On April 12, Apricot Lane Farms turned 1.  And about 9 months ago, I can vividly remember laying in my bed, baffled and trying to digest the fact that I felt like the girl from those movies.  Now, I’m not a princess, that’s for sure.  Kate Middleton’s locked the rights to that storyline.  Most of the time, I could use a good bath.  But, ever since John and I have been graced with the opportunity to shepherd this land called Apricot Lane Farms, I feel like my wildest dreams are coming true.  Yes, my dreams involve a lot of hard work, long days, difficult decisions, dirty jeans, manure and copious amounts of bugs, but those things are my own version of a fairytale.  And I say that with a big ‘ole batch of humility.  Thank you God, I’m grateful.  And in return, I pray for grace as we learn to do this right. And clarity, to turn this dream into the reality of its potential… so that we may share this dream of ours with the world.

Keeping in line with the fairytale theme… In an effort to introduce this farm and its ideals with our nearby Los Angeles market and to celebrate our very first year, we invited Chef Suzanne Goin of Los Angeles, the mind behind the amazing Tavern, Lucques, The A.O.C. and The Hungry Cat, to cook at Apricot Lane, while our investor & family were visiting.  We started things off with a tour of the farm, where we got to geek out about local, sustainable foods – nothing better. Years ago, I saw Suzanne on a show called Chef’s a Field, and the clean energy with which she cooked her dish stuck with me.  Added bonus was that she’s a delight.  Super easy to be around.  Her laser-sharped focus is evident (and inspiring), while nicely rounded by an authentic spirit and interested mind.  If I lived next door to Suzanne, I would enjoy seeing her in passing.  We’d both probably be too busy to hang out much, but I’d enjoy my minutes spent in her company.  She’s the type of person that I get.

After the tour, Suzanne and Co. got to work, and I got used to the idea of not being the person cooking in my kitchen.  For about 15 minutes, it felt weird.  John, Todd and I went out front and lounged in the grass.  At about that time, I was over it with flying colors.  I wouldn’t say I’d like to get used to it.  I actually love to cook, but I will say, I could get used to eating Suzanne’s food.  There wasn’t one bite off, all night long.

Our life is now a lovely combination of our former life and our life on the farm.  For example, we sat outside on this amazing piece of property, eating incredible food and using silverware that didn’t match.  I love that.

Here was the evening’s menu:

passed appetizers
roasted asparagus with prosciutto, burrata and pistachios
marinated young broccoli and burrata on crispy parmesan polenta
pancetta-wrapped scallops with truffle butter
lamb meatballs with roasted tomato and feta
grilled duck sausage with candied kumquats

apricot lane avocado & citrus salad with beets and blood orange salsa

slow roasted niman ranch beef with pecorino pudding, apricot lane kale, tomato confit and fava bean pesto

three cheeses with seed crackers

Thank you Suzanne, for a magical evening.  And here’s to another great year at Apricot Lane Farms.  We’re working hard to grow you all really great food.  Getting up every day determined to make good on this amazing opportunity.  Keep up with our day-to-day on our Apricot Lane Farm’s Facebook Page.  Let us know what interests you about food and farming.  We’d love to hear.

xo – Organic Spark

We birthed our first calf.  A little girl named Flora, bright and early on Easter morning.  She’s beautiful.

Absolutely… however, it wasn’t easy.  Flora’s momma is named Firefly, and her temperament is exactly how it appears in the picture below – a bit Firey.

Along with some overall pregnancy crankiness, Firefly’s relationship to the human race is… well, let’s just call it – STRAINED.  My husband has gotten her to accept over-the-fence head scratches, and she will tolerate us for an apple, but by-and-large, she’s pretty cool with having nothing (at all) to do with us.

If we could have hand-picked the cow to have a difficult delivery for our first go-round, we’d have never, ever, ever chosen her.  But, the baby was stuck.  And, it was our responsibility to do something.

We’ve started documenting things on the farm.  My husband makes films for a living, and we also took on our first full-time video intern named Carla, who’s doing a really stand-up job.  She created a video of Flora’s birth.   And, I’d love to hear what you think…

xo –

Organic Spark

One of Rachael’s signature phrases, EVOO was a staple next to my stove.  I started every dish from a fried egg to stir-fried vegetables with extra virgin olive oil, proud of myself that I was using an unrefined variety.  That’s what extra virgin means, right?  Unrefined.  No chemicals involved.  Why would I ever want to use a refined oil, when an unrefined version was only slightly more expensive?

