WFF NOT CHOSEN FOR MISSION MAIN ST. GRANT

I'm very sad to inform everyone that, despite the great efforts of our loyal customers to get us in the running, Weiser Family Farms was NOT chosen for one of Chase's Mission Main Street grants. Despite the disappointment of "losing", I am still glad for having gone through the process of qualifying. A little introspection, a little begging and pleading (okay, a lot of it), and a great amount of customer support made the contest a worthwhile exercise. THANK YOU TO EVERYONE! YOU GUYS ARE GREAT!

Congrats to the grant winners, selected from the over 35 thousand entries!

Don't Forget About Russian Bananas

The king of fingerling potatoes: the Russian Banana.  It is versatile, understated, creamy, and just all-around yummy.  It is the perfect gateway drug to other fingerling varieties because it is just so good that you want to try them all.  I personally think it is the best potato out there.  And honestly, we don't give it the respect it is due.  We have them practically all year long, which makes them readily available, but also sometimes overlooked.  In short, they are awesome.  So let's celebrate the Russain Banana this week and try the receipe below.

Pan Roasted Fingerling Potatoes with Crispy Bacon and Fried Sage*

Ingredients

1 pound fingerling (Russian banana) potatoes, each about 3 to 3 1/2 inches long
Salt and pepper
3 strips thick-cut smoked bacon, diced into 1/2-inch pieces
1 small onion, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/4 cup sage leaves

Directions
Place the potatoes in a saucepan and cover with water. Set over high heat and bring to a boil. Cook until the potatoes are tender, 8 to 10 minutes (depending on the size of the potatoes). Remove from the heat and cool under running cold water. Once cool enough to handle, place the potatoes on a cutting board and slice in half lengthwise, if desired. Season the potatoes with salt and pepper and set aside.

In a large, 12-inch saute pan, place the bacon over medium-heat. Render the bacon until crispy, about 7 to 8 minutes. After a couple minutes of cooking the bacon, add the onion. When bacon is crispy and onion is translucent, add the garlic and sage and cook for 1 minute. Increase the heat to medium-high and add the blanched, seasoned potatoes, cut side down, and cook until browned and crispy, about 3 minutes. Turn over and cook for an additional 2 1/2 minutes. Re-season, if necessary, and serve while hot.

recipe curtesy of Food Network

A Thanksgiving Message

There's a hustle and bustle going on about the Weiser household. Holiday decorations, stowed away for most of the year, are taken out of storage and placed about to transform our humble abode into an explosion of earth tones and symbols of bountiful harvests.  Soon, our extended family will gather together to celebrate all our good fortune over a traditional feast of turkey and fall crops.

 

It is good that we give thanks, to remind ourselves that none of us stand alone and that whether you pray to The Lord above or you put your faith in your fellow man, we are bound together and are all the better for it. 

There is a great debate raging between our National obsession with self sufficiency and the generous spirit that is seen to be part of our collective nature.  In my humble opinion, the balance has shifted to the former at the expense of the latter, at least in the political realm. In the face of mounting pressures to cut funding for programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), we would do well to consider those less fortunate than ourselves and recommit our efforts to lend them a hand. In doing so, we lift our own selves up and enrich our character.

 

So, today before partaking of our holiday meal, surrounded by those I love, I'll be thinking about how, in the year ahead, I can ease the burden of those having trouble finding their next meal.  As for Weiser Family Farms? We will continue our advocacy of a sustainable food policy and our food donation efforts to local food banks in the So. Cal region.

 

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all!

~ Farmer Dan 

Help! Vote for us to receive a Mission Main St Grant from Chase!

Fall is upon us.  The days are getting shorter and there is a definite chill in the air.  Though we still have crops to harvest, by circumstance and necessity, this is the time when we look back at what we've done to see what went right and what went wrong, what we should double down upon, and finally, what we can actually afford to do. As you can imagine, it's that last thing that trips you up, what you can actually afford to do.  

This year we have a secret weapon for all the high minded projects we would like to undertake. Enter, Chase's Mission Main Street Grant program. Chase is offering twelve $250 thousand grants and we're aiming to get ourselves one. We've already submitted our grant application which included 5 essay questions pertaining to our business; our mission, our challenges, and of course, what would we do with the money. Towards that last point, we are looking to upgrade our packing capabilities, upgrade our cultivation equipment, and pursue season extending opportunities where possible.

Now, we need to call upon you, our loyal customers and ask you to go to the Mission Main Street website and vote for us.  We need 250 of you to give us your vote so we can make it to the evaluation phase. By clicking here, you will be taken to our profile page where you'll be able to cast your vote. We hope you will take a few moments to get us over the hump.

Thanks so very much for your support.  See you at the market!

Community

A few weeks back, I attended an event sponsored by Slow Money Southern California, a great group of people dedicated to building an environment where sustainable businesses can thrive, particularly those associated with our besieged food supply. Looking at my notes from that evening, I noticed repeated references to one particular and powerful word, COMMUNITY.

In this era of social media, my take is that our sense of community is being severely strained. The public discourse has, by and large, taken an "us versus them" mentality. I find that attitude very troubling. I'm from the camp that believes no man is an island and that we all benefit from the combined effort of an engaged populous. Take last week's FIG Santa Monica Farm Dinner for example. Chef Ray Garcia's dinners are all about reinforcing our sense of community. The success of these dinners is predicated on his guest's desire to feel a connection to the land, to those whose efforts produced the ingredients, and to the culinary expertise it takes to ultimately produce the delicious dishes that are presented to them. Community efforts benefit everyone involved. In this case, Weiser Family Farms benefits from this process through the direct feedback we get from conversing with our customers, food preparers and end users alike. How better to know what they like and understand what they do with our harvest?

  

It's our good fortune to be a member of the larger "foodie" community. We are a close, connected, and caring community. Next month's Alex's Lemonade Farm Dinner at our Tehachapi farm illustrates this point wonderfully. You can't overlook the selfless contribution of everyone connected to the event, including some of the leading chefs in the south land. It is as staggering as it is fulfilling. Alex's Lemonade bespeaks community. You can almost see little Alex Scott's smiling face as she offers her neighbors a cup of lemonade, the sales proceeds earmarked for children, like herself, fighting childhood cancer. Alex proved that one person can spark a movement. We expect, on Saturday September 21 in Tehachapi, to prove that it takes a community to pick up the torch and carry on the cause. We hope you can be part of it.

 

Thank you for indulging me and for your support of our farm and this cause. ~Dan Weiser