SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA SUMMER CROPS:

SEEDLESS CONCORD GRAPES, MELONS: OGEN, SUGAR QUEEN, ARAVA, CAVAILLON; FIGS, HERBS, SANGIVINELLI BLOOD ORANGES, VALENCIA ORANGES, CURRANTS, BERRIES, STONEFRUIT: PLUMS, PLUOTS, NECTARINES, PEACHES, SANTA ROSA PLUMS; HEIRLOOM TOMATOES: CHERRY AND FULL SIZED, ONIONS, SUMMER SQUASHES: PATTY PAN, EIGHTBALL, ZEYPHER, BABY GREEN ZUCCHINI;  ROMANO BEANS, BLUE LAKE BEANS, HARICOT VERT, YELLOW WAX, SNAP PEAS, BLOOMSDALE SPINACH, SEMI SAVOY SPINACH PEPPERS: ITALIAN FRYING, SWEET LIPSTICK, PADRONS; BERRIES (STRAWBERRIES STILL FROM GLORIA TAMAI), CITRUS, SWEET WHITE CORN……OH MY, SO MANY GOODIES TO EAT!!!!

ITEMS THAT HAVE SADLY LEFT US….

FITZGERALD ONLY HAS A FEW MORE WEEKS OF HIS WONDERFUL STONEFRUIT SO DON’T WAIT UNTIL IT’S TOO LATE!!! NO MORE CHERRIES FOR THE SEASON, NO MORE STRAWBERRIES FROM RUTIZ AND SUZIE’S FARMS. PINK LEMONS ARE DONE FOR THE SEASON, AND THE BLOOD ORANGES WILL ONLY BE AROUND FOR 2 MORE WEEKS, PORCINI MUSHROOMS, BABY BROCCOLI IS STILL GAPPING

WEISER FARMS  HAS EGGPLANT: CALIOPE (GRAFFITI), WHITE, BLACK BELL, APPLE GREEN!! SUZIE’S FARM HAS BABY SIZED BLACK AND APPLE GREEN

***GLORIA TAMAI WHITE CORN IS IN FULL ABUNDANCE!!!! PUT IT ON THE MENU NOW***

***FITZGERALD PEACHES, NECTARINES, APRICOTS  AND PLUMS ARE RIPE, JUICY AND BEING HARVESTED!!!***

Can you say, Red Currants???Brought to you by Pudwill Farms

THE FARMS:

CARLSBAD AQUAFARM: CARLSBAD, CA

Owner and diver, John Davis is passionate about sustainable aquaculture:  He believes that every oyster and mussel raised in his 6 acre aquafarm is one less that will be taken from the ocean.  The aquafarm, located in the highly protected Agua Hedionda Lagoon offshore is a green operation that returns water back to the ocean cleaner than when it comes in.  Carlsbad Aquafarm grows and harvests one oyster in two phases, young and mature:  the young oyster is known as “Luna” and the mature: “Blonde”.  Both are delicate and delicious.  The Blonde offering a little more mineral and salt in finish. Their shells are cupped and grow deeper with age, which provides a great vessel for the oysters’ liquor.

Luna Oysters

MOUNTAIN MEADOW MUSHROOMS:  ESCONDIDO, CA

Blazei Mushrooms!!!! now available dried too!

Description/Taste
Blazei Mushrooms are a unique and elegant variety that are sought out as much for their medicinal properties as they are for their sweet marzipanesque flavor and essence.

Geography/History
The Blazei’s origins can be traced back to eastern North America circa the late 19th century. It disappeared from the commercial marketplace in the early 20th century. Data accounts for its cultivation again in the early 1980′s in Brazil, Japan, Hawaii, Taiwan and elsewhere.

Garcia Organic Farm – Fallbrook, CA

Hass Avocados - certified organic

Star Ruby Grapefruit Prized for its beautiful deep red color and exceptional flavor, the nearly smooth skin of the Star Ruby grapefruit has a characteristic dark pink pretty blush. Containing few seeds, inside is an intensely deep rich red flesh that delivers a delicious sweet-tart flavor. The redder the flesh, the sweeter the taste.

Green Garnsey Figs

Fallbrook Mushroom Farm – Fallbrook, CA:

A field trip to Fallbrook Mushroom Farm is an educated journey into a virtual Chinese forest where mushrooms where dominate the landscape. Long and narrow, screened barns are home to thousands upon thousands of oyster “spawns” and shitake logs. The mushrooms are cultivated on agro-waste (which is essentially recycled agricultural food sources) in spawns filled with rice, grains, cotton, straw, wheat, millet and maize that serve as the mushrooms’ food and protein source. The spawned bags (see picture above) are stored in low-lit raised shelving as they begin colonizing. They are watered from a sprinkling system above daily to retain the appropriate levels of moisture for the mushrooms to grow prolifically. Harvests occur approximately every 60 days and are picked before the mushrooms begin to spore. The most effective way to harvest the mushrooms is to remove the entire colony from the spawn’s stem so that a new crop can grow all at once. One spawn bag can cultivate about 3-5 harvests.

Baby Oyster Mushrooms– These mushrooms are harvested at a younger age than their sand dolllar counterparts. They have a mild and delicately earthy flavor. The stems, although still a little chewy are far more edible than a matured oyster mushroom stem. They have more adaptable cooking applications at their younger age.

peewee shitakes – 100% edible!!! Tiny, thin and tender stalks and a meaty cap make for an amazing mushroom experience! The mushrooms are harvested the SAME day they arrive in your kitchen. And their local!!!

The shiitakes are farm raised and harvested on protein filled cedar logs. The logs can produce over 4 pounds of mushrooms over their lifetime. They are also 100% recyclable. Once the logs are exhausted they can be used for composting or as a natural fertilizer.

What is unique about Fallbrook Mushroom Farms besides the information that I shared with you? Well, considering that 85% of the world’s oyster mushroom production comes from China and the fact that the oyster mushroom is the third largest cultivated mushroom, having an oyster mushroom farm in our own back yard is simply a privilege. Fallbrook Mushroom Farm is a pristinely run organic family farm. They harvest their mushrooms the same day we have them delivered and they are harvesting the mushrooms smaller so that they are more tender and the mushrooms themselves are higher yielding. The mushroom caps range in sizes from button to half-dollar versus SAND dollar, making them the only oyster mushrooms known to be picked at that size. You can do so much more with these mushrooms than adding them to “Hot Pot”.  *available by the pound or by the five pound flat.

Polito Family Farm – Valley Center, CA

Oro Blanco Grapefuit - golden-flesh, sweet and juicy

Schaner Farm, Valley Center, CA

Duck Eggs – by the 20 ct. layer

Hen Eggs –

Also! baby beets, avocados, onions, shallots and

Sage Mountain Farms:  Temecula, CA

Wild Arugula

Pac Choi

Spring Elephant Garlic

Purplette Onions

Baby Beets

French Breakfast Radises

Black Radises

Plum Radishes

New Potatoes

Beylik Family Farms – Fillmore, CA

Persian Cucumbers – petite and crunchy! No seeds=sweet!

Japanese Tomatoes – “Tough Boy” brings hefty flavor, succulence and meatiness.

Yellow Tomatoes – sweet, tangy and heartier than your average yellow tomato!

Sweet Basil – hydroponic!!!!

Coastal Organics – Oxnard, CA

Heirloom Cherry Tomato Mix

Baby Summer Squash Mix!!!

Cavalo Nero Kale

Red and green chard

sweet mixed small lettuces (by the case)

Coleman Family Farm – Carpinteria, CA

Pirella Lettuce - A mild-flavored limestone variety originally developed in Kentucky to withstand the heat!

Deer’s Tongue Lettuce – Triangular shaped leaves give this loose-leaf lettuce its distinct look and name. The leaves are tender, mild, succulent and have a melt-in-your-mouth flavor.

Red Butter (Piret) Lettuce– you won’t find this anywhere else! Award-winning for its taste and texture, Pirat is a butterhead variety that has tender and sweet red-tinged leaves with a snappy succulent blanched heart.

Vulcan Lettuce! A cut and come again variety – It has crisp, ruffled, mild flavored, candy apple red colored leaves that give way to a pale green background.

Freckles Lettuce – Freckles! Sweet leaves, crispy inside. Perfect lettuce for salads mixes.

Lollo Rossa Lettuce – A red leaf lettuce variety, the distinct red color increases and becomes more intense in this remarkable lettuce when confronted with severe cold or heat.

Frisee - An early Italian variety Endive known for its decadent sized head and self-blanching heart. Its leaves are long and mid-toned green with a white fleshy ribs. Wonderful sweet and mellow flavor.

Treviso– Gorgeous, green and red and a hearty crunchy leaf. Has a tendency toward bitterness. Soak the greens to remove unwanted astringencies.

Radicchio -

Red Bok Choy!– Also known as Red Violet Tatsoi Hybrid, this is a unique bok choy vartiety The shiny leaves range in color from red-violet to dark purple, and they hold their color well even in the summer heat, although this variety also tolerates colder temperatures. Lightly textured, the spoon-shaped leaves have a mild mustard flavor.

Brocolli Spigarello

Peacock Kale

Red Frill Mustard -

Persian Watercress-  A.K.A. “Shahi” the peppery frilly leaf that has a similar shape to wild arugula, yet it is more fragile and “cressier” in flavor.

French Sorrel

Chrysanthemum – This Asian “pot herb” is the edible leaves of the garland chrysanthemum. The deeply lobed green leaves are a bit bitter in flavor but give off the floral aromas of its flower.

Fitzgerald Farm

Yellow Peaches

White Peaches – a low acid peach known as the “eating peach”

Saturn Peaches - whitish-yellow skin brushed with colorful red highlights

Yellow Nectarines – sweet and fruity with the perfect amount of acid

Plums – a summertime favorite

Mini Plums

White Nectarines

Carmen Miranda Nectarines

Gloria Tamai Farms, Oxnard, CA

Gaviota & Albian Strawberries

Wild Arugula (bunches)

White Corn The tender kernels of this especially sweet corn variety are a very pale white and offer their finest flavor at milk stage.

Cherry Tomato Mix

Plus!!: Dill, Mint, Italian Parsley, Beets, Broccoli, Wax Beans, Cilantro

Jaime Farm – Ontario, CA

Rainbow Chard – striking colors, hearty leaves.

Black Cherry Tomatoes

Spring Onions

J.J.’s Lone Daughter Ranch

Pink Lemons

Sangvinelli Blood Oranges

LA NOGALERA

Walnuts– grown in the Santa Rita Hills at Rancho La Viña; these are addictive!!!

Life’s A Choke – Lompoc, CA

Lyon Artichoke with stem- large and in charge! This is a very jumbo, round, meaty variety from Southern France that yields a whole lot of heart!!

Baby Purple  Artichokes

Baby Green Artichokes

Baby Green Zucchini

Squash Blossoms

Asparagus:  Pencil to Jumbo

Mike and Son Egg Ranch – Ontario, CA

Brown Eggs farm fresh eggs that are unequivocally delicious with gleaming yolks! Each egg is individually candled! (5 doz case only)

Pudwill Farm – Nipomo, CA

Red Raspberries

Blackberrries

Blueberrie$ -

Black Mission Figs:  This is their breba crop

RANCHO DEL SOL – Jamul, CA

Buddha’s Hand

Rutiz Farm – Arroyo Grande, CA

Romano Beans

Persian Watercress- a unique variety, with a wonderfully spicy-sweet kick

Baby Calabrese Broccoli – available sporadically until late fall..GAPPING UNTIL NEXT WEEK

Savoy Spinach – cut in small clusters of 3-4 leaves – beautiful!!

