Gigantic Tomato

This is by far my favorite time of year to go to the farmers market, it’s truly amazing. (If you’re interested in joining me next week, there are still a few slots left in my two market tours, 8am and 10am).

More than any other time of year the market is overflowing with life and bounty. The fruits are sweet, juicy and abundant, making it hard to decide which delicate morsels to cradle into my bag and try to get home undamaged.

O'Henry Peaches

Sea of Strawberries

We’re finally entering late summer, which means all the best summer tomatoes are finally here. The dry farmed early girls are my favorite, because they’re easiest to get home and amazingly sweet and rich in flavor.

Early Girl Tomatoes

But today I was also blown away by these giant heirloom tomatoes. They were as big as pumpkins!

Heirloom Tomatoes

While we’ve had sweet peppers for several weeks now, the spicy chilies are just starting to appear. I got some jalepenos, but I’m excited to see Thai chilies are available as well.

Thai Chilies

Eggplants, my gateway vegetable, are also a late summer delicacy. As a former eggplant hater, I find that the long thin plants are easier to work with and often taste better than their rounder cousins. The light purple color of these were particularly striking this week.

Eggplant

Late summer is also the time for corn, which not coincidently pairs exceptionally well with all the above vegetables. I love it raw off the cob or pan cooked quickly with summer squash and peppers. But I’m going to experiment with some new techniques using the ones I bought today.

Corn

Summer Squash

Of course cooking is more fun with the abundance of summer herbs. This time of year I always have cilantro, dill and basil on hand.

Fresh Dill and Cilantro

If you love basil, look around your farmers market for vendors that sell it with the roots attached. You can bring it home and put it into a vase with water. I’m still using one I bought several weeks ago with one of my market classes. Just be sure to change the water 1-2x per week, and that the plant has access to light. I tried keeping some in my kitchen but it always wilted in one day if I didn’t move it near a window.

Rooted Basil

This is also my favorite time of year for salads. I make a big one most days for lunch, and the huge variety of greens like spinach and radicchio help mix it up and allow me to make something that tastes different every day. I love how the bloomsdale spinach is so deeply colored that it almost looks blue.

Radicchio

Bloomsdale Spinach

Fresh legumes including peas, green beans and shelling beans are staples in my kitchen this time of year as well.

Cranberry Shelling Beans

Though I don’t talk about it much, melons (particularly the heirloom varieties I often find at the market) are a completely different experience when I get them directly from farmers. The rich complexity of the smell alone is intoxicating, and the flavor is nothing like the typical honeydew, cantaloupe and watermelon I’ve had from the grocery store.

Watermelon

Lastly, the grapes are finally here. They’re particularly sweet and crisp this year, which is how I love them.

Red Flame Grapes

Today’s purchases (~$55):

• Dry farmed early girl tomatoes (Dirty Girl Produce)
• Green cippolini onions (Dirty Girl Produce)
• Tokyo turnips (Dirty Girl Produce)
• Heirloom tomatoes (The Peach Farm)
• Summer squash (Lucero Organic Farms)
• Eggplant (Lucero Organic Farms)
• Corn (Catalan Family Farm)
• Shelling peas (Iacopi Farm)
• Radicchio (Green Gulch Farm)
• Collards (Green Gulch Farm)
• Padron peppers (Happy Quail Farms)
• Sweet peppers (Happy Quail Farms)
• Jalepenos (Happy Quail Farms)
• Goat spare ribs (Marin Sun Farms)
• Ribeye (Marin Sun Farms)
• Eggs (Marin Sun Farms)

What did you find this week at the farmers market?

For The Love of Food

Welcome to Friday’s For The Love of Food, Summer Tomato’s weekly link roundup.

I’m sad I had to leave so many great stories out this week. Below you can find an awesome explanation of why you should be chewing more, the sad truth about the most popular brands of bottled coconut water and a great hack for getting the most satisfaction out of your healthy meals.

Want to see all my favorite links? Be sure to follow me on on Digg. I also share links on Twitter (@summertomato) and the Summer Tomato Facebook fan page. I’m very active on all these sites and would love to connect with you.

