My great-grandmother, Ora Goodman, and her garden, were the impetus for me to start writing this blog.  She was a major influence all through my childhood.  She lived a ‘local’ life without realizing she was doing so.  She simply lived her life.  This series is part of a longer piece I am working on about her, and her life.  Herewith, Part 6…

Spring, Summer is Coming

The advent of spring always thrilled me because it meant that my favorite season — Summer! – was just around the corner.  The spring garden was magnificent – and it was then that the blackberries, raspberries and strawberries began to appear.  If we were lucky and spring was on time, we would have fruit as early as mid-May or early June.

But spring was really about the very tall and brilliant vermilion poppies that invaded my great-grandmother’s garden.  It was as if they had bloomed over night.  I would wake-up one morning, and there would be a sea of red floating in the breeze.  I was absolutely sure the poppies had not been there the day before.  They had, without a doubt, magically bloomed in the night.

My great-grandmother, Ora Chandler Goodman (left) standing in her flower garden with a family friend.

I would run outside and plunge into them, disappearing from sight for hours on end as the flowers towered over me.  Down on my knees in the fine sand they grew in, I would crawl around exploring, catching bugs, squinting up through the flower petals to the sunlight and sky above.  When the day grew too hot, I would lie down and rest amongst the cool, red blooms.  It was my magical kingdom away from adults, away from all those things that frightened a small child.  Symbols of my great-grandmother, those amazing flowers sprouted up from the earth – iridescent, strong – year after year.

Summer!  It’s Berry Season

My favorite time of year in the garden was summer, when the flowers were in full bloom, and the fruits and vegetables were at their most flavorful.  My sister and I would always visit the strawberry patch first, kneeling in the sandy soil and plucking fruit directly from the vine — warmed by the sun and the most flavorful I’ve ever tasted.  Next we would go to the raspberry and blackberry bushes and eat as many of those as we could.  By the time we were finished, our fingers, teeth and tongues were stained bright purple, as were the clothes we wore.  We were the happiest two kids for miles around.  Cooking and eating outside became summertime priorities.  Gathering fruits and vegetables ripe and right off the vine was another.

To be continued…

Here’s a simple recipe for garden-ripe tomatoes:

Print Recipe

100 Miles Shout Outs! Local events, mini-reviews, and mentions of things happening in the world of food:

#1 – Honest Cooking ~ I’m now a Contributing Writer to the new online food magazine Honest Cooking.  My most recent story is “L.A. – Grilled Cheese Invitational 2011.”  I’ll be writing several pieces a month about the L.A. food scene.

#2 – Los Angeles ~ Sunday, May 15, 1 pm – 5 pm, ~ Taste of the Eastside 2011, an all-star regional tasting event with a diverse array of Eastside restaurants at Barnsdall Art Park.

My Status:  Enjoying the gradual arrival of spring in So Cal and the new spring produce: artichokes, asparagus, and the tail end of winter produce: amazing citrus, kale, collard greens.  Continuing to blog, cook, and eat.

Upcoming Posts: More on my great-grandmother’s garden, and my California childhood.  A visit and tour of Ojai Valley citrus grower Friend’s Ranch. More The Local Reports. Cookbook Reviews: Heartland: The Cookbook by Judith Fertig, and Goat: Meat, Milk, Cheese by Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough.

The key to this dish is that the rest of the meal must already be on the table before it is prepared.

Ingredients

Fresh, ripe, garden Beefsteak tomatoes, or farmers market, organic tomatoes

Olive oil

Fresh ground pepper & salt

Method

The tomatoes should be warm and fragrant from the sun, just picked if possible.  As everyone begins eating, slice and serve the still warm tomatoes. They may be drizzled with olive oil if desired.  Add fresh ground salt and pepper to taste.  If using organic farmers market tomatoes try leaving them outside to ‘sun warm’ them.

Read Original Post

Southern My Way: Simple Recipes, Fresh Flavors.  Gena Knox.  Gena Knox Media.  $34.95.  (252p)  ISBN: 978-0-615-37440-6

Modern Southern is a bit of an oxymoron.  Anything “Southern” tends to have old-fashioned built into it.  Gena Knox, however, embodies “modern Southern,” and her new cookbook “Southern My Way” echoes that.  I mean look at that cover photo.  Well-dressed, coiffed and poised.  Modern Southern!  Modernity aside her cookbook covers all the Southern classics albeit often updated.  Which I think is nice.  Too many Southern cookbooks tend to stick to the tried-and-true, the old standbys that everyone is used to.

Knox is a native of a small town in South Georgia.  She started helping her mother in the kitchen at a young age.  She grew up cooking with fruits and vegetables out of the family’s garden, or from local farms and farmers.  Home cooking was the norm for the area.  “Southern My Way” is her answer to her upbringing: a compilation of traditional Southern dishes updated with a lighter, healthier approach with a focus on using local ingredients.  In fact, cleverly interspersed throughout the book are one to two page breakaways that highlight a local artisan, farmer, or purveyor like for instance the pages on Ted Dennard’s Savannah Bee Company, a small artisan honey company.  As I read through the book I liked more and more that Knox was hitting all the 100 miles touchstones.