French Breakfast Radishes

Wild Arugula

Tutti Frutti(Italian for All Fruit) – Santa Barbara County and Carpinteria

Cherokee Tomatoes

Tutti Frutti also has other miscellaneous herbs and root vegetables. – check out their website!

Weiser Family Farm – Bakersfield, CA

Red Thumb Potatoes

Mixed Heirloom Potatoes - Fingerling sized heirloom variety of six different potatoes, including french fingerlings, Russian bananas, King Edwards, All blues, Ruby crescents and red thumbs.

Russian Banana Fingerlings – oh so creamy..

Peewee Potato Mix

Baby Bermuda Onions – currently being harvested without the tops!  sweet and delicious!!!

Zebra Potatoes

Black Bell Eggplant

Caliope Eggplant

Green Apple Eggplant

Windrose Farm – Paso Robles, CA

Braising Mix Greens -aka field greens, the mix varies but the greens are a hearty blend of baby sweet chards, kales, mustard greens and tatsoi

Rustic Arugula – loose leaf, frisee style and perfectly peppered!

Fresh Onions

Fresh Whole Garlic

Yasutomi Farm – Pico Rivera, CA

Butter Lettuce!!!!!

Baby Bok Choy – Baby bok choy’s attractive three to four inch long green leaves with characteristic succulent white stems offer a tender texture and mild, sweeter flavor.

Baby Celery – Fresh, sweet, herbaceous with leaves about the size of cilantro or parsley, baby celery delivers an intense celery flavor that is much stronger than mature celery.

Green Onion Chives – comin soon!  mild, sometimes sweet green onion and chive hydroponic hybrid. great shelf-life too!

Japanese Cucumbers

SUZIE’S FARM:

“The real deal is this: these are our products. You know me. I’ll shake your hand. I’ll give you a hug and a smile and my ear. You know our integrity. We aren’t hiding anything. You can talk to us anytime. You can visit the farm. You know our values. Our dreams. Our goals. You can call me out, right or wrong, and I’ll take it and try to make it better. I’m not perfect, but I’m doing my best. I like you. I want to help you. I think what you are doing is cool. Maybe you think what we are doing is cool. Let’s do something cool together and show it to some other cool people…” Lucila De Alejandro (co-owner of Suzie’s Farm) on building relationships with chefs and the culinary community

Local, organic, sustainable real people growing really good real food just out our backdoor (11 miles south of downtown, just west of I-5).  Owners and operators, Robin Taylor and Lucila De Alejandro are passionate risk-taking farmers on a mission to provide an abundance of beautiful produce in harmony with the land and Mother Nature.  They seek out unique varieties of well, just about everything.  Currently they have 13,000 tomato plants in the ground,  several varieties of shelling beans, radishes, spinach, sweet and hot peppers, summer squash varieties, peas, lettuces, red okra and so much more! The current harvest includes:

Sweet Cherry Tomatoes!!

Bibb lettuce – in a word: delicious!

Freckles! Lettuce:

Summer Squash Mix:

Italian Rustic Arugula

Pungent, lively, earthyt and peppery, Rustic Arugula is a thinner, wilder arugula featuring fine, deeply-indented dark green leaves which resist bolting in heat.  You can also get arugula flowers right now too!

Chioggia Beets

An Italian heirloom variety that is pink on the outside with candy stripes circulating throughout the inside. The beet’s flavor is sweet and earthy.

Gold Beets A beautiful pale orange exterior encases a golden-orange, juicy-crisp flesh. Its smooth skinned (up to 4″) globes are topped with light green leaves.

Fennel You think all fennel tastes the same? This variety of fennel has a milder licorice flavor than most. When raw it has a crispy crunch and once cooked it offers a mild, sweet (almost caramel-like) smooth taste.

Black Radishes!  A hardy Spanish variety with an off-black thin skin and a crisp peppery transclucent white flesh.

Macho Squash BlossomsThese monster blossoms come from the heirloom Romanesco Summer Squash variety; they have hearty stems which allows them a greater shelf-life than most varieties.

Also harvesting:

Semi-Savoyed (Bloomsdale) Spinach:  This is perhaps the sweetest, mildest Bloomsdale spinach I have ever tasted!

Rainbow Swiss Chard:

Mixed Colored Radishes:

Heirloom Romanesco Zucchini:

Watermelon Radishes:A radish with a wow effect: white round roots up to 4″ in diamerter with pale green highlighted skin reveal an incredible rose red variegated interior. Sweet and mild radish flavor.

Parisian Pickling Cucumber

Miniature White Cucumber

West Indian Gherkins!

Are you ready? So much fabulous stuff this week in the bag including Concord Grapes that are seedless!!! A colorful bunch of fun produce that we know you’ll find some tasty dishes to incorporate them into. Have fun!

YouTube video:

Post your photos on Twitter with the hashtag #spFMB & we’ll post them in our Customer Photos album!

Heirloom Eggplant Mix – Weiser Farms
Mint – Rutiz Farms
White Peaches – Fitzgerald Farms
Green Gem Lettuce- Coleman Farms
Heirloom Cherry Tomatoes – Coastal Organics
Seedless Concord Grapes – Murray Family Farms
Star Ruby Grapefruit & Meiwa Kumquats – Rancho Del Sol
Eight Ball Squash, Yellow Sweet Onions & Patty Pan Squash – Sage Mountain Farm

If you haven’t joined yet, you can order a bag for next week on our FMB page! Be sure and click the links to the product pages, or search our website for similar ones with recipes attached! Enjoy & share what you made with the FMB community on our FB page!

EGGPLANT HAS FINALLY ARRIVED ON THE SCENE!!!

WEISER FARMS HAS EGGPLANT: CALIOPE (GRAFFITI), WHITE, BLACK BELL, APPLE GREEN

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA SUMMER CROPS:

MELONS: OGEN, SUGAR QUEEN, ARAVA, CAVAILLON; FIGS, HERBS, SANGIVINELLI BLOOD ORANGES, CURRANTS, BERRIES, STONEFRUIT: PLUMS, PLUOTS, NECTARINES, PEACHES; HEIRLOOM TOMATOES: CHERRY AND FULL SIZED, ONIONS, SUMMER SQUASHES, ROMANO BEANS, SNAP PEAS, BLOOMSDALE SPINACH, PEPPERS: ITALIAN FRYING, SWEET LIPSTICK, PADRONS; BERRIES (STRAWBERRIES STILL FROM GLORIA TAMAI), CITRUS, SWEET WHITE CORN……OH MY, SO MANY GOODIES TO EAT!!!!

ITEMS THAT HAVE SADLY LEFT US….

NO MORE CHERRIES FOR THE SEASON, NO MORE STRAWBERRIES FROM RUTIZ AND SUZIE’S FARMS. PINK LEMONS ARE DONE FOR THE SEASON, AND THE BLOOD ORANGES WILL ONLY BE AROUND FOR 2 MORE WEEKS, GARCIA FARMS HAS NO MORE OF THEIR BEAUTIFUL MEYER LEMONS

***GLORIA TAMAI WHITE CORN IS IN FULL ABUNDANCE!!!! PUT IT ON THE MENU NOW***

***FITZGERALD PEACHES, NECTARINES, APRICOTS  AND PLUMS ARE RIPE, JUICY AND BEING HARVESTED!!!***

Can you say, Red Currants???Brought to you by Pudwill Farms

THE FARMS:

SUZIE’S FARM:

“The real deal is this: these are our products. You know me. I’ll shake your hand. I’ll give you a hug and a smile and my ear. You know our integrity. We aren’t hiding anything. You can talk to us anytime. You can visit the farm. You know our values. Our dreams. Our goals. You can call me out, right or wrong, and I’ll take it and try to make it better. I’m not perfect, but I’m doing my best. I like you. I want to help you. I think what you are doing is cool. Maybe you think what we are doing is cool. Let’s do something cool together and show it to some other cool people…” Lucila De Alejandro (co-owner of Suzie’s Farm) on building relationships with chefs and the culinary community

Local, organic, sustainable real people growing really good real food just out our backdoor (11 miles south of downtown, just west of I-5).  Owners and operators, Robin Taylor and Lucila De Alejandro are passionate risk-taking farmers on a mission to provide an abundance of beautiful produce in harmony with the land and Mother Nature.  They seek out unique varieties of well, just about everything.  Currently they have 13,000 tomato plants in the ground,  several varieties of shelling beans, radishes, spinach, sweet and hot peppers, summer squash varieties, peas, lettuces, red okra and so much more! The current harvest includes:

Sweet Cherry Tomatoes!!

Bibb lettuce – in a word: delicious!

Freckles! Lettuce:

Summer Squash Mix:

Italian Rustic Arugula

Pungent, lively, earthyt and peppery, Rustic Arugula is a thinner, wilder arugula featuring fine, deeply-indented dark green leaves which resist bolting in heat.  You can also get arugula flowers right now too!

Chioggia Beets

An Italian heirloom variety that is pink on the outside with candy stripes circulating throughout the inside. The beet’s flavor is sweet and earthy.

Gold Beets A beautiful pale orange exterior encases a golden-orange, juicy-crisp flesh. Its smooth skinned (up to 4″) globes are topped with light green leaves.

Fennel You think all fennel tastes the same? This variety of fennel has a milder licorice flavor than most. When raw it has a crispy crunch and once cooked it offers a mild, sweet (almost caramel-like) smooth taste.

Black Radishes!  A hardy Spanish variety with an off-black thin skin and a crisp peppery transclucent white flesh.

Macho Squash BlossomsThese monster blossoms come from the heirloom Romanesco Summer Squash variety; they have hearty stems which allows them a greater shelf-life than most varieties.

Also harvesting:

Semi-Savoyed (Bloomsdale) Spinach:  This is perhaps the sweetest, mildest Bloomsdale spinach I have ever tasted!

Mustard Flowers:

Rainbow Swiss Chard:

Mixed Colored Radishes:

Heirloom Romanesco Zucchini:

Watermelon Radishes:A radish with a wow effect: white round roots up to 4″ in diamerter with pale green highlighted skin reveal an incredible rose red variegated interior. Sweet and mild radish flavor.

Parisian Pickling Cucumber

Miniature White Cucumber

West Indian Gherkins!

Armenian White Cucumbers:

CARLSBAD AQUAFARM: CARLSBAD, CA

Owner and diver, John Davis is passionate about sustainable aquaculture:  He believes that every oyster and mussel raised in his 6 acre aquafarm is one less that will be taken from the ocean.  The aquafarm, located in the highly protected Agua Hedionda Lagoon offshore is a green operation that returns water back to the ocean cleaner than when it comes in.  Carlsbad Aquafarm grows and harvests one oyster in two phases, young and mature:  the young oyster is known as “Luna” and the mature: “Blonde”.  Both are delicate and delicious.  The Blonde offering a little more mineral and salt in finish. Their shells are cupped and grow deeper with age, which provides a great vessel for the oysters’ liquor.

