Edible Monterey Bay: Winter 2022 | No. 46

4 GRIST FOR THE MILL

7 EDIBLE NOTABLES

When Plan B means big flavor bread without the brick and mortar; Addressing food insecurity head on at Esperanza Community Farms; For 86 years, Felton’s only dedicated bar has been serving the community in more ways than one

23 WHAT’S IN SEASON

PISTACHIOS

San Benito County couple grows organic pistachios for local farmers markets

28 LOCAL FOODS IN SEASON 31

FOODSHED WINTER FARMERS

M ARKETS

A complete guide for the Monterey Bay area

35 BACK OF THE HOUSE PASTA PROS

Indulge in winter’s guilty pleasures

42 ON THE FARM LISTENING GARDEN

Celebrating 50 years of edible education at Camp Joy 49 EDIBLE INNOVATION SHAKING THINGS UP

How a star chef went all-in on mushrooms 59 BEHIND THE BOTTLE PARTNERS IN WINE

The future is in good hands with three young winemakers who learned the craft from their fathers and mentors 65

EDIBLE D.I.Y. LEMONS THREE WAYS

When life gives you lemons, there’s no need to juice or smother them in sugar 71 DINE LOCAL GUIDE 8 0 LA ST WORD SALT BLENDS

Create herb, spice and salt combos at home to elevate your food

RECIPES IN THIS ISSUE

27 Pistachio and Cranberry Biscotti

36 Dungeness Crab Linguine

38 Maltagliata Con Cocoa Cinghiale

40 Winter Squash Cappelletti with Crispy Brussels Sprouts, Roasted Apple, Brown Butter and Sage

47 Honey, Hazelnut and Brown Butter Tea Ca kes with Herbed Goat Cheese

57 Family Favorite Chicken and Lemongrass Stew

66 Salt-Cured Preserved Lemons

67 Herbed Meyer Lemon Hearth Bread

68 Meyer Lemon Curd

80 Salt Blends

COVER PHOTOGRAPH

Dungeness crab pasta photographed by Patrick Tregenza

GRIST FOR THE MILL

I’ve always been a collector of recipes. Due to frequent long distance moves, I haven’t collected much of any thing else. But recipes are so portable.

My mom used to save all her Bon Appétit and Gour met magazines for when I came to visit. Then we would sit and talk while I pored through the old issues, cut ting out recipes I liked and dreaming about the meals I was going to make. She wasn’t particularly interested in cooking; I suspect she may have subscribed just so we could share these hours together.

Once I had a stack of clippings, I pasted them into a binder and—thanks to Elmer’s glue sticks—they’re still there today. Some of the recipes remain aspira tional, quite a few didn’t turn out to be as good as I’d hoped, while others have been on regular rotation in my kitchen for decades.

I’m sharing one of those favorites in this issue—a holiday recipe for Pistachio and Cranberry Biscotti—to go with our story about local pistachio farmers. In fact, this issue is loaded with a record 10 recipes, as well as fascinating stories, to see you through the winter.

Three talented local chefs—Michael Rotondo, Soerke Peters and Katherine Stern—share their preparations for cozy, comforting pasta dishes. And be sure to try nutritionist Talya Lu tzker’s recipe for Chicken and Lemongrass Stew; it’s one of her family’s favorites and already one of mine. There are recipes in this issue for cooks at all levels of experience from beginners to “not-my-first-rodeo.” We hope these pages inspire you to get into the kitchen and get cook ing this holiday season, filling your home with wonderful aromas and making new memories of your own.

As 2022 draws to a close, we would also like to thank all of our wonderful advertising partners, who make our work possible throughout the year. Please show your appreciation by doing your holiday shopping with them and keeping dollars spent here circulating in the local community.

Wishing you a very happy holiday season and a delicious new year!

Deborah Luhrman Publisher

EDITOR AND PUBLISHER

Deborah Luhrman deborah@ediblemontereybay.com 831.600.8281

FOUNDERS Sarah Wood and Rob Fisher

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Mark C. Anderson

COPY EDITOR Doresa Banning

LAYOUT & DESIGN Matthew Freeman and Tina Bossy-Freeman

AD DESIGNERS Bigfish Smallpond Design Coline LeConte • tracysmithstudio Zephyr Pfotenhauer

CONTRIBUTORS

Emily Beggs • Crystal Birns • Amanda Chasten

Jamie Collins • Robert Eliason • Doriana

Hammond • Talya Lutzker • Anina Marcus

Laurel Miller • Laura Ness • Ashley Owen

Paulette Phlipot • Geneva Rico • Patrick Tregenza • Michael Troutman • Jessica Tunis Amber Turpin

ADVERTISING SALES

ads@ediblemontereybay.com • 831.600.8281 Shelby Lambert shelby@ediblemontereybay.com Kate Robbins kate@ediblemontereybay.com Aga Simpson aga@ediblemontereybay.com

DISTRIBUTION MANAGER Mick Freeman • 831.419.2975

CONTACT US: Edible Monterey Bay P.O. Box 487 Santa Cruz, CA 95061 ediblemontereybay.com 831.600.8281 info@ediblemontereybay.com

Edible Monterey Bay is published quarterly. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used without written permission of the publisher. Subscriptions are $28 per year at ediblemontereybay.com. Every effort is made to avoid errors, misspellings and omissions. If, however, an error comes to your attention, please accept our apologies and notify us. We also welcome letters to the above address. Thank you.

Our Mission

At  Edible Monterey Bay , our mission is to celebrate the local food culture of Santa Cruz, San Benito and Monterey Counties, season by season. We believe in sustainability, and we believe everyone has a right to healthful, clean and affordable food. We think knowing where our food comes from is powerful, and we hope our magazine, website and newsletters inspire readers to get to know and support our local growers, fishers, chefs, vintners and food artisans.

Printed with soy ink on recycled paper

EDIBLE NOTABLES

MIRACAL BREAD

When Plan B means big flavor bread without the brick and mortar

BY ANINA MARCUS PHOTOGRAPHY BY MICHAEL TROUTMAN

Huy Vu, baker and owner-operator of Miracal Bread, likes to jok ingly refer to his sourdough as “the new Wonder bread.” Even though its name Miracal was mistakenly misspelled, the bread is definitely a wonder; it is nothing short of “mira-calous” with big bursts of flavor in a 1½ pound loaf and a top crust the color of roasted chestnuts.

On any given Tuesday you can find Vu, signature cargo pants, tie-dyed T-shirt and sandals, at the Alvarado Street farmers market selling his breads—pecan brown sugar with lemon zest, blue corn, rye

and rosemary, chicharron, jalapeño and Cheddar and his most popu lar variety: garlic, sundried tomato and mozzarella. His secret: minced fresh garlic, sautéed in butter. Vu is all about the endless possibilities of ingredients.

“I get bored easily,” he admits and then adds, “Maybe that’s why I love doing this.”

You have to love it when you are the one-man-band of bread: bak er, buyer, dishwasher and marketer.

Bread maker and pickleball player Huy Vu bakes all his “fully-loaded” loaves three at a time in his home kitchen for two or three farmers markets a week.

Vu is always on the move. Even when he is standing still, he rocks back and forth, or shifts side to side, or cracks his knuckles as if some thing is about to begin. So it is really no surprise that this whole thing started at one of his favorite hangouts: the Morris Dill Tennis Courts in Pacific Grove, where he loves to play pickleball. It’s a far cry from the office job he trained for.

You can blame it on the recession of 2011, but a bachelor’s degree in economics and accounting from UC Santa Barbara landed him no where. Vu quickly found out he didn’t like the field. “Numbers can change really quickly according to what your bosses tell you and no one was hiring anyway,” he says.

When Vu moved back to the Monterey Peninsula, he got a job at English Ales Brewery in Marina but this still did not satisfy his restless ness or creativity. He enjoyed the product, but not the production line aspect. Yet the idea of breadmaking was born while hanging around all that live yeast action. He watched a few YouTube videos and a friend lent him the book Flour Salt Water Yeast by Ken Forkish. He says he learns best by doing and watching, not reading, and admits somewhat reluctantly that he still does not own one single book on baking.

After taking a year off and exploring his birthplace of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, where his parents still keep his childhood home (Vu calls the city “capitalism on steroids”), he returned to California in 2020, with a mindset to do sourdough. At that time, the full tilt force of CO VID-19 had just begun and lockdown was everywhere. As it turned out, so was sourdough baking! All of a sudden everyone was doing it.

Vu started back playing pickleball at the Pacific Grove courts and casually mentioned to a friend that he was searching for an established sourdough starter to start his own baking project. Through a stroke of good luck, the friend hooked him up with Dario Aguirre, the baker at Claudio’s Specialty Breads, who gave Vu his very own sourdough starter. This sent him into a state of turbo-charged baking while his hungry, happy, carb-craving pickleball friends got all the free samples.

Unlike the hollow crusty rolls of Vietnam, which serve as a vehicle for stuffings such as cilantro, jalapeño, steamed ham or other dried meat, Vu wanted to come up with an already “fully loaded bread” as he describes it, “more moisture with a doughy interior with fillings baked in.” One of his most recent varieties contains pine nuts, smoked

paprika and anchovy-stuffed olives. He pulls the dough into a circle, careful to keep the thickness the same all the way around, then pats the fillings gently down into the dough, quickly gathers up the corners and turns it over, tucking in and rotating the dough to shape it into a boule or a ball.

Vu currently bakes out of his house (using a cottage food permit) and the day I visited, he was ready to put the last eight or nine loaves in the oven. He started the night before at 5pm by mixing the dough

and then putting it to rest in the fridge overnight for the first phase of “proofing,” which allows acids to form and gives it the characteristic sour taste. At 5am the next morning, he punches down the dough, adds the fillings and then lets the dough rest for the second proofing. “Yes it’s a long day,” Vu says as he puts his soft white dough mounds in cast iron pans and into a 550° F oven, with another cast iron pan placed on top as a cover. “I’m all about the hand made, not the ma chine made,” he says, and hands on it is, especially when the oven can only hold three loaves at a time.

