Growing and eating it all on the family farm

When Greg Nauta of Rocky Canyon Farm kills a cow, he gets two tri-tips. That’s doesn’t put him in a good position to sell to customers looking for tri-tip in quantity, so he needs people willing to cook all the other parts of the animal.

Fortunately, chefs such as Ben Ford of Ford’s Filling Station in Culver City are interested in doing just that.

They, along with farmer Phil McGrath and moderator Evan Kleiman, talked Thursday night on a panel at the Santa Monica Library called “Eating the Whole Farm,” about a revivial of “nose to tail” farming and cooking practices.

Ford said he is buying whole rabbits, deer and pigs for his restaurant, adding that doing so gives him and his staff a new “reverence” for food animals.

McGrath noted that eating seasonably requires people to try new foods, to adapt to what's available, and that people are coming around to that idea.

“I remember back in the day when nobody would buy a beet. People were afraid of beets,” said Kleiman, host of the KCRW show “Good Food” and chef-owner of Angeli Caffe on Melrose.

Michelle Obama welcomes 'Iron Chef America'

Michelle Obama's White House garden is having quite a week.

The garden played a starring role in Tuesday night's episode of "The Biggest Loser," and today Food Network announced it will also take center stage in a special episode of "Iron Chef America." Chefs Mario Batali, Bobby Flay and Emeril Lagasse go to D.C. where they will be greeted by the First Lady and joined by White House Executive Chef Cristeta Comerford for a Super Chef Battle.

The chairman's challenge: Create a meal for America using The White House Kitchen Garden’s produce as their secret ingredients. The episode premieres Sunday, January 3rd.

According to Food Network, the chefs will be allowed to use anything found in the White House Kitchen Garden to help them create their meals. It will be Flay and Comerford against Batali and Lagasse. Each team must come up with five dishes that showcase their garden fresh ingredients and best represent "the ultimate American meal."

The judges include: chef and best-selling cookbook author Nigella Lawson; Olympic gold medalist Natalie Coughlin; and actress, author and designer Jane Seymour.

--Rene Lynch

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Photo credit: NBC Universal

What's in season? Pomegranates

Join L.A. Times Food Editor and cookbook author Russ Parsons in cooking through the seasons. It's your guide to what's fresh now at the market -- and what to do with it once you get home:

What's fresh now? Pomegranates. Sweet and tangy as they are, pomegranates are undoubtedly the "un-convenience" fruit. Few other foods demand as much of the eater. Not only do you have to break through that tough, leathery outer shell, but then you have to pry apart the pith to get to the delicious, though admittedly seedy, edible parts.

Click here for an easy way to clean a pomegranate, and some recipes for putting them to good use.

Photo credit: Larry Crowe / Associated Press 

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Sampler Platter: promo Whopper has 7 patties, sparkling wine vs. champagne, urban chickening

Urban chickens and urban food critics lead this end-of-the-week roundup of food news.

--Burger King's Windows 7 Whopper has 7 patties, 2,120 calories. Japanator
--The Atlantic explores six Australian foods worth trying and the role of food critics in the Internet age.
--Carpinteria hot dog vendor relishes his sales-tax victory. Los Angeles Times
--Sparkling wine is just as good as champagne (when it's well made). Consumerist
--The perils of urban chickening. New York Times
--David Lazarus asks: Is Smart Choices misleading? Los Angeles Times

-- Elina Shatkin

Photo: Bill Connell, 55, stands in front of his Surf Dog stand in Carpinteria. Credit: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times

Usher in fall at family-friendly U-pick farms

Although farmers markets are no longer chock full of summer peaches, cherries and tomatoes, produce is still available at the region's U-pick farms. What better way to celebrate this season's harvest than gathering a group of friends and family and heading out to the source and snagging your favorite fall produce? Read more here.

Photo: Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times

What's fresh at the market? Winter squash

Let California Cook columnist and L.A. Times Food editor Russ Parsons serve as your guide to the freshest produce of the season. Recipes included, and updated regularly.

What's fresh at the market this month? Winter squash. So what do you do with it once you get it home? How about mushroom and winter squash gratin or squash baked with sage and chili butter?

-- Rene Lynch

Join us on Twitter @latimesfood and Facebook @latimesfood

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Photo credit: Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times

Psyllids found in Orange County; insect could devastate California citrus industry

A tiny insect that often carries a tree-killing disease and threatens to destroy California's $1.6-billion citrus industry has moved into Orange County.