Luna Oysters

MOUNTAIN MEADOW MUSHROOMS:  ESCONDIDO, CA

Blazei Mushrooms!!!! now available dried too!

Description/Taste
Blazei Mushrooms are a unique and elegant variety that are sought out as much for their medicinal properties as they are for their sweet marzipanesque flavor and essence.

Geography/History
The Blazei’s origins can be traced back to eastern North America circa the late 19th century. It disappeared from the commercial marketplace in the early 20th century. Data accounts for its cultivation again in the early 1980′s in Brazil, Japan, Hawaii, Taiwan and elsewhere.

Garcia Organic Farm – Fallbrook, CA

Hass Avocados - certified organic!

Meyer Lemons -

Cocktail Grapefruit -

Developed in the 1950′s, the Cocktail Grapefruit is actually a hybrid of Siamese Sweet pommelo and Frua mandarin. As it was never officially allowed for release, the hybrid escaped from the University of California Riverside.

Star Ruby Grapefruit Prized for its beautiful deep red color and exceptional flavor, the nearly smooth skin of the Star Ruby grapefruit has a characteristic dark pink pretty blush. Containing few seeds, inside is an intensely deep rich red flesh that delivers a delicious sweet-tart flavor. The redder the flesh, the sweeter the taste.

Green Figs

Fallbrook Mushroom Farm – Fallbrook, CA:

A field trip to Fallbrook Mushroom Farm is an educated journey into a virtual Chinese forest where mushrooms where dominate the landscape. Long and narrow, screened barns are home to thousands upon thousands of oyster “spawns” and shitake logs. The mushrooms are cultivated on agro-waste (which is essentially recycled agricultural food sources) in spawns filled with rice, grains, cotton, straw, wheat, millet and maize that serve as the mushrooms’ food and protein source. The spawned bags (see picture above) are stored in low-lit raised shelving as they begin colonizing. They are watered from a sprinkling system above daily to retain the appropriate levels of moisture for the mushrooms to grow prolifically. Harvests occur approximately every 60 days and are picked before the mushrooms begin to spore. The most effective way to harvest the mushrooms is to remove the entire colony from the spawn’s stem so that a new crop can grow all at once. One spawn bag can cultivate about 3-5 harvests.

Baby Oyster Mushrooms– These mushrooms are harvested at a younger age than their sand dolllar counterparts. They have a mild and delicately earthy flavor. The stems, although still a little chewy are far more edible than a matured oyster mushroom stem. They have more adaptable cooking applications at their younger age.

peewee shitakes – 100% edible!!! Tiny, thin and tender stalks and a meaty cap make for an amazing mushroom experience! The mushrooms are harvested the SAME day they arrive in your kitchen. And their local!!!

The shiitakes are farm raised and harvested on protein filled cedar logs. The logs can produce over 4 pounds of mushrooms over their lifetime. They are also 100% recyclable. Once the logs are exhausted they can be used for composting or as a natural fertilizer.

What is unique about Fallbrook Mushroom Farms besides the information that I shared with you? Well, considering that 85% of the world’s oyster mushroom production comes from China and the fact that the oyster mushroom is the third largest cultivated mushroom, having an oyster mushroom farm in our own back yard is simply a privilege. Fallbrook Mushroom Farm is a pristinely run organic family farm. They harvest their mushrooms the same day we have them delivered and they are harvesting the mushrooms smaller so that they are more tender and the mushrooms themselves are higher yielding. The mushroom caps range in sizes from button to half-dollar versus SAND dollar, making them the only oyster mushrooms known to be picked at that size. You can do so much more with these mushrooms than adding them to “Hot Pot”.  *available by the pound or by the five pound flat.

Polito Family Farm – Valley Center, CA

Oro Blanco Grapefuit - golden-flesh, sweet and juicy

Schaner Farm, Valley Center, CA

Duck Eggs – by the 20 ct. layer

Hen Eggs –

Also! baby beets, avocados, onions, shallots and

Sage Mountain Farms:  Temecula, CA

Wild Arugula

Pac Choi

Spring Elephant Garlic

Purplette Onions

Baby Beets

French Breakfast Radises

Black Radises

Plum Radishes

New Potatoes

Beylik Family Farms – Fillmore, CA

Persian Cucumbers – petite and crunchy! No seeds=sweet!

Japanese Tomatoes – “Tough Boy” brings hefty flavor, succulence and meatiness.

Yellow Tomatoes – sweet, tangy and heartier than your average yellow tomato!

Sweet Basil – hydroponic!!!!

Coastal Organics – Oxnard, CA

Heirloom Cherry Tomato Mix

Baby Summer Squash Mix!!!

Cavalo Nero Kale

Red and green chard

sweet mixed small lettuces (by the case)

Coleman Family Farm – Carpinteria, CA

Pirella Lettuce - A mild-flavored limestone variety originally developed in Kentucky to withstand the heat!

Deer’s Tongue Lettuce – Triangular shaped leaves give this loose-leaf lettuce its distinct look and name. The leaves are tender, mild, succulent and have a melt-in-your-mouth flavor.

Red Butter (Piret) Lettuce– you won’t find this anywhere else! Award-winning for its taste and texture, Pirat is a butterhead variety that has tender and sweet red-tinged leaves with a snappy succulent blanched heart.

Vulcan Lettuce! A cut and come again variety – It has crisp, ruffled, mild flavored, candy apple red colored leaves that give way to a pale green background.

Freckles Lettuce – Freckles! Sweet leaves, crispy inside. Perfect lettuce for salads mixes.

Lollo Rossa Lettuce – A red leaf lettuce variety, the distinct red color increases and becomes more intense in this remarkable lettuce when confronted with severe cold or heat.

Frisee - An early Italian variety Endive known for its decadent sized head and self-blanching heart. Its leaves are long and mid-toned green with a white fleshy ribs. Wonderful sweet and mellow flavor.

Treviso– Gorgeous, green and red and a hearty crunchy leaf. Has a tendency toward bitterness. Soak the greens to remove unwanted astringencies.

Radicchio -

Red Bok Choy!– Also known as Red Violet Tatsoi Hybrid, this is a unique bok choy vartiety The shiny leaves range in color from red-violet to dark purple, and they hold their color well even in the summer heat, although this variety also tolerates colder temperatures. Lightly textured, the spoon-shaped leaves have a mild mustard flavor.

Brocolli Spigarello

Peacock Kale

Red Frill Mustard -

Persian Watercress-  A.K.A. “Shahi” the peppery frilly leaf that has a similar shape to wild arugula, yet it is more fragile and “cressier” in flavor.

French Sorrel

Chrysanthemum – This Asian “pot herb” is the edible leaves of the garland chrysanthemum. The deeply lobed green leaves are a bit bitter in flavor but give off the floral aromas of its flower.

Fitzgerald Farm

Yellow Peaches

White Peaches – a low acid peach known as the “eating peach”

Saturn Peaches - whitish-yellow skin brushed with colorful red highlights

Yellow Nectarines – sweet and fruity with the perfect amount of acid

Plums – a summertime favorite

Mini Plums

White Nectarines

Carmen Miranda Nectarines

Gloria Tamai Farms, Oxnard, CA

Gaviota & Albian Strawberries

Wild Arugula (bunches)

White Corn The tender kernels of this especially sweet corn variety are a very pale white and offer their finest flavor at milk stage.

Cherry Tomato Mix

Plus!!: Dill, Mint, Italian Parsley, Beets, Broccoli, Wax Beans, Cilantro

Jaime Farm – Ontario, CA

Rainbow Chard – striking colors, hearty leaves.

Black Cherry Tomatoes

Spring Onions

J.J.’s Lone Daughter Ranch

Pink Lemons

Sangvinelli Blood Oranges

LA NOGALERA

Walnuts– grown in the Santa Rita Hills at Rancho La Viña; these are addictive!!!

Life’s A Choke – Lompoc, CA

Lyon Artichoke with stem- large and in charge! This is a very jumbo, round, meaty variety from Southern France that yields a whole lot of heart!!

Baby Purple  Artichokes

Baby Green Artichokes

Baby Green Zucchini

Squash Blossoms

Asparagus:  Pencil to Jumbo

Mike and Son Egg Ranch – Ontario, CA

Brown Eggs farm fresh eggs that are unequivocally delicious with gleaming yolks! Each egg is individually candled! (5 doz case only)

Pudwill Farm – Nipomo, CA

Red Raspberries

Blackberrries

Blueberrie$ -

Black Mission Figs:  This is their breba crop

RANCHO DEL SOL – Jamul, CA

Buddha’s Hand

Rutiz Farm – Arroyo Grande, CA

Romano Beans

Persian Watercress- a unique variety, with a wonderfully spicy-sweet kick

Baby Calabrese Broccoli – available sporadically until late fall..GAPPING UNTIL NEXT WEEK

Savoy Spinach – cut in small clusters of 3-4 leaves – beautiful!!

French Breakfast Radishes

Wild Arugula

Tutti Frutti(Italian for All Fruit) – Santa Barbara County and Carpinteria

Cherokee Tomatoes

Tutti Frutti also has other miscellaneous herbs and root vegetables. – check out their website!

Weiser Family Farm – Bakersfield, CA

Red Thumb Potatoes

Mixed Heirloom Potatoes - Fingerling sized heirloom variety of six different potatoes, including french fingerlings, Russian bananas, King Edwards, All blues, Ruby crescents and red thumbs.

Russian Banana Fingerlings – oh so creamy..

Peewee Potato Mix

Baby Bermuda Onions – currently being harvested without the tops!  sweet and delicious!!!

Zebra Potatoes

Black Bell Eggplant

Caliope Eggplant

Green Apple Eggplant

Windrose Farm – Paso Robles, CA

Braising Mix Greens -aka field greens, the mix varies but the greens are a hearty blend of baby sweet chards, kales, mustard greens and tatsoi

Rustic Arugula – loose leaf, frisee style and perfectly peppered!

Fresh Onions

Fresh Whole Garlic

Yasutomi Farm – Pico Rivera, CA

Butter Lettuce!!!!!

Baby Bok Choy – Baby bok choy’s attractive three to four inch long green leaves with characteristic succulent white stems offer a tender texture and mild, sweeter flavor.

Baby Celery – Fresh, sweet, herbaceous with leaves about the size of cilantro or parsley, baby celery delivers an intense celery flavor that is much stronger than mature celery.

Green Onion Chives – comin soon!  mild, sometimes sweet green onion and chive hydroponic hybrid. great shelf-life too!

Japanese Cucumbers

We’re going GREEN this week! Beans, asparagus, lettuce, cucumbers & zebra tomatoes We hope you enjoy your bag this week!

YouTube video:

Post your photos on Twitter with the hashtag #spFMB & we’ll post them in our Customer Photos album!

Asparagus – Life’s a Choke
Romano Beans – Rutiz Farms
Basil – Coleman Farm
Green Hydro Butter Lettuce & Red Hydro Butter Lettuce – Leafy Greens
Torpedo Onions – Windrose Farm
Cavaillon Melon – Weiser Farm
Heirloom Tomatoes – Tutti Frutti Farm
Tiny Veggies Onion – Fresh Origins
Kaffir Lime Leaves – Four Corners Growers
Persian Cucumbers – Beylik Farms

If you haven’t joined yet, you can order a bag for next week on our FMB page! Be sure and click the links to the product pages, or search our website for similar ones with recipes attached! Enjoy & share what you made with the FMB community on our FB page!