Both the cookbook’s design and layout are unpretentious yet friendly, easy to use, interesting to read with lots of full-page color photographs throughout.  The recipes are easy to follow; one feature that I appreciated is how she breaks up the recipe instructions into sections: first. next. and last.  First do this, next do that, and lastly do this.  I’d like to see more cookbooks use this formula.  I’m a big fan of deviled eggs so one of the first recipes I tried was Deviled Eggs, Bloody Mary-Style.  These have sun-dried tomatoes in them.  Brilliant idea.  I love onions.  The Vidalia Onion Soup was so easy to make and so good.  Meatloaf can either be really bad or really amazing.  Knox’s Classic Meatloaf was the latter.  To keep things on the healthier side the recipe calls for lean ground beef or sirloin.  Another main course I made was Balsamic Roasted Chicken and Vegetables; a one dish meal using a cast iron skillet.  It worked very well and was a big success at the dinner table.  The book has recipes for many of the Southern standards we all expect: collard greens, grits, cornbread, baked beans, okra — but in most cases Knox reworks the recipe to make it lighter and healthier.

If you’re a fan of Southern cooking, enjoy a little Southern food history mixed up with information on local, Southern purveyors and artisans, this is your book.  A true gem of a Southern cookbook.

100 Miles Shout Outs! Local events, mini-reviews, and mentions of things happening in the world of food:

#1 – A Menu of Parisian Bistro Classics at Le Saint Amour, Culver City, CA.  Consulting chef Walter Manzke offers a different Parisian bistro dish every night of the week (Sunday is Poulet Frit for example) at Le Saint Amour.  If you like classic French food like I do then get thee to Le Saint Amour for a plat du jour, or for something delicious off their full menu.  Bon appétit!

#2 – Saturday, April 16 & Sunday, April 17, 2011, 11 am – 8 pm (Sat.), 11 am – 7 pm (Sun.) ~ Artisanal L.A. where nearly 100 local, artisanal and handmade vendors showcase their wares.  Support your local crafts persons, vendors and businesses.

#3 – Saturday, April 23, 2011, 11:00 am to 6 pm, Tillamook Cheese sponsors the 2nd 8th Annual Grilled Cheese Invitational. Go to http://grilledcheeseinvitational.com/ for more details, and to learn how you can win a trip for two to the invitational by submitting a video showing how you make the perfect grilled cheese sandwich.  Happy Grilled Cheese Month!

My Status:  Enjoying the gradual arrival of spring in So Cal and the last of the lovely winter produce: amazing citrus, kale, broccoli, collard greens, fennel.  Continuing to blog, cook, and eat.

I’m published!! My recipe “Chef Wally’s Baked Papaya” was selected to be in the cookbook: “Foodista Best of Food Blogs Cookbook: 100 Great Recipes, Photographs, and Voices.”  You may order it here.

Upcoming Posts: More on my great-grandmother’s garden, and my California childhood.  *A post on New York food blogger Sean Sullivan of Spectacularly Delicious.  A visit and tour of Ojai Valley citrus grower Friend’s Ranch. More The Local Reports. Cookbook Reviews: Small-Batch Baking for Chocolate Lovers by Debby Maugans.

My great-grandmother, Ora Chandler Goodman, and my mother's dog, Tuffy.

My great-grandmother, Ora Goodman, and her garden, were the impetus for me to start writing this blog.  She was a major influence all through my childhood.  She lived a ‘local’ life without realizing she was doing so.  She simply lived her life.  This series is part of a longer piece I am working on about her, and her life.  Herewith, Part 5…

Tuffy, My Mother’s Dog

Tuffy was my mother’s dog when she was a little girl.  He lived at her grandparents’ house, my great-grandparents, Ora and Rolla Goodman.  Tuffy was by all intents and purposes a member of the family.  Every family has its share of stories, lore if you will.  Of course our family has a whopper about Tuffy that is apparently true.  My great-grandmother was what is now known as a “housewife.”  She never held down a job of any sort.  Her “job” was to care for her family.  Her full-time duties included cooking, gardening, cleaning, washing, and sewing, and whatever else needed to be done to keep the family going.  All of these duties were much more labor-intensive in her day than they are now.  I have faint memories of her washing the family’s clothes outside on a back patio using a now old-fashioned electric wringer washer — an early version of our washing machines.  Then, of course, the clothes were hung outside on a clothesline to dry.  Gramma Ora also made most of the family’s clothes, as well as quilts using scraps of old clothing.  She canned garden vegetables and fruits to be eaten later in the year.  Her daily life was full, and never ending.

Tuffy with a package from Vic, the butcher, in his mouth.

