Category: Uncategorized

Salmon is most often served from the center of the fish. Neat, uniform portions that look like a “deck of cards” make sense in restaurants where speed, consistency, and visual sameness matter. At home, we have more freedom.

Wild Alaska salmon offers far more than its middle. The tail portion, often overlooked, is every bit as nutrient dense and flavorful as the center cut. The tail muscles work harder, which gives the meat deeper flavor and makes it ideal for chopping, poaching, and other simple preparations.

In Alaska’s commercial salmon fisheries, careful management makes sustainability non-negotiable. These fisheries are designed to protect future runs and harvest responsibly season after season. Using the whole fish naturally follows from that philosophy. While some portions not sold for human consumption are diverted to fertilizer or other uses, much of the world has long valued parts Americans tend to overlook. Heads for soups and broths. Collars and cheeks for richness. Roe and milt for concentrated nutrition. Skin for its fat and flavor. These are not scraps. They are simply parts Americans forgot how to cook.

We see the same pattern with produce. Perfect apples without blemishes. Tomatoes without soft spots. Peaches that look untouched, even after half the bin has been squeezed. Fish is no different. What we often call inferior is simply unfamiliar.

At sushi bars, spicy tuna and spicy salmon are often made from the tail end of the fish. Once thawed, the flesh can be scraped from the skin with the back of a spoon, creating a coarse texture that’s ideal for seasoning. Instead of bottled sauces, a quick homemade aioli lets the flavor of the salmon stand on its own.

Here are four simple ways to cook a salmon tail.

Spicy Salmon

Ingredients
Wild Alaska Coho salmon tail

For the Homemade Spicy Aioli
1 egg yolk, at room temperature
1 small garlic clove, finely grated
Fresh lemon juice
Bariani extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt
Crushed red chile flakes or a pinch of cayenne

Directions
Thaw the salmon tail completely. Hold the skin flat and use the back of a spoon to scrape the flesh away from the skin. Chop lightly if desired, or leave the texture rustic.

To make the aioli, whisk the egg yolk with garlic, a squeeze of lemon juice, and a pinch of salt. Slowly drizzle in Bariani olive oil while whisking constantly until thick and emulsified. Season with chile flakes or cayenne to taste.
If using an immersion blender, combine all aioli ingredients in a narrow jar and blend until emulsified.

Mix the aioli into the scraped salmon, using just enough to coat without overwhelming the fish.

Serving Suggestions
Serve over rice, tucked into nori, spooned onto sourdough toast, or alongside sliced vegetables. As with sushi or sashimi, this tends to disappear quickly, so plan on one Coho salmon tail portion per person.

Do not discard the skin. Pat it dry, lightly oil a skillet, and fry the salmon skin until crisp. Break it into shards and serve alongside or crumbled over the spicy salmon for contrast and crunch.

Quick Poached Salmon Tail

Ingredients
Wild Alaska Coho salmon tail
Water or light broth
Lemon slices
Sea salt

Directions
Bring water, lemon, and a pinch of salt to a bare simmer. Add the salmon tail and poach about 4 to 5 minutes, just until the flesh turns opaque and flakes easily. Remove from the liquid and flake.

Serving Suggestions
Drizzle with Bariani olive oil and a squeeze of lemon. Excellent warm, or chill and use for salads.

Crispy Salmon Rice Bowl

Ingredients
Cooked salmon tail
Cooked rice
Green onions or vegetables of choice
Bariani olive oil
Sea salt

Directions
Flake cooked salmon over warm rice. Top with vegetables and drizzle with olive oil and a squeeze of lemon.

Serving Suggestions
Add crispy salmon skin for extra flavor and crunch.

Salmon Stuffed Avocado Boats

Ingredients
1 avocado
4 oz cooked Coho salmon
1/4 lemon, juiced
Sea salt

Directions
Slice the avocado in half and remove the pit. Scoop a little avocado into a bowl to make room for filling. Add cooked salmon and lemon juice and mash lightly. Season with salt.

Serving Suggestions
Fill the avocado halves with the salmon mixture and serve.

We’ll have plenty of wild Alaska salmon tail portions at market this weekend. Four coho salmon tails, four easy meals!

Stay well fed,

Brenna & Kenny

Over the past few weeks we’ve taken a closer look at the world of the hive. We started with honey itself and the simple truth that real honey crystallizes. From there we slowed down to understand bee pollen, not as a supplement but as part of the nutrition that sustains a colony. We explored the quiet mechanics of plant reproduction behind pollination. We followed bees across large agricultural landscapes and then stepped back inside the hive to see how royal jelly fits into the life of the colony.