Links of the week

• How Chewing Affects Nutrition <<Want to lose weight and fart less? Start chewing your food more. (Nutrition Diva)
• Coconut Water Is Just Sugary Water <<That is, the bottled stuff. If you want all the health benefits (not to mention WAY better taste) try a real coconut. I’ve seen them at most grocery stores. (Gawker)
• Antioxidant Spices, Like Turmeric and Cinnamon, Reduce Negative Effects of High-Fat Meal <<BS of the week. Someone please tell me how “chicken curry, Italian herb bread and a cinnamon biscuit” is a “high-fat” meal and not a “high-carb”  meal. Cheers to the spices though. (ScienceDaily)
• The French Are Getting Fatter, Too <<My favorite line from this piece, “Dr. Jean Marc Catheline, an obesity specialist, says the French obsession with food is exactly what has protected them against obesity.” (NPR)
• Did you hear the one about kids who eat candy being thinner? <<I was skeptical about this study too. Thanks to Yoni for debunking the debunking. (Weighty Matters)
• Feel Full Faster by Pretending the Food You’re Eating Is Indulgent <<This goes to show how much your own perception can influence what and how much you eat. This is why it’s so important to find healthy foods that you love. (Lifehacker)
• Baby’s Palate And Food Memories Shaped Before Birth <<Really cool experiment demonstrating that a mom’s food choices during pregnancy influence baby’s preferences. (NPR)
• Not your grandma’s strawberries <<Depressing data that our lovely industrial fruits and vegetables aren’t as healthy as they used to be. (Grist)
• Organic Poultry Farms Have Fewer Drug-Resistant Bacteria, Study Finds <<This isn’t too surprising, but the magnitude of the differences is remarkable. (NPR)
• Grilled Swordfish Bruschetta with Thai Basil Cherry Tomato Salad – The End of a Great Recipe <<This video recipe looks awesome and easy. Yes, swordfish has more mercury than most fish, but if you aren’t pregnant or a young child you can eat it safely every now and then. (Food Wishes)

What inspired you this week?

Join us today at noon PST as we discuss the latest food news stories as well as my recent appearance on the evil and amazing show Epic Meal Time (yes, I ate the food).

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I encourage you to call in with video questions, particularly if your question is nuanced and may involve a back and forth discussion. Please use headphones to call in however, or the feedback from the show is unbearable.

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Red Flame Grapes

Today’s guest post is by Jyoti Mishra Ramanathan, a fellow UCSF neuroscientist who studies attention and distraction in the human mind. In her article Jyoti reveals how attention impacts our experience of food and how we can harness this power to help us eat less without feeling deprived.

Learning to be a mindful eater will permanently change your relationship with food and is essential for upgrading your healthstyle.

Mindful Eating and Portion Control

by Jyoti Mishra Ramanathan

I grew up in India where life revolves around food. One wakes up to plan breakfast and as soon as that is over plans lunch, then immediately prepares for a typical 3-4 course dinner. When I visit aunts or my grandma, I’m barraged with food at every moment: eat this, eat that! Oh! You aren’t eating enough! Oh! Do you not like my dishes?

If you don’t accept all or any food that comes your way, it is seen as a sign of disrespect. And if this isn’t enough to make you over-eat, remember too that food is sacred in India. How could one waste the grains on one’s plate when there are millions around us suffering from hunger? Consequently, I grew up believing it is normal to forever be bursting at my seams–to eat to the point where taking another bite might even make me sick.

But a few years ago my eating habits changed.

I was at a meditation workshop and one evening we were told we’d be given one grape for dinner. This sounded impossible. However, I obediently sat cross-legged with the other attendees and was handed my single juicy purple grape.

As I popped it in my mouth, I was told to shut my eyes and sense the grape in its totality: I rolled my tongue around it becoming aware of the soft and smooth exterior of the tiny fruit, I imagined its rich purple color, and then as I slowly bit into it, I savored every trickle of juice that I could extract from the grape.

