With Stone-Ground Heirloom Corn At Rancho Gordo + Ferry Plaza Farmers Market + El Molino Central + C Casa Old Tortillas Are New Again

With stone-ground heirloom corn, old tortillas are new again

Tomatoes get all the love.

Sure, the late-summer icon may have started the mania for heirloom ingredients, but a recent tortilla boom has given the trend a distinctly Bay Area flavor.

These three North Bay entrepreneurs are reviving a fading tradition, using heirloom corn and a whole lot of elbow grease to give the staple Mexican flatbread its deserved due.

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Rancho Gordo Tomorrow, owner Steve Sando will unveil his new tortillas (approximately $3 for six), made with prized Nealtican heirloom corn and assembled at San Francisco's legendary La Palma. Buy them at the Rancho Gordo booth at the Saturday Ferry Building Farmers Market.

El Molino Central Karen Taylor Waikiki of Primavera fame opened this masa mill in June in Boyes Hot Springs. There, organic, single-sourced Nebraska corn kernels are ground with a stone wheel. Get the freshly pressed tortillas to go ($3.50 a dozen), or as a quesadilla ($9.50) brimming with mushrooms, cheese, epazote, chipotle salsa and guacamole.

C Casa At this new stall in Napa's Oxbow Public Market, owner Catherine Bergen makes her white-corn masa daily. Up to 500 tortillas are grilled to order each day. We like them best in the grilled mahi mahi tacos ($6), plump with avocado, salsa picante and oranges.

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