*This is a part of an ongoing exclusive series on Umamimart, Radiation + Japan. Please check out these other posts and videos for more:

Testing of Food in Japan, By Yoko Kumano

Interview with Washio, Bar Owner (Tokyo), By Yoko Kumano

Testing Report and Thoughts, By Howie Correa

Interview with Satoshi Imai, Rice Farmer (Niigata), By Yoko Kumano

It’s asparagus season, people! Did anyone know this is what asparagus looks like when it’s growing? I took these shots today while visiting Terhune Orchards near Princeton, NJ. We ate this asparagus tonight for dinner and it was seriously delicious.

Photography by Erin Gleeson.

Discarded eggs from the chicken coop at an organic farm on Long Island, NY. They were too damaged to sell, so they were either thrown away or given to employees.

We ventured out to Pescadero a few weeks back, which is about an hour south of San Francisco, to visit Harley Farms Goat Dairy. It was such a special Umamiventure- Yoko was here from Tokyo, and Jenny and Mitch from NYC! It was the first time on a goat farm for many of us, and I can say with confidence that we all had a delightful time. Here’s what everyone thought- photos by myself and Thien Vu.

PAMELA
I had such a good time at Harley Goat Farm! Who knew there was another special place in Pescadero besides the Arcangeli bakery!? I had never hung out with goats before. I always thought they were skittish animals, but they’re actually quite friendly and curious like dogs.

PAMELA
We were encouraged to linger with the goats as long as we wanted. I think my very favorite part was hanging out with the babies because I could get down low and hug them and I didn’t fear getting pushed over or nibbled on. As of that day, there were 267 babies, so there were lots of cuddle options.

KAYOKO
There were these cuddly sheep and llamas too!

The sheep sort of kept to themselves, despite the fact that all I wanted to do was snuggle with them. The llamas, however, were super friendly and loved the attention. Janet, our tour guide, said that they are natural born watchmen and protect the goats from predators- such as coyotes. Llamas are quite graceful, gorgeous creatures.

THIEN
Everyone on the farm is so nice and friendly. Even though it’s clear that there is always a ton of things to do on the farm, anyone will pretty much stop and chat with you to answer your questions.

YOKO
Milking the teet of a goat was the highlight of the Harley Goat Farm Tour. For $20 a person, the tour included a chance to frolic with goat and sheep, smell their excrement, milk their teets, visit the cheese making facility and taste the cheese in their magically rustic barn turned dining hall.

Milking a goat required a simple motion where you make an “OK” gesture with your hand, put the teet in the “O” part, and tighten. Once the “O” part is firmly gripping the teet, the middle, index and pinky finger (in that order) wrap around the teet.

Milking facility.

YOKO
There were about 30 people on the tour so I only got to milk one teet, once. The task was very hands-on and satisfying as the product (goat milk) appeared right in front of you. I wouldn’t mind envisioning a life of milking teets at five in the morning everyday.

THIEN
Milking a goat is fun.

PAMELA
Oh, and my other favorite part was eating Harley’s signature Monet cheese that our tour guide had just put together in front of our eyes. It was so fresh and smooth, with a layer of herbs in the middle that complemented the sweetness of the cheese. We got to eat different all sorts of different cheeses to our hearts’ and tummies’ content. I didn’t want it to end!

Seperating the cheese from the whey.


Harley’s award-winning Monet cheese.

YOKO
The barn turned dining hall was also a highlight of the tour. A long dining table that was a slice of a huge oak tree was the centerpiece. The slab of wood was curvy, kind of like the long curvy roads of 84 that took us to Pescadero. The chairs were also curvy.

YOKO
The whole atmosphere of the dining hall reminded me of Tim Burton’s A Nightmare Before Christmas (the country barn version). It was really imaginative and cozy. The next time I make the trip out to Pescadero I would really like to try the $120 evening meal at this barn.

Besides the long, motion sickness-inducing road that leads to Pescadero (don’t eat In-and-Out beforehand), I would totally recommend a visit to Harley Goat Farms. The cheese is amazingly smooth and the staff (and goats) are really friendly and pleasant. Lending me some of their vibrant energy was definitely worth the $20.

