If you’re a cook, you’ll love the flavor of this Easy Peach Cobbler recipe from www.allrecipes.com that helps take advantage of the summer peach bounty. Not so culinarily inclined? Take on this simple recipe for a dessert that everyone will love.

Here’s what you’ll need
· 12 fresh peaches, pitted and sliced

· 1-cup water

· 1 cup white sugar

· 1/2-teaspoon ground cinnamon

· 1 (18.25 ounce) package white cake mix (I told you this was the easy route, besides you can use organic cake mix if you like)

· 1 (8 ounce) package organic cream cheese

· 1/2-cup butter

DIRECTIONS
· Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

· Spread peach slices evenly into a 9×13 inch-baking dish, combine water and sugar in a small bowl. Stir to dissolve, and then pour mixture over peaches.

· Sprinkle cinnamon over peach slices, followed by dry cake mix. Top cake mix with pats of cream cheese. Dot cobbler with butter or non-dairy spread.

· Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, until golden.

If you really want to make it special add some fresh organic blackberries on top before serving.
And even though this is a “dessert,” why not throw caution to the wind and serve for breakfast on a hot summer morning with a dollop of cool yogurt. It will be a nice change from the norm for you and someone you love. Now that’s Hmmm, hmmmm great!

Nowadays, the produce department is my snack shack of choice.

Let’s face it, July , with its longer days and warm weather is a month that is ripe for snacking morning, noon, or night. Organic produce is the best snack choice around. After all, it is healthy for you, low in calories, and bursting with flavor. Really, what’s not to like?
The interesting part comes when you ask someone what his or her favorite summer produce snacking item is. Some blurt it out as soon as the question leaves your mouth while others ponder as if they are drifting back to their childhood.
For instance, watermelon would be a popular choice if you asked around most offices or homes. Eaten in many ways — sliced, cut into chunks, with a spoon using it as the bowl, served with a little lime juice and cayenne pepper. Or as a friend once told me, watermelon is best served with a hammock and shady tree. I couldn’t agree more!
Watermelon is in full swing in July and English peas are starting to wane; too bad because I could eat a whole bowl of ‘em by myself right from the pod. Or how about radishes; red, purple or rainbow, sliced, with a little sprinkle of salt.
Another friend gets her favorite snack idea from her grandparents and East Coast roots, fresh picked blueberries and heavy cream. I can see how that would be habit forming. I told her if she lets that secret out she might have company at her bowl. Especially since blueberries are so good right now.
July peaches are my favorite fruit, especially those grown after the 4th of July (yes, I think there is a difference in peach varieties depending on when they are grown). Try it out yourself. If you are going to do some peach sampling on your own, do so each week of the month. Ask about the varieties and make a mental note of the names; it will be worth remembering next season when the time comes around again.
I think my favorite summer snacking produce item is Thompson seedless and flame seedless grapes, so easy, so tasty, and so fun. For my favorite veggie I would probably choose Sun Gold cherry tomatoes. Both of these items start out firm and round and with a gentle bite burst their goodness into your mouth. Bunches and baskets of these get consumed in one sitting around my house this time of year.
How about these snack ideas. A big thick slice of rich red tomato, or perhaps whole eaten like and apple, warm and juicy, mmmm. California-grown cucumbers instead of crackers with a little fresh sour cream dip. A bag of Blue Lake beans is a crispy afternoon appetizer, either raw or slightly steamed. Steamed chard roll-ups stuffed with cilantro, hummus and fresh corn. Snap peas instead of peanuts for the baseball game. The list goes on and on!
What’s your favorite? What’s your best friend’s favorite? How about your sweetie? Can you name theirs? It’s fun to ask, and you may be surprised at the answer.
Whatever it is, your produce department or farmers market will have the best, freshest, organic produce available for your snacking pleasure all summer long.
So what are you waiting for? Let the snacking begin!

We’ve long known that a Mediterranean diet high in fruits and vegetables, nuts, whole grains, beans, fish and olive oil is good for the heart, and now you have another reason to adopt this diet. You’ll feel better!
How do these foods help?

* Fruits, vegetables, legumes) were independently protective against depression in the study as they contain an abundance of antioxidant-rich and anti-inflammatory compounds that help protect the endothelium, (the lining of blood vessels) research has shown that a healthy endothelium is associated not only with less heart disease and less depression.

