Category Archives: Fruit

Carneros Inn Offers Produce Baskets to Guests, Dessert Time in San Francisco & More

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Fresh fruit, veggies and flowers to take home from the Carneros Inn. (Photo courtesy of the resort)

Guests of Carneros Inn Get Gift of Organic Produce

Guests who depart the Carneros Inn in Napa on Sundays can now receive a free brimming bag of fresh-picked fruit and veggies from the resort’s 1/2-acre biodynamic, organic garden to take home.

Those goodies might include heirloom tomatoes, kale, Swiss chard, watermelon, cucumber, carrots, peas, strawberries and raspberries, as well as a bevy of herbs and flowers. The good-for-you goody bag is available for the asking at check-out and even comes with a recipe, too.

Peter Stonebraker, the property’s culinary gardener, grows an abundance of produce for the resort’s private dining restaurant, Hilltop Dining Room, as well as for its FARM restaurant and  Boon Fly Cafe. And he’s more than happy to share the wealth.

Culinary Gardener Peter Stonebraker tends to the fruits of his labor. (Photo courtesy of Carneros Inn)

Dessert First? You Bet!

Life is short, so why not go for the sweet stuff first?

Project Open Hand invites you to do just that at its 11th annual Dessert First extravaganza at the InterContinental San Francisco, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Aug. 14.

This year, 16 pastry chefs will dazzle with their decadent creations. Among those participating are: Patti Dellamonica-Bauler of One Market Restaurant, Sara Spearin of Dynamo Donut, Francis Ang of the Fifth Floor, Elizabeth Faulkner of Citizen Cake and Orson, and Jake Godby of Humphry Slocombe.

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Three Summer Reads — That Aren’t Your Usual Cookbooks

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“TomatoLand”

If you’ve ever eaten a tomato, “Tomatoland” (Andrews McMeel), is an absolute must-read.

What Eric Schlosser’s book, “Fast Food Nation” (Harper Perennial), did to unveil the dark side of the cheap, drive-through burgers Americans can’t get enough of, James Beard Award-winning writer Barry Estabrook does the same to modern industrial agribusiness that has reaped the profits from creating tomatoes that are tasteless, less nutritious, 14 times higher in sodium, and inexplicably available year-round in supermarkets nationwide.

Award-winning investigative journalist Barry Estabrook delves into the industrial tomato business. (Photo coutesy of Mr. Estabrook)You’ll learn that Florida may grow one-third of all tomatoes in the United States, yet its climate is highly unsuitable for that crop. Its sandy soil possesses little nutrients, requiring the need for chemical fertilizers. Its humid, torrid temperatures foster fungal diseases and insects, necessitating hundreds of herbicides and pesticides. And the largely Hispanic migrants who pick the tomatoes work in dangerous conditions, and in some cases, treated little better than modern-day slaves.

Estabrook first popped the lid on the horrendous conditions some tomato pickers face in an investigative piece he wrote two years ago when he was a former contributing editor to Gourmet magazine.

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Scenes from Frog Hollow Farm’s “Peaches & Tango”

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Nectarine tree at Frog Hollow Farm.

It’s not every day that you find giant canisters of liquid nitrogen and elaborate sous vide cooking equipment on a bucolic fruit farm.

But when “Top Chef All-Stars” Champ Richard Blais visits to cook an elaborate fund-raising dinner for 175 folks, that’s just what you need to make it all happen.

The occasion was Saturday’s “Peaches & Tango: A Dinner in the Orchard” at Frog Hollow Farm in Brentwood, an evening of gourmet eats, live music and tango dancing performances by Trio Garufa. Proceeds benefited the Chez Panisse Foundation.

Chef Richard Blais tears the skin off of fried chicken to serve it as a garnish with hamachi crudo.

Yours truly served as emcee for the fun event, which marked my first time visiting this incredible farm.

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Olallieberry Time

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Olallieberry pie -- as only Duarte's makes it.

With a lyrical name that’s just too much fun to say, olallieberries are black knobby berries with a sweet-tart, wine-y flavor that grow along the Central coast for a fleeting six weeks in summer.

Now’s the time to enjoy them fresh, especially at u-pick farms such as Phipps Country Store & Farm in Pescadero.

Perhaps no place has made olallieberries more famous, though, than Duarte’s Tavern in Pescadero.

The family-run business that started in 1934 is justly known for its artichoke soup, cioppino and other fresh seafood dishes. But it’s the hand-made ollalieberry pie that everyone saves room for. Enjoy it at this landmark restaurant for$6.50 a slice or $25 for a whole pie. Because Duarte’s freezes a huge supply of the ollalieberries each season, the pie is available year-round.

For the past few years, Duarte’s also has been selling ($14) unbaked, frozen whole olallieberry pies at select Bay Area stores, including Zanotto’s in San Jose and the Milk Pail in Mountain View.  Later this year, the frozen pies also will begin being sold at all Whole Foods in Northern California.

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