Arch Street Persimmons #2

                                                                      November fruit          
                                                                  Glowing amber-orange
                                                                       Fading slowly

Fortunately the leaves were still vivid when I visited the Arch Street tree for the second time, because most of the persimmons were gone... picked or fallen in the wind. Perhaps the lucky owner made my favorite persimmon bread. The recipe calls for ripe hachiyas (not the crisp fuyu variety), and appears in Beard on Bread by James Beard, dating from 1973.                                                                

                                                                                                                    

                                                               Persimmon Bread

In his introduction to this recipe James Beard comments,"Persimmons grow in many countries of the world, but often, as in France, they are left hanging on the trees. In this country we have learned to appreciate their superb deep-orange color, their shape, and their delicious flavor... In earlier times they were allowed to ripen on the trees until dead ripe before being eaten raw or used for puddings, cookies, and breads. Nowadays they show up in our markets in a firm state and must be left at room temperature for several days or a week to ripen until they are almost mushy."
                           3 1/2 cups flour                         1 cup melted butter
                           1 teaspoon salt                          4 eggs, lightly beaten
                           2 teaspoons baking soda           2/3 cup Cognac or Bourbon 
                          1 teaspoon nutmeg                    2 cups coarsely chopped walnuts & raisins (optional)
                          2 cups granulated sugar          2 cups persimmon puree from about 4 medium, very
                                                                            ripe persimons—not necessary to peel                                                                    

Sift all five dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. Then make a well in the center and add the melted butter, eggs, Bourbon (I always use Bourbon instead of Cognac, which gives the bread a je ne sais quoi magical quality), persimmon puree, and if you like, the nuts and raisins. Mix the dough until it is quite smooth. Butter two 9X5X3" loaf pans, or four smaller molds, and bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees. Cool the loaves in the pans and turn out on a rack.
Note: Wrap in foil after cooling. They will keep nicely from 1 to 2 weeks


                     
                      

Crosses of Lafayette

On the way out to the beautiful suburb of Lafayette, just east of Berkeley in Contra Costa County, you pass a stunning sight—an extravagantly wide hillside covered with white, wooden crosses. This dramatic landscape (really an earthwork), serves as a memorial for U.S. troops killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.  Each cross represents a casualty, and a large, bold sign at the top of the hill denotes the number of soldiers killed from 2003 to the present. The memorial is clearly visible from both Highway 24 and from the BART train as it passes. A glimpse of the thousands of crosses is always a visceral reminder that the U.S. is still at war, and that every day real people are losing their lives. It always brings tears to my eyes.

Link to 2010 You Tube video of the sight 

The project was started in 2006 by Jeff Heaton, a local building contractor, on land owned by Louise Clark. The Mount Diablo and Lamorinda Peace and Justice Centers, and Grandparents for Peace, joined Mr. Heaton to support the project. Volunteers erected 300 crosses on Veterans Day 2006, and they continued to maintain the sight and add crosses until, at number 4,500, they ran out of space. They now simply post the number of casualties on the placard at the top of the hill. Originally, only service members killed in Iraq were represented, but when parents and friends of soldiers killed in Afghanistan asked that their loved ones also be included, 600 crosses were added. Mr. Heaton said that no one knows exactly how many crosses are currently on the hill. When I photographed the site the number read 6,667. This number represents only American casualties.

There have been some individuals who have objected to the memorial as anti-American and anti-military, and vandals have occasionally removed crosses and dismantled the sign that lists the numbers.  However, on the day I visited, many passing motorists honked their horns in solidarity.

Most crosses are white, but many are colored or decorated.

Mosaic cross designed by an unknown artist

View of Mt Diablo on the way to Lafayette

Majestic and peaceful, Mt. Diablo comes into view at the Hwy 24 gateway to the lovely town of Lafayette, named after Marquis de La Fayette, a French general who fought and encouraged France's participation in the American Revolution. The landscape is stunning and serene, but you soon pass the crosses of Lafayette and you are reminded that the war grinds on in the Middle-East. On this Veteran's Day 2012 the black number on the bright sign above the crosses reads 6,667.



    

President Barack Obama

Flavor of the day: Baracky Road

To support Obama's campaign, the geniuses at Humphrey Slocombe Ice Cream offered a creatively titled version of Rocky Road at the Ferry Plaza Market. Secret Breakfast is my absolute favorite, but on Nov.6 let's indulge in Baracky Road to propel Obama to victory!    Slocombe's great web site

Great bumper sticker photographed in North Berkeley BART parking lot

Pumpkins at Davis Ranch

Orange Kabochas at Davis Ranch 

It's always fun going to the Big Crush in Amador county (The Big Crush)  because, in addition to visiting our favorite wineries at harvest-time, we get to stop at Davis Ranch Produce stand, just East of Sacramento. This is the big daddy of all farm stands and because grapes are crushed in October, we also get to see the astounding number of pumpkins the ranch displays in preparation for their Halloween Harvest festival. Here are some of the unusual varieties.

