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

“Living life locally” is a catchphrase for this blog.  100 miles is a theme I try to follow.  Regular readers know very well that I often venture way beyond 100 miles but the idea of “local” is still of paramount importance to me and what I write about.  This is why I’m such a huge fan of Artisanal L.A. — their motto is “Eat Local.”  This is an event meant for me.  Artisanal L.A. is two days of chef demos, expert-led panels and speakers on craft beer, local honey, urban homesteading and so much more.  Nearly 100 local, artisanal, and hand-made vendors and purveyors will be in attendance.  The food is great, the demos interesting, the lectures educational, and most importantly it’s the nicest group of people.

I went to the first ever Artisanal L.A. this past fall where I met butcher team Ameila Posada and Erika Nakamura of Lindy & Grundy Local, Pastured & Organic Meats.  They couldn’t have been nicer.  I watched Erika break down a side of pork.  Since then the entire Los Angeles fooderati have watched and waited for their new butcher shop to open.  It opened a week ago Tuesday and they sold out of most of their inventory in the first week.  A huge success.  I also met Jennifer Piette of Out of the Box Collective, a full service sustainable, organic grocery delivery service (I wrote a post about OTBC here.)  Jennifer and her company embody the living life locally ethos.  Expert pickler (among other skills) Racheal Narins of Chicks With Knives manned a booth selling some of her hand-made pickled items of which I bought several bottles.  She also teaches classes in pickling.  I sat in on a beekeeping-honey making lecture that was so interesting.  One day I hope to have hives of my own.  I also ate unending amounts of terrific food.  So much fun was had that I didn’t want the event to end.

Artisanal L.A. is all about supporting local-area artisans and food craftspeople, and purveyors.  It’s a great meeting place, a wonderful gathering to share tastes, ideas, helpful hints, and a love of local food.  Come on out and meet your local artisans, and craftspeople, taste and buy some of their wares.  The spring event is taking place this weekend.

Artisanal L.A., Saturday, April 16, 11 am to 8 pm, and Sunday, April 17, 11 am to 7 pm, $10 pre-sale tickets online, $15 at the door.

Hope to see you there.

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 food magazine site Honest Cooking.  My first story was published today: “Berlin Currywurst Arrives to L.A.” I’ll be writing several pieces a month on the L.A. food scene.

#2 – 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!

#3 – 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.

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.

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: Small-Batch Baking for Chocolate Lovers by Debby Maugans.

2.3 miles, about 7 minutes from my home in Atwater Village.

Hungry!  Need.  Food.  Now.  There are times when eating becomes the thing I have to do before anything else.  Knowing of close-to-home restaurants is of paramount importance to me.  Luckily, there’s a plethora of places in my Atwater Village-Silver Lake neighborhood to choose from.  Gingergrass is one.  I know that I can drive over and if it’s early enough, get a table and have food in front of me within forty minutes.  If it’s later and the place is full, I can call an order in and pick it up.  There’s value in both of these.

The sign in front of Gingergrass, and the menu itself, has these words: “Fresh Vietnamese Cuisine,” and in my experience this is absolutely true.  I’ve been eating at Gingergrass for years now and have never had a bad meal.  The food always tastes fresh and clean.  The dishes are full of interesting, bright flavors.  The menu is varied enough to never get boring.  Executive Chef Mikel Mark Kim knows his way around a Vietnamese menu while also using local, sustainable, organic, and free-range ingredients: very good things that up the quality and flavor of his food.

Some favorite dishes include: Bò Saté, Pork Chops, “Gingergrass” Fresh Rolls, Shaking Beef, Coconut Curry Cod, and the Basil-Lime Elixir.  I also check the huge chalkboard that lists daily specials, as well as wine and beer, and desserts.  I’m not a big phó eater but I see a lot of people eating it whenever I go.  The crowds that are always there are a testament to the very affordable prices.  Gingergrass keeps amazing hours too: they’re open seven days a week for lunch and dinner, and Thursdays through Saturdays they stay open until 11 p.m. (that’s late for most any Los Angeles neighborhood).

Gingergrass is a true neighborhood gem, a place I can happily rely on to feed me quick — or slow — depending on my needs.

Gingergrass we love you!

Love, 100 Miles

P.S. ~ I just noticed that Jonathan Gold of the L.A. Weekly named Gingergrass as one of “99 Essential Restaurants” which I was unaware of.  Very nice!  I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled for him next time I go in.

Gingergrass, 2369 Glendale Blvd., Los Angeles, CA, 90039, 323-644-1600, http://www.gingergrass.com

*The Local Report(s): are occasional blog posts on restaurants, and/or businesses that either support the idea of one-hundred miles, and ‘living life locally’; or are small, localized businesses in my neighborhood, and/or within one-hundred miles of my residence, that I prefer to support over the larger, national, corporate chains. For other The Local Report(s) please go the Archives section of this blog. Also, I’d love to hear from my readers about businesses that they support in their neighborhoods: write to me at charlesgthompson@100miles.com, or leave a comment here.

