Springtime!
It’s spring and our babies are leaving the nest. Our green house has been keeping baby basil, eggplant, tomato and pepper plants warm and protected, which was very much needed after a rather rugged winter. Well, rugged for Phoenix. But now that the weather has turned, planting has begun.
The basil has been planted in the basil house in the front and is thriving. We had some heaters blowing hot air after a few dips in the temperature, but it should be fine now. The peppers are going in the arugula house once it has been spaded. The tomatoes will take residence in the front garden and the eggplant in the back field.
And now the green house is more of an empty nest.
Amazing!
I made Chef Payton Curry’s Heirloom Cauliflower Salad last night for dinner. Wonderful! So wonderful that I took some of it over to the farm right away so Bob and Marsha could enjoy it too. Really – try it for yourself.
Okay Payton… what else do you have for us??
Chef Curry…
We are pleased to have Chef Payton Curry joining us at the Town & Country Farmer’s Market on Wednesdays. Payton has been nice enough to come talk and help customers at our Old Town Scottsdale Markets on Saturdays, and we are thrilled to get his expert advice at Town & Country now too. Payton has wonderful ideas and advice for preparing produce and for making sure you get the most flavor and nutrients out of our fruits and veggies. We are thrilled to have him at the markets, you will be too.
Payton shared the below recipe, which sounds wonderful. It may be our dinner tonight! Enjoy.
Heirloom Cauliflower Salad
1 ea medium Cheddar Cauliflower, small floret’s
1 ea medium Purple Cauliflower, small floret’s
1 ea medium Romanesco Cauliflower, small Floret’s
1 ea Meyer Lemon, zested and juiced
4 T green garlic, minced
4 T Iitoi Onion, minced, white part only, green reserved for garnish
4 T Golden Raisins
1 cup Queen Creek Olive oil
1/3 cup Banyuls Vinegar, or top quality red wine vinegar
4 T watermelon radish, minced
to taste toasted Pine nuts
1 bu parsley, Chiffonade or tarragon leaves
1). Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2).Toss cauliflower in individual bowls separated by color in olive oil and season with salt and place on separate cookie sheets and roast about 8 to 12 minutes. Cauliflower should have carmelization but still be al Dente.
3).Toast green garlic, iitoi onions in a small sauté pan until light browning and fragrant remove from heat and add vinegar and golden raisins. Raisins will bloom and take on an agrodolce flavor (sweet and sour). Allow to come to room temp and toss with cauliflower, lemon zest, pine nuts, watermelon radish, and parsley.
Notes:
Save the stems from the cauliflower, the base of it and rough chop it with equal parts Alturas Potatoes and Gilfeather Rutabagas. Cover with ½ milk & ½ chicken stock and puree and strain for a nice chilled soup or a sauce. Or strain and mash for a side with brown butter and crispy capers and almonds.
In the news…
My story on Charleen Badman’s lunch at the Arcadia Neighborhood Learning Center is featured in Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution newsletter and website this month. Check it out here.
“I would eat here again in a heartbeat!”
That is an actual quote from me on Tuesday night, between bites during one of many courses, while Sean and I had dinner at the House at Secret Garden.
South Phoenix is having a restaurant renaissance thanks in part to the Christofolo family. The Christofolos were behind the phenomenal Quiessence, one of my all-time favorites. They own The Farm Kitchen and Santa Barbara Catering company, both known for their use of local, organic produce. Recently, Dustin Christofolo opened the House at Secret Garden, set in an historical mansion from the 1920s on Baseline, which fits in perfectly with this family of restaurants.
Dustin has studied at the Italian Culinary Institute in New York, and then went on to study cooking in Parma, Italy and wine in Napa Valley. (I am secretly jealous. Why didn’t I think of these sorts of things when I was slaving away at business school in Pittsburgh of all places?) The menu at the House at Secret Garden reflects this blend of experience and education, it combines rustic American classics with an Italian finesse.