The breads bake 20 minutes, but the last six to 12 minutes are the most crucial for getting the deep rich chestnut color on top.

“I gave up on a timer, but have been training my nose to pick up the scent when the bread is done. I’m getting pretty good at it. After all, I know people eat with their eyes too, so I have to stay close to the loaves to get the color and smell I want,” he says.

Vu has only been baking since March of this year, but is now selling at both the Alvarado Street and Marina farmers markets, as well as at the Oldtown Salinas market occasionally.

As he loads his freshly baked bread (a total of 42 loaves, which will sell out well before the farmers market closes), Vu tells me, “I’m still in the experimental phase. A few weeks ago I brought a bread to market which I called the McFlurry—crumbled Oreo cookies soaked in con densed milk.” He gestures thumbs down. “That did not work at all, but I’m still enjoying the work. Just still not ready for the brick and mortar. How could I run off for three or four hours of pickleball?” he reasons and then adds somewhat hesitantly, “And oh yeah…one other thing. I still have not figured out the sleep part.”

Miracal Bread instagram.com/miracalbread831

Anina Marcus works as a physical therapist in her day job, helping people get back on their feet. When not doing that, she is thinking about what to make for dinner, perfecting the ears on her sourdough breads and trying to find enough time in the day to daydream. She can be reached at aninamar12@gmail.com.

EDIBLE NOTABLES SOWING CHANGE

Addressing food insecurity head on at Esperanza Community Farms

BY ASHLEY OWEN PHOTOGRAPHY BY CRYSTAL BIRNS

a crate of cauliflower, on the opposite page. On this page some of the farm bounty and volunteers, including Mireya Gomez-Contreras holding romanesco and Ana Rasmussen with arms full of green beans.

Kids and teens discovered with delight that the green tufts at their feet were not weeds but carrots, while others found out how to pick the ripest corn on towering stalks at Esperanza Community Farms’ annual u-pick event in Watsonville. The farm’s rolling three-acre plot is fertile ground for growing vegetables, fruits and a local food movement.

“It’s one of the satisfactions of agriculture, to see the people and show them how the products grow, where they come from, what we do for the plants,” says Guillermo Lazaro, co-leader of the farm. “It is a wonderful experience to see the diversity of the community; to see them happy, it makes me happy.”

The project promotes healthy eating and economic justice by pro viding affordable organic produce to under-resourced families in the Pajaro Valley. It was started in 2017 by Santiago Moreira, a farm

worker, his daughter Candy Moreira, a nurse, and Ana Rasmussen, a local social and environmental activist. Initially the farm was supported by a two-year grant from the Central California Alliance for Health (CCAH) and designed in partnership with the county clinic in Wat sonville to ensure children on the diabetes to obesity spectrum, and their families, had consistent access to farm-fresh produce.

“Food insecurity was the reason the program was started,” says Mireya Gomez-Contreras, who was one of the farm’s first CSA mem bers before joining the organization in 2019 as co-leader. “They came at this problem with the intention to ensure that families that are low income had access to nutritious local organic food. It was very literal. We need to grow the food, package the food and take the food to them.”

Hermelinda Vasquez harvests

A year into operations, the team unex pectedly lost the land it was renting, which meant the farm no longer qualified for the grant and everything came to a halt. Fortu nately, the CCAH agreed to re-award the funds if Esperanza secured new land.

After a year of hibernation, the found ing team was ready to re-establish the pro gram and recruited Gomez-Contreras to make it happen. She brought passion and extensive experience with nonprofits and systems change, as well as farming and social justice. Once the land on Lee Road was secured, they needed to get operations up and running and hired Lazaro, a life long farmworker newly trained and certi fied in organic farming practices through the four-year program at the Agriculture & Land-based Training Association (ALBA) in Salinas.

“My whole life I was farming, but I got into how to grow more natural,” he says. “It’s not just about growing produce; it is so many other things, taking care of the environment especially.”

Beginning with 16 families served in the first year, the farm has grown large enough to provide produce for more than 100 food-insecure families or individuals and 50 other CSA members who simply want to support the project. Though it ex

panded its reach, Esperanza still gets food to those who need it most—offering CSA delivery and accepting SNAP benefits, which is rare in most CSA programs.

“At the end of the day, we come from this community,” says Gomez-Contreras. “Because everyone on the team comes from that experience, that’s really founda tional. It also gives us the ability to connect with our members.”

After a small, impromptu student tour in 2021, Gomez-Contreras realized that education was another avenue to support the organization’s mission. Within a few months the farm hosted more students from more districts around the region, involving them in planting, weeding and other farm tasks. During a tour with Pa jaro Valley High School in fall 2021, the students started saying, “We want to eat this,” and asking, “Why can’t we eat this at our school?” From those remarks sprout ed an idea to achieve just that: serve lo cally grown, farm-fresh salads at the high school, conveniently located a half-mile from the farm.

Last spring Gomez-Contreras and a core group of PV high schoolers held weekly meetings to develop the program, and once Gomez-Contreras secured fund ing from a local donor the Farm 2 Caf eteria (F2C) pilot launched for summer school. Student volunteers helped harvest vegetables and prep salads in the cafeteria for daily lunches, and as more students got involved in the program over the sum mer, enthusiasm spread. As a result, F2C

The project promotes healthy eating and economic justice by providing affordable organic produce to under-resourced families in the Pajaro Valley.

Farm manager Guillermo Lazaro (top left opposite page) trained at ALBA in Salinas and passes along some of his knowledge to youth volunteers during the summer months.

Blue Fox Cellars

Student volunteers instigated the farmto-cafeteria program providing salads and fresh vegetables to the lunchroom at nearby Pajaro Valley High School.

has continued during the school year— and expanded to trial runs at three other schools in the district.

“Because this community is so agri cultural and so many people work in that industry, I think there’s extra pride in knowing it’s local and a lot of extra love goes into these salads,” says Jeanie Aitken, the food and nutrition services director at Pajaro Valley Unified School District. “I’m super excited that Mireya has the vi sion and drive to do this. She supports so many people in the community through Esperanza, and it’s wonderful that she’s expanding into the school environment and what’s possible. We’re just trying to pave the way and figure out how to do it.”

Social justice work is not easy but the Esperanza Community Farms team re

mains committed, motivated by the wins they’ve had so far and humbled by the challenges they’ve faced.

“I grew up my whole life as a farmer but when I came to this program, it was totally different. We never stop learning here,” says Lazaro. “That’s why we invite our community, so they can see and learn where the food comes from. To try to con nect more people as a community and par ticipate in this, that’s the mission. This is what Esperanza is.”

Esperanza Community Farms

275 Lee Road, Watsonville

esperanzacommunityfarms.org

Ashley Owen is a writer and recent Massachu setts transplant. Her passion for learning about local food is only overshadowed by her passion for writing about it. Or maybe eating it. Safe to say, she is a lover of food and words, and also driving very fast in the left lane.

EDIBLE NOTABLES

CABIN FEVER

For 86 years, Felton’s only dedicated bar has been serving the community in more ways than one

BY LAUREL MILLER PHOTOGRAPHY BY GENEVA RICO

Does a bar sit in the woods?

In this instance, the bar in question—Monty’s Log Cabin—really is on the edge of the forest, just across the road from Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park on Highway 9. The 86-year-old roadside tavern was designated a historic landmark in 2007, but its role in the community goes far beyond architectural relevance and serving alcohol.

Monty McKissock makes sure customers feel welcome at his bar.

The tavern’s slogan, “Does a bar sit in the woods?” was coined by a former bartender.

Ask any of the longtime patrons about Monty’s and the word “family” is sure to come up. Longtime proprietor Monty McKissock says he considers his staff and regulars members of an extended clan. Like so many neighborhood bars, his business is less a watering hole than a place where one can find camaraderie, compassion or a helping hand.

From the outside, Monty’s is no less in viting. The exterior is adorned with fairy lights and vintage neon signs; a hitching post to the right of the entrance provides “parking” for thirsty horseback riders from Covered Bridge Equestrian Center. “Some times it’s nothing but horses and Harleys out front,” says McKissock.

The history of the watering hole, for merly called George’s Log Cabin, is inter twined with McKissock’s own story. The post-and-beam cabin was built in 1936 by Frank McCrary, founder of Big Creek Lumber, for George and Stefaneta Gra ziani. George was an Italian immigrant who met his bride while stationed in Si beria during World War I. The couple arrived in the United States in 1920 and moved to Felton a decade later.

The cabin was originally a trading post, from which the Grazianis sold sundries and supplies to campers. A digital article on His torypin (author unknown) states, “The story is told of someone asking, ‘George, don’t you need a license to sell that beer?’” Gra ziani reportedly obtained a liquor license within the hour and by 1937, the trading post had become an Italian restaurant and bar. Stefaneta cooked in her home kitchen next door and served meals in the cabin’s di minutive dining room. A walk-in refrigera tor behind the building served as a de facto butcher shop, where whole animals includ ing wild game were broken down.

By the time McKissock arrived in Fel ton in the late ’70s, the Grazianis’ son, George Jr., was running the 33-seat estab lishment. George Jr. had muscular dystro phy and was unable to hold a bottle with his hands, so he poured drinks by tucking it into the crook of his arm, recalls McKis sock. A buzzer at the bar was connected by a string to the family home; if George Jr. needed help, he summoned his father.