Along the way a pattern began to appear. The more we looked at how the hive actually works, the less convincing many of the common stories about bees and honey became.

Some of those stories have been around for a long time. For years people were told that crystallized honey must be fake or spoiled. In reality crystallization is simply what happens when the natural sugars in honey reorganize over time. It is one of the most ordinary things real honey does.

Other misunderstandings come from removing hive foods from their context. Pollen is often treated as a human health product when its real role in the hive is feeding the colony. Royal jelly is sometimes described as a kind of superfood, even though inside the hive it serves a very specific purpose tied to raising queens and guiding the colony’s future.

More recently another kind of myth has been circulating through short videos and viral posts. These clips promise quick ways to determine whether honey is real using visual tricks or patterns. One example, sometimes called the honey hex test, suggests that swirling diluted honey should reveal hexagonal shapes similar to honeycomb. It can look convincing, but these demonstrations do not actually measure authenticity.

Honey is a remarkably complex food. Determining whether it has been adulterated requires laboratory analysis, not visual reactions in a bowl. Scientists studying honey authenticity use tools such as NMR spectroscopy, isotope analysis, and melissopalynology, the study of pollen grains naturally present in honey. Together these methods create a botanical and molecular fingerprint that reveals where honey came from and whether anything has been added.

That work matters because honey fraud does exist. In some cases modern adulteration involves novel syrups designed to resemble honey closely enough to pass simple screening tests. Detecting those products requires careful scientific analysis, sometimes described as honey forensics.

But for most of us the deeper lesson is not about running tests at home. It is about understanding the system that produces honey in the first place.

Bees do not make honey to prove purity to us. They store it as energy for winter. Pollen nourishes the colony. Royal jelly guides the future of the hive. Each substance exists because the colony needs it, not because humans find it fascinating.

When we see the hive that way, many of the myths lose their appeal. What remains is something far more interesting: a living system built on cooperation, timing, and survival.

We’ve received thoughtful feedback and some fascinating questions throughout this series, which tells us many of you are just as curious about the inner life of the hive as we are. As we close this chapter, we’d love to hear what you’d like to explore next. Another short series? A deep dive on a single topic? Let us know what questions you’re carrying, and if you found value in this series, feel free to share it with someone who might enjoy the journey through the hive as well.

Bee Well,

Brenna & Kenny

After watching bees at work in the fields, it feels right to step back inside the hive.

Over the past few weeks we’ve followed honey from flower to jar and learned why real honey crystallizes. We slowed down to understand bee pollen for what it actually is, not what it’s often marketed to be. We even lingered on the quiet mechanics of plant reproduction that make both honey and pollen possible. Most recently we followed bees far beyond the hive as agricultural workers, pollinating vast landscapes not of their choosing. But none of that outward labor exists without something steadier and more deliberate happening inside the hive itself.

Inside the hive, priorities are different. Honey is stored as food for the colony. Pollen is gathered, packed, and transformed to nourish developing bees. These are shared resources produced in abundance and meant to sustain many. Royal jelly belongs to a different category altogether. It is not stored. It is not abundant. It is a fresh, metabolically costly secretion produced by nurse bees and used sparingly at very specific moments in the life of the colony.

Royal jelly is often described as the food of a queen, but that shorthand misses something important. All larvae receive royal jelly briefly at the start of life. Only a few continue to receive it, and that difference shapes everything that follows. This is not about luxury or excess. It is about allocation. Royal jelly is how a hive determines continuity, leadership, and survival. It is produced fresh and used immediately because the bees require it.

Lately we’ve been asked about royal jelly more and more, often in the context of supplements or social media trends. That curiosity is understandable. Humans tend to notice what is rare, powerful, and difficult to obtain. But fascination can easily flatten context. When something is removed from the system that gave it meaning, it becomes easy to misunderstand what it was actually for.

Royal jelly is not harvested the way honey is. It is not produced in surplus and it is not something bees are trying to offer. Commercial production relies on repeated queen rearing and collecting the jelly early, before a queen can fully develop. Much of the global supply comes from large-scale operations overseas where freshness, handling, and consistency are difficult for the end consumer to verify. Like many hive products that drift into the supplement space, hype often travels faster than clarity.

