deep roots, significant growth, and organically so:
McGrath Family Farms and three fresh salads for spring
kale and turnip slaw with mustard seed dressing
strawberry and wild arugula salad on a Ciabatta plank
spring pea and fava bean salad with fava leaves
Mustard seeds are powerful things. When I was a girl my mother gave me a necklace with mustard seeds in a little locket. It represented a parable about the power of faith and how significant growth can come from humble beginnings (tiny seeds). It was also significant to me because her family came from generations of famers. I wore it all the time and when it broke I was girlishly devastated.
My draw to the mustard plant was not unique. In 1868, Dominick McGrath, a sheep herder from Northern California, journeyed to Southern California where he discovered six foot high mustard plants. Significant growth from tiny seeds. Dominick McGrath had found fertile soil and the place where he would sow seeds and plant his family’s roots. McGrath Family Farms was born. I recently visited the McGrath Family Farm and as I picked (and ate) my way through the organic fields, it was the very soil underneath my feet which inspired our lunch that day and this week’s simple pleasure: three fresh salads for spring (and yes, one includes mustard seeds).
