Category Archives: Going Green and Sustainable

A Most Eggs-Cellent Farm

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Deep orange yolks exemplify how special the eggs from Coastide Ranch are.

When you’re the son of rock legend Neil Young, it might be expected if you rested comfortably on your father’s laurels.

When you’re his son and born with cerebral palsy, which has left you wheelchair-bound and able to communicate only with a computer device, it would be understandable if you were at all reclusive.

But that’s not Ben Young, 33, the middle child of the famed singer-songwriter.

Ben Young, who has cerebral palsy, is the son of the legendary Neil Young.

Thirteen years ago, Young started an egg farm called Coastside Farms on three acres of his family’s La Honda property. In 2002, it was certified organic. A few weeks ago, I had a chance to visit him there.

Today, he raises about 250 Red Sex-Links, similar to Rhode Island Reds, which have the run of the place under the close watch of a herd of adorable alpacas who guard them against predators.

A ranch mascot.

He sells the eggs, with their glorious deep orange yolks, to Calafia Cafe in Palo Alto and Cafe Gibraltar in El Granada, where he makes deliveries each week with the help of his assistant.

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Adopt An Olive Tree — Plus A Food Gal Giveaway

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The spring adoption kit to grow your own mini olive tree. (Photo courtesy of Nudo-Italia)

How would you like to be a proud parent of a budding, baby olive tree?

You can, thanks to Nudo-Italia, an artisan olive oil company founded by Jason Gibb and Cathy Rogers, former TV producers who chucked it all to restore an abandoned 21-acre olive grove in Italy’s Le Marche.

Besides selling wonderful olive oils, they offer a unique program in which anyone around the world can adopt an olive tree for a year. The project is a collaboration between Nudo and small-scale artisan olive oil producers in Le Marche and Abruzzo.

The company’s new spring “adoption box”  ($97) includes a personalized adoption certificate and booklet that describes your tree, one 250ml tin of first cold press extra virgin olive oil, three 500ml tins of first cold press extra virgin olive oil from your adopted tree, an invitation to come visit your tree, and a “Grow Your Own Olive Tree in a Tin” with growing instructions. It’s a gift that definitely keeps on giving.

Contest: One lucky Food Gal reader will get a chance to try out their green thumb on their own “Grow Your Own Olive Tree in a Tin” (a $7.49 value). Stick it on a windowsill or kitchen ledge, then water. Who knows — this cute little thing might even bear some fruit.

Entries, limited to those in the continental United States, will be accepted through midnight PST March 31. Winner will be announced April 2.

How to win?

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Lend Support to Introducing Ethiopian Crops to the United States

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Highland kale, a staple in Ethiopia, now grown by Baia Nicchia Farm of Sunol.

You may know Baia Nicchia Farm of Sunol for its glorious array of heirloom and one-of-a-kind tomatoes it sells at the Menlo Park farmers market in the summers.

Now, geneticist-turned-farmer Fred Hempel wants you to know his small farm also for its efforts to introduce Ethiopian specialty crops to this country.

As such, he’s asking for your support for his Ethiopian seeds project that he’s hoping to launch through the funding platform, KickStarter. He has until March 10 to get $22,000 pledged for the project, which aims to introduce five Ethiopian vegetable varieties nationally this year.

Hempel got interested in the project when he met Ethiopian native, Menkir Tamrat, a former Silicon Valley tech worker who started growing the peppers of his homeland that he missed after he got laid off. Hempel offered Tamrat some space at his 9.5-acre farm to grow peppers that Hempel then sold at farmers markets.

The result is a partnership set to blossom even more. Hempel hopes to release Ethiopian varieties through his new seed company, Artisan Seeds, which also will sell some of his tomato seeds.

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Ramen Bowls, Donut Delivery & A Green Film Fest

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The signature "Ozumo'' ramen available at Ozumo in San Francisco at lunch on weekdays. (Photo courtesy of the restaurant)

Ozumo Serves Up Ramen at Lunch Time

The Sake Lounge at Ozumo restaurant in San Francisco is transformed into a ramen-ya at weekday lunch time, 11:30 p.m. to 2 p.m.

Choose from such favorite bowlfuls as the “Ozumo” ($13) with braised pork jowl, poached egg and snow crab in shoyu stock; and “Spicy Miso” ($12) with shredded chicken, poached egg and cabbage in a rich, spicy miso broth.

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Hawaii Part 3: A Tale of Two Very Different Farmers

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Can you guess what this is? It's banned on airlines because of its smell.

HONOLULU, OAHU and KONA, HAWAII — Ken Love has had a multitude of careers in one lifetime: Associated Press photographer, Chicago Sun-Times restaurant reviewer and Tokyo culinary student.

But it is as a farmer on the Big Island that he is perhaps most happiest.

I can’t help but get that feeling as Love, a big bear of a man with a desert dry sense of humor, showed me around a five-acre plot of wild Eden on a friend’s property that he looks after. I had a chance to meet Love, president of the Hawaii Tropical Fruit Growers Corp., on my recent trip to Hawaii, courtesy of Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau.

A specialist in tropical fruit horticulture, he’s also quite the activist, rallying for the Big Island to feature home-grown fruit and veggies in school lunches rather than the rock-hard peaches and tasteless imported apples that often end up on cafeteria trays instead.

He’s also about to become a film star. Love recently filmed a documentary with actor Bill Pullman, who happens to be a fruit activist, himself. (Who knew?) The film, “The Fruit Hunters,” is based on the book of the same name by Adam Leith Gollner. It looks at the diversity of fruit in the world, as well as folks who become almost fanatically passionate about fruit. The movie is expected to be released by the end of next year.

Tropical fruit farmer Ken Love knows everything there is to know about fruit in Hawaii.

On this quiet afternoon, as we thread our way through this lush five-acre spot, Love stops every few steps to point with pride to a tree or bush, and to pick something amazing for me to taste. It’s a veritable fruit smorgasbord before my eyes.

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