JENNY
Harley goat farm was such an amazing experience!! Normally I’m skeptical about arranged tours but it was great to experience every step of the operation, from seeing how the goats live, to milking… to chevre! As an eater, I think any opportunity to see how food is made and produced is incredibly valuable- and tasting that goat cheese on the premises made it all the more pure in flavor and experience.

THIEN
It’s a very green farm in the middle of the Bay Area – which used to be a farming area, but it’s thought of more as the Silicon Valley now. The amount of effort that they put into being green and sustainable is amazing.

KAYOKO
This visit was certainly a fantastic, hands-on learning experience, from start to finish. Definitely book your spot in advance- the tours fill up quite quickly, and they can get quite large (there were nearly 30 people in our group!).

Thanks to everyone who made it out, to Harley Farms for accommodating all of us, and to Janet for a great tour. We’ll be back!

More photos of the trip by ChimChow and softglowingsun.

*Umamiventures are organized monthly, traveling far and wide in search of good, cheap grub. Join the UM Facebook Fan Page to stay updated on all future events. Hope to see you soon!

“CSA” stands for community supported agriculture. The way it works is that community members purchase a “share” of a local farm, which can be paid seasonally, quarterly, or monthly (depending on the farm.) In exchange for purchasing this share (which is a steal given the amount of fresh organic produce you receive!), your local farmer receives a stable source of income, and you as a consumer get to know your food source a little better.

I’m not entirely sure yet what I am going to do with this week’s ingredients, since I have been out of town. We will probably do something along the lines of roasted potatoes (and maybe I’ll throw the beets in there).

The radishes will go with lime and salt.

We might try deep frying the squash again (though that didn’t work so well last time) – otherwise, I like to saute them with onion, then add a cream sauce and make some tacos.

As for the spinach, I think that calls for quiche, but I think I’m stumped on the other set of greens. They look a little scary, so they might be given away!!! (I can’t do bitter greens).

OHHHH and the strawberries… prob will go with smoothies (I am making some kefir these days that I can mix it with), or they will likely be used to lure Chahta back inside when he wants to play ball for hours upon hours… suggestions???

*Shannon and Gabe live with their dog Chahta, cat Hya, and turtle Wax, in Bonny Doon, CA (in the Santa Cruz Mountains.) Shannon currently teaches at UC Santa Cruz, and Gabe is an landscape painter and project manager at the habitat restoration company Central Coast Wilds. Chahta is a professional misbehaved sweetheart and squash-eater :)

So we’re going to pet and milk goats THIS SATURDAY, and get some edumacation on goat dairy farming at Harley Farms Goat Dairy in Pescadero, CA (only an hour from SF or San Jose, map below). My friends Jen and Jamie went a few weekends ago and had a ball (above pic courtesy of Jen- ain’t he cute?).

Here are the deets:

DATE: THIS SATURDAY 5/23, 3pm (maybe we’ll meet somewhere before for lunch?)

WHERE: Harley Farm Goat Dairy (Pin C; click on map for directions)

COST: $20 per person

RSVP: PLEASE EMAIL OR FACEBOOK ME BY WED 5/20, 3pm PST if you can come (umamimart@gmail.com). This will have to be a definite YES, as I have to confirm the number with the farm and give them my credit card# and all that fun stuff. Let’s do this!

They are giving us a private tour!!! For more info about the tour, go here.

Also, there’s a special guest for this trip: live from Tokyo, it’s YOKO!!! So obviously you gotta come to see her in the flesh (her wit is just as sharp in person). So come out and let’s do some heavy petting!

*Join the UMAMIMART Facebook group to stay updated on all future Umamiventures.

Daikon was 20 inches long, thicker than a butternut squash, and came with the leaves. Daikon leaves are the best part of it, saute it, pickle it, almost arugula-like and mustard-ish, peppery. Such a versatile vegetable, but it’s never available in the US.

Look at this. The box came with: Japanese eggplants (6), Japanese cucumbers (4), Japanese green peppers (bunch), mini tomato (so sweet, could be better than Sun Gold), Shungiku or Garland Chrysanthemum, Shiso, Tokyo scallion (very large version of scallion, a lot softer than regular scallion), Shishito (sweet green pepper), Fuki (Butterbur). All this for $30!

