From Greg Atkinson

In the early 1980s, shortly after graduating from college, I went to live in a small town called Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. Once a thriving fishing, logging, and farming community, Friday Harbor was transforming itself from a community that depended on resource extraction to one based on sustainable farming and tourism.

In the midst of all this change, I was running the kitchen of a gourmet restaurant that featured local products. I bought salad greens, strawberries, flowers and corn from local farmers. Salmon, spot prawns, and Dungeness crabs came from local fishermen. Twice a week man with 8 children and twenty chickens sold me his extra eggs. I befriended a woman who made cheese from the milk produced by her small herd of happy goats. I bought oysters from a nearby shellfish farm and lamb from a farmer on a neighboring island. Wild crafters, folks who harvested mushrooms and berries from the forest, often stopped by the back door of the restaurant to offer me their findings and since I re-wrote the menu every day, I was almost always able to incorporate these windfalls into the daily offerings.

Of course, all the produce I bought from those local farmers was organic. What’s more, it was tailored to my needs. During the off season, farmers would come into the kitchen and over a glass of red wine or a cup of coffee, we would peruse the seed catalogs deciding together what they would grow and what I would buy. Together, we discovered the radishy-tasting Italian green known as arugula, sometimes called rocket in English, the spiky-leaved Japanese celery mustard known as mizuna and the yellow cauliflower, blue potatoes and red Swiss chard that constitute today’s rainbow gathering of popular farmer’s market vegetables.

At the time, I didn’t realize that what I was doing was revolutionary. I just knew that I was getting the most interesting and most flavorful products I could find. Compared to the stuff I was buying from local growers and gatherers, the produce and seafood that came in on big trucks from the mainland seemed pretty dull. But I was not alone. All over North America, especially here on the West Coast, other chefs were doing similar things, establishing relationships with growers and producers and seeking to provide their diners with local flavors. Almost without knowing it, I was taking part in what has been called the great American Food Revolution, a revolution that is still very much underway.

Earlier this month, I had a chance to visit some of my old friends in Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. Many of the farmers who used to grow food for my restaurant were selling their wares at the Saturday Farmer’s Market and their products looked better than ever. The goat cheese lady was there and my old friend who makes lamb sausage now has organic certification. These days, more and more farmers are adopting organic methods, and selecting more diverse offerings to be grown for mainstream consumers, so as I help develop recipes for the team of cooks at Organic to Go, we can provide our customers with some of the same great flavors that were once limited to tiny pockets of creative farming.

Vive la revolution!
~

Organic Strawberry Shortcakes
Fresh, local strawberries, especially when they are organically grown, are one of life’s simple pleasures. Layered with warm biscuit-like shortcakes and freshly whipped organic cream, (I especially like the buttery looking stuff from Organic Valley), they make one of America’s all time best desserts.
(Serves 4)

1 tablespoon fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/4 cup organic sugar
2 pints red, ripe local, organic strawberries
1 cup organic whipping cream
1/4 cup organic powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1) While the shortcakes are baking, prepare the strawberries. Put the lemon juice and sugar in a serving bowl. Use a sharp paring knife to trim the crown off each berry, removing as little fruit as possible. Cut the strawberries in half lengthwise, allowing the berries to fall into the bowl as they are cut.

2) Toss the berries with the lemon juice and sugar to lightly coat and allow them to stand in the syrup while you whip the cream with the powdered sugar and vanilla extract. Pile the whipped cream into a self-sealing food storage bag then snip off one corner to create an impromptu piping bag.

3) When the shortcakes are baked, cut each one in half. Put the bottom half a shortcake on each serving dish. Distribute the strawberries evenly between the plate, piling them directly onto the warm shortcake-halves. Pipe on the whipped cream. Plant the tops of the cakes over the whipped cream at a jaunty angle and serve at once.
~
Shortcakes

Theoretically, the extra shortcakes would be good with jelly for breakfast or, with sliced natural ham for lunch, but somehow, they always seem to disappear before I have time to worry about what to do with them.
(Makes 8 large biscuits)

2 cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold butter, cut into bits
3/4 cup milk

1) Preheat oven to 400°F.

2) In a food processor, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add butter and pulse the motor on and off until the mixture is uniformly crumbly. Add milk all at once and stir or process briefly to form soft dough.

3) Turn dough out onto a well floured surface, and knead very lightly; do not overwork dough or shortcakes will be tough. Roll dough to 1/2-inch thick and with a biscuit cutter or the top of a wine glass, cut 3-inch circles. Press straight down, resisting the urge to twist the cutter. (Twisting the cutter can pinch the edges of the cakes and prevent them from rising freely in the oven.) Arrange cakes a few inches apart on baking sheet lined with baker’s parchment and bake for 10-12 minutes, or until tops are lightly browned.
~~
Greg Atkinson is author of West Coast Cooking
Photo Credits: (Organic Strawberries and Strawberry Flowers) Swanton Organic Berry Farm
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