinary capers at their blog, Chez Us.

Written by Dennis Phillips and Chloe Mathieu Phillips

We had such a delicious, fascinating wine last weekend, we thought we absolutely had to share it here. There was only one problem however: we had trouble figuring out how to describe it. We were not the only ones: a quick search showed that Chris of the excellent Full Pour wine blog felt exactly the same about this gem from the obscure Jasnières wine area.

We thought about it some more and eventually stumbled upon a Joan Rivers quote in which she described a pop singer’s look as “If Elvis and Elvira had a kid, this would be it.” Looking at the picture of the singer, then at our bottle, we suddenly had a flash: this is it!  If Chablis and Sancerre had a love child, this is how it would taste

On the nose, this Chenin Blanc has a light smell of lemon drop along with some delicate floral notes… maybe lavender? The mouthfeel is relatively full and rounded and has a surprising sweetness in the mid-palate. The only thing we could compare it to was candied Granny Smith apple mixed with Lemonheads.

Not only is this a fantastic bottle but it is also made by the kind of winemaker that we love to encourage. Pascal Janvier is a man who makes wine by passion and works hard to do so. He was not born into a winemaking family and studied his art in a specialized Loire high school in the early 1990s. He bought 9 hectares – minuscule by most standards – and 210 cases of his wine (2520 bottles) are now distributed stateside.

If you are tired of Chardonnay but enjoy its fresh and fruity citrus flavors, this is a great alternative. It is beautiful on its own and really does not need food. Perfect to celebrate the spring, this would be a great late afternoon drink wonderful in a sunny garden or on a roof terrace, ideally paired with nothing more than a warm sweater and a blue sky.

Pascal Janvier Jasnières 2008 | $22 at Dandelion Wines, 153 Franklin Street, Brooklyn.

Still feel like your cup is half empty? Read more from Chloe and Dennis on their wine blog, Tag: Wine.

Written by Heather Atwood
Photo by Pink Scarf

“- comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love.” — Song of Solomon 2:5.

Apples are so much more reliable, but beware; if we don’t start protecting the ancient apple forests of Kazakhstan, love might be all we’ve got left. And what’s better? A few text messages or a sweet, crisp, thin-skinned McCoun? Puleeeeze.

There is nothing American about the apple. The proverbial symbol of our fallen selves traveled to us with turmeric and cinnamon via the Silk Road from Central Asia, specifically Kazakhstan, where apples, plum, cherry, pears, apricots, and walnuts all grow wild, ancient forests of them.

Nowhere else in the world do apples grow in forests, and for that reason the famous plant scientist Nikolay Vavilov in 1927 declared Kazakhstan the apple’s most likely hometown. If there ever was a first apple that was too lovely to resist, it came from a tree in Kazakhstan, where genetic diversity was helped along by gigantic mountain ranges that fragmented and isolated the land. Pollen, and therefore the species, didn’t get all mixed up with any other; pure wild apples, pure species. All the domestic apples cultivated today trace back to these forests, which – here’s the tragic part – are disappearing.

Henry David Thoreau, who was a great admirer of wild apples, wrote about their decline in this country in the late 19th century, mourning over his memories of wild apples piling up two feet deep against a stone wall at the bottom of a field. He says wild apples “must be eaten…when your system is all aglow with exercise, when the frosty weather nips your fingers, the wind rattles the bare boughs or rustles the few remaining leaves, and the jay is heard screaming. What is sour in the house a bracing walk makes sweet. Some of these apples might be labeled, ‘To be eaten in the wind.’”

In the last four hundred years, there were 16,000 varieties of apples identified as growing in North America, all having traveled here from you know where. In 1904, North America was down to 7,098. Now? There are about 300 varieties left in cultivation.