We’re also sometimes asked whether royal jelly is already present in honey. Honey is a complete food in its own right, created by bees to sustain the colony through scarcity. Royal jelly, by contrast, is produced fresh and used immediately for a very specific purpose. If trace amounts ever appear in honey, they are incidental, not concentrated, and not something bees are intentionally providing. These substances serve different roles inside the hive.

For us the line is simple. We don’t separate, concentrate, or sell royal jelly, not because it lacks intrigue, but because it does not belong to the category of foods the hive makes for sharing. Honey does. Pollen does. Royal jelly serves a different purpose entirely, one that only makes sense inside the system that produces it.

Next time we’ll close this series by widening the lens one last time and looking at what happens once honey leaves the hive and enters the larger human world that surrounds it. If you’ve found value in this series so far, we’d be grateful if you shared it with someone who’s curious too.

Bee well,

Brenna & Kenny

So far in this series, we’ve been moving steadily outward from the hive. We started with honey itself and why real honey crystallizes. Then we looked at bee pollen, one of the most concentrated foods bees collect and bring back to the hive. Last week, with botanical sexism, we widened the lens further and explored how plant diversity, pollen, and human systems intersect. Today, we’re stepping even further out, looking at bees beyond the hive and into modern food production.

One place this connection becomes especially clear is almonds.

Right now, as winter begins to loosen its grip, something unusual is happening in American agriculture. While many plants and pollinators are still in their quieter season, millions of honey bee colonies are being loaded onto trucks and transported to California for a single purpose: pollinating almond orchards during a very short bloom window. This scene repeats itself every year, making the almond bloom the largest managed pollination event on Earth.

Almond trees depend almost entirely on insect pollination, and California produces the vast majority of the world’s almonds. In practical terms, this means a significant portion of the nation’s commercial honey bee colonies are concentrated in one region at one time, doing one job, on a very tight schedule.

This is the real link behind the frequent headlines connecting bees and almond milk. It isn’t that almonds themselves are inherently harmful to bees, or that a single food choice is solely responsible for bee losses. The issue is scale. When pollination is compressed into a single crop, in a single place, over a short period of time, it places unique demands on an already stressed insect.

Honey bees today face a layered set of pressures: parasites, disease, limited forage diversity, environmental stress, and chemical exposure. Large-scale pollination doesn’t exist outside of that context. It adds another demand, pulling colonies out of winter patterns early and asking them to perform intense work before the season naturally unfolds.

Nutrition matters as well. Bees thrive on diversity. A wide range of flowering plants spread across time supports healthier colonies than a single abundant bloom followed by scarcity. Even when a crop provides ample nectar and pollen for a short window, what happens before and after that bloom plays a critical role in overall colony health.

Colony losses are another part of this picture. Modern beekeeping now operates with annual losses that would be considered unacceptable in most forms of animal agriculture. While the exact drivers shift from year to year, the overall pattern has been consistent: bees are working within systems that demand intense performance while offering very little buffer when conditions are less than ideal.

This doesn’t make almonds the villain of the story. It does, however, remind us that bees can’t be understood only through the products they make. Honey tells one story. Pollination tells another. Together, they show how deeply bees are woven into modern food production, well beyond what ends up on our shelves.

Understanding this connection doesn’t require alarm. It requires attention. In the same way that learning how real honey behaves helps us recognize quality and authenticity, learning how bees function within modern agriculture helps us better understand the systems behind our food.

Next time we’ll move back inside the hive and look at a substance that has captured a lot of recent attention: royal jelly. We’ll explore what it is, why bees make it, and how it’s being talked about far beyond the hive.

If you’ve found any part of this series valuable or informative, consider sharing it with someone who might appreciate a deeper understanding of bees, honey, and the systems that shape both.

For the bees,

Brenna & Kenny

In this series, we’ve been exploring the relationship between bees, honey, and the immune system, beginning with crystallized honey and why it’s a sign of authenticity rather than a flaw, then moving into bee pollen and how it interacts with seasonal allergies. Together, those first pieces asked us to reconsider what real food looks like and how the immune system responds to it. Today, we’re stepping a little further into the environment around us.

Seasonal allergies are often treated as unavoidable. Spring comes, pollen appears, and many of us brace ourselves. But what if part of the story isn’t just about plants doing what plants do, but about how our cities were designed decades ago, and how those decisions continue to shape what we experience today?

