Category Archives: Great Finds

Home-Grown Sorbets

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French Press sorbet made with agave nectar and no dairy products.

With searing temperatures of late, why not reach for some new sorbets to beat the heat?

Especially when they’re made right here in the Bay Area in small batches with locally sourced ingredients and without any dairy.

Garden Creamery, which is made in Marin County, is the brainchild of Bay Area residents, Erin Lang and Natalie Parker. Recently, they reformulated the sorbets to make them even smoother in texture. Additionally, they added two new flavors: French Press Coffee and Thai Iced Tea.

All the sorbets are made with coconut puree to add body and sweetened with organic agave syrup.

Recently, I had a chance to try the new flavors.

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Gelato — In A Convenient, Totable Bar

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New Bar Gelato treats: Grapefruit, TCHO Chocolate and Blue Bottle Coffee.

From now on, I’m seriously going to have to put blinders on when I stroll past the freezer case at Whole Foods.

That’s because the supermarket chain has just started selling fabulous gelato bars by the Bay Area’s Naia that if left to my own devices, I could eat daily.

Forget those lickable ice cream bars of childhood, which were enjoyed mostly because of their creamy coolness, not their flavor. These gelato bars are made with primo, local ingredients including Oakland’s Blue Bottle Coffee, San Francisco’s TCHO Chocolate, Oakland’s Numi jasmine tea  and Alameda’s St. Georges Spirits single malt whiskey.

Yeah, I thought that would get your attention.

Gelateria Naia (pronounced “NIGH-ah”) was founded in Berkeley in 2002 by Chris Tan and Trevor Morris, world travelers who studied with artisan gelato makers in Italy. The two now have two retail scoop shops in Walnut Creek and San Francisco.

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A Visit to the New Love Apple Farms

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An apprentice watering vegetables at Love Apple Farm.

If paradise could be defined, it would be Love Apple Farms in Santa Cruz.

It’s hard to stroll around this verdant organic, biodynamic farm without feeling in awe of all that grows here — for just one fortunate recipient.

That would be Michelin two-star restaurant Manresa, a mere 15-minutes north.

Each morning, the produce is picked, then driven to the restaurant by noon, where Executive Chef-Proprietor David Kinch spotlights that abundance on that evening’s dinner menu.

Love Apple Farm started out as a two-acre spread in lawyer-turned-farmer Cynthia Sandberg’s backyard in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Last spring, she moved the farm to a much more expansive 20-acre spread in Santa Cruz.

Some of Cynthia Sandberg's famous tomato seedlings.

Potatoes ready for planting.

Dainty rat tail radish with a peppery bite. A favorite of Chef David Kinch.

The property was formerly the original Smothers Brothers Winery before the comedic duo relocated it to Kenwood. Sandberg proudly shows off a couple of bottles of wine leftover from that former venture. The property is full of lore, including the fact that it was also the site of noted winemaker Randall Grahm’s first job. The colorful founder of nearby Bonny Doon Vineyard once pruned grapes here.

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Convenient CSA Pickup at a Caltrain Station

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Would you believe you can pick up this bounty at a train station?

Leave it to Luke’s Local — the gourmet convenience store at a Caltrain station — to make getting farm-fresh produce on your commute even easier now.

The tiny store, which opened last year in a long-vacant ticket office at the Hillsdale station in San Mateo, just started offering a Community Supported Agriculture “Meal Box” that folks can pick up once a week at Luke’s Local. Imagine getting off the train after a long day at work, then picking up a box that contains not only fresh fruits and veggies, but a couple of ready-to-heat meals that you can load in your car to take home.

A sample "Meal Box'' from Luke's Local.

Luke Chappell, owner of the store, is offering this new service in a joint effort with Farmshares, a Community Supported Agriculture program of local farms in the Capay Valley. When you subscribe to the service, you pick up your box every Wednesday night at the train station.

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Bakesale Betty Cookie Mix

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Bakesale Betty's ginger molasses cookies to bake at home.

The good news is that you no longer have to brave the humongous lines if you want a Bakesale Betty ginger molasses cookie.

The bad news is that you still will if you want Betty’s famous fried chicken sandwich.

That’s because blue-wigged Betty, aka owner Allison Barakat, has now packaged her popular cookie in a mix that you can buy to make at home. The Ginger Molasses cookie mix is sold exclusively at Williams-Sonoma stores. It won’t be available on the store’s Web site until the fall, though.

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