The House itself is warm and charming. My photos don’t do it justice, but they have done a beautiful job of renovating it to make it feel as inviting as it probably was when it was an actual home. There are quiet nooks, wooden floors that squeak, and soft lighting that makes every table feel cozy and quiet. I was told they had quite a night on Valentine’s and I can see why.
Over five courses Sean and I got to try many of the highlights from the menu. I absolutely fell in love with the Grilled Romaine salad. Such a simple idea, but it was so beautifully done that I know it can’t be as easy as it looks. The Romaine was charred just enough to give it that flavor, and then served with marinated red onions, feta cheese, cilantro and a light lemon vinaigrette.
Sean had the Beet and Goat Cheese salad with a dressing made from our Desert Blossom Honey that was also wonderful.
While at The Farm Kitchen Dustin was known for his soups, we now understand why. The cauliflower soup was rich and flavorful, without being heavy. It came topped with grilled Graffiti cauliflower and a sprinkling of mint leaves.
We both enjoyed the homemade pastas, the butternut squash ravioli for me and for Sean the pappardelle with Italian sausage from The Meat Shop, with fennel and pecorino cheese. All of the pastas are made by Dustin and it is clear that he definitely learned a thing or two about pasta while in Italy.
One of the true stand-outs from the evening was the steelhead trout. Served over a tomato broth with a slight kick to it, the fish was light and flakey with a crisp skin. Served with roasted fingerling potatoes and I’itoi onions, it was an unexpected combination of flavors and textures that came together perfectly. This is the dish that caused me to exclaim mid-bite that I would come back here in a heartbeat.
The menu has several desserts from Tracy Dempsey, including sweet potato pudding topped with homemade marshmallows and an individual size pecan pie, and a sinful dense chocolate cake with a passion fruit tulle on the side. I would have included photos if I hadn’t dug into them so fast. Oh well, all the more reason to go back.
To top it off, our service was excellent. Just as welcoming as the house and comforting as the food, we really enjoyed talking with our server and hearing about the dishes. Dustin is also the perfect host. It is clear that this is his house and he wants you to feel at home. I know that there will be much written and shared about the House at Secret Garden soon, so I suggest you go now.
In case the incredible setting and exceptional meal aren’t enough, they also have a large patio in the back with a fireplace, beautiful full trees, and a converted carriage house called Urban Barn that looks like a fun saloon. We were told that they have “Blues in the Barn” on the first Wednesday of the month with singer/songwriter Paris James performing. We have heard him play before at Quiessence and it is already on our calendar to return to hear him at Urban Barn. Between the promise of good music and a bar menu that has sweet potato planks and pork sliders, I’m in.. in a heartbeat!
The House at Secret Garden
2501 East Baseline Road
Phoenix, AZ
602-243-8539
www.houseatsecretgarden.com
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Happy Valentine’s Day!
How we weathered…
The biggest question we have had lately has been… “How did the farm fare during the cold snap?”
Well, the easy answer is that Bob is just really smart about these sorts of things. But here is why in long form…
A week ago today we registered a low of 19-degrees on the farm. Usually temperatures that low only happen in Phoenix about once every thirty years; however, Mother Nature doesn’t seem to care about stats or thirty year averages, since we had recorded 15-degrees only four years ago. What was different this year was that last week was the third hard freeze (meaning 28-degrees or below) we have had since November. While many people have been putting frost cloth to protect their plants, that really only helps for 3-4 degrees below freezing. With temperatures dipping down into the teens, it take more than a frost cloth to save plants.
The only way to really protect plants in temperatures that low requires providing some sort of heat. We don’t have smudge pots or propane heaters, like some farms use. The biggest help with this turn in the weather was the new high tunnel Sean built this past summer. At 300 feet long and 16 feet high, the tunnel completely protects the baby leaf greens planted inside. By being completely sealed off, the temperature inside stays well above freezing. We did have some ice crystals form, which is fine as long as the greens aren’t picked until they have thawed. Greens with ice crystals will shatter to the touch if picked while still frosty. That said, we harvested a row of the greens this Wednesday and they were beautiful. The greens outside of the high tunnel didn’t fare as well. They were severely burned by the freeze and are unusable. Thankfully, there wasn’t a significant loss, since we have planned ahead and planted most of the leafy greens in the tunnel.
