Category: Vegetables

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Are these seeds viable?

Picked up Brown Envelope Seeds in one of my feeds. They are based in Ireland, near Skibbereen, a name that will send shudders down the spine of anyone who has read contemporary accounts of the Irish Potato Famine. And they appear to have a range of diverse vegetable varieties that gardeners might be interested in, so I was about to add them to our list of seed sources, when I realized that the home page of the web site has not been updated since February 2008. Can anyone confirm that Brown Envelope Seeds remains active?

Later …

I did the obvious thing, and emailed Madeline McKeever directly. Her reply:

Yes, We are still here. It has just been very busy growing since February and I’m not very good at computers. I have written lots of new pages in my head while out weeding but by the time I get in in the evening it has all evaporated. … I would be delighted to be listed as one of your sources and will link back to you if you like. Thanks for the reminder to do something with the front page.

So, that’s it. At least she’s on top of email, if not the web site. Brown Envelope Seeds joins the exalted company on our sources page. Thanks Madeline.

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Harlan II – Field trip

Robert Hijmans puts his money where his mouth is.

I took the train to Berkeley, less than two hours from Davis towards San Francisco. I checked in at the French hotel and dined in the restaurant across the street. We are talking about Alice Waters’ place, Chez Panisse a restaurant well known to the readers of this blog and in-flight magazines.

There is the formal restaurant downstairs (fully booked) and the café upstairs (a late table was available). I had wine made of Zinfandel grapes. 1

I took the US$29 fixed menu. It had a garden lettuce salad, spaghetti alla Norma with eggplant, tomato, basil, and ricotta salata, and a Concord grape sherbet with roasted Thompson seedless grapes and langues de chat. 2

These were the variety names on today’s menu: Concord grape, Thompson seedless grapes, and Little Gems lettuce.

And these were the farm names on the menu: Cannard Farm 3, Andante Dairy, Soul Food Farm, Marin Sun Farm, Lagier Ranches, and Frog Hollow Farm.

Terroir trumps agrobiodiversity at Alice’s place.

It is a good restaurant. It is very French. The waiter spoke of terroir as if his name were Claude Duchateu. It is very cheap for a famous restaurant. It has a local twist to it. The food is good. But is mainstream now. The menu in the Davis Best Western Palm Court was not that different.

I suppose it is fair what everybody says, that Alice created some sort of revolution. From the wasteland of the American diner to Good Food. Just like her neighbor Alfred Peet transformed mainstream American coffee from diluted sewage to the best coffee anywhere save (perhaps) Italy. But that is ancient history.

But, just for your information, Chez Panisse is passé now. Go look somewhere else. I have heard of an underground restaurant movement in New York.

Chez Panisse is sold out every night, I think. Alice can experiment. But she does not. She chooses the middle of the road. Their produce comes from “farms, ranches, and fisheries guided by principles of sustainability” but the majority of entrees (main dishes) are a fish or meat dish.

Chuck out the meat. Serve different varieties of other veggies than tomatoes (even the Andronico’s supermarket across the street sells heirlooms).  Use something locally evolved rather than merely locally grown. The native Californians used hundreds of edible plants. 4 But no miner’s lettuce or acorns on the menu of the Queen of Slow Food.  Come on, Alice, surprise me!

P.S. That pasta was really good though. I will go back tomorrow to further investigate the case.