A Morning at Nourish
A Morning at Nourish
Today our road trip brought us to Nourish in Old Town Clovis. I love seeing small local businesses that make the healthier choice the easy one.
Nourish does exactly that: local makers on the shelves, real food in the bakery case, and a clear promise about what will never go into anything they sell. Field trips like this are some of my favorite classrooms. A well-curated shop teaches you to read labels, to ask where your food came from, and to notice who is growing and making it close to home. So we went in with a game of Eye Spy.
A Place to Slow Down
The sign out front says it plainly: market, kitchen, movement. Walk in and you will find local goods on one side, a kitchen and bakery counter at the back, and a movement studio next door for classes. A long live-edge table runs down the middle of the room, and it was full of people lingering over coffee.
Free of Artificial Colors, Seed Oils and Fake Flavors
The first thing I noticed at the counter was a hand-lettered sign on kraft paper: their ingredient pledge. Everything here is free of artificial colors, seed oils and fake flavors.
A Lesson in Layers
The pastry case was a lesson in laminated dough: croissants, pain au chocolat, danishes topped with fresh raspberries, and a lemon meringue pastry with toasted Italian meringue piped on top. Next to them sat crisp strawberry pavlovas, a great way to show students what whipped egg whites and sugar can become with patience and a low oven.
Around the corner is a little bread nook stocked with organic sourdough from a local baker: full loaves, midis, English muffins, a super seed loaf and demi baguettes, plus sourdough-style pumpkin spice pancake mix for fall.
Where Cooking Meets the Herb Garden
One whole wall is given over to local apothecary makers: loose leaf herbal teas, dried botanicals in glass jars, tinctures, room sprays, lip balms and soaps, all on rough-hewn wooden shelves. Some of the makers forage and grow their herbs in the Sierra Nevada foothills.
A jar of dried chamomile or elderflower is a great starting point for a conversation about how people preserved the harvest long before refrigerators.
A Map of California on the Shelves
The market shelves read like a map of California agriculture: California-grown olive oils and balsamic vinegars, seasoned almonds, heirloom popcorn kernels, and apple cider syrup and apple butter from an orchard producer.
The honey display stopped us in our tracks, with sage, buckwheat, orange blossom and wildflower honeys side by side. Setting out a light honey and a dark one for a tasting is one of my favorite ways to teach kids that what bees forage on changes the color and flavor of the honey.
We Found Wise Goat on the Shelf
Our Eye Spy game had one winner today. Tucked on a wooden shelf were jars from Wise Goat Organics, one of my very favorite local makers: their stone-ground sesame tahini, keto chaga chocolate elixir, and spicy mustard, a raw probiotic ferment.
Wise Goat is a small, woman-owned business that makes its foods in micro-batches in a farm kitchen in Hollister, using certified organic ingredients from nearby farms. Their ferments are made in glass and stainless steel, never plastic.
Kitchen Words from the Shelf
Reading a label is a vocabulary lesson. Here are the words we spotted on the Wise Goat jars.
- Tahini: a paste made from ground sesame seeds. It gives hummus its rich, nutty flavor.
- Stone ground: ground slowly between stones, the old-fashioned way, rather than with high-speed blades.
- Raw: made without cooking or heat treatment. Wise Goat’s tahini lists a single ingredient: raw organic sesame seeds.
- Ferment: a food transformed by beneficial bacteria or yeast over time, like sauerkraut, kimchi or their spicy mustard.
Wise Goat’s tahini is the one I keep in my own pantry, and it is the secret to my homemade hummus. Here is how I make it.
Creamy Homemade Hummus
Ingredients
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1½ tsp sea salt
- ⅓ cup tahini
- ⅓ cup lemon juice
- 3 cups chickpeas (or 2 cans, drained and rinsed)
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- ½ tsp ground cumin
- ¼ tsp cayenne, optional, to taste
- 2 Tbsp cold water, if needed
Directions
- Blend the base. In a food processor or blender, process the garlic, sea salt, tahini and lemon juice until smooth.
- Add the chickpeas. Add the chickpeas and blend again.
- Stream in the oil. With the machine running, drizzle in the olive oil.
- Season and finish. Add the cumin and cayenne, and drizzle in cold water if needed to thin it out. Blend until smooth and creamy.
In the heart of Old Town Clovis, California.
Sunday to Wednesday 7 to 4, Thursday to Saturday 7 to 8.
No artificial colors, seed oils or fake flavors.
Follow Nourish & Wise Goat Organics
See what is new on the shelves and in the kitchen.
- Nourish on Instagram: @nourisholdtown
- Nourish website: nourisholdtown.com
- Wise Goat on Instagram: @wisegoatorganics
- Wise Goat website: wisegoatorganics.com