You can’t specify what’s in the box, so it’s like a surprise gift. I don’t think I will order every week, but this is definitely fun to do time to time.

Jim Denevan went local. Several years ago, the chef and artist wanted to educate, entertain and feed his friends with a fresh meal. He did so by preparing and serving one on the very farm the food was grown and raised. From this, Outstanding in the Field was born – now a touring restaurant.

I was lucky enough to score a reservation to their recent dinner in East Hampton (and by lucky, I mean, I was on the Outstanding website precisely as the dinner was announced – they were completely booked within minutes).

For the last few years, Jim and his small crew have been traveling North America in an old bus, stopping along the way to serve up local meals. They setup their long table right in the middle of a farm, wrangle a local chef and concoct scrumptious meals.

My dinner was held at the East End Community Organic Farm, a co-op for local green thumbs. Our chef was Jason Weiner of the Parisian bistro Almond in Bridgehampton. The meal Jason put together, at his makeshift kitchen right beside the long table, included a bluefish escabeche with green zebra and sungold tomatoes; Whole roasted fluke with a warm mushroom vinaigrette; Crescent farm duck, corn succotash, tarragon and potatoes; And for dessert, peaches, goat yogurt, honey and almonds.

Each dish was prepared simple, which allowed the taste buds to enjoy the natural and fresh flavors (the way food is meant to be enjoyed). It all popped in a way that most meals just don’t. Can’t anymore.

The experience however ran much deeper than just the meal itself. It was a chance to see and understand where and what it was that you were eating. Sitting among the very vegetables that we consumed was only the half of it. To my left sat David of Open Minded Organics who farms the mushrooms we ate and beside him was Ian of Balsam Farm who grows the tomatoes. It was an education for the mind and senses.

As the sun set in a beautiful mirage of oranges and reds, we sipped our wine and reflected, it was hard not to think that this is how food ought to be served: local.

Jim Deneven

*Editor’s note: Matt Zuckerman is the co-founder of BZ Films, a film production company specializing in anything from commercials and music videos, to sports clips and documentaries. He recently traveled to Haiti where he shot a documentary on the epic damages brought upon by the Summer’s tropical storms.

Northern New York State, within a few miles of Lake Ontario, is prime orchard real estate. The “lake effect” of moderating temperatures and decent rainfall coddle the early spring buds of apricots and nectarines, although these are no competition for the mainstay crops of apples, peaches, and cherries. Add fields of strawberries, hillsides of bush blueberries, and rows of brambly raspberries and blackberries, and you have everything you need to know about Green Acres.

If you’ve watched television sit-coms from the late 60’s you may recall the “original” Green Acres with Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor taking refuge from the high life in NYC at a rundown farm, with much comical confusion and satire. But this 21st century orchard provides all of the quaintness with little of the hard work.

Tuesday morning at 8:00 is the time to arrive; the orchard is closed on Mondays so everything has soaked up an extra day of sunshine. On a single morning in August, with a 4-quart basket belted on your waist, you can pick peaches, nectarines, apricots, raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries, stowing each in the trunk of the car for later weighing and paying.

What is it about the act of picking-your-own that captivates some of us? It’s not cheap, and the temptation to pick more than you could ever eat is powerful. Maybe it’s the realization that the peaches at our best grocery stores have had a long truck ride from a distant state. Or is it the suspicion that the raspberries that hold their shape so long in the little plastic boxes at the store must be a mutant strain?

Even a person who lives in the country has to experience joy at beholding hundreds of blushing apricots on one little tree. Maybe it’s the mental stimulation required to maintain a state of alertness to the ten different stages of ripeness of the blueberries in one cluster.

Many visitors to the patch will claim to be making pies and jam, but can anything top the taste of each of these fruits eaten fresh?

(Oh, wait…maybe homemade blackberry-apricot crisp?)

To read more about which local farmers, butchers, grocers, and fish and cheese mongers participated, click here.

Lemon Basil shaved ice and berry yogurt popsicles from ‘People’s Popsicle’:



Poultry prepping demo:



And of course, there was an amazing view of (all 4!) of Olafur Eliasson’s waterfalls:

To read Erin’s report on the last New Amsterdam Market held in January, click here.