.fontSize1 { font-size:.85em; } .fontSize2 { font-size:1em; } .fontSize3 { font-size:1.25em; }.fontSize4 { font-size:1.6em; } .fontSize5 { font-size:2em; } .fontSize6 { font-size:2.5em; }.fontSize7 { font-size:3em; } Update for Saturday February 25th All of the farm stands and other vendors will be open at the market.   Here is a summary of what will be available: J. L. Kennedy Meat Stand- As always, locally grown meat from the Kennedy's.  I got a late update that they will also have HICKORY SMOKED DOG BONES-aAt $3 each...from local certified beef cattle!!! Kistaco Farm continues to have locally raised apples.  Apple varieties this week include Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Jonagold, Rome, Empire Cameo and Idared.  Fresh pressed cider will also be available.  On the veggie side, snow peas, brussels sprouts, broccoli, zucchini, tomatoes, spinach and leaf lettuce. Zang's will have many fresh fruits and vegetables.  Special items for this week include popcorn sprouts, micro arugala (both local), mini cukes, and asparagus. A summary of fruits and vegetables available throughout the market from Zang's, Greenawalt and Kistaco stands is summarized below.  If you are interested in locally grown, please feel free to ask the farmers which items are local. Veggies Potatoes (still locally grown at Greenawalt's) Mushrooms Squash Brussels sprouts Cabbage Celery Cucumbers Carrots and other root vegetables Onions Cauliflower Tomatoes Shallots Peppers- sweet and hot Garlic Lettuce Spinach Green beans Turnips (locally grown at Greenawalts) Broccoli Fruit Apples Bananas Pears Florida Citrus such as lemons, oranges and tangerines Grapes Other fruit such as berries Other vendors in the market will also be open.  These includes many locally made offerings such as hummus from the Greek Gourmet, fresh baked items from Rebecca Plum, and fresh made donuts from Better-Made Donuts.  Also, pasta from Fontana Pasta, and bread from Wood Street Bakery.  Local eggs as well as many Amish made prepared items are available at Greenawalts.  Kistaco sells dried soup mixes which are easy to make and great during the cold weather months. Kew Park Coffee BarLast week David D'Orio from 19 Coffee Roasters visited the market and brought along the Kew Park beans that he test roasted for us.  David did a medium roast and a dark/medium roast.  I thought both roasts were excellent.  We will be brewing them again this Saturday so please stop by and let us know what you think.   PA Made Cheese We have a fresh batch of goat milk chevre and feta from Riverview Dairy.  Sam Byler says this batch is "extra creamy."  We also have fresh curds from Arsenal Cheese.  Finally, we got a shipment of Blue Cheese from Common Folk Organics. California Olive Oil Connection As I mentioned in last weeks update, I was in California, and visited Figueroa Farm in Sant Ynez.  I wrote up my notes from the visit and have attached them below, as well as uploaded the file to the web site.  Give them a read if you are interested.  I will bring the pictures of the farm to the market again this Saturday. http://www.farmersmarketcooperativeofeastliberty.com/files Raisins and Almonds The raisins and almonds from Marian Farms in Fresno are in.  They are grown using biodynamic methods which is an even more intensive method than organic.  The almonds were just harvested a few weeks, flash pasturized and sent to us.  They are as fresh as it gets. Since the almonds are raw (unroasted) they can be used to make things like fresh almond milk.  We will be serviing fresh made almond milk at the juice bar. We will also have a recipe and demonstrate how to make it. To learn more about Marian Farms and biodynamic agriculture, please click on the link. http://www.marianfarmsbiodynamic.com/ **********************************************************************************************Thanks again for your support! David *********************************************************Figueroa Farm Visit- Santa Ynes, California February, 13 2012 I have been buying Olive Oil from Figueroa Farm since I started selling Olive Oil at the market a year ago.  Shawn and Antoinette Addison, who are pioneers in the California Olive Oil industry, own the farm. To get to the farm, I Traveled from LA on 101 to Santa Barbara.  At Santa Barbara, I then headed up Route 154 up in the Canyon towards Santa Ynez, California. There was dramatic scenery from Santa Barbara on, as you travel up the San Marcos Pass, you enter the Los Padres National Forest.  The highlight is when you pass through the Lake Cachuma region. I had to get top-secret directions for the final leg.  Most of the property in the area is medium size farms and most are fenced in, with lots of security gates.  I go the sense that the gates are both to control the movement of people and animals.  The farms varied, but most had horses, followed by grapes for wine and then olive orchards. Upon entering the Figueroa Farm, the scenery is very dramatic as the farm is situated at the base of Figueroa Mountain just as it starts to slope up. I met with the staff members Jose, Bianca, and John.  Jose manages the farm and the oil press, Bianca works in the office, and John manages the oil.  Owners Shawn and Antoinette were on vacation.  This is the slowest time of year for an olive farmer and operator of a press.  