Arganica Farm Club

6 September 2010

365 Order Form for 09 September

Regular Order Form for Sept 09

New this week:

• Caromont cow cheese (soft ricotta style)
• Caromont smoky goat cheese with paprika, fennel, Juniper berries
• Sea beans—wild gathered sea asparagus.
• Wild-gathered Chanterelles and matsutake Mushrooms 

Hello Arganicans,

Just a short note today given the holiday to point out that we are back with some new items after a three week lockdown of sorts. After this week we will also give Rodney Breedlove’s farm a break as he prepares his greenhouses and takes a little down time.

It seemed that the fall came suddenly after a torching summer—a welcome relief. Caromont Farm is always experimenting, and have recently introduced a fresh soft ricotta cow cheese. It has a spreadable quality and is excellent over cracker when topped with seasonal farm jam such as grape or plum.  They have also rolled out a smoky goat cheese which is a Cabacou dusted with Smokey Spanish Paprika, studded with Juniper berries and dusted with toasted fennel seed. (if you familiar with Tomme de Bordeaux, this is their tribute) It's hand ladled, so the weights vary a bit, but generally around 6.5 ounces.

In our search for wild gathered foods we have stumbled upon a group who has wild gathered sea beans (sea asparagus)— a type of seaweed gathered on the Oregon coast. Biting into them is like nibbling on fresh young asparagus except you can taste the fresh salt of the ocean.  They are perfect in wraps or salad or as a surprise side dish. A great recipe with heirloom tomatoes and figs can be found here. We hope to constantly promote wild gathered foods as a sustainable food choice.  Also this week we have the amazing wild gathered chanterelles and matsutake mushrooms from Oregon to compliment our local varieties.

We are excited to have Praggie Tom in town for a few weeks.  Tom, Joe and I will be coming to DC to meet with our many customers who have become investors and to discuss our future hopes and present state.  We are looking forward to everyone’s thoughts on how we are doing.  There will be a separate meeting for new investors the following week. Please let us know if you are interested and we will email you the time and place. These events, usually held at a local food friendly restaurant, are an opportunity to talk with us one on one and perhaps sample a few choice items.  We have lately purchased a mobile food truck that will serve as a mobile feast.  We hope to take this retro kitchen to various neighborhoods and offices around DC to introduce old and potential new customers to the difference of local and wild foods.  Whoever said there was no such thing as a free lunch. If you think you know of an office or corporation who would like to become group Arganica members please help us make the introduction. We are now reaching out to spread Arganica’s format of responsible local eating to new markets and scaling up.

Thanks for everyone’s contribution to Arganica and the local food network we are trying to create. – Dominique Rachel, Praggie Tom, Joe, Jamie, Andrew and the entire Arganica team.