* Olives are said to improve the body’s ability to use serotonin, the brain transmitter that is often found to be low in depression.

* Omega 3-fatty acids found in seafood may improve the function of nerve cells.

All of these benefits from great tasting food, now there’s a reason to try this out.
So, I guess that leads us back to the produce department. And June is a perfect time to get started with your diet change. It’s easy to combine all of these Mediterranean ingredients when you start with produce.

Lets start with breakfast:

Fresh raspberries or strawberries and yogurt are easy and low fat

Sliced pears or peaches on whole grain bread with just a spread of almond butter tastes great and will make your taste buds happy

An omelet with sautéed zucchini, onions, peppers, basil and a sprinkling of feta will make a hearty breakfast that should give you enough protein to keep you going all morning.

Lunch:

A salad of roasted gold and red beets with Arugula, green onions, and drizzled with olive oil is delicious and healthy.

Or perhaps a bowl of cherry tomatoes and sliced avocado and walnuts.

A whole grain tortilla with baked sweet potato used as a spread, sliced steamed broccoli, parmesan, and sliced tomato is hearty and scrumptious.

Plus the complex carbohydrates for the sweet potato will help keep up your energy for the whole afternoon.

Do you need something with a little more protein? Try a little lean chicken or vegetarian burger, chopped and added to a bowl of cucumber slices, crumbled feta, and a bit of chopped red onion. Now we’re talking.

For Dinner:

Roasted corn added to some cannelloni beans and plied on top of some grilled tofu or fish.

Or if it’s heating up in your area you could make your meal around carrot sticks, cucumber slices, low fat hummus, or Greek yogurt sprinkled with dill.

Have a bowl of fruit salad in the frig loaded with melons, berries, and nectarines and you could make everyone one happy while sitting together on the porch.

Which leads to probably the most important part of this diet. Besides the healthy ingredients, the Mediterranean diet is about cooking food and sharing it together. So even though you could go out and have any of these things I mentioned at a local bistro, taking the time with each other to prepare food is what makes this most successful.

Invite your partner and/or kids to shop with you. Have fun picking things out.

Make one night a week where you just take time to eat and enjoy others’ company.

Take a cooking class and learn how to cook as a family.

Whatever you do will all make a difference and lead to a healthier happier you.

Deviled Eggs with Point Reyes Blue Cheese and Toasted Pecans

4 hard boiled eggs
2 Tablespoons of Point Reyes Blue cheese crumbled
2 Tablespoons mayonnaise
Toasted pecans to garnish

Cut eggs in half, lengthwise.
Remove egg yolks.
In a small mixing bowl combine yolks, mayonnaise and blue cheese.
Spoon mixture into the egg shells.
Top with toasted pecans serve.

Makes 8 deviled eggs.

“Make Ya Mother Proud” Egg Salad Sandwich
on Toasted Ciabatta with Sunflower Greens

2 hard boiled eggs
2 Tablespoons minced celery
1 green onion chopped
1 Tablespoon Mayonnaise
¼ teaspoon Dijon
Salt and pepper to taste

Using the coarse side of the grater shred hard boiled eggs.
Combine celery, onion, mayonnaise and Dijon.
Season with salt and pepper.

Serve on toasted Ciabatta with Sunflower Greens

Straciatella with Escarole for One

1 cup chicken broth
1 large egg
1-2 tablespoons of freshly grated parmesan
3-4 leaves of washed escarole*, coarsely chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Bring chicken broth to a boil in sauce pan.
Whisk egg and parmesan.
Turn down broth to simmer.
Drizzle egg mixture into broth, stirring gently.
Simmer until egg is set.
Place chopped escarole in large soup bowl.
Ladle hot soup over escarole.
Season with salt and pepper.

*Substitute your favorite dark leafy green

Egg Strata with Swiss Chard and Fresh Mozzarella

2 T butter
1 large onion diced
4 cups swiss chard, shredded (1 large bunch)
5 cups francese bread, cubed
8 oz fresh mozzarella, shredded
½ t salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 t fresh thyme, minced
8 eggs
1 cup half and half

In large cast iron skillet saute onion in butter until sweet and fragrant.
Add swiss chard, cover and steam for 5 minutes.
Remove lid and continue to cook until liquid is absorbed.
Meanwhile whisk together eggs, ½ and ½, salt, pepper and thyme.
Spread ½ of the bread in the bottom of a buttered 9×13 baking dish.
Top with ½ of the chard mixture and ½ of the cheese.
Layer remaining bread, chard and cheese.
Pour egg mixture evenly over the top.
Cover strata and refrigerate overnight.
In morning remove saran.
Bake @350 35-40 minutes until egg mixture is set.