Let’s talk about Smoke Point for a minute.  Smoke Point is a common culinary term describing the temperature at which an oil begins smoking in the pan, not just a bit of steamy heat. When oil is smoking strongly, you’ve exceeded the heat limit for that oil, and it’s becoming rancid.  Unrefined vegetable oils (including extra virgin olive oil) have relatively low smoke points.  Smoke points are highly debatable and depend upon the source of each oil.  However, Extra Virgin Olive Oil’s smoke point is consistently listed as less than 300˚F, and I would question any listings of a higher temperature. Having spent a great deal of time in the kitchen, I can tell you first-hand that EVOO begins smoking pretty quickly.

What does this mean?  EVOO should only be used in a relatively light saute or most appropriately, a salad. Keep in mind – less nutritionally desirable, chemically processed vegetable oils, including Refined Olive Oil, have a much higher smoke point.  However, when my beloved Rachael Ray and almost every other television chef are midst heavily browning onions, it’s extra virgin olive oil in their pan.

How did this happen?

We have kicked valuable animal fats, the fats that sustained our ancestors for always, out of our kitchens.  Animal fats, like Lard, Beef Tallow and Ghee, have high cooking temperatures, very suitable for heavy sautes and frying.  Fast-food restaurants used Beef Tallow in their deep fryers before the world got the incorrect memo that Saturated Fats kill.  Here’s a helpful article for you that makes a lot of common sense to me – Know Your Fats by Sally Fallon.  Therefore when Rachael Ray and the rest of us attempted to steer away from Refined Oils, where could we turn?  Back to unrefined, forgetting all about that pesky smoke point.

Let’s return healthy grass-fed and pastured animal fats back to our kitchens, forget about chemically-processed refined oils, stay simple and eat well.

Here’s how I commonly use fats & oils in my kitchen:

Any high-temperature fat can be used for low temperatures.  This list simply states my favorites for each application.

DEEP FRY
Example – French Fries, Deep-Fried Chicken
Fat – Grass-fed Beef Tallow

PAN FRY & HEAVY SAUTE
Example - Fried Egg, Home Fries, Pan-fried Steak
Fat – Grass-fed Beef Tallow, Pastured Lard, Pastured Bacon Drippings, Grass-Fed Ghee

MEDIUM SAUTE
Example – Sauteed Vegetables
Fat – Pastured Bacon Drippings, Grass-Fed Ghee, Unrefined Coconut Oil & Grass-Fed Butter

LIGHT SAUTE
Example – Sweating onions for soup, Simmering garlic to toss over green beans
Fat – Pastured Bacon Drippings, Grass-Fed Ghee, Unrefined Coconut Oil, Grass-Fed Butter or Extra Virgin Olive Oil

SALAD OIL
Example – Balsamic Vinaigrette, Caprese Salad
Fat – Extra Virgin Olive Oil & all other unrefined vegetable oils

Hope this helps!

xo –

Organic Spark

On the farm, we have what are called WWOOFers.  They come from all over the world to trade hard work for knowledge of organic farming.  Luckily, because these typically early 20′s folks are passionate about something as conscious as organics, they tend to be a really nice crop of people.  Recently, we had our first international WWOOFer, from Germany.  Imagine the courage it takes to hop on a plane to spend 6 weeks with a farming family you know not a minute more than a Skype call… in a different country… that speaks a different language.  Alina was quiet for the first few weeks, but not shy.  Her thoughtful confidence and attention to detail slowly established her place as a very trusted part of the team.  She’s below…

Alina’s a smart girl.  Headed for politics, she speaks several languages and even limited her communication with her friends back home because her goal for this trip was to dream in English.  Another signature Alina trait was the most impeccable table manners.  I never fully determined if it is a German characteristic or her upbringing, but Alina looks like royalty when she sits at a table.  Her friendly shock at our finger-food table manners was the topic of many weekly WWOOFer dinners.  She partook in the American hotdog, as long as she had a fork and knife.  She never judged; she just wouldn’t do it.  We laughed and shook our heads, together.

With all that in mind, Alina asked to bake a cake for Raul’s birthday, one of our full-time workers.  Unfortunately swamped that day, I set her loose in my cookbooks, and while having to navigate the world of cups and ounces, Alina picked a cheesecake.

