Organic Gardening

Posted on 05/06/2013 by Lindsey

For those of your wondering if Cherryvale Farms is just another food company using the name “farm” in its name to sound pastoral, think again.

Cherryvale Farms is a real, if small, farm in Santa Cruz, California. We’ve been growing organic fruits and veggies on our little acre of land for about 20 years and, for a few years even housed some chickens!

This year we’ve planted one of our largest gardens to date and, weather permitting, we’ll be reaping the benefits of our hard work all summer long.

Today we’re sharing the first bounties of our Spring garden: watermelon radishes and green onions.

We love watermelon radishes because of their gorgeous hot pink color, delightful crunch and spicy taste. If you’re growing watermelon radishes in your garden this year, or come across some at your local farmer’s market, here’s a few great ways to use them:

Now, we’re getting hungry!

A Look Inside the Cherryvale Farms Warehouse

Posted on 07/24/2012 by Lindsey

Cherryvale Farms is almost a year old and it’s been an incredible experience!

A year ago this week we were working out of a tiny bakery kitchen, into the wee hours of the morning, hand blending, bagging and packaging hundreds of boxes of our “Everything But The…” baking mixes.

Today, we’re in a 900 square foot warehouse space, filled with pallets of product staged and ready to head to their next stop: a store near you!

We wanted to share a few pics of the warehouse and of our amazing family and friends that have been putting in overtime to help us get pallets and pallets of product boxed and ready to go.

Right now, we’re available in stores across California (and across the US online, via here), and we’ll have news to share with you very soon about our growth!

“The Moms” hard at work boxing units of baking mix. (That’s Marsha and her sister Joan, in case you’re wondering. The best worker bees a daughter could have!)

: “The Moms” and Joan’s daughter Jill hard at work! (They do love their peace signs, don’t they?!)

We decided that our CCOF Organic Sign wasn’t exciting enough on the wall of our warehouse…so we decorated it with orange pom poms and sea life decorations. Totally fitting, no?

Ah, and there it is! All that hard work looks pretty good on a grocery store shelf!

New Product Photos

Posted on 06/25/2012 by Lindsey

New Stores in the Bay Area!

Posted on 02/24/2012 by Lindsey

Every day is full of excitement at Cherryvale Farms!

We’re happy to announce you can now pick up our products at Mill Valley Market in Mill Valley, Mollie Stone’s in Greenbrae and Farm Fresh to You in the Ferry Building San Francisco!

So go stop by today and buy a box (or two, or three)!

Abe’s Market

Posted on 02/09/2012 by Lindsey

Many of you already know we sell our fabulous baking mixes on Abe’s Market, but did you know that we’re hosting a sale?

It’s almost Valentine’s Day, you see, and we want to show our love to you, are fans, friends and family. So, our entire line is on sale through Valentine’s Day!

Now isn’t that lovely?

Check it out today!

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Also, lovelies, thank for all the love on Pinterest! You guys surely love our bag-less microwave popcorn technique! Make sure to check it out and go bag-less forever! (Saves time, money and it’s pretty darn good, if we say so ourselves!)

Source: everythingbutthe.com via Veronica on Pinterest

New Store List

Posted on 11/30/2011 by Lindsey

Well today is awesome for many, many reasons and tomorrow is going to be even better. Why? Let me tell you!

- Tomorrow is my birthday (yippee!)

- We just delivered another fabulous set of products to our distributor

- We picked up some new stores

- Walnut is awesome

See? Pretty freakin’ fantastic.

And, I want to share with you our updated current store list for the Bay Area, since it’s not yet up on our website.

Oh, and have you been to Abe’s Market yet? It’s our new storefront online and we LOVE it. You will too. Go check it out!