McKissock, 72, hails from upstate New York, but as a former Marine, he’s been stationed all over the world. A nomad by nature, his first visit to Santa Cruz was dur ing a West Coast road trip in the early ’70s. “Like most stories, there’s a girl involved,” he says, adding that the couple eventually settled in Sunnyvale, where he started driv ing a truck to make ends meet.

While McKissock was captivated by the San Lorenzo Valley because of its resem blance to the Adirondacks, he also felt a kinship with the locals. “Felton had a huge hippie scene at the time,” he says. “There was a lot of long hair, me included.”

By this time, McKissock was working as a graphic designer and bartending on the side at Don Quixote’s, now Felton Music Hall. He was also an occasional patron of George’s Log Cabin, but he didn’t become well-acquainted with the Grazianis until he started holding VFW events there.

In late 2000, George Sr. and Stefaneta’s daughter, Rose, approached McKissock and asked if he’d like to take over opera tions. The timing was fortuitous, as McKis sock’s primary graphic design client had just moved out of state, and he needed work.

“They just happened to hit me at my life’s sweet spot,” says McKissock. “It was such a gift to get this place.” He made some improvements to the property, includ ing turning the adjacent open field into a

“We get bikers, campers, working class, millionaires,” says McKissock. “That’s what keeps it interesting.”

backyard with seating and a fire pit. The interior has remained mostly unchanged, a hodge-podge of vintage taxidermy and beer signs, biker memorabilia and swags of fake foliage and twinkle lights.

McKissock eventually changed the name of the bar with Rose’s blessing, but he didn’t have an opportunity to buy the place until November 2020, after the property had changed hands a number of times. “I bought it because it felt like the fruition of something,” he says. “I just loved this place, and I was blessed to have the family en trust it to me. It’s just kind of wrapped its arms around me.”

The best part of the job is the people, says McKissock. The tavern has always had its devout regulars and while most of the old-timers have passed on, there’s a new generation of locals, tourists and folks up from Santa Cruz. “We get bikers, campers, working class, million aires,” says McKissock. “That’s what keeps it interesting.”

Longtime bartender Janette Waters echoes those thoughts, “Ev eryone knows Monty. He’s got great stories and he really cares about people—we’re like an extended family. He saw me through breast can cer and sat with me during chemo. That’s pretty rare in a boss, but he’s also a friend.”

For the community, then, Monty’s Log Cabin is more than just a bar. It’s part of the social fabric of Felton, a place McKissock describes as a neutral “Switzerland.” “Everybody is welcome here. We’re a mixed bag of nuts, but I don’t allow proselytizing—this isn’t the place for it.”

Although he’s at the bar every day, doing everything from ordering and bartending to wiping down tables, McKissock says he still thrives on the constant exposure to new people and ideas. “I’m not a guy who can retire, and the bar business keeps me young,” he says. “This is my forever job.”

Like many bartenders, McKissock says he enjoys talking with his customers, even when he’s hearing about their problems and offering guidance. “Sometimes people just need a conversation to help them figure it out for themselves. I also believe in that old school attitude of, if some one needs something, you get off your bar stool and go help them.”

“This bar is an extended family; we know what’s going on with our customers and we celebrate and mourn together,” says longtime bartender Janette Waters.

Monty’s

Log Cabin 5799 Highway 9, Felton

Laurel Miller is a food, spirits and travel writer and the former editor of Ed ible Aspen. She grew up on a California ranch and has been writing about regenerative agriculture for over 20 years. When she’s not tethered to her laptop, Miller enjoys farmers markets and any trip that requires a passport. She’ll take a Mission burrito over a Michelin star, any day.

CALIFORNIA CULTURAL CUISINE

Jacks Monterey is poised to provide a refreshing experience with a philosophy centered on the globally-inspired traditions of California Cultural Cuisine, emphasizing local ingredients, high-quality seafood, and more.

• handcrafted cocktails & award-winning wine list

• pet-friendly outdoor terrace with fire pits

• offering breakfast, dinner & space for private events

WHAT'S IN SEASON

PISTACHIO POWER

San Benito County couple grows organic pistachios for local farmers markets

BY JAMIE COLLINS PHOTOGRAPHY BY ROBERT ELIASON

Ninety-eight percent of the pistachios grown in the United States come from California.

Pistachios are meaty, green nuts that are ac tually a seed and botanically considered a drupe—a stone fruit akin to apricots, plums and almonds. The flowers and young fruit are beautiful, and when they ripen the hard shell that encases the nut splits open. When first harvested, pistachios are soft and bright green, but as they cure they became darker in color and sweeter with a harder texture.

Native to Central Asia, pistachios have been eaten since 6750 B.C. The trees were brought to Europe during the first century by the Romans, and cultivation spread through North Africa and Southern Europe where they thrived in long, hot summers. They were introduced to California gardens during the Gold Rush and by the 1900s were planted commercially with hardier cultivars developed in China to thrive in colder climates like Cali fornia’s Central Valley. Since pistachio trees take about 20 years to reach full production, it wasn’t until 1929 that California began ship ping pistachios commercially. Mature trees produce for over 300 years and grow 30 feet

tall. They can yield 100 pounds per tree bian nually; the alternate years’ yields are much less.

Some may be too young to remember, but pistachios used to be dyed a reddish pink color. There is uncertainty as to why, but one theory is that a Syrian importer dyed them so his product would stand out from his competition. The other more likely reason is that pistachios that are left to dry naturally don’t look very appetizing, therefore the red was used to make them more desirable. Once domestic pistachio production grew in the U.S. along with better methods for hulling and drying them, they were no longer dyed like nuts exported from the Middle East. In the 1980s there was an embargo placed on Iranian pistachios, and sanctions remained in place for many years, which also contributed to fewer red pistachios on the market. The

Donna Carbonaro and Tate Edwards grow organic pistachios and pecans on their ranch in Paicines to sell at local farmers markets.

U.S. is now the world’s second largest pro ducer behind Iran, and 98% of pistachios sold in the States are grown in California.

EATING AND COOKING

Pistachios can be interchanged with other nuts in recipes and most often replace pine nuts or walnuts in recipes. When ground in a blender or food processor, pistachios of fer a wonderful green color and nice texture that can be made into pesto and salad dress ings, like my favorite “pisto” sauce from Monterey’s Parsley + Fig. Owner Petrina Pinto’s Sicilian grandmother would make pisto, and her mom always used pistachios in her pesto. This inspired her to bottle pisto sauce, which can be used as a dressing, spread or dip. Petrina says the pistachios add a depth of flavor and texture that allow the dressing to be vegan without missing cheese as an ingredient. Pinto’s fresh dressings can be found at the downtown Carmel Farmers Market on Thursdays or at Hacienda Hay & Feed in Carmel Valley.

Personally I love to add pistachios to a fresh green or grain salad and include sea sonal fruit like fuyu persimmons or manda

rins and some goat cheese, or sprinkle roasted Brussels sprouts with the earthy, sweet nuts, dried golden raisins, white balsamic vinegar and olive oil. My holiday chocolate bark is topped with pistachios, crystalized ginger, goji berries (or cranberries) and sea salt. Pis tachios make the most delicious nut milk, and adding a little rose water, cardamom and maple syrup makes it extra decadent. Try it cold or warm and top with some rose petals and pistachio crumbles. Be sure to save the nut meal for making nut pate or crackers, adding to homemade hummus or using as an ingredient in banana bread.

Pistachios are almost half fat, a third carbohydrates and a quarter protein. They contain feel good B vitamins, a significant amount of potassium (one ounce has as much as a banana), a decent amount of fiber and other essential vitamins and min erals. The FDA actually backed a claim that pistachios help reduce the risk of heart disease if eaten in moderation, and they do not contain cholesterol. Some studies show that they also contain natural melatonin, something to consider when choosing a late night snack.

In the barn, a hulling machine makes quick work of hard pistachio shells.

GROWING PISTACHIOS

Tate Edwards and Donna Carbonaro met at a bar in Davis while attending college. She majored in avian sciences while he studied plant sciences. Eventually they purchased a property in Paicines and in stalled the first commercial planting of certified organic pistachios and pecans in San Benito County under the name CE Farm. They currently have two acres of pistachios and 11 acres of pecans.

Paicines, a remote town in San Benito County, has a very long, hot, dry growing season with cold winters. The weather rep licates the Central Valley where pistachios are usually grown, but there are no other nut farms close by, which is both a benefit and a drawback. Because there are no other pis tachio orchards in the vicinity, they had to plant more male trees for pollination. Every fifth tree in every fifth row is a non-produc ing male for pollination, therefore, 15% of trees don’t produce. The female trees are Kerman varieties, the males are Peters. Their newer trees are golden hills (females) and randy (male) varieties, which Edwards and Carbonara hope will have higher yields than the first planting. Luckily, they report no in sect pest issues with pistachios. However, if they were growing in the Central Valley, the naval orange worm would be a problem due to the close proximity to orange groves.

The older trees were planted 10 years ago, a long wait for pistachios to finally pro duce. Carbonaro says that for the first eight years the trees just sit there looking like little twigs then they finally hit their growth spurt and shoot up two feet or more each year, ex panding into a beautiful lollipop shape. The trees are only pruned to keep them from get

ting too tall, as they can grow up to 30 feet. The farm owners fertilize their pistachios with feather meal, fish emulsion and some rock phosphate.

Pistachios are alternate bearing trees, meaning they have a heavier harvest every other year. Luck has it that the pecans yield heavy when pistachios don’t, which keeps the workload even each season. This year yields were low, and ravens and crows dis covered the nuts, so there will not be much left to sell. However if you hit the farm up early enough after this year’s harvest you should be able to load up. CE Farm sells at two markets—the Friday market in Mon terey at Del Monte Center and in Aptos at Cabrillo College. There you can find fresh raw pistachios and pecans by the scoop. They will fill your own jar if you prefer. Car bonaro is conducting storage experiments with in-shell, roasted nuts to see how they hold up. Next season the two hope to offer in-shell and roasted options.