“Go See Vic”

So the story about Tuffy goes that my great-grandmother somehow trained him to go by himself to the butcher a block or so away.  She’d write her order down on a piece of paper, slip it into Tuffy’s mouth and say: ‘Go see Vic.”  He’d trot through the dirt field across from the house, over to the main street of town to Vic, the butcher, knowing that a reward awaited him.  Vic would fill the order, wrap it up with string and Tuffy would head for home, the packaged meat in his mouth.  Once back home he’d set the package down on the kitchen floor.  Gramma Ora would then tell him to go get a newspaper.  He then sat until the package was opened, and his treat was put on the newspaper.  Once Gramma Ora said “okay” he’d eat his reward.  He was a true help to my great-grandmother while he was off getting the family’s meat she could continue with her household chores.

On the left, my great-grandparents' house in Orcutt, California.

Small Town Life

Orcutt, California is a small town on the Central Coast of California.  It was even smaller back when this story took place.  The house my great-grandparents lived in is the house my mother lives in now.  When she was a child everyone in town knew each other.  They all knew my great-grandparents.  My great-grandfather was the town barber for a number of years.  Vic’s butcher shop was part of a grocery store next door to my great-grandfather’s barber shop.  If everyone knew the Goodmans, they surely also knew Tuffy.  So as surprising as it may sound that a dog roamed freely between its house and the butcher shop, it’s also believable given when and where this story took place.  My mother has very fond memories of Tuffy even now decades later.  He made an indelible impression on her.  Having him as a pet was an important part of her childhood.  I never met Tuffy, and I’m sad I didn’t.  He sounds like an extraordinary animal.  Happily his legacy continues, and the story of the little dog that obediently fetched meat from the butcher lives on as well.

100 Miles Shout Outs! Local events, mini-reviews, and mentions of things happening in the world of food:

#1 – Monday, March 14, 2011 – Blood, Bones and Butter ~ A Dinner in Honor of the Publication of Prune Chef, Gabrielle Hamilton’s First Book ~ Lucques Restaurant, 8474 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles, CA  323-655-6277 ~ http://www.lucques.com/

My Status:  Enjoying the gradual arrival of spring in So Cal and the last of the lovely winter produce: amazing citrus, kale, broccoli, collard greens, fennel.  Continuing to blog, cook, and eat.

I’m published!! My recipe “Chef Wally’s Baked Papaya” was selected to be in the cookbook: “Foodista Best of Food Blogs Cookbook: 100 Great Recipes, Photographs, and Voices.”  You may order it here.

Upcoming Posts: More on my great-grandmother’s garden, and my California childhood.  A visit and tour of Ojai Valley citrus grower Friend’s Ranch. More The Local Reports coming soon. Cookbook Reviews: Grilled Cheese, Please! by Laura Werlin, and Southern My Way by Gena Fox.

Julia Child wasn’t the only person to introduce America to French food.  Often when something is suddenly in vogue, it’s a combination of events that contributes to the cultural sea change.

René Verdon, June 29, 1924 – February 2, 2011

Chef René Verdon died two weeks ago at age 86.  I knew who he was.  I knew he owned a successful French restaurant in San Francisco called Le Trianon.  I may have met him in San Francisco when I worked at Stars restaurant in the early ’80s.  What I was reminded of while reading his obituary in the Los Angeles Times is that he was also White House chef during the Kennedy administration.  I was fascinated reading the details of his life, specifically how he ended up at the White House, and the influence he had on American cooking and eating.  There is so much more to that part of his story.

First Professional Chef in the White House

Verdon was the first professional chef to work in the White House.  First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy being a Francophile herself interviewed him in French.  As White House chef he was way ahead of his time: he cooked with the freshest ingredients he could find; he planted an herb garden on the White House grounds; he designed a new kitchen for the first family’s quarters.  He also broke tradition by serving as President Kennedy’s private chef.  During prior presidential administrations a housekeeper was in charge of feeding the first family.

Verdon was born in 1924 in a small French village, Pouzauges, in western France.  His parents owned a bakery and pastry shop.  Deciding he wanted to be a chef at age thirteen he apprenticed first at a hotel in Nantes followed by several apprenticeships in Paris and Deauville. He emigrated to the United States in 1958 and found work in New York restaurants the Essex House, and La Caravelle as well as the Carlyle Hotel.  La Caravelle head chef, Roger Fessaguet, recommended him for the job when the Kennedys were looking for a chef.

America’s Interest in French Cuisine

His arrival as White House chef ushered in a period of great interest in French food and cooking.  In an interview with the Minneapolis Star-Tribune in 2002 Julia Child said she was “lucky” the Kennedys hired Verdon because soon “everyone was interested in French cuisine.”  Child’s French food bible “Mastering The Art of French Cooking – Volume 1″ was published in 1961 the same year that Verdon started cooking for the Kennedys.  It all makes sense.  Becoming the White House chef put Verdon on the international stage.  Mrs. Kennedy was considered the height of chic.  She didn’t hire any old chef, she hired a French chef.  It was the early ’60s.  Naturally the rest of the country, and the world, followed suit.  All of this brought at least as much if not more attention to French cuisine as Child and her book.  Verdon actually had a bigger more popular stage than Child’s.