You can buy Cherryvale Farms products in any of these great stores:

26th & Guerrero Market	1400 Guerrero St.	San Francisco	94110
Andronico’s Market #1- Solano	1850 Solano Ave	Berkeley	94707
Andronico’s Market #2 – Telegraph	2655 Telegraph	Berkeley	94704
Andronico’s Market #3 – San Francisco	1200 Irving St.	San Francisco	94122
Andronico’s Market #5- Shattuck	1550 Shattuck Ave	Berkeley	94709
Andronico’s Market #6 – Los Altos	690 Los Altos Rancho Center	Los Altos	94024
Andronico’s Market #7 – San Anselmo	100 Center Blvd	San Anselmo	94960
Aptos Natural Foods	7506 Soquel Dr.	Aptos	95003
Arcata Co-op	811 I Street	Arcata	95521
Big John’s Market	1345 Healdsburg	Healdsburg	95448
Cal Mart Calistoga	1491 Lincoln Ave	Calistoga	94515
California Organics	135-A Argall Way	Nevada City	95959
Chautauqua Natural Foods	436 Church St	Garberville	95542
Cornucopia Natural Foods – Modesto	2625 Coffee Rd #V	Modesto	95355
Davis Food Co-op	620 G Street	Davis	95616
Deluxe Foods of Aptos	783 Rio Del Mar Blvd #25	Aptos	95003
Elliott’s Natural Foods–Sacramento	3347 El Camino Ave	Sacramento	95821
Eureka Co-op	25 4th Street (4th and B streets)	Eureka	95501
Eureka Natural Foods	1450 Broadway	Eureka	95501
Fresh Organics Stanyan	1001 Stanyan St.	San Francisco	94117
Glen Ellen Village Market	13751 Arnold Dr.	Glen Ellen	95442
Good Food Store	PO Box 340 / 44850 N. Hwy 101	Laytonville	95454
Green’s Nutrition Center	1906 Pacific Ave	Stockton	95204
Harvest House	2395 Monument Blvd.	Concord	94520
Marina Supermarket	2323 Chestnut St	San Francisco	94123
Mariposa Market	500 S Main St.	Willits	95490
Murphy’s Market Sunny Brae	785 Bayside Rd	Arcata	95521
Murphy’s Market Westwood	100 Westwood Place	Arcata	95521
Nature Stop	1336 Grant Ave.	San Francisco	94133
New Leaf Capitola	1210 41st Ave	Capitola	95010
New Leaf Downtown / Pacific	1134 Pacific Ave	Santa Cruz	95060
New Leaf Half Moon Bay	150 San Mateo Rd	Half Moon Bay	94019
New Leaf Westside	1101 Fair Ave.	Santa Cruz	95060
Nick’s Market	144 Page St.	San Francisco	94111
Other Avenues Food Store	3930 Judah St.	San Francisco	94122
Petaluma Market	210 Western Ave	Petaluma	94952
Rainbow Grocery	1745 Folsom St.	San Francisco	94103
RJ’s Market	1425 Sansome St.	San Francisco	94111
Scotty’s Market	620 Manuel Freitas Pkwy	San Rafael	94903
Sonoma Market	500 W. Napa St.	Sonoma	95476
Staff of Life	1266 Soquel Ave.	Santa Cruz	95062
Sunrise Natural Foods – Roseville	1950 Douglas Blvd	Roseville	95661
Valencia Whole Foods	999 Valencia St	San Francisco	94110
Village Health Foods	1700 McHenry Ave #A15	Modesto	95350
Wildberries Market	747 13th St	Arcata	95521

Berkeley Coffee & Tea Festival!

Posted on 09/19/2011 by Lindsey

I’m new to Berkeley. Super new! Like 6 weeks new!

So what a way to celebrate my new hometown than getting my company, Cherryvale Farms, involved in a fantastic local event, The Berkeley Coffee & Tea Festival.

It’s like Win Win. Or Slurp Slurp. Maybe Yum Yum.

Or all of the above.

The event is this Saturday, September 24th from 9 am to `1 pm at the Shattuck Plaza Hotel. LITERALLY a few steps from the Downtown Berkeley BART station. You know, being green and such taking public transpo. You know what’s up. I dig it, too.

Tickets are available for a discounted rate of $15 if you “like” the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce on Facebook. Double awesome.

So plan your Saturday accordingly and give it a jump start with tons of coffee & tea tastings plus super-awesome-delicious muffin samples from Cherryvale Farms.

We’ll have yummy samples of our Banana Bread and Apple Streusel Muffins for sampling….they’ll go perfectly with your local-blend-japanese-cold-drip-iced-latte-with-foam. Or whatever makes you Coffee Happy.

