Apple Hill's Fun Approach to Organic

Fall has arrived which means Apple Hill is open and ready for business. Apple Hill is about an hour drive from downtown Sacramento. We make our yearly visit to Apple Hill, just as my fiance has done since he was a child. His family has been going for over 30 years so we never miss a season.

Their family tradition is to visit High Hill Ranch, so even though they are not certified organic, we still make a yearly visit since we like supporting local agriculture. High Hill ranch is one of the bigger farms in Apple Hill and today there must have been at least 300 visitors. It was 97 degrees in El Dorado County today (according to the sign at El Dorado Savings Bank in Placerville), the home of Apple Hill, so everyone was out enjoying the California sunshine.

High Hill Ranch features multiple bakeshops (I am admitting here that I am totally addicted to their apple donuts-we bought a dozen today), indoor and outdoor dining, an apple barn shop, craft booths, hay rides, apple wine and beer tasting, trout fishing and more. We love visiting this ranch because it never changes a bit, and it is dog-friendly so we bring our furry friend to enjoy the fresh mountain air.

Our next stop was Honey Bear Ranch, one of two organic ranches that are open to the public. Honey Bear Ranch is family-owned and operated and only about a five minute drive from High Hill Ranch. Apple Hill features over 50 farms so it is fun to cruise the twisty backroads and find your favorite, we were excited to try a new one today.

Honey Bear Ranch has shaded picnic grounds, an organic produce market featuring many varieties of apples, pears and other fresh local produce, bakery, fudge kitchen, craft fair and more. I was intrigued by the chicken strudel lunch special, served with salad, a drink and a big fresh slice of...you guessed it...apple pie.

I had to check out the bake shop before I left. There were apple sauce cookies, apple walnut cinnamon rolls, apple dumplings and apple cheesecake. They also feature homemade apple jam and apple butter along with various other apple delicacies.

Honey Bear Ranch is less crowded than High Hill Ranch and definitely caters to families. It is a perfect spot to get away from the crowds, enjoy a leisurely lunch under the shady apple trees, watch the coy fish and sample some of the organic goods. I was so happy to find an organic apple purveyor in Apple Hill that is as much fun as it is good for our environment.

Honey Bear Ranch is open weekends and Wednesdays from August 25-November, 10:00 A.M.-4:00 P.M.

Honey Bear Ranch
Apple Hill Grower #24
2826 Barkley Rd.
Camino, CA

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2008 Cider Press: The Official Guide to Apple Hill
Send $2.00 to:
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Camino, CA 95709

It's Tomato Season

One of my favorite weekend morning activities is to get up early and head to the local farmer's market. This morning we hit the Davis Farmers Market around 10:00 A.M. The Davis Farmers Market isn't as big as some of the markets around Sacramento, only we are headed to Apple Hill tomorrow so we decided to see what Davis had to offer today.

The Davis Farmers market has been going for 32 years and is open year-round on Saturday mornings. What I love most about this particular market is the number of organic vendors. Tomato season is one of my favorite times. There is every size and color of tomatoes. Cherry, grape, heirloom and more. I picked out a basket of yellow cherry tomatoes. Since the yellow cherry variety is so low in acid they are sugary sweet and perfect as a healthy snack or in a salad of basil leaves, olive oil and sea salt (see my recipe included in this post). If you are wondering about the non-"green" tomato basket...I wash them and return them to the vendors who reuse them.

There were still some strawberries available. It is getting late in strawberry season, most of the local vendors have closed up shop for the season only there are still some local producers who have some lingering berries. I scooped up a 3-pack of organic strawberries, raspberries and yellow raspberries (which if you haven't tried yet...might be worth the trip to Sacramento just to taste, they have a softer more delicate flavor than traditional purple raspberries). The 3-pack was only $10 and now I have an assortment of sweet berries for the week ahead. I heard about a yellow raspberry crisp with a crust inspired by a Bon Appetit recipe for rosemary crisp topping. Since I finally convinced my Yorkie to stop walking in my herb garden, I now have some nice rosemary growing that will be perfect for this recipe. I might have to try it tomorrow...

Next I hit up my favorite mushroom booth and purchased some white button mushrooms to use with my yellow cherry tomatoes for a fresh and light pasta after work one night this week. We finished off our morning listening to a local jazz band and picking up a pepper plant for a birthday gift for a barbecue we were attending tonight.

We were so excited about how pretty our produce looked we even snapped some pictures when we got home to share with all of you...

Davis Farmers Market Organic Yellow Cherry Tomato Salad
1 basket of organic yellow cherry tomatoes
1 small handful of fresh basil leaves
1 tbsp. local organic olive oil
freshly ground pepper to taste
sea salt to taste

Cut the yellow cherry tomatoes in half and place in a salad bowl. Gently tear the handful of fresh basil leaves and add to the bowl with the cherry tomatoes. Add olive oil, freshly ground pepper and sea salt. Mix gently, garnish with basil leaves and serve.

Davis Farmers Market
Central Park
4th and C Streets
Saturdays, 8:00 A.M.-1:00 P.M., year-round

The Capitol Goes Green

The California State Capitol will now be serviced by a LEED Certified Gold central plant which will heat and cool more than 5.5 million million square feet of office space in the Capitol and other state buildings in the the downtown Sacramento area.

The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System™, set up by the Green Building Council, "encourages and accelerates global adoption of sustainable green building and development practices through the creation and implementation of universally understood and accepted tools and performance criteria."

"California continues to lead the nation in fighting climate change and this new central plant is leading by example to reduce our state's carbon footprint," Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a statement. "It is very exciting that this new facility is being built to the gold standard."

The new plant does it's job using 10% of the water used in the old building and includes high-tech solutions to do the job of heating and cooling office space more efficiently. The new building even includes solar panels to provide energy for the offices located inside the building.

The new plant will be fully operational in May 2009.

Skanska USA Building Inc. has designed and is constructing the new central plant and working with Sacramento firm Nacht and Lewis Architects, Flack and Kurtz of San Francisco, Lawson Mechanical and Redwood City Electric, among others. The state's major consultants, on the project include Capitol Engineering Consultants Inc., Lionakis Beaumont Design Group and Jacobs Engineering Group Inc., according to the Department of General Services.-GreenerBuildings.com