{Borrowed post from USA TODAY}

So we know dark chocolate is good for us because it has antioxidants and lamb is the new pork which was the new chicken.  Or was it beef?

But a walk through the 206,000 square feet of exhibits at this year’s Winter Fancy Food Show is a glimpse into the possible future of your grocery cart or dinner table. At this year’s show, which ended Tuesday, 17,000 attendees visited 1,300 booths to see the future of specialty food. From the aisles, here are 12 food trends for 2012:

1. Salt

Forget Morton. If it’s not Himalayan or Northwest Indian Salish-inspired, alder-smoked, it’s so 20th century. Salt’s in chocolate, on caramels, and sailing off store shelves. It’s the finishing touch to multiple dishes. At the SaltWorks in Woodinville, Wash., they sell Black Hawaiian sea salt, Bolivian Rose salt, Merlot-infused crystals and Yakima apple wood smoked sea salt. “We’ve started refining our own salt from Pacific Oceanwater at our plant near Seattle,” says the company’s Megan O’Keefe.

Salt has really gotten big in the past two years, says Ron Tanner, with the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade, which puts on the show. “We just did a salt and pepper tasting for our members,” he says. These specialty salts can run up to $8 per ounce, or $128 per pound. “Though it seems expensive, in the long run it’s not that much. You might get ten uses out of that package, so the cost per use isn’t high. And it’s a great finish to a dish.”

2. Artisan chocolate

Small producers who carefully source their cocoa beans are turning out chocolate bars that can cost as much as a mega-bag of M&M’s, but taste a lot better. These bars are often all-natural and cater to grown-up tastes. Think lemongrass, lavender-blueberry or French toast.

Standing at Poco Dolce Confections, Italian for “a little sweet,” Adam Smith points to owner Kathy Wiley’s olive oil with sea salt chocolate. “It hits just the right notes.” His Fog City News, a small San Francisco shop that sells hundreds of specialty chocolate bars, does a booming business in flavors such as Mayan chili.

The trend isn’t just in San Francisco. There are local chocolates made “in pretty much every city in the United States,” says Tanner. “People love chocolate and it’s not that hard to start producing them.”

3. Korean is the new Thai

The spicy, robust tastes of Korean cuisine are the latest Asian food to sweep the country. At Mother-in-Law’s Kimchi in Brooklyn, founder Lauryn Chun sells pints of the spicy-hot Korean signature pickled cabbage nationwide. She sees a new “openness and curiosity for the spices and flavors of other countries.” For Americans who haven’t encountered the fiery pickle, she has this breakthrough taste sensation to suggest: grilled cheese with kimchi.

4. QR’s on packaging

Look for Quick Response codes on food packaging in the near future. These fractal-looking squares that are readable by cell phone are showing up in ads right and left and will be popping up more and more on food packages. They’re a way for the industry to get more info out to consumers than they can fit on a package. Wines, especially, are a prime market because they can offer information about suggested food pairing and even videos about the winemakers.

5. Seaweed for lunch

It’s one of the hottest trends in West Coast lunchrooms and starting to take off nationwide. Nori seaweed (called laver in England where it grows on the west coast) is roasted, salted, flavored and sold in lunch-box sized packages that keep it crisp. Grace Clark packs it in her kids’ lunch where it’s a sure-fire tradable commodity at their elementary school in Mountain View, Calif. — always a good sign. “It serves the place of chips but it’s got zero bad stuff in it,” she says. Another mom just e-mailed her this past weekend asking where she gets it, so she can buy some for her daughter’s lunch, she says.

The nori, a spiced version of the purple seaweed used to wrap sushi, used to just have a market among Asians, says Brian Lee of Ace Farm USA in Bronx, N.Y., which sells the seaweed in wasabi, sesame and olive oil flavors. “In the past you always needed a bowl of rice to go with it. But then we realized our kids ate it like potato chips So we made it more like a snack, crispier, less salty and less oily.”

6. Gluten-free gets respect

The craze for all things gluten-free is turning up some better-tasting options for those who need to avoid this wheat protein. Star chef Thomas Keller, of The French Laundry (named “best restaurant in the world” in 2003 and 2004 by Restaurant magazine) , has launched a multi-purpose gluten-free flour blend called Cup4Cup. Gluten-free pastas and cereals were much in evidence at the show. Carbon’s Golden-Malted pancake and waffle flour, a staple of restaurants since 1937, has now come out with a gluten-free version. “It was just the demand,” says Becky Beckman, vice president of sales for theSouth Bend, Ind. company. It took six months of working on the mix of soy, rice and corn flour to get it right, she says.

7. DIY comes to food

The public fascination with how our food is made shows up not only in a hundred food shows on TV, but also kits that help people create foods that seem out of reach. These do-it-yourself food kits contain all the ingredients and detailed instructions, making the novice a pro in the kitchen.

