|
|
| | STORE NOW OPEN YEAR ROUND! | WINTER HOURS: THURSDAY - 11 to 5:30pm
SATURDAYS - 10 am - 4pm
Outer Aisle FOODS & GOODS |
| 2010/2011 CSA SIGN-UPS |
|
Want to receive baskets of vegetables and fruits fall, winter and spring? Benefits of Becoming a Member:- Enjoy local and seasonal fruits and veggies all year round
- Fresh, high quality, home-grown flavor
- Bi-weekly fall, winter and spring deliveries to convenient drop off locations near you
- Your choice of the size bag for your needs: mini, basic and full sizes. Add on fruit, roots, and greens
- Access our on-line web store for many more essential items
- Cancel when you are out of town
- Supplement your own garden, you grow greens: we have roots and fruits!
- Lower your carbon footprint. Save gas, we deliver to you
- Support local growers, producers and makers.
|
|
|
News From Outer Aisle
Early December Newsletter, 2010 |
|
Highlights of the Week!
Crisp, cold and clear. Snow in the mountains and frost in the lower elevations. Welcome to the beginning of winter and a produce menu to get equally as excited about. Each week, even in the colder months, there is a fine parade of vegetables and fruits that become the center piece and theme of our meals and yours too.
The cold weather signaled a coming to the end of produce for us and heralded the first trip to the coast! While the temps hovered in the upper teens, it was the rainfall that did the most damage. Unfortunately we lost all of our outdoor spinach plantings, on the contrary, the hardy winter crops survived relatively well. You will find plenty of kale (see recipe below), collards, cabbages, baby bok choy (see recipe below), turnips and head lettuce this week.
From the coast
we picked up the first season's
Up north we stopped at Terra Firma and picked up carrots, pistachios, spinach ('cos we don't have any), Fuyu persimmons and more of those delicious sweet mandarins. Shiitake and oyster mushrooms from Dragon Gourmet in Sacramento and Pink Lady and Fuji apples from Smit Orchards in Clements.
We received a special shipment of Northern SLO county avocados from Seventh Heaven Farm in Cayucos. Our friend, Ryan Rich, the CCO F San Luis Obispo Chapter Chairman and farmer dialed us into these super delicious and hard to come by energy foods! Creamy and high oil content, he told us they are the last of the California avocado before the Mexican market takes over.
|
A Letter to the Outer Aisle Community:
Outer Aisle FOODS is excited to announce our plan for energy independence. We are a business that believes in solar power and reinvesting in our community. We made the bold move to sign up for a 3,000 watt solar array system to be i nstalled on our store roof by Christmas 2010. Taking advantage of Federal and State tax credit incentives and coupled with low panel prices, we deemed it to be the opportune time to make the investment. We will offset our entire energy needs, feed clean solar energy into the grid and take advantage of new regulations requiring PG&E to buy electricity above our usage.We are looking to you, the Outer Aisle community, for alternative financing that is creative, circumvents the regular lending channels and promotes a win-win situation for all. Are you interested in being part of this solar project? We need $9,000 to pay for the project and are seeking financial assistance in the form of Outer Aisle Futures.How to Buy Your Outer Aisle Futures:Take out a "future" for a minimum of $250 and upwards. Receive store credit to the value of the Future plus receive an additional 5% gift reward. You can shop, just as you would normally, using the "Futures" money in your account for all your purchases including CSA deliveries. By purchasing your Outer Aisle Futures you are helping us out in a big way, stimulating the local economy by fueling a green industry and also helping the larger community gain greater awareness and understanding of the benefits of going solar.
Please let us know as soon as possible if you are interested.
|
Producer's Profile:
Rodoni Farms, Santa Cruz
Billie Rodoni is fourth generation coastal farmer and comes from a long tradition of Brussels sprout farming. During his grandfathers era, Dante Rodoni saw great changes; from using work horses to tractors; from hand transplanting to mechanical transplanting; from furrow irrigation to sprinkler irrigation; from hand picking to mechanical harvesting and from hand sorting to mechanical sorting of Brussels sprouts. Prior to the 1950's sprouts were sorted by hand off a table. Mr.Rodoni was the first to see a need for and develop a system for sorting and grading sprouts mechanically.
In the early 1960's, when conditions changed and the trend turned toward mechanical harvesting of Brussels sprouts, Mr. Rodoni worked on and developed the Rodoni Brussels Sprouts Stripper, which mechanically cuts the sprouts from the stalk.
