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WINTER HOURS: THURSDAY - 11 to 5:30pm
SATURDAYS - 10 am - 4pm
Outer Aisle FOODS & GOODS |
 2010/2011 CSA SIGN-UPS |
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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.
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News From Outer Aisle
Late January Newsletter, 2011 |
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Highlights of the Week!
Citrus time of the year! We are excited to offer the Page mandarin from our farmer friends in Escalon, Lagier Ranches (see profile below). A cross between a Minneola Tangelo and a Clementine mandarin, the Page differs from the Satsuma in a number of ways. It doesn't have the same puffy skin, it's more tightly wrapped and the flavor is generally sweeter and full of juice.
Just picked fresh and ripe off the trees this week, those delicious Washington Naval oranges. Packed full of Vitamins and antioxidants.
Coastal Brussels sprouts on the stock, more of the gorgeous "rose petaled" radicchio, Romanesco cauliflower (light green and spiraled curds), fennel, bunched spinach, sweet Nantes carrots, gold, red and striped beets, and the list goes on. There is certainly no shortage of "winter" vegetables to make eating this time of year just as pleasurable and exciting as the summer lineup!
The vegetable highlight this week, goes to our recent discovery, the Watermelon radish. Plain looking and med
ium-sized, closely resembling a turnip. Once lightly peeled reveals a light green exterior, and once cut reveals a gorgeous red watermelon like interior. Very tasty, not too spicy, but definitely radish flavor. Looks beautiful added to a salad of dark green spinach leaves, radicchio and lettuce.
We are now accepting clean recyclable egg cartons!
Early to mid-February, we'll have grassfed beef from the Orvis Ranch in Copperopolis in 25# increments only. They are the quintessential cattle family, grazing their Hereford breeds from Copper to Bear Valley, for well over 100 years. If you are interested in purchasing freezer shares please let us know (25 lb increments mixed cuts).
New Winter Hours: Thursday 11 am to 5:30 pm and Saturdays 10am to 4pm.
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Producer's Profile: Lagier Ranches, Escalon
Do you remember those Paw Paw fruits last fall? Typically a southern treat and typically grown in the south, those fruits instead came from Lagier Ranches, "just down the road" in Escalon (less than one hour from here). Lagier Ranches is fully certified as "organic", John Lagier continues to farm the same family property on Murphys Road in Escalon for 4th generations. They grow almonds, cherries, mandarins, berries, Bronx grapes, citrus and also has a processing facilities making value added products like the fruit spreads and nut butters that we stock in the store. They sell at many of the Bay Area farmers markets.
It's easy to spot the ranch's boundaries as it is in stark contrast with the surrounding "conventionally farmed" almond orchards. Probe a little further and you will find a very unique approach even by organic standards. They are pioneering a proactive stance to pest management. Each spring they purchase baby geese chicks and rotate them inside an electric fenced perimeter in the cherry orchards. Rotating them throughout the harvested c
herry blocks, the large flock of young hungry geese (the young one's are the more mow down a dominant invasive species, Johnson grass. Over the years this method of pest control as lessened the problem considerably and in addition, geese do not eat bugs an important consideration in an organic system where bugs are integral to the health of orchard trees. In the past years, experimenting with different breeds, they have discovered a French variety, Toulouse, a grey feathered goose with a gentle demeanor, works the best. Come Christmas time, the geese are harvested and sold and the cycle begins again the next spring.
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Educational Opportunities:
February is seed ordering month and to kick off this annual event, FoCuS is hosting it's third annual "Seed Share Event". We hope you can make it. Not only will it be a chance for you to get seeds at a very reasonable cost, participate in a series of free workshops on a wide range of agricultural topics, but your donation will go to support the Seed Farm.
Seeds are a valuable asset and one that should remain in the public domain. Over the years we have saved and collected a number of varieties, three of which are unique to this region and qualify as "heirloom". Without seeds there are no plants and without plants there is no food! Having a dedicated farm in which to grow seeds not only provides a guaranteed source of future food, it brings together community, it promotes self-reliance and invigorates the local economy. Stay tuned as this work begins to unfold over the next few months.
Foothill Collaborative for Sustainability FoCuS presents....
3rd Annual Seed Share Event Saturday, February 12, 2011 11 to 4:00pm Columbia Elementary School, Columbia
Begin the 2011 year with seeds and plant an edible garden. Everyone interested in gardening is welcome! You'll find many open-pollinated and heirloom seeds saved and collected by local growers. Varieties of vegetables, herbs, beans, fruit and grain seeds, potatoes, cuttings and potted plants saved and collected by local growers. We'll have special guest, small scale grain grower, John DeRosier from With the Grain in Pasa Robles. He'll be sharing his seeds as well as his wealth of knowledge in a workshop on the "Basics of Grain Growing". Come hear local experts in a series of workshops from; seed saving to beekeeping, soil fertility to chicken and egg raising; pruning fruit trees to keeping worms and more.
Date: Saturday, February 12th
Time: 11 to 4:00pm
Cost: Donation to FoCuS
$5 per individual (receive 7 seed packets)
$10 per family (receive 13 seed packets)
Individual seed packets available for $1 each
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Recipe of the Week:
Some vegetables you try for the first time and fall in love with them. Last week we tried Radicchio for the first time. An Italian favorite, used raw and also cooked. The two varieties we picked up at Marquita: Treviso (deep maroon leaf) and Castelfranco (light green with bronze specks). The petal-like leaves we roughly tore to make a salad and combined with the bitterness of the radicchio, the buttery-ness of avocado, the density of toasted pecans, the sweetness of maple syrup and Meyer lemons. This is what we came up with, we hope you'll be motivated to try it this week too.
Radicchio, Avocado and Pecan with a Lemon Maple Ginger salad dressing
1/2 cup of Meyer lemon juice
1/2 cup of Olive oil
1 inch cube ginger, peeled and chopped roughly
3 TBS Maple Syrup (adjust taste as necessary)
3 TBS Tamari or soy sauce (adjust taste as necessary)
Combine well and toss with Radicchio, avocado and toasted pecans. Marinate for 1/2 hour before serving.
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 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.
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