“There’s a real trend in people wanting to understand how their food is made,” says Leslie Kozupsky, a longtime dairy woman and president of Roaring Brook Dairy in Chappaqua, N.Y. She sells kits to make mozzarella and butter that require only the addition of whole milk or cream. “So many people love cheese but they don’t know how to make it, I give them everything they need to make it.”

The trend extends to many traditional dishes as well. “We have members making pie kits, to make cooking easier,” says Tanner. One example is Elizabeth Jean’s Apple Pie Kit, which contains a pie tin, crust, spice pack, sliced apples and a pop-up pie timer. “Our research shows that 34% of people who buy specialty foods say they don’t know how to cook them,” says Tanner. The kits help guide even the most tentative cook.

8. The butcher is back

We’re in a renaissance of the butcher, says Tanner. “The meat that’s coming through supermarkets isn’t really as flavorful” as it once was, so there’s a resurgence of heritage pig and cattle breeds. Yet when people are paying a lot of money for their meat they want someone selling it to them who really knows the cuts and how to prepare them. Suddenly “it’s cool to be a butcher. Back in the 1970s if you were a meat cutter you didn’t go around saying ‘I’m in the meat department at the supermarket.’ Now people in their 20s are taking it as a career.”

9. Food trucks

Food trucks are the hot new thing in cities across America. These “roach coaches” were once the haunt of construction workers. Now they’ve gone high end, gourmet kitchens on wheels that sell crème caramel, Thai food and hand-made creations as good as anything served in the finest restaurants, at a lower price point. They’re big in New York, in Los Angeles, in Texas, in Portland, anywhere where there’s a strong food culture, Tanner says. “It’s a way for entrepreneurs who like to cook to get their product out to the public without having the expense of a restaurant.” A mini trend to look for coming off of this one is popular food trucks coming up with products, “maybe their special salsa that they’ll bottle and sell” in supermarkets.

10. Drugstores as food stores

With so much eating on the go, drugstores have become a source of food for people. Stores are branching out beyond snack foods and cookies. Duane Reade stores in New York have installed specialty food areas in their stores, and Walgreens is branching out with more fresh and prepared foods to go.

11. Mindful snacks

Snacks today don’t have to simply taste good, they also have to be good for you. Store shelves are starting to sport an array of chips and other snack foods with inventive, healthier ingredients. Sweet potatoes are big and lentils in the form of crisp cakes are popular. Probably the furthest-out in this category are the crunchy kale chips made by Kaia Foods in Oakland. “As delicious and satisfying as potato chips, but they’re as healthy as salad,” says the package, and sold in flavors such as BBQ, chili-lime and sea salt and vinegar.

12. In a pickle

Finally, the lowly American pickle is staging a big comeback in the East and South. There’s old-fashioned chow-chow pickle relish, artisan cucumber pickles and a host of cultured products, the result of lactic acid fermentation, that would make an Amish housewife proud, if a little puzzled. Pickled peppers, pickled burdock root, pickled golden raisins, with artisan sauerkraut being especially hot. Using high-quality vinegar, artisan salts (see above) and organic produce, these are not your typical gherkins. There’s been a strong resurgence in the South “where because of the heat, produce won’t last,” says Tanner.

For many years our CaMp TuRloCk homestead has been a place for family celebrations, a respite for friends to recharge with some country-time & a menagerie of well loved animals and of course home to Local Choices.

Today it feels good to say our homestead has added a new venue:  A farm!

A farm that grows our own food organically, a farm that provides a pastured haven for chickens of  Shady Oak Organic Eggs, a farm that feeds our family and beyond!

So stay tuned as we look forward to sharing with you our growth, new projects & this amazing gift of nature that is right out our back door.

In the meantime, enjoy some photos from our garden. See, we have been working hard!

(Check back soon for the sound of  happy chickens)

Photos taken by Alexandria Araiza

Happy planting, harvesting and eating!

by Neal & Marie Curran

Spring is coming and so is our garden! Here at Nine Acre Farm, we are incredibly busy planting our spring/summer garden. Most of this work as of yet is indoors. Our plants go through quite a journey to make it from seed packet to the field. We are trying our hardest to keep conservation-intensive methods in mind even as we work indoors. We hope our process will be helpful to you as you begin your 2011 garden.

1)  A garden-ready greenhouse

Our greenhouse is small, but can fit many plants. We built tables for our plants. On two of our tables we have plastic tubing (a waste material) arched over the tables to support insulating plastic at night.  To warm the greenhouse when it’s cold and at night, we have use an old wood stove and a homemade chimney. Discarded fencing posts from the property fit perfectly in the stove. When it gets too warm in the greenhouse, the walls double as windows that lift open from the bottom.
Also, we make our own potting soil in our greenhouse. It is a mixture of homemade compost, peat, and perlite (available at most Lowes).

