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| STORE OPEN 4 DAYS YEAR ROUND!
FALL HOURS: | THURSDAY & FRIDAY:
11 to 7 pm
TUESDAYS: 11 to 6pm SATURDAYS:
11 - 4pm
NEW FALL HOURS: Beginning November 1st - we'll end at 6pm for all days, except Saturdays (4pm)
Outer Aisle FOODS & GOODS |
 NEW 2011/2012 BOX DELIVERIES | |
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Want to receive baskets of vegetables and fruits this summer. Weekly or bi-weekly deliveries to Tuolumne, Calaveras and Alpine Counties.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
Welcome to the mid October newsletter of 2011
New Extended Hours on Tuesdays 11- 6pm. We'll be streamlining our closing hours in early November to 6pm getting ready for the darker days coming up.
We always look forward to seeing you and grateful when you show up!
SAVE OUR SEEDS
EVENT UPDATE
Thank you to those wonderful folks w ho came out last Saturday and helped; the event was a huge success because of you!
We had a surprisingly great turnout despite the late notice - 40 folks showed up to learn and lend a hand in harvesting and processing.
Tomatoes were harvested, washed, sliced and squeezed: the seeds separated and the pulp put into large stainless steel 10 gallon pots and cooked into tomato sauce. As you can imagine it was quite the operation and not one person left without a good sp lattering of tomato as evidence of a hard and yet rewarding day of work. Some folks spent hours picking beans and shucking popcorn husks over many a good conversation. After our homemade black bean burrito lunch, Eric gave a great presentation on seeds and the importance of seed saving. In the words of fellow FoCuS Board member Misha Rauchwerger: "This is exactly what people should be doing: working together outside, producing food and preserving their future". A portion of seeds saved will be offered free of charge at FoCuS' Annual Seed Saving Event in February.
We welcome and encourage you to help us harvest and process vegetable seeds of all kinds.
ANNOUNCING: Fall/Winter Sign-ups (weekly or bi-weekly): We are beginning fall/winter sign-ups for weekly or bi-weekly veggie/fruit boxes to all Tuolumne, Alpine and Calaveras locations. You can even browse the selection without committing by clicking on a drop off spot you'll get to the next screen where all the different sizes are described. Please know that you can sign up whenever you want and put yourself on vacation.
We just added Valley Springs and San Andreas on a bi-weekly basis to our route.
Click here to view and/or sign up anytime SIGN UP FOR 2011/2012 SEASON
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Vegetable & Fruit Highlights VEGETABLE HIGHLIGHTS:
SEASONAL FRUITS abound this week from pears and avocados to grapefruit and pomegranites. Taking in the bounty from the coast we have the first season's Meyer lemons, late fall sweet strawberries and deliciously crisp Jonagold and Pippin Apples. From our neighbors in Clements, Smit Orchards, we have our favorite seasonal apple staples: Pink Lady and Fuji.
Tyson Hill Farm just bought us a small load of the first ripe Fuyu persimmons of the season (these of the hard ones, eaten like an apple), as well as a wonderful selection of fresh grapes and Late Santa Rosa plums.
SEASONAL VEGETABLES abound with the first broccoli and carrot harvests from our garden, together with an abundance of greens: kales, chard, collards, bok choy, cilantro. San Marzano paste tomato es are the highlight this week. We just discovered how wonderful these are for making a quick pasta sauce with fresh or dried oregano, sliced onion and garlic. Cherry tomatoes continue to ripen with these warm sunny days of October, as do the bell peppers, eggplant and a few larger tomatoes.
We are excited to welcome back Mariquita Farm. They grow and supply a large CSA and many upscale fancy San Francisco restaurants with their won derful produce. This week we are picking up their purple cauliflower, scallions and San Marzano tomatoes.
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RECIPES
Cheddar-Broccoli Mashed Potatoes
(A recipe highly recommended by one of our customers)
1 tablespoon butter
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped fine 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 small head broccoli, bottoms of stems discarded, remaining stems peeled, chopped into 1/2-inch pieces (approximately 4 cups) 2 cups peeled and diced potatoes 1/2 teaspoon cumin 1/8 teaspoon cayenne 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard 1 teaspoon kosher salt + salt to taste 3 tablespoons flour 4 cups chicken or vegetable broth 1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese 1/4 cup cream Pepper to taste
Instructions:
Melt butter with oil in a heavy, medium-size pot over medium heat. Add onion, garlic, broccoli and 1 cup of the potatoes. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are softened, about 8-10 minutes. Add cumin, cayenne, mustard, salt and flour, stirring until incorporated, about 1 minute. Add broth and remaining potatoes. Bring to a boil, reduce heat slightly, and simmer hard until broccoli and potatoes are fork-tender, about 8-10 minutes.
Remove half of the soup and puree with an immersion blender or regular blender. Return to pot with remaining soup. Add cheese and cream. Stir over low heat until just melted and combined. Season with salt and pepper.
Yields: Serves 6
SAN MARZANO are fantastic sauce tomatoes. They are very dense and the flavor is really great! Easy to make, wash, slice and saute in a little olive oil and cook down until you have the required consistency.
"Putting up" tomatoes from Mariquita Farm owner Julia: Preparing the tomatoes for canning or freezing: I put whole tomatoes, with the green calix removed, in a big dry pan. Then I cook them down til their good and sauced. Then I let them cool some, then I put them through a food mill to easily remove skins and seeds. Now, if the sauce is too watery, I cook it down some more. Then I proceed with glass jar canning (good for BLACKOUTS!), or with the ziploc method. This does include letting the sauce contact plastic, but I live with that for convenience. Ziploc method: Take prepared tomato sauce, add chopped basil if you like, and add to freezer ziploc bags. Label with a permanent marker and then put in freezer.
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WHAT'S GOING ON IN THE GARDEN
It's time to plant cover crops! Cover cropping is an age old technique that many small sustainably minded growers practice. It is a crop entirely planted for the soil and the microbes that inhabit that environment and work so hard to provide all the nutrients that are then assimilated by plants.
The soil builder cover crop that we use and make available for purchase is a combination of winter peas, vetch, rye and bell beans which provide a free source of nitrogen as well as protect the soil from winter erosion and in the spring provide a nursery for all kinds of beneficial insects.
Plant a cover crop before the next winter storms hit by broadcasting over composted ground and lightly raked into the surface. Cover crop seeds $2.00 per lb and 1 lb will cover 100 square feet. Fava bean seeds and clovers are also available.
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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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