Jamie Collins is the owner of Serendipity Farms. She hosts U-Picks and a Friday Farm Stand at 26500 Val Verde Drive in Carmel, and attends farmers markets in Carmel and Santa Cruz, where you can find her fresh organic fruit, vege tables, herbs and flowers. Find out what is being harvested @fabulous_serendipity_farm.

Pistachio and Cranberry Biscotti

These green and red studded biscotti are a holiday tradition at my house. The recipe is adapted from one I clipped from Bon Appétit magazine many years ago and, since they’re not too sweet, they go great with a cup of coffee in the morning. —Deborah Luhrman

2¼ cups all purpose flour

1½ teaspoons baking powder

¾ teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons (¾ stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

¾ cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 tablespoon grated lemon peel

1½ teaspoons vanilla extract

1 teaspoon whole aniseed

1 cup dried sweetened cranberries

¾ cup shelled natural unsalted pistachios

Preheat oven to 325° F. Line 3 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Sift first 3 ingredients into medium bowl. Cream together butter and sugar in large bowl until fluffy. Beat in eggs 1 at a time.

Mix in lemon peel, vanilla and aniseed. Beat in flour mixture just until blended. Stir in cranberries and pistachios (dough will be sticky).

Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface. Gather dough together; divide in half. Roll each half into 10-inch-long log and flatten to about 3 inches wide. Carefully transfer logs to one of the prepared baking sheets, spacing 3 inches apart.

Bake logs until almost firm to touch but still pale, about 28 minutes. Cool logs on baking sheet 10 minutes. Maintain oven temperature.

Carefully transfer logs still on parchment to cutting board. Using serrated knife and gentle sawing motion, cut logs crosswise into ½-inch-thick slices. Place slices, 1 cut side down, on remaining 2 prepared sheets. Bake until firm and pale golden, about 12 to 15 minutes per side. Transfer cookies to racks and cool. Makes about 30 biscotti.

Monterey Bay Farmers Markets

Santa Cruz County • Winter 2022

Love Your Local Farmers Markets!

Seasonal shifts present the opportunity to test your own half full versus half empty approach to life. Do you mourn the last tomatoes, thinking sadly in reminiscence about the summer piles of ruby beauties at the farmers market and feeling a loss of daily Caprese salads? Or instead, do you rejoice in what appears next, like those chunky winter

Wednesday

Downtown Santa Cruz Farmers Market

1–5pm • Year-round Lincoln and Cedar • 831.454.0566 santacruzfarmersmarket.org

Friday

Watsonville Certified Farmers Market

2–7pm • Year-round Watsonville City Plaza, Peck & Main streets • 831.588.7366 facebook.com/watsonvillefarmersmarket

Saturday

Aptos Certified Farmers Market

8am–Noon • Year-round 6500 Soquel Drive • 831.728.5060 montereybayfarmers.org

squashes of all hues and their cozy possibilities in your kitchen? It’s perhaps another method of mindfulness, to appreciate the seasonal ingredient as it arrives, enjoying it fully while it is here in our tote bags, on our countertops, in our stockpots, and then letting it go without remorse to welcome the next.

—Amber Turpin

Westside Santa Cruz Market 9am–1pm • Year-round 2801 Mission St. • 831.454.0566 santacruzfarmersmarket.org

Sunday

Live Oak/Eastside Farmers Market

9am–1pm • Year-round 21511 E. Cliff Drive • 831.454.0566 santacruzfarmersmarket.org

Corralitos Farm & Garden Market 11am–3pm • Year-round 127 Hames Road • 831.724.1332 wayne@catalyst2001.com

Monterey Bay Farmers Markets

Monterey County

Monday

Pacific Grove Certified Farmers Market

3–6pm • Year-round Central and Grand avenues 831.384.6961 everyonesharvest.org

Tuesday

Old Monterey Marketplace & Farmers Market

4–7pm • Year-round Alvarado Street • 831.655.2607 oldmonterey.org

Thursday

Carmel–by-the-Sea Farmers Market 10am–2pm • Year-round 6th and Mission streets 831.402.3870 • goodrootsevents.com

North County Farmers Market 2pm–dusk • Year-round 11261 Crane St., Castroville 831.633.3084 • ncrpd.org

Friday

Monterey Certified Farmers Market

8am–noon • Year-round 1410 Del Monte Center 831.728.5060 montereybayfarmers.org

Saturday

Old Town Salinas Farmers Market 9am–2pm • Year-round 300 block Main Street 650.815.8760 wcfma.org/salinas

The Power Plant Certified Farmers Market 9am–3pm • Year-round 7990 Highway 1, Moss Landing 831.726.6855 thepowerplant.store/farmers-market

Winter 2022

Sunday

Carmel Valley Certified Farmers Market

10am–2pm • Year-round Mid-Valley Shopping Center 550 Carmel Valley Road 650.290.3549 • wcfma.org

Marina Certified Farmers Market

10am–2pm • Year-round 215 Reservation Road • 831.384.6961 everyonesharvest.org

See opposite side for Santa Cruz County

BACK OF THE HOUSE

Indulge in winter’s guilty pleasures

BY AMBER TURPIN PHOTOGRAPHY BY PATRICK TREGENZA AND MICHAEL TROUTMAN

There is possibly no food more comforting than a bowl of pasta. It hits all the marks, regardless of what hap pens to be topping it, from simple butter or olive oil to a rich ragu. There is texture, mouthfeel, flavor and most of all, nostalgia for our own personal relationship with this ubiquitous dish. Depending on who you talk to, there are anywhere from 300 to 600 pasta shapes in existence. The original provenance of pasta is hugely speculative, with traces found from China to Greece to Sicily, but generally finding a secure home in Italy, where pasta is basically a religion. While we may not be living in the land of linguine, we are still very fortu nate to have many local chefs with some legit pasta-making credentials to bestow upon our plates and bellies. In honor of this winter season, three area chefs have shared their pasta recipes with us here.

Dungeness Crab Linguine

Courtesy Michael Rotondo, executive chef, Coastal Kitchen, Monterey Plaza Hotel

The new edition of Coastal Kitchen, which opened inside the Monterey Plaza Hotel early this year, has finally brought the tasting menu concept to Monterey. Executive chef Michael Rotondo isn’t holding back on the opportunity to explore this creative endeavor. But while you may not replicate the intricate dishes you eat at the restaurant at home (black cod with roasted coconut jus?), his goal is quite simple: to highlight our regional bounty.

Rotondo got into pasta at a very early age, with some of his first cooking memories making fresh pasta with his mom. “I recall the playfulness of rolling out dough, the aroma which fresh pasta permeates and, of course, how it brought our family together at the dinner table,” he says. Personally, his favorite pasta dish to eat is “any pasta that is made with love! Texture is very important to me so the pasta has to be al dente and can’t be drowned in sauce, which is one of the reasons I prefer dried pasta to fresh.” He shares a seafood recipe with us, fitting for the Coastal Kitchen’s location at eyeball view of the Monterey Bay, which is a perfect use of dried linguine, paired with seasonal Dungeness crab.

3 tablespoons plus 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons minced shallots

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1 teaspoon chili flakes

2 tablespoons pesto sauce

½ cup cherry tomatoes

1 cup chardonnay

½ pound dried linguine

2 to 4 ounces Dungeness crab, freshly picked Salt to taste

2 tablespoons lemon juice

3 tablespoons avocado, diced

2 tablespoons fresh parsley

1 tablespoon lemon zest

2 tablespoons grated Parmesan (optional)

In a medium-sized sauté pan, add 3 tablespoons of olive oil and place over medium heat. Add the shallots, garlic and chili flakes and cook for 2 to 3 minutes until the shallots are translucent and you can smell the garlic. Add the pesto sauce, cherry tomatoes and cook for 1 minute, so the pesto sauce releases some flavor. Add the wine, which will be the base of your pasta sauce. Reduce the wine by 1/3 or until the alcohol is cooked out (about 2 to 3 minutes).

Cook the pasta by following the cooking directions on the package. Cook for the minimum amount of time so the pasta doesn’t overcook. Drain pasta, reserving 4 tablespoons of cooking liquid. Return pasta to the pan, toss with 1 tablesoon olive oil and Dungeness crab meat, reserving a few pieces for garnish. Cook on low heat for 1 to 2 minutes, add back reserved cooking liquid to coat the pasta. Season with salt and lemon juice. Use tongs to divide pasta into four bowls, covering with the wine sauce and garnishing with reserved crab, diced avocado, chopped parsley, lemon zest and Parmesan (optional). Serves 4.

GUIDE TO

Pasta

SHAPE S AND SAUCES

What most home cooks have to understand is that the pasta needs to be the star!”

—Chef Michael Rotondo

Thin shapes = light sauces, olive oil based Spaghetti cacio e pepe Capellini pomodoro

Stuffed p asta = minimal sauces Ravioli with brown butter Tortellini in brodo

Long, flat noodle shape = wet, rich sauces to coat and layer Pappardelle bolognese Fettuccine alfredo

Tube shapes = ragus and thick sauces Rigatoni with tomato cream Penne ragu bianco

Short pasta shapes = chunky sauces (to get stuck inside the nooks and crannies, to cling to each noodle) Fusilli con pesto Ziti alla norma

Tiny pasta = soups or broth Minestrone con orzo Pasta e fagioli

Maltagliata Con Cocoa Cinghiale

(Pasta strips with chocolate wild boar ragu)

Courtesy Soerke Peters, chef-owner, Mezzaluna Pasteria & Mozzarella Bar in Pacific Grove

For German-born chef Soerke Peters, his relationship to pasta began when he arrived in New York City in the early 1990s and worked under renowned Italian chef Pino Luongo. “It was mostly Tuscan cuisine and I just fell in love with it. People think it’s so easy to cook pasta, but it’s really not,” he says.

