OLIVE IT

Save the date for an evening of art and artisan olive oil celebrating the major American painter, Morris Graves.

Next Saturday night, March 20th, from 4pm until 7pm, McEvoy Ranch is sponsoring an opening reception for the upcoming show, The Visionary Art of Morris Graves, at San Francisco’s Meridian Gallery. Inspired by Graves’ mystical view of nature, we’ll be providing seasonal hors d’oeuvres from our biodynamic gardens in Petaluma.

Morris Graves (1910 - 2001) was a largely self-taught artist closely associated with the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. His paintings, often small works on paper, were among the earliest to synthesize Eastern aesthetics and philosophy with the American Transcendental tradition. In his own words, Graves was working “to evolve a changing language of symbols, a language with which to remark upon the qualities of our mysterious capacities which direct us toward ultimate reality.”

The Visionary Art of Morris Graves will be on exhibit from March 20th until May 20th, 2010 and several of Graves’ works will be available for purchase.

We look forward to seeing you at the reception.

Meridian Gallery 535 Powell Street, San Francisco; 415 398 7229.

Here’s a spring time refresher we’ll be making in our Ferry Building shop tomorrow.

Since Meyer lemons are naturally sweet, this recipe uses half the sugar of a traditional lemonade and highlights the complexity of these juicy little hybrids. We’re dressing our version up with some fragrant spearmint from our gardens, but it could just as easily go without.

Enjoy!

MEYER LEMONADE with SPEARMINT

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup water

1 cup Meyer lemon juice (about 5-7 lemons*)

3-4 cups cold water to dilute

1 bunch fresh spearmint

1 Meyer lemon*, thinly sliced for garnish

ice

METHOD

1. Make a simple syrup by heating the sugar and water in a small saucepan until the sugar is dissolved completely. While the sugar is dissolving, use a juicer to extract the juice from 5-7 lemons, enough for 1 cup of juice.
2. Using a very sharp knife to avoid bruising, thinly slice half of the spearmint and reserve the other half for garnish.
3. Pour the juice and the simple syrup into a pitcher and add 3 to 4 cups of cold water, depending on your desired strength.
4. Add the spearmint, stir until combined and refrigerate 30 to 40 minutes. If the lemonade is a little sweet for your taste, add a little more straight Meyer lemon juice.
5. Serve lemonade over ice with a thin slice of lemon and sprig of spearmint.

*We’re selling organic Meyer lemons from the ranch in our Ferry Building shop for $3/lb.

-MEYER LEMONS

-RED BORE & RED RUSSIAN KALE

-CHARD

-RED MUSTARD

-RED RIB DANDELION GREENS

-WILD ARUGULA

-SORREL

-ESCAROLE

-ASSORTED LETTUCES

-ASSORTED BEET BUNCHES

- HERB BUNCHES

-EDIBLE FLOWER BUNCHES

-BABY GREENS (beets, spinach, red russian kale, kyona mizuna, & tuscan dino kale)

-NARCISSUS & TULIP BUNCHES

-POTTED AMARYLLIS, NARCISSUS, & TULIPS

ENJOY!

At McEvoy Ranch, we’re olive growers first, but we’re also gardeners, naturalists and culinary artists, just to name a few. And beyond our frantoio mill and acres of Tuscan olive trees, there are terraces of organic greens, fields of lavender, newly planted grape vines, chickens, baby doll sheep, honey bees, a few jack rabbits and a striking new windmill.

This year we want to share more of that with you.

We’re sprucing up our tour offerings with some exciting new additions for 2010, all geared toward giving you all a fuller picture of who we are and what we do at our 550-acre ranch. We hope to have the full line-up of spring offerings on our site very soon, so check back often and sign up early.

Until then, here are some highlights to keep on your radar…

• Spring Bloomers with our head gardener, Margaret Koski-Kent
• Bird Watching at the Ranch
• Tree Propagation with orchard manager, Samantha Dorsey
• Father’s Day weekend hike
• Cooking demo with our head chef, Gerald Gass

See you soon!

Visit us in the shop after noon today for first dibs on this gorgeous selection of produce and fresh flowers…

-rosemary, bay & oregano herb bunches

-rosemary

-Italian parsley

-cilantro

-Red Bore kale

-spinach

-black summer bok choy

-red mustard

-chard

-”Eros” escarole

-Red Rib dandelion greens

-baby Kyona Mizuna

-Meyer lemons

-baby spinach

-baby beets

-baby Red Russian kale

-micro Pacific cress mustard

-assorted tulips + daffodils

-potted oregano, sweet marjoram, forest green parsley

-potted snow parrot tulips, analita tulips, clasiana lady tulips

Enjoy!

There are plenty of cookbook authors, culinary tour leaders, cooking class instructors and tv chefs that I admire, but few who can do all of those things and develop recipes for food magazines in off seasons when ingredients and inspiration are so hard to come by.

On second thought, I can only think of one person, and she doesn’t just do it all….she does it all really well. Her name is Joanne Weir.

I was just reminded of all her incredible skills and fresh ideas when her e-newsletter popped into my inbox the other day. Here is one of the recipes she features that sounds perfect for a chilly March night…

Enjoy!

