Field to Food

Ginger Peach Upside Down Cake

I love peaches and I am absolutely crazy for ginger and cornbread.  Luckily, all of these ingredients work together and make this a wonderful cake. 

After years of exile living in New England, North Carolina, St. Louis and most recently Philadelphia, I have gone crazy eating California white peaches this summer.  My love of fresh peaches is so great that I have reoccurring dreams of peaches during those years away.  In the dream, I slice a peach on top of my Cheerios.  It is sunny outside and I sigh with satisfaction that I had so many delicious peaches, that I could spare a few slices for my morning cereal.   How many people have reoccurring food dreams?  Food memories are just as strong as other types of memories, I guess.

Berkeley Farmers' Market

Last night, we stopped by the Berkeley Farmers' Market (yes, the name has a possessive apostrophe).  The market has a great atmosphere.  People sit on the grass covered median and eat grilled corn on the cob from Flacos.  As we waited for our corn, we noticed that Flacos will bring fresh masa to the market with advanced notice.  Matt and I have been making our own corn tortillas all summer, but we have never used fresh masa.  We quickly added this to our to-do list: track down fresh masa. 

I would argue that if Flacos is the most popular stop, judging from the number of people juggling corn in one hand and purchases in the other, the second most popular place to visit is the sample bar at the Frog Hollow Farm stand. 

The peaches, pluots, nectarines and plums from this stand were phenomenal.  Choosing stone-fruit is a balancing act between immediate desire to eat everything in sight and to save some for a rainy day.  Then, there is the challenge of choosing less ripe fruit that will mature nicely by the time it is eaten in an hour in two days.  I need to talk with a farmer about this one!  

With heirloom tomatoes on the mind, I had to take a photo of this display at the Happy Boy Farms stand.  Just look at the those green zebra tomatoes!