There’s an idea that’s been circulating quietly among botanists, allergists, and urban foresters for years, often referred to as botanical sexism. The term may sound provocative, but the concept itself is fairly simple. Beginning around the 1950s and 1960s, many cities intentionally planted male trees instead of female ones. The reason wasn’t ideological. It was practical. Female trees drop fruit, seeds, and pods, which can be messy and require cleanup. Male trees do not. For city planners focused on cleaner sidewalks and lower maintenance costs, male trees seemed like the obvious choice.

What wasn’t part of that conversation at the time was pollen.

In many tree species, male trees are the pollen producers, while female trees receive pollen. In a balanced landscape, pollen has somewhere to go. But when large numbers of male trees are planted without their female counterparts, pollen remains suspended in the air, circulating through streets, parks, homes, and lungs. Over time, those planting decisions compounded. Trees matured, pollen output increased, and urban environments, already warmer and more enclosed than rural ones, became especially good at trapping airborne pollen.

This leads to a question worth sitting with. Could the way our cities were planted be one factor influencing how intense allergy season feels today?

This isn’t about pointing to a single cause. Allergies are complex. Diet, immune health, pollution, indoor living, and reduced microbial exposure all play a role. But pollen load matters, and it’s reasonable to wonder whether an environment engineered for convenience may have unintentionally increased our exposure to it. Seen this way, allergies can be understood less as a personal failure or a broken immune system, and more as a response, a signal from the body reacting to conditions it didn’t evolve alongside.

Which brings us back to something we often return to here. Supporting the immune system doesn’t start with suppression. It starts with nourishment. Real food, intact ecosystems, and a closer relationship to the natural world that shapes us all play a role in resilience.

Next time, we’ll look more closely at how large-scale food production depends on pollination, how those systems have been built for efficiency rather than balance, and what that may mean for bees, landscapes, and the foods many of us consume every day.

If you’ve found value in this series so far, we encourage you to share it. These topics touch food, health, and the environment we all live in, and meaningful change begins with better understanding and shared awareness.

Stay curious,

Brenna & Kenny

In our last note, we talked about real honey, why it crystallizes, and what that natural change tells us about how honey is handled and what it retains. Today’s newsletter builds on that foundation by focusing on another concentrated food from the hive: bee pollen, what it is, why it matters nutritionally, and how to use it thoughtfully.

Bee pollen begins in the field. As bees move from bloom to bloom, pollen clings to their bodies and is packed into small “baskets” on their legs to carry back to the hive. Beekeepers collect a portion of it using a screen at the hive entrance that gently brushes off some of those pellets as the bees pass through, leaving the rest for the colony. What’s collected is exactly what the bees gathered from the landscape around them, compressed into a whole food.

Because it reflects the plants bees forage from, bee pollen naturally raises questions about what it contains and how it supports the body. One question that came up a few weeks ago at market was whether bee pollen is a whole food source of copper. It came from a customer who was clearly well versed in nutrition and paying close attention to trace minerals. The answer is yes, and that question opens the door to a much broader nutritional picture.

Bee pollen is one of the most nutrient dense foods found in nature. It contains a full spectrum of B vitamins, along with trace minerals such as copper, magnesium, manganese, zinc, and iron. These nutrients support energy production, metabolic function, connective tissue health, and overall resilience. Copper, in particular, works closely with iron and plays a role in cellular energy, yet it is a mineral many people do not get enough of through modern diets. Bee pollen offers these nutrients in a food based, highly bioavailable form.

Seasonal support is another reason many people reach for bee pollen. It is not medicine, and it is not a quick fix. Instead, it is often used gently and intentionally during times of exposure. In my experience, people tend to overuse it. There is no standard dose, and individual responses vary. Starting small is key. Micro dosing, just a few grains at a time, allows the body to respond without being overwhelmed and gives you space to observe what works best for you.

Bee pollen is also widely used for sustained energy. We have many athletic clients who incorporate it into their routines for steady, long lasting fuel rather than a spike and crash. This kind of feedback shows how this food is being used in real life, not as a supplement trend, but as nourishment.

When it comes to everyday use, smoothies are by far the most common choice we hear at market. They’re simple, familiar, and an easy way to incorporate bee pollen into a daily routine. Bee pollen also has a lightly floral, honeyed crunch that works beautifully sprinkled over yogurt or açai bowls, or even eaten plain by the pinch.