We Be Little pumpkins above, and Hubbard and Fairy Tale below

                                                                                              

Gooseneck

 Big Mack and Long Island Creme

                                                                         

Knucklehead,  Delicata, Wolf and Goosenecks

Turban, Hubbard and One Too Many

Lunch Lady, Wolf and Long Island Creme

Summit and Super Herc

Description of Summit Pumpkin
Homozygous resistance to powdery mildew. Large dark orange fruit. Good ribbing. The standard for large fruited hybrids. Handles are impressive for size, dark color and durability.










Many of the same varieties we observed at Davis Ranch were artfully displayed at CUESA'S annual Sunday Night Supper event upstairs at the Ferry Building, catered by Paula Le Duc this October.

                                                                                                                                               Photo courtesy of Marissa Rodriguez

                Enough ogling: let's smash those bad boys and eat  PUMPKIN BREAD!

Jenny's pumpkin bread with chocolate chips

This excellent pumpkin bread is a specialty of my friend Jenny Offenbach. It was her mother's recipe and she generously bakes it and gives small loaves to her co-workers at holiday time. The chocolate chips are optional, but I recommend the addition of some Scharffen Berger bittersweet baking chunks.

Mom's Pumpkin Bread                              
1/2 cup oil                                1 2/3 cups sifted flour
1 cup canned pumpkin              1 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs                                     1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/3 cup milk                             1 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 cup sugar                        1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350.
Combine oil, eggs, milk and pumpkin. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Gradually beat into wet mixture. Pour into greased loaf pans and bake
at 350 for 1 hour or until done. (Take out of oven before bread is fully cooked, so that a tooth pick
has some mixture on it when inserted.

Servings: 2 medium loaves

Persimmons

                                                                     Thousand Lanterns
                                                                      on a single tree
                                                                      breathless moment

                                                                                                 Fragment of haiku by Fujieda Teruo
                                                                                                 photo taken on Arch Street after first rain
                                                                  
                    

                                                                                                  

Personality Plus-The Richmond Farmers' Market

Each farmers' market has its own personality. In the Bay Area, San Francisco Ferry Plaza market draws a chic San Francisco crowd on Saturday mornings, restaurateurs of all kinds, foodies searching for top-quality organic goodies, and lots of tourists. It's a destination, recommended in all the guidebooks. The Berkeley markets attract the organic, sustainable crowd, and are quite political. They are also full of joyful foodies and restaurateurs, many of whom attend three or four different markets per week. The Richmond market, not far from Berkeley, is more ethnically diverse, catering to a less wealthy crowd consisting of Hispanics, Pakistanis, Asians and others who prefer affordable over organic produce. This market, adjacent to Richmond's City Hall, is a fascinating world unto itself; I marveled at the photo-ops that came my way one Friday morning.  Many of the farmers, who come from  the Central Valley, three hours away, provide a colorful pastiche of fruits and vegetables often unique to this area. The bargain prices are definitely unique!

Colorful fish mosaic on Richmond's City Hall

Red bells 3 for a dollar

Green bell peppers, same price

              

A melange of Asian greens

A mother and son at the flea market next door

Huge watermelons for $2.00 

Purple hull peas 

Cranberry beans, only $1.50 per pound

I filled a big bag with cranberry beans (which I had just seen priced around $4.50 per pound in nearby markets), and rushed home to shell them and make a  delicious succotash. Succotash, a great early fall dish, is actually the anglicized version of "msickquatash," meaning "an ear of corn" in the extinct Algonquin language of the Narragansetts. Recently my dish has changed from the childhood memory of canned or frozen corn and limas into a seductive combination of fresh cranberry beans, corn, bacon, red peppers and anything else I might have picked up at the market. Dressed with a garlicky vinaigrette and served still slightly warm, it is the perfect market day lunch or dinner,

Beautiful fresh, shelled cranberry beans—the tender early stage of dried beans

Here is the modest link to the to the Friday Richmond Market  Richmond Farmers' Market

FEATURED BOOK:    LOCAL FLAVORS, COOKING AND EATING FROM AMERICA'S FARMERS' MARKETS  by DEBORAH MADISON

     I first discovered Deborah Madison when she founded and cooked at Green's Restaurant in San Francisco's Marina district. I went often in the early days to sample her vegetarian pastas and drink in the exquisite view of the Golden Gate Bridge from the dining room. When The Greens Cookbook came out, it was a hit at my cookbook shop, and we all prepared the fabulous Zuni stew, spring vegetable ragout, Brazilian chocolate cake and other favorites from the restaurant. Even though she moved to Santa Fe, her books kept coming to us. Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone is my bible. I use it often as a reliable reference and as inspiration for new recipes. As I was writing about Bay Area markets, I spotted Local Flavors, Cooking and Eating from America's Farmers' Markets on my bookshelf and scanned it once again. As usual Ms Madison does a thorough job of traveling to markets all over the country, commenting, interviewing farmers, gathering recipes and providing stunning photos.  She is my idol.