From GREG ATKINSON

This soup is so redolent with tomato flavor that you will wonder what the canned version has to do with tomatoes at all. It’s best made with the oversized deep red tomatoes that come in at the end of summer. To set it off properly, a dollop of bright green pesto or a crumble of fresh white goat cheese is just the ticket.

Makes about 4 servings

½ cup organic olive oil
1 large organic onion peeled and thinly sliced
6 large organic heirloom tomatoes (about 3 pounds), cut into thin wedges
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Pesto, crumbled fresh chèvre, or olive oil, for garnish (optional)

1. Put the olive oil and onions in in a heavy soup pot over medium-high heat and cook stirring regularly with a wooden spatula or spoon, until the onions are soft and beginning to brown, about 5 minutes

2. Add the tomatoes, cover the pan, and when the soup is boiling, reduce the heat to low. Simmer until the tomatoes are very tender and beginning to disintegrate, about 10 minutes.

3. Purée the soup with an immersion blender or, if no immersion blender is available, transfer the soup in small batches to a standard blender. (Put the lid on the blender, then drape a dish towel over the lid, and to prevent the hot soup from splashing out, hold the lid down with the dish towel while the motor is running.)

4. You might wish to strain the soup to remove the seeds. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve the soup hot with a dollop of pesto, a crumble of fresh chèvre, or a drizzle of olive oil.
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Organic Recipes, Organic Food, Local Food, Small Farms, Family Farms, Edible Landscapes, Shop Local – OrganicToBe.org

Will explains, “White Oak Pastures works in cooperation with nature to produce premium quality beef that is healthy, nutritious, and good to eat. Care is given to ensure that all of our production practices are economically practical, ecologically sustainable, and that the animals are always humanely treated.”

Established in 1866, White Oak Pastures is comprised of 18 different farms in and around Southwestern Georgia. Will grazes the five thousand-plus cattle on 100% Georgia native sweet grasses. With the help of a loan from Whole Foods Market’s Local Producer Loan Program, Will recently built an on-farm processing facility designed for low-stress animal handling while also minimizing the environmental impact.

True to our commitment to support our local communities, we partner with grass-fed producers from across the country. Grass-fed beef from White Oak Pastures is available in our stores in Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia and in Washington, D.C. and Princeton and Marlton, New Jersey.

Want to know where the grass-fed beef in your local Whole Foods Market comes from? Just check our Grass-fed Rancher Partners page. And don’t forget to pick up some grass-fed beef in our stores to give it a try yourself! We’ve got recipes and cooking tips along with the whole scoop on the benefits of grass-fed on our Grass-fed Beef page.

Whole Story

From GRIST

A recent article in the New York Times documented the growing competition among New York chefs for the highest-quality food from local farms — whether it’s heirloom cabbages or pastured poussins. Opining that “top chefs can’t be lip-service locavores any longer,” writer Glenn Collins offers this mini-food fight as evidence of a “farm-to-table revolution” among restaurateurs.

These chefs’ approach fits nicely into the haute cuisine concept that the chef’s job is to hunt down the absolutely perfect ingredient. The fact that more chefs are looking in their relative backyards may somewhat be a testament to the fact that globalization of the food chain has reduced the variety and diversity of food. It used to be that chefs would explore the farthest reaches of the globe for the obscure and the delicious. But now, the obscure and delicious is more likely to be grown in a peri-urban farm than on a tropical plantation.

I recently spent a morning with a Philadelphia chef who takes the concept of farm-to-table a step further. Mitch Prensky has contracted with nearby Blue Elephant Farm to produce exclusively for his well-regarded restaurant Supper under his direction. In turn, Prensky will limit the fruit and vegetables he uses to the output from Blue Elephant — pickling what he doesn’t serve fresh to his customers. He fully intends to continue cooking from the farm all through winter — Philly has an almost perfect climate for year-round hoophouse growing. What he can’t get from Blue Elephant, he gets from other local providers — including beer, which in Philadelphia results in a fabulous selection of microbrews. The seafood he serves, while not local, is sustainable — a lamentable rarity in high-end restaurants.

A graduate of New York City’s French Culinary Institute who’s cooked at New York’s famed Lutece and Provence restaurants (and an early stint as kitchen assistant for Jacques Pepin), Prensky hasn’t gone locavore to make a political point. As he likes to say, “I’m just here to make you dinner.” Working with a single farm has enabled him to achieve something that all chefs desire: total control. And he’s not stopping with fruit and vegetables. He’s working with the farm to add meat and poultry (Prensky makes his own charcuterie), and ultimately expects to produce cheese and other value-added products off the farm. He even is toying with the idea of his own CSA for a few select customers; included in the box might be his own pickles or other “homemade” products.

Some may wonder about the benefit to the farmer from this arrangement. Luckily for Prensky, Blue Elephant is not your typical farm. Organic in spirit if not certification, it’s in some ways a hobby farm, owned by a wealthy couple who keep a low profile — Prensky wouldn’t tell me their names — but Prensky’s ambitious vision may result in this “hobby” becoming a booming business.

This unconventional partnership represents an alternative model for high-end restaurants and small farms. Take a closer look, through this slideshow:
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Organic Recipes, Organic Food, Local Food, Small Farms, Family Farms, Edible Landscapes, Shop Local – OrganicToBe.org