WEISER FARMS HAS MELONS!!!!

Cavillon Melons – an heirloom melon originally from Cavillon, France. They actually hold festivals there in honor of this delicious melon. Versatile and sweet,  this fragrant melon’s great taste deliciously satisfies. High in sugar content, ripe Cavaillon melons turn lime green.

Arava Melon

Ogen Melon

Sugar Queen Melon

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA SUMMER CROPS:

 Arugula, Hass and Reed Avocados, Apricots, Asian Pears, Bay leaves, Shelling Beans, Berries, Cherries, Chickpeas, Citrus: Lemons, Limes, Valencia Oranges, Corn, Cucumbers, Red Currants, Edamame, Eggplants, Figs, Grapes, Grape Leaves, Herbs; basil, fennel, lemon verbena, Lamb’s Quarter, Leeks, Mangoes, Nectarines, Okra, Maui and Walla Walla-type Onions, Peaches, Peanuts, Peppers, Plums, New Potatoes, Purlsane, Radicchio, Shallots, Snap beans, Bloomsdale Spinach, Squash Blossoms, Summer Squash, Swiss Chard, Tomatoes!!!

If it’s not in season, what’s the reason?…

NO MORE CHERRIES FOR THE SEASON, NO MORE STRAWBERRIES FROM RUTIZ AND SUZIE’S FARMS, CARA CARA ORANGES. PINK LEMONS ARE HERE (J.J.’S LONE DAUGHTER RANCH). RED FRILL MUSTARD IS BACK (COLEMAN FARMS). SCHANER HEN EGGS ARE AVAILABLE BY THE DOZEN. NEW POTATO CROPS ARE HERE: ZEBRA, RED THUMB, LAKER BAKERS(WEISER FAMILY FARMS).  FIGS ARE IN FULL ABUNDANCE  – BOTH GREEN ( GARCIA) AND BLACK MISSION (PUDWILL FARMS).  BABY EGGPLANTS ARE ABOUT TO MAKE THEIR DEBUT (SUZIE’S AND WEISER) COASTAL ORGANICS HAS THEIR AWESOME MIX CHERRY TOMATOES, INCLUDING THE OH SO DELICIOUS “SUNGOLD” VARIETY!!!!!!!!!

***JAIME FARMS HAS BEAUTIFUL HEIRLOOM TOMATOES***

***GLORIA TAMAI WHITE CORN IS IN FULL ABUNDANCE!!!! PUT IT ON THE MENU NOW***

***FITZGERALD PEACHES, NECTARINES, APRICOTS  AND PLUMS ARE RIPE, JUICY AND BEING HARVESTED!!!***

Can you say, Red Currants???Brought to you by Pudwill Farms

THE FARMS:

SUZIE’S FARM:

“The real deal is this: these are our products. You know me. I’ll shake your hand. I’ll give you a hug and a smile and my ear. You know our integrity. We aren’t hiding anything. You can talk to us anytime. You can visit the farm. You know our values. Our dreams. Our goals. You can call me out, right or wrong, and I’ll take it and try to make it better. I’m not perfect, but I’m doing my best. I like you. I want to help you. I think what you are doing is cool. Maybe you think what we are doing is cool. Let’s do something cool together and show it to some other cool people…” Lucila De Alejandro (co-owner of Suzie’s Farm) on building relationships with chefs and the culinary community

Local, organic, sustainable real people growing really good real food just out our backdoor (11 miles south of downtown, just west of I-5).  Owners and operators, Robin Taylor and Lucila De Alejandro are passionate risk-taking farmers on a mission to provide an abundance of beautiful produce in harmony with the land and Mother Nature.  They seek out unique varieties of well, just about everything.  Currently they have 13,000 tomato plants in the ground,  several varieties of shelling beans, radishes, spinach, sweet and hot peppers, summer squash varieties, peas, lettuces, red okra and so much more! The current harvest includes:

Sweet Cherry Tomatoes!!

Bibb lettuce – in a word: delicious!

Freckles! Lettuce:

Tiger’s Eye Shelling Beans:

French Beans!!

Summer Squash Mix:

Burgundy Beans

Yellow Wax Beans

Italian Rustic Arugula

Pungent, lively, earthyt and peppery, Rustic Arugula is a thinner, wilder arugula featuring fine, deeply-indented dark green leaves which resist bolting in heat.  You can also get arugula flowers right now too!

Chioggia Beets

An Italian heirloom variety that is pink on the outside with candy stripes circulating throughout the inside. The beet’s flavor is sweet and earthy.

Gold Beets A beautiful pale orange exterior encases a golden-orange, juicy-crisp flesh. Its smooth skinned (up to 4″) globes are topped with light green leaves.

Fennel You think all fennel tastes the same? This variety of fennel has a milder licorice flavor than most. When raw it has a crispy crunch and once cooked it offers a mild, sweet (almost caramel-like) smooth taste.

Black Radishes!  A hardy Spanish variety with an off-black thin skin and a crisp peppery transclucent white flesh.

Macho Squash BlossomsThese monster blossoms come from the heirloom Romanesco Summer Squash variety; they have hearty stems which allows them a greater shelf-life than most varieties.

Also harvesting:

Semi-Savoyed (Bloomsdale) Spinach:  This is perhaps the sweetest, mildest Bloomsdale spinach I have ever tasted!

Mustard Flowers:

Rainbow Swiss Chard:

Mixed Colored Radishes:

Heirloom Romanesco Zucchini:

Watermelon Radishes:A radish with a wow effect: white round roots up to 4″ in diamerter with pale green highlighted skin reveal an incredible rose red variegated interior. Sweet and mild radish flavor.

Parisian Pickling Cucumber

Miniature White Cucumber

West Indian Gherkins!

Armenian White Cucumbers:

CARLSBAD AQUAFARM: CARLSBAD, CA

Owner and diver, John Davis is passionate about sustainable aquaculture:  He believes that every oyster and mussel raised in his 6 acre aquafarm is one less that will be taken from the ocean.  The aquafarm, located in the highly protected Agua Hedionda Lagoon offshore is a green operation that returns water back to the ocean cleaner than when it comes in.  Carlsbad Aquafarm grows and harvests one oyster in two phases, young and mature:  the young oyster is known as “Luna” and the mature: “Blonde”.  Both are delicate and delicious.  The Blonde offering a little more mineral and salt in finish. Their shells are cupped and grow deeper with age, which provides a great vessel for the oysters’ liquor.

Luna Oysters

MOUNTAIN MEADOW MUSHROOMS:  ESCONDIDO, CA

Blazei Mushrooms!!!! now available dried too!

Description/Taste
Blazei Mushrooms are a unique and elegant variety that are sought out as much for their medicinal properties as they are for their sweet marzipanesque flavor and essence.

Geography/History
The Blazei’s origins can be traced back to eastern North America circa the late 19th century. It disappeared from the commercial marketplace in the early 20th century. Data accounts for its cultivation again in the early 1980′s in Brazil, Japan, Hawaii, Taiwan and elsewhere.

Beck Grove – Fallbrook, CA:

Beck Grove, Fallbrook is home to a 100% certified biodynamic and organic orchard/farm. Biodynamic farming stimulates and supports soil fertility through the use of farm-produced manures and composts. Beck Grove has a singular cow that meets all of their manure needs. Their orchard was converted from an abandoned avocado farm to the 33 acre orchard where over 15 different fruit crops, most of which are unique to the produce landscape, yet perfect for a chef’s palate. There grove spirals east to west and north to south with rows upon rows of fuyu persimmons, pomegranetes, kumquats, kaffir limes, blood oranges, satsuma tangerines, meyer lemons, bearrs limes, passion fruit and minneolas.  As with many growers, due to water restrictions the orchard faces serious consequential decisions of having to let some of the land go wild as they will not be afforded the water resources to feed all of their crops.

Kara Kara tangerines

Garcia Organic Farm – Fallbrook, CA

Hass Avocados - certified organic!

Meyer Lemons -

Cocktail Grapefruit -

Developed in the 1950′s, the Cocktail Grapefruit is actually a hybrid of Siamese Sweet pommelo and Frua mandarin. As it was never officially allowed for release, the hybrid escaped from the University of California Riverside.

Star Ruby Grapefruit Prized for its beautiful deep red color and exceptional flavor, the nearly smooth skin of the Star Ruby grapefruit has a characteristic dark pink pretty blush. Containing few seeds, inside is an intensely deep rich red flesh that delivers a delicious sweet-tart flavor. The redder the flesh, the sweeter the taste.

Murcott Tamgerines

Encore Tangerines

Green Figs

Fallbrook Mushroom Farm – Fallbrook, CA:

A field trip to Fallbrook Mushroom Farm is an educated journey into a virtual Chinese forest where mushrooms where dominate the landscape. Long and narrow, screened barns are home to thousands upon thousands of oyster “spawns” and shitake logs. The mushrooms are cultivated on agro-waste (which is essentially recycled agricultural food sources) in spawns filled with rice, grains, cotton, straw, wheat, millet and maize that serve as the mushrooms’ food and protein source. The spawned bags (see picture above) are stored in low-lit raised shelving as they begin colonizing. They are watered from a sprinkling system above daily to retain the appropriate levels of moisture for the mushrooms to grow prolifically. Harvests occur approximately every 60 days and are picked before the mushrooms begin to spore. The most effective way to harvest the mushrooms is to remove the entire colony from the spawn’s stem so that a new crop can grow all at once. One spawn bag can cultivate about 3-5 harvests.

Baby Oyster Mushrooms– These mushrooms are harvested at a younger age than their sand dolllar counterparts. They have a mild and delicately earthy flavor. The stems, although still a little chewy are far more edible than a matured oyster mushroom stem. They have more adaptable cooking applications at their younger age.

peewee shitakes – 100% edible!!! Tiny, thin and tender stalks and a meaty cap make for an amazing mushroom experience! The mushrooms are harvested the SAME day they arrive in your kitchen. And their local!!!

The shiitakes are farm raised and harvested on protein filled cedar logs. The logs can produce over 4 pounds of mushrooms over their lifetime. They are also 100% recyclable. Once the logs are exhausted they can be used for composting or as a natural fertilizer.

What is unique about Fallbrook Mushroom Farms besides the information that I shared with you? Well, considering that 85% of the world’s oyster mushroom production comes from China and the fact that the oyster mushroom is the third largest cultivated mushroom, having an oyster mushroom farm in our own back yard is simply a privilege. Fallbrook Mushroom Farm is a pristinely run organic family farm. They harvest their mushrooms the same day we have them delivered and they are harvesting the mushrooms smaller so that they are more tender and the mushrooms themselves are higher yielding. The mushroom caps range in sizes from button to half-dollar versus SAND dollar, making them the only oyster mushrooms known to be picked at that size. You can do so much more with these mushrooms than adding them to “Hot Pot”.  *available by the pound or by the five pound flat.

Polito Family Farm – Valley Center, CA

St. John’s Green Figs – sweet and ready to eat!!