Serves 6-8

Recipes by Nancy Kelly Weimer

Many people choose the cheaper food for economic reasons…. but there is nothing “cheap” about cheap food. Cheap is an illusion—there is no cheap food, or no cheap anything, for that matter.

There is only the real cost of production—what it would take to produce the product in a way that is healthful, environmentally sound, socially just and culturally appropriate.

If we buy it for less than the real cost of production, someone will pay the difference in price—either our health, or the environment or the child laborer somewhere halfway around the globe.

Someone or something will pay the difference for what we perceive as “cheap,” always.

…from Pacific Sun article June 10, 2010: “Going Green: Between heaven and Hellberg – The Marin Organic director holds the keys to natural-food nirvana”

Since Barbecue season is in full swing and one of the things I love most about outdoor cooking are the side dishes that go along with whatever you are grilling, I thought I would write about one of my favorites – Baked beans.

The other night while I was at the Strawberry Music festival, my friend Deb Poole introduced me to some of the best-baked beans I’ve ever had. They were vegetarian and had just the right amount of sweet to heat.

If you like baked beans you’ll love this recipe.

Deb didn’t have the recipe written down so I adapted a quick and tasty one from this one from www.cooks.com and came up with a winner.

BARBECUED BAKED BEANS
2 (16 oz.) cans pork & beans (drained) or vegetarian baked beans
3/4 c. barbecue sauce
1/2 c. packed brown sugar
1 tart apple (peeled, cored and chopped) we used Pink Lady
1/2 sm. onion (chopped)
2 tbsp. golden raisins
3 strips bacon (optional)
In a 1 1/2 quart casserole, combine the drained pork and beans, barbecue sauce, brown sugar, apple, onion and raisins. Arrange the strips of halved bacon over the top of the bean mixture in the casserole. Bake uncovered in a 350-degree oven for 50 to 60 minutes or until bubbly. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Another favorite of mine is coleslaw and since this is prime New Zealand apple season I thought you might like to try one that uses apples as one of the ingredients.

This Apple Coleslaw, adapted from one I found on www.allrecipes.com is basic coleslaw with a nice surprise when you add Granny Smith or Pink Lady apples.
You’ll need:
4 cups shredded organic green and red cabbage
1 cup shredded organic carrot
1 tart organic apple – peeled, cored and
Coarsely shredded
2 tablespoons honey
1-tablespoon brown sugar
2 teaspoons white vinegar
1-tablespoon pineapple juice (optional)
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 dash salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper

Place the shredded cabbage and carrot together in a bowl with the sliced apple, and toss to combine. In a separate bowl, stir together the honey, brown sugar, vinegar, pineapple juice, and mayonnaise until the honey and sugar have dissolved completely.

Pour over the salad, and toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper, and toss again. Cover and chill until ready to serve. Serves 6

Add these sides to some grilled corn and your favorite grilled entrée and you’ve got a summer meal that can’t be beat.

• The next time you’re preparing a spinach salad, toss in a few slices of navel orange. The citrus fruit won’t just enhance the flavor; its vitamin C will help your body absorb the iron found in leafy green vegetables.

• We all know that broccoli is a good source of fiber, which can help fill you up when you are trying to eat healthy. It is a good source of beta carotene and contains vitamins A, C, and K but if you want to get the most from your Broccoli then eat it with Tomatoes. That’s right, according to University of Illinois food science and human nutrition professor John Erdman. Tomatoes and broccoli have more powerful cancer-fighting qualities when eaten at the same time than when consumed alone.

• If you want to get the most from your salad skip the fat-free dressing and add a good-for-you fat like avocado, walnuts, roasted walnut oil, or extra-virgin olive oil. Why? The good fat/oil makes several nutrients—the lutein in the green peppers, the capsanthin in the red peppers, the lycopene in the tomatoes, even the limonene in the lemon—more body ready for you. Basically each of them is more optimally absorbed with a little bit of fat.  If you would like to learn more on organic avocados check out the our radio show we did with Earl Herrick of Earl’s Organic Produce.

