this is the start of something, learning to farm in Petaluma
On my friend's farm in Petaluma. . .
Moving to San Francisco some 10 years ago changed my life. More to the point, it opened-up my life. I blossomed here.
My dad was a gardener by vocation, and avocation. Green was in my genes but I’d never tried gardening as a kid. . . I just didn’t know it yet. I loved to draw, though. . .
Moving to San Francisco, I discovered truly great food. Great ingredients. Now, I wanted to find out more about the source of my food. I wanted to make it myself. I became selective about the food I chose. I started going to farmers markets.
I also moved into an apartment with unused space in the lot behind. I took it over, with the blessing of the neighbors. I had the idea I’d start an ornamental garden. I taught myself to garden by digging in the dirt every day. I grew to understand the plants by watching them, season to season, year by year.
Understanding plants and developing an appreciation for food have become essential parts of my life. It’s only natural that I would want to explore the area in which they overlap and, that’s farming. Enter my dear friend T-.
We’re on a similar trajectory, T- and I. Having never had much experience either, he’s developed his passion for farming only within the past few years, and how quickly and easily he’s succumbed to it. A fellow San Francisco resident, he’s found a way to rent a plot in distant Petaluma, which he tends as often as he can get away, getting his plant-starts established in his kitchen growing station. He’s graciously invited me to help him in his grand endeavor, and now I have a new home away from home.
Stay tuned for more posts from the farm. This is the start of something. . .
Here’s a video I find inspiring. It neatly sums up the lure of the farm, and suggests why it is that so many people nowadays are going back to their roots, by learning how to grow their own food.
heirloom carrots!
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egyptian beets!
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egyptian beets!
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pumpkin!
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the Petaluma farm
sfenvironment.org: Our City’s Programs: Zero Waste: Composting
One of the things we love about our city, San Francisco, is our reverence for the environment and the food supply that sustains us. Check out this link to find out what the city is doing to not only reduce the waste going to landfills but also, to repurpose food waste as the compost that makes our soil among the best in the world. Find out what you can do to help by following this link from sfenvironment.org: our citys programs: Zero Waste: Composting.
The Whole Pie. on Vimeo
Enjoy. Do a little work. Eat.
This is the latest video in an ongoing series produced by the Bay Area’s Pie Ranch.
Pie Ranch is an educational farm whose mission is
to inspire and connect people to know the source of their food, and to work together to bring greater health to the food system from seed to table.
We here at MUS•e•YUM simply love them. Check out the first in the video series, previously posted on MUS•e•YUM, here.
Off The Grid’s 1st Theme Party: “Hot Food, Cold Nights” – Food Trucks – Eater SF
Off The Grid’s 1st Theme Party: “Hot Food, Cold Nights” – Food Trucks – Eater SF.
The folks at Off the Grid are mixing up the formula this week with Hot Food, Cold Nights, a new way of experiencing this food truck mash up we first told you about here. Rather than pay as you go, the price of one admission ticket will get you a food item at each truck once you’re in, and only 100 tickets will be sold. $35.
Saturday 2 July, McCoppin Hub,
Umami Burger Seals The Deal on Union Street – Northern Migrations – Eater SF
Umami Burger Seals The Deal on Union Street – Northern Migrations – Eater SF.
Reposted from the EaterSF, the latest on the LA Burger chain’s Bay Area debut. Of note to us here at MUS•e•YUM H.Q. talk of a Mission outpost.
we love this hot new foodie website, Deep Dishing by the gorgeous Marcia G.
:^)
There’s a hot new foodie website on the interwebs, and it just launched today. It’s called Deep Dishing and it’s the brainchild of Marcia Gagliardi of Tablehopper fame (((our OTHER favorite foodie website 
))
What do we love about the site? It provides the reader a fast way to find out which restaurants are trending right now, and an easy way to look up the ‘fan-favorite’ dishes on each of those menus. Need a recommendation for a…? There’s an active forum that delves into such consequential questions as “Where’s the best croissant?” and apropos a previous post on this blog, “Where’s the best burger???” Now, we know.
And thankfully on Deep Dishing, there are lots, and lots of pictures of those menu items and, as everyone knows, we here at MUS•e•YUM do love our food porn;-)
Best of luck Marcia! It’s lookin’ hot!
PS: if you look carefully enough through the image galleries on DeepDishing, you just might find some familiar photos . . .
best bakeries in the bay area, octoberfeast
pretzel croissant, Octoberfeast, Berkeley, CA
I’d never really understood why people love croissants until I had one in France. And, hailing from Pennsylvania Dutch Country as I do, I have always had a reverence for well-made doughnuts and pretzels, and my bar is set high in terms of quality. While I haven’t found a doughnut quite as good as the best I’ve had back home, I may just have found the pretzel, and it’s by Berkeley’s Octoberfeast Bakery. When I saw their stall at the Stonestown Farmer’s Market one Sunday morning, the animal part of my brain was triggered and I made a bee-line for their wares.
Now just imagine, bringing the pretzel and the croissant together . . . the sum is amazingly more than the sum of its parts and this, dear reader, you will discover at Octoberfeast. Just go. Just get it. A pretzel croissant. It’s incredible.
But while they had me at pretzel croissant, and the pretzels, they have another item I want to tell you about, the RECTOR BUN. I had never heard of these, not even on my trips to Germany. They’re pastries that consist of a tightly rolled dough, dense and chewy like a sticky bun, firm on the outside and containing soft, flakey layers on the inside. The top is glazed and sprinkled with turbinado sugar. It’s a gorgeous and delicious thing, and very unique.
Octoberfeast a bakery out of Berkeley that retails in San Francisco at Rainbow Grocery and on Sunday mornings, at the Stonestown Farmer’s Market until 1pm.
1954 University Ave
(between Bonita Ave & Milvia St)
Berkeley, CA 94704
(510) 207-2320
breaking news: new Bakesale Betty sandwich revealed.
Sloppy Joe! there’s even a YouTube video as announcement, check it out here:
HOLY SMOKES: prather ranch organic beef, housemade tomato sauce, cayenne, onions, cilantro (naturally), pickled jalapeño peppers on a soft bun (I heart soft buns!) and yes, a side of Frito’s© Chips or coleslaw.
Available in both locations August 10th. Yeah, you already know there’s going to be a long line for that now don’t you!
we love Bakesale betty sandwiches