Oro Blanco Grapefuit - golden-flesh, sweet and juicy

Schaner Farm, Valley Center, CA

Duck Eggs – by the 20 ct. layer

Hen Eggs –

Also! baby beets, avocados, onions, shallots and

Sage Mountain Farms:  Temecula, CA

Wild Arugula

Pac Choi

Spring Elephant Garlic

Purplette Onions

Broccoli Leaves

Baby Beets

French Breakfast Radises

Black Radises

Plum Radishes

New Potatoes

Beylik Family Farms – Fillmore, CA

Persian Cucumbers – petite and crunchy! No seeds=sweet!

Japanese Tomatoes – “Tough Boy” brings hefty flavor, succulence and meatiness.

Yellow Tomatoes – sweet, tangy and heartier than your average yellow tomato!

Sweet Basil – hydroponic!!!!

Coastal Organics – Oxnard, CA

Heirloom Cherry Tomato Mix

Baby Summer Squash Mix!!!

Cavalo Nero Kale

Red and green chard

sweet mixed small lettuces (by the case)

Baby Broccoli!!

Coleman Family Farm – Carpinteria, CA

Pirella Lettuce - A mild-flavored limestone variety originally developed in Kentucky to withstand the heat!

Deer’s Tongue Lettuce – Triangular shaped leaves give this loose-leaf lettuce its distinct look and name. The leaves are tender, mild, succulent and have a melt-in-your-mouth flavor.

Red Butter (Piret) Lettuce– you won’t find this anywhere else! Award-winning for its taste and texture, Pirat is a butterhead variety that has tender and sweet red-tinged leaves with a snappy succulent blanched heart.

Vulcan Lettuce! A cut and come again variety – It has crisp, ruffled, mild flavored, candy apple red colored leaves that give way to a pale green background.

Freckles Lettuce – Freckles! Sweet leaves, crispy inside. Perfect lettuce for salads mixes.

Lollo Rossa Lettuce – A red leaf lettuce variety, the distinct red color increases and becomes more intense in this remarkable lettuce when confronted with severe cold or heat.

Frisee - An early Italian variety Endive known for its decadent sized head and self-blanching heart. Its leaves are long and mid-toned green with a white fleshy ribs. Wonderful sweet and mellow flavor.

Treviso– Gorgeous, green and red and a hearty crunchy leaf. Has a tendency toward bitterness. Soak the greens to remove unwanted astringencies.

Radicchio -

Red Bok Choy!– Also known as Red Violet Tatsoi Hybrid, this is a unique bok choy vartiety The shiny leaves range in color from red-violet to dark purple, and they hold their color well even in the summer heat, although this variety also tolerates colder temperatures. Lightly textured, the spoon-shaped leaves have a mild mustard flavor.

Brocolli Spigarello

Peacock Kale

Red Frill Mustard -

Persian Watercress-  A.K.A. “Shahi” the peppery frilly leaf that has a similar shape to wild arugula, yet it is more fragile and “cressier” in flavor.

French Sorrel

Chrysanthemum – This Asian “pot herb” is the edible leaves of the garland chrysanthemum. The deeply lobed green leaves are a bit bitter in flavor but give off the floral aromas of its flower.

Fitzgerald Farm

Yellow Peaches

Apricots- meaty, rich and succulent

White Peaches – a low acid peach known as the “eating peach”

Saturn Peaches - whitish-yellow skin brushed with colorful red highlights

Yellow Nectarines – sweet and fruity with the perfect amount of acid

Plums – a summertime favorite

Mini Plums

White Nectarines

Carmen Miranda Nectarines

Gloria Tamai Farms, Oxnard, CA

Gaviota Strawberries

Wild Arugula (bunches)

White Corn The tender kernels of this especially sweet corn variety are a very pale white and offer their finest flavor at milk stage.

Cherry Tomato Mix

Plus!!: Dill, Mint, Italian Parsley, Beets, Broccoli, Wax Beans, Cilantro

Jaime Farm – Ontario, CA

Heirloom Tomato Mix

Rainbow Chard – striking colors, hearty leaves.

Black Cherry Tomatoes

Spring Onions

J.J.’s Lone Daughter Ranch

Pink Lemons

Tarocco Blood Oranges

LA NOGALERA

Walnuts– grown in the Santa Rita Hills at Rancho La Viña; these are addictive!!!

Life’s A Choke – Lompoc, CA

Lyon Artichoke with stem- large and in charge! This is a very jumbo, round, meaty variety from Southern France that yields a whole lot of heart!!

Baby Purple  Artichokes

Baby Green Artichokes

Baby Green Zucchini

Squash Blossoms

Asparagus:  Pencil to Jumbo

Mike and Son Egg Ranch – Ontario, CA

Brown Eggs farm fresh eggs that are unequivocally delicious with gleaming yolks! Each egg is individually candled! (5 doz case only)

Pudwill Farm – Nipomo, CA

Red Raspberries

Blackberrries

Blueberrie$ -

Black Mission Figs:  This is their breba crop

RANCHO DEL SOL – Jamul, CA

Buddha’s Hand

Rutiz Farm – Arroyo Grande, CA

Persian Watercress- a unique variety, with a wonderfully spicy-sweet kick

Baby Calabrese Broccoli – available sporadically until late fall..

Savoy Spinach – cut in small clusters of 3-4 leaves – beautiful!!

French Breakfast Radishes

Wild Arugula

Tutti Frutti(Italian for All Fruit) – Santa Barbara County and Carpinteria

English Peas!

Cherokee Tomatoes

Tutti Frutti also has other miscellaneous herbs and root vegetables. – check out their website!

Weiser Family Farm – Bakersfield, CA

Red Thumb Potatoes

Mixed Heirloom Potatoes - Fingerling sized heirloom variety of six different potatoes, including french fingerlings, Russian bananas, King Edwards, All blues, Ruby crescents and red thumbs.

Russian Banana Fingerlings – oh so creamy..

Peewee Potato Mix

Baby Bermuda Onions – currently being harvested without the tops!  sweet and delicious!!!

Zebra Potatoes

Black Bell Eggplant

Caliope Eggplant

Green Apple Eggplant

Windrose Farm – Paso Robles, CA

Braising Mix Greens -aka field greens, the mix varies but the greens are a hearty blend of baby sweet chards, kales, mustard greens and tatsoi

Rustic Arugula – loose leaf, frisee style and perfectly peppered!

Fresh Onions

Fresh Whole Garlic

Yasutomi Farm – Pico Rivera, CA

Butter Lettuce!!!!!

Baby Bok Choy – Baby bok choy’s attractive three to four inch long green leaves with characteristic succulent white stems offer a tender texture and mild, sweeter flavor.

Baby Celery – Fresh, sweet, herbaceous with leaves about the size of cilantro or parsley, baby celery delivers an intense celery flavor that is much stronger than mature celery.

Green Onion Chives – comin soon!  mild, sometimes sweet green onion and chive hydroponic hybrid. great shelf-life too!

Japanese Cucumbers

It’s finally sunny! Tomatoes will now be able to get some color on them Enjoy your bag this week!

YouTube video:

Post your photos on Twitter with the hashtag #spFMB & we’ll post them in our Customer Photos album!

Baby Green Artichokes & Asparagus – Life’s a Choke
Colored Carrots – Rutiz Farms
Yellow Heirloom Chard – Suzie’s Farm
Green Hydro Butter Lettuce & Red Hydro Butter Lettuce – Leafy Greens
Santa Rosa Plums – Windrose Farm
Baby Summer Squash & Early Girl Tomatoes – Coastal Organics
Yellow Peaches – Fitzgerald Farm

If you haven’t joined yet, you can order a bag for next week on our FMB page! Be sure and click the links to the product pages, or search our website for similar ones with recipes attached! Enjoy & share what you made with the FMB community on our FB page!

WEISER FARMS HAS MELONS!!!!

Cavillon Melons – an heirloom melon originally from Cavillon, France. They actually hold festivals there in honor of this delicious melon. Versatile and sweet,  this fragrant melon’s great taste deliciously satisfies. High in sugar content, ripe Cavaillon melons turn lime green.

Arava Melon

Ogen Melon

Sugar Queen Melon

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA SUMMER CROPS:

 Arugula, Hass and Reed Avocados, Apricots, Asian Pears, Bay leaves, Shelling Beans, Berries, Cherries, Chickpeas, Citrus: Lemons, Limes, Valencia Oranges, Corn, Cucumbers, Red Currants, Edamame, Eggplants, Figs, Grapes, Grape Leaves, Herbs; basil, fennel, lemon verbena, Lamb’s Quarter, Leeks, Mangoes, Nectarines, Okra, Maui and Walla Walla-type Onions, Peaches, Peanuts, Peppers, Plums, New Potatoes, Purlsane, Radicchio, Shallots, Snap beans, Bloomsdale Spinach, Squash Blossoms, Summer Squash, Swiss Chard, Tomatoes!!!

If it’s not in season, what’s the reason?…

NO MORE CHERRIES FOR THE SEASON, NO MORE STRAWBERRIES FROM RUTIZ AND SUZIE’S FARMS, CARA CARA ORANGES. PINK LEMONS ARE HERE (J.J.’S LONE DAUGHTER RANCH). RED FRILL MUSTARD IS BACK (COLEMAN FARMS). SCHANER HEN EGGS ARE AVAILABLE BY THE DOZEN. NEW POTATO CROPS ARE HERE: ZEBRA, RED THUMB, LAKER BAKERS(WEISER FAMILY FARMS).  FIGS ARE IN FULL ABUNDANCE  – BOTH GREEN ( GARCIA) AND BLACK MISSION (PUDWILL FARMS).  BABY EGGPLANTS ARE ABOUT TO MAKE THEIR DEBUT (SUZIE’S AND WEISER) COASTAL ORGANICS HAS THEIR AWESOME MIX CHERRY TOMATOES, INCLUDING THE OH SO DELICIOUS “SUNGOLD” VARIETY!!!!!!!!!

***JAIME FARMS HAS BEAUTIFUL HEIRLOOM TOMATOES***

***GLORIA TAMAI WHITE CORN IS IN FULL ABUNDANCE!!!! PUT IT ON THE MENU NOW***

***FITZGERALD PEACHES, NECTARINES, APRICOTS  AND PLUMS ARE RIPE, JUICY AND BEING HARVESTED!!!***

Can you say, Red Currants???Brought to you by Pudwill Farms

THE FARMS:

SUZIE’S FARM:

“The real deal is this: these are our products. You know me. I’ll shake your hand. I’ll give you a hug and a smile and my ear. You know our integrity. We aren’t hiding anything. You can talk to us anytime. You can visit the farm. You know our values. Our dreams. Our goals. You can call me out, right or wrong, and I’ll take it and try to make it better. I’m not perfect, but I’m doing my best. I like you. I want to help you. I think what you are doing is cool. Maybe you think what we are doing is cool. Let’s do something cool together and show it to some other cool people…” Lucila De Alejandro (co-owner of Suzie’s Farm) on building relationships with chefs and the culinary community

Local, organic, sustainable real people growing really good real food just out our backdoor (11 miles south of downtown, just west of I-5).  Owners and operators, Robin Taylor and Lucila De Alejandro are passionate risk-taking farmers on a mission to provide an abundance of beautiful produce in harmony with the land and Mother Nature.  They seek out unique varieties of well, just about everything.  Currently they have 13,000 tomato plants in the ground,  several varieties of shelling beans, radishes, spinach, sweet and hot peppers, summer squash varieties, peas, lettuces, red okra and so much more! The current harvest includes:

Sweet Cherry Tomatoes!!

