At Kendall-Jackson, not only are we known for our amazing wines, we are also known for our heirloom tomatoes.  We have been saving heirloom tomato seeds for the past 15 years and now have over 400 varieties of seeds saved.  Each year, we plant approximately 175 heirloom varieties in our culinary gardens and invite chefs from all over to come and cook tomato-inspired dishes to pair with our wines at the annual Kendall-Jackson Heirloom Tomato Festival.

It is an awesome event that usually attracts 2,500 guests who love heirloom tomatoes and wine.  And the best thing is, it’s not just a fun day of eating tomatoes and wine tasting, the event also benefits a wonderful charity, The School Garden Network.

The Tomato Festival is always fabulous and this year promises to be better than ever.  Some of this year’s highlights include:

• Tomato-inspired tastings from over 50 gourmet food purveyors
• Educational seminars on organic gardening, growing tomatoes and wine & food pairings
• Live music by the Carlos Herrera Band
• Chef’s competition featuring celebrity chefs from the popular television show, Top Chef
• Tasting of 175 varieties of heirloom tomatoes
• Tomato growing contest – Bring in your home-grown heirloom tomatoes to be judged by professional tomato growers.

We would love to see you at this year’s festival.  Be sure to purchase your tickets as soon as possible as this event sells out every year.

We’ve been so excited about the Tomato Festival this year that we couldn’t wait for the tomatoes to get ripe, so we just added fried green tomatoes to our Wine & Food Pairing.  We serve them with the new Avant Chardonnay and the pairing is exceptional.  The green, sour flavor of the early tomatoes and the refreshing acidity and long, fruit finish of the Avant Chardonnay makes an incredible pairing.  Below is our recipe for Fried Green Tomatoes with Tarragon Buttermilk Ranch.  Enjoy!

Fried Green Tomatoes with Tarragon Buttermilk Ranch
Serve with Kendall-Jackson Avant Chardonnay
Serves 4

For the fried green tomatoes:
Ingredients

• 2 large unripe green tomatoes, sliced ½ -inch thick
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1/3 cup neutral flavored oil
• ¼ cup all-purpose flour
• ½ cup cornmeal
• 1 tsp. kosher salt
• ¼ tsp. good sea salt, for plating

Method

1. In a medium sized bowl, soak the tomatoes in the buttermilk and set aside.
2. Heat a 12-inch cast skillet over medium-high heat and add oil.
3. In a large bowl, mix the remaining dry ingredients, except for the sea salt.  Using tongs or a fork, remove the tomato slices from the buttermilk and coat with the cornmeal-flour mixture.  Place the tomato slices in the cast iron skillet with the oil and fry until golden brown on both sides.
4. Place the fried tomatoes on a paper towel lined plate and sprinkle with finishing salt.  Serve immediately with Tarragon Buttermilk Ranch on the side.

For the Tarragon Buttermilk Ranch:
Ingredients

• ¼ cup buttermilk
• ¾ cup mayonnaise
• 1 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 2 Tbsp. chives, minced
• 2 Tbsp. parsley, minced
• 1 scallion, finely chopped
• ¼ tsp. granulated garlic
• ¼ tsp. celery salt
• ¼ tsp. onion powder
• 1 tsp. tarragon, chopped
• 1/8 tsp. black pepper

Method

1. Combine all ingredients and mix well.  Refrigerate until ready to use.  This dressing can be refrigerated for up to 1 week.

Recently I was turned on to Rutiz Family Farms, a local Arroyo Grande sustainable ranch and market stand that I am practically giddy over. One of the coolest things about the Rutiz program is that you do not need to prepay a subscription. An email is sent out each Tuesday listing what will be in the box that week (plus cooking suggestions, announcements, and prices of other stand produce). You simply need to decide by Thursday evening whether or not your fridge needs stocking, email in the affirmative, and pick up on Friday.

