Showing posts with label vegetables. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vegetables. Show all posts

Tanimura & Antle Part 2: Workers & Safety

September 16, 2011 farm , field workers 4 Comments
Sadly I seem to have lost the photos to this post!!!

 Field Workers

In Part 1 of my visit to Tanimura & Antle I described the family history and how the business has spanned over three generations. But it's much more than those two families. They consider their entire workforce part of the family.

Brian Antle's title is Harvest Manager. He has direct contact with many of the field workers that are out harvesting the produce every day. He knows almost all of his workers by name and everything about their families as well. Many of them have continued to work Tanimura & Antle (T&A) fields for over a decade.


A T&A field worker is guaranteed a minimum wage of $9.20/hour, but their paycheck is really calculated on how much is harvested in a day. Each harvest team's wages are based on team effort. It all amounts to how much their team pulls in a 'per piece' calculation based on the number of boxes filled. Because of this, field workers often specialize in a particular produce. You won't find a lettuce worker harvesting onions and vice versa. They have gotten a rhythm and technique down for picking their particular vegetable. Brian said that a lettuce harvester would be in danger of slicing a finger off if he suddenly switched to a cauliflower field. In reality, then, the teams are often making closer to $14-18 an hour.
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Baked Kale Chips

November 11, 2010 healthy , kale 2 Comments

We are all supposed to eat more dark green, leafy vegetables. Not many of us do. In fact, how often have you ever bought kale? I use it in a great lentil soup recipe from Sacatomato Ann's cookbook, Hands-off Cooking. Other than that, it's an ignored vegetable in the supermarket.

Then Andrew from Eating Rules told me about baked kale chips. Baked kale chips?  Yep. These are your healthy alternative to potato chips and super easy to make. They are so easy and good (yes, good) that now I make a point to buy a bunch of kale each time I'm at the grocer. I can eat an entire bunch of kale in one sitting! Think about how much of your dietary vitamins, minerals, fiber, etc. you just took care of like that!

I'm telling you, give these a try!

Baked Kale Chips

bunch of kale, washed and dried
olive oil
salt or seasoning of choice

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Take the kale and pull off and toss the thick stems, leaving you with just the green leafy bits. Tear these into bite size pieces. Spread them out on a cookie sheet or two. Spritz them with olive oil. (Do not toss them in oil. I did this my first time and it is too much oil!) Sprinkle seasoning over the leaves. Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes. Check. You want the leaves to be nice and crispy, all the moisture baked out of them. Remove from oven and serve!


Kale

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Roasted Brussel Sprout Salad

November 24, 2009 vegetables , 1 Comments


For me, Brussels sprouts are a tradition food. We only had them at Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners and were a favorite of my father. They held special occasion status because we lived overseas and only got them as frozen.


Now I can go down the street to the weekly market under the freeway and buy them super fresh - still on the stalk. And, it turns out, that you can keep them like a bouquet of flowers or fresh herbs. Cut off the end and set it in a vase of water. It will continue to live until you are ready to use them.

When I was growing up we boiled them. Now I know that there are much better ways to prepare them. Best of all - roast 'em.


The first thing to do prep-wise is to clean the sprouts. Take off the dark outer leaves to get to the more tender leaves underneath. Then you can halve or quarter them or do what I did below, slice them to create shred.



Roasted Brussels Sprouts Salad

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Toss prepared sprouts in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. Do not use too much. A little goes a long way. Season with salt and pepper. Add 1-2 crushed cloves of garlic. Toss to coat the sprouts. Spread on a baking sheet. Roast in the oven for 30-40 minutes. Remove from oven. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar to taste. Serve hot or cold.
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