Bibb lettuce – in a word: delicious!

Freckles! Lettuce:

Tiger’s Eye Shelling Beans:

French Beans!!

Summer Squash Mix:

Burgundy Beans

Yellow Wax Beans

Italian Rustic Arugula

Pungent, lively, earthyt and peppery, Rustic Arugula is a thinner, wilder arugula featuring fine, deeply-indented dark green leaves which resist bolting in heat.  You can also get arugula flowers right now too!

Chioggia Beets

An Italian heirloom variety that is pink on the outside with candy stripes circulating throughout the inside. The beet’s flavor is sweet and earthy.

Gold Beets A beautiful pale orange exterior encases a golden-orange, juicy-crisp flesh. Its smooth skinned (up to 4″) globes are topped with light green leaves.

Fennel You think all fennel tastes the same? This variety of fennel has a milder licorice flavor than most. When raw it has a crispy crunch and once cooked it offers a mild, sweet (almost caramel-like) smooth taste.

Black Radishes!  A hardy Spanish variety with an off-black thin skin and a crisp peppery transclucent white flesh.

Macho Squash BlossomsThese monster blossoms come from the heirloom Romanesco Summer Squash variety; they have hearty stems which allows them a greater shelf-life than most varieties.

Also harvesting:

Semi-Savoyed (Bloomsdale) Spinach:  This is perhaps the sweetest, mildest Bloomsdale spinach I have ever tasted!

Mustard Flowers:

Rainbow Swiss Chard:

Mixed Colored Radishes:

Heirloom Romanesco Zucchini:

Watermelon Radishes:A radish with a wow effect: white round roots up to 4″ in diamerter with pale green highlighted skin reveal an incredible rose red variegated interior. Sweet and mild radish flavor.

Parisian Pickling Cucumber

Miniature White Cucumber

West Indian Gherkins!

Armenian White Cucumbers:

CARLSBAD AQUAFARM: CARLSBAD, CA

Owner and diver, John Davis is passionate about sustainable aquaculture:  He believes that every oyster and mussel raised in his 6 acre aquafarm is one less that will be taken from the ocean.  The aquafarm, located in the highly protected Agua Hedionda Lagoon offshore is a green operation that returns water back to the ocean cleaner than when it comes in.  Carlsbad Aquafarm grows and harvests one oyster in two phases, young and mature:  the young oyster is known as “Luna” and the mature: “Blonde”.  Both are delicate and delicious.  The Blonde offering a little more mineral and salt in finish. Their shells are cupped and grow deeper with age, which provides a great vessel for the oysters’ liquor.

Luna Oysters

MOUNTAIN MEADOW MUSHROOMS:  ESCONDIDO, CA

Blazei Mushrooms!!!! now available dried too!

Description/Taste
Blazei Mushrooms are a unique and elegant variety that are sought out as much for their medicinal properties as they are for their sweet marzipanesque flavor and essence.

Geography/History
The Blazei’s origins can be traced back to eastern North America circa the late 19th century. It disappeared from the commercial marketplace in the early 20th century. Data accounts for its cultivation again in the early 1980′s in Brazil, Japan, Hawaii, Taiwan and elsewhere.

Beck Grove – Fallbrook, CA:

Beck Grove, Fallbrook is home to a 100% certified biodynamic and organic orchard/farm. Biodynamic farming stimulates and supports soil fertility through the use of farm-produced manures and composts. Beck Grove has a singular cow that meets all of their manure needs. Their orchard was converted from an abandoned avocado farm to the 33 acre orchard where over 15 different fruit crops, most of which are unique to the produce landscape, yet perfect for a chef’s palate. There grove spirals east to west and north to south with rows upon rows of fuyu persimmons, pomegranetes, kumquats, kaffir limes, blood oranges, satsuma tangerines, meyer lemons, bearrs limes, passion fruit and minneolas.  As with many growers, due to water restrictions the orchard faces serious consequential decisions of having to let some of the land go wild as they will not be afforded the water resources to feed all of their crops.

Kara Kara tangerines

Garcia Organic Farm – Fallbrook, CA

Hass Avocados - certified organic!

Meyer Lemons -

Cocktail Grapefruit -

Developed in the 1950′s, the Cocktail Grapefruit is actually a hybrid of Siamese Sweet pommelo and Frua mandarin. As it was never officially allowed for release, the hybrid escaped from the University of California Riverside.

Star Ruby Grapefruit Prized for its beautiful deep red color and exceptional flavor, the nearly smooth skin of the Star Ruby grapefruit has a characteristic dark pink pretty blush. Containing few seeds, inside is an intensely deep rich red flesh that delivers a delicious sweet-tart flavor. The redder the flesh, the sweeter the taste.

Murcott Tamgerines

Encore Tangerines

Green Figs

Fallbrook Mushroom Farm – Fallbrook, CA:

A field trip to Fallbrook Mushroom Farm is an educated journey into a virtual Chinese forest where mushrooms where dominate the landscape. Long and narrow, screened barns are home to thousands upon thousands of oyster “spawns” and shitake logs. The mushrooms are cultivated on agro-waste (which is essentially recycled agricultural food sources) in spawns filled with rice, grains, cotton, straw, wheat, millet and maize that serve as the mushrooms’ food and protein source. The spawned bags (see picture above) are stored in low-lit raised shelving as they begin colonizing. They are watered from a sprinkling system above daily to retain the appropriate levels of moisture for the mushrooms to grow prolifically. Harvests occur approximately every 60 days and are picked before the mushrooms begin to spore. The most effective way to harvest the mushrooms is to remove the entire colony from the spawn’s stem so that a new crop can grow all at once. One spawn bag can cultivate about 3-5 harvests.

Baby Oyster Mushrooms– These mushrooms are harvested at a younger age than their sand dolllar counterparts. They have a mild and delicately earthy flavor. The stems, although still a little chewy are far more edible than a matured oyster mushroom stem. They have more adaptable cooking applications at their younger age.

peewee shitakes – 100% edible!!! Tiny, thin and tender stalks and a meaty cap make for an amazing mushroom experience! The mushrooms are harvested the SAME day they arrive in your kitchen. And their local!!!

The shiitakes are farm raised and harvested on protein filled cedar logs. The logs can produce over 4 pounds of mushrooms over their lifetime. They are also 100% recyclable. Once the logs are exhausted they can be used for composting or as a natural fertilizer.

What is unique about Fallbrook Mushroom Farms besides the information that I shared with you? Well, considering that 85% of the world’s oyster mushroom production comes from China and the fact that the oyster mushroom is the third largest cultivated mushroom, having an oyster mushroom farm in our own back yard is simply a privilege. Fallbrook Mushroom Farm is a pristinely run organic family farm. They harvest their mushrooms the same day we have them delivered and they are harvesting the mushrooms smaller so that they are more tender and the mushrooms themselves are higher yielding. The mushroom caps range in sizes from button to half-dollar versus SAND dollar, making them the only oyster mushrooms known to be picked at that size. You can do so much more with these mushrooms than adding them to “Hot Pot”.  *available by the pound or by the five pound flat.

Polito Family Farm – Valley Center, CA

St. John’s Green Figs – sweet and ready to eat!!

Oro Blanco Grapefuit - golden-flesh, sweet and juicy

Schaner Farm, Valley Center, CA

Duck Eggs – by the 20 ct. layer

Hen Eggs –

Also! baby beets, avocados, onions, shallots and

Sage Mountain Farms:  Temecula, CA

Wild Arugula

Pac Choi

Spring Elephant Garlic

Purplette Onions

Broccoli Leaves

Baby Beets

French Breakfast Radises

Black Radises

Plum Radishes

New Potatoes

Beylik Family Farms – Fillmore, CA

Persian Cucumbers – petite and crunchy! No seeds=sweet!

Japanese Tomatoes – “Tough Boy” brings hefty flavor, succulence and meatiness.

Yellow Tomatoes – sweet, tangy and heartier than your average yellow tomato!

Sweet Basil – hydroponic!!!!

Coastal Organics – Oxnard, CA

Heirloom Cherry Tomato Mix

Baby Summer Squash Mix!!!

Cavalo Nero Kale

Red and green chard

sweet mixed small lettuces (by the case)

Baby Broccoli!!

Coleman Family Farm – Carpinteria, CA

Pirella Lettuce - A mild-flavored limestone variety originally developed in Kentucky to withstand the heat!

Deer’s Tongue Lettuce – Triangular shaped leaves give this loose-leaf lettuce its distinct look and name. The leaves are tender, mild, succulent and have a melt-in-your-mouth flavor.

Red Butter (Piret) Lettuce– you won’t find this anywhere else! Award-winning for its taste and texture, Pirat is a butterhead variety that has tender and sweet red-tinged leaves with a snappy succulent blanched heart.

Vulcan Lettuce! A cut and come again variety – It has crisp, ruffled, mild flavored, candy apple red colored leaves that give way to a pale green background.

Freckles Lettuce – Freckles! Sweet leaves, crispy inside. Perfect lettuce for salads mixes.

Lollo Rossa Lettuce – A red leaf lettuce variety, the distinct red color increases and becomes more intense in this remarkable lettuce when confronted with severe cold or heat.

Frisee - An early Italian variety Endive known for its decadent sized head and self-blanching heart. Its leaves are long and mid-toned green with a white fleshy ribs. Wonderful sweet and mellow flavor.

Treviso– Gorgeous, green and red and a hearty crunchy leaf. Has a tendency toward bitterness. Soak the greens to remove unwanted astringencies.

Radicchio -

Red Bok Choy!– Also known as Red Violet Tatsoi Hybrid, this is a unique bok choy vartiety The shiny leaves range in color from red-violet to dark purple, and they hold their color well even in the summer heat, although this variety also tolerates colder temperatures. Lightly textured, the spoon-shaped leaves have a mild mustard flavor.

Brocolli Spigarello

Peacock Kale

Red Frill Mustard -

Persian Watercress-  A.K.A. “Shahi” the peppery frilly leaf that has a similar shape to wild arugula, yet it is more fragile and “cressier” in flavor.

French Sorrel

Chrysanthemum – This Asian “pot herb” is the edible leaves of the garland chrysanthemum. The deeply lobed green leaves are a bit bitter in flavor but give off the floral aromas of its flower.

Fitzgerald Farm

Yellow Peaches

Apricots- meaty, rich and succulent

White Peaches – a low acid peach known as the “eating peach”

Saturn Peaches - whitish-yellow skin brushed with colorful red highlights

Yellow Nectarines – sweet and fruity with the perfect amount of acid

Plums – a summertime favorite

Mini Plums

White Nectarines

Carmen Miranda Nectarines

Gloria Tamai Farms, Oxnard, CA

Gaviota Strawberries

Wild Arugula (bunches)

White Corn The tender kernels of this especially sweet corn variety are a very pale white and offer their finest flavor at milk stage.

Cherry Tomato Mix

Plus!!: Dill, Mint, Italian Parsley, Beets, Broccoli, Wax Beans, Cilantro

Jaime Farm – Ontario, CA

Heirloom Tomato Mix

Rainbow Chard – striking colors, hearty leaves.