And after the festival you’ll still have the whole day to, you know, go to Chez Panisse for some uber-fancy-organic food, or ogle the cheese at The Cheeseboard. All awesome my-favorite-new-places in my-favorite-new-hometown.

Millet Pancakes with Zucchini, Corn & Dill

Posted on 09/16/2011 by Lindsey

This recipe was inspired by a banana bread. It was Joy The Baker’s. Joy is a little nutty, a lotta clever and super fancy-schmancy with her banana breads. She put millet in one.

Holy moly. Millet? In banana bread?

I got to get me some millet. Stat.

So I did. And it proceeded to sit on my shelf for no less than 3 weeks, staring at me every day when I reached around it for the sugar, or flour, painfully avoiding its glaring stare every time. (See, I keep it in glass, so it can stare. Promise. Not weird. Totally.)

Sad little millet. I had no idea what to do with you!

Until today. Yay for millet!

Fluffy pancake batter + shredded zucchini (for the greens, people!) + sweet end of summer corn + millet = crunchy, yummy, wholesome little pancakes. For lunch. For dinner. Maybe a mid-afternoon-I-can’t-stare-at-my-computer-screen-any-longer snack. Hey, breakfast could even be fabulous. Topped with a little honeyed sour cream and fresh basil.

Now, we’re talking.

Millet adds the awesomeness crunchy factor. You’ll like it. I promise. Call me afterward and let me know how it goes. Maybe write a secret about it on PostSecret, my new favorite app. EVER. But don’t get all high school and write that you have a crush on it. Or that you’re meant to be together. Be funny. Be clever. Don’t show me any body parts (or parts of body parts) that I will need to flag. Promise?

Cool.

Recipe after the jump…

Continue reading →

Carpaccio of Radish with Avocado and Grapefruit

Posted on 05/11/2011 by Everything But The...

I could easily call this a salad of radish, avocado and grapefruit but I’m feeling kind of fancy today. Carpaccio sounds exotic and sexy and all the things I, myself, am not. A girl can dream.

This dish is also symmetrical. I like symmetrical. People that know me know that I like everything in very precise order and symmetry, to me, is very pleasing. For examples…my closet is organized by color. My spice cabinet is (now) in complete working order with matching jars and labels to boot. Yesterday, on a whim, I reorganized my shoe collection by color, heel size and toe shape. I like Walnut’s collar and leash to match his fur.

In other words. I’m crazy.

But you’ve gotta give me points for trying. I mean, this dish is gorgeous. And delicious. And I’m eating it in concentric circles right now.

Like I said. Crazy.

Continue reading →

LA Food Swap

Posted on 03/28/2011 by Lindsey

Many of you know I’ve been giddy as a school girl the last few weeks in anticipation of the first LA Food Swap. A bunch of savvy home cooks, bakers and food preservationists (I can call them that, right?) got together yesterday for a food swap of our personal kitchen creations. It was a fabulous little event that I was thrilled to participate in.

I swapped canning disasters and learned so much about how others cook, bake and preserve in their own homes. Top swapping items included marmalade (with all this citrus, why wouldn’t there be?), lemon curd, strawberry jam, scones, breads, more jams, salsa and even homemade tinctures. Don’t worry, I had to look up what a tincture was too….it’s an alcoholic extract of an herb or plant. In my case, I got horehound. I know you’re probably laughing. I did for a minute. But I think it actually helped my allergies this weekend. Anyway…

This was the first LA Food Swap, arranged by the lovely and talented Emily Ho, also known as Miss Chiffonade. She and her boyfriend made the most gorgeous beet pasta I’ve ever seen and packaged them in lovely custom labeled bags. Jealous.

I brought a combo of my canning portfolio, including Citrus Marmalade, Apple-Plum Sauce and some other canned delicacies you may remember from such posts as A Week of Pickles and Onion Marmalade.

I left the swap with an amazing bounty of homemade items, some of which never even made it in the front door. I blame @resforthree for her deadly brown butter shortbread.

Also now in my pantry thanks to the swap: lemon curd (two kinds!), fresh rosemary, lemons, strawberry lemon rosemary jam, habanero marmalade, a tangerine limoncello, oatmeal brown sugar body scrub and garlic confit.

