Seasonal and Oraganic - Sometimes isn't enough.

The San Francisco Bay Area is known, worldwide, for its cuisine, but most notably, for its dedication and use of locally grown, organic produce. This could be looked at as unfair - California is hailed as being the vegetable/fruit basket of the nation, but LA doesn't have the reputation of the Yay, nor does Portland, Seattle, San Diego, et al.. So it should be of no surprise when organic, local, and seasonal isn't enough for one SF chef.

The executive chef and owner of North Beach restaurant Coi, David Patterson, has decided to take CORN off of his menu, indefinitely. He reasoning being that the crop has been manipulated so far from the native strain, that it is just too sweet and overpowering to incorporate into his dishes. Patterson stated,

"I’m tired of trying to create a balanced dish with an ingredient that tastes like it’s been impregnated with simple syrup. . .Full Belly Farm used to grow Silverado, a replacement for the now heirloom Silver Queen, until the seed was discontinued 12 years ago owing to lack of demand—it wasn’t sweet enough."

I visited Full Belly Farm this past spring. It is one of the most dedicated farms to the sustainable and bio-dynamic movements in California, and probably the nation. To elaborate, on its conservative plot of land, Full Belly grows a variety of fruits and vegetables - which change along with the seasons. This includes offbeat varietals including French Banana Potatoes and Canary Melon, items you won't find in your local un-Safeway. They also grow flowers, raise lamb, sheep, chickens, and pigs, all while harvesting their own compost. Did I mention they have a slew of tree's growing nuts and fruits?

If you are unfamiliar with farming, a vast majority of the farms in this country dedicate the thousands of acres of farmland to growing one crop, this is called mono-culutre. Here lies the problem, because the USA's favorite crops, CORN & SOY, are particularly hard on the soil, stripping it of its nutrients and then bruising it even further with the use of toxic Green Revolution additives, which becomes a crutch, since the land is too unhealthy to work on its own. On the flip side, used by poly-culture Full Belly and most other organic farms, is a farming technique used to maintain the balance and health of the soil, which in turn, helps to fight off the need of using chemical assistants like fertilizer, herbicide, and insect repellents. By growing so many different plants the worry of a deadly bug wiping out the entire harvest is virtually abolished - which tends to be the main concern when a farm is growing 200,000 acres of corn or soy beans.

In today's commercial climate and the public's new embrace for organics and health, I wonder if Full Belly would be able to find a market for the long lost strains of not-so-sweet corn? Most definitely.

This is the Full Belly Farms farmer that guided us through his farm. Here he explains how a sweet pea can appeal to different customers at different life stages. After his schpeal we were able to grab a few peas from the land and taste the difference. Epic.