The green house also provided the necessary protection for all of our seedlings. The green house is kept at a tropical 75-degrees, with heated electric pads underneath the tiny plants, to keep them cosy. The green house currently has basil, eight varieties of eggplant, six kinds of speciality peppers, and fifteen varieties of heirloom tomatoes all awaiting planting. All of them were fine. The basil is going to go in the basil house in our front garden this next Saturday. The house is protected, but we are still watching the weather to make sure it doesn’t take another drastic dip.
The tomatoes will go in the ground the first week of March. The peppers and eggplant will go in a week or two later. (Below are baby tomato plants… cute, huh?)
The other major factor that helped us through the freeze was that there was a lot of wind, while the humidity stayed low. The combination of wind and low moisture in the air kept ice crystals from forming. It is the formation of ice crystals on leaf structures that causes the most damage. Our heartier greens, such as kale, chard, broccoli, cauliflower and brussel sprouts are able to handle temperatures as low as 10-degrees without any harm. We also ran a drip irrigation system with water from our well that comes out at a toasty 55-degrees (okay… toasty when it is freezing out). This also did a lot to keep our plants warm.
For the citrus, we did experience some freeze damage from the ground up to about five feet high within the trees. The fruit at the top and deep inside the trees remained in excellent condition and continues to be harvested.
Overall, we came out of it really well. Hopefully that is the last deep freeze of the season, although Bob remains vigilant watching the temperatures. Now, as far as how some of our pipes faired, well…
This Saturday…
This weekend the Parada del Sol parade will be taking place on Saturday morning starting at 10:00am. The parade will be running north along Scottsdale Road from McDowell Road to Indian School Road. The Old Town Scottsdale Farmers’ Market will still be open during this time. Road closures for the parade will be from 3:00am thru 1:00pm. The roads closed include:
Scottsdale Road from McDowell Road to Indian School Road.
Indian School Road from Scottsdale Road to 75th Street (east of the Scottsdale Civic Center).
To get to the market, we suggest coming in from south of McDowell and east of Scottsdale Road.
We will have Chef Payton Curry from Caffe Boa joining us again at the Saturday market. He has become an honorary McClendon and is happy to answer any of your questions regarding how to prepare and cook our produce.
We look forward to seeing you on Saturday!
A lunchtime education…
Charlene Badman and Pavle Milic took their culinary expertise and passion for eating well to school today. Over five hundred children enjoyed something most adults would love, they were served a meal from critically lauded FnB Restaurant.
After hearing the lunch options at Arcadia Neighborhood Learning Center, Charlene decided to show the students what good eating is all about. First she taught cooking classes to the third and fourth grade students, using the herbs from one of the school’s gardens. But then she decided to go bigger and planned a meal for all of the students using fresh ingredients, including bread from MJ Breads, Schreiner’s sausages, and produce from the farm.
Her menu included a fresh salad bar with a lemon vinaigrette, handmade butter to go with the wonderful crusty bread and focaccia, a kid-friendly beanies and weenies dish, roasted cauliflower with a béchamel sauce, and, one of my favorites from FnB, roasted jidori chicken. These are some lucky kids indeed!
Marsha and I came along to lend our support and to see for ourselves the reaction from the students to this extraordinary lunchtime fare. This was an all-hands on deck moment, and we quickly pitched in and manned the salad bar. The salad bar was a new feature for the school and it was stocked with fresh greens, mini cucumbers, chopped tomatoes, multi-colored carrots and watermelon radishes.
