Nice rice

I first spotted Massa Organics rice (www.massaorganics.com) at the Chico farmers’ market. Admittedly, that’s a little bit of a hike for buying dry goods, so I was pleased to see the happy little bags, adorned with quaint drawings, at Sacramento’s Sunday morning market recently. It’s medium-grain brown rice, grown near Hamilton City, Calif. (check out the pretty farm pictures on their blog). The healthy whole grain has a distinctive nutty flavor and chewy, resilient texture—great plain as a side dish, stirred into a frittata, used to make homemade fried rice or dressed with lemon juice and tossed with vegetables for a hearty rice salad. Growers Greg Massa and Raquel Krach are former biologists who employ green growing practices like capturing irrigation water and not burning crop residue (instead, they built a straw-bale house from their own rice straw). The rice, happily, is as palatable as their farming practices.