For two weeks, she prepared: located the right pans, made a couple trips to the store and decoded the cryptic maize of flours available in the US.  The day came, and the cake turned out beautifully.  While I put the finishing touches on the birthday crew lunch, Alina painstakingly arranged a variety pack of flourescent candles on top, in alternating colors.  I gave her a cake stand for proper display, and we decided together that we shouldn’t bother to remove the pan from its slippery springform pan bottom, instead just placing it on top of the stand. (OOPS!)

Lunch over, the WWOOFers and I carried the leftovers to the kitchen. Alina lit the candles with a hurry, so as not to drip on the cake, and the rest of us grabbed forks and plates.  She gently picked up the cake and with one swift turn… the slippery bottomed cake literally flew off the stand and landed perfectly upside-down on my farm kitchen floor.  The audible GASP was enough for everyone else to rush in the kitchen, just in time for Alina’s sweet face to turn brilliant cherry red.

It was HYSTERICAL.  For everyone, but Alina, at this point.  Once the gravity of Alina’s loss began to set in, something had to be done.  So…

We ate it.  Off the floor.  But not before sticking a candle in the top and singing Raul a rousing version of Happy Birthday.

John grabbed the stack of forks, and I think Raul took the first careful bite.  But, it wasn’t long until elbows were flying because that cake was DELICIOUS.  I think we ate it faster BECAUSE we had to share.  Before we’d even hit the sugar buzz, Alina was laughing, too.

I’m sure that Brown Sugar Cheesecake would have been good anywhere, but off the kitchen floor in the midst of belly-laughter among friends, it was the best cake anyone had ever eaten.

We’ll miss you Alina!

xo - 

Organic Spark

Nectarines  (7 varieties) – 2.25 acres
Apricot & Aprium (7 varieties) – 3.07 acres
Plum & Pluot (7 varieties) – 2.23 acres
Cherries (3 varieties) – 2.25 acres
Apple (4 varieties) – 1.92 acres
Figs (5 varieties) – .63 acres
Pomegranates (3 varieties) – .63 acres
Persimmons (5 varieties) – .63 acres
Mulberries (3 varieties) – .63 acres
Walnuts – .39 acres
Cherimoya – .36 acres
Peaches (9 varieties) – 1.99 acres
Mandarin (5 varieties) – 1.61 acres
Orange (4 varieties) – 1.54 acres
Macadamia – .09 acres
Meyer & Pink Lemonade Lemons – .26 acres
Lime – .12
Kumquat – .06
Grapefruit & Pomelo – .36

Since I have less time than I used to, I’ve decided to focus on quality over quantity with regards to recipes.  I may not get 3 recipes up in a month, but the 1 recipe every two months is going to be delicious.  That’s the plan… you tell me how that goes.

I have been working on this one for a couple months.  Headed for a gluten-free cornbread recipe, I wondered whether coconut flour would add a nice sweetness, which is always welcome with corn.  I came up with this recipe on the very first try, then I tortured myself for weeks trying to make sure it was ready.  I finally decided I was right the first time.  It felt like car shopping.

This bread is super moist, and even better the second day, so don’t be afraid to make it early.

Click HERE for the Sweet Jalapeno Cornbread recipe…

We’re building two kinds of compost here at Apricot Lane…

1) Compost using manure from local farms.  In our town, this means horse manure.  Organic dairy manure would be the most desirable, but 3 days of cold calling led me to a goose egg.  Luckily, horse owners largely treat their animals very well, and we aren’t dealing with lots of hormone & antibiotic usage.

2) Compost using internal waste, including grass clippings, tree mulch, straw and manure.  Our farm currently collects sheep and cow manure for compost.  Since we don’t rely on petroleum fertilizer, our animal manure is like gold to us.

Option #1 is pretty easy.  I coordinate the deliveries of fresh, moist manure & bedding, and once we’ve got our row, the interns measure the internal temperature every 5 feet, every couple days, using a super long thermometer.  Once we’ve reached 150˚ for two weeks, we use a tractor to turn it.  And repeat.  Months later, we’ll have compost.  I’ll let you know how this goes.  (BTW, I’m very aware that I used the words “manure” and “moist” in the same sentence, as though it’s not disgusting.  Since becoming a farmer, I discuss manure and mating more than the sum total of my previous existence.)