A pivotal pasta moment for him was when Luongo showed him how to cook spaghetti A.O.P.—which translates to spaghetti aglio olio e peperoncino. “It’s really the simplest dish in the world, just extra virgin olive oil, salt, chili flakes and number 12 dry spaghetti. It was such a beautiful dish, so simple but so good. I cooked it many times at home myself,” Peters says. Yet his favorite dish to eat appears on the Mezzaluna menu, actually in tribute to his time in New York; it’s called Rigatoni alla Buttera, with sweet and spicy sausage, garlic, cream and fresh peas. “It’s my favorite, but I shouldn’t eat it every day,” says chef Peters, who offers us this very hearty, wintertime recipe that incorporates wild boar with chocolate.

2 to 3 pounds wild boar shoulder (cut into 1½-inch cubes)

Flour

4 tablespoons grapeseed or sunflower oil

4 tablespoons olive oil

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1 cup carrot, diced to ¼ inch

1 cup celer y, diced to ¼ inch

1 cup onion, diced to ¼ inch

4 cups dry red wine

2 sprigs of fresh thyme

2 bay leaves

8 juniper berries

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon Salt and fresh black pepper to taste

3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped

4 ounces grated Parmesan cheese (preferred Reggiano 24 month)

Take the cubed wild boar and lay it out on a paper towel so that it gets nice and dry. Then toss in a bit of flour to coat.

Use a Dutch oven or heavy bottomed pot and bring it up to medium high heat. Add the grapeseed or sunflower oil to the Dutch oven, then add the meat cubes nicely spaced out. (We use this oil since it does not burn at a higher temperature and does not change the flavor profile.) Don’t stir or touch it until nice golden brown then move the cubes to brown them evenly on each side, if possible.

Transfer the meat to a bowl, discard the excess oil, then return the pot to the stove. Add the olive oil, chopped garlic and diced vegetables and brown lightly. Return the meat to the pot and combine, then add the wine and all the other ingredients except the chocolate. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper, then add a bit of water to cover the meat by about 1 inch.

Cover the pot with a lid and put it in the oven at 375° F for about 2 hours.

Take out the pot, stir in the chocolate and let it rest for a bit. Now is a good time to taste it and make sure it has enough salt. Adjust as need ed. If you warm up the ragu again the next day, be careful not to burn it due to the chocolate. Keep stirring it gradually until it is hot enough.

Cook pasta and toss it with a good amount of ragu. Finish it with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and grated cheese, to your liking. Serves 4.

To make maltagliata pasta strips 1 pound “00” flour (available in Mezzaluna’s retail section) 24 egg yolks

Make a well with the flour and add the yolk, mix with a fork until it gets dry enough to knead it by hand. Use a little water if it gets too dry. Use extra flour to knead it. You could use your Kitchenaid mixer with a hook attachment. The dough has to be firm to the touch and not sticky; use more flour if it is too wet.

Knead for about 10 minutes to activate the gluten. Form into a ball, cover it and let it rest for 1 hour. Roll out the dough and cut randomly into 2-inch squares. Don’t cut it into perfect shapes; it’s more fun if they are random. There are no wrong shapes here. Cook the pasta for about 3 minutes (no more than that) in boiling salted water just before serving. Remove from water and toss with the wild boar ragu. Bono enjoy!

Winter Squash Cappelletti with Crispy Brussels Sprouts, Roasted Apple, Brown Butter and Sage

Courtesy Katherine Stern, chef-owner, The Midway in Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz-based Katherine Stern—who is quite busy running her popular farmers market booth The Midway, as well as launching her first brick and mortar restaurant—became interested in pasta while living in Tuscany. “I loved watching all of the Italian grannies with their deft hands kneading the dough until just right. ‘Just right’, they explained, was how it felt in their hands. The moment when just enough of everything had been added and adjusted, when the dough looked right, felt right, behaved right, ‘Basta,’ that’s it, they would say. An intuitive process that could only be perfected after years of practice,” she recalls.

Another big pasta memory for Stern was in the early 2000s. “Before fresh pasta shapes and noodles were ubiquitous on menus and grocery store shelves in the Bay Area, I ate pappardelle with wild boar ragu at a small restaurant in Castel Del Piano [in Italy] called Casa Corsini. It was a revelation,” she says. The plant-centric stuffed pasta dish Stern has shared with us will take a bit of time, but is absolutely worth it.

For the pasta dough

4 to 6 whole eggs (depending on size)

1 tablespoon olive oil

½ teaspoon salt

4 cups “00” pasta flour, such as Caputo pasta fresca

For the filling

1 large winter squash (red kabocha, butternut, buttercup or kuri)

½ cup freshly grated Parmesan Salt and pepper to taste

To finish the dish

1½ cups Brussels sprouts, shredded finely ½ cup unsalted butter

1 cup roasting apples, peeled and diced into ½-inch cubes 12 sage leaves Parmesan

If making pasta by hand, mound the flour on a large cutting board or table. In a small jug, mix together 4 of the whole eggs, the olive oil and the salt. Make a well in the center of the flour and using a fork, slowly mix in the egg mixture, adding in dry flour as you go. As the mixture comes together, ditch the fork and start kneading with your hands. If the dough is too dry, add another egg or two as needed to produce a firm (though not sticky) dough. If you end up adding too much egg and your dough is too sticky, never fear; just dust over some more flour and continue kneading until it’s a good consistency. Keep kneading (don’t be shy, no need to be gentle here) until the dough becomes elastic (push your finger into it and see that it starts to bounce back). Form the dough into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Set out at room temperature to rest for at least 30 minutes.

If making in a mixer, place the flour in the bowl of a stand mixer. Follow the same instructions as above using the dough hook attachment. When the dough has come together and has a good, firm consistency, take the dough from the bowl and continue kneading by hand on a cutting board or table until elastic. Wrap and set aside to rest as above.

To make the filling: Heat oven to 400° F. Cut squash in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. Drizzle a little oil over the cut side and season with salt. Pop a sage leaf in each side of the squash and place cut-side down on a parchment-lined sheet pan. Roast for 30 to 45 minutes until soft. A knife should easily pierce the flesh. Flip the squash cut-side up and let cool until easy enough to handle.

When cool, scoop out the roasted flesh and place in a bowl. If the flesh seems watery, drain in a colander over a bowl. Add the grated Parmesan to the squash and season with salt and pepper.

Scoop the filling into a piping bag (if using) and set aside. Filling can be made one day ahead and refrigerated until use.

Using a pasta sheeter, roll the pasta into thin sheets, about the thickness of a sheet of paper. Using a 3-inch round cutter, cut out as many rounds as you can from each sheet, layering them on a sheet pan between sheets of parchment so they don’t stick together.

Once all of the rounds are cut, lay out a few at a time and pipe or spoon about 1½ teaspoons of filling in the center of each round. Fold them in half into a taco shape and seal the edges, pushing any air bubbles out as you go. Fold the edges of the long side over your finger and squish them together. You should have a plump mound of filling in the middle of the circle with a little rim of pasta on the edges encircling it like a hat (cappelletti means little hats). Continue with the remaining rounds.

To finish the dish: Fill a large pot with plenty of salted water to cook the cappelletti. Once it has boiled, add the cappelletti and cook until the edges are tender. This might take longer than expected due to the fact that the pasta has gotten thicker where the edges were folded. Check one of the cappelletti after 5 minutes and see where you stand. Add more time as needed.

In the meantime, heat a large sauté pan over high heat and add 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add the Brussels sprouts and cook, stirring often until they are browned and crispy. Lower the heat slightly if they are browning too fast. Season with salt and drain on paper towels. Keep in a warm spot while you make the sauce.

In separate large pan over medium-high heat, melt the butter with sage leaves and apples. Continue to cook until the butter is a nut brown color and the apples have softened and are slightly caramelized. Add the cooked cappelletti along with a splash of the pasta cooking liquid to the pan of browned butter mixture.

Over medium heat, toss the pasta pillows with the sauce until it’s slightly reduced and coats everything well. To serve, distribute between plates and top with the crispy Brussels sprouts. Grate some fresh Parmesan over the pasta if it strikes your fancy. Serves 4–6.

LOCAL PASTA SOURCES

Bigoli Fresh Pasta - Sand City

Etto Pastificio - Paso Robles

Goodles - Santa Cruz

Mezzaluna - Pacific Grove

Pasta Mike’s - Santa Cruz

Pensi Pasta - Marina

The Pasta Palate - Carmel

ON THE FARM LISTENING GARDEN

Celebrating 50 years of edible education at Camp Joy

BY EMILY BEGGS PHOTOGRAPHY BY DORIANA HAMMOND

Just off Highway 9 in the San Lorenzo Valley lies Camp Joy Gar dens—a humble headwaters of California’s early sustainable agri culture movement. Established in 1971, the eden-like family farm is a hidden treasure in the redwoods and operates as an educational non-profit. Evergreen forests enshrine the farm’s diverse row crops, orchards, goat pens and beehives, which have been tended by co horts of students and apprentices for more than 50 years. Camp Joy is far from alone in offering teachings on organic farming in the Monterey Bay area, but its notable founders and picturesque grounds have made it a Santa Cruz Mountains landmark, preserv ing a local legacy of connecting to nature through food production.

As I approach Camp Joy’s wide farm gate, a giant wood and metal sunburst, I’m greeted by a trio of McNab collies napping with one eye open under pear trees and a tangerine 1963 Chevy flatbed truck streaked with purple flames. Everywhere bees hum, and the riverine scent of the valley mingles with the fragrance of herbs and blossoms planted to please them.

