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CAFE OPENS: March 1st
Then Thursday, Friday & Saturdays 11 to 4:30pm
| OUR STORE OPEN 5 DAYS YEAR ROUND!
WINTER HOURS: | TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY & FRIDAY:
11 to 6 pm
SATURDAYS:
11 - 4pm
CLOSED SUNDAY AND MONDAY
Outer Aisle FOODS1192 Highway 4 Douglas Flat, CA 95229 www.outeraislefoods.comChristine & Eric Taylor 209.728.9112 Mailing Address: PO Box 2052, Murphys, CA 95247 |
 2013 BOX DELIVERIES | |
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Do you want to enjoy fresh seasonal produce and knowledge of where it comes from? Do you and your friends live outside our current distribution and would love to have Outer Aisle come closer to you? Contact Christine to see about starting deliveries in your area!
Weekly or bi-weekly deliveries to Tuolumne, Calaveras and Alpine Counties. We've been building boxes since 1993! 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
- Vacation 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
New Year Newsletter 2013
Greetings friends!
2013: Celebrating 20 years of growing food
for our community!!
Cafe Outer Aisle
Welcome our chef: Ross Cooper. Here he is helping harvest carrots (we've already got him working in the farm!) Ross passed his initiation: 200 hundred bunches later and he was still smiling for the camera.
Ross is a graduate from the Cordon Bleu Culinary Academy in San Francisco. He is super excited to work with all of this fresh produce and create food that is tasty, well balanced
and good for you.
Preparations are getting closer: the final inspection next week, the dining room is painted (quite bright!) and furnished and the kitchen is looking great. Shelving goes up this week; appliances have arrived. The 100 quart stock pot is gigantic all shiny and new in preparation for all the awesome daily soups Ross is going to make. More on the menu to come! The
"shabby chic" hutch looks great with local clay artist Staria Stine's gorgeous pottery cups. We hope you'll join us for tea, soup and/or salad on....
Opening Day:
Friday, March 1st Our Winter Schedule: Thursday, Friday and Saturday 11 to 4:30pm
"The Cafe is our most recent place where we express our passion for food."
OUR MISSIONOur mission for the Cafe is to serve healthy wholesome dishes using the ever-changing seasonal fresh ingredients from farmers like us. Encourage a passion for cooking and life long healthy eating. OUR VISIONWe'll feature a blackboard menu, highlighting the finest produce and ingredients our region can offer, encourage recipe sharing, host cooking classes and demos, and for those on the run, we'll have take-out items made in our certified kitchen.
SHOP OUR STORE:
Seasonal produce from growers
just like us!
Tuesday through Friday
11 to 6pm
Saturdays 11 to 4p 
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SIGN UP FOR A WEEKLY OR BI-WEEKLY PRODUCE SUBSCRIPTION
(formerly CSA)
JOIN THE GROWING
EAT SEASONAL MOVEMENT
RECEIVE A FRESH SEASONAL
PRODUCE SUBSCRIPTION TO A
LOCATION NEAR YOU!
(no membership fee)
Our flexible program gives you a variety of choices and conveniences such as vacations, online payments, custom orders and the ability to serve your needs.
Select either weekly or bi-weekly veggie/fruit boxes and other combinations. A weekly menu makes it easy for planning and we also encourage for substitutions.
Locations: From Groveland to San Andreas, Bear Valley and the Highway 4 corridor to Copperopolis, Twain Harte and two locations in Sonora.
Check it out by clicking on the signup now button on our website: www.outeraislefoods.com.
(Browse the selection without committing until the final screen. 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.)
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SEED SHARE EVENT
returns....Saturday, February 23rd at Columbia Elementary
10 am to 4pm
more information
One of our personal goals is to create a seed bank and have access to open pollinated seed varieties that are localized to our region. It's our pleasure to help coordinate this
important annual event.
We encourage you to attend - we've selected seeds that are time tested in our region by us!
Everyone is welcome and at $1 per packet it's great value (no one will be turned down for lack of funds).
We invite you to the Pre-Seed Event where all the bulk seeds are divided up and put into seed packages. The Event is held this Friday, 15th at Outer Aisle from 6pm to 9pm. We'll be testing out the kitchen and providing a non-vegetarian soup and a salad for anyone that helps out!
Bring a bowl and come on down!
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THIS WEEK'S MENU
We are proud to sell fruits and vegetables from other growers that practice sustainable agriculture using beyond organic methods. We go farm direct sourcing the very best of the best from farmers that are equally committed to bringing about greater health.
