Getting to Maine

Getting to our next filming venu, Four Season Farm in Maine, required a short flight back to Los Angeles then an overnight red eye flight to New York. A change of airport, a long delay because of bad weather then finally the flight to Bangor where we had a hire car booked so that we could get to Cape Rosier and Barbara and Eliot's farm.
The short hop from San Fransisco to LA was in one of Richard Branson's Virgin America planes. Brand new, spacious and high tec. I was able to connect to the internet at 35,000 ft - too cool.
The next interesting experience was in the small plane up to Bangor. The man in the seat behind me was traveling with a cat in a carry bag. It sat on his knee yowling the whole way and I couldn't help wondering about the protocol at the security X-ray machine hmm . . .

Inside the Ferry Building

We lunched well inside the Ferry Building I had a delicious bowl of clam chowder with crusty white bread.
Fred organised a late afternoon interview with a mushroom grower so we had several hours to wander round looking at the shops after the outside farmers market wound up.
I spent quite a while in the kitchenware shop. I have never seen so many things for a barbeque in all my life. I do have a tradition of always picking up some cast iron item while in the USA and was sorely tempted by a set of dishes and irons for making Crème Brulee - no more gas blow torches! However this visit our suit cases are just about at the weight limit for flying so we didn't get them.
Some fresh produce is available inside Ferry Building and the shop below also organised weekly home deliveries

The cheese shop was amazing, just too many varieties to choose from.

There was also many different bottled products.

The display of mushrooms was quite remarkable and after a slight hiccup with security guards who where not that keen about Fred filming he secured an interesting interview including discussion about truffles.  Fred is passionate about fungi and he and Jan are returning home earlier that us because he has truffle responsibilities. If you want to know more about the up and coming Capital Country Truffle Festival visit this link.

Ferry Plaza Farmers Market

Jan and Fred stayed in a hotel in San Francisco and we joined them there to visit the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market.  This majestic old building located in the heart of San Francisco is home to a wonderland of shops selling all sorts of organic goods. You will also find kitchen ware, books and a wide choice of quality eateries.
On Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings the wide pavement outside the ferry building you will find Californian certified organic farmers selling their fresh picked wares.
Coming from early winter is was all the tasty berry fruits that caught our eyes but there were great displays of greens, dried fruit, smoked salmon and all sorts of other good things available for sale.

Our Wonderful Berkeley Hosts

A serendipitous meeting many years ago introduced us to our truely amazing friends Kathleen and Ken who live at the top end of Shattuck Avenue which also houses Chez Panisse. Their beautiful old house is perched on the side of a hill and the view from the living room is quite amazing on a clear day.

What an interesting and warm household.
Inside we put our feet up after filming and are entertained by Kathleen's grandchildren.

The Edible Schoolyard Kitchen

If you have been to the Growing the Growers website and watched the video clip you will know just what an amazing garden is possible after only three or four months. Berrima has won a Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation grant. The design for the kitchen has been completed - a wonderful, multi-purpose, airy, passive solar space using some existing buildings with a proposal for a beautiful extention. When we were at the launch of the fund raiser for the Berrima PS kitchen we talked to the architects and promised them some photos of the fit out at the Edible Schoolyard Kitchen in Berkeley.
We also wanted to interview the teachers to find out just how the classes were run and how the kitchen, the classroom and the garden integrated at the MLKMS.

Everything from the colour of the walls to the layout of these workstations 

has been carefully thought out.

The three work stations each have a large kitchen table which doubles as work space

and a place to eat the finished meal.

The room is very well lit, there is plenty of space and the large oven

is out of the way against the wall to the left of the photo.

There is storage and a wash up area at the far end of the kitchen.

All the equipment is up to commercial kitchen standard including

knives, pots and pans and washing gear.

Chopping boards, aprons, tools, crockery - it doesn't matter what it is

everything is in its place. These utensils are all plastic and belong to one of

the three work stations. 

The second station has wooden utensils and the third stainless.

It doesen't matter whether it is in the garden or baking a cake good systems make life easy.

If I had 10 wooden chopping boards I would love a wooden rack to stack them in too!

Ben is in from the garden with salad and broad beans for lunch. 

When they can all the Edible Schoolyard staff sit down together 

to share a meal and have a chat.

