Fava Fabulous

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Many organic practices simply make sense, regardless of what overall agricultural system is used. Far from being a quaint throwback to an earlier time, organic agriculture is proving to be a serious contender in modern farming and a more environmentally sustainable system over the long term.

David Suzuki

Meet Brian. He is one of the organic farmer's at my local market. He wasn't there last week so I was happy to see him today. Included in his offerings were fava beans and red torpedo onions. Often he offers recipes to go with what he has brought in. Today it included a fava bean salad recipe.

I was at the market when it opened today as my area of Cali is going to hit the triple digits this weekend. More and more I am letting what is in season inspire what I will eat for the coming week. As I knew I didn't want even fire up the grill this weekend, I decided to look for items that would make an easy alfresco dining experience. Local farm cheeses, foccacio rolls, fresh roasted beef and baby arugula were piled into my basket along with a local olive oil, vinegar, cherries, apricots, strawberries and a raspberry mini bundt cake. Not to mention an almond croissant to take home for breakfast.

After I arrived home I made a pot of Teeccino, a wonderful coffee substitute to me that tastes amazingly like a coffee (due to a medical problem I cannot drink coffee for the time being) took a cup of it and sat out in the early morning sunshine on my brick patio (it feels somewhat Tuscan in nature) to shell the beans. It took me back to my childhood years of my Midwestern farm life. Back then I hated the labor of having to shell beans, but now I've come to appreciate the simple comfort of preparing food. The smells of the beans were fresh and hinted of a sweet grass. The birds were singing, a gentle breeze touched the trees which hang over the patio wall and Bella sat at my feet eagerly hoping for a taste.

The salad awaits in the refrigerator, I am taking it easy and catching up with the reading pile I have. I hope your weekend is a enjoyable one.

Brian's Fava Bean and Feta Salad

The delicate flavor of fresh favas in this simple salad is worth the extra time it takes to shell the beans. It takes about 3 or 4 pounds of beans to begin with, if you are buying the favas in their spongy pods. With the pods removed, it should yield 2 1/2 to 3 cups of beans.

2 1/2 to 3 cups of fresh fava beans, shelled and rinsed
1/3 cup of red torpido onion, sliced thin
2/3 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/4 cup Italian style or oil & vinegar salad dressing

Blanch favas in 4 quarts of boiling water for about 2-3 minutes until tender and slight bitterness is removed. Rinse in cold water and drain well. Depending on our preference, you may go one step further and remove the soft outer shell by gently squeezing the beans to pop the tender, brighter green portions out, but the lighter green outside portion is perfectly edible. In a medium bowl, toss onion , feta and salad dressing. Add drained beans and toss. Add more dressing if needed. Chill before serving.

Serves 4.

Cat Power, "Where Is My Love?":

Farmer's Market Faces

The Farmer's Market is the slowly turning Lazy Susan of the seasons.

Alice Waters via John Hollander

Early this morning new camera and lens in hand, I went to my local farmer's market that had just opened again last week. I was eager to see if the old faces were still there and if any new had been added. Most of my favorites had returned with a few new faces added. I have always loved farmer's markets and seek them out wherever I visit. However, now during this time of recession, I especially want to support the individual farmer. Fortunately other people are still supporting the farmer's market and it was packed.

The stands were full of strawberries, cherries, last fall's nut crop, asparagus, eggs, cheeses, oils, meats, bakers....Let's just say the 2 bags I brought with me were stuffed to the gills by the time I left. My favorite organic farmer's Charley and Ellie had brought black tuscan kale and told me how to steam for a minute, then saute it with garlic, a smidgen of butter and some olive oil. It turned out to be the perfect counterpoint to some chicken tamales I had picked up for dinner.

So find your local farmer's market, it will open up your senses and you will probably make some great friends.

John Mellencamp, "Rain On the Scarecrow":

Light

Light can be gentle, dangerous, dreamlike, bare, living, dead, misty, clear, hot, dark, violet, springlike, falling, straight, sensual, limited, poisonous, calm and soft.

Sven Nykvist

I've not been around much because I've been learning and playing with light. As I said in my last post I want to take my photography to a new level. And light is the key. I've been out in the early morning mists, sitting in the late afternoon sun, staring at the midnight stars...Light is a match for human nature, just when you think you understand it, it changes again. 

The more I learn I realize the less I know, but I will keep coming back for the lessons.

Anne Lennox, "Shining Light":

Lucky

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity

Seneca

I was lucky this week in that an unexpected opportunity brought me the Olympus E-3 I've been wanting. It's a demo model, but it looks brand new. I picked it up late this afternoon and it's been love at first sight. It will challenge me to pick up my game. I had gone out earlier this morning into the foothills to photograph and was lucky to find some great shots. One of which is todays theme. There was also great food. In a small town I stopped at what was a burger drive in and had the most wonderful burger, crinkle fries and a cherry coke (they put in the syrup). They had a couple of small pet roosters who would come up to the diners at the picnic tables to investigate what was on the menu in terms of stray crumbs. On my way home I stopped at a sausage shop in another small town. It was packed. They had almost every kind of sausage you could think of made fresh on the premises. Again I was lucky and a couple of guys in line who were regulars guided me through a selection to take home. Fresh apple sausage and waffles are now on the menu for tomorrow morning.

