Jakob's Bowl

A Long Lost Tater

When I first saw these gnarly little potatoes in the Boistfort Valley Farm booth at the Ballard Farmers’ Market last fall, I actually thought they were some variety of Jerusalem Artichoke. The sign indicated "Ozette potatoes," and even though I still wasn’t sure about them I bought some two weeks running. They were some of the starchiest potatoes I’ve ever tasted, giving russets a run for their money. They weren’t good for mashing, but they were great for oven roasting – I mainly quarter them lengthwise, toss them in olive oil salt and pepper, put them on a rack and roast at 450-degrees. I think they would also be great for French frying.

This year Nature’s Last Stand brought some early Ozettes to the market a few weeks back, and the farmer gave me the low down. Apparently, they are classified as "fingerlings" - although by whom I do not know - and that they were placed on the Slow Food Ark of Taste a few years back. I’ve been buying them from him every week now. They are so very tasty, with a bit more flavor than most starchy potatoes I’ve eaten. All potatoes originated in South America and were take to Europe by the Spanish explorers, and eventually brought to North America. The Ozette was never taken to Europe, but was brought to the Pacific Northwest directly by the Spanish Explorers. When they abandoned their northern-most outpost, the Makah Indian tribe continued to cultivate the potatoes they left behind, and had been doing so for over 200 years. They were catalogued/discovered by outsiders in the late 1980s. Small scale farming of these buried gems has been building here in the Pacific Northwest, mainly through the efforts of Slow Food. Ask you local potato farmers to investigate the Makah Ozette.

Garlic From The Casbah...Sort Of

Well after about three years in the making - planting actually - I've finally been able to taste some Moroccan Red Garlic, from the very last crop ever to be planted by Anselmo's Organic Farm. For the sake of all those concerned, I won't go into the genesis of this project; let's just say the results are delicious, well worth all of the trouble. Moroccan Red is a Softneck garlic variety - the only one I've tasted from Anselmo's. Most of the stuff you buy in the supermarket is softneck, since it is easier to grow and keeps longer, but not necessarily tastier. This Moroccan Red, however, is very tasty with a fiery heat when raw and a warm, mildly sweet garlic flavor when cooked. If you ever find it in your Farmers' Market, buy it.

Buyrony & The Biggest Locovore

The newest Seattle Whole Foods is just a couple of miles from my home, and ever since it opened, they have tried to stress how much they support local producers - and if you believe that one, I’ve got a bridge to sell you. The large parking lot out front has 18 tall light poles, and attached to each pole are two large banners (approx 4-feet by 15-inches each) with the word LOCAL in large letters and the name of a local producer next to it. As I drove to the Whole Foods yesterday, I noticed some a number of new signs placed along the curb as I approached the parking lot, and they all read: "Icelandic Lamb Is Here". I suppose it’s all just "blackwhite" to them.

Zebra & Tiger Galette Anyone?

I’ve long been on record about the decade-long infatuation over heirloom tomatoes – just because farmers can grow them, doesn’t mean they should grow them, especially if the soil and climate aren’t right to produce tasty tomatoes, or the farmer(s) aren’t prepared to wait until they’ve ripened to pick them. There is also the decade-long misunderstanding that if a tomato has a ‘name’ it must be an heirloom - this is not the case. And finally, there is the misunderstanding that all heirlooms are superior to all hybrids - remember, the “heirloom” designation is merely a convention, and most heirlooms started out as hybrids; indeed, there are many delicious, hybrid tomatoes out there that have been created over the last four or five decades. The Puget Sound is not the best place to grow tomatoes, given the variability of the weather, even during the best of summers, so I tend to stick with a few farms that are located in microclimates more suitable for tomatoes and whose farmers have a good feel for what to plant and when to pick.

Given all that, this has been a pretty good summer for tomatoes despite the atrocious weather up until early August here in Seattle. This past weekend there seemed to be a cornucopia of striped tomatoes in the Farmers’ Markets, and that’s where I got the inspiration for some Striped Tomato Galettes. I bought some Green Zebras and Red Zebras (hybrids), and some Striped Red Plum Tomatoes (aka, Tiger Striped Plum Tomatoes), and the even more rare Striped Yellow Plum Tomato (heirlooms). I used my favorite Cornmeal & Sour Cream Dough - with Ayers Creek Farm’s Roy’s Calais Flint coarse cornmeal. I also grated Black Sheep Creamery Pecorino on the dough before laying down the tomato slices, and then grated some Sardinian Pecorino on top after the galette came out of the oven. It made a marvelous starter for six.