Meet Fred Hempel: A not-so-typical farmer
Fred Hempel is not your typical farmer.
The owner of the 9 ½-acre Baia Nicchia farm in Sunol, Hempel is a former geneticist. As such, he likes to tinker and create. Over the years, through grafting and cross-breeding, he’s developed 10 new varieties of tomatoes.
You might already have tried a few of these flavorful wonders, as he sells his seeds to Seeds of Change, the certified organic seed supplier, which in turn makes them available to gardeners across the nation. You also may have enjoyed them at many Bay Area restaurants. He’s a darling among chefs, who eagerly feature his luscious, organic tomatoes on their summer menus. He’s even worked closely with a couple of them, including Jonah Rhodehamel, executive chef of Oliveto in Oakland, to create their own signature tomato.
Try Hempel’s tomatoes for yourself this summer, when he’ll be selling them as usual at the Menlo Park farmers market, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Sundays, in the Chestnut Street parking lot between Santa Cruz and Menlo Avenues; and at his Sunol farm stand, 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesdays, located in front of the Jazz Café.
Meantime, you can also try one of Hempel’s newest inventions – herbal teas made from organic herbs and vegetables that he grows and dries to create unusual blends that can be enjoyed both hot and cold.
All caffeine-free, the selection of tea blends varies throughout the year, depending upon what’s in season. Currently, Hempel is featuring “Mixed Spearmint’’ (a soothing blend of five different spearmints), “Red-Stem Peppermint,’’ and “Savory Sunolean Spearmint’’ (a mix of Persian spearmint, anise hyssop, sage flowers and French tarragon that gives it a slight savory quality).
A staple is the “Grey Dog’’ tea, named for Hempel’s Greyhound, Lady Bug. Five percent of sales of this particular tea are donated to Greyhound Friends for Life , a Bay Area organization dedicated to helping Greyhounds find a second home with caring families after their racetrack days are over.
The “Grey Dog’’ tea contains red-stem peppermint, lemon balm, and lemon thyme, as well as Dolce di Minervino peppers and Mareko Fana peppers. Yes, peppers. In fact, Dolce di Minervino is a little-known, sweet Italian frying pepper and Mareko Fana is the main pepper used in Ethiopian Berbere spice mix. Together, they add a touch of warm spiciness to this tea that will subtly tingle the back of your throat.
The teabags ($8 for 10) are packaged in compostable clamshell containers. Gift tins also are available for $10 (for 10 tea bags).
“The teas are selling very well,’’ Hempel says. “In fact, it’s been difficult at times, particularly when we run out of ingredients that are seasonal at our farm.’’
The popularity of the teas shouldn’t be so surprising, though. After all, this is a man who has a knack for creating things that just taste great.
Luke’s Local: Redefining Train Station Food
Heading home on Caltrain after a stressful day at work, wouldn’t it be a godsend to get off the train, then walk just a few steps to pick up a gourmet, ready-to-heat meal and organic vegetables to take home?
You can – at Luke’s Local at the Hillsdale Station in San Mateo. This tiny store opened last year in an old, long-vacant ticket office in the parking lot. It sells tasty local and sustainable products, including dripped-to-order Blue Bottle Coffee, Free-Trade bananas, and meals-to-go such as Dungeness crab mac ‘n’ cheese ($7.99) and gnocchi with marinara ($6.99). You need not sneak them on your commute, either, since Caltrain does allow food and beverages on its trains.
Indeed, the Palo Alto Caltrain station has a gourmet coffee stand, and San Francisco station boasts a Subway sandwiches locale. But the Hillsdale station is the only one that sells unique entrees like these that can be warmed up conveniently at home or the office.
It is the brainchild of Luke Chappell, whose family founded the iconic Tom’s of Maine, which makes toothpaste, soap and other natural care products. Chappell, an entrepreneur from the early age of 11 when he started his own bagel business in Maine, thought commuters would embrace a convenience store steps from the platform that offered quality food, especially since the Hillsdale station is set back from El Camino Real and is surrounded by hundreds of parking spaces, making it a chore to grab any kind of sustenance quickly.
“I want to do food that people don’t expect at a train station’’, Chappell says.