French Food in the White House

While White House chef Verdon became known for such dishes as chicken in Champagne sauce, and “incomparable quenelles de brochet” (according to Time Magazine).  President Kennedy favored Verdon’s New England clam chowder.  His first official White House meal was an April 1961 presidential luncheon honoring then-British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan.  Verdon served a menu of trout in Chablis and sauce Vincent, beef filet au jus and artichoke bottoms Beaucaire, and meringue filled with raspberries and chocolate.  Verdon’s favorite state dinner took place in July 1961 along the banks of the Potomac River honoring the President of Pakistan.   He served “simple yet elegant” food that included avocado, crab meat cocktails, and raspberries in Chantilly cream.

I asked Chef Jeremiah Tower to comment on his friend, Rene Verdon, “A very sympathetic man who devoted himself to what he knew best, the best of classical and country French cooking and standards of service.  A very fine chef.”  Tower and Verdon were San Francisco restaurateurs during the same period in the 1980s.  Verdon owned Le Trianon from 1972 to 1987.

Verdon wrote a total of five cookbooks including “The White House Chef” (1967), “French Cooking for the American Table” (1974), and “The Enlightened Cuisine” (1985).  An unsung hero of American cooking, light years ahead of many of his chef brethren, and an integral part of introducing French cuisine to America, rest in peace Chef René Verdon.

Sources for this article: Los Angeles Times, and Wikipedia.

100 Miles Shout Outs! Local events, mini-reviews, and mentions of things happening in the world of food:

#1  – The Good Neighbor Cookbook – consider submitting your, or somebody else’s, good-neighbor story to the Meet This Grateful Recipient or Meet This Good Neighbor Cook features on The Good Neighbor Cookbook blog by e-mailing authors Sara Quessenbery and Suzanne Schlosberg at: cooks@thegoodneighborcookbook.com. Let us know if you do by leaving a comment below!

My Status:  Still enjoying winter in So Cal and the lovely winter produce: amazing citrus, kale, broccoli, collard greens.  Continuing to blog, cook, and eat.

I’m published!! My recipe “Chef Wally’s Baked Papaya” was selected to be in the cookbook: “Foodista Best of Food Blogs Cookbook: 100 Great Recipes, Photographs, and Voices.”  You may order it here.

Upcoming Posts: More on my great-grandmother’s garden, and my California childhood.  A visit and tour of Ojai Valley citrus grower Friend’s Ranch. Cookbook Reviews: “The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook” by Rachel Saunders, “Quick-Fix Southern” by Rebecca Lang, and “Italy Dish by Dish: A Comprehensive Guide to Eating in Italy” by Monica Sartoni Cesari.

Photo: My sister, Traci and me, with our great-grandparents, Rolla and Ora Goodman in 1962. Traci was 10 months old and I was 3 years old.

My great-grandmother, Ora Goodman, and her garden, were the impetus for me to start writing this blog.  She was a major influence all through my childhood.  She lived a ‘local’ life without realizing she was doing so.  She simply lived her life.  This series is part of a longer piece I am working on about her, and her life.  Herewith, Part 4…

A Garden, Bigger Than Life

As long as I knew my great-grandmother, she had a garden full of beautiful flowers and incredible tasting fruits and vegetables.  Her garden was bigger than life, and provided me with experiences never to be forgotten.  For me, life began in my great-grandmother’s garden.

Photo: My great-grandparent's house in Orcutt, California which my great-grandfather built. My mother lives in it now.

The plot of land my great-grandparents owned was small — one to two acres at most.  The garden sat in front of a moderate sized house that my “Grandpa Rollie” built, and took up almost as much room as the piece of land the house was built on.  There was a dusty dirt path that split the garden down the middle and while Grandpa Rollie raised vegetables and fruits on one side, “Grandma Ora” grew all types of beautiful flowers on the other.  She was famous throughout the small town of Orcutt for her vermilion poppies, tall and prolific everyone in town enjoyed watching them grow.

Photo: Left to right, my great-grandparents, Ora and Rolla Goodman with family friend Becky Twyford, in their garden.

Of course, the seasons were always reflected in both the garden and the table – this, to me, was one of the many joys of their way of life.

Seasons, Reflected in Garden Bounty

Under normal circumstances, fall comes late to most of California due to a phenomenon called ‘Indian summer.’  Usually beginning in September and lasting until the end of October, it’s an extension of the hot summer months with a distinct feeling of fall in the air – summer’s almost behind us, but happily not quite gone, as fall lurks just around the corner.  It was a unique time of year and the garden usually proved that to be true.  Many summer vegetables continued to grow while fall crops started to appear.  As always the table reflected the season.

Photo: My great-grandparent's vegetable garden.

Fall was also traditionally the time of year to prepare for winter and Gramma spent most of the fall canning, pickling and freezing late summer fruits and vegetables.  Whenever I was at her house during this period, which was often, I was witness to the canning process.  There was usually a huge blue canning pot up on the stove bubbling and rattling and steaming away.  And when I pulled a chair over to peer inside I saw 4-6 Mason jars full of the crop she was currently conserving.  The various fruits and vegetables she “put up” were a myriad of colors and textures to be eaten during the winter months.  “So we can have a little taste of summer in the winter” she would say.