We also carry Power Honey, our honey and pollen blend. Honey is the foundation, with pollen thoughtfully incorporated to make daily use simple and approachable. The honey softens the intensity of the pollen and encourages consistency. Beginning now, ahead of allergy season, gives the body time to adjust gently.

And because food should be both nourishing and enjoyable, here is a simple way to use bee pollen in a savory application.

Simple Bee Pollen Vinaigrette
Whisk together:
2 tablespoons Bariani olive oil
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar or fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon raw honey
½ teaspoon bee pollen
Sea salt to taste

Let the vinaigrette rest for a few minutes before serving so the pollen softens slightly. Drizzle over greens, roasted vegetables, or grain bowls.

Next time, we’ll venture a little further into the weeds. We’ll look at how the plants around us are chosen, how pollen shows up in our daily environments, and why some modern choices may be quietly shaping what we experience during allergy season.

Stay well fed,

Brenna & Kenny

This newsletter begins a short educational series we will be sharing over the coming weeks focused on bees, honey, pollen, and seasonal allergies. These are topics we talk about at the market every weekend, often one question at a time. Our goal with this series is to step back and offer clearer context. What bees actually do. What real honey is. How pollen works. And why so much confusion exists around these foods in the first place.

One of the most common questions we hear about honey is also one of the simplest to answer. Why did it turn solid? Has it gone bad? Is it sugared up? The short answer is no. The longer and more interesting answer is that crystallization is exactly what real honey does.

Honey is a supersaturated solution of natural sugars, primarily fructose and glucose. Glucose is less soluble than fructose, so over time it naturally separates and forms crystals. Raw honey still contains pollen, enzymes, and microscopic wax particles, all of which give those crystals a place to form. Nothing has been added. Nothing has gone wrong. The honey has simply shifted form.

This is also why crystallization is such a strong indicator that honey is raw. Most grocery store honey has been heated aggressively and filtered to remove pollen and other solids. That processing delays crystallization but at the cost of enzymes and biological activity. When honey never crystallizes, it is often because something has been done to it. When honey does crystallize, it is behaving exactly as nature intended.

Honey is also remarkably long lived. Immortal is not an exaggeration. Archaeologists have found honey in ancient tombs that was still edible thousands of years later. Honey’s low moisture content, natural acidity, and antibacterial properties make it one of the few foods that truly does not spoil under normal conditions. Crystallization is not a sign of age or decline. It is simply a phase.

It is also worth remembering that honey is not table sugar. Table sugar is refined sucrose, stripped of context and nutrients. Honey is a whole food. Its sugar structure is closer to that of fruit, primarily fructose and glucose, already transformed by bees. Along with sweetness, honey contains enzymes, organic acids, trace minerals, antioxidants, and pollen compounds unique to its floral source. Many people experience honey very differently in their bodies than refined sugar because it arrives with far more information than sweetness alone.

If you prefer your honey liquid, it can be gently returned to that state without damaging it. Bring a pot of water to a boil, turn off the burner, and set the entire jar of honey into the hot water. Let it sit for at least twenty minutes, longer for a fully crystallized jar. Stir occasionally if possible. The honey will slowly reliquefy. It will crystallize again over time, because that is what real honey does. Please never heat honey in the microwave, that kills all the benefits of real raw honey.

Crystallized honey is also wonderful to use just as it is. Stir it into coffee or tea and it melts instantly. Spread it on toast, biscuits, or sourdough where it stays put instead of dripping onto the plate. Spoon it onto yogurt, oatmeal, or cottage cheese for a slow dissolving sweetness. It works beautifully in vinaigrettes where the crystals dissolve as you whisk, and it is excellent for baking when you want sweetness without excess moisture.

As we move through this series, our hope is to replace a little confusion with understanding. Bees matter. Honey matters. Pollen matters. And misinformation spreads far more easily than truth. If this was helpful, please share it with a friend, a family member, or anyone who has ever hesitated over a crystallized jar of honey. Education around bees and their foods benefits all of us.

Next time, we will turn our focus to bee pollen. What it is, how it is collected, why it matters nutritionally, and how to use it thoughtfully. We will also talk about Power Honey, our honey and pollen blend, and why bringing these two foods back together can be such a natural fit, especially during seasonal transitions. Curious about bee pollen? Start here!