Wood bins outside stock flowers and fruit. A refrigerator case holds salads and breakfast burritos, all made fresh daily at a commercial kitchen. Place your order through what was once the pass-through window for the old ticket office. And take a load off on the large wood bench inside that was original to the building.
Chappell’s newest offering is a once-a-week meal and produce box, a joint effort with Farmshares, a Community Supported Agriculture program by local farms in the Capay Valley. Imagine a CSA delivery box that you pick up every Wednesday night at the train station, containing a variety of locally grown produce, as well as a selection of two to four Luke’s Local prepared entrees of your choice. Each week, a local guest chef creates the entrees, too, ensuring a variety of eats. Among the recent offerings have been miso sesame arctic char by Roger Feeley of Soul Cocina and Southern pork pot pie by Blair Warsham of graffEats.
The standard veggie box (produce with two vegetarian dishes of your choice and a burrito) is $25. A regular box (produce with two meals and a burrito) is $32. A large box (produce plus four entrees and two burritos) is $54. You can add extra items, too, including a half-pound bag of Blue Bottle Coffee beans ($8) or a chorizo breakfast burrito ($4.49).
Boxes must be ordered ahead of time at the shop or by email with a credit card. As an incentive, all new subscribers receive a 50 percent discount on their first order, too.
Read more by Carolyn at Foodgal.com
Winemaker’s Dinner at Saratoga’s charming Sent Sovi
Saratoga’s charming Sent Sovi restaurant hosts a winemaker dinner practically every month, with most held in the main dining room. But now and then, Chef-Proprietor Josiah Slone will host one in the intimate private cellar room, which seats only a dozen people around one large square table, making for a very memorable experience.
Recently, I had the pleasure of attending such a wine dinner as a guest of the restaurant. The $135, five-course, five-wine dinner showcased one of Slone’s all-time favorite wineries, Varner , a boutique winery in Portola Valley that has attracted the accolades of the one and only Robert Parker, who awarded its 2008 Varner Chardonnay Bee Block an impressive 97 points.
Both Chef Slone and his wife have long been fans of the wines produced by Bob Varner and his brother Jim. They have visited the winery half a dozen times and joke that they often have to restrain themselves from carrying nothing but Varner wines on the restaurant’s wine list. It’s easy to see why when you taste these balanced, long-finishing Chardonnays and smooth, silky Pinot Noirs.
One of the great advantages of attending one of these smaller winery dinners is that you get the chance to really converse with the winemaker, not just upon your arrival when you’re introduced, but all through the meal. Bob Varner, who studied biology at the University of California at Davis, can explain any technical aspect of wine-making, and why he believes doing as little as possible to the grapes is always best.
The evening started with passed canapés that included pate smeared with a sweet-tangy quince mustard, and just-fried Meyer lemon-goat cheese beignets.
After sitting down, the first course arrived – a refreshing cured artic char with the zing of preserved Meyer lemons from the chef’s backyard tree. That was followed by what was one of the juiciest white meat chicken dishes I’d had in a long time. Cooked “sous vide’’ to keep the bird moist, the chicken was accompanied by caramelized fennel and a dice of sweet, spicy pears.
Braised monkfish followed, cooked with Herbes de Provence, bacon and red wine until it all reduced to form a sticky, thick glaze. Next, “flattened’’ roast duck that was reminiscent in texture and taste of Chinese barbecue spareribs with a sweet, peppery bite from harissa.
Dessert was apple tarte tatin made with Granny Smith and Pink Lady apples that would have been perfect had it been served warm, rather than chilled. But that’s a forgivable lapse, given how tiny the kitchen – and oven space – is here.
Varner wines also are available on the regular wine list, by the bottle, as well as by the glass. In fact, Sent Sovi is one of the few South Bay restaurants that regularly pours Varner. Slone is confident you’ll enjoy these wines as much as he does. And if you do, he’ll even offer to let you buy a case and pick it up at his restaurant, rather than incurring shipping costs if you ordered it directly from the winery instead. How’s that for service?
DealPop and the SF Peninsula – reunited at last!
After a brief hiatus in the SF peninsula, we’re back and better than ever. We’ve expanded our reach to include areas from Burlingame to San Jose to Fremont, and have opened with an amazing Greek restaurant called Athena Grill in Santa Clara.
To mirror this expansion, we’ve renamed our market SF South Bay, and we’ve changed our social media pages accordingly as well.
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