News and blog

Update for Saturday, February 22nd

I was away last week so was not able to send out an update message.  Sorry abut that. I was in California and had the opportunity to visit the olive growing region and the Farmers Market in Santa Barbara.  Please read below for a summary of the visit, including some information on the drought that is occurring right now in California.

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Offerings at the market this week will be very similar to the last few weeks including many locally grown items:

• Meat from the Kennedy's
• Greenawalts have potatoes, squash, dried beans and eggs
• Kistaco Farm has fresh apples and fresh pressed cider
• Zang's has local salad greens and PA mushrooms
• Wheel and Wedge Cheese has locally made cheese

The market also has carefully selected shipped-in fruit and vegetables.  Rick Zang for example has some great Florida and California citrus.  We are making juice out of it at the Kew Park stand. The California Connection has high quality dried fruit, nuts and olive oil.  Excellent vinegar is available from Pastamore.

And of course other locally made items are available from Greek Gourmet, Rebecca Plum baked goods, Cinco de Mayo Salsa and Better Made Donuts.

See you at the market- David Lagnese

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California Farm Visit- February 2014

After finishing up a business trip, I was able to visit Santa Barbara County for a few days. My main mission was to visit olive country in the Santa Ynez. This is home of the Figueroa Olive Farm, and also Olive Oil Source, which is a facility that mills olives for many of the olive farmers in the area. I visited the farm two years ago, but the owner was on vacation. This time the owner Shawn Addison was there to show me around.  

I also visited the Santa Barbara Certified Farmers Market. I have heard that this is considered one of the best markets in the west coast, if not the country. I was looking forward to meeting a few of the farmers at Santa Barbara who grow fruits and nuts that I sell at our market.  

I have been hearing about the California drought in the media, and in communicating with some of my farmers. When I visited Santa Ynez last time it was pretty green and lush. Not this time, it was really brown and burned up. Shawn said they have had only an inch of rain this winter season where they usually get five or more inches. The farm has a well, but he is afraid that the water will run dry shortly. In that case he said, “we are done,” meaning that the olive trees will not be able to survive. Or if the trees hang survive, the blossoms may come out prematurely, but then fall off before germinating. The end result would be no olives.  

The aquifer that he drilled into is also shared with other farmers who grow grapes. Those farmers use a lot more water because they do overhead irrigation for the vineyard. This uses more water compared to the olive trees that use a very efficient drip irrigation system.  

Apparently farms with livestock are really in trouble because there is very little grass to graze on. I saw a few farms with cattle and horses who trying to nibble on some very dry looking scrub. It was very sad to see. President Obama was in the Fresno area the same day visiting farmers and pubic officials to discuss what can be done. I am not sure what the federal government can do besides provide financial aid to farmers. Pray for rain maybe?  

OK what about some good news? Well there is some good news on the 2014 vintage olive oil. Shawn thinks that they have made their best oil yet. He has been farming and milling olives for 10 years. The yield of olives per acre was low again, for the second year in a row. That’s the bad news. The good news is that when milled, the olives yielded a very high amount of oil. Shawn said that yields vary dramatically each year, but are normally about 30 gallons per ton of olives. This year they yielded 40 gallons per ton. He said that is great for the growers who use his milling service because they pay per ton of olives milled.  

This season the olives were milled in November and December, finishing up a little before Christmas. This was a little early, as it usually carries into January. For the last few months, the oil has been settling. They are getting ready to “rack” it off to remove sediment. Recently they sent samples to the California Olive Oil Council (COOC) for testing and certification as “extra virgin.” They just got the chemical testing back and it turned out excellent, the best ever that he has achieved. The biggest test is acid level, and that needs to be below .5% to be considered extra virgin by the COOC. That is actually a stricter than the international standards.

Check out the COOC website for more info: https://www.cooc.com/#  

After chemical testing, a panel of expert testers does blind taste tests of the oils to make sure there are no off flavors. "Off" flavors are usually the results of bad things that happen during growing or processing. He hopes to get the results of these tests back shortly.

The next step is to then do blending of the various batches of oil to produce the final oils that will go to market. We are running quite low on oil at the market, so I am really excited to get the 2014 vintage oils in the next few weeks.  

Shawn invited me to do some tasting while I was there. The oil is in 55-gallon containers, so he pulled some out using a suction instrument. I tasted about 8 different oils. At this point they are all single varieties, like Manzanillo, Frantoio, Mission and Leccino. They were all very pungent and peppery. Maurino was a variety I had never had and was extremely strong. At each taste, he talked about how the flavors are developing and how he is thinking to blend the oils.  