But, hey, no worries, because supposedly all those lost species in this country have continued thriving, unblemished by civilization, in that apple-gene warehouse, the forests of Kazakhstan. If there’s a blight pandemic that wipes out the apples of North America, can’t we go apple-seed shopping on the hillsides of Alma-Ata? Not so much anymore. Scientists have drawn up a “Red List” of forty-four species of Central Asian fruit trees that could soon disappear, including ‘Malus sieversii 3,’ the species most of our grocery store apples call “Mom.”

Almost 90 percent of the fruit and nut forests of Central Asia have been destroyed in the last fifty years, by development, excess logging, fires, and war. (In world war II, Russian soldiers burned acres of apple forests.)

But there is hope; The Global Trees Campaign, a partnership between Fauna & Flora International, Botanic Gardens Conservation International and many other organizations around the world, aims to save threatened tree species through provision of information, conservation action and support for sustainable use. Go to The Global Tree campaign. In fact, become their fan on Facebook, and check out their cool “Tree of the Week” images. Better yet, become of fan of apples, of trees, of Kazakhstan!

Guess what else Henry David Thoreau says? “It is remarkable how closely the history of the apple-tree is connected with that of man.”

Heather Atwood is a columnist for the Gloucester Daily Times. Her latest column can be read here.

Written by Dennis Phillips and Chloe Mathieu Phillips
Photo by Nino Modugno, view his photos

You probably all know by now that when given the choice, we do like to go with locally produced goods, especially with food. With wine however, the discussion becomes a bit more complicated. We are not sure that we agree with Mark Bittman when he says that drinking only US wine “may be pressing the point because it’s only about a thousand miles more to Paris than it is to Seattle, and the wines to our east are on average better, and not more expensive, than the wines to our west” but we do constantly ponder the definitions of sustainable wine consumption.

This is what we were discussing when, on our way back from a weekend in Pennsylvania, we stumbled upon the Lehigh Valley wine route.  While we have been familiar with Pennsylvania wines for a while now, our last tasting dated back to a former life where, believe it or not, we poo-pooed most of the wines we tried. Maybe our palates were simply not used to different tastes and terroirs and we quickly dismissed the few bottles we tried as sweet grape juice?

There are tons of wineries to explore in Pennsylvania but since we were in a hurry (it was the day of the Olympic’s US vs. Canada gold medal hockey game) we decided to stop at the big, modern looking Clover Hill tasting room. We quickly made our way to the tasting bar and were quite happily surprised by some of their driest wines. After a quick taste, we thus left the winery with high hopes and a Riesling from Clover Hill’s Generations line, named this way as it is produced by the second generation of winemakers in the family.

This is a very light but surprisingly well made wine. There are strong apple and pear smells and it does not have as much of a petrol aroma, a hallmark characteristic of Alsacian or German Riesling. In the mouth, flavors of apple juice almost make it taste like a non-sparkling, light cider. The green apple tartness is definitely pronounced from start to finish. This is a dry, low alcohol wine, making it very versatile.

Our first thought was that this wine could make a great apperitive and we envisioned it served as a spritzer to kick-start a local-themed dinner. It is also excellent when paired with light dishes.

We decided to pair it with Merrill’s Polenta with Wilted Escarole and Olive Oil recipe that we had bookmarked on Food52 a few months ago. Unsure of how this ultra-light wine would fare with the eggs, we left them out. The result was an almost perfect pairing, with the wine responding fantastically to the garlic and the polenta acting a bit as a backbone, wonderfully supporting the action.

This wine definitely does not require food but we were impressed by how well it worked with the garlicky greens. Other good pairings? Probably an apple pork tenderloin like the one Elise makes on Simple Recipes or a simple sausage with grapes or apple dish like the Alchemist’s (make sure you go with light sausages).

While locally produced wines may sometimes demand an open-mind – especially in the North East – they are definitely worth a try and Pennsylvania wines are no exception.

Clover Hill Generations Riesling 2006 | $19 at the Clover Hill Winery, Breinigsville, PA.

