The Food Life

2010 Kitsap County Fair canning entries. Photo by Meegan Reid

WSU Kitsap Extension once again is offering a series of food preservation classes so you can take a taste of that very short summer into winter.

This time, all classes are from 1 to 4 p.m. on Sundays at the Silverdale YMCA, and you can register online. Cost is $95 for all four classes or $35 per class.

Classes start Oct. 9 with a look at Sassy Salsas. Guess what you’ll be making.

Next up, on Oct. 16 is “In a Pickle” in which they’ll discuss the process of fermentation and brining pickles. Participants will make and take home a quick-make pickle.

On Oct. 23, you can learn how to safely use a pressure cooker to can low acid foods like vegetables, seafood and meats. In class, participants will can low-acid vegetables.

Oct. 30 is a look at the variety of ways to preserve apples from canning it to making pie filling, dehydrating, and making sauces and ciders. Participants will take home a jar of apple sauce.

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If you’ve ever seen those impressively pretty plates of Scandanavian cookies and wanted to learn to make your own, now’s your chance.Oslo Lodge, Sons of Norway in Bremerton will host three, free cookie baking workshops.I heard about it somewhat late (in today’s paper), so the first one, in which the group baked Spritz cookies beginning at 9 a.m. today will probably be tough to make in time (about 15 minutes as of this posting).

The next two, however, are coming Sept. 26 and Oct. 3, also starting at 9.

On Sept. 26, they’ll bake Sanbakkel (pictured), which is A tender almond cookie baked in tiny tins.

On Oct. 3, it’s Krumkake, airy cookies baked on a special hot iron with decorative etching and rolled into a cone.

Registration is required. Call 360-373-1503 or 360-377-7356.

The classes are at the lodge on Warren Avenue, at the north end of Olympic College’s parking lot near the bridge.

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For this week’s food news roundup, I thought I’d serve up a few ideas for food-inspired day trips this weekend.

Lavender on the Tongue

As part of this year’s Sequim Lavender festivals, a new one called Lavender Farm Faire has been added, an it includes a culinary program with food, crafts and cooking demonstrations at Carrie Blake Park (click for a Google map). The festival started Friday, but goes through Sunday.

Five cooking demonstrations will happen Sunday, though Sunshine Lavender and Herb Farm will host several a day today and Saturday. Among what’s cooking will be a four-course meal made by Cedarbook Lavender and Herb Farm with a spring green and asparagus salad with cranberry lavender vinaigrette, roasted red potatoes with Herbs de Provence (with lavender, of course), grilled flank steak with lavender pepper marinade and sautéed pears with lavender honey.

Farms also will offer lavender-laced (and non-lavender) foods throughout the fair. The wine and beer garden also will offer a taste of Olympic Cellars’ lavender infused wine Mélange Nouveau. Purple Haze restaurant will have a variety of food and lavender cocktails (margaritas and cosmopolitans).

For more information, visit sequimlavenderfarms.org.

Bite of Seattle

Across the water on the other side of Kitsap this weekend is the annual Bite of Seattle at the Seattle Center.

For those who’ve in the past grown tired of going and getting filled up on only one giant plate of taste (or bursting at the seems when you try to top off two plates with a Shishkaberry),  this year’s festival requires participating restaurants to have actual bite-sized portions for $3.75, the Seattle Weekly reports.

Over at the Fisher Building, local celebrity chefs will offer near-hourly demonstrations for The Bite Cooks portion of the festival. And in the Alki courtyard, for $10, you can get into The Alley, hosted by Tom Douglas for tastes from both established and new Seattle restaurants. Most proceeds from the Alley benefit Food Lifeline, so you can feed your soul a little as well.

Strawberry Festival

Vashon Island is home to a festival more than a century old (though it apparently has had several names over the years). The Strawberry Festival has a variety of vendors, like those you’d see at a variety of small-town festivals, including booths with strawberry shortcakes, smoothies, and chocolate-dipped strawberries.  The weekend festival also includes what I’ve decided should be a requisite at any festival, an early morning pancake breakfast (with strawberries!). A shuttle leaves every 30 minutes from the ferry terminal. It’s $1 each way.

Pike Place Chef Demos

On Sunday, Pike Place Market hosts another of its Sunday chef demonstrations with Burce Naftalay of Le Gourmand at noon and Seth Caswell of emmer & rye at 2 p.m. Next Sunday is the second annual “Master of the Market” cooking competition.

Note on next weekend

The brewer lineup for Bremerton’s Summer Brewfest on July 23 was announced this week. The event will include 24 breweries, including Kitsap’s half dozen commercial breweries.

