Harvest to Table

From now until late spring, a host of mandarin orange varieties will be coming to market. The first or earliest harvested mandarin is the Satsuma mandarin which you will probably find at your farm market this week. The Satsuma is a small bright orange mandarin with a delicate, sweet flavor. It is seedless and contains [...]

Mandarins oranges—in all their forms–are probably descended from wild oranges that grew in northeast India as long as 3,000 years ago. From India, mandarins made their way to China and from China to Europe, North Africa and Australia before they traveled on to other parts of the world. The first of these small, loose-skinned oranges [...]

Cremini mushrooms have flavor. Creminis look just like the small all-white button mushrooms you see at the grocery store but a cremini is brown and has twice the flavor of a cultivated white mushroom. When cremini mushrooms fully mature they are called portobellos. The peak season for mushrooms harvested in the wild is fall and [...]

Cocido is a Spanish meat and vegetable stew that is slowly cooked and then served in three courses or vuelcos (singular vuelco) from the same pot. There are several regional variations of cocido throughout Spain and Portugal–and in other countries where Spaniards have immigrated. While chickpeas are essential to every cocido, the combination of meats [...]

That bunch of silvery gray-green stalks that resembles a giant bunch of wide, flat celery is cardoon. Unlike celery the color of cardoon is dull not bright, and its texture is subtle not crisp. Cardoon is available fresh and local from winter through early spring. Cardoon has a more bitter than sweet taste that hints [...]

Here’s a quick reference for grapefruit varities: Duncan: lots of seeds, white flesh with great flavor; excellent for juicing; perhaps the oldest variety. Flame: nearly seedless with red flesh and a slight rind blush. Marsh (Marsh Seedless): nearly seedless, white-fleshed, medium-size with smooth yellow skin; it’s very juicy, tender and aromatic. You’ll find a balance [...]

Grapefruits in general are dived into natural types: there are common white or yellow-fleshed grapefruits, and there are pigmented or pale pink to ruby red grapefruits. There are also seeded and seedless grapefruits. Beyond flesh color and seeds, you can generally say that seeded grapefruits are more flavorful than seedless. Grapefruits have a sharper flavor [...]

If you’d like to add a little spice to a salad try a bit of fresh chopped or shredded collards. As well, cooked collards can be added to soups and stews. Collards can be steamed, braised, and stir-fried. Combine collards with mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, or beans and puree. Steamed, collards are a good match [...]

How is your winter? Here in the Sonoma Valley the thermometer reached 70ºF (21ºC) one afternoon last week. But it also dipped to below freezing the other night. Everywhere you turn winter is odd this year. In Colorado, the third major snow storm in little more than three weeks came this week while in New [...]

The flavor of a kiwi fruit is all kiwi fruit: sweet-tart with hints of citrus, strawberry, pineapple, and melon. You have probably tasted nothing like the kiwi fruit. Its flavor is unique. The kiwi fruit is a berry. It grows on a climbing, creeping plant that resembles a vine. The fruit is about 3 inches [...]