Still feel like your cup is half empty? Read more from Chloe and Dennis on their wine blog, Tag: Wine.

Written by Chelsea Bardot Lewis

I moved to the north shores of Massachusetts almost four years ago when my husband took a job at Green Meadows Farm in Hamilton, Massachusetts. I had been living in Somerville, Massachusetts, which I loved, and was a bit anxious about moving to the suburbs.

I was amazed at how quickly we were integrated into a vibrant, creative, albeit rural community. The area has come to feel like home, and as we get ready to move again, I’d like to share some of the spots I’ll be saddest to leave behind. If you find yourself on our splendid north shores of Massachusetts, do visit these indie spots.

Coffee: Atomic Café

265 Cabot Street, Beverly, Massachusetts

This neighborhood hot spot isn’t just the best coffee on the north shore; it’s the best I’ve had in all of New England. John hand selects farms to source his beans, roasts the coffee in house, and has cultivated the best baristas around.

Bakery: A&J King

48 Central Street, Salem, Massachusetts

This is my absolute favorite place to be on a Saturday morning. Andy and Jackie are true artisan bakers, and their shop is a beautiful showcase of their craft. Is there anything better than fresh-from-the-oven sourdough bread? Also, try the seasonal fruit tarts with local ricotta – yum!

Farmstand: Green Meadows Farm

656 Asbury Street, South Hamilton, Massachusetts

I must offer full disclosure here: I used to manage this farmstand so I’m a bit I’m biased. But believe me when I say, the produce is beautiful, the meats are amazing, and Diana has a knack for locating the best (and hardest to find) local and organic goods. Also, they brew Atomic Coffee, so that makes them the best place in Hamilton to stop for a cup of java.

Beer: Gulu Gulu Café

247 Essex Street, Salem, Massachusetts

The Gulu is a Czech-inspired bar with a funky Salem vibe. The beer list features local favorites (including selections from Brooklyn and Dogfish Head, my two favorite breweries), as well as some more unusual Belgian and German offerings. During the day, this is also my favorite place to study, as the chairs are comfy, the food is delicious, and the servers don’t discourage lingering.

Brunch: Tryst

282A Cabot Street, Beverly, Massachusetts

Brunch is my favorite meal, and Tryst does it right. Their eggs are sourced-locally and cooked perfectly, and the portions aren’t so huge that you’ll spend the rest of your Sunday recovering. The Bloody Mary’s are also a treat. And, with their newly expanded dining room, it’s easier than ever to get a table.

I attended my first Paris party last week, and arrived with this apple and rhubarb tart from Les Petits Mitrons. (More on that Paris party in another post soon.) I was so enraptured by the crunchy crust, glazed apples and tender rhubarb that I fell in love on the spot. I carefully prepared for its purchase, visiting the shop a few times to ensure I’d find a fresh one on the day of the party. It was lovingly nestled into this pretty pink box.

The tart was so lovely on this delicate plate, provided by the hosts. No one wanted to cut into it, but everyone wanted a bite.

Up close, I admired the glazed apple wedges and bits of still bright red rhubarb, a fruit that tends to lose its color after being cooked. Les Petits Mitrons must use some sort of magic on their tarts because STILL BRIGHT RED.

The tart was one of the last things we cut into that evening. For me, I just wanted to stare at the glorious site.

And as the sun set, the tart remained intact for a few minutes after I snapped this shot. The setting sun granted us permission to finally cut it up into thick wedges. It was very fruity, and not too sweet. The crust was burnt and caramelized, in the best possible way.

Interview by Maggie Battista

Charlotte Druckman is my new food friend. I’ve admired her writing for years and am so in love with her column for The New York Times Style Magazine called “We Made It Ourselves” where she profiles handmade food. We adore her so that we asked her to share more about hand-crafted food and how she’d use her favorites at a dinner party.

What’s your favorite local, hand-crafted food item(s) right now?