FEBRUARY:
Work has begun in earnest in the propagation greenhouse.
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Summer squash plants
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Tomatoes and peppers have sprouted, baby lettuces continue to grow as well as chards and greens for early spring crops. The dry weather is giving us a head start on the season and work at the farm has begun. First cleanup but also direct seeding in the hot houses with spring crops of spinach, radishes, cilantro germinating and growing.  | |
Baby Lettuces in hoop house
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While produce is slim at our own farm this time of year, it's also true of other farms - so this week had us driving the full 150 mile radius in all directions procuring produce from 11 farms to restock and bring you the seasonal palate of late winter. The Capay Valley is situated northwest of Sacramento, tucked against the side of the valley and isolated from large scale conventional farms.
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Beautiful soil surrounded by wooded rolling hills!
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It's Zone 8, almond trees are almost in bloom up here, with some of the best soils in the world. Cabbages, green garlic, spring red onions, spinach, leeks, Romanesco cauliflower and potatoes came from three of the farms in this area: Full Belly, Capay Organics and River Dog. Check out this link with Recipes from Full Belly.The coastal climate around Watsonville and Aptos provides the other half of the produce for this week's menu. We are excited to introduce you to Tomatero Farm in Watsonville.  They are the newest addition to our growing list of organic farmers - they began their farm in much the same way we did with hardly anything except a dream. They started in 2004 with two acres and a credit card (we didn't even have that!) and now over 120 acres of leased land with hoop houses for growing in the cool winter months. Eric got to meet the young couple this past week and he was impressed with their quality of produce and their commitment to farming. This week's butter lettuces and Dino kale come from them. Here's a link to an awesome blog about the dynamic couple - really inspirational! Also new this week and really delicious are organic sprouts from New Natives near Aptos.  Here's a great article featured in the Monterey Bay Farmers organization's website. These folks are pioneering the organic seed sprouting business in a powerful way. They also sell many different seeds and accessories suited to home sprouting.
This week we'll have sunflower, pea, buckwheat and micro greens.
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CHRISTINE'S WINTER CURRY
While Eric boasts to be the main cook in the family, it's usually my task to come up with the recipe of the moment based on what we bring home that evening. Hankering for a good curry I came up with this recipe that combines with almost any vegetable you have on hand: winter squash, yams, cauliflower. It was really delicious too!
1 can of coconut milk (classic or fat free)
2 apples (peeled, cooked and pureed or mashed)
1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and grated finely
2 - 4 TSP curry powder (The Spice Tin, Murphys has some great blends)
2 shallots, finely diced
1-2 stems/bulbs of green garlic
1/4 lb of mushrooms (oysters or shiitake): finely chopped
1 TBS Coconut oil (for flavor) or butter
Suggested Veggies: (the combinations are vast - the trick is to choose only 2 or 3) Combo #1: small winter squash, 3 sweet potatoes or 1 head cauliflower; Combo #2: carrots and broccoli.
Suggested Toppings:
Unsweetened shredded coconut: toasted on stove top
Slices of mango
Roasted whole pistachio nuts
Greek Yoghurt
Finely chopped parsley
Finely chopped scallions
Over a medium high heat, in a iron skillet, dry saute the mushrooms until their juices begin to exude. At that point put in a little butter or coconut oil (preferable). Stir them frequently, add the shallots and chopped green garlic. Continue cooking on low heat until the shallots are well cooked. Add the ginger and curry powder, continue cooking adding a little coconut milk to help blend in the flavors.
In the meantime prepare the apple sauce, add to the coconut milk and blend thoroughly using a mixer. Add the mixture to the shallots and mushrooms.
Prepare the vegetable/s: If using winter squash or sweet potatoes, peel and cut in bite sized cubes. If using cauliflower break into florets. Steam the vegetable for several minutes until cooked almost through (al dente) - careful not to overcook. Add the vegetables to the coconut and continue cooking for 15 - 20 minutes until vegetables are well down. Season to taste and serve warm with optional toppings. Rice is a great accompaniment.
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UPCOMINNG EVENTS:
5th ANNUAL SEED SHARE EVENT
Saturday, February 23rd
10 to 4pm at Co
lumbia Elementary School
 | | Helping to clean seeds 2012 |
Everyone welcome! A range of open pollinated varieties available. A fundraiser for FoCuS Seed Bank project. Packets available for $1 each donation (no one turned down for lack of funds)
Informative workshops, seed saving activists invited, hands-on seed cleaning.
Supported by Tuolumne County Master Gardeners, Slow Food Calaveras, Outer Aisle FOODS, FoCuS
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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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