Follow The Local Report on Twitter: @TheLocalReport

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, and “Italy Dish by Dish: A Comprehensive Guide to Eating in Italy” by Monica Sartoni Cesari.

The Good Neighbor Cookbook: 125 Easy and Delicious Recipes to Surprise and Satisfy the New Moms, New Neighbors, Recuperation Friends, Community-Meeting Members, Book Club cohorts, and Block Party Pals in Your Life!  Sara Quessenberry and Suzanne Schlosberg.  Andrews McMeel Publishing.  $16.99.  (208p)  ISBN: 978-0-7407-9355-4

Neighborliness is seemingly a lot art to most of us.   A cookbook to help those acts of kindness along is most welcome.  “The Good Neighbor Cookbook” is just that.  (The title really explains exactly what the book is about!)  This is a more updated version of what our mothers may have referred to on good-neighbor occasions; books like Betty Crocker and Good Housekeeping.  This cookbook is chock full of modern recipe suggestions specifically geared to the need at hand: the birth of a child; an illness; a new neighbor; block parties and barbecues; community, religious and business gatherings; book clubs; condolences.  Each section offers recipes for that specific act of neighborliness.  Additionally, there are tips for preparing food ahead, and how to package and transport it, all geared toward making it as easy as possible on the recipients.  To welcome a new neighbor, the authors suggest including a list of neighborhood ‘best local picks’; a personal list of favorite neighborhood businesses like dry cleaners, dog groomers, farmers’ markets, restaurants, doctors offices, and so on.

The modern quotient of this cookbook is the way the authors invoke the use of high-quality, fresh ingredients whenever possible.  The ingredients lists include  such as items as fresh thyme, arugula, kosher salt, extra-virgin olive oil, fresh fruits and vegetables (versus frozen or canned), fresh-squeezed juices, among others.  Care has been taken to make dishes both tasteful and healthful.  There are recipes and suggestions for preparing something at the last minute, for large groups, and a great idea called the ‘meal train.’  A ‘meal train’ involves using a free online invitation service like Evite.com to reach out to a group of friends or neighbors to make daily, twice a week, or weekly meal deliveries to a family welcoming a newborn, experiencing a long-term illness, or a suffering a recent death.  Contributors sign up for specific dates, and post comments indicating the dish they’ll prepare thereby spreading the good neighborliness around, and offering ongoing assistance.

To spread the good-neighbor word further, authors Quessenberry and Schlosberg have created a blog, The Good Neighbor Cookbook where readers can find recipes organized by occasion, and fun weekly features like ‘Meet This Grateful Neighbor,’ and ‘Meet This Good Neighbor Cook’ in which readers share their personal, good-neighbor stories, recipes, tips, cooking occasions and more.

“The Good Neighbor Cookbook” will come in handy for anyone wanting to make that neighborly gesture of kindness.  Whether looking for inspiration, or for last-minute ideas, this cookbook has it all.

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 (wonderful warm weather the past few days) 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.

“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.

Community-supported agriculture, or CSA.  It has such a nice ring to it.  I just started back to one.  So far I’ve received one delivery from Farm Fresh To You.  The last time I tried a CSA it was too much food.  [Read about it here.]  But then without one I just don’t cook (and eat) enough fruits and vegetables.  Period.  Our local farmers’ market — the one I can walk to — is on Sundays.  Right now our Sundays are taken up with a big, weekly, walking project led by my other half, Robert [read about it here].  We’re up early and back after the market is finished.  Normally Sunday is my farmers’ market day.  I needed to fill in the gap.  So another try at a CSA.

First, a quick CSA explanation for anyone who may not know what they are.  As a means to support small, local, independent farmers the consumer buys shares of the farmer’s future crops then picks up the produce at regular intervals at the farm, or at a designated location in a city.  With a subscription-CSA the farmer comes to you, and the cost per delivery is fixed.  With both types of CSAs the produce changes depending on what the farmer is growing, and the time of year.  Farm Fresh To You is a subscription-CSA.  What I like about it are the varied plan selections, and the option to receive deliveries every other week versus weekly.  I am currently signed up for a ‘regular mixed’ box which this week contained nine different fruits and vegetables from Minneola tangelos to kale to Klamath Pear potatoes.  (Cost is a reasonable $31.50. )  Half the fun is not know what is coming, and having to figure out how to use it all.  It’s also forcing me to eat seasonally, and to remember that not all fruits and vegetables are available year round if one is buying locally.  The current box contained winter produce: citrus, hearty greens, potatoes.  It is just the right amount for myself, or for two of us if I am cooking for Robert and me.