My favorite recent discovery is the bacon-maple biscuit at the newest outpost of Birdbath Bakery–it’s in Soho, on the grounds of the former Vesuvio bakery, this legendary, old, Italian family-run operation. Thankfully, Maury Rubin, Mr. Birdbath, has kept a lot of the original facade and design in tact.

Anyway, this biscuit. It’s almost a cheap shot–who doesn’t love the bacon-maple combination? Who doesn’t love a good biscuit? And this one is really good, plus, the maple pools in little burnt crispy bits, off the side of the biscuit. I wrote about this bacon jam that’s made in Seattle. What I’m dying to do is spread some of that on the biscuit (I’m never against gilding the lily). Problem is that I never make it home with the biscuit. You kind of can’t stop eating it. Maybe I’ll bring the jam with me on my next excursion.

I also adore The Yogurt Place II on Sullivan Street. It’s owned by a mother-daughter team, and they make the best thick Greek yogurt, onto which they spoon fig conserves, apricot conserves, or very sour (in a good way) cherries.

I think the people who are doing Anarchy in a Jar jams are brilliant, and, most of all, I’m OBSESSED with the MilkMade people–it’s an ice cream subscription. The founder delivers your pint to you in person; each is hand-labeled, hand-made, etc. I just got my first installment a few weeks ago. You choose between two flavors (they’re constantly testing). I chose the coffee + donuts. It tastes like the perfect cup of coffee with milk in it, plus Doughnut Plant items mixed in (the hazelnut doughnut is the one that resonated the most during my repeated tastings).

How would you use that item(s) at a dinner party?

I would definitely slice the biscuits horizontally, and smear the jam in between the halves, sandwich style. I’d cut each sandwich up into a few bite-sized portions and serve them as pre-dinner nibbles. Or in lieu of bread at the table, I suppose each person could have a biscuit, and instead of butter, I’d offer bacon jam. This is a tough question, because all of these things are so good on their own, they don’t really need anything. I’d love to serve the ice cream on a warm chocolate cake or souffle, or even, on a sticky toffee pudding.

Charlotte is currently co-writing Anita Lo’s first cookbook with her, and just wrote the article she’s been waiting to write for years on female chefs for the 10th anniversary issue of Gastronomica. [This is the second in a series of blog interviews with Charlotte. Read part 1.]

This week’s bottle definitely is a special one. Not necessarily for its taste but rather for its provenance, New Mexico. Although this is the oldest wine growing region in the United States, few people know about it and New Mexican wines are quite rare on the east coast. Gruet, probably the most famous winery in New Mexico, is known primarily for its sparkling wines.  But our local shop recently started carrying their Pinot Noir, which we picked up about one month ago and had been eyeing on our shelf ever since.

In the end, it’s a good thing we waited. You see, this past weekend has been a bit tough. We’re not 20 anymore but somehow, when we spend time with our siblings, we seem to forget that. This usually leads to extremely pleasant weekends where we consume huge amounts of wonderful wines, great beers, amazing cheeses and plenty of home cooked meals. This past weekend was one of those and we knew from the start that our Sunday night dinner would be very light.

We had stocked up on escarole and put together a winter salad of roasted butternut squash, dried pomegranate seeds and smoked pork tenderloin to pair with the 2007 Gruet Pinot Noir.  We hoped for a light but comforting wine for a light, feel-good meal. We made up the recipe but loosely based ours on Not Eating out in New York’s Tuscan Kale Salad (although we dropped the mustard dressing) and threw in roasted butternut squash based on Heidi’s Farro and Roasted Butternut Squash recipe.

Very light in color, the wine boasts a light, cranberry fruitiness with a strong presence of oak coming through. It is relatively short and simple in the mouth, but a very pleasant and palate-friendly taste. Although it is a very one-dimensional wine (no earthiness or minerality to speak of), it was absolutely perfect for a detox style meal.

