~ Fresh and Local Breakfast Favorite ~

Farmer's Market Produce

Nothing is more delectable this time of year - Fragrant and Delicious -  than local fresh strawberries.  Harry's Berries is a particular favorite.

Harry's Berries strawberries are so delicious that they need no further accoutrement than to eat them as they are.  Not even a sprinkling of sugar would add to my enjoyment of them.

This morning I had a local/regional breakfast of organic yoghurt, sourdough raisin toast, butter, a pot of ginger tea and the incomparable berries.  It was heavenly.

It is fun to forage and find delicious local food! Foraging is of my favorite hobbies!

Botanical Elixirs are Magical!

This spring I have been working with wild-crafted flowering native sage, rose, and elderflower.  Sometimes I throw in melissa or lemon balm.  The flavors are delicate, floral and very much alive.

M:  I love the sodas and I've noticed they seem tastier as they age....  maybe my imagination?

L:  No that is not your imagination.  The flavors continue to develop.  That is the true artisanal nature of these beverages and why they cannot be standardized into an industrial food system.  The flavors continue to change and become more complex over time.

Some folks won't appreciate that and will expect uniformity.

M:  I got home late last night and decided to drink remaining soda you made, but it was different and was perfect to my taste and absolutely divine!!!  It was almost like the soda was alive and understood exactly what I needed and gave it to me.  It gave me such a lift!!!  

~ Beautiful Botanical Beverage ~

Local Foraged Flower Creations

Keeping up my enthusiasm for all things fermented and all things local here is a photo of my latest creation.  This beautiful botanical beverage was created with flowers foraged right outside my front door!  I picked elderflower and rose petals on Wednesday morning in my very own neighborhood.  See the previous post.  Then I added lemon, filtered water, organic sugar and let it infuse over night.  The next morning I strained the liquid into bottles and tucked them away in a dark cupboard where they will develop a nice fizz.

 ~ Community Classes for 2016 ~

February 20th - Kraut and Kimchee Class

March 19th - Green Smoothie Class

May 6th - Today!  Kombucha Class

Stay tuned for more developments as I re-envision my work here in the Conejo Valley as a private chef.  Even though I have always been about fresh, local, organic - I would like to enlarge my vision and my work in order to build a stronger sense of community and vibrant food culture right here in my own valley!

Magical and Botanical Inspired Local Elixir

Elderflower and Rose Petal

In spring of 2010 when Carrisa and I concocted our first elderflower cordial it was love at first sip.  It tasted like something the fairies would concoct. Magic in a glass!

What I particularly enjoy about elderflower cordial, delicately floral and naturally effervescent, is that it is a wild fermentation that is deliciously local.  How much more local can you get than sipping the essence of flowers that grow wild in your very own hills?

Since 2010 I have moved to a new property and I was lucky enough to find a place that has elderberry growing on it.  This spring I have been making elderflower cordial.  I harvested the early flowers from the first flush that came on in early April and I have four lovely quarts tucked away.  As the elderflower season progressed I made a few more batches to add to my supply.  Because the cordials take about three weeks in a dark cupboard to develop right now I have cordials, in various stages, tucked away in all sorts of places to await our mid-summer celebrations.

This morning, even though I am running out of both bottles and cupboards, I made one last batch of cordial for 2016.  I decided to try something new.  I added Suzanne's delicate pink rose petals to the mix.   It seems like a match made in heaven.  I will keep you posted.

~ Party With A Purpose - A Culinary Adventure ~

Now that save the date notices have gone out - I would like to share more information about this upcoming class.

You will learn how to make small artisanal batches of delicious kraut and kimchee, chock full of probiotic gut-healing goodness, in your own home. 

I will serve homemade winter squash soup for light supper while you savor and sample a culture plate featuring a variety of cultured edibles.  

Indispensable neighbor Suzanne, a true baking luminary in my opinion, will be bringing over her homemade sourdough bread.  This alone is worth the price of admission. Her bread rivals in texture, taste, and beauty any bread I have ever seen or experienced.  

I will also include something very rare and special on the menu that you may have never encountered or even heard of before.  Intrigued?