RISOTTO WITH ZINFANDEL & RADICCHIO  from Joanne Weir

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 small yellow onion, diced
2 1/2 cups Rich Homemade Chicken Stock
2 cups Zinfandel wine
2 cups Italian vialone nano rice (or arborio)
2 tablespoons butter
Freshly grated nutmeg
1 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano
1 small head radicchio, halved, cut into thin strips
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat the olive oil in a large heavy pot over medium heat.  Add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft, 10 minutes.

In the meantime over low heat, in a saucepan on the back burner of the stove, bring the chicken stock and 1 1/2 cups water to just below a simmer.   In another saucepan, warm the red wine just below a simmer.

Increase the heat to medium, add the rice to the onions and stir until the rice is very hot, just begins to stick to the bottom of the pan, and the rice is completely coated with oil, 2 to 3 minutes.   Add two ladlefuls of hot red wine and stir constantly until the wine is almost absorbed.  Add a ladleful of chicken stock and stir steadily to keep the rice from sticking.  Continue to add the chicken stock a little at a time, stirring until the chicken stock is gone.  Then continue with the hot red wine.  Continue to add the red wine until the rice is at the chalky stage, 18 to 22 minutes.  Continue to add wine and stir for an additional 2 minutes, until it is just beyond the chalky stage.  If you run out of red wine, use hot water.

Remove the pan from the heat, add another ladleful of red wine, butter, nutmeg to taste, half of the Parmigiano Reggiano, radicchio and salt and pepper.  Stir quickly, cover and let sit covered off the heat for 5 minutes.

After 5 minutes, stir the risotto.  Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve immediately with more Parmigiano.

Serves 8

TO DRINK: Zinfandel or Shiraz

-MEYER LEMONS

-RED BORE & TUSCAN DINO KALE

-CHARD

-RED RIB DANDELION GREENS

-MINERS LETTUCE

-BABY KYONA MIZUNA BUNCHES

-MIXED HERB BUNCHES (Oregano, Rosemary, & Bay)

-CILANTRO, ROSEMARY,  THYME, & PARSLEY BUNCHES

-BABY SPINACH & BABY BEETS 

-MICROGREENS (Sango Radish & Persian Cress)

-DAFFODIL & TULIP BUNCHES

-POTTED AMARYLLIS, PANSIES, VIOLAS, & SWEET MARJORAM

ENJOY!

-MEYER LEMONS

-CARDOON

-RED BORE, RED RUSSIAN, & TUSCAN DINO KALE

-CHARD

-SORREL

-RED MUSTARD

-RED RIB DANDELION GREENS

-MINERS LETTUCE

-RADISHES

-KOHLRABI

-BROCCOLI

-VERONICA

-CAULIFLOWER

-MIXED HERB BUNCHES (Oregano, Rosemary, & Bay)

-CILANTRO, ROSEMARY,  THYME, & PARSLEY BUNCHES

-BABY SPINACH

-MICROGREENS

-POTTED TULIPS & CROCUSES

ENJOY!

Heart disease is the number one cause of death among of women, but it doesn’t have to be.

Simple lifestyle factors including exercise, staying positive, lowering stress and eating a healthier diet can make all the difference for you and your loved ones. And part of a healthy diet is, of course, olive oil.

In addition to its anti-oxidant properties, extra virgin olive oil is a monounsaturated fat. Therefore it offers protection against heart disease by controlling or lowering LDL (”bad”) cholesterol, while raising HDL (good) cholesterol levels when it’s used in place of saturated fats and trans fats. In fact, studies show that consuming 2 tablespoons of olive oil per day may reduce the risk of heart disease.

In support of the American Heart Association’s “Heart Health Month” and “GO RED FOR WOMEN” campaign, our head chef at the ranch, Gerald Gass, will be at We Olive’s new retail location in San Francisco this Saturday afternoon showing customers how to make heart-healthy dishes featuring our extra virgin olive oil and ranch produce.

Gerald will be doing a demo at 2pm and again at 3pm, serving steamed mussels over a salad of ranch arugula with a lemon vinaigrette. Stop in for a taste and take home some heart-healthy inspiration for dinner….and perhaps a fresh bottle of extra virgin olive oil.*

See you Saturday.

*As part of the “GO RED FOR WOMEN” campaign, We Olive is donating 10% of sales from February 5th to February 28th to the American Heart Association.

Forget the chocolate.

Nothing says “I love you” like ice cream and cookies.

Special ice cream and cookies, we mean….

Tomorrow night the Ferry Building’s 7th annual “Food from the Heart” event kicks off with a Valentine’s celebration to benefit Slow Food San Francisco. From 5pm until 8pm, stroll the candlelit nave with your valentine and taste over thirty Napa Valley wines, along with special bites from each of the merchants ranging from $2 to $6 per taste.

We’re teaming up with our friends from Far West Fungi and Humphry Slocombe for a Valentine’s duo you won’t forget.

Come by our shop for a scoop of Far West’s Candycap mushroom ice cream, with its rich notes of maple syrup and butterscotch, plus a scoop of our citrusy olive oil ice cream, topped with one of Gerald’s famous Olio Nuovo and Lemon cookies for $4.

Trust us on this and you’ll fall in love….true foodie love.

See you tomorrow night.