CSA: Mountain Bounty Farms

Following the Produce:  A Tour of Mountain Bounty Farm

Joining a Community Supported Agriculture Program

 Last May, I joined a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) vegetable cooperative.  Basically, you pay upfront and receive boxes full of vegetables all summer long.  The vegetables are grown locally at Mountain Bounty Farm in Nevada City, CA and pick-up locations are available every Thursday in Truckee and Glenshire.

 Since the boxes of vegetables are quite large, I shared the program with some co-workers to reduce the expense and the amount of produce.  A large family could probably go through a box in a week, but it’s also fun to share with a group of friends or roommates.

 The vegetables are delicious and fresh.  Although this week is the last vegetable box of the season, I decided to go find out exactly where my vegetables were coming from and how they were grown. 

 Touring the Farm

 Down a winding road 10 miles north of Nevada City, I found Mountain Bounty Farms.  The area was rich with native trees and plant life.  Tucked away down a dirt path, the interns brushed their teeth in the outdoor kitchen.

 They greeted me with a friendly smile and showed me the fields.

 “We’re standing on two acres right here,” said farmer John Tecklin.  “We have ten acres total.  It’s a very small scale farm.”

 Twelve years ago, John decided he wanted to start his own Community Supported Agriculture farm.  He leased some land in Nevada City, California and got to work.  He was originally in a partnership on a CSA farm in Portland, Oregon.  He became very interested in gardening and moved on to farming from there.

 “A CSA type program is really the only way to go with a small farm like this,” he explains. 

 In 1998, there were 48 families participating in the program.  This year, 270 boxes went out to people around Nevada City and Truckee.  The farmers also participated in a farmer’s market in Nevada City once a week.

 This year there were 280 varieties of plants on the farm.  That’s a lot of vegetables!  Boxes were full of a variety of people’s very favorites to the slightly unusual. 

 What is this thing?  It’s amusing to participate in the CSA program because receiving each box is like opening a special gift, a fun surprise.  The vegetables vary weekly and remain seasonal and organic.  Most of the seeds are sprouted right on the farm in the greenhouses located in the back of the property. 

 “We have heirlooms, bred-varieties and hybrid crops,” said John.  “We have absolutely no genetically modified crops, and we don’t want them.”

 Fresh Produce 

Produce received in this summer’s vegetable boxes included red and green lettuces, carrots, broccoli, spinach, cilantro, kale, Tokyo turnips, beets, radishes, potatoes, tomatoes, bok choy, cabbage, basil, fennel, squash, onions, garlic, pumpkins and more.

 The farm now has fruit shares and citrus shares.  Fruit boxes included cherries, peaches, plums, nectarines, pears, grapes, apples and pomegranates.   

 Mountain Bounty Farm offers winter vegetable and citrus shares from November 24 through May 19.  Summer vegetables are offered from May through November and summer fruits from June to October.

 Sustainably Organic

 The farm is totally organic, although not certified organic.  They use all natural fertilizers, composting and alternative energy sources.  Big industrial farms use a lot of nitrogen or natural gas based products in their fertilizers.

 “These vegetables are cleaned right here at the farm,” notes farmer John.  “They are probably cleaner than the ones you buy at the store.”

 Beneficial plants that attract insects away from the vegetables are also used around the farm, instead of chemical pesticides.

 The choices of vegetables for the next season are based on experience of how the vegetables grew on the farm, as well as surveys of the customers.

 “We do what we can do, what we want to do, what we like, what we didn’t like and what tastes good,” explains John.

 One of the most popular crops is sweet corn, so the farm tries to maximize the numbers grown by using various sustainable techniques.  They also rotate the produce grown in each crop bed. 

 Working the Farm

 Interns live in tiny huts stacked next to one another down a tree-lined grassy pathway of the farm.  Although the houses were tiny, I wished I had worked on the farm for a summer in college, like many of my friends did.