Option #2 takes a bit more finesse.  However, it also involves a food reference, which is a sure-fire way to captivate my attention.  Building our internal waste compost is like making a lasagna.   Sigh.  Love.  It’s totally fun, and our hands-on Biodynamic Consultant lead us through the entire process during his last visit.  For many months prior, we’d been dividing our waster into piles of grass, straw (with manure) and mulch.

At go-time, we began by building a 10′ x 100′ bed of mulch, followed by a layer of grass, then straw – repeat.  However to really build it right, our entire team gathered around the long pile with pitchforks to spread each of Raul‘s tractor dumps into a nice, even layer, focused on building up our edges.  We learned to focus on the edges and the middle will take care of itself, which makes sense when you’re actually doing it.  All the while, we took turns soaking each layer with a hose.  Water, oxygen, nitrogen and carbon are needed to start the cooking process, which results in safe, gorgeous compost.  Nourishment for our fall garden… I’m already dreaming of broccoli.

Four hours later, we had a beautiful pile that stood about 5′ tall.  And guess what?  In a matter of days, that pile was only 3′ tall.  It had already cooked down two feet!  I couldn’t stick my hand 5 inches in without pulling it back from the heat.  Nature’s dehydrator – I’m loving it.

Do you have a compost?  What tricks have you learned?

xo

Organic Spark

We learned a bit…

-  Pastured Eggs: Knowing the difference in quality of fully pastured chicken eggs, John and I wanted to figure out a set-up to let our ladies roam free.  Different than free-range, pastured chickens peruse a much larger landscape.  The results from truly pasturing are absolutely magnificent.  The white stands firm and tall, the yolk brilliant orange, the flavor rich.  But, the catch is – how do you keep them safe?  We’ve found a mobile chicken house to do the trick.  A coop built on a trailer bed that’s pulled by a tractor, which we station inside our resting pastures, once the sheep have moved on to greener grass.  The hog-wire fences keep the predators out, and for the most part, the chickens in.  At night, they head back to their movable coop, and we shut it up.  We found that 12 weeks was a good age to start pasturing without the chicken hawks carrying away our hard work.

-  Winter Lull: Hens don’t lay as much in the winter, if at all.  Therefore with our hens heading into winter at the egg producing age of 18 weeks, the wait for the first fried egg seemed never-ending.  To jump start the process, we installed a small solar-powered light into the coop with a timer set to light from 6pm – 10pm.  We got an egg in 2 days.  Possibly coincidence, but we’re getting 4-5 eggs a day now, so I definitely think it helped.  Walking by the coop at night before 10pm is hysterical, those chickens have got things to do – people to see!

-  Soy-Free: Being allergic to and aware of the downsides to soy, a common protein source in feed, I didn’t want to include it in our chicken’s diet. In a natural habitat, chickens eat grass, seeds, bugs, worms, larvae – a pretty high protein diet.  Therefore if soy (high in protein) is taken out of the diet, the chickens need another protein source until they are old enough to safely pasture and find their own.  Protein deficiency can cause chickens to pick at each other and more ugly habits.  Many soy-free feeds replace the protein with other vegetable sources like sesame and peas, but I know from my own body that animal protein would work better.  Plus, I’ve heard farmer’s having a real tough time with it.  Thankfully, a handful of feed companies are making soy-free feeds with fish meal for added protein, like Cascade Feed and Scratch and Peck.  Using this feed, we didn’t have any problems with behavior or weakness.  Plus, we can now confirm that the eggs don’t taste fishy.  These days, we could probably use the vegetarian feed for our pastured hens without any issue, but the fish meal is critical, in my opinion, those first 12 weeks.

-  Aggression: Roosters of the same strength, meaning two about the same size, age and health… will FIGHT.  With John out of town, I carried a bleeding rooster up to the barn after a brawl between the two that lived together in our mobile unit.  Rooster #2 now permanently resides with the goats.  A few days after the separation, the mobile unit was parked close enough to the goat pasture for Rooster #1 and #2 to catch a visual, sparking a heated “cock-a-doodle-doo-off.” In my mind, Rooster #1 was totally taunting Rooster #2, because #1 gets all the ladies.  Poor #2 just gets a mama goat and her slightly horny son – Beavis.  Sad to say, but I’m certain Beavis is eying up the new addition.