For dozens of apprentices, summer campers and home schooled children, the rainbow patchwork garden and stained glass studded main house with its large, airy kitchen have served as a temple of sorts. Camp Joy is a place where many hands labor together under a shared covenant with the natural world, venerating the industri ous honey bee and archiving the gifts of each season in ciders, jams, pickles, teas, salves and seed libraries. I’ve come to interview Jim Nelson, co-founder and legendary beekeeper, and Towhee Huxley, his daughter and Camp Joy native, both as a curious writer and a former student. In the late 90s, I was a summer camp participant ecstatically chasing insects down arbored garden pathways and fill ing my pockets with dangling string beans, wild blackberries and perfumed lemon verbena leaves along the way.

Jim Nelson founded Camp Joy after working with Alan Chadwick at UC Santa Cruz.

According to Nelson (with a little help from Bob Dylan), it was “a simple twist of fate” and “good fortune” that brought a 4½-acre for mer horse pasture under the stewardship of a group of UC Santa Cruz dropouts. Nelson and Beth Benjamin, daughter of American abstract classicist painter Karl Benjamin and to whom Nelson was formerly married, originally learned about the land during a visit to their men tor’s office at UC Santa Cruz. There, they spotted a letter pinned to the wall from Boulder Creek resident Cressie Digby offering up the property that would become Camp Joy Gardens. They accepted that offer and with a lot of help from friends, built a home, barns and a series of simple dwellings on the property.

Nelson and Benjamin’s mentor was Alan Chadwick, a man whose distinguished green thumb left its technicolor floral imprint on gar dens from the United Kingdom to South Africa and then westward on to a sunny slope adjacent to Merrill College at UCSC. Nelson describes Chadwick, born in Southern England in 1909, as “other worldly folk,” a man who “seemed like he had stepped out of the pages of the library.” A lover of nature poetry penned by symbolist and ro manticist poets like Yeats, Keats and Milton, Nelson was drawn to the former Shakespearean actor turned gardening revolutionary, known to intersperse fragments of English folklore with erudite discussions of nature’s exquisite inner workings. Chadwick more than occasion ally barked his instructions on how to appreciate and attend to a gar den, and was notorious for what Benjamin has described as “mercurial moods,” which left many students hungry for his teachings yet unable

to access them. But it was in Chadwick’s garden that the seeds for Camp Joy were sown, germinating as a place where the garden itself serves as mentor and muse.

“Alan was hard,” Nelson recalls. “People wanted to learn his meth od, away from him.”

Like Chadwick but without the hard edge, Nelson is known for his playfulness, singing, love of the arts and fascination with nature—wild and cultivated. During my visit, he reveled in the magic of having held a hummingbird in his hand in order to free it from the barn loft—the same loft where his daughter Towhee was born in 1976.

In contrast with Chadwick, the form of education that Nelson helped establish at Camp Joy is about freedom, joint effort and weav ing the learner into every aspect of farm life, from sprouting seeds to communal cooking.

“It’s the work that teaches you,” says Teri Chanturai, my beloved summer camp teacher, who married Nelson after his divorce from Ben jamin. Chanturai lived and worked at Camp Joy from 1986 to 2004 and believes that the true lessons of the garden come from “working together with people to create something larger than yourself.” Para phrasing Chadwick, as taught by Nelson, “You come to the garden because you love creation and if you pay attention, you learn things.”

On a walk through the garden, Nelson reaches for a sunset-hued crabapple while quoting a passage from Thoreau that juxtaposes the deliciousness of this same fruit, foraged and consumed on a hike in the woods, with the disappointment of eating crabapples back at his cabin.

The environment that Nelson, Benjamin, Chanturai and others have created—coupled with the scenic beauty of Camp Joy’s location—is what transforms the mundane into revelation for so many people who have picked fruit along its pathways. A college-aged apprentice once shared a scoop of her shredded raw beet and carrot salad with me, splashed with rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, and dotted with sesame seeds. It was the kind of thing that as a 10-year old, I’d have turned up my nose to at home, but after eating it at camp, I never stopped mak ing it for myself.

Benjamin, who now lives in her hometown of Claremont, Califor nia but remains an important advisor to Camp Joy, emphasizes the acute current need for “physical nature awareness and education” in our wireless, disconnected world.

Next in line to support the garden in continuing to fill this niche is Benjamin and Nelson’s daughter Towhee Huxley, who has quietly ramped up her engagement at the farm over the past few years. She has moved from an administrative support role to one-third of a farm worker team of three: Jim, Towhee and Lucia—an Italian rototiller named after an opera star. Camp Joy’s labor pool disappeared in the wake of a string of calamities over the past few years. Drought, the nearby CZU fires and COVID-19 put a temporary halt to the once steady stream of apprentices, but also instituted a necessary period of rest and reflection. A mother of two daughters with Nordic blue eyes and shoulder length white-gold hair, Huxley has worked as a massage therapist, birth and postpartum doula, food service employee and floral

designer. She is well equipped to watch over the multitude of farm life cycles as they turn with the seasons and to midwife the next era of life at Camp Joy.

Huxley points out that “our culture is so much about doing more and doing all the things,” a mentality which has resulted in a lengthen ing list of crises for humans and nature. In response, she is embracing COVID’s cataclysmic pause and allowing the garden to enjoy a state of repose. The arrival of a resident wild duck, waddling wing to wing with its domestic cousin, is one affirmation that Earth appreciates a listening ear. When asked how she learned to care for bees, make cider from her dad’s crabapples, support goats in labor and keep track of the particular germination requirements for the plethora of flowers she grows each year, Huxley shrugs and insists that, having been born and mostly raised at Camp Joy, “the rhythm of the seasons is just kinda inside me.” For now, their ancestral internal calendar keeps the garden growing and will stock the shelves for annual plant and wreath sales. In the meantime, aspiring farmers and summer camp kids will eagerly await their turn to imbibe the invigorating nectar of garden-based liv ing on whatever timeline the land dictates.

Emily Beggs is founder and lead chef of Kin & Kitchen, which specializes in ecology-minded private chef services for clients throughout California. She has a background in the anthropology of food and nutrition, and the menus she de velops meld wellness-promoting ancestral recipes with local ingredients to create intimate and nourishing feasts.

Nelson’s daughter Towhee Huxley (far left) was born at Camp Joy and feels in tune with the “rhythm of the seasons.”

Honey, Hazelnut and Brown Butter Tea Cakes with Herbed Goat Cheese

Courtesy Emily Beggs, adapted from a recipe by David Lebovitz

This recipe highlights the beautiful honey produced at Camp Joy and thyme planted to keep the bees happy, and incorporates goat cheese in honor of Camp Joy’s generous ruminants that have changed many people’s perceptions of goat milk, including my own. The cakes are inspired by the following excerpt, which describes the importance of tea time at the Alan Chadwick Garden, and was written by Camp Joy founding mother Beth Benjamin: “And then in the late afternoon, as the sun’s rays slanted through the bean trellis, we’d set sprinklers again, and someone would put the kettle on. When it boiled, we’d gather for tea (Earl Grey of course, with sweetened condensed milk, none of that pale herbal nun’s tears) and teaching and stories; then back to work and watering until it was too dark to see.”

—From the introduction to The Chadwick Garden Anthology of Poets, edited by Robin Somers.

1  cup hazelnut, almond or walnut flour, seasonally available at the Cabrillo Farmers Market

½ cup sugar

¼ cup honey

5  tablespoons all-purpose flour

Generous pinch salt

4  large egg whites, at room temperature

½ teaspoon vanilla

2½ ounces brown butter, slightly warm (liquified)

Preheat the oven to 375º F and, ideally using softened butter, thoroughly grease the insides of mini muffin or madeleine pans.

Combine the hazelnut flour, sugar, allpurpose flour and salt. Stir in the egg whites and vanilla, then add the browned butter and honey.

Fill each pan so that the batter almost reaches the top. Flatten the tops of the cakes by sharply rapping the pans on a counter, then bake for 13 minutes, until golden in color. Allow the cakes to cool in the pans, then flip pans and give them a good shake to release cakes onto a plate or clean counter surface.

Tea Time Herbed Goat Cheese

This grassy, earthy cheese ball makes a great complement to sweet, nutty tea cakes, and can be rolled up in minutes.

Chèvre Fresh thyme

Za’atar spice blend (my favorite is from Burlap & Barrel)

Sumac (a vibrant mixture is available at Burlap & Barrel)

Sea salt Honey Edible flowers (we use white society garlic blooms)

Roll a small handful of soft chèvre into a ball. Place fresh thyme leaves on a plate, then roll the ball over them with your palm, so the cheese picks up the leaves.

Next, drizzle the ball with honey and cover the plate with 1 to 2 tablespoons za’atar and sprinkle with a pinch of sumac. Using the same technique, coat the ball with spices.

Drizzle another small amount of honey over the ball before sprinkling it with sea salt and pressing edible flowers onto the surface.

EDIBLE INNOVATION SHAKING THINGS UP

How a star chef went all-in on mushrooms

STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARK C. ANDERSON

About halfway through a tour of MycoSci’s brand-new mush room facility in Watsonville, a powerful earthquake shudders through the lab we’re standing in.

The high performance liquid chromatograph-mass spec trometer system quivers. The fancy freeze dryers tremble. Tentacle-like fungi growing on beds of brown rice wave with out wind.

One MycoSci team member is smart enough to duck be neath a door frame. The others, owner Dory Ford included,

pause only briefly to observe the ground’s grumblings, then resume their discussion of the life-affirming properties of what they’re growing in earnest, namely cordyceps mushrooms.