2)  Seed packet to greenhouse

In late December and throughout January we started plants such as broccoli, artichokes, celery, kohlrabi, beets, lettuce, leeks, brussels sprouts, and many more. Instead of using plastic trays, which aren’t always space efficient and are wasteful when they fall apart, we use soil blocks. We use the soil blocks to punch out a mold of soil. Each block mold contains 20 1-inch spaces: one for each seed. After seeding, we sprinkle our homemade potting soil over the block and water.

Currently we have begun seeding our tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants. Because these members of the Nightshade family require higher germinating temperatures than our winter crops would find agreeable, we start them on soil blocks on an electric heat mat. This is an excellent way to get a jump start on summer crops!

3)  Greenhouse rotation

When our seedlings begin to grow out of their one-inch cubes, we move them to two-inch cubes made with a larger soil blocker. The two-inch blocks remain on the tables to be covered with plastic at night, just as the one-inch blocks. After a couple of weeks, we move them to our uncovered table. Here they begin the process of hardening off. The lack of plastic covering at night exposes them to lower temperatures.

4) The Cold Frame

After plants have spent a week or two on the uncovered table, they are moved to the cold frame outside our greenhouse. The cold frame is a wood frame on the ground with a tarp covering the soil. At night, the plants are covered with plexiglass (a waste material available to us). They are uncovered during the day but sheltered with sheet when it gets to warm/sunny. Plants spend about one or two weeks in here.

4) Greenhouse to field

I’m not going to talk much about this part, but I will tell you that once plants leave the nursery and go into the great adult garden, they still receive a little help. They are sheltered nightly with a light row cover. So far we have a few rows of transplants and additional direct-seeded vegetables (snap peas, carrots, turnips, beets, leaf lettuce, radishes, etc.) growing in our garden.

~ For more information about our farm or to join our CSA (starting in mid-March!) check our our website at www.nineacrefarm.com and email us at neal@nineacrefarm.com.

Musings by blogger Lydia of “Through the Screen Door”….

I don’t know about you, but I am ready for Spring.  After so many months of cold, rain, frost, and fog, the sun has finally decided to grace us with its presence!  Don’t get me wrong, I love Wintertime too.  Warm fires, fresh bread, rich hot chocolate, savory stews, and holidays with family are all delightful.  But, by this time of year, I’m usually ready for a change.  As soon as we get a sunny day or two, I start fantasizing about warm dirt between my bare toes, and the tangy burst of sun-ripened tomatoes in my mouth!

Last weekend was gorgeous.  My Dad brought over some baby fruit trees and boysenberry starts for me.  I have begged for his assistance in my quest for the ultimate garden, as he is the master, and I cannot yet snatch the pebble from his hand.  I remember, while I was growing up, he always had a garden.  Unfortunately for me, watching him garden back then, and managing my own wayward piece of heaven by myself, are two very different things….

Where to put the chicken coop?  How to arrange the raised beds?  Where is the most feng shui spot for the compost heap?  These are all burning questions with the potential of driving one to madness while nursing a glass of lemonade on the back stoop.  Since my mind already tends frighteningly in that direction, I enlisted professional help!

Dad brought with him everything a passel of boysenberry bushes could possibly hope for.  Complete with hand made planter boxes, and fertilizer, courtesy of my Moms horse, aged to perfection!  Trailed closely by 3 exuberant German Shorthaired Pointers, 1 anorexic German Shepherd, and a miniature horse with trouble on his mind, (they seemed to think something big was gonna go down!) I plunged in with far more enthusiasm than skill.

There is something about that first shovel full of moist soil that warms you to your toes and makes you feel connected.  For me, nothing soothes and feeds the soul quite like digging in the dirt!  And you know, you don’t have to have 20 acres to experience this phenomenon.  After all, not everyone gets to live where trick-or-treaters and fuller-brush-men refuse to venture without a team of oxen and a compass!
You can live in a high rise apartment, have a planter of herbs on your balcony, and still feel it as you trickle sun-warmed soil between your fingers.

With the hectic lives we all seem to lead, the pressures of the daily grind, many of us yearn, at the risk of sounding cliché, to get back to basics.  The very thought of kicking off our shoes, chucking our calendars out the window, shutting off our phones, and charging in headlong bare footed glee to a time when life was less complicated, is pure heaven!

But here’s the thing, it’s a state of mind rather than a state of being.  You don’t have to wait until you have the time and money for your very own meadow or “back 40” to grab a bit of sanity for yourself.  Do what you can today with where you’re at right now.  Grow some herbs on your porch, take the time to recharge with a cup of tea, stand barefoot on some grass (even if it’s not yours) with your eyes closed, and let the sun tickle your nose.