Black Cherry Tomatoes

Spring Onions

J.J.’s Lone Daughter Ranch

Pink Lemons

Tarocco Blood Oranges

LA NOGALERA

Walnuts– grown in the Santa Rita Hills at Rancho La Viña; these are addictive!!!

Life’s A Choke – Lompoc, CA

Lyon Artichoke with stem- large and in charge! This is a very jumbo, round, meaty variety from Southern France that yields a whole lot of heart!!

Baby Purple  Artichokes

Baby Green Artichokes

Baby Green Zucchini

Squash Blossoms

Asparagus:  Pencil to Jumbo

Mike and Son Egg Ranch – Ontario, CA

Brown Eggs farm fresh eggs that are unequivocally delicious with gleaming yolks! Each egg is individually candled! (5 doz case only)

Pudwill Farm – Nipomo, CA

Red Raspberries

Blackberrries

Blueberrie$ -

Black Mission Figs:  This is their breba crop

RANCHO DEL SOL – Jamul, CA

Buddha’s Hand

Rutiz Farm – Arroyo Grande, CA

Persian Watercress- a unique variety, with a wonderfully spicy-sweet kick

Baby Calabrese Broccoli – available sporadically until late fall..

Savoy Spinach – cut in small clusters of 3-4 leaves – beautiful!!

French Breakfast Radishes

Wild Arugula

Tutti Frutti(Italian for All Fruit) – Santa Barbara County and Carpinteria

English Peas!

Cherokee Tomatoes

Tutti Frutti also has other miscellaneous herbs and root vegetables. – check out their website!

Weiser Family Farm – Bakersfield, CA

Red Thumb Potatoes

Mixed Heirloom Potatoes - Fingerling sized heirloom variety of six different potatoes, including french fingerlings, Russian bananas, King Edwards, All blues, Ruby crescents and red thumbs.

Russian Banana Fingerlings – oh so creamy..

Peewee Potato Mix

Baby Bermuda Onions – currently being harvested without the tops!  sweet and delicious!!!

Zebra Potatoes

Black Bell Eggplant

Caliope Eggplant

Green Apple Eggplant

Windrose Farm – Paso Robles, CA

Braising Mix Greens -aka field greens, the mix varies but the greens are a hearty blend of baby sweet chards, kales, mustard greens and tatsoi

Rustic Arugula – loose leaf, frisee style and perfectly peppered!

Fresh Onions

Fresh Whole Garlic

Yasutomi Farm – Pico Rivera, CA

Butter Lettuce!!!!!

Baby Bok Choy – Baby bok choy’s attractive three to four inch long green leaves with characteristic succulent white stems offer a tender texture and mild, sweeter flavor.

Baby Celery – Fresh, sweet, herbaceous with leaves about the size of cilantro or parsley, baby celery delivers an intense celery flavor that is much stronger than mature celery.

Green Onion Chives – comin soon!  mild, sometimes sweet green onion and chive hydroponic hybrid. great shelf-life too!

Japanese Cucumbers

How ’bout that earthquake? It’s fun right? Well, I’m sure someone out there’s with me on that, if you’re not…. sorry! Be sure and click the links to the product pages, or search our website for similar ones with recipes attached! Enjoy & share what you made with the FMB community on our FB page!

YouTube video:

Post your photos on Twitter with the hashtag #spFMB & we’ll post them in our Customer Photos album!

Baby Onions – Fresh Origins
White Corn – Gloria Tamai Farms
Hass Avocados – Rancho Del Sol
Crystal Apple Cucumber – Suzie’s Farm
Oro Blanco Grapefruit – Polito Farm
Arugula – Rutiz
Butter Lettuce – Leafy Green
Carmen Miranda Nectarines – Fitzgerald Farm
Early Girl Tomatoes – Coastal Organics

If you haven’t joined yet, you can order a bag for next week on our FMB page!

Chef Steve Ferguson will be Grilling This Thursday 7/8!

Grilled Ahi Chili Burgers

Ginger-Wasabi Kewpie Mayo, Fresh Origins’ Micro Cilantro, Charred Coleman
Farms’ Shishito Peppers with Orange, Waters’ Rice Flour
Parkerhouse Rolls with Black Sesame Seeds
Served with Sweet Potato Fries

Classic French-Style Grilled Brandt Beef Steak
Served with Bistro Pommes Frites
—–
Lemon Polenta Cake
with House-Made Peach Compote
Ice Cream Sandwiches
Vanilla Bean Gelato and Chocolate Chunk Cookies

branded cocktail
hendrick’s gin, lillet blanc, housemade lemon sage syrup, grapefruit juice, crisped
sage leaf and cracked Ice
wine pairings
scott family estate arroyo seco chardonnay
robert oatley rose of sangiovese
solaire pinot noir
santa julia malbec reserva

We will also be serving our daily specials:
Waters’ Burger, Veggie Burger, Quesadilla, BBQ Chicken Sandwich,

Pulled Pork Sandwich, Hand-Crafted Paninis10300 Campus Point Drive
858-677-9974
reservations requested

Padron Chile Peppers from Suzie’s Farm!! The pepper’s cultivating origins lay in Herbón, whose monastery was where Franciscans apparently first tried growing the pepper seeds they’d brought back from the New World in the 18th century.

At the going rate, pimientos de padron are not an everyday vegetable. They are at a laborious disadvantage. The peppers are so small (about 80-100 per pound) that it takes two people almost two days to pick 300 pounds.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA SUMMER CROPS:

Amaranth, Arugula, Hass, Lamb Hass and Reed Avocados, Apricots, Asian Pears, Bay leaves, Shelling Beans, Berries, Cherries, Chickpeas, Citrus: Lemons, Limes, Valencia Oranges, Corn, Cucumbers, Red Currants, Edamame, Eggplants, Figs, Grapes, Grape Leaves, Herbs; basil, fennel, lemon verbena, sumer savory, Lamb’s Quarter, Leeks, Mangoes, Nectarines, Okra, Maui and Walla Walla-type Onions, Passion Fruits, Peaches, Peanuts, Peppers, Plums, New Potatoes, Purlsane, Radicchio, Shallots, Snap beans, Bloomsdale Spinach, Squash Blossoms, Summer Squash, Swiss Chard, Tomatoes!!!

If it’s not in season, what’s the reason?…

NO MORE CAMAROSA STRAWBERRIES, KUMQUATS, BABY CARROTS, CARA CARA ORANGES OR SNAP PEAS. PINK LEMONS ARE HERE (J.J.’S LONE DAUGHTER RANCH). RED FRILL MUSTARD IS BACK (COLEMAN FARMS). SCHANER HEN EGGS ARE AVAILABLE BY THE DOZEN. NEW POTATO CROPS ARE COMING IN (WEISER FAMILY FARMS). ALSO, FIRST HARVEST OF FIGS HAVE ARRIVED – BOTH GREEN (POLITO FARMS) AND BLACK MISSION (PUDWILL FARMS).  COASTAL ORGANICS HAS THEIR FIRST CHERRY TOMATOES, INCLUDING THE OH SO DELICIOUS “SUNGOLD” VARIETY!!!!!!!!!

***JAIME FARMS HAS BEAUTIFUL HEIRLOOM TOMATOES***

***GLORIA TAMAI WHITE CORN IS IN FULL ABUNDANCE!!!! PUT IT ON THE MENU NOW***

***FITZGERALD PEACHES, NECTARINES AND APRICOTS ARE RIPE, JUICY AND BEING HARVESTED!!!***

CHERRIES

Bing Cherries this week from Tenerelli Orchard!  They also have Ranier Cherries too!

Can you say, Red Currants??? Brought to you by Pudwill Farms

THE FARMS:

SUZIE’S FARM:

“The real deal is this: these are our products. You know me. I’ll shake your hand. I’ll give you a hug and a smile and my ear. You know our integrity. We aren’t hiding anything. You can talk to us anytime. You can visit the farm. You know our values. Our dreams. Our goals. You can call me out, right or wrong, and I’ll take it and try to make it better. I’m not perfect, but I’m doing my best. I like you. I want to help you. I think what you are doing is cool. Maybe you think what we are doing is cool. Let’s do something cool together and show it to some other cool people…” Lucila De Alejandro (co-owner of Suzie’s Farm) on building relationships with chefs and the culinary community

Local, organic, sustainable real people growing really good real food just out our backdoor (11 miles south of downtown, just west of I-5).  Owners and operators, Robin Taylor and Lucila De Alejandro are passionate risk-taking farmers on a mission to provide an abundance of beautiful produce in harmony with the land and Mother Nature.  They seek out unique varieties of well, just about everything.  Currently they have 13,000 tomato plants in the ground,  several varieties of shelling beans, radishes, spinach, sweet and hot peppers, summer squash varieties, peas, lettuces, red okra and so much more! The current harvest includes:

Sweet Cherry Tomatoes!!

Bibb lettuce – in a word: delicious!

Freckles! Lettuce:

Tiger’s Eye Shelling Beans:

French Beans!!

Summer Squash Mix:

Burgundy Beans

Yellow Wax Beans

Italian Rustic Arugula

Pungent, lively, earthyt and peppery, Rustic Arugula is a thinner, wilder arugula featuring fine, deeply-indented dark green leaves which resist bolting in heat.  You can also get arugula flowers right now too!

Chioggia Beets

An Italian heirloom variety that is pink on the outside with candy stripes circulating throughout the inside. The beet’s flavor is sweet and earthy.

Gold Beets A beautiful pale orange exterior encases a golden-orange, juicy-crisp flesh. Its smooth skinned (up to 4″) globes are topped with light green leaves.

Fennel You think all fennel tastes the same? This variety of fennel has a milder licorice flavor than most. When raw it has a crispy crunch and once cooked it offers a mild, sweet (almost caramel-like) smooth taste.

Black Radishes!  A hardy Spanish variety with an off-black thin skin and a crisp peppery transclucent white flesh.

Macho Squash Blossoms These monster blossoms come from the heirloom Romanesco Summer Squash variety; they have hearty stems which allows them a greater shelf-life than most varieties.

Also harvesting:

Semi-Savoyed (Bloomsdale) Spinach:  This is perhaps the sweetest, mildest Bloomsdale spinach I have ever tasted!

Mustard Flowers:

Rainbow Swiss Chard:

Mixed Colored Radishes:

Heirloom Romanesco Zucchini:

Watermelon Radishes: A radish with a wow effect: white round roots up to 4″ in diamerter with pale green highlighted skin reveal an incredible rose red variegated interior. Sweet and mild radish flavor.

Parisian Pickling Cucumber

Miniature White Cucumber

West Indian Gherkins!

Armenian White Cucumbers:

CARLSBAD AQUAFARM: CARLSBAD, CA

Owner and diver, John Davis is passionate about sustainable aquaculture:  He believes that every oyster and mussel raised in his 6 acre aquafarm is one less that will be taken from the ocean.  The aquafarm, located in the highly protected Agua Hedionda Lagoon offshore is a green operation that returns water back to the ocean cleaner than when it comes in.  Carlsbad Aquafarm grows and harvests one oyster in two phases, young and mature:  the young oyster is known as “Luna” and the mature: “Blonde”.  Both are delicate and delicious.  The Blonde offering a little more mineral and salt in finish. Their shells are cupped and grow deeper with age, which provides a great vessel for the oysters’ liquor.