Perhaps a primary reason they don’t react much is that they’re focused on a tectonic shift of another sort. That shake comes with the hope of impacting bodies, minds and a mush rooming industry in scaleable ways with all sorts of mycelia, psilocybin included.

But first had to come a crisis.

Otherworldly cordyceps mushrooms are the first product for chef Dory Ford’s new venture.

(Photo courtesy Topher Mueller)

MIND SHIFT

Dory Ford has been a pioneering chef for decades.

When I first encountered him he was helping lead the movement for sustainable sourcing as executive chef for the Monterey Bay Aquari um. He’s also blazed the way on healthy and handmade school lunches and contemporary catering, building a dynasty that, pre-pandemic, included award-winning restaurants to go with a robust event manage ment outfit called Aqua Terra Culinary.

Most meaningfully for this endeavor, he was among the first chefs in this area to understand how deep COVID would cut.

Flashback to February 2020, or in perceived time 3,000 years ago, weeks before closures descended.

Ford saw enough cancellations from clients and food festivals that he shut Point Pinos Grill and laid off his team long before Governor Gavin Newsom ordered a shelter in place, to preserve resources and to get his people to the front of the unemployment line.

“This isn’t like a fire or hurricane or other weather/earthly event,” he said on March 19, 2020. “That’s why everyone bought toilet paper and water—it’s what you do in a disaster. This is different. This is a complete mind shift.”

How right he was became quickly apparent—and now provides po etic context for the different shift he’s anticipating. It also triggered a personal reckoning.

“I had a great business and it didn’t exist anymore, which was wrenching,” he says. “After 35 years grinding life away at food service, I had nothing.”

Like so many, he was stuck at home with little to do.

“I tend to be an optimist, and I try to be stoic,” he says. “But when you’re alone by yourself, you can crawl into a dark place. A chef’s jack et can be like a Superman cape. COVID was kryptonite.”

Right around then a person close to him decided she was ready to get off antidepressants, and sought out a psilocybin therapy session in San Francisco. When Ford heard how much it cost—$800 a session for six sessions—he thought, “We can do better than that.”

He acquired therapeutic doses. They took them, went on a bike ride and laid down on the beach cliffs of Seaside and talked about the clouds. When he went looking for more doses to perpetuate therapy, COVID had already snapped the supply chain.

So he ordered a home-grow box off Etsy. While he was waiting for delivery he realized he had much of the equipment and wherewithal to grow some himself.

“Without the primary focus on [cooking], how did I deal with everything? I became captivated in the process of growing mush rooms,” he says. “But it wasn’t

Dory Ford (below) says the idea for his new business was born after the pandemic forced him to close his restaurant and catering company.

like I got this ‘aha moment,’ I just went to work and was able to pour my focus into something. When it works—you give them the right love and attention on a dai ly basis—they’re beautiful. I started refer ring to them as my children.”

The same intensity he put into sourc ing and cheffing came along for the trip. His passion eventually turned to growing cordyceps—the focus for the foreseeable future—because their superpowers aren’t categorized as Schedule 1 drugs by the feds.

“I became fascinated at looking at how [mushrooms] can best be a benefit to peo ple,” he says. “I’ve learned so f---ing much about mycology. It’s definitely been a deep dive, and I ended up in a place I never thought I’d be when I started.”

That place sits one mile from the coun ty border in Watsonville, as close to Ford’s Monterey home base as possible while still residing in Santa Cruz County. That’s one of many decisions designed to prime My coSci for maximum impact.

Santa Cruz, after all, was the third city

in the U.S. to decriminalize psychedel ics. The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (or MAPS) made its home on Mission Street in 1986, and stuck around for decades. (It has since moved.) Last year the city council proclaimed April Psychedelic Therapy Awareness Month. And while Watsonville and Santa Cruz are different places, they’re close politically and geographically.

Another strategic decision: the buildout of dozens of individual grow rooms—all climate controlled digitally for “set-it-andforget-it” ease of operation—able to be adapted to any number of mushrooms, including lion’s mane and morels. That al lows diverse options in terms of species to be harvested every day of the week in sync with maturation timelines.

“Sometimes I just sit and think,” Ford says. “How do you increase your capacity, realize some efficiencies? I start with a met ric, and calculate how many I can realisti cally do, then dial in on genetics.”

Another pragmatic play: The recruit

These tiny carrot-colored medicinals are said to offer a bundle of benefits beyond the flavor.

The team at MycoSci is preparing to grow other types of mindful mushrooms as laws change. (Photos below courtesy Topher Mueller)

ment of research attorney and psilocybin advocate Cassandra Alexander, one of My coSci’s earliest hires. Her primary charge: studying statutes, regulations and standards at the local, state and federal levels to en sure compliance while tracking the policies and proposed initiatives regarding the le galization of psilocybin. One has passed in Oregon, and others are in process in Wash ington and Colorado.

“My values align with that of the brand,” she says, “the push for access [for all], and the ability to further study psilo cybin to understand all that it has to offer.”

While Ford is firmly focused on cordy ceps, he’s also looking ahead.

“Once the laws emerge, we can flip a switch and make some of our rooms grow psilocybin,” he says.

But the biggest strategic detail is using cordyceps as MycoSci’s foundation. Turns out it retails for more than psychedelic fungi.

“We have a full-on superfood mush room that we can sell for $25 a pound,” Ford says.

While he can unleash a torrent of shroom intel—from the classics (“It’s the largest growing organism on this planet!”) to the more obscure (the differing effects of Golden Teachers and Penis Envy psilo cybin strains on the psyche)—some of the tastiest insights involve cordyceps.

These tiny carrot-colored medicinals are said to offer a bundle of benefits beyond the flavor Ford and chef pal Colin Moody prepped for MycoSci’s pitch dinner to po tential investors. Those included cordyceps arancini, burrata salads with cordyceps “croutons,” cordyceps soba noodles with Dungeness crab and seared scallops, and cordyceps maple ice cream with cordyceps streusel. Moody’s son Connor, who’s com pleting a UC Davis degree in plant scienc es, works as MycoSci’s lead lab tech.

Traditional Chinese medicine practi tioners deploy cordyceps to treat fatigue, kidney disease and sex drive. According to Healthline, they’ve been shown to deliver antioxidants, inhibit tumors, aid people with type 2 diabetes, temper the effects of arrhythmia heart conditions and slow in flammation.

MycoSci touts their glucose-regulating abilities and vein-dilating benefits that de crease blood pressure and increase oxygen absorption, providing energy without all the sugar, jitters or crashes of coffee and energy drinks.

While MycoSci ramps up production and preps plans for retail powders, tea vari eties and liquid cultures, its first product is a daily snack supplement that will debut at pop-ups starting in December.

I tried a pack before a workout. The small, thin and lightly seasoned whole mushrooms, freeze-dried (rather than de hydrated) to up bioavailability, were fla vorful and easy to eat with a water wash down.

“You don't have to f--- around with them,” Ford says, “They’re delicious all on their own.”

It might’ve been too much time at the laptop learning about cordyceps, but an hour-plus workout seemed to fly by with less heavy breathing than normal.

MYCO EXPLORERS

Pop quiz: What are the four chemicals that make the human brain hum?

Your brain is firing if you said adrena line, dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin.

Those four are important enough to Ford that he’s hung their molecular dia grams on the walls of the main lab and the upstairs he’s converted into his office and on-site apartment.

Their presence gets at the fundamentals MycoSci wants to flex.

“What we’re dealing with in psychedel ics are these four chemicals they’re affect ing,” Ford says. “We’re not MycoBuzz or MycoHigh. We’re digging into the science of mushrooms.”

The next hire will be a scientist to direct research development and laboratory op erations—and, if Ford has his way, to draft academic papers and grant requests to fund research.

The most recent addition was grow director Michael Bandy. After studying ecology and evolution at UC Santa Cruz, he started growing mushrooms in his base ment. Eventually that blossomed into a

Mother Denim

Aviator Nation Michael Stars

TYSA

Johnny Was Citizens of Humanity

AGOLDE

Frank&Eileen

Wilt

PJ Salvage

full-on gourmet grow business with a 4,500-square-foot facility.

He sounds eager to apply his experience in extractions, tinctures and cultivation, but is most stoked about advancing understanding.

“We want to push the science behind mushrooms and make it transparent for people,” he says. “A lot of the information around it isn’t that well-supported by science. I’m motivated to clear up what people understand about mushrooms and dietary supplements that may or may not be true.”

That science happens by way of things like the fancy mass spec trometer system—something normally found in medical examiner labs and drug manufacturing plants.

It allows MycoSci to scope the chemical compound makeup of any given organic item without having to outsource that at great expense and time drain. It can vet their product claims—and check competi tors on their own.

It can also flag things like adaptogens (beneficial plant-based ingre dients, like ginseng) and what the team calls MOIs, or “molecules of interest.”

“While we’re in there poking around for psilocybin with the spectrometer, I’m pretty sure we’re going to find other helpful com pounds,” Ford says. “It allows us to search beyond the obvious.”

Bandy draws a comparison to marijuana research: In early stages, the focus was on THC, but that shifted to CBD and other cannabidi ols as their benefits became clearer.

“There’s a ton to learn in this industry,” he says. “It’s so young and new. There are so many species and molecules we haven’t studied that are really beneficial.”

“This is a pretty significant lab—not just for production but as a center of excellence,” adds Chief Operating Officer Topher Mueller. “Technology like the spectrometer is good for us, but down the road will be good for others too.”

“It brings integrity to the industry,” Ford says.

MUSHROOMS AND MENTAL HEALTH

The UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics, led by author Michael Pollan with support from thought leaders like Tim Ferriss, sums up the current moment in its Microdose newsletter: “There has never been a more exciting—or bewildering—time in the world of psychedelics.”