 The farm also offers work exchange programs where customers can work 4 hours a week on the farm in order to receive their boxes.  John said that one of his best volunteers drives from Truckee to work on the farm.  The farm provides him with a great release, a hard working day on the farm.

 Find Out More 

Mountain Bounty Farms has a very useful and informative Web Site at www.mountainbountyfarms.com.  The site has numerous pictures of the farms produce with a weekly description of “What’s in my box this week?” with a photo of each box.  The site also enables people to sign up for the CSA online.  They can also be reached by phone at Mountain Bounty Farm at 530-292-3776 or by email at info@mountainbountyfarm.com.

Delicious Incline Village Restaurant – Asian Noodles Too

This place is AWESOME! Let’s just say, I ordered takeout from Asian Noodles Too last night, and then I went again with a friend for dinner tonight. It MUST be good!

The place is really cute.  The atmosphere is very open and bright with plenty of tables with ample space between them.  The wall are adorned with photographs of Vietnam and Thailand from local artist Chris Talbot.  There is quiet music playing to give a nice background sound and increase the international feel of the restaurant.  And the food, oh the food is amazing.

Last night, I had the Charbroiled Beef with Lemon Grass. The beef was seasoned and cooked to perfection and was served on a bed of thin white noodles, sort of like ramen noodles, but less starchy. It came with a side of veggies: lettuce, bean sprouts and carrots that you choose how much you want on the dish (it really added a lot of freshness and made the dish feel very healthy). The serving to go came with a small container of a clear liquid sauce, not exactly sure what it was, but it was sweet, tangy and delicious.

Tonight, my friend and I went back again after he tried my leftover Beef with Lemon Grass. We decided to try the Pho since the place is a Vietnamese restaurant. I was a little weary to try some of the choices like rare beef or blood sausage. I decided to stick on the safer side with skirt steak and beef brisket. Wow! This soup was incredible, and I don’t usually like soup. It came in a huge bowl that could have easily served four people as an appetizer. The soup was rich with flavor and the beef was sliced thin and extremely tasty. This was served with a plate of bean sprouts, limes, fresh jalapenos and fresh basil. We also had another Vietnamese specialty charbroiled dish of shrimp and pork. The pork was so good; it tasted almost like southern barbecue with a sweet smoky taste, and the shrimp were tasty as well.

At the table, there were choices of all my favorite condiments: Siracha, Soy Sauce and yummy plum hoison sauce. Delightful.

The service was great; all the ladies who helped us were very nice and quick. I also had an Vietnamese iced tea which was like iced Jasmine tea – very good.  And all this great food including the tea and my friend’s Pepsi came out to a grand total of $20. Now, that’s a good deal, especially in Incline Village or any of Tahoe for that matter. I highly recommend Asian Noodles Too. If you are ever in Incline, go to Christmas Tree Village, go to Asian Noodles Too, you will be glad.

Oh by the way, this place has only been open for a month or so, and every single table was full!

Ugh! No me gusta La Casona!

I should have turned around in the parking lot, but due to a growling stomach, I decided to go around the corner to this hidden establishment.  There it sits, tucked into the back corner of the Raley’s Shopping Center in Incline Village.   Fortunately for most people, they probably never find it.

My boyfriend thought that this restaurant was Las Panchitas, but oh no, no – this was La Casona.   When you walk in the doorway, you are greeted by two doors- to the men’s and ladies room.  Ugh.  I stepped up to the hostess stand to wait five minutes to be seated.  Finally, the man who seemed to be doing everything he could to save this restaurant sat us at a table in the corner.  My friend was quick to see some very odd painting above our table that featured a young man and young woman inside the faces of an elderly man and woman.  Oh yum, real appetizing.  The interior of the place was ancient, including unidentified splatter stains and dirt and dust in the cracks of the walls.  It looked as if the person who had plastered the inside had made quick sloppy swoops of thick plaster, painted it a cheerful yellow and left it to rot.  Yes, and that is  only the looks of the place.