• Like almonds? Try them with a glass of red wine. The phytochemicals in red wine somehow enhance the additive effects in vitamin E found in almonds.

You get the idea. If one of these wonderful produce items is good two and perhaps three eaten together can be even better. Now there’s a value you can’t pass up.

Get your morning started with this energizing and refreshing Kombucha smoothie!

1 bottle of LonjeviTea Gravenstein Apple Kombucha (any flavor would work)
1 granny smith apple cored and cut into slices
1/2 of a cucumber cut into slices
1 bunch of organic mint, stems roughly torn off
1 Tbs hemp seeds or flax seeds

Put all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. Enjoy!

Contributed by Alison Eastwood, RD, San Francisco Bay Area Food and Nutrition Expert, Nutrition contributor to Super-Charged Smoothies

Recipe adapted from the Apple, Cuke, Parsely, Mint Smoothie in Super-Charged Smoothies by Mary Corpening Barber and Sara Corpening Whiteford (Chronicle Books).

Make sure you check all State Department of Labor regulations!

There is nothing new about this legislation, but it is often not entirely known that unpaid apprenticeships at farms – organic or not, may violate existing labor laws in your state.

For example, in California, labor law mandates that if a person provides services of “economic value” to the employer, the employer has to comply with the state’s labor law requirements, which includes allowing breaks and guaranteeing a safe workplace, paying at least minimum wage, workers compensation, and state taxes.

Every state in the United States has their own labor regulations and requirements and may handle farm apprenticeships differently.  However, currently in California, if you want to spend the summer working at an organic farm – even if your intention is to learn and not to “work” – if you provide labor or services that would otherwise require the hiring of a worker, you very likely will need to be treated as a farm worker, and calling it an unpaid apprenticeship would be illegal.

The current labor law was intended to protect farm worker’s right, so the idea behind the current legislation is good. Needless to say though, the local organic food movement is attracting many people, young and old, to find the origin of their food and re-connect to their soil, and a review of the current legislation in California and many other states is much needed to allow some form of apprenticeship programs on small farms throughout the state and nation.

For now, to avoid any unnecessary predicaments and violations and possible fines, please check with your state’s Department of Labor before you reach out to a farm – or before you offer apprenticeship opportunities on your farm or ranch this summer.

Visit the California Department of Industrial Relations website for further information.

(posted under “bummer”)

I went sailing the other day on the San Francisco Bay and was glad I started the day with a good breakfast. So why not plan a great breakfast to share together before everyone is off doing their thing. You could go with the standard eggs, toast and breakfast meat or veggie sausage and everyone would be happy, but why not break tradition and try something a little different this time. Lets start with some bananas and walnuts.

Bananas are a good source of fiber, potassium and vitamin C; and they contain all the 8 amino acids our body cannot produce itself
And Walnuts are loaded with Plant omega-3 fatty acids; vitamin E; magnesium; folate; fiber; heart-favorable mono- and polyunsaturated fats; phytosterols.
Starting with these will be a good foundation to a very healthy breakfast.

I recommend that you break out from the usual morning banana and nut eating routines, adding them to cereal, tossing them into a smoothies, etc and make yourself some banana walnut pancakes. Mmm, mmm. I had some the other morning and couldn’t believe how great they were. I savored every bite and you will too. They are easy to make and will keep everyone going during the busy day ahead. Here is a recipe I adapted from http://www.mrbreakfast.com

Banana Walnut Pancakes
(4 servings)

* 1 medium organic banana (the riper the better) – cut into slices
* 1-cup flour
* 1-cup buttermilk
* 1/2 cup crushed organic walnuts
* 1 large egg – beaten
* 2 Tablespoons canola oil
* 2 teaspoons sugar
* 1-teaspoon baking powder
* 1/2-teaspoon salt
* 1/2-teaspoon vanilla extract

In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.

In a separate medium bowl, mix together buttermilk, egg, cooking oil and vanilla.

Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix well.

Pour in 1/2-cup portions onto a heated (medium-high), greased griddle or large fry pan.

Turn the pancake when the visible side starts to show a lot of bubbles.
Add banana slices and walnuts.
Turn over and cook other side until golden brown.

Serve with butter and syrup, or my favorite way with plain organic yogurt and a glass of OJ.
I think I hear the griddle calling!