It’s the polyphenols that make it pungent. These are the elements which give olive oil its health attributes. They dissipate with age, so its good to consume the oils soon after production. One of the reasons I have grown to love the California oils is because we can get to know our producers and get our hands on very fresh oil. When it’s certified by the COOC, we are guaranteed that is truly extra virgin, unadulterated oil.

I got on my way after about a 2-hour visit. I left with mixed emotions- excited about the great 2014 vintage oils about to come our way, but very worried about the impact of the drought on next years crop and beyond.  

Visit to Santa Barbara Certified Farmers Market  

The next day was Saturday and market day in the town of Santa Barbara. The market is outdoors, with each vendor having their own covered booth. There were probably 100 vendors, more specifically farmers. Yes, a farmers market with farmers. No junk for sale, clothing, souvenirs, none of that, just farmers! Not even prepared food vendors (unless you consider bean sprouts prepared food). It was an absolute orgy of fruit, vegetables, nuts and flowers. More info: http://www.sbfarmersmarket.org   I visited with three farmers who I currently work with at the California Connection.

Santa Barbara Pistachios- this farm is a 2-hour drive from the town, but still in Santa Barbara County. I spoke with Boomer who runs the farmers market stands for the family that owns the farm.

The trees were planted about 30 years ago. Boomer said people are surprised that Pistachios can thrive in Santa Barbara County- but he said the farm is actually located in the high desert at an elevation of 3,000 feet. So the farm gets the very hot days and cool nights that the pistachio trees like. The nuts are kept raw, and then roasted throughout the year to meet current demand. Nuts that sit around tend to get soggy and lose flavor.

Their pistachios are very high quality, with much more flavor than what comes out of the factory farms, of which there are a lot in California.   Boomer shared a bottle of pistachio oil with me that is really incredible. I met a local chef at the both who said that she used it as a finishing oil for salads. They only made a small batch of the oil but I hope to get my hands on some.  

As far as the drought, it is affecting the pistachio trees. They are concerned that the trees might blossom too early. At this point, the trees are still dormant and they don’t now what the ultimate impact of the drought will be on the trees.   More info: http://santabarbarapistachios.com  

Rancho LaVina- This is where I get organic walnuts. I got to meet Christopher Shubert whose family owns the farm. He said the farm has been in the family since the 1800s. The only thing they grow is walnuts, and very good ones indeed. There was quite nice line at his stand. He said that the health benefits of raw walnuts are driving demand.  

This year was a good harvest. It started in late October. After processing and drying, the nuts got to market by Christmas. He is already starting to run low on supply.   The drought is impacting the trees on his farm, with unpredictable results.

One thing he said was certain was that prices would go up because the fees that he is charged by the state for water are going up.  

Flying Disc Ranch- These guys grow the dates. And these are really excellent dates. I met with Riven Barton, who has been running the Santa Barbara stand for 12 years. She had about 8 varieties displayed on the table. When most people think of dates they thinking of the Medjool variety. I like that variety, but enjoy eating other varieties of dates that Flying Disc grows. I tasted them all and liked Demi the best. So I expect to have these for sale at the market shortly.  

The farm is located in Thermal, which is near the Palm Desert resort area. Robert Lower who is a pioneer in growing dates in California started the farm.

More information: http://flyingdiscranch.com/index.html  

Overall, I had a great experience visiting the Santa Barbara market. I got to meet several of the farmers that I already work with and also got to meet a few new ones. The vibe at the market was incredible. Several chefs we walking around loading up their carts. I saw the chef from a local restaurant called Julienne. I recognized him because I had eaten dinner there the night before. He was pushing this very impressive looking cart upon which he was piling boxes of fresh produce. I struck up a conversation with him and got the recipe for the pepito pesto that he served on a shaved carrot salad. I had eaten the prior evening and was licking my plate!

If you get a chance, please do yourself a flavor and visit Santa Barbara- walk around and eat as much as you can. David Lagnese

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Visit the market's website for information on the market and all the vendors.  You can sign up for a weekly email update.

http://www.farmersmarketcooperativeofeastliberty.com/

Also,  check out the video about the market produced by Ths folks at East Liberty Development (ELDI).  It was directed and produced by local film maker Michael Pisano. So a great big thanks Michael and ELDI's Margaret Graham  for producing the video. So please check out the video and share it with others.

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The Farmers' Market Cooperative of East Liberty is located at 344 North Sheridan Ave., adjacent to the Home Depot parking lot.  The market operates year round- and is open from 5 AM until 12 noon every Saturday of the year.

Update for Saturday, February 8th

We had a really great market last week.  Thanks to all of you that came out.  People seemed to really enjoy getting out and talking to their neighbors.

We will be at it again this Saturday, so please come out and visit the market.  Even when its cold outside, its warm inside the market.  And the coffee will be on as usual.