The same day (or maybe before) also is supposed to mark the opening of Bremerton’s Toro Lounge on Pacific Avenue.

And lastly, as I just mentioned earlier this afternoon, Sunday will be the inaugural Sunday farmers market in Bremerton.

Just a note

I apparently missed this when it went online in late May, but Bremerton’s Blackberry fest apparently got a nod from New York Magazine, which compiled a list of 50 food destinations in 50 states. They recommended the blackberry slugs and had this to say in general, “devotees can head to a three-day orgy of blackberry consumption: the Bremerton Blackberry Festival, held along the boardwalk in downtown Bremerton — a smallish Navy town southwest of Bainbridge Island on Puget Sound.” I pity the poor New Yorkers who’ll take the ferry from Seattle to Bainbridge and drive 50 minutes to Bremerton. Hopefully someone at the terminal will point them the right way.

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Kitsap News

The restaurant action, it seems, is on Bainbridge Island. Recently chef and food writer Greg Atkinson announced that he would open a restaurant on the island. Kitsap Sun’s reporter Rachel Pritchett talked with him about it for a story on Monday. By Wednesday, news had surfaced that Hitchcock, whose locally focused fine dining fare has been lauded by area food critics, may expand into the space next door, according to Bainbridge Conversation’s Tristan Baurick.

At Poulsbo’s farmers market on Saturday, Chef Tomas Nevarez, owner of the in-home chef instruction company Simmer Down will demonstrate creating a meal with locally harvested foods.

At Bainbridge Farmers Market, fstopcafé will offer a coffee roasting demonstration and tea tastings and a talk on tea.

Other Northwest News

Seattle Beerfest started Friday. The annual, often crowded, convention for beer geeks at Seattle Center promises 130 brews on tap. It opens at noon Saturday and Sunday. Cost is $25

I missed this last week, but apparently of note is that Seattle’s food scene is better than Portland’s, according to Sunset Magazine, which pitted top cities against each other. Hmmm, I envision a Portlandia episode in the making.

And now, I’m cutting this short so I can get to …

Fourth of July

Northwest weather guru Cliff Mass predicts that the holiday will get off to a cloudy start, but will sun up by the afternoon with temperatures in the mid-70s. That means, of course, prime grilling weather. Every food magazine out there has grilling guides and suggestions.

Personally, I’m not a fan of making all the food red, white and blue (that’s what decorations are for), but there are some more subtle colored-food touches such as red, white and blue potatoes as suggested by Bainbridge Farmers Market, or maybe a little blueberry, raspberry cobbler.

Coincidentally, as the Sea Life blog’s Jeff Adams reminded readers, this weekend also is open to crabbing season and “crabs are as Northwest’erican as espresso and apple pie,” he said. You can grill crab, though some suggest that (after cleaning it, of course) that you lightly wrap it in foil. Crab can be easy to overcook, so be gentle.

From the Food Life recipe archives (which I realize is a bit anemic), I can suggest Peruvian kebabs with roasted yellow pepper sauce, perhaps accompanied by grilled corn on the cob and for dessert, grilled nectarines with berry sauce, though blueberries may make a more seasonally friendly accompaniment than blackberries.

Also of note from the fine food publications out there, Saveur magazine this year offered a grilling guide that included a half dozen barbecue sauce recipes from Dr. Pepper sauce to Carolina gold, briskets and hush puppy or pickled sides (holy wow, why aren’t I eating right now?!). Southern Living boasts the “ultimate” grilling guide. And for those who want fewer calories, Cooking Light also has a Fourth of July recipe compilation.

As always, fell free to share any other suggestions you have for celebratory eating on the Fourth! Hope you all eat (and/or drink) well and stay safe!

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Grocery Glee

This week, the big food news locally seems to be that some grocery store opened in Silverdale Friday. Trader something. It gave even Seattle-focused Bainbridge Islanders something to talk about regarding the main peninsula besides Costco.

To Market, To Market

Elsewhere in the local food world, Bainbridge farmers market heralded the arrival of the season’s first, fresh island strawberries! The market starts at 9 a.m. Saturday, and in years past, those berries cleared out fast.

At the Poulsbo market Saturday, “Bug Chef” (yep, it’s what you think it is) David George Gordon will be signing his new book “The Secret World of Slugs and Snails: Life in the Very Slow Lane” at 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.