That’s all for today.  If you have chickens, I’d love to hear what you’ve learned!

xo

Organic Spark

Who am I kidding, she’s not little at all!  These cows are huge.  Huge.  And we’re going to have three of them.  Today, my eyes are staring at my screen just a little wider than usual.

Here’s a video of our bull taking first place at the National Highland Show.  Yay!  Watch how the judge very subtly shakes the winners hand – so exciting.  You can hear John’s nervous chuckle mid-way through.  He really wanted this guy to win.

I feign shock at the approaching cattle addition, but honestly, I’m totally jazzed.  The farming lifestyle is suiting John and I just fine.  For example, if we ever have a kid, I wouldn’t mind it one bit if this was in his or her future.  John’s candid shot from the Show…

Goodnight from Apricot Lane Farms.

xo –

Organic Spark

One unassuming woman named Dr. Mary Newport recently used unrefined coconut oil to significantly reverse her husband’s full-on case of Alzheimer’s.  I first heard this unbelievably powerful story at the 2010 Weston A. Price Foundation Conference.  You can purchase the 2010 conference recordings – HERE.  However, here is a recent news piece that summarizes Dr. Newport’s discovery.

This story stuck out as extremely profound to both my mom and I, and recently, mom shared this story with a dear friend of hers who is battling the disease with her husband.  Friends – it’s working.  Check out snippets from Betty’s emails to my mom these past few weeks:

After 1 week on coconut oil -
“Sandy, Ed’s cognitive impairment is now severe.  He cannot even get started in drawing a clock.  However, I swear I can already tell a  subtle difference in his focus, alertness, and personal interactions.  Last evening before going up to bed, he purposely came over to me with the old love light in his eyes and gave me a goodnight kiss.  Talk about positive feedback!”

After 1 week and 5 days on coconut oil -
“The visiting nurse could not get over the positive difference in Ed today…his looks, interactions with her, etc.  Ed was able to shakily half-print his name (could not two days ago) and start a clock by drawing a perfect circle with the  number 12 written after it when asked to show it was 12:00!!!!  Unquestionably progress compared to two days ago!” 

After 2 weeks on coconut oil -
“Ed has had 3 days of unmistakeable improvement!  More later!”

I thought the initial story was pretty incredible, but after seeing this happen to a person I know, I’m a little bit stunned.  I don’t know if this will work for everyone, but I know it seems to be working for Ed.

In honor of Ed and all those out there struggling with this horrible disease, I’d like to share a recipe for Coconut Almond Fudge, which is a truly delicious way to get a bit more coconut oil into our diets.

Coconut Almond Fudge

Click HERE for the Coconut Almond Fudge recipe…

And I thought baby chickens were cute…

Little bitty bills combined with whittle tiny webbed feet was nearly too much for my heart to handle.

Here’s what we learned – 100 ducks is a whole lot of ducks.  The weak ones can get trampled, and two were dead on arrival.  We had their heat lamps set up in the barn, but being winter, they crowd under the lamps something fierce, making it even harder for the weak ones.  We added a third heat lamp, but it still became obvious that a few of them needed extra care.  Enter the Duck ICU.

On a foyer counter, a little too close to the kitchen, a revolving door of ducks healed in a cardboard box under a heat lamp before returning to their flock.  When they arrive, they look a bit rough,  like the guy in the upper right-hand side of the picture above.  When they leave, they look like “Spunky” in the front.  He was originally found with his flock upside down in his water, hanging on by a thread.  After about 2 hours in the ICU, he burst back on the duck scene with a pizazz that earned that name and then some.

It took us a couple of days to realize something obvious.  Ducks need water.  Unlike chickens, ducks bathe themselves constantly, and without access to water, they get covered in food and who knows what else.  Their feathers sticks together and eventually get pulled out, as they preen each other.  Water fixes all of this.  However, they splash around without a bit of concern, so we eventually lined the ICU box with bubble-wrap.

The Duck ICU got dismantled this morning.  Everyone’s healthy and back with the flock.  Our team swore I’d never let go of Spunky.  They kidded me about needing to wear a sling to carry him around.  For a minute, I wondered if we would have a pet duck.  There was really only one reason we don’t – they stink.  But one last time, here’s Spunky in all his adorable glory.

xo – Organic Spark