The offerings this week will be very similar to last week including many locally grown items:

• Meat from the Kennedy's
• Greenawalts have potatoes, squash, dried beans and eggs
• Kistaco Farm has fresh apples and fresh pressed cider
• Zang's has local salad greens and PA mushrooms
• Wheel and Wedge Cheese has locally made cheese

The market also has carefully selected shipped-in fruit and vegetables.  Rick Zang for example has some great Florida and California citrus.  We are making juice out of it at the Kew Park stand. The California Connection has high quality dried fruit, nuts and olive oil.  Excellent vinegar from Pastamore.

And of course other locally made items are available from Greek Gourmet, Rebecca Plum baked goods, Cinco de Mayo Salsa and Better Made Donuts.

See you at the market- David Lagnese

 *****************************************************
Visit the market's website for information on the market and all the vendors.  You can sign up for a weekly email update.

http://www.farmersmarketcooperativeofeastliberty.com/

Also,  check out the video about the market produced by Ths folks at East Liberty Development (ELDI).  It was directed and produced by local film maker Michael Pisano. So a great big thanks Michael and ELDI's Margaret Graham  for producing the video. So please check out the video and share it with others.

*********************************************************

The Farmers' Market Cooperative of East Liberty is located at 344 North Sheridan Ave., adjacent to the Home Depot parking lot.  The market operates year round- and is open from 5 AM until 12 noon every Saturday of the year.

Update for Saturday, February 1st- Super Bowl Weekend

We hope you will stop by the market to get items for Super Bowl gatherings.

I do want to take a moment to thank everyone for continuing to support the market throughout these cold winter months.  We will be open again this Saturday, of course, as we are every Saturday all year.  

Its also important to note that even this time of year we still have many locally grown items:

• Meat from the Kennedy's
• Greenawalts have potatoes, squash, dried beans and eggs
• Kistaco Farm has fresh apples and fresh pressed cider
• Zang's has local salad greens and PA mushrooms
• Wheel and Wedge Cheese has locally made cheese

The market also has carefully selected shipped in fruit and vegetables.  The California Connection has high quality dried fruit, nuts and olive oil.

And of course other locally made items are available from Greek Gourmet, Rebecca Plum baked goods, Cinco de Mayo Salsa and Better Made Donuts.

See you at the market- David Lagnese

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The Update....

Zang's Greenhouse...Locally grown items include winter squash, shallots, onions, garlic, mushrooms, lettuce and micro greens.

Non locally grown items include green beans, beets, rainbow swiss chard, broccoli and cauliflower, zucchini, cabbage and a few other items.  In the fruit department, limes, lemons, oranges, grapefruit, grapes- all shipped in.

The Greek Gourmet- will have homemade spinach and meat pies at the market each week- in addition to 20+ flavors of hummus.  Stop by and talk to Jack at the booth.

BANDY Woodworks BANDY Woodworks will there this week with lots of great hand made items.

www.bandywoodworks.etsy.com

Pastamore' barrel-aged vinegars-  These are being brought to us by long time market customer Sylvia Lynch.  Hopefully you have been able to stop by and say hello to Sylvia and also buy a bottle of her vinegar.  Please stop by and get a great gift for the Balsamic Vinegar lovers in your life.

Did you know that you get multiple health benefits by adding Balsamic Vinegar to your diet!  It's Low in Calories, has Antioxidant Properties, can Suppress your Appetite and aid  in Digestion. Each 1 tbsp. serving of balsamic vinegar provides 4 mg of calcium and 3 mg of phosphorous. A serving a balsamic vinegar has 18 mg of potassium, adding to the 2,000 mg you need for the day. Balsamic vinegar provides nearly .12 mg of iron per tablespoon. Adding a little balsamic vinegar to your grilled chicken at lunch, or on your side salad at dinner, is an additional way to get all of these essential minerals.

Cinco de Mayo Salsa- After being away for the summer selling at the outdoor markets, they are back with their wonderful salsas and cooking sauces. They offer a wide variety of sauces and salsas.  Many of them are great for cooking with, not just for eating with chips.  Please stop by and say hello.

*****************************************************
Visit the market's website for information on the market and all the vendors.  You can sign up for a weekly email update.

http://www.farmersmarketcooperativeofeastliberty.com/

Also,  check out the video about the market produced by Ths folks at East Liberty Development (ELDI).  It was directed and produced by local film maker Michael Pisano. So a great big thanks Michael and ELDI's Margaret Graham  for producing the video. So please check out the video and share it with others.

*********************************************************

The Farmers' Market Cooperative of East Liberty is located at 344 North Sheridan Ave., adjacent to the Home Depot parking lot.  The market operates year round- and is open from 5 AM until 12 noon every Saturday of the year.