Agricultural officials said today that they recently trapped five adult Asian citrus psyllids on a lemon tree at a home in Santa Ana, the farthest north they have found the aphid-like insect.

"Having it as far north as Santa Ana means that the pest could be anywhere in the entire Los Angeles basin. This is not good. We are not containing the pest," said Ted Batkin, president of the Citrus Research Board.

The trade group is working with the California Department of Food and Agriculture to control the bug and prevent the disease from gaining a hold in the state.

Full story by Times staff writer Jerry Hirsch: Psyllids found in Orange County; insect could devastate California citrus industry

The Palos Verdes Peninsula's last farmer

James Hatano turns off one of the Palos Verdes Peninsula's oceanfront drives and onto a hidden dirt road, just as he has for more than 50 years. He guides his Buick LaCrosse up a gentle hill to the fields where he raises cacti and flowers.

While he works, Hatano can look out at the Pacific and see whales and dolphins.

As he chops off a beavertail cactus paddle, he gazes across Palos Verdes Drive West to where construction crews are putting the finishing touches on the 582-room Terranea resort with its nine-hole golf course, 25,000-square-foot spa and three pools.

Marineland of the Pacific once stood on the site. Before that, Hatano recalls, a man named Tomio Nakano raised tomatoes there. What is now Trump National Golf Club, he says, was once barley and vegetable fields.

"This area's all full of homes, but it used to be full of garbanzo fields," Hatano says. "I didn't even know what garbanzos were until I came up here."

Hatano, 82, is the last farmer on the Palos Verdes Peninsula -- and the last link to a Palos Verdes few remember, one dotted with farms worked by Japanese immigrants and their families. Their garbanzo beans and tomatoes, nourished by rain and ocean mists, were known worldwide. Read more here.

-- Jeff Gottlieb

Photo: James Hatano, 82, is the last farmer on the Palos Verdes Peninsula and the last link to a Palos Verdes few remember. Credit: Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times

A behind-the-scenes look at your farmers market finder

 

We're Californians. We like our produce fresher than fresh. We want it picked that morning, if at all possible. And we love our farmers markets. It seemed like a no-brainer to launch an interactive map that featured every single farmers market in Southern California.

But that was just the starting point. We wanted this to be a resource where we could share details about when the season's first crop of mulberries, or white peaches, would be coming to market. We also wanted to know which markets are kid friendly, and which offer a more chef-y vibe. What were the best markets for grazing -- whether it be samples or prepared foods. We also wanted it to showcase one of our favorite features -- Russ Parsons' Cooking through the Seasons -- as well as our timely reports from our Market Watch columnist, David Karp. We wanted it to also link to our ever growing collection of recipes from the Times' test kitchen, as well as any food news.

That couldn't be that hard, could it?

Are we farmers market failures?

Here in Southern California we love our farmers markets. But do we love them as much as the folks up north in Davis? Or back east in Ithaca, N.Y.? Or in Sunset Valley, Texas, for god's sake? Apparently not. American Farmland Trust is running a national online poll to determine the best farmers market in America and the only Southern California market in the Top 60 is Santa Barbara's. 

Now, there's no arguing that there are great farmers markets all over the country these days. But Ithaca? Given the weather up there, how long can it be open? Two weeks in August?
No, I think the problem is that maybe we've grown just a little complacent. Certainly the Santa Monica and Hollywood markets ought to be on that list. And for that matter, so should Torrance and Pasadena's Victory Park. And I'll bet you can think of a couple more.

Markets in the competition are divided into three size categories, depending on how many vendors attend them. The smallest markets are 30 vendors or smaller and the leading vote-getters so far are something called Smart Markets at Mason, in northern Virginia, and the Collingswood, N.J., farmers market. The Fresno State farmers market is third.

Mid-size markets have between 30 and 55 vendors. Leaders are the Capitol market in Charleston, West Va., the Historic Lewes, Del., Farmers Market, and the Farmers Market at Minnetrista in Muncie, Ind. 

Leading the big-market competition are the Davis market, just outside of Sacramento, Ithaca and Sunset Valley. Where in the world is Sunset Valley? Or, maybe more to the point, where in the world is Santa Monica? There's still time to right this grievous wrong. Vote early and vote often.

-- Russ Parsons

Photo: Alex Weiser at the Santa Monica farmers market. Credit: David Karp / For The Times