For two and a half hours we had a steady stream of K-8 students pass by, all eager and excited for this special meal. I have never seen anything like it. I would easily guess that over ninety percent of the students asked for salad, even from the youngest kids in their soft voices. They were curious about the watermelon radishes and the purple carrots, and while a few took a pass on trying something new, most were more than willing to try one when I offered. I even challenged one too-cool-for-school pre-teen boy to try a radish, after he had turned up his nose. He did and then asked for more. I ended up serving them to all of his friends who were taking his lead. We had several return for seconds. The mother in me was also so tickled to hear an on-going polite chorus all morning of “pleases” and “thank yous”.
I was cracking up listening to Pavle next to me offering up the bread and butter, arguing that the best part of the bread is in the crunchy floured crust (it is), while simultaneously showing the students the Romanesco cauliflower Marsha brought to display on the table. There were endless questions and curiosity over that cauliflower. Pavle’s charm resonated in the school cafeteria, just as it does with his patrons at the restaurant.
Charlene manned the entrees. Her jidori chicken was a huge hit. I am sure that there would be many parents thrilled to see their little ones eagerly asking to try a dish with three kinds of cauliflower. Charlene had roasted cheddar (orange), graffiti (purple) and white cauliflower together with a sprinkling of bread crumbs and a savory béchamel sauce.
Charlene and Pavle’s generosity was so enthusiastically met. Teachers had commented that they had never seen their students so excited for lunch, nor had they seen that many kids in line for the lunch the school was serving. Students and teachers alike asked if they could eat like this everyday. I do hope that meals like this could soon be a reality, not only for the students of Arcadia Neighborhood Learning Center, but all schools.
Bravo Charlene and Pavle! I know that your work today fed the students much more than just lunch.
You say potato, I say Alturas…
We have a new potato variety that all of the chef’s are agog over. Alturas Russets are a little-known cousin to the standard Russet potato that you are probably familiar with, although they have slowly been making waves in kitchens across the country. They are a high-yielding variety, meaning that they produce more than your average spud, while being heartier and more resistance to cold sweetening (when lower temperatures convert potato starches into sugar). What does that mean? It means that Alturas are the ideal potato for a farmer to grow, and more importantly for you, they are the best spud for making world-class french fries.
You have likely had an Alturas without knowing it. They have become the fifth most planted potato in Idaho, and their demand is growing. These potatoes have become so popular that some major chains known for their “golden” french fries and a few large potato chip conglomerates have been secretly reserving all of the Alturas coming out of Idaho before they are even in the ground. They know a good thing when they see it. We started hearing rumblings from the culinary community about how great they are and how hard it is to find them, which is exactly the type of challenge Bob loves.
It took some patience, but once we were able to get our hands on these spuds, they lived up to all of the hype.
We are now starting to supply them locally to several restaurants where they are living up to their full potential in the hands of masters. Alturas fry up beautifully and have an incredible flavor, and when prepared by a chef who truly knows what they are doing, they are like nothing you have ever had before. If you really want a treat, go try the french fries at Cafe Bink, Cafe Zuzu at the Hotel Valley Ho, Caffe Boa in Tempe, the Houston’s in Scottsdale, or the new Hillstone. Trust me, you won’t find a better french fry. We are hearing tales of chefs double-frying them, using specialty oils, some are blanching them first. I have never seen the demand or fervor over one of products like we have had with these potatoes. But really, who doesn’t love a good french fry?
You won’t find these guys in your grocery stores (or sadly at the market … those chefs are snapping them up faster than we can keep up), but now you know where to get them. They are only available from October thru May, so go find them now while you can.
Sean and I enjoyed some last night at the new Hillstone Restaurant on Camelback and they were everything we were hoping they would be. So much so, we ordered them twice! By the way, I love the new Hillstone. They took everything I had loved about the Houston’s at the Esplanade, but really took their game up. We are not the only ones to notice, the place was hopping. Go see for yourself – and order the fries while you are there!
Hillstone
2425 East Camelback Road
Phoenix, AZ 85016
602.957.9700
www.hillstone.com
McClendon's Select 