One of the lemon curd jars is already near empty a day later. My belly is very happy. Check out the gallery below to see photos from the swap and check out the Facebook page to sign up for the next one.

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Reading for Breakfast

Posted on 03/22/2011 by Everything But The...

Well, I’m not reading for breakfast, really. I’m reading at breakfast. Pardon my grammar.

I’m studying, actually. And it’s been a looooong time since I’ve done any of that. I kind of forgot how mind-numbing and boring studying is. Or, rather, I purposefully cleared out that part of my brain to make way for all the other things clogging it up (Walnut, starting a company, baking, blogging, etc.)

I’m studying for my Food Safety Certification so I can package all of our products into their fabulous little boxes. Yay!

There’s some easy ones on the test, like this:

People can become ill from:

Bacteria
Viruses
Parasites
All of the above

Duh, easy one! (answer is d, people, stop scratching your head).

Then there’s some really hard ones like:

Chemical sanitizers are most effective at temperatures from:

50 to 75 degrees F
75 to 120 degrees F
140 to 170 degrees F
200 to 212 degrees F

This one takes a little thinking, because your first thought is a seemingly obvious answer of 50-75 degrees F: at or below room temperature. But the answer is 75-120 degrees F! Doesn’t that seem like a really high temp to store sanitizers?

Thus, some studying to do! Wish me luck!

Valentine’s Day

Posted on 02/14/2011 by Lindsey

Doesn’t it make you feel all warm and fuzzy? Want to just go out and hug someone? Probably not. So chocolate hearts and kisses will have to do.

Happy Valentine’s Day from blogger land!

I’ve got some yummy brown sugar heart-shaped cookies in the fridge chilling (on their way to the oven) but they’re not ready just yet, so I’ll be putting them on the blog tomorrow, along with my V-Day dinner: grilled flank steak over a bed of chard with tomatoes and polenta. Sounds pretty sexy, right? Let’s hope my Valentine agrees.

And, if the cookies aren’t ready by the time he gets home, at least I have these poor-excuse-for-a-real-gift heart shaped chocolates. Which are keeping me company in blogger land today. As is Walnut. He says Happy Valentine’s day too!

Pasta e Fagioli

Posted on 02/09/2011 by Lindsey

Sometimes you just want a big bowl of warm, comforting pasta. That sometimes is actually all the time, but I used to spare myself the bowl-full-o-calories by only making it on rare occasions.

Then, about a year ago, Daniel introduced me to shirataki noodles, these very interesting noodles of all shapes and sizes, packaged in water, and made of tofu. And they have like five calories. Sing to the heavens, hallelujah!

Last night I made a version of pasta e fagioli with the noodles and, though lacking the toothsome bite of the pasta, it turned out pretty darn good.

Just saute some onions in olive oil until translucent, add a big handful of chopped chard (the traditional recipe features spinach) and saute until the chard is fully wilted. I then mixed in some white cannellini beans (from a can, cheater!) and added it all to the cooked pasta. The nice thing about these noodles is they only take about 3 minutes to cook. The bad thing about these noodles is you have to rinse them in water before boiling and they smell like rotten tofu when you open the package. NOTE: they don’t taste like rotten tofu, I promise.

I added tomato sauce courtesy of the LaTyer household and pasta e fagioli a la Lindsey was born. Oh, and I topped it with a little crispy turkey bacon and Parmesan cheese.

This post could have easily been called “my camera sucks but my cooking is really good.”

Trip to the Farmer’s Market

Posted on 02/04/2011 by Lindsey

I just realized I didn’t post my lovely photos from the Farmer’s Market this week. I love Southern California weather – how lucky to be able to go to the outdoor market in the beginning of February and find gorgeous fresh greens, piles of citrus and seemingly limitless root veggies.

And, I had a celebrity sighting! Well, foodie celebrity, that is. Mark Peel, chef/owner of The Tar Pit and Campanile (and of Top Chef Masters fame) was picking up some mushrooms and citrus next to me at the market. That is the like 100th time I’ve run into him in LA. I kid you not. First time was while he was walking from Campanile to The Tar Pit (both his restaurants reside on La Brea), next in line at Ralph’s, next at the Farmer’s Market on Larchmont, and then in Santa Monica. I swear, he’s stalking me. Or, I’m stalking him. Hmm…

For more on the fabulous Mark Peel, check out his StarChefs profile. Yes, this actually exists.