I knew right away that in order to stomach the food in this unappealing setting, I had to get some alcohol in my system.  The lady came to take our order before we could hardly glance at the menu, and we said we’d need some time.  In the meantime, the busy man who had set up served us two baskets of chips and salsa and filled our water glasses.  We decided on the $16 pitcher of strawberry margaritas, but waited a ridiculously long time and also chose our food items before the lady ever came back to take our order.  The menu was scary to say the least featuring oddly Non-Mexican restaurant foods like Roast Beef Sandwich and Baby Back Ribs (1/2 rack or full), but we found the ten Mexican choices.  Finally, the waitress came back, and she had another women shadowing her, obviously just starting to work at this nightmare restaurant.

I ordered Chile Rellenos (peppers stuffed with cheese and fried covered with a red sauce), Krystal ordered veggie fajitas, and Jacob ordered the Taco Salad with carne asada.  Lucky Johnny had already eaten and ordered nothing.  I wish we had all stuck with the chips and salsa and bounced out of there, but honestly even the chips were not that good.  The man brought us another basket of chips and then our orders.  My plate was large and featured a thin layer of red water over the entire entree; Jake had a huge taco salad, and vegetarian Krystal received  a chicken fajita, not the veggie she ordered.

I began cutting my pepper, and  a thick chunk of white cheese flopped out.  The sauce tasted exactly like it looked like a warm red water, and the beans and rice were mediocre.  Jake’s salad was sprinkled with a layer of dried carne asada spice.  And we had to wait a while for Krystal’s veggie fajitas which included onions, peepers and zucchini.  She said the guacamole tasted like fish juice.  And even though, they had messed up her order the first time, they still charged $.50 when she ordered additional tortillas for her fajitas (they originally gave her 3 tiny tortillas).

Our strawberry margaritas (I can hardly even type the word margarita to describe this drink because it was nothing like any other margarita that I have ever had and tasted worse than anything I’d like to  imagine).  It looked like Kool-Aid, but they would have been better off serving us Kool-Aid.  It tasted like majorly watered down strawberry Kool-Aid with a quart of simple syrup poured into it,  and then maybe, just maybe a splash of tequila.  The only way I could drink it was by licking of the salt on the edge of the glass and swallowing it down quickly.  The new girl said that the “margaritas” took a while because she’d originally put into too much liquor.  This was apparently not good for business? I’d say to get people as drunk as possible is the only way to save this business! Johnny asked if he could try the strong one.  It tasted a little better as it had more liquor which helped to dilute the sugary mess of a drink, so Johnny added it to the gross watery pitcher.  It did nothing to help this monstrosity of a cocktail.  Krystal never even finished her first glass.

We ate unhappily and tried to stomach the drink, and then waited an additional 15 minutes before we finally had to ask for them to take our payment.  We ended up walking to the cash register after them because we wanted to get the hell out there.  Fortunately, they had peppermint candies at the register which kept me from being sick all over their floor.

My rating: 1/2 star (only for the guy who got us the chips and filled our waters)

Two new Tahoe City restaurants!

Word today of two new restaurants in the Tahoe City (TC) area!

One is called Spoon and is located by Sunnyside on Tahoe’s West Shore by CycleWorks and Fire Sign Cafe.  This place seems like a great deal for lunch with a $7.95 special to include two of three choices including 1/2 sandwich, salad or soup.  The soups change daily and the salads sounded fresh and delicious.  I’ll try it out and report back!

The second is Thai Kitchen which is located in the old Hendrickson building in downtown TC – word on the street is that this building is condemned and Placer County no longer gives out permits to run businesses, especially food oriented businesses in this locale, so we shall see what happens with that one.  I sincerely hope it opens cause I’ve been hoping for a Thai place in TC for years.

Get your appetities ready, and I’ll report back on the findings.