Stay well fed,

Brenna & Kenny

This week’s recipe came straight from the market. One of our customers stopped by to tell us about a dish her family has made for years, something dependable and deeply loved in her home. She tried it with our beef cubed steak, liked it so much that she came back to buy another one, and even brought us a portion of her own version to taste. It was simple, crisp, and genuinely delicious. That kind of feedback is hard to beat.

Beef cubed steak is one of those quietly useful cuts that tends to surprise people once you understand what it is and how it’s meant to be used. It begins as round steak, a hardworking, lean cut, and is mechanically tenderized by the butcher. Rather than handling that step yourself with a meat hammer, the tenderizing has already been done in a way that creates a thinner piece of beef with a textured surface. That texture helps seasoning cling, shortens cooking time, and makes cubed steak especially well suited to quick, high-heat cooking.

One of the best expressions of cubed steak is beef milanesa, a dish found throughout South America. It’s often compared to chicken-fried steak, but milanesa tends to be thinner, crisper, and brighter, finished with citrus and paired with simple sides. It’s comfort food, but not heavy, and it’s a good reminder that round cuts don’t need to be complicated to be deeply satisfying.

Crispy Milanesa Steak

Ingredients

Approximately 1 lb beef cubed steak

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 eggs

2 cloves garlic, finely minced

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon smoked paprika or mild chili powder

½ teaspoon dried oregano

2 to 3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro or parsley

1 cup all-purpose flour

Lard, for pan-frying

Fresh lime or lemon wedges, for serving

Directions
Season the cubed steak lightly on both sides with salt and pepper.

In a shallow bowl, whisk together the eggs, garlic, cumin, paprika or chili powder, oregano, fresh herbs, and a pinch of salt. Place the flour in a second shallow dish and season lightly with salt and pepper.

Dip each piece of beef into the egg mixture, allowing excess to drip off, then dredge thoroughly in the flour, pressing gently so it adheres in a thick, even coating.

Heat a generous layer of lard in a wide skillet over medium-high heat. Pan-fry the milanesa in batches if needed, cooking just a few minutes per side until golden, crisp, and cooked through.

Transfer briefly to paper towels or a rack, then serve hot with fresh lime or lemon squeezed over the top.

Milanesa is traditionally served simply, which is part of its appeal. White rice, black beans, and sliced avocado make a classic plate. A crisp cabbage slaw dressed with lime and olive oil keeps things fresh. For something heartier, mashed or roasted potatoes work beautifully. It’s also excellent tucked into a crusty roll or served alongside warm tortillas, refried beans, and salsa.

Cubed Steak vs. Round Steak
Round steak is lean and flavorful but benefits from thoughtful preparation. Cubed steak is round that’s already been mechanically tenderized, making it ideal for quick, high-heat cooking and breaded preparations like this one. If you want a cut that’s ready to go straight to the pan, cubed steak makes it easy; round steak gives you more flexibility depending on how you prepare it. Same cut, different treatment, different outcome.

If round steak has ever felt limiting or intimidating, cubed steak is a very approachable place to start. It cooks fast, feeds a family well, and responds beautifully to simple seasoning and good technique. It’s a reminder that even the most straightforward cuts can be deeply satisfying when used the right way.

We’ll have plenty of beef at market, including both round steak and beef cubed steak, ready for easy weeknight meals and deeper weekend cooking alike. Come early, bring a cooler, and don’t hesitate to stock up. These are the kinds of cuts that earn their place in the freezer when you actually put them to work.

Buen provecho,

Brenna & Kenny

Bariani Olive Oil has been our favorite from the very beginning. When we started doing farmers markets in February of 2002, it was already the olive oil we trusted and used at home. The story goes back even further. Kenny was introduced to Bariani in the late 1990s by one of his fishing boat captains, Michael Patatucci, who ran a small family operation. Those kinds of introductions tend to matter, especially in food, and this one has held up for decades.

Bariani is a family owned producer with roots in Northern Italy and olive orchards in California. Their approach has remained steady over time: careful growing, attentive harvesting, cold extraction, and bottling without shortcuts. We have always valued domestic olive oil producers who maintain direct control from tree to bottle, because that level of transparency is difficult to guarantee with imported or mass market oils that move through long and opaque supply chains.

This matters because olive oil is widely recognized as the most adulterated food in the world. Mislabeling, blending with refined oils, and oxidation during transport remain persistent issues. Choosing a producer that publishes harvest information, tests their oil, and stands behind their methods is one of the simplest ways to avoid those pitfalls.