As I drove on my adventure this morning and home this afternoon, I reflected how lucky I am to have a job that has some flexibility in that I have a four day work week. That I have my health, people who care about me, that I can do things I love and I have so many opportunities everyday to find enjoyment in life.

I hope others can be as lucky.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, "You Got Lucky":

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Uneasy Sentinels

People just don't have a clear understanding of nuclear energy and how it works. It's not something you see every day or talk about every day.

Rita Sipe

A few weeks ago on a trip with friends we went the wrong way and suddenly thrusting up from the valley grass lands were a couple of eerie towers. Right away I thought nuclear power plant, my friends weren't sure. So I researched them knowing I would be heading that way. Sure enough, it was the cooling towers from the decommissioned Rancho Seco Nuclear Generating Station. As I went to a photo shoot that didn't work out (that's another horror story) nearby, I decided to visit it again as there is a County Park at it's edge now.

I am a child of the nuclear era, i.e. very much educated over the risks and horrors of what nuclear energy/weapons can engender. Today there seems to be a much more blase attitude about it. This week nuclear issues were in the news. Out of curiosity I asked some younger twenty somethings that I ended up with today what they knew about Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and so on. It was scary how many of them didn't have a clue as to what had happened or even what a nuclear accident could mean. They perceived me as some sort of alarmist, i.e. that I questioned the use of nuclear energy. Further several said that they trusted the government to take of the issues with it and thought it really quite safe. It was worrisome to me. I really hope they are not representative of their generation.

The Rancho Seco cooling towers stand over a green rich land. They are uneasy sentinels, a reminder of a past attempt that failed. I hope some of the individuals I talked to, went home and looked up some history and will begin to understand what it means to their future. My father taught me to be a steward of the earth and so I will continue to question how we can met our present needs without sacrificing the next generation's legacy.

Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, Keb'Mo' and Ben Harper, "For What It's Worth":

Déjà Vu or Stranger in A Strange Land

I was a stranger in a strange land

Biblical Saying

We've all had the feeling of déjà vu, to quote: the experience of déjà vu is usually accompanied by a compelling sense of familiarity, and also a sense of "eeriness," "strangeness," or "weirdness. Well looking through my lens and finding this plant echoed that the theme of the strangeness or weirdness. It's a plant you expect to find on a third rate science fiction movie from the fifties. In this case lots of trees and flowering plants and then this enormous mass of weirdness. It's as if it's a stranger in a strange land. Kind of a good theme for today...that is ever feel that way about life's landscape some Mondays? If so, come on tell me all about it....I know I can't be the only one feeling like today was about being a stranger in a strange land.

Leon Russell, "Stranger In A Strange Land":

Time, Art, And Money

Our lives seem to live us, to possess their own bizarre momentum, to carry us away
Sogyal Rinpoche

A busy unusual week with many things happening. Art, work, and time are all themes that have been swirling through my head this week. Art in that I've been in the deep of making it again. Work in that it is no longer about my professional career and advancement. Rather now I find satisfaction in it because it is the means that allows me to pursue my art. Finally time and what it means in finding the balance between working/doing art.

Interestingly enough when ever I talk about my photography, mixed media work or music, the topic that most often comes up is how will you use it to make money and there in lies a dilemma. I've come to realize that I don't want to do my art based on others expectations. That is I want to share the world as I see it and if at some point I'm lucky enough people may want to buy the representation of what I am trying to share. However, this isn't my goal.

Believe me, I am not putting down artists who make their art through the process of trying to interpret what others want from them and filtering it through their vision. If I were in a different phase of life and not long in the working world, I would have no problem pursuing that path. But I have been in the working world for many years and at this phase of my life I am more about the sharing the vision I have with others. In other words my work is a means that is allowing me to create because I can earn my income there and said income allows me to purchase things I need to create art and to take care of the mundane realities of life.

I was inspired by a paragraph in a book I'm rereading entitled "Marry Your Muse" by Jan Phillips....

To be an artist it is not necessary to make a living from our creations. Nor is it necessary to have work hanging in fine museums or the praise of critics. It is not necessary that we are published or that famous people own our work. To be an artist it is necessary to live with our eyes wide open, to breathe in the colors of mountain and sky, to know the sound of leaves rustling, the smell of snow, the texture of bark. It is necessary to rub our hands all over life, to sing when and where we want, to take in every detail, and to jump when we get to the edge of the cliff. To be an artist is to notice every beautiful and tragic thing, to cry freely, to collect experience and shape it into forms others can share.

The photo I took today seemed to represent collecting experience and sharing it. That is a few weeks ago I shared a fresh new flower in the blog. Today I took the time to look more closely at it and somehow found it more eerily beautiful then it was then. And it reminded me about time passages, life and the making of art.

Al Stewart, "Time Passages":