To find a CSA in your area check out Local Harvest ~ http://www.localharvest.org/

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 (see this post!).  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 write up on Jennifer Piette and Erik Stenberg’s local, sustainable grocery delivery service Out of the Box Collective. 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-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.  It’s been awhile since I’ve written about her.  So this post will be about her.  This is part of a longer piece I am working on about her, and her life.

Sustenance, A Way of Life

My great-grandmother was obsessed with water.  She was always saying “there isn’t enough water for all these people.”  As the population of California grew she became even more fanatical.  Back then I used to wonder if she had a point, and now I’m certain she did.

The story goes that when my great-grandparents were young and homesteading a parched area of Central California near the small town of Chittendon, the land had no water.  It was the early 1900s and a particularly difficult period in their young lives; Grampa was frequently away trying to earn a living and Gramma was left alone on the farm with two small boys.

A Team of Dray Horses, and Five Oak Barrels

It was left to Gramma to supply the farm with water.  The closest source was five miles away and to get to it she had to saddle up a team of Dray horses, load a wagon with five oak barrels, and travel ten miles round trip just to have enough water to keep the farm going.  Doing this several times a month for months on end, the experience forever influenced her perception of the value of water.  So it was never wasted in my great-grandparents’ house.  My great-grandmother wouldn’t allow a drop of it to go down the drain; she reused dishwater several times, much to the disgust of the rest of the family, and when she decided it had washed enough dishes it was dumped over the fence into the garden.  Truth be known, nothing was wasted in my great-grandmother’s house – there was always a “slop” bucket outside the back door into which all the scraps from our meals and her cooking were tossed; it, too, was eventually dumped into the garden, and when she had time she’d go out and dig it all under.  Today composting is accepted practice, but as a result of her ways my great-grandmother’s garden was among the more bounteous in the small town of Orcutt, California.

Acts of Charity, Hobos and Pancakes

Gramma was also famous for feeding the many hobos who lived in the area, or were passing through, with leftovers from family meals; they all knew when to stop by the back door to get their plates of food.  When Sunday – ‘pancake day’ – rolled around, she always made enough extras to feed the hobos before going off to church.  These were her little acts of charity, and her simple, caring ways speak of her as a woman, as a mother, and as a great-grandmother.  Nothing in her life was very complicated.  She was emblematic of the self-sufficient, pioneer, salt-of-the-earth ways with which she was raised.

For me, life began in my great-grandmother’s garden. The plot of land my great-grandparents owned was small — one to two acres at most – and the garden that sat in front of the moderate-sized house that my Grampa Rollie built nearly filled the entire plot. A dusty dirt path split the garden down the middle and while Grampa Rollie raised vegetables and fruits on one side, Gramma Ora grew all types of beautiful flowers on the other.

Of course, the seasons were always reflected in both the garden and the table – one of the many joys of their forgotten way of life and a rare experience nowadays.

To be continued…

My Status:  It’s been cold!  Our winter has arrived.  Time for winter-cold weather cooking.  Maybe something from Julia Child, or Dorie Greenspan’s new cookbook ‘Around My French Table.’

News! 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.  I am thrilled.

Upcoming Posts: a write up on Jennifer Piette and Erik Stenberg’s local, sustainable grocery delivery service Out of the Box Collective.  Cookbook Reviews: The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook by Rachel Saunders, and Bon Appétit Desserts by Barbara Fairchild.

Mary Mac’s Tea Room: 65 Years of Recipes from Atlanta’s Favorite Dining Room.  John Ferrell.  Andrews McMeel Publishing.  $27.99  (208p)  ISBN: 978-0-7407-9338-7

Recipes that don’t call for fancy seasoned salts, or Madagascar peppercorns?  Is there something wrong here?  No, of course not.  I was reminded when reading and cooking from Mary Mac’s Tea Room that a recipe can just be a recipe without all the frills that modern gastronomy seems to insist upon — recipes like they used to be.   I am generally so caught up in local, seasonal, fresh, top quality ingredients that I forget that food, and recipes at one point in time used only the basic larder ingredients: things like white flour, table salt, white sugar, and ground black pepper in a tin.  Very little had a foreign provenance, or the words sel de mer, or Tellicherry on the labels.

This book by John Ferrell, the current owner of Mary Mac’s Tea Room, is an homage to an Atlanta institution.  The restaurant has been existence since 1945; Ferrell purchased it in 1994 after being hand-picked by long-time owner Margaret Lupo.  The book is chock-full of 125 recipes, employee biographies, old menus, postcards, and artwork from the restaurant’s history.  Serving as many as 1,000 customers a day many of those are, and  have been politicians, sports figures and well-known celebrities from Cher to Richard Gere and the Dalai Lama.  Sprinkled throughout are photographs of the many local, regular patrons as well as those of Hillary Clinton, President Carter and First Lady Rosalyn Carter, the Dalai Lama, and Richard Gere.