Brews

For those looking to venture outside Kitsap for Excitement this weekend (or looking for somewhere to take dad), Kenmore is hosting the Washington Brewers Festival, which features 60 brewers purring 200 beers Saturday and Sunday.

If beer isn’t your thing, Seattle Center hosts a celebration of a different brew: coffee. The Northwest Coffee Festival runs both Saturday and Sunday with taste tests, slow-pour coffee bars and other demonstrations.

Week’s Buzz

The big talk last week was the ode to Seattle food written by New York Times’ Frank Bruni.

Seattle’s Frantic Foodie Karen Brown has her own newly launched ode with a new book, “Food Lovers’ Guide to Seattle.”

Know other must-share blog posts and news? Please comment and link away!

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As part of it’s continuing series of food classes, Washington State University Kitsap Extension will host a class on fermenting. (Think sauerkraut.)

Here’s their press release on the class:

BREMERTON – Experienced and novice food preservationists will learn all aspects of fermenting foods at the Friendly Fermentation class to be held at the Silverdale Community Center on Saturday, June 18th, 2011.

WSU Kitsap Small Farms Team is pleased to host nutritionist and fermentation diva, Trish Carty for this afternoon workshop. Friendly Fermentation will de-mystify home fermentation, while simplifying the process and enforcing the health benefits of lacto-fermented foods. The class will cover a brief historical view on fermenting, detail the process involved, and discuss materials to get you started. We will have several hands-on demonstrations to show just how simple fermentation is!

In her book, Nourishing Traditions, Sally Fallon writes, “The proliferation of lactobacilli in fermented vegetables enhances their digestibility and increases vitamin levels. These beneficial organisms produce numerous helpful enzymes as well as antibiotic and anti-carcinogenic substances. Their main by-product, lactic acid, not only keeps vegetables and fruits in a state of perfect preservation but also promotes the growth of healthy flora throughout the intestine.”

Friendly Fermentation will be held on Saturday, June 18th, 1:00pm – 4:00pm at the Silverdale Community Center, 9729 Silverdale Way NW, Silverdale, WA 98383. Cost for the class is $35/person or $50/ family. As always, 4-H and FFA youth are free. To register visit the WSU Kitsap

Extension website at http://kitsap.wsu.edu/. For more information about Friendly Fermentation contact Shannon Harkness at 360-337-7026 or shannon.harkness@wsu.edu.

About the WSU Kitsap Extension Small Farms Team:
The Small Farms Team provides educational programs and research-based information for Kitsap
farmers, consumers, decision-makers, and others involved in local food systems. Learn more at:
http://kitsap.wsu.edu/. WSU Extension programs and employment are available to all without
discrimination. Evidence of noncompliance may be reported to your local WSU Extension office.

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People who walked around downtown Poulsbo during Viking Fest last weekend may have noticed a new store on Front Street. Crimson Cove, which has been selling smoked salmon, smoked cheeses, nuts and other goods at area farmers markets during the past few years has opened a storefront.

Mark and Jody DeSalvo began selling smoked goods in 2007. They use alder and apple woods to smoke their goods from a building in Kingston.

The store, next to Sluy’s Bakery, has the same salmon and the variety of cheeses from blue to swiss that they’ve sold at farmers and other area markets as well as smoked salts, nuts, dips, crackers and salsas so boaters at Poulsbo marina can take back enough snacks for a day on the water. Plus, they have samples.

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Events

• THE SUN IS OUT! With such a murky May, that’s something to shout about. And to celebrate. I’ve already got iced barley tea in the making in anticipation of warmer weather yet.
• Both Poulsbo and Port Townsend farmers markets are canceled on Saturday, but in their stead will be the festivals that pack West Sound communities during Memorial Day Weekend. You may not be able to get the same fresh veggies, but there will be parades and pancake breakfasts. And if you’re a really industrious Kitsapper (and festival nut), you may be able to squeeze in a foot ferry ride to Port Orchard after Bremerton’s Armed Forces Day Parade (10 a.m.) before you head over to Viking Fest’s (2 p.m.).  How you can also fit in Port Townsend Rhody Fest’s (1 p.m.) is beyond me.
• Seattle Green Fest runs Saturday and Sunday at Qwest Field Event Center. While it’s focused mostly on green businesses and the like, booths will have organic vegetarian dishes, organic beer and wine and a chocolate and sustainable coffee pairing talk at noon on Sunday.
• Seattle Beer Week kicked off this week. The Washington Beer Blog has a list of favorite events to mark the occasion.

Local Food for Baby

The Small Potatoes blog has posts again after taking a little (like bouncing baby little) hiatus. She returns with this post on feeding the new little locavore with tips on equipment and food.