California winters are mild by comparison to many other parts of the country but a wet and cold season does exist, and it does affect what can be prepared for the table.  While much of the garden was dormant during the winter months Grampa always planted a winter crop, and Gramma always tended her ‘winter flowers’ many of which returned year after year.  Winter crops usually consisted of root vegetables, cauliflower, broccoli, and all types of squash.

Photo: My great-granparents, Rolla and Ora Goodman in their garden amongst my great-grandmother's famous vermilion poppies.

Spring, Bees and Honey!

In the spring when Gramma’s flowers were approaching their fullest bloom the bees arrived in force.  My sister and I would go down into the garden amongst the flowers just to marvel at the loud buzzing the bees made.  We knew that as the bees were pollinating the flowers, honey was being made in a neighbor’s hives — honey that my sister and I would get to eat every morning when we were staying at my great-grandparents’ house.

I’ve no idea when the tradition began but it did — each morning at sun up Grampa sat at the kitchen table with his cup of coffee, my sister and I seated on either side of him as he fed us, one at a time, pieces of toast dripping with honey straight from a neighbor’s hives.  The process was simple:  he’d tear off a piece of toast, put a dab of butter on it, a spoonful of honey and pop it into our eagerly awaiting mouths — first my sister’s then mine, back and forth between us.  We were his little birds and he was the daddy bird feeding his young hatchlings.  It was a tradition we relished and one that survived for many years.  Following is a recipe for this simple yet satisfying treat.

Print Recipe

100 Miles Shout Outs! Local events, mini-reviews, and mentions of things happening in the world of food:

#1  – The Good Neighbor Cookbook – consider submitting your, or somebody else’s, good-neighbor story to the Meet This Grateful Recipient or Meet This Good Neighbor Cook features on The Good Neighbor Cookbook blog by e-mailing authors Sara Quessenbery and Suzanne Schlosberg at: cooks@thegoodneighborcookbook.com. Let us know if you do by leaving a comment below!

#2 – Mini-Review: A shout out to a recent cookbook I received ~ “Everday Grilling: 50 Recipes from Appetizers to Desserst” by Sur La Table.  Grilling tips and recipes for first courses to desserts all (or part of the recipe) cooked on the grill.  Grilled Quesadillas.  Endless ways to grill vegetables.  Grilled Pizza (!)  Grilled Pound Cake (!?)

My Status:  Still enjoying winter in So Cal and the lovely winter produce: amazing citrus, kale, broccoli, collard greens.  Continuing to blog, cook, and eat.

I’m published!! My recipe “Chef Wally’s Baked Papaya” was selected to be in the cookbook: “Foodista Best of Food Blogs Cookbook: 100 Great Recipes, Photographs, and Voices.”  You may order it here.

Upcoming Posts: More on my great-grandmother’s garden, and my California childhood.  A visit and tour of Ojai Valley citrus grower Friend’s Ranch. Cookbook Reviews: “The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook” by Rachel Saunders, and “Italy Dish by Dish: A Comprehensive Guide to Eating in Italy” by Monica Sartoni Cesari.

Ingredients

Fresh Garden Honey

Fresh Homemade White Bread

Sweet Butter

Method

If possible procure honey directly from a honeycomb.  This can be accomplished by finding a local farmer who sells honey with the honeycomb, or by buying the same at a local farmer’s market.  You may substitute a quality store bought honey.  Drain the honey from the honeycomb into a jar or container.  Toast several slices of bread and set aside.  Set the table with the honey, toast and butter.  Find several eager mouths and begin eating, or if small mouths feed them like baby birds.

Read Original Post

“Eat The Love”.   The very apt slogan for the new food delivery company Out of the Box Collective.  The OBC promotional flier also includes:  “Local”.  “Sustainable”. “Home Delivered”.   All good words in my world.  Out of the Box Collective is exactly those things.  They gather food staples that are local and sustainable, put them into boxes and deliver them to your door.  Unlike a C.S.A. they provide everything you need, or want to feed your family for a week.  Fruits, vegetables, dairy, meat, fish, poultry, bread, pasta and dry goods.  A meal plan and suggested recipes are also included.  The only thing you have to do is cook, and then ‘eat the love.’

Founded by Jennifer Piette along with farm-to-table Chef Erik Stenberg, the goal of the company is to source “local, seasonal, sustainably produced groceries from [a] collective of farmers and artisans: [that include] ‘beyond organic’ produce; pastured meats, poultry and eggs; locally caught fish; dairy, including raw milk from Organic Pastures; regional specialties, such as local olive oil, honey, cheeses, Fair Trade products, and the list goes on.”  Jennifer and Erik have spent a good deal of time tracking down the best quality, organic, and sustainable products available in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties.

Jennifer Piette and Erik Stenberg as they begin shopping the Santa Barbara Farmers' Market.

