Buttery-Salted Almonds

Recently a nearby farm with an attached store contacted us, requesting that we produce a salted roasted almond for them.

Cam has brought by his most recent creation made for this request, a salted-buttered roasted almond. The almond does have a rich smooth flavor with a hint of salt.

If our almonds are carried at this market we will post all information. For now the ideas keep flowing.

Camilo the Almond Blistering Man

I’ve talked about Camilo but you may not know him, if you do then you probably like him.

Camilo, or Cam for short, was adopted into our family during high school, figurative adopted. He spent so much time with us that we just called him one of our kids.

Camilo perfected the art of the blistered almond and works on new flavors for us. He has taken some cooking classes and we are anxious to taste his cooking.

Cam did help develop the tiramisu blistered almonds. Last night he was over for dinner and our visitor from Belgium made the real tiramisu. Cam was hooked on the real thing. Now we will see what he does with the almonds.

Cam is married to Veronica and they share the parenting of their two boys.

A funny side note: last night we were planning the food for an upcoming backpack trip. Cam said he planned to just make sandwiches for all meals for him and his boys. When I told Cam what I was planning to make him quickly decided to join in some of our meals. I told him he’d need to carry his own chicken that we’d make for the 1^st night and he was so surprised that he would need to carry food. We then had a great time teasing him about hiking to McDonalds in the high sierras.

Lemon Pepper Almonds

We have a new product this week!!! “Lemon Pepper Almonds”

Camilo Vasquez has been busy working on our new products and when working on a different recipe came up with this. He has dehydrated lemons then used the powder, mixed it with some ground black pepper and mixed it with our sprouted almonds.

Camilo dropped off the 1^st bag for me to try. The almonds have a little tang from the lemons and are a little peppery from the pepper.

Be sure to try these new almonds at this week’s markets.

Sales person and Artist Gabriela

If you go to our markets on Wed in Santa Monica or Sunday at Mar Vista you will see one very hard worker and great sales person Gabriela Malinalxochitl Zapata! Gabriela sells, gets into the crowd and hands out samples, does whatever the job is. Gabriela is a small lady but a go getter. She sometimes works with her daughter Amy shown in the photo below.

Gabriela is also a great artist. You can find her work on Facebook. Her page is under GabrielaMalinalxochitlZapata. I’m thinking of one piece for our Day of the Dead Celebration that we do for our own family. Check her out!

Long Lost Swiss family Siemens

Nate had a huge surprise at the market yesterday in Santa Monica and it was a fun one!

29 years ago we had an exchange student for several weeks from Switzerland. Silvia came thru a program where students came during the summer and spent both time with a family and with their group. Nate was still a little kid so Silvia played and read to him and his brothers.

We lost Silvia for probably 20 years but a couple of years ago she found us on facebook. Now she is back flying for Lufthansa and got to work a flight into L.A. this week with yesterday off.

We (Nate’s parents) picked up Silvia and drove straight to the Santa Monica farmer’s market where Nate was working. He was busy so didn’t notice us right away. Silvia worked her way to the front where Nate was helping a customer. He looked at her and said he’d be right with her, and then it dawned on him that this was Silvia. What a huge smile! Lots of hugs all around!

After the market we did get together for dinner with Nate and caught up with old friendships.

Veronica, Maker of Coconut Honey Roasted Almonds

Do you ever wonder who is coming up with the ideas for your almond enjoyment or who is making sure your almonds are just right? There are people who are working behind the scenes for your almond enjoyment.

The person who has the coconut honey roasted almonds down to an art is Veronica Vasquez. Veronica has this recipe down to an T, adding just the right amounts of coconut and honey without even a measurement to a bowl filled just so high with roasted almonds. The results are so yummy!

Veronica has been with Fat Uncle Farms since shortly after we opened for business. She started by sorting almonds and then roasting almonds.

Veronica is now manager of the kitchen although I do not believe she has stepped in and laid down the law. She has however made it clear when someone needs to complete a job.

Veronica is married to Camilo, our kind of adopted son who also works for Fat Uncle. She has 2 sons.

Sunday- Fresh Eggs!

Elias, Nate’s son became interested in chickens and eggs some time ago. Elias started raising chickens from eggs and some have survived. He started gathering eggs and since I’m Grandma, I’ve been able to enjoy the eggs since the start.

Last Sunday, Elias was selling his fresh eggs at the Mar Vista market, located just off of Venice Blvd at the I-405. His chickens are free range and without hormones. Last Sunday was his first Sunday to sell eggs. They sold slowly at first and then sold out in a hurry.

Get your farm fresh eggs while they last!