Or…there’s always the option of planting some boysenberries.  Does it for me every time.

Here is their story….

Our strong agricultural community is the perfect setting to help the forgotten felines in the Central Valley.  Barn or outdoor homes are needed for spayed, nuetered  and healthy cats!

Can your farm or ranch use a good mouser?

Are you able to provide a permanent home to a homeless cat?

All that is needed is adequate shelter, food, water and the cats will do the rest!  They will repay you by keeping your rodent population to a minimum.  They are also a green solution to avoid using unhealthy pesticides and poisons.

A feral cat is often un-adoptable due to a lack of socialization. These cats are beautiful and independent but cannot continue to love among city businesses, parks, churches and alleyways.  If you believe, as we do, that killing healthy animals is not an acceptable solution, you may be interested in the Barn Cat Program!

Program Process:
Cats are placed in cages at the barn site for an adjustment period of one to two weeks.  While caged, they become familiar with the sights, sounds, and smells of their new environment.   This also allows the cats to get comfortable with their caretaker and establish this as their new home and territory.

We will provide the cages, manage the delivery and pick-up.  A transportation donation would be appreciated!

For additional information please call (209) 502-7065 and help today!  Join the  group on facebook and visit their site!

Responsible farmers who not only believe in doing work that matters but also loving the work they do.

This guest post you are about to enjoy will hopefully inspire you as it has done for me:  to show up.  Written by Anna Brown, farm manager of  the organic Uplift Farms in Ceres, Ca.  She is a young woman who believes in giving back to her community and is as brilliant, authentic and adorable as her blogging words!

Every once in a while, we all need something that reminds us why we do what we do.  When the activities of daily life become a blur, one sight or word or experience can bring us back to center and return things to focus.

I had an experience like that last Tuesday, and it had to do with cauliflower.  Specifically, mid way through the weekly harvest in my 1/2 acre patch of winter vegetables I found the biggest and most beautiful cauliflower I have ever seen.  This variety of cauliflower usually keeps its leaves wrapped protectively around the head, but the one that caught my eye that morning had completely lowered its leaves, as if showing itself off to the world and inviting admiration.

Yet neither that cauliflower nor its neighbors down the row were perfect in the conventional sense.  Its beauty was a function not only of size and looks, but of the way of living and farming that nurtured it.

One difference between my cauliflower and it’s conventionally produced brethren is that most of mine show the traces of one insect or another, mostly caterpillars.  But I’m willing to forgive that because I grow organically and know that farming without pesticides means cultivating diversity and being willing to share space with competitors to some degree.  In fact having a crop that tolerates pest pressure without being decimated is a success!

Then there’s the fact that my plants matured later than expected and across a very broad time span, instead of being ready to harvest 68 days after transplanting, as indicated on the seed packet.  Yet simply that the heads continued to form after cold weather set in is a success; proof that I finally planted the brassicas at the right time!  And the long span of harvesting is no disaster either. I am paid by a community center to grow vegetables to be given to their clients, and they would actually rather have 6 cauliflower a week for 6 weeks than 36 on the same day.

This cauliflower represents success on other levels too.  It was grown by someone who was not raised on a farm and did not study agriculture (I majored in general biology and Russian literature in college).  It was grown without chemical fertilizer on land that had been pasture for an assortment of animals including turkeys, chickens, and cows for the past 2 years.  The compost used to amend the soil came from Modesto residents’ green waste through the city composting program.  And thanks to a grant, the produce will go to feed people who otherwise would not have the money to buy fresh local produce or the incentive to try it. In other words, this cauliflower or any other vegetable from the farm, is the product of a whole ecosystem, and one of the seeds of a healthy community.

The cauliflower also brings up questions.  How many caterpillars are too many?  Where is the middle ground between the best taste and acceptable disease resistance?  What is the right density of animals for the farm?  Can an ecological approach to farming feed our communities while caring for the earth?  Is the local food movement enough to support more small farmers? We have so much yet to understand about what sustainable food production looks like in the Central Valley.

You might understand now, why this cauliflower made me stop and smile on a cold gray morning (when just getting out of bed had been pretty hard).  It reminded me of the values, questions, and realities that set me on this road and make me love farming.  On a cold winter morning or hot summer afternoon, it can be the multi-faceted beauty of a vegetable, a question, or a community that brings my attention back to what is most important.

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Lavender Hollow Farms Boutique in Escalon

will be open & offering new items for your enjoyment!

December 3rd ~ 12th

10am – 4pm

find more details @ Lavenderhollowfarm.com

Visit LHF website to see their beautiful farm at….

www.lavenderhollowfam.com