A Morning at the Farmers’ Market

Given that the collective will only use what is fresh and seasonal, the box contents change from week to week.  Additionally, new artisans, growers and vendors are being added all the time.  Piette and Stenberg meet each Saturday at the Santa Barbara Farmers’ Market to assemble the following week’s boxes.  Last Saturday I was lucky enough to spend the day with them as they gathered a week’s worth of food at the market.  Later in the day I watched as they assembled the boxes.  It was an educational and joyful experience — so much amazing food.  Santa Barbarans take food, eating, and their farmers’ market seriously.

The Los Olivos Roots Organic Farm stand from Los Olivos, California.

I trailed along with Jennifer as she made her rounds at the market before it opened.  Many of her orders had already been placed so she was picking up, and adding to where needed.  We stopped at the Windrose Farm booth for beautiful radicchio di Castelfranco, said ‘hello’ to the folks at the famous Los Olivos Roots Organic Farm stand, grabbed poultry from Healthy Family Farms, apple juice at Fair Hills Farms, fresh-squeezed orange juice from Ojai’s Friend’s Ranch, ground beef from Rancho San Julian, pork from Jiminez Family Farm, and blistered almonds from Fat Uncle Farms.   Jennifer also augments her farmers’ market purchases with produce from the Farmer Direct Produce Network, a wholesale produce distributor that features local and sustainably grown produce only.  Wesley Sleight from Farmer Direct met us at the market with a large produce delivery.

Jennifer buying eggs and poultry from Healthy Family Farms.

Buying pork chops from Jimenez Family Farm.

Buying 100% certified organic apple juice from Fair Hills Farms.

Buying blistered almonds from Fat Uncle Farms.

Two More Stops: A Fishmongress, and the Pie Shop

After we finished rounds at the market, I joined Erik as he made two more stops: for fresh fish, and homemade pies.  Cadena Yules of Cadena’s Fresh Fish is a Santa Barbara-based female fishmonger.  On a side street of downtown Santa Barbara she rents space along with several other male Latino fishmongers in a large industrial building that also sells meat (on one door is a sign for fish; a second door says “meat.”)  It was fascinating to watch Cadena at work.   She specializes in locally caught seafood.  Erik picked up line-caught halibut.  Our next stop was Simply Pies, a wonderful small pie shop that does a booming business.  We grabbed uncooked gluten-free pie shells, and freshly made apple pies.

Fishmonger, Cadena Yules of Cadena's Fresh Fish, Santa Barbara, CA.

Assembling the Boxes

The next step in the process was assembling the boxes.  Out of the Box Collective currently works out of a kitchen in Goleta.  I enjoyed watching this unfold as it was a bit like being a kid in a candy shop.  What amazing fruits or vegetables would go into each box?  What locally-sourced proteins?  What other local delicacies?  It was a flurry of activity as Jennifer worked on one side of the kitchen assembling the grocery boxes; while on the other side Erik worked on the produce boxes.  Both were assisted by Chris Schertzer, recently hired as packager, driver and deliveryman.

Jennifer, Erik and Chris as box assembly begins.

Erik assembling the produce boxes.

Finished produce boxes.

A finished grocery box.

The refrigerated delivery van ready to go.

Change Equals Growth

As with most new businesses there are moments of transition; Erik (aka The Surfin’ Chef) has decided to take a hiatus from OBC to catch a few waves.  In his place Jennifer has brought in Shaheda Gosla, a private chef and farmers’ market maven, to work on the meal plans and the weekly suggested recipes.  Until the business grows more deliveries are currently only made in northwest Los Angeles county.  Piette hopes to expand beyond that area soon.  When she does get to my area of Los Angeles, I’ll be her first customer.  I wholeheartedly applaud what she is doing.  OBC is of much value to anyone who enjoys fresh, local, sustainable food.

For more information ~ Out of the Box Collective.

To see more photos from my OBC outing, click here ~ http://tinyurl.com/6jknp92

100 Miles Shout Outs! Local events, mini-reviews, and mentions of things happening in the Food World:

#1  – Mini-Review: A shout out to a recent cookbook I received ~ “Everday Grilling: 50 Recipes from Appetizers to Desserst” by Sur La Table.  Grilling tips and recipes for first courses to desserts all (or part of the recipe) cooked on the grill.  Grilled Quesadillas.  Endless ways to grill vegetables.  Grilled Pizza (!)  Grilled Pound Cake (!?)

My Status: Enjoying winter in So Cal and the lovely winter produce: amazing citrus, kale, broccoli, collard greens.  Continuing to blog, cook, and eat.

I’m published!! My recipe “Chef Wally’s Baked Papaya” was selected to be in the cookbook: “Foodista Best of Food Blogs Cookbook: 100 Great Recipes, Photographs, and Voices.”  You may order it here.

Upcoming Posts: More on my great-grandmother’s garden, and my California childhood. Cookbook Reviews: “The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook” by Rachel Saunders, and “Italy Dish by Dish: A Comprehensive Guide to Eating in Italy” by Monica Sartoni Cesari.

