Changing Lives: UC Education Abroad

Raquel took a class in agro-ecology in Monteverde, Costa Rica 20 years ago that changed the course of our lives. This video is a fun look at our history, including lots of photos of us in college in the early 90s. It's short on details ofHOW we farm, but it has good insight into WHY we farm. Plus, it was filmed during Greg's short-lived "beard phase" last summer! 

Our Farmers Market Locations

SUNDAYS

Marin

(Except the 1^st Sunday of the month.)

Located at the Veterans Memorial Auditorium – 10 Ave of the Flags.

Market hours: 8:00 A.M. – 1:00 P.M.

Walnut Creek

1775 Locust St

Market hours: 9:00 A.M. – 1:00 P.M.

Oakland – Temescal

5300 Claremont Ave

Market hours: 9:00 A.M. – 1:00 P.M.

Sacramento

5^th & X Street

Market hours: 7:00 A.M. – 12:00 P.M.

TUESDAYS

Berkeley

Adeline & 63^rd Street

Market hours: 2:00 P.M. – 7:00 P.M.

WEDNESDAYS

Santa Cruz

(Returning soon to this market!)

Cedar St & Lincoln

Market hours: 1:30 P.M. – 5:30 P.M.

THURSDAYS

Marin

Veterans Memorial Auditorium

10 Ave of the Flags

Market hours: 8:00 A.M. – 1:00 P.M.

Berkeley

Shattuck & Rose

Market hours: 3:00 P.M. – 7:00 P.M.

Chico

(April – October)

Location shifts around downtown Plaza

Market hours: 5:00 P.M. – 9:00 P.M.

SATURDAYS

San Francisco Ferry Plaza

San Francisco Embarcadero at Market Street

Market hours: 8:00 A.M. – 2:00 P.M.

Chico

2^nd St & Wall

Market hours: 7:00 A.M. – 1:00 P.M.

Nevada City

(June 16 – November 17)

Broad St Exit – Between Robinson Plaza & Union St

Market hours: 8:00 A.M. – 12:00 P.M.

Grand Lake – Oakland

Grand Ave & Lake Park Ave

Market hours: 9:00 A.M. – 2:00 P.M.

Berkeley

1900 Center St

Market hours: 10:00 A.M. – 3:00 P.M.

Auburn

Old Town Courthouse parking lot. Auburn – Folsom Rd & Lincoln Way

Market hours: 8:00 A.M. – 12:00 P.M.

Win a Gift Box!!

Win one of our rice/almond gift boxes! We're having a slogan contest--comment here or on our Facebook page with your most creative, funny idea for selling rice at a farmers market. How would you get customers to approach our market stand? We'll pick our favorites and send gift boxes to the top three entries--a $25 value! Photos of your sign ideas welcome! Good Luck!

Easy Almond Butter Cookies

I made cookies last night! This is very rare for me, but I was intrigued by a very simple recipe that I saw posted to Twitter by @katmulkey. Here it is, in it's entirety:

Easiest almond butter cookie recipe ever: 1 cup almond butter, 1 cup sugar, 1 egg. Bake at 350. Eat. Share.

So I did. Super easy, very yummy. Enjoy.

Organic Almond Harvest

We started almond harvest today with our "new" shaker and a crew of 5 helpers. Normally almonds are shaken onto the ground and then swept up after drying on the ground for about 10 days. This is very efficient, but the tractor-mounted sweepers make a terrible amount of dust! We're shaking the nuts onto tarps, which are then dumped into carts. We take the nuts to an area out of the orchard to dry, then pick them up using shovels and rakes. It's more labor intensive to do it this way, but creates more jobs and MUCH less dust! This is our first year harvesting with a mechanical shaker, but it's going well, and in the end I think it will be just as efficient as fully mechanized harvesting. Note in the video that harvest takes only one minute per tree!

Pancakes!

Ever since we started grinding our wheat berries into flour, our family's favorite breakfast has been whole wheat pancakes. We use a simple recipe from a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, scaled up for our family of 7 of course! Here's the basic recipe, which makes about 12-15 pancakes. We triple it and usually end up with 40 or more, which the kids promptly devour! I often add an extra couple of eggs from our home flock of chickens, just to add a bit more protein. Enjoy!

Whole Wheat Pancakes

1 cup Massa Organics whole wheat flour

1 tablespoon brown sugar, packed

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 beaten egg

1 cup milk

2 tablespoons cooking oil

In a mixing bowl stir together flour, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt. In another mixing bowl combine egg, milk, and cooking oil. Add to flour mixture all at once. Stir mixture until blended.

Pour about 1/4 cup batter onto a hot, lightly greased griddle. Cook till pancakes are golded brown, turning to cook second side when pancakes have bubbly surfaces and slightly dry edges.

Whole Wheat Baguette Recipe

For those of you who have tried our flour, here's a simple baguette recipe from Theo, a customer in Berkeley:

1 lb Massa Organics whole wheat flour,
1 heaping Tbsp wheat gluten,
1 Tbsp salt,
1 Tbsp yeast;

Combine dry ingredients, then mix in 2 cup cool water until the
consistency of cookie dough; let the dough autolyze (sit for a while while
the gluten forms), then knead; roll into baguettes and coat with poppy
seeds; bake 25 minutes at 400°F.