The last few wines we’ve shared here truly shined when paired with food, which is often typical of European wines. Gruet’s Pinot is good in a completely different way. It is what we would call a porch wine: just open the bottle, pour a glass… sip… enjoy… repeat.  We also thought it would be a perfect picnic wine – light and refreshing.  Particularly on a warm summer day just as the sun is slipping below the horizon.  Don’t despair, it’s only a few months away!

Although simple, this is definitely a crowd pleaser and while the wine geeks will enjoy the novelty of drinking a Pinot Noir from New Mexico, the amateurs will be charmed by its purity of fruit and fantastic drinkability. The only issue? Its price.

2007 Gruet Pinot Noir | $24 at Dandelion Wines, 153 Franklin Street, Brooklyn

Still feel like your cup is half empty?  Read more from Chloe and Dennis on their wine blog, Tag: Wine

By Shelby Graham

I miss Summer. I know I’m not the only one. But while others miss the beach and icy margaritas, I miss visiting the farmers’ market each week. Last year was the first time I signed up for a community-supported agriculture (CSA) program and it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

Each Monday, I would visit the friendly folks at the Silverbrook Farm tent, where unlike other CSAs, they give you free reign to choose your vegetables. Throughout the Summer and Fall, I experienced the micro-seasonality of a southeastern Massachusetts farm, greedily snatching up bags and bags of amazingly flavorful tomatoes, greens, onions, potatoes, basil, berries, peaches, plums, apples, squash, and eggplant. I couldn’t resist stocking up on Silverbrook’s colorful jams and jellies, some of which I hid away in my pantry so I could have bursts of summer all winter long. I see I’m not the only one who fell for their jam!

While New York City and Rhode Island love winter farmers’ markets, Boston is seriously lacking on that front. When the market closed in November, I sadly headed back to my supermarket with the goal of trying to eat as seasonally and locally as possible. Fast forward to February when my co-worker told me about a winter farmers’ market that she had recently visited. I was so excited by the idea, I peppered her with questions until she agreed to take me along.

Last Saturday morning, we made our way to the town of Wayland to visit the sprawling Russell’s Garden Center. The place was packed! We wandered past Russell’s beautiful greenhouse and through vendors selling hummus, salsa, and dried fruit leather, until we came upon the farm stands. I recognized Red Fire Farm, and soon began to examine their offerings of root vegetables and greenhouse grown spinach, collards and greens. A recipe began to take shape in my head, and I set about gathering rutabagas, turnips and parsnips – vegetables known to me by name, but not as much by taste. I couldn’t wait to get them home and roast them up!

The following is the loose recipe I created for this massive haul of winter vegetables. Feel free to use different vegetables, and to increase the amount of the maple balsamic mixture. I served them over polenta with feta cheese sprinkled on top for a great wintry meal.

Maple Balsamic Roasted Root Vegetables

Ingredients

• 3 rutabagas
• 3 parsnips
• 2 turnips
• 4 large carrots
• 3 radishes
• 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 3 tbsp maple syrup (honey would also go nicely here)
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1 glug of soy sauce (optional)
• 2 teaspoons fresh thyme, stripped from woody stems
• 2 teaspoons rosemary, stripped from stems and chopped
• salt and pepper to taste

Turn the oven on to 400 degrees. Line two cookie sheets or jelly roll pans with tin foil. Wash and peel the root vegetables and cut into uniform sized pieces. (I usually go for a smaller size so that they don’t take as long to roast.) Place all cut vegetables into a large bowl and set aside.

In a smaller bowl or a glass measuring cup, combine the vinegar, maple syrup and olive oil (and add the soy sauce here, if you are using). Pour the mixture over the vegetables and toss to coat well. Roast the vegetables, tossing once in awhile, for about 30 minutes or until browned and softened.

There is one Saturday remaining (February 27) at the winter farmers’ market at Russell’s Garden Center. Don’t miss your chance!

Shelby also posts as Lady Gouda on her blog, Lady Gouda.