$5 Market Lunch

Over at the Kitsap Cuisine blog, Brandy had a chance to check out the new market lunch offered on Saturdays at Bay Street Bistro in Port Orchard. Here’s part of what she says of it in her post: “The idea is, you can come in on your own and have a low-cost plate of something wonderful, or better yet, come in with friends and order several plates to share in the Mediterranean style. … I thought this was a great way to get a feel for chef’s style.” Looks like I have something to try out on Saturday.

End of the World

At 6 p.m. Saturday, the world as we know it is slated to end, according to Harold Camping, head of the Christian network Family Radio. What does this have to do with food? Well, one clever LA Times blogger has decided (and blogged) that such an event calls for musing on last meals. Hers includes margaritas, tempura-battered fried chicken and red velvet cake. My last day of meals would likely include duck breast in cherry sauce from La Fermata, popcorn with lots of Ajinomoto (essentially pure MSG because who cares at that point?) my grandma’s yakisoba, iced and sweetened matcha and one last, full pint of chocolate peanut butter ice cream. How about yours?

Fish Hype

The year’s first shipment of Copper River salmon made its way to Seattle Tuesday to much (though brief) ado from the local TV stations. don’t get me wrong, the fish is good. But I think some of the breathless hype and a fair amount of the cost has just a little to do with marketing. King fillets are, however, a little cheaper at about $30 to $50 a pound at Pike Place market this year because of a better run.

Chocolate Scientist

Theo chocolate factory in Fremont apparently has a chocolate scientist, according to The Stranger’s Charles Mudede. Andy McShea apparently has been working to make pure chocolate into more than candy bars. He’s been making beverages and pudding with nothing else added. He tells The Stranger, “By looking at the material, and understanding its properties, we can do fun things with it.”

That’s all for this week. I’d have read more food news, but frankly, I’m too busy closing my eyes and setting my face toward the sun! Have a great weekend!

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Steven Gardner reports for Saturday’s paper that the Bremerton Bar & Grill is slated to open April 18.

It, like its brethren Neighborhood Grills establishments, will offer for dinner steaks, fish and chicken dishes with prices ranging from $13 for burger plates to $17 for a surf and turf, based on a look through the site’s menus. For lunch, offerings include the same burgers, sandwiches and salads on the dinner menu for a slightly cheaper price on some items (about a $1 off on sandwiches).

For nice days, the restaurant will have outdoor seating that faces the park.

When opened, it will be the second new restaurant to open in Bremerton this year. The other, Orion in Manette, opened in February. I’ll have more details on that one for an upcoming edition of of the paper and this blog.

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While most of the classes and workshops at the West Sound Small Farms Expo are focused on food growers, a series of four are focus on food making and food systems. Other classes focus on marketing, livestock and horticulture.

The expo is Saturday March 5 and runs from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Cost is $55 and lunch is provided. More info is available on WSU Kitsap extension’s website. Even better, Diane Fish and Shannon Harkness are writing a multiple posts on the expo on the expo on the expo in the Kitsap Farm to Fork blog.

Kicking off the food system sessions is Amy Pennington, a Seattle woman who triple times as a gardner, cook and food writer, and is most recently noted for her book Urban Pantry: Tips and Recipes for a Thrifty, Sustainable and Seasonal Kitchen. She’ll talk about keeping a well-stocked pantry for all-season sustainability. She’s also the lunchtime keynote speaker, when she’ll talk about urban farming, sustainability and resourcefulness. She’ll also be there with books to sign.

The second session is on the Kitsap Food Co-op. The fourth is on changes coming to Kitsap County’s codes to make the county more farm-friendly.

But it’s the third food-system session that most piques my interest: charcuterie. Olympic College culinary instructor chef Chris Plemmons will take on a whole hog, describing butchery and meat preservation.

As part of a video class about two years ago, I sat in on an OC culinary class. The chef stood in front of the class inside a dining room at a large, stainless steel table with one of those tilting overhead mirrors so students could watch him cut as he talked. Students were then randomly assigned cuts to perform.

The video I shot that day did not make it out of class because it wasn’t for the faint of heart, those of us who are far more used to seeing pork chops only on white Styrofoam trays covered in plastic wrap. Regardless, it was one of the more interesting food demonstrations I’ve seen. It also made me appreciate a wider variety of cuts and feel guilty about only buying bacon and pork loin from that pig.

Whether farmer or foodie, I’d love to hear your take on the expo if you go.

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