The pressing season has just ended and it is a very intense and exhausting process. One of the reasons why I wanted to visit Figueroa, is because they own and operate an olive press (or mill as its called in the industry) that serves their farm as well as many others in the community.  The press is a Pieralisi from Italy- the best press in the world by my understanding.  It is a very expensive and complex piece of equipment.  Any one who owns and operates an olive press is an impressive and committed individual indeed! Jose took me for a tour of the mill operation and the olive farm.  The farm is about 20 acres with 5,800 trees.  The trees were planted about 10 years ago.  They are now about 8 feet high.  They are very healthy looking.  They are meticulously cared for.  The biggest need is pruning, and some irrigation.  The orchard generally needs to be kept very clean to prevent insects and diseases from taking hold.  So all prunings must be removed, and weeds are wacked down with a weed wacker.  No chemicals are used as they run the farm organically.  The irrigation uses a very efficient drip system. There are 7 varieties of olives on the farm, and they are all harvested at different times.  Shawn makes the final call on when a particular variety is ready to harvest and mill.  Timing is everything in choosing just the right time to harvest.  The mill must be ready, as the olives need to be processed very rapidly.  At the peak of harvest, the mill can be running 16 hours a day. Harvest requires a crew of about 30 to 40 people to pick the fruit.  It’s a very intense and nerve wracking time since the folks at Figueroa need to worry about their own harvest and the scheduling of milling for other farmers. In addition to running the farm organically, they employ a number of sustainable practices.  They have a well on the property to run the irrigation system.  They dug a hole and installed a 30,000 gallon cistern at the highest elevation point on the farm.  Then they run plastic tubing on the ground so the water directly penetrates the roots.  Once the water is in the cistern, it disperses by gravity, without the help of pumps.  They also have solar panels to generate electricity.  They use the pumice byproduct from oil making as a fertilizer and weed control on the orchard. The farm was very beautiful.  It is situated a slope of Figueroa Mountain, but also across from a very large and high mountain range on the other side.  The houses and buildings on the property were very attractive, as were the buildings on other nearby farms.  It has a bit of a Tuscany look and feel. I also toured the milling operation.  It is a very large machine with several distinct components to it.  It is kind of like a small assembly line as it starts with raw olives and at the other end, pure olive oil, and a pumice waste product, come out.  It takes about 1 hour for the entire process, start to finish.  Jose seemed very proud showing me the machine and talking about how it works.  Of course it would be better to visit during the milling season to see it in action.  Milling usually occurs in December and January, but some years goes on a little longer. Well the bad news is, and I heard this from everyone I met, is that the 201112 harvest was terrible in terms of the yield.  I heard different theories, most weather related, but apparently olive yields can vary dramatically from year to year based on factors that are not well understood.  But everyone felt that 201213 was going to be a bumper crop. The good news is (and this was a surprise to me), low yields do not mean that the quality of the oil is poor.  To the contrary, Jose thinks they pressed some excellent oil this season.  I could not get anyone to give me a reason as to why 2012 would be a good, year, especially since there is not even fruit on the trees yet.  They won’t flower for another few months.  I guess it just comes from the optimism that you must need to stay in this business. I went to the mixing and storage room and John joined in to the conversation.  He manages the oils once they are pressed.  He was working on doing some blending and infusing some flavored oils.  John gave me 5 samples to take home and taste so I could prepare my order.  They all look beautiful in color, slightly cloudy due to their recent pressing. I can’t wait to get them home and taste them, but I certainly expect to be ordering some of each. David  ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Please visit the market's website for information on the market and all the vendors.  You can sign up for a weekly email update.  http://www.farmersmarketcooperativeofeastliberty.com/ ********************************************************* The Farmers' Market Cooperative of East Liberty is located at 344 North Sheridan Ave., adjacent to the Home Depot parking lot.  The market operates year round- and is open from 5 AM until 12 noon every Saturday of the year. ----------Farmers' Market Coop of East Liberty is responsible for the content of this email.David Lagnese, 344 North Sheridan Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15206Had Enough? No hard feelings. Unsubscribe now or copy and paste the following URL into your browser:http://www.farmersmarketcooperativeofeastliberty.com/mailinglist/remove/1c68...