I’m a sucker for food history and I loved this snippet from the front cover flap: “In the 1940’s, there were sixteen tea rooms in Atlanta.  They were opened by ladies as a way to make extra money, but the name was a misnomer; a tea room wasn’t a place to have tea, but a nicer version of a “meat and three.”  These meals appealed to folks who had moved to Atlanta from small towns in Georgia because they reminded them of their moms’ cooking.”  Mary Mac’s serves old-fashioned comfort food, Southern cooking.

Of the recipes I tried there were more than a few stand outs including ‘Daddy’s Oyster Stew,’ ‘Fried Chicken,’ ‘Black-Eyed Peas,’ and ‘Blackberry Jam Cake.’  I chose the fried chicken recipe because I thought fried chicken would be a true test of the restaurant’s talents with Southern cooking.  It passed the test, perfectly cooked, with a crunchy buttermilk crust.  A recipe I’d make again.  Shellfish and the south go hand in hand to me, and oysters cooked in milk has always been a favorite dish so ‘Daddy’s Oyster Stew’ was another choice.  Here’s the fun part about this recipe that goes back to my earlier conversation about ingredients.  It calls for “1 pint of fresh raw oysters, juices reserved.”  I read that and thought but there’s very little juice in fresh, raw oysters?  At the fish counter while shopping I stood before the fresh, raw oysters in their shells unsure until I noticed a shelf of seafood products in jars and cans: a 10 oz. jar of ‘fresh oysters’ in their juices!  A very simple yet comforting dish, warm oysters in milk with garlic and onion.   Black-Eyed Peas, salt pork, fatback, onion and the peas – ’nuff said.  The most popular dish I tried was the Blackberry Jam Cake with Caramel Frosting.  It consists of cocoa powder, blackberry jam, and apple sauce making it one of the moistest cakes I’ve ever eaten.  The addition of the caramel frosting made it a  full-on sugar coma inducing experience.  There are only two of us in the house so a big ole wedge went to a neighbor.  She liked it so much she asked for the recipe.

One other aspect of Mary Mac’s Tea Room I liked was how Ferrell incorporated the restaurant’s long-time employees into it.  There are photographs, histories and personal stories throughout the book.  There’s even a whole section devoted to “Our Staff.”  Many have been with Mary Mac’s for over thirty-five years.  That’s remarkable in a restaurant these days.  It speaks to the type of place it is.  A place some might consider a second home, a welcoming down-to-earth establishment very comfortable in its own skin.  In other words, a true Southern restaurant.  This book evokes all that and more.  It may be a book of restaurant recipes but it easily becomes a book of recipes one can cook and enjoy at home.

My Status:  Fall weather has arrived to So Cal.  Finally cold at night.  Pulled out the winter blankets.  As always more cooking, eating and blogging on the horizon.

Shout Outs!

‘Foodoodles,’ a new book from food historian and cartoonist, L. John Harris.  An amusing look at the history of the American food revolution that started in the 1970’s in Berkeley, California.  Alice Waters, Jeremiah Tower, James Beard, and Julia Child and more are discussed via text and cartoons, or ‘foodoodles.”  The foreword is written by friend, Chef Jeremiah Tower.  You’ll enjoy the history in this book, and giggle at the cartoons.  For more information, and to buy the book: http://www.foodoodles.com/

(Los Angeles)

Eat My Blog ~ the next Eat My Blog benefit bake sale is coming up soon.  Saturday, December 4, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Tender Greens in West Hollywood.  Come out and buy baked goods made by L.A.-area food bloggers.  All proceeds go to the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank.  I’ll be there buying goodies and cheering on Phil and Katrina of My Life as a Foodie.  Phil is donating ‘Cranberry Coconut Chews’ ~ sounds delicious, right?

Bistro LQ’s Tuesday night Cassoulet ‘Toulousain” Dinner.  I went once and hope to go again.  Being from Toulouse Chef Laurent Quenioux knows his way around a cassoulet.  Go!  You won’t be disappointed.  Every Tuesday night until December 28th.  Prix fixe at $35 per person.  www.bistrolq.com

News! 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,’ published on October 19, 2010.  You may pre-order it here.  I am thrilled.

Upcoming Posts: a write up on Jennifer Piette and Erik Stenberg’s local, sustainable grocery delivery service Out of the Box Collective.  Cookbook Reviews: The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook by Rachel Saunders, and Bon Appétit Desserts by Barbara Fairchild.