My great-grandparents, Ora and Rolla Goodman.

My great-grandmother, Ora Goodman, and her garden, were the impetus for me to start writing this blog.  She was a major influence all through my childhood.  She lived a ‘local’ life without realizing she was doing so.  She simply lived her life.  This series is part of a longer piece I am working on about her, and her life.  Herewith, Part 3…

Home, Where the Hearth Is

I am six or seven-years old, down in the sandy soil of my great-grandparents’ garden picking carrots for Sunday lunch.  My Grampa Rollie is next to me watering a row of beets.  The loamy smell of the dirt fills my nostrils.  My hands turn brown as I shake the earth off each carrot.  The hot sun burns the back of my neck.  I run a just-picked carrot under the hose my Grampa Rollie holds and bite into it.  A loud crunch.  A burst of carroty vegetable-ness fills my mouth.  It tastes of the earth like only a fresh-picked vegetable can.  Its freshness astounds.  I love every minute of helping my Grampa in his garden.  An hour later my great-grandmother, Gramma Ora, serves the family the carrots cooked in sweet butter, and they’re the most delicious carrots I’ve ever eaten because I picked them myself.

If life began in the garden then it certainly continued in my great-grandmother’s kitchen.  While Gramma Ora lived simply, the flavors she produced were extraordinary.  It might not have been the fashionable thing at the time, but the vegetables and fruits she served were picked fresh from the garden the day they were consumed.  When she was ready to start a meal Gramma Ora went down to the garden to see what was ready to pick often minutes before she cooked it.  It couldn’t get much fresher than that.  In addition, eggs came from hens she raised out back of the house, honey from beehives Grampa Rollie kept, milk from the cows in the field across the way, chickens from the coop in the backyard where my great-grandfather chopped off their heads.

I grew up eating farm-fresh fruits and vegetables right out of my great-grandparents’ garden.  Anything my great-grandparents didn’t grow, or raise themselves, was procured within five to ten-miles of their home usually from other farmers and ranchers.  This is how they lived their lives.  They didn’t know any other way.  It’s also the way I was lucky enough to grow up, and I am deeply indebted to them for showing me their way of life:  local, sustainable, and regional.

A Favorite Family Treat, Home-Cured Deer Jerky

With winter came deer hunting season, and one of my favorite things to eat.  My great-uncle Herman, a true hunting man, usually returned from a week in the wilds of the Colorado mountains with a couple of deer that he would skin and butcher himself.  One of the family’s favorite winter treats was the melt-in-your-mouth home-cured deer jerky that Uncle Herman made.  We helped ourselves to what seemed like an endless supply from a string of it dangling beside the fireplace.

Print Recipe

100 Miles Shout Outs! Local events, mini-reviews, and mentions of things happening in the Food World:

#1 – Wednesday, January 26, 2011 ~ Farm Dinner at Fig Restaurant in Santa Monica, California.  A menu based on produce from Garcia Organic Farm.  Garcia Organic Farm grows 40 – 50 varieties of citrus, avocados, and deciduous fruit.  Chef Ray Garcia created a menu using produce from the farm.

#2 – Mini-Reviews: There are two other cookbooks I’ve received recently that I want to give shout outs to ~ ‘Simple Comforts: 50 Heartwarming Recipes’ by Sur La Table.  Easy-breezy, comfort food recipes for everyday cooking.  Herb Corn Bread.  Grilled Cheese Sandwich.  Chicken Pot Pie.  Classic Extra Macaroni and Cheese ~ and more!  ‘I Love Bacon’ by Jayne Rockmill.  Who doesn’t?  This book contains 50 recipes from chefs across the country.  Recipes to make your own bacon, followed by recipes for brunch to dessert ~ all using bacon.  A portion of the proceeds from book sales will be donated to Share Our Strength and Food Bank for New York City.

My Status: Enjoying winter in So Cal and the lovely winter produce: amazing citrus, kale, broccoli, collard greens.  Continuing to blog, cook, and eat.

I’m (still) published!! My recipe ‘Chef Wally’s Baked Papaya’ was selected to be in the cookbook: ‘Foodista Best of Food Blogs Cookbook: 100 Great Recipes, Photographs, and Voices.’  You may order it here.  I am thrilled (still).

Upcoming Posts: More on my great-grandmother’s garden, and my California childhood.  Cookbook Reviews: The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook by Rachel Saunders.

My great-great grandparents, Lamerlis Caldonia Doak, and Christopher Columbus Chandler. These are my great-grandmother's parents.

My great-grandmother, Ora Goodman, and her garden, were the impetus for me to start writing this blog.  She was a major influence all through my childhood.  She lived a ‘local’ life without realizing she was doing so.  She simply lived her life.  This series is part of a longer piece I am working on about her, and her life.  Herewith, Part 2…

Heritage, A Very Rich One

My maternal great-great grandparents, Christopher Columbus Chandler (1852-1925) and his wife, Lamerlis Caledonia Doak (1861-1934), had eleven children.  Two of the eleven children were truly great women in my life:  my great-grandmother, Ora Esther Goodman (1884-1978) and her sister, my great-aunt, Ona Dana (1893-1991).  Both women had a true pioneer spirit, and were a big influence on me growing up on the Central California coast.