Cupcakes!

Posted on 02/04/2011 by Lindsey

Sometimes you just need a cupcake. Or rather, when you’re boyfriend is working until 2 am one night, he needs a cupcake.

Last night turned out to be a late one for Daniel, so I thought I’d perk up his office-mates with some late night chocolate goodness.

I pulled the recipe from one of my all-time favorite cookbooks, and a real piece of Americana, The Fannie Farmer Cookbook. Considered the status quo cookbook for all things classically American, it really is a fullproof volume of traditional dishes. Plus the recipes have great names, like this one: Little Light Chocolate Cakes.

Little Light Chocolate Cakes

1/4 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 cup boiling water
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin pan or spray with non-stick coating.

Combine the shortening, sugar and cocoa in a mixing bowl; pour over the boiling water and beat until smooth.

In a separate bowl, sift together flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda. Slowly pour the dry mixture into the wet; beat until well blended.

Add the egg, vanilla and sour cream to the batter until smooth and creamy. Spoon into the individual muffin tins until about 3/4 full. Baking for about 20 minutes. Let cool before frosting.

Chocolate Frosting recipe after the jump!

Continue reading →

Banana Bread

Posted on 02/04/2011 by Lindsey

So I’m baking again these days. Lots of baking. Baking for the good of mankind! Well, maybe not all of mankind. Maybe just me, my boyfriend and his co-workers. Regardless, I’m making a difference in the world, one baked good at a time!

I’m still experimenting with Banana Bread, this time non-vegan for the more traditional mass market. At Cherryvale Farms we believe in organic, wholesome living. That means better quality foods and reducing our intake or refined sugars and flours. Notice I say reducing. We don’t believe you have to remove traditional ingredients for the sake of health. Sometimes you just need to know where to pick and choose.

My eagerness to build a healthier banana bread is, in many ways, dedicated to Moms like my friend Catherine. She has a 13-month old baby and is concerned about the amount of sugar in kids foods. I too feel strongly about the amount of sugar we put into our family’s bodies.

I have been researching a lot about the sugar substitute Stevia and I’m at a loss to figure out why the heck we didn’t start using this sooner! South American cultures have been using the Stevia plant as a natural sweetener for over 400 years and yet we’re just getting on the band wagon! Stevia has all the sweetness we look for in our processed goods without any calories and limited impact on the environment. I honestly had no idea. Consider me converted.

Using 2/3 white flour and 1/3 whole wheat flour, my version also ensures your family will get more whole grains. Take a look at the final results.


Low-Sugar / Semi-Whole Wheat Banana Bread (i.e. pretty darn good for you Banana Bread)

Kitchen Gods

Posted on 02/02/2011 by Lindsey

I think most chefs are a little superstitious. Maybe it’s their lucky clogs, a favorite pan or a special way of folding their towel in their apron. I, not a restaurant chef, have my kitchen gods to help bring me good luck, and I want you to meet them! These little guys have grown over the years and been picked up from a variety of sources. They live on a shelf in the corner of my kitchen and make me smile whenever I ponder the absurdity of their close quarters.

The Kitchen Gods!

From left to right:

Martian toy from the Japanese market, I bought this while I was in Little Tokyo with my friend Simon years ago.
Yellow car – I have no idea how this got here.
Green vase – bought this at a store my home town over a weekend during college, it’s followed me from home to office back to home and kitchen for five years. I like that it’s green.
Space man toy – I found this little guy on the beach before I went to a great dinner in Dana point this summer.
Fisherman statue – picked this up at a thrift store I think. He spoke to me.
Red radish – when I declared I was decorating my kitchen in red a few years ago, my mother went all out in finding me everything in red, even down to the smallest red radish figurine.

I like to think that all of these odd little creatures help me out when I’m in the kitchen and (hopefully) not burning anything along the way.

What do your kitchen gods look like?

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Sometimes you just need a cupcake. Or rather, when you’re boyfriend is working until 2 am one night, he needs a cupcake.

Share this:

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