Local family farming

Although I am itching for tomatoes, cool season crops have been treating me well. Sugar snap peas are lucky if they make it into a pan before they are all consumed raw, fresh spearmint made lovely tea, spinach always goes to good use, baby artichokes may be a new house favorite, “Italian sprouting” baby broccoli is fine fare, and my forced variety: radishes.

Each Tuesday evening you will find me with an ear aimed at my smart phone, waiting to hear the notification that says, “yes, the Rutiz weekly e-newsletter has arrived!” I look forward to more Tuesdays, pick up Fridays, and seasonal produce all year long.

Featuring Central Coast Wine & Cuisine!

SIP Certified vineyards and wines were in abundance at this event. Ancient Peaks, Baileyana, Chamisal, Claiborne & Churchill, Edna Valley Vineyard, Laetitia, Saucelito Canyon Vineyards, Tangent, Tolosa, Wolff, and Zocker were all showing off the SIP seal. We were pouring a great Baileyana Syrah that was highly sought after and received a lot of enthusiastic feedback on the SIP program.

The SIP Gals

See you at next year’s Harvest Celebration!

Fall Veggies

September seems like an interesting time in the world of agriculture, especially on the Central Coast where the lines between seasons are often blurred. On this late September day it feels like summer but there are signs of fall in the air. (The weather on this day can fluctuate easily between the two seasons. Record high for September 21st: 106 degrees, record low: 38 degrees.) So, I decided to head to the Paso Robles Farmers’ Market, held each Tuesday in the City Park downtown from 3-6pm to see what is being grown locally this time of year.

Gourds

At the market, the types of produce offered turned out to be just as mixed as the day’s weather. The stands lining the sunny park under the slowly-turning trees offered everything from summer berries and watermelons to fall squashes. And, this sampling of the Central Coast has everything in-between.

Lemongrass

One friendly local farmer posed with lemongrass, and another explained the process of turning squashes into hardened gourds: let the squash sit until it gets moldy, scrape the mold off, let it sit until dried then scrape skins off and let it dry some more. Each gourd is finished with a coating of polyurethane and some shoe polish to bring out the color.

A quick inventory of the fruits and vegetables available at the market would put most grocery stores to shame:

melons
dry farmed watermelons
lemongrass
beets
tomatoes
cherry tomatoes (red, yellow)
lettuce
carrots
lemons
limes
prickly pears
asian pears
avocados
squash
zucchini
strawberries
raspberries
walnuts
almonds
grapes
onions
greens
cabbage
bell peppers
peppers
plums
peaches
eggplant
sweet potatoes
garlic
winegrapes

Winegrapes

Looks like the Central Coast is the place to shop for produce in September.

Love the stemless glassware!

If  you’ve been in downtown San Luis Obispo recently, you may have noticed the quaint little tasting room on Chorro Street. This oasis of goodness is Pithy Little Wine Company and on Monday night I stopped by their Wine Industry Open House for a taste.

Felicia, owner of Pithy Little Wine Co., and me!

Amy Bakes vegan cupcakes, Joycups gluten free, organic peanut butter cups, Vivant cheese platters, and of course a plethora of Pithy wines left me in taste bud lala land. Not a wino like me? Pithy also makes classic Italian sodas that everyone can enjoy.

Amy Bakes cupcake anyone?

I love the atmosphere in the tasting room, a little modern and a lot welcoming. The word pithy, defined as concise and forcefully expressive, perfectly describes the wine, the tasting room ambiance, and even the wine bottle with wine tasting notes on the back. So after a fabulous evening filled with sweets and great wine, I headed home with a bottle of their 2009 Sangiovese Rose and a Joycup for the road!

Straight off the vine - Beth's got a zucchini and a squash

Mmm...nothing says summer more than a juicy cantaloupe!

These winter squash will make a hearty dish!

Hunting for tomatoes!