The process took me a full five minutes and never in my life have I remembered eating such a delicious grape, although it was from no extraordinary vine. Miraculously, I felt full as well.

Try the grape exercise. I do not promise the satisfaction of a full meal, but it is a beautiful exemplar of mindful eating that consequently taught me portion control.

4 Simple mindful eating tips

1. Never eat distracted, i.e. while watching TV or running to catch the bus. Observe the deliciousness on the plate, the colors, textures, flavors and smells, savoring each bite. As the meal makes its way to the stomach, start to notice the fullness in your tummy. I found that there is an initial satiation simply from this sensory overload of observant eating.

One could stop here, but this is not enough nourishment and hunger tugs again relatively soon. But as you slowly chew on your food and enjoy each bite, you experience a real fullness that completely satisfies your hunger. This sensation precedes the contentment of the taste buds, which may still desire a few extra bites of that rich chocolate cake. But as I learned to identify the hunger satiety point at each meal, I found I could also control the desires of my taste buds.

2. Do not visit a restaurant starving. It is harder to control how much you eat when faced with novel delicacies at a restaurant, especially when you get there on an empty stomach. My best defense against this is to eat a small snack right before. My favorite is a quick salad.

At home I always keep miscellaneous salad ingredients on hand: mixed greens, cheese, raisins, walnuts, candied almonds, grains like quinoa, blueberries, avocado, sundried or cherry tomatoes, baby carrots, figs, grilled chicken strips, smoked salmon, etc. Mix-and-match any of these in varying proportions and add some homemade dressing. Each time you will have a novel salad that never gets boring. After a light snack it is much easier to have restraint while ordering and eating, keeping both waistline and budget in check.

3. Share a meal. My husband and I more often than not share an appetizer, entrée and dessert at a restaurant. This is not because we can’t afford more. We simply enjoy sharing–describing the new tastes to each other, immersing ourselves in the experience and appreciating new food. In these happy moments satiety emerges effortlessly.

Try this even when out with a group of friends: order for 3 with a group of 4 and share. If there is still food left over and there are no pets or family at home, I offer my extras to the homeless. I just gave away a carrot cake a couple of nights ago and the delight in those eyes was like someone who had just found a treasure!

4. Don’t aim for 100% full. Hara Hachi Bu is Japanese for eating until 80% full. Okinawan islanders practice this and are known to be one of the longest living people on the planet. Their longevity is attributed to this moderate calorie restriction in combination with consuming plenty of fruits and vegetables, which protect against free radicals that damage your body’s cells.

Conclusion

In summary, there are many benefits to portion control: feeling better right after a meal, long-term health, weight management, saving cash by eating less and perhaps even living longer.

Practice mindful eating to make portion control a reality for you.

How do you control your portion sizes?

Originally published September 2, 2009.

Purple Basil, Arugula and Garlic

Halona Black is a personal food shopping consultant, teaches raw and vegan cooking classes, and is building a personal chef business. To learn more you can subscribe to her blog, Garlic & Lemons, follow her on Twitter, or email at garlicandlemons@gmail.com

Farmers Market Update: Takoma Park

by Halona Black

What I love most about living in DC is being so close to small towns. Many people who have not visited DC do not realize that Maryland and Virginia are a quick train or bus ride away. So when I grow tired of looking at backyard alleyways lined with garbage cans, one of the places I head to is the Takoma Park Farmers Market.

Takoma Park Farmers Market

The Takoma Park Farmers Market is a year-round market that has been serving local residents every Sunday since 1982. It is located smack dab in the center of town on Carroll Avenue, Takoma Park’s own mini “main street.”

Cherry Tomatoes

Most main streets in America are closed on Sundays, but here the shops stay open during the market to take advantage of the traffic. So after picking produce, you can go antiquing, peruse a bead shop, or visit Middle Eastern Cuisine for a delicious brunch for under $10.

Garlic Scapes

What I like most about this market is their commitment to selling local produce. The sellers grow their food within a 125 mile radius of Takoma Park.