Today, with over 100 acres certified organic, they are pioneers in the organic sprout industry, forging ahead with this relatively labor intensive product where other farms despair. Because the sprouts are not sprayed with heavy duty chemicals they have to cleaned up manually by hand which is time consuming and costly.
They also grow artichokes, mostly an heirloom variety, Green Globe, and just recently experimenting with a hybrid variety. The isolation of the north coast and the influence from the ocean produces the most delectable chokes we have ever tasted.
The great thing about picking up produce right from the source is getting to know the place and the great people who make it all possible.
|
Recipes of the Week
Kathryn's Braised Brussels Sprouts with Mushroom in a Cream Sauce
Kathryn from Farmhouse Culture, popped this recipe into our laps today as we were picking up kraut, raving about how fantastic and simple cooking sprouts can be.
1 1/4 lbs Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved
3 TSP butter
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 cup thinly sliced shiitake mushrooms
1 cup of cream
salt
lemon juice
Melt the butter over medium low heat, saute the sprouts along with the mushrooms. (5 minutes). The longer you cook them the more sweet and caramelized they get. Add garlic and cream. Cover the saucepan and simmer gently until the sprouts can be easily pierced with a knife. The cream will reduce and turn a tan color. Remove the lid, and stir in the lemon juice. Taste for seasoning, and adjust as necessary. Let the pan simmer, uncovered, for a minute or two to thicken the cream to a glaze that loosely coats the sprouts. Serve immediately.
Eric's BABY BOK CHOY STIR FRY (Mei Quing)
Only takes 6 minutes and is a great side dish.
Half or quarter (depending on size) and wash Bok Choy well into the center where the dirt collects
Coconut/Sesame/Butter Oil
1 clove of garlic, chopped
Chile pepper flakes to taste
Tamari or soy sauce
Heat oil over medium heat add garlic, chile flakes and bok choy for a few minutes, stirring. Add a splash or two of water to braise and finish cooking. Add a couple of splashes of soy sauce to season.
KALE SALAD
This recipe if from the Esalen Cookbook and well
worth every bite.
½ cup Bragg Liquid Aminos or tamari soy sauce
1/3 cup lemon juice
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil or flax seed oil
½ medium-size red onion
¼ cup sunflower seeds
½ cup sesame seeds
¼ cup pumpkin seeds
1-pound fresh kale (1 large bunch- full box)
½ cup sunflower sprouts (optional)
1 avocado, cut into ½ inch cubes (optional)
Combine Braggs or soy sauce and lemon juice in a blender or whisk in a bowl. Slowly dribble in the oil as the blender turns or as you whisk vigorously. Slice the onion into thin half-moons and marinate in the dressing as you prepare the rest of the salad.
Toast the seeds in a heavy-bottomed pan over medium heat until seeds are just golden and fragrant. Toast each seed type separately as their size requires varying roasting times. Cool to room temperature.
De-stem the kale cutting out the main central vein (reserve for soup stock). Stack the kale leaves and slice into ¼-inch ribbons. This is the most important step, so take your time. The success of this recipe lies in cutting the kale into small ribbons and in completely massaging the kale with the dressing.
Toss the seeds, sprouts, and kale together with the marinated onions and as much dressing as necessary to lightly but completely dress the kale. Massage the dressing into the kale with your hands. Add the avocado and toss again with your hands.
TIPS FOR PREPARING LEEKS FOR COOKING:
Cut off the fibrous root. Remove the dark-green outer leaves and trim the ends of the remaining white parts.
Cut the leek in half length-wise. Rinse them thoroughly under cold running water making sure you pull the root ends apart to reveal hidden pockets of soil.
Many recipes call for just the "white parts" of leeks, when in fact the light green is just as good and even the dark green is usable if it will be sautéed for at least 5 minutes.
|
|
|
|
|
 Outer Aisle FOODS & GOODS "Essentials for the 21st Century".
Our mission is to facilitate a speedy transition to a sustainable
economy by offering the essential tools, ingredients and knowledge to
prepare us for the 21st century.
Behind the scenes of Outer Aisle is Taylor
Mountain Gardens. Located just around the corner on Main Street in
Douglas Flat, our nearly two acre "beyond organic" farm produces a large
variety of seasonal vegetables including these seasonal highlights:
summer heirloom tomatoes, fall cauliflower, winter carrots and spring
potatoes to name just a few!
OuterAisle FOODS operates a year round CSA (Community
Supported Agriculture) program. We distribute the highest
quality, local, seasonal and regional produce and products to members
all over Calaveras and Tuolumne Counties. We only purchase product from
farms and producers who are committed to ecologically sustainable
practices and go beyond the National "Organic" standards.
|
|
|
|
|
|