It is the last cooking class for the term so the afternoon task for students

is to make a strawberry short cake - a rare treat.

A periodic table of vegetables - what a great poster.

Time for us to leave and let these generous folk enjoy their lunch.

The Edible Schoolyard Office

The Chez Panisse Foundation funds administrative staff, kitchen staff and garden staff for the Edible Schoolyard project. The office adjoining the kitchen was a great place to leave all our gear and also a place to wait while the class finished and we were able to go in and film.

There were lots of familiar volumes in the book cases and jars full of seed.

Sitting in one corner was an old bicycle set up to run a small hand flour mill off a belt on its front wheel. Fred had to sit on it and the following day we saw it set up outside in the garden actually grinding some corn. When it is working the mill is out the front of the bike and the drive band simply goes round the wheel and round the drive shaft of the mill. A very simple arrangement. The garden staff told us that the grain is put into bags for threshing and just winnowed by hand as well. I have take notes thinking about the spelt that we are attempting to grow this winter.

Chez Panisse

This is our second visit to Chez Panisse and the Edible School Yard. On both occasions we have been unable to talk to Alice Waters. We did however catch up with her assistant, a young Australian, David Prior.

We sat in a shady spot under a huge wisteria that covers the entrance to the restaurant.

Mike had to find the owner of a lovely little dog that seemed intent on getting his barks into a documentary. Luckily they were charming (as was he) and we were able to record an interesting conversation with David who filled us in on the history and progress being made by the Foundation.

Tasteful and decorative - what else would you expect here?

The daily delivery from the Acme Bakery.

David takes us round the back to look at the produce that has just arrived.

Fresh Garlic

New Seasons Potatoes

. . . and freshly picked branches of cherries for the table and decoration.

The day concluded with a wonderful meal in the downstairs restaurant where we enjoyed all of the above produce carefully prepared by the chefs who are free to choose what ever menu they want on a Monday.

Edible Schoolyard Garden

Visiting Berkeley is always a real treat for Mike who did his gradate work there in the sixties. Familiar sights, old stomping grounds, lots of memories. It is also the home of Alice Waters  and her famous restaurant Chez Panisse. These days Alice Waters energetically fundraises for her Edible Schoolyard Foundation and together with Carlo Petrini leads the International Slow Food movement.
The philosophy practiced by Alice Waters for over 40 years and which is expoused by the Slow Food organisation starts and ends with three words - Good, Clean and Fair.
At home at Allsun we try to live and farm with this ethic and endeavour to provide ourselves, our family and our customers with good, clean and fairly produced produce.
The problem is that the world needs many more such growers. It also needs consumers who understand what it is to buy such food and this is really the starting point of our 'Growing the Growers' filming trip. We need to address the question how do we encourage the world to change? Who is already making change and what can we learn from them?
The Edible Schoolyard at the Martin Luther King Middle School in Berkeley is where the revival in school garden and kitchen projects really got going. The full story is available on line Edible Schoolyard Garden our visit was mainly to talk to the staff and get ideas and photos to help us with the Kitchen Garden project that we are mentoring with Lucy Turner at Berrima Public School.
The head gardener Ben Eichorn talked with us and showed us around. Articulate, knowledgeable and a very experienced grower the perfect leader for a school kitchen garden project.

The days program is always written up on a white board that hangs in the small ramada where the students gather for the start of their gardening classes. One of the jobs listed is 'the Potato Tower'.  In Australia these towers are usually constructed with old tyres, however a circle of weld mesh seems to work just as well. It may however require a lot more water.
Everywhere you look there are edible plants and flowers.

 Wheat, one of several cereals grow.

Broadbean plants have just been removed from these two beds. 

Compost will be added ready for the next crop.

A moveable chook palace that neatly spans one garden bed.

When not hard at work the hens are free to 

wander around the garden during the day.

A mixed flock of colourful, sleek and entertaining fowl.

Mike checking out the broad (fava) beans.

Freshly havested and on today's kitchen menu.

Tool sheds, green house and a large poultry shed are at the far end of the garden.

From gum boots to wheel barrows everything is in apple pie order. 

Seedlings ready to be planted out.

Figs setting on a huge shady old tree.

The outdoor woodfired pizza oven.

Art in the garden.

What a wonderful place to visit and film.