Slow Life with Real Food

Meet Manfred Warmuth. Manfred is the kind of guy who calls to bring over ice-cream, and then shows up with cream, fruit, and a thermos of liquid nitrogen to flash-freeze it all. Manfred will show you how to shell soybeans using an electric drill and an empty 2 liter bottle of soda. Open Manfred's pantry (if you dare!) and inside you will find a fermentation workshop. Just take a walk around Manfred's farm, and you will find yourself among dozens of experiments.  [Read More]

Here's a recipe to help you test your 'buy local' skills. We were able to buy at the farmers' market, grow, or raise pretty much everything (except the pineapple and mango, but both can be substituted or omitted). It's a 'one dish' meal, perfect for a crowd (most of it can be made well ahead of time), and really fun to make! And if that doesn't convince you, they are delicious and nutritious!
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We now have three backyard chickens here at home.  Until very recently, we had four. Pipi (pronounced pee-pee) is no longer with us, and good riddance! You might think of us as cold-hearted and uncaring for saying so, but we are really just bad farmers. We didn't choose for Pipi to leave us, she did. She is a murderess chicken, and slightly neurotic. Sure, she's an A-class layer, and her eggs are tasty and purdy, red-shelled and freckled, with a deep golden yolk. She's a great looking, healthy Rhode Island Red hen with a beautiful full comb and rusty-colored feathers. But, she's mean! Pipi was attacking our dear Prima, our golden chicken, aiming for the back of her neck and out for the kill. Our peaceful little team of chickens was in a state of terror, so the terrorist, Pipi, had to go.  [Read More]

Sunday is my new favorite day!  We wake up, put on our best clothes (in Santa Cruz this means a pair of jeans with flip-flops and a clean t-shirt with or without sleeves), grab our cloth bags, and walk down the street to our local farmers' market. The coastal fog is usually lifting by the time we get there, and we are welcomed by familiar faces (like Ilya and Ilya, the uncle/nephew team of Russian crepe-makers) and the rhythm of the band (like the folksy C-Monkeys). I buy my 'Shake It Baby' peach iced tea and a spinach and tomato crepe, and settle down for a yummy breakfast. After we sample the fruit harvest and some fresh heirloom tomatoes, we buy the majority of our weekly groceries, all locally grown, baked, or caught by family farms, local bakers, and fishermen. This is our Sunday morning ritual, and a big part of our spiritual life. It's like going to church, but it feels a lot more light-hearted.
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