Hot Shots - January 6, 2023
Hot Shots - January 6, 2023
Severin R-B Danieli
Hello all,
Happy New Year and welcome to 2023!
Wow, 2023! That's going to take me a while to get used to.
I hope everyone had a good week or two of holiday cheer, and we all survived the annual 'don't know what day it is, what time it is, or what planet I am on' week between Christmas and New Year's.
We had some lovely family time, a few holiday parties, delicious food (yes, my uncles potatoes are top on that list), and my nephews first birthday!
Thinking of the year ahead, not necessarily a new year's resolution as I find those a bit stressful, but I want to start incorporating certain routines in my day to day. Whatever the new year signifies to you, or if it just means it's another day on the calendar, I wish you a successful 2023 filled with friends, laughter, family & of course, delicious organic produce.
Habaneros!
These vibrant, small, wrinkly hot peppers are just the thing to start the New Year off with a bang! Scoring 100,000 - 350,000, aka HOT, on the Scoville scale, and turning to orange and red when ripe.
I'm not a big hot sauce or hot pepper person, but I am slowly starting to dabble in some spice. Chilli flakes on pasta and pizza are as far as I have gotten, but that's a good start for me!
Habaneros work well in a hot sauce, pickled, or added into a chilli for an extra kick.
These hot peppers, along with: fennel, bunched yellow carrots, green & red dandelion, are in house right now from Sunrise Organic Farm. This farm is nestled in the Santa Rita Hills in California, and has been producing some of California's best organic produce since 2015.
Fennel!
We've got a few fennel options here right now, from Sunrise, Something Good and Coke farms, all 12ct and all from California.
Fennel and I have had a complicated relationship over the years, but it is getting stronger. If I do have any sort of fennel, it is usually in tea form or fresh in a salad.
I did once have pickled fennel in a salad and it was absolutely delicious! And it was this salad in particular that made me turn a corner on my acceptance of fennel.
Golden turnip.
These turnips are firm and crunchy, with sweet and peppery undertones which harken back to radishes. These goldens are best when harvested young, as their flavour and texture are not suited to be cellared over the winter months.
Turnips in general can be traced back to the Hellenistic period in Greek history, approximately 300 BCE, and actually arrived on the scene even before the potato. Golden turnips in particular were first cultivated in France, in the 1800s and are a fall and spring crop.
Wild Flight Farm, where these turnips are grown, is a beautiful 20-acre farm up in the Mara Valley, in BC. Their name, Wild Flight, is a reference to all of the resident and migrating birds that are a part of the natural environment surrounding the farm.
I remember one morning while I was working with the crew at Laughing Crow Organics in Pemberton, when I was sitting cross legged, cutting out dandelion plants from the middle of chive plants, there was not one sound around me except for birds chirping in the alders that were growing next to the river. What a beautiful place we live and work in.
Wild Flight has been certified organic for over 25 years, growing over 50 different varieties of organic vegetables and available all year round.
Avocado.
There are a lot of different varieties of avocados, but a perpetual crowd pleaser is none other than the Hass variety.
The Hass avo was first planted in the early 1920's in La Habra Heights, California, by A. R. Rideout, and from there, a seedling was sold to Rudolph Hass. In 1935, Hass patented the fruit and its name.
In house we have 70ct, 60ct and 48ct avocados from Promich, Agrifruit and A&A Organics, which are all farms down in Mexico.
Avocado on toast is a very popular lunch item here at Disco, as it's a delicious blend of fats & cabs!
Shiitake.
I was receiving this specific order this morning from Farmers Fresh, and the top layer of mushroom boxes typically have a thin layer of cardboard to protect the mushies.
As I lifted the cardboard, these gorgeous shiitakes emerged! How beautiful are they! Bright white gills, perfectly coloured hoods, fresh stem cuts.
Shiitakes are the second most common mushroom worldwide, second only to the button mushroom, and contain vitamin A, B2, B12, C D, iron, calcium, copper, selenium, zinc and manganese. These mushrooms have been grown in East Asia, specifically China and Japan, since pre-historic times. Shiitakes have only been cultivated in the USA since 1972, as before that, there was a ban on importing live shiitake cultures.
So, there you have it, folks! The first week of January, in the books.
I'm looking forward to a very relaxing weekend, looks like a west van seawall is planned for tomorrow morning, and then a family hangout and dog walk. That is the extent of the plans and that is A-OK with me!
I was chatting with our Calgary warehouse earlier today, and we were exchanging weekend plans, and I was thinking out loud and realized, I think I have had plans every weekend since November, so, I need to chill.
I hope everyone has had a good start to 2023, and I will chat with you all next week!
Big love,
Severin R-B Danieli