We just received a fresh shipment from the most recent fall 2025 harvest, and both oils we carry will be available at market. Bariani’s early harvest extra virgin olive oil is pressed from green olives picked earlier in the season, resulting in a robust, grassy oil with an artichoke finish. Bariani’s fall extra virgin, made from olives harvested later in the season, has a smoother, more versatile profile that is well suited to everyday cooking or dressing salads. A recent published polyphenol analysis for Bariani extra virgin olive oil showed 643 mg/kg, a level that places it firmly in the high polyphenol range for extra virgin olive oil. Polyphenols contribute to both flavor and stability, and are responsible for the subtle bitterness and gentle peppery finish that signal freshness and quality in a well made olive oil. This is especially notable given that early harvest oils, cold pressed from green olives, naturally contain even higher polyphenol levels, which contributes to their more robust flavor and peppery finish.

We use these oils the way good olive oil is meant to be used. Finished over vegetables or fish, whisked into simple dressings, or used as a dipping oil for good bread with a pinch of salt. When olive oil is this fresh and clean, it does not need embellishment.

Because properly produced extra virgin olive oil has a best by date that extends at least one year beyond bottling, this is a practical moment to think beyond a single bottle. Fresh harvest oil stored well is ideal for quarterly or even yearly kitchen use, making it easy to cook well every day without compromise.

Fresh Bariani extra virgin olive oil and early harvest extra virgin olive oil will be available at market this week. We highly recommend placing your order now! If olive oil is a true staple in your kitchen, this is an ideal time to stock up on a harvest you can trust.

Try our recipe for Pecan Basil Pesto

From our table to yours,

Brenna & Kenny

London broil is one of those phrases that sounds far more formal than it actually is. Despite the name, it has no real ties to London or to British cooking at all. The term began appearing in American kitchens in the early to mid-20th century, when home cooks were working with flavorful, traditional cuts of beef and needed a reliable way to make them shine. London broil originally referred not to a specific cut, but to a method: marinate, cook hot and fast, then slice very thinly across the grain. Over time, the name stuck, and round steak became one of the most common cuts used for this approach.

Round steak comes from the hind leg of the animal, a muscle built for movement rather than leisure. That work shows up as a more toothsome texture and a deeply beefy flavor. It isn’t meant to behave like a ribeye, and it doesn’t need to. When paired with the London broil method it was designed for, round steak becomes purposeful, satisfying, and surprisingly elegant on the plate.

Classic London Broil

Ingredients
1 beef round steak, approximately 1.5 pounds
1/4 cup Bariani Olive Oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar or red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme or rosemary

Directions
Whisk together the olive oil, vinegar, Dijon, garlic, salt, pepper, and herbs. Place the round steak in a shallow dish or resealable bag and coat evenly with the marinade. Marinate in the refrigerator for 4 to 8 hours, turning once or twice.

Remove the steak from the refrigerator about 30 minutes before cooking. Heat a grill or cast-iron skillet until very hot.

Lightly pat off excess marinade and cook the steak over high heat for about 4 to 5 minutes per side, depending on thickness, aiming for medium-rare to medium.

Transfer the steak to a cutting board and let it rest, uncovered, for at least 10 minutes. Before slicing, notice the direction of the muscle fibers running through the meat. Slice very thinly across those lines rather than parallel to them. Cutting against the grain shortens the fibers in each bite and makes a noticeable difference in how the steak eats.

Kitchen Tip: Chimichurri for Round Steak
A bright, herb-forward sauce is a natural match for round steak. Chimichurri adds freshness and balance without masking the beef. Stir together chopped parsley, minced garlic, Bariani Olive Oil, a splash of red wine vinegar, salt, black pepper, and a pinch of crushed red pepper. Let it sit for 10 to 15 minutes, then spoon lightly over thinly sliced steak or serve on the side.

Serving ideas
Thinly sliced London broil is especially good served warm or at room temperature over a simple green salad with vinaigrette. It also pairs beautifully with roasted potatoes, sautéed greens, or a grain salad dressed with olive oil and herbs. Leftovers make excellent steak salads, wraps, or sandwiches the next day.

Round steak may never draw the same attention as ribeye at the market, but it offers something different and equally worthwhile. If you’ve been curious about cooking beyond the usual suspects, now’s the time. We have beautiful round steaks ready for the taking, just waiting for a good marinade and a hot pan. Come see us at the market this weekend and give this classic cut the attention it deserves.

Come hungry,

Brenna & Kenny