Gramma Ora married Rolla Charles Goodman in 1907 in Modoc, California, a small town on the Oregon-California border.  After my great-great grandfather Chandler moved his large brood to the Central Coast town of Nipomo, my great-grandparents followed with their two boys, Donald, my grandfather, and Herman, my great-uncle.  The family eventually settled in Orcutt, California, another Central Coast town.  At that point the entire extended family was settled in the Central Coast area and would remain there through present day.

My grandfather tells the following story about his arrival in the area in 1918 and his first sight of Grandpa Chandler’s farm:

Grandpa had established quite a one-man operation on his little farm.  He raised pigs for their bacon, headcheese, smoked ham, and fresh meat.  I remember how good the pork chops were with gravy, mashed potatoes and fresh peas and Grandma’s freshly baked bread.  He raised bees for their honey and honey sugar.  He raised all kinds of vegetables, which he stored in the root cellar along with fruit and berry jams and jellies.  He had apricot and peach trees whose fruit he dried over sulphur fires.  He made apple cider and applesauce.  He had his own chickens for their eggs and meat.  And a few cows and steers for milk and meat.  He even raised a turkey or two for the holidays.

From this story about my great-grandmother’s father I can see very clearly the origins of her do-it-yourself ways as well as of her talents in the garden and the kitchen.

My great-grandparents, Rolla and Ora Goodman, barbecuing in a local park.

The Nipomo Rancho, the Dana Family, and the Dana Adobe

My great-aunt Ona Chandler married Goodwin Dana – the Danas were a Spanish Land Grant family in the Nipomo area — thus bringing the Spanish-Mexican influence into the family.  The Danas had quite an influence on the development of the area over the years.  They originally settled on the 37,000 Nipomo Rancho when Captain William Dana, a Boston sea captain married Maria Josefa Carillo, the daughter of a Mexican provincial governor and a Spanish Land Grant owner.

The rancho was given to Captain Dana in 1828 when the couple married, and the adobe ranch house that Captain Dana built for his new bride still stands, and is now a registered California State Historical Landmark.  The Captain and his wife went on to have twenty-one children.  Their adobe was the hub of a very active rancho; not only did it support the Captain and his large family but it also employed many workers and ranch hands including Mexicans, local Indians and a Chinese cook.

The rancho served as a social and business center for the local area, and at various times offered ad hoc assistance to the developing state.  It became the first mail stop between San Francisco and Los Angeles when mail services first started in California.  And when the railroad was put in, the Captain allowed tracks to be laid across the rancho.

The self-sufficient, hardworking ethos of the early Danas continued with the later Dana generations; Aunt “Onie” and her husband Goodwin Dana, a great-grandson to Captain Dana, continued the family legacy of living and working off the land.  Aunt Onie, my favorite great-aunt, was also a good cook; whenever we went to visit, she always had freshly baked cookies in which she put walnuts from her backyard tree.  It was the Danas who held the frequent family reunions where we ate Santa Maria-style barbecue, a local delicacy.

This style of barbecue is unique to the Central California Coast, the beef having been raised in the Santa Maria area.  The dish hearkens back to the rancho days when the rancheros gathered in the spring to help each other brand their calves.  In thanks, the host prepared a Spanish-style barbecue for his vaqueros, family and friends.

Tri-tip roast, the cut of beef used in Santa Maria-style barbecue, is a boneless cut from the bottom sirloin; it’s also called a “triangle” roast because of its shape.  Red oak, a local tree to the area, is the preferred wood for the fire as it gives the meat the unique, smoky flavor now associated with this dish.

Print Recipe

My Status: a few warm, 80 degree days last weekend made it feel summery again.  That didn’t last.  My mind has been on winter dishes; fun, interesting things like fondue bourguignonne, pieces of raw beef cooked in a fondue pot of hot oil.  Or a cheese fondue, those are always fun.  Then there’s the Swiss dish of raclette, set a whole half of a raclette cheese next to a fireplace, as it slowly melts, scrape it off onto your plate, then eat it with boiled new potatoes, and cornichons.  Or a choucroute garnie, or a cassoulet. Dishes I learned to make in France.

I’m (still) published!! My recipe ‘Chef Wally’s Baked Papaya’ was selected to be in the cookbook: ‘Foodista Best of Food Blogs Cookbook: 100 Great Recipes, Photographs, and Voices.’  You may order it here.  I am thrilled (still).

Upcoming Posts: a write up on Jennifer Piette and Erik Stenberg’s local, sustainable grocery delivery service Out of the Box Collective.  More on my great-grandmother’s garden, and my California childhood.  Cookbook Reviews: The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook by Rachel Saunders, and Biscotti by Mona Talbott and Mirella Misenti.