Tuesday, September 13, 2011

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Maybe my favorite part of our two and a half day trip came at the end: a stop at Windrose Farm on the the drive home.

I found out about Windrose 4 years ago when the couple we bought our house from told us that many of the organic heirloom tomato seedlings they had purchased & planted in their/our backyard came from there. We decided to stop by on a whim. I'm so glad we did!

They had so much more than tomatoes...we ended up buying two or three of pounds of apples, a nice bunch of radishes, two bunches of carrots, four heads of garlic and a couple pounds of heirloom & cherry tomatoes for $18! All organic and grown right there on the farm.
Some of the garlic we bought is a variety called Maskij (2nd to last pic). It has beautiful purple stripes and it is incredibly spicy when eaten raw- like wasabi or fresh horseradish!

When we returned home, later that evening I made a simple sauce from some of the farm's tomatoes, diced & simmered for about 20-30 minutes with olive oil, garlic, basil & oregano from our garden, salt, a pinch of sugar; ate it with some spaghetti (yes, I broke my gluten- free streak. I was not about to eat that sauce with brown rice pasta), with plenty of parmesan and a few nice handfuls of uncooked golden cherry tomatoes & basil on top. I also made a salad with apples & radishes from the farm, and a bit of mache from Trader Joe's, dressed with lemon juice & black pepper.

The next night I made a salad from store bought plums, more of the farm's tomatoes, pomegranate seeds from our yard, balsamic vinegar and black pepper. I was inspired by Heather's webisode!
I also served some of the farm's radishes with butter and sea salt. So simple and so good.

The last image is not something that we ate (anyone recognize this 'shroom? Some kind of amanita? I'm assuming it's poisonous) but discovered: these toadstools grew in our front yard after only 2 nights while we were away!

Windrose is having their annual tomato tasting this coming Sunday. If it weren't so far of a drive (3.5 hrs) we would totally go back! I highly recommend visiting the farm if you ever have the chance. They do sell at the Santa Monica farmer's market...but there was something so special about visiting the actual farm itself and seeing all of the land, and getting a better sense of the hard work and love behind the produce. We left feeling so inspired for planning & planting our garden's winter crops.






15 comments:

Belinda said...

I'm loving these travel photos. I am feeling inspired to take more road trips this summer. D and I have already agreed that we want to do a month-long California road trip - what a beautiful state.

Anonymous said...

mmmm buttered radishes and rose... a top 10 favorite snack for me for sure : )

*PrairieGirl* said...

plum & tomato salad? what a wonderful idea. we have 3 plum trees and they went nuts this year. can't let the raccoons have them all...i'll have to try this salad tonight =)

~dana

Heather Taylor said...

how incredibly gorgeous! i want to go! glad you were insired

Anne-Marie said...

First of all - your own garden sounds pretty amazing. Second - the cooking you described sounds absolutely delicious. What a joy to use such great ingredients.

Jennifer said...

A.M.
Our garden is nice- but we really neglected it this year due to both being busy, unexpected life events, and focusing on landscaping out front yard. This winter we will try to get it back into shape.
That kind of cooking is my favorite kind of cooking- using fresh, unprocessed ingredients...keeping it simple.Letting the natural flavors come through. I recommend Alice Waters book- The Art of Simple Food as a good resource for this type of cooking & eating. Although it hardly feels like cooking--more like assembly sometimes!

Jaime Rugh said...

I want to go! So so pretty.

mia patatina said...

I love your blog. For mushrooms follow this procedure courtesy of LAMS
http://www.lamushrooms.org/identification_procedure.html

P.s. where are you taking your ceramics class?

Jennifer said...

Thanks Mia!
Who knew there was a site devoted to L.A. 'shrooms?!

I'm taking a class at Xiem in the Pasadena area.

ilana kohn said...

oohhhh, i could so go for those radishes right now!

Various Projects said...

you know, i've never tried butter on my radishes but have always wondered how it tastes. i love just a little salt, but there's nothing better than salt & butter together...

Megan Taylor said...

What a wonderful looking trip!

Cheryl Cambras said...

i love that the rust spots are eyes in the first pic. i want to take max to that farm!!

leFiligree said...

the farm looks divine. without looking at the gills, i will bet the mushrooms are agaricus. except they are in a clump...so maybe coprinus. definitely key them out in a mushroom guide!

at swim-two-birds said...

this all looks so gorgeous! would love to see that farm in real:)