Steinbeck Vineyards and Winery is a multi-generational sustainable farm boasting 500 acres of vineyard property and producing 2,000 tons of fruit each year. In 2008, Steinbeck Vineyards introduced the Vineyards Growing Veggies program to their farm. A one acre plot was set aside for a variety of fruits and vegetables and has been producing ever since. All the vegetables go to the local food bank, a whopping 8,000 lbs annually! When Beth and I went out, Steinbeck and its volunteers were harvesting zucchini, squash, watermelon, strawberries, cantaloupe, and tomatoes. Steinbeck Vineyards and Winery welcomes volunteers who want to get involved and are especially looking for volunteers to help tend the garden (picking, planting, transitioning, and weeding) and start plants.

But wait, Steinbeck does even more to promote a healthy environment and community… they recycle natural, non-synthetic wine corks! Currently, there are 250,000 corks in use around the vineyard and winery. The corks help keep moisture in the soil and prevent unwanted weed growth.

These natural corks have found a second life!

Corks can be mulched or remain whole as seen here.

For more information on the Vineyards Growing Veggies project, visit the following sites…

www.urbanfarming.org

www.winerymusicawards.com

www.steinbeckwines.com

For more information on wine cork recycling, visit the following sites…

www.recork.org

www.steinbeckwines.com

www.vineyardteam.org

There’s usually good food to be had at wine tasting events, but have you checked out who’s going to be at this year’s Earth Day Food & Wine Festival? Just the list of restaurants alone reads like a Who’s Who of the Central Coast’s stellar spots for pleasing your palate!

Here’s a look at just some of the highlights in the lineup …

Artisan has been featured in the San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Sun-Times and Bon Appétit and Chef Chris Kobayashi was one of 20 semi-finalists in the 2009 “Best Chef: Pacific” category of the prestigious James Beard Awards.

Owner Charles Myers of Big Sky Cafe has been a longtime champion of local foods and the restaurant has gotten good press from the New York Time and Sunset Magazine.

Brown Butter Cookie Company just got a big “Yum-O” from Rachel Ray.

Chow is the latest culinary creation from Robin Covey of Novo Restaurant and Lounge and Shanny Covey of Robin’s Restaurant – both of whom have been shopping at farmers’ markets for their restaurant produce for over 25 years.

Chef Tom Fundaro recently opened Farmstand 46, offering artisanal charcuterie and lots of other tasty things, but he’s also still the chef at Villa Creek, one of Paso’s destination restaurants.

Il Cortile Ristorante has added another great place for Italian food in Paso Robles, and celebrates all things mozzarella!

The McPhee’s Grill locations in both Templeton and Avila Beach feature the wine-friendly cuisine of Chef Ian McPhee, a champion of local wines for almost three decades.

Native Restaurant and Lounge offers a savvy spot for fine dining and sipping in SLO.

Pier 46 Seafood offers fresh, fresh, fresh sushi-quality, sustainable seafood to take home to prepare, or they’ll set you up with a variety of menu items inside or on the patio.

SeaVenture Resort not only has a great seaside view, but also an extensive menu with something for everyone.

Splash Cafe is famous for their clam chowder, and the SLO location also features an artisan bakery.

Thomas Hill Organics sources produce right from the Thomas Hill Farm and the outdoor patio also features a wood-fired pizza oven.

Upper Crust has been serving pizzas, pastas and addictive raspberry salad dressing for over 20 years.

“Access to good food is a right, not a lifestyle.”

“We can’t keep balancing the economy on the backs of farmers. To make farmers economically viable we have to shorten the supply chain.”

Bain used to work in women’s prisons, and commented on the fact that many of those incarcerated were from rural areas where the farming systems had collapsed and the women suddenly found themselves with no job skills befitting an urban lifestyle. As a result, most of them were in jail for “poverty crimes,” i.e. petty theft, prostitution, passing bad checks, etc.

And lastly … “It takes a community to feed a community,” but communities don’t make themselves, so we – as individual consumers – need to buy locally, get involved in local/state/national political issues, and support organizations that champion sustainable causes.

P.S. the hot dogs were really good, especially on the local buns from Pure & Simple Bakery in Paso Robles!