Homemade ferments of all sorts add a fillip of flavor and nutrient boost to every meal.  They help stimulate heathy digestion, feed friendly gut-bacteria and are much less expensive than probiotics or krauts purchased from the store. 

You don't have to be a fermentation geek (like me ) to enjoy this fun and informative gathering of like-minded folk.

Every ingredient is organic, and 100% guaranteed GMO-free.  

Made With Love - Vegan Soup and Gluten-Free Sourdough Bread Available -

Planning And Planting an Edible Garden

Interested in all things related to food is it any wonder that I have been known to forage for wild edibles in the local hills as well as forage for more domesticated delectables at farmer's markets.

This spring I began to think and dream about creating my own edible garden space.  My idea of an edible garden is to create something that is beautiful and useful.  I want a garden to be pretty.  I do not like the idea of vegetables lined up like soldiers in a row.

I am not using manure.  I have had to behave like a Philadelphia Lawyer - to borrow a phrase from my dear mother - in order to persuade Dan - so far - not to manure the garden.  I told him today that I avoid food that is raised in CAFO's and why would I want to use the left-over refuse from a CAFO to grow my veg?  I would like to create a more closed system where I can actually build the soil without relying on a bag of manure.  So far I think he is either tolerating my ideas, humoring me, or perhaps even supporting me.  :-)

In this yard fertility will be the key.  When we moved in almost all of the existing plants were dead and the earth barren and ridden with weeds.  The soil is serpentine/adobe soil which is notoriously low in nutrients.

What I am aspiring to achieve in this first year - this first endeavor in the soil - is to create little islands of fertility.  I do not want to be overly enthusiastic or overly ambitious this first year.  I want to begin by building the soil.  A tree service dropped off at least two truck loads of tree trimmings within the last 12 months and now the earth is no longer barren but covered with mulch.   We both pulled out the weeds.

This week I began building little islands of fertility.  I amended the soil in several sunny locations with organic material and worm castings and planted two hills of winter squash.   One is a beautiful warty French heirloom.  The other is a really old Japanese variety.  Squash is a notorious heavy feeder and requires rich soil and nutrients galore.  Perhaps I have already been overly ambitious? - But, the seeds are snugged into two adorable cages in the ground for better or for worse.  Yes, we have gophers - hence the cages.

Saturday morning when Dan had the brilliant idea to go to one of my favorite nurseries and peruse the aisles for plants I needed little persuasion.  He needed to go to an electronics store and the nursery was not far away.  What a great idea.  However, this late in the season the nursery had low inventory.  Most of the plants that I wanted were unavailable.  I don't mind waiting.  It will allow me ample time to plan and ponder on the land here and how best to re-habilitate it one step at a time.

In the end I picked out sets of green bunching onions, and shallots, basil, an heirloom cherry tomato, a gypsy pepper that is long thin and reputed to be very sweet, marjoram and several packets of seeds.

~Dill Pickles~

Pickle Making

Inspired by warmer weather - I assembled the ingredients to begin my first jar of dill pickles for the year.  Though Carrisa and I made pickles together back in the summer of 2008 I decided to put together a new recipe.

I was fortunate that when I got the sudden urge to make a jar of pickles this morning that neighbor Suzanne had just received a bunch of fresh dill in her CSA box.  We both made pickles today.

I put 4 sprigs of dill, garlic and peppercorns in the bottom of a sterile quart-size mason jar.  Then I trimmed the cucumber tips, sliced the cucumbers in half and packed them into the jar along with the rest of the dill and some fresh grape leaves.

I remember reading somewhere that grape leaves help retain the crisp texture that is so favored in dill pickles.  Fermenting dill pickles at a slightly cooler temperature is also helpful.  My house stays fairly cool, even with the weather being extra warm this week, so that will be in my favor.

Once the jar was packed I poured a salt brine of 1 1/2 c. water to 2 T. sea salt and which included 1/4 t. of a vegetable starter over the cucumbers until they were completely covered, inserted a small glass jar (left-over from caviar) into the mouth of the mason jar to keep the pickles from floating to the surface, and screwed the sterile lid on.  The pickles will sit on the cupboard for about 3 days and then they will go into the fridge.

I can't wait to see how they turn out.