Summer Squash

I have been to a few other area farmer’s markets and have seen produce with the PLU code sticker on it. I’m not a farmer, but if the produce was picked and packaged for travel to the market within the last 24 hours, who has time for putting on stickers?

Halona Melons

On my last trip I was able to find a few goodies. Eager to utilize my new raw food skills I had learned in a recent class with raw food expert, Aris Latham, I was looking for a few fresh ingredients to use in a recipe.

Here are a few of the jewels I found:

1. arugula
2. purple basil
3. garlic
4. red early girl tomatoes (Blue Ridge Botanicals)
5. garlic scapes
6. savoy cabbage (Waterpenny Farm)
7. Halona melon (I’m excited about finding a melon that shares my name…) (Blue Ridge Botanicals)
8. cherry tomatoes
9. zucchini
10. hibiscus (Blue Ridge Botanicals)

I used some of these beautiful red early girl tomatoes and garlic to make a delicious, raw spaghetti.

Summer Tomatoes

Here’s the recipe:

Raw Spicy Spaghetti For Two

Ingredients:

• 1 package kelp noodles
• 1 fresh tomato
• 5 to 6 sundried tomatoes soaked in water (just enough to cover)
• 7 to 8 dried apricots
• 2 cloves of garlic
• season salt to taste
• cilantro leaves to taste
• cayenne pepper to taste

Remove kelp noodles from the package.  Soak in room temperature water for 5 minutes. Drain and put in a bowl. Put all the ingredients except the cilantro in a blender and mix until smooth. Add more fresh tomato if it’s too thick, more dried tomato if too thin.

Adjust seasoning according to your taste. Mix the sauce with noodles and add fresh cilantro leaves. Let it marinate for 5 to 10 minutes and enjoy.

For The Love of Food

Welcome to Friday’s For The Love of Food, Summer Tomato’s weekly link roundup.

Many must-read articles this week, including the juice on processed OJ, the truth about factory farming and antibiotic resistance and the latest demolition of our favorite vegan propaganda book, The China Study.

Want to see all my favorite links? Be sure to follow me on on Digg. I also share links on Twitter (@summertomato) and the Summer Tomato Facebook fan page. I’m very active on all these sites and would love to connect with you.

Links of the week

• Dirty Little Secret: Orange Juice Is Artificially Flavored to Taste Like Oranges <<I discussed this last week on Google+ as well, and I’m still angry about it. (Gizmodo)
• What the USDA Doesn’t Want You to Know About Antibiotics and Factory Farms <<The threat of antibiotic resisistance is one of the biggest reasons I don’t buy (aka support) industrial farms. (Mother Jones)
• My Fit Foods: Losing Weight by Buying Food You Don’t Want to Eat <<BS of the week. This makes me sick, and I recommend the exact opposite approach to weight loss and health. Eat what you love, life is too short. (Dallas Observer)
• One Year Later: The China Study, Revisited and Re-Bashed <<I’m not a fan of The China Study, and what I like about this critique is that it points out dozens of peer-reviewed papers that show the exact opposite of the claims made in the book—most co-authored by Dr. Campbell himself. Makes me wonder how he justifies these contradictions to himself. (Raw Food SOS).
• Train your brain to crave healthy foods <<It seems I’m not the only one who craves salads. Interesting tips here. (CNN)
• All-you-can-eat America: Average weight gain for Britons holidaying in the USA is 8lb <<I guess if you live here you’re totally screwed. (Mail  Online)
• Can chewing more help you eat less? <<In my experience chewing is very effective for slowing down and eating less. Here’s some data. (Reuters)
• How Chocolate Can Help Your Workout <<I expected to be calling BS on this one but it’s actually pretty interesting. Worth a read. (New York Times)
• Some exercise is better than none for lowering heart disease risk <<The previous study shows this too, but every little bit helps. (Los Angeles Times)
• Summer Corn Salad Recipe <<Fresh corn is delicious, and this looks amazing. (101 Cookbooks)

What inspired you this week?