Luna Oysters

MOUNTAIN MEADOW MUSHROOMS:  ESCONDIDO, CA

Blazei Mushrooms!!!! now available dried too!

Description/Taste
Blazei Mushrooms are a unique and elegant variety that are sought out as much for their medicinal properties as they are for their sweet marzipanesque flavor and essence.

Geography/History
The Blazei’s origins can be traced back to eastern North America circa the late 19th century. It disappeared from the commercial marketplace in the early 20th century. Data accounts for its cultivation again in the early 1980′s in Brazil, Japan, Hawaii, Taiwan and elsewhere.

Beck Grove – Fallbrook, CA:

Beck Grove, Fallbrook is home to a 100% certified biodynamic and organic orchard/farm. Biodynamic farming stimulates and supports soil fertility through the use of farm-produced manures and composts. Beck Grove has a singular cow that meets all of their manure needs. Their orchard was converted from an abandoned avocado farm to the 33 acre orchard where over 15 different fruit crops, most of which are unique to the produce landscape, yet perfect for a chef’s palate. There grove spirals east to west and north to south with rows upon rows of fuyu persimmons, pomegranetes, kumquats, kaffir limes, blood oranges, satsuma tangerines, meyer lemons, bearrs limes, passion fruit and minneolas.  As with many growers, due to water restrictions the orchard faces serious consequential decisions of having to let some of the land go wild as they will not be afforded the water resources to feed all of their crops.

Kara Kara tangerines

Garcia Organic Farm – Fallbrook, CA

Hass Avocados - certified organic!

Meyer Lemons -

Cocktail Grapefruit -

Developed in the 1950′s, the Cocktail Grapefruit is actually a hybrid of Siamese Sweet pommelo and Frua mandarin. As it was never officially allowed for release, the hybrid escaped from the University of California Riverside.

Star Ruby Grapefruit Prized for its beautiful deep red color and exceptional flavor, the nearly smooth skin of the Star Ruby grapefruit has a characteristic dark pink pretty blush. Containing few seeds, inside is an intensely deep rich red flesh that delivers a delicious sweet-tart flavor. The redder the flesh, the sweeter the taste.

Murcott Tamgerines

Pixie Tangerines

Encore Tangerines

Fallbrook Mushroom Farm – Fallbrook, CA:

A field trip to Fallbrook Mushroom Farm is an educated journey into a virtual Chinese forest where mushrooms where dominate the landscape. Long and narrow, screened barns are home to thousands upon thousands of oyster “spawns” and shitake logs. The mushrooms are cultivated on agro-waste (which is essentially recycled agricultural food sources) in spawns filled with rice, grains, cotton, straw, wheat, millet and maize that serve as the mushrooms’ food and protein source. The spawned bags (see picture above) are stored in low-lit raised shelving as they begin colonizing. They are watered from a sprinkling system above daily to retain the appropriate levels of moisture for the mushrooms to grow prolifically. Harvests occur approximately every 60 days and are picked before the mushrooms begin to spore. The most effective way to harvest the mushrooms is to remove the entire colony from the spawn’s stem so that a new crop can grow all at once. One spawn bag can cultivate about 3-5 harvests.

Baby Oyster Mushrooms – These mushrooms are harvested at a younger age than their sand dolllar counterparts. They have a mild and delicately earthy flavor. The stems, although still a little chewy are far more edible than a matured oyster mushroom stem. They have more adaptable cooking applications at their younger age.

peewee shitakes – 100% edible!!! Tiny, thin and tender stalks and a meaty cap make for an amazing mushroom experience! The mushrooms are harvested the SAME day they arrive in your kitchen. And their local!!!

The shiitakes are farm raised and harvested on protein filled cedar logs. The logs can produce over 4 pounds of mushrooms over their lifetime. They are also 100% recyclable. Once the logs are exhausted they can be used for composting or as a natural fertilizer.

What is unique about Fallbrook Mushroom Farms besides the information that I shared with you? Well, considering that 85% of the world’s oyster mushroom production comes from China and the fact that the oyster mushroom is the third largest cultivated mushroom, having an oyster mushroom farm in our own back yard is simply a privilege. Fallbrook Mushroom Farm is a pristinely run organic family farm. They harvest their mushrooms the same day we have them delivered and they are harvesting the mushrooms smaller so that they are more tender and the mushrooms themselves are higher yielding. The mushroom caps range in sizes from button to half-dollar versus SAND dollar, making them the only oyster mushrooms known to be picked at that size. You can do so much more with these mushrooms than adding them to “Hot Pot”.  *available by the pound or by the five pound flat.

Polito Family Farm – Valley Center, CA

St. John’s Green Figs – oh my …….

Oro Blanco Grapefuit - golden-flesh, sweet and juicy

Schaner Farm, Valley Center, CA

Duck Eggs – by the 20 ct. layer

Hen Eggs –

Also! baby beets, avocados, onions, shallots and

Sage Mountain Farms:  Temecula, CA

Wild Arugula

Pac Choi

Spring Elephant Garlic

Purplette Onions

Broccoli Leaves

Baby Beets

French Breakfast Radises

Black Radises

Plum Radishes

New Potatoes

Beylik Family Farms – Fillmore, CA

Persian Cucumbers – petite and crunchy! No seeds=sweet!

Japanese Tomatoes – “Tough Boy” brings hefty flavor, succulence and meatiness.

Yellow Tomatoes – sweet, tangy and heartier than your average yellow tomato!

Sweet Basil – hydroponic!!!!

Coastal Organics – Oxnard, CA

Heirloom Cherry Tomato Mix

Baby Summer Squash Mix!!!

Cavalo Nero Kale

Red and green chard

sweet mixed small lettuces (by the case)

Baby Broccoli!!

Coleman Family Farm – Carpinteria, CA

Pirella Lettuce - A mild-flavored limestone variety originally developed in Kentucky to withstand the heat!

Deer’s Tongue Lettuce – Triangular shaped leaves give this loose-leaf lettuce its distinct look and name. The leaves are tender, mild, succulent and have a melt-in-your-mouth flavor.

Red Butter (Piret) Lettuce – you won’t find this anywhere else! Award-winning for its taste and texture, Pirat is a butterhead variety that has tender and sweet red-tinged leaves with a snappy succulent blanched heart.

Vulcan Lettuce! A cut and come again variety – It has crisp, ruffled, mild flavored, candy apple red colored leaves that give way to a pale green background.

Freckles Lettuce – Freckles! Sweet leaves, crispy inside. Perfect lettuce for salads mixes.

Lollo Rossa Lettuce – A red leaf lettuce variety, the distinct red color increases and becomes more intense in this remarkable lettuce when confronted with severe cold or heat.

Frisee - An early Italian variety Endive known for its decadent sized head and self-blanching heart. Its leaves are long and mid-toned green with a white fleshy ribs. Wonderful sweet and mellow flavor.

Treviso – Gorgeous, green and red and a hearty crunchy leaf. Has a tendency toward bitterness. Soak the greens to remove unwanted astringencies.

Radicchio -

Red Bok Choy! – Also known as Red Violet Tatsoi Hybrid, this is a unique bok choy vartiety The shiny leaves range in color from red-violet to dark purple, and they hold their color well even in the summer heat, although this variety also tolerates colder temperatures. Lightly textured, the spoon-shaped leaves have a mild mustard flavor.

Brocolli Spigarello

Peacock Kale

Red Frill Mustard -

Persian Watercress -  A.K.A. “Shahi” the peppery frilly leaf that has a similar shape to wild arugula, yet it is more fragile and “cressier” in flavor.

Stinging Nettles -

French Sorrel

Chrysanthemum – This Asian “pot herb” is the edible leaves of the garland chrysanthemum. The deeply lobed green leaves are a bit bitter in flavor but give off the floral aromas of its flower.

Fitzgerald Farm

Yellow Peaches

Apricots

White Peaches

Saturn Peaches

Yellow Nectarines

Gloria Tamai Farms, Oxnard, CA

Gaviota Strawberries

Wild Arugula (bunches)

White Corn The tender kernels of this especially sweet corn variety are a very pale white and offer their finest flavor at milk stage.

Cherry Tomato Mix

Plus!!: Dill, Mint, Italian Parsley, Beets, Broccoli, Wax Beans, Cilantro

Jaime Farm – Ontario, CA

Heirloom Tomato Mix

Rainbow Chard – striking colors, hearty leaves.

Black Cherry Tomatoes

Spring Onions

Albian Strawberries

J.J.’s Lone Daughter Ranch

Pink Lemons

Tarocco Blood Oranges

LA NOGALERA

Walnuts – grown in the Santa Rita Hills at Rancho La Viña; these are addictive!!!

Life’s A Choke – Lompoc, CA

Lyon Artichoke with stem- large and in charge! This is a very jumbo, round, meaty variety from Southern France that yields a whole lot of heart!!

Baby Anzio Artichokes

Baby Green Artichokes

Baby Green Zucchini

Squash Blossoms

Asparagus:  Pencil to Jumbo

Mike and Son Egg Ranch – Ontario, CA

Brown Eggs farm fresh eggs that are unequivocally delicious with gleaming yolks! Each egg is individually candled! (5 doz case only)

Pudwill Farm – Nipomo, CA

Red Raspberries

Blackberrries

Blueberrie$ -

Black Mission Figs:  This is their breba crop

RANCHO DEL SOL – Jamul, CA

Italian Sorrento Lemons

Sweet Limes -

Buddha’s Hand

Meyer Lemons -

Rutiz Farm – Arroyo Grande, CA

Persian Watercress- a unique variety, with a wonderfully spicy-sweet kick

Baby Calabrese Broccoli – available sporadically until late fall..

Savoy Spinach – cut in small clusters of 3-4 leaves – beautiful!!

Jerry’s Berries

French Breakfast Radishes

Wild Arugula

Tutti Frutti (Italian for All Fruit) – Santa Barbara County and Carpinteria

English Peas!

Fava Beans

Cherokee Tomatoes

Tutti Frutti also has other miscellaneous herbs and root vegetables. – check out their website!

Weiser Family Farm – Bakersfield, CA

Red Thumb Potatoes

Mixed Heirloom Potatoes - Fingerling sized heirloom variety of six different potatoes, including french fingerlings, Russian bananas, King Edwards, All blues, Ruby crescents and red thumbs.

Russian Banana Fingerlings – oh so creamy..

Peewee Potato Mix

Baby Bermuda Onions – currently being harvested without the tops!  sweet and delicious!!!

Windrose Farm – Paso Robles, CA

Braising Mix Greens -aka field greens, the mix varies but the greens are a hearty blend of baby sweet chards, kales, mustard greens and tatsoi

Rustic Arugula – loose leaf, frisee style and perfectly peppered!

Fresh Onions

Fresh Whole Garlic

White Chard

Tuscan Kale

Yasutomi Farm – Pico Rivera, CA

Butter Lettuce!!!!!

Baby Bok Choy – Baby bok choy’s attractive three to four inch long green leaves with characteristic succulent white stems offer a tender texture and mild, sweeter flavor.

Baby Celery – Fresh, sweet, herbaceous with leaves about the size of cilantro or parsley, baby celery delivers an intense celery flavor that is much stronger than mature celery.

Green Onion Chives – comin soon!  mild, sometimes sweet green onion and chive hydroponic hybrid. great shelf-life too!

Japanese Cucumbers