As this goes to press, PBS’ NOVA—the most-watched prime time science series on American television—just dedicated an entire episode to the question “Can Psychedelics Cure?” namely conditions like addic tion, PTSD and depression.

Ford recommended the episode with a text.

“This encompasses what is at the core of what drives me on my new passion and makes me apply all my skills and experiences,” he writes. “I want MycoSci to have a leadership role in what I believe is a shift in how we approach physical and mental health through mycology.”

There goes that word again: shift. Another word in there is a Ford favorite too: mycology.

“We’re not just interested in one mushroom; it’s all mushrooms. That’s why we’re Mycology Sciences,” he says. “Two mushrooms from the same species living four miles apart can have totally different qualities because of what surrounds them. We want to explore everything around that.”

A number of elements bodes well: the business model (which builds in spectrometer services revenue), the collaboration potential (including chefs and local universities) and the sheer amount of time Ford has spent thinking about systems while building the warehouse infrastructure by hand (“My last name is Ford!” he says. “He built the assembly line!”).

An additional positive indication leaps out. It arrives after the tour, up in Ford’s office, as he leans back in his chair, clasps his hands above his ponytail and says, “You wanted to know what I’ve been up to? This is what I’ve been up to.”

And then comes the final indicator: a smile as broad as the possibilities.

Mark C. Anderson is a roving writer, explorer and photographer based in Monterey County. Follow and/or reach him on Twitter and Instagram @MontereyMCA.

Family Favorite Chicken and Lemongrass Stew

Courtesy nutritionist Talya Lutzker | Photography By Amanda Chasten

I’ve taught Ayurvedic cooking classes for 20 years and every time we make this stew, it stops the show. It is perfect for chilly winter nights, but is so fresh and exotic you may end up making it year-round. Use any variety of miso paste that you like for this dish, but a white or yellow miso tastes best. There are several soy-free miso pastes that taste great in this dish— including chickpea, brown rice, and adzuki bean. The almond milk gives this stew richness without being as heavy as coconut milk.

2 cups almond milk, fresh or store bought

2 cups coconut milk

1½ tablespoons miso paste

1 teaspoon green curry paste

2 tablespoons fresh ginger root, minced

2 stalks lemongrass, pounded and cut into 2- to 3-inch pieces

2 teaspoons ground coriander

1½ teaspoons dried dill

1 teaspoon mineral-rich salt

2 pounds organic, boneless, skinless chicken thighs

4 cups bok choy, diced Juice of 2 limes

1 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

Put the almond milk, coconut milk, miso paste, green curry paste, ginger, lemongrass, coriander, dill and salt in a medium-sized stockpot over medium heat.

Cook for 8 minutes, until the mixture is warm. Add the whole chicken thighs, cover, and cook for 15 minutes. Stir once every 5 minutes to prevent the chicken from sticking to the bottom of the pot.

Stir in the bok choy and cook for 5 minutes

more. Remove from heat. Remove the lemongrass and chicken thighs. Discard the lemongrass.

Shred or cut the chicken into bite-size pieces and return it to the pot.

Stir in the lime juice and garnish each serving with 2 tablespoons of chopped cilantro. Makes 4 servings.

Nutrition Tip: Rich in magnesium, potassium and antioxidants, miso paste contains lots of digestive enzymes that support, protect and balance the stomach and large intestine. Cooking miso depletes these enzymes, so the miso called for in this recipe is primarily meant for flavor. To add digestive enzymes back, serve this stew with ½ teaspoon of fresh miso paste alongside each individual serving.

Talya Lutzker is a certified Ayurvedic practitioner, cookbook author, creator of the RAD Cleanse and founder of Ayurveda Every Day with Talya. She helps people integrate Ayurveda into their lives so they can heal, discover what radiance feels like and put self-care at the center of their life.

Get fresh updates on our work to ensure the future of agriculture includes all Americans.

farmland.org

Discrimination against marginalized groups in agriculture negatively affects all Americans by limiting the opportunities for farmers, workers, and consumers.

AFT is raising up diverse voices in agriculture, because we believe diversity contributes to a more resilient agricultural system, a stronger economy, and a more equitable society.

At American Farmland Trust, we believe agriculture is strengthened through diversity, just like the soil.

BEHIND THE BOTTLE PARTNERSin Wine

The future is in good hands with three young winemakers who learned the craft from their fathers and mentors

BY LAURA NESS PHOTOGRPAHY BY GENEVA RICO

Some guys make great fathers. Some also make great wine. Thankfully, some are blessed to make great mentors. Often, they are also quite good at utilizing the “free” labor that comes with offspring, or somebody else’s offspring, if you’re lucky.

In the case of Denis Hoey of Odonata Wines on River Road and Chad Silacci of Rus tiqué Wines just three miles away, it was a case of Silacci’s father seeing the possibility of his son having a career in wine, and knowing he would need a mentor. “Chad’s Dad came to me in 2014, right after I bought the property, and said, ‘Hey, I’d like you to take my son under your wing, to shadow you and learn what you do,’ Hoey recalls. “I asked, ‘How old is he?’” He pauses for the eyeroll. “19?!” This could have been more work than reward, but as Hoey says, “Chad came and never left! It’s kind of like me and Jeff (Jeff Emery, Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard, Santa Cruz, where Hoey apprenticed and was assistant winemaker before going full time with his own label). Start ’em young, and start ’em slow.” It didn’t hurt that the young trainee, even though he was going through his “beach bum” phase, knew how to operate backhoes and graders.

After a year at Monterey Peninsula College, Si lacci enrolled at Washington State University, re turning to work harvests 2015 and ’16 with Hoey. Then came the magic moment. “In July of 2015, I was racking petite sirah and something clicked. I suddenly saw winemaking as a true craft,” says Si lacci. “Between Denis and my parents’ dream for a family winery (Rustiqué is named for his late mom Rusti), I feel very fortunate to have had this direc tion and opportunity.”

Chad Silacci of Rustiqué Wines (left) and his mentor Denis Hoey of Odonata.

Mentor and mentee have learned much together. “You have to strip the ego out of wine,” says Hoey. Silacci, now a confident and crushpad-seasoned 27, has taken the reins, acknowledging Hoey’s influence. “You can’t ever slack off; there’s a million little things. Wine requires energy and intention.”

Silacci clearly admires this man, with whom he’s worked harvests abundant with grapes, as well as those fraught with heart break. “He’s my mentor as a winemaker, a businessman and with how he balances work and family life. He’s motivating, pa tient, pushes you to be the best you can be and keeps you accountable.” And they clearly have fun together, while realizing that wine making is not just about making clean wines that are also compelling, but also about mak ing a living. “Denis has taught me that there’s a balance between making unique wines that you’re inspired by, and making wine that peo ple will buy. So learning the business side is almost as imperative as learning the winemak ing, if not more.”

“It’s like surfing,” adds Hoey. “You’re al ways looking for the perfect wave. It fills you

up and then you’re back looking for the next best wave.”

TWO WAY STREET

When Greg Vita of Vita Winery Consulting in Carmel was a kid, he made wine with his grandfather in his basement near Mount Shasta and noticed how good it smelled. “I took a little sip and thought it was the greatest thing ever. They were grapes off a railroad car.”

At UC Davis, he thought he’d be an en gineer like his brother, but fell in love with plants and botany instead. He began his wine making career in Napa and then moved to the Central Coast, where he’s been working with Jack Galante for years, and now counts Car accioli, Dawn’s Dream, Holman Ranch and Pelio among his clients. By his side for most of it has been his son Chris. “Wine is a big thing with us. We are both UC Davis grads, but when I went, there were only 10 kids in the enology and viticulture program. When Chris graduated, there were 120,” says Greg.

Chris says one of his earliest memories is burning sulfur wicks in barrels. “I remember thinking it was pretty cool to light something

The tasting barn at Rustiqué on River Road and (opposite page) father and son winemaking team Chris and Greg Vita.

on fire and shove it into a barrel!” His first professional gig was at age 10, when he shov eled stems at Galante until dark. “On the long drive home from the winery, my dad gave me a $10 bill and told me the winery owner, Jack, had given me another $10 to match. I was ecstatic—a whole $20 for just one day of work. Thankfully I get paid a little more now, although I’m not sure I’ll ever work quite as hard as that first day shoveling stems.”

Winemaking mentorship is a two-way street: you learn from each other. Says Chris, “We make a good team and we’ve both ad opted some of each other’s tendencies. I will fully admit that new French oak can really enhance certain wines and Dad now likes to use just a touch of whole-cluster on certain ferments. We oftentimes have different ideas, but we almost always meet in the middle. I think this makes the best wine.”

While father and son have a scientific ap proach to winemaking, their personal styles are unique. “We certainly differ in our ap proach to planning our work days,” says Chris. My dad likes to take the days as they come; I’m a bit of the opposite. I really like to have a plan. I am constantly asking, ‘What’s next? Do we have time for that?’ And Dad’s standard answer is, ‘We’ll see how the day goes.’ It’s become a running joke. Everybody in the cellar is used to it by now.” Chris teases his dad but praises his unflappability, no mat ter the situation. “My dad’s work ethic is un believable. He’s 66 and into what I believe is his 42nd or 43rd vintage and still works as hard as if it were his first.”

DIVISION OF LABOR

Richard and Ryan Alfaro of Alfaro Family Vineyards in Corralitos are another father and son team with different styles. Says Richard of his son, “This guy is totally on it. Everything is planned out. He leaves no job unfinished. I tell him, ‘Hey, it’s 5pm, why don’t you knock off? Leave those barrels to clean until tomor row morning. Let’s go have some dinner.’ But Ryan just keeps cleaning and cleaning until he’s done. It’s just the way he is. He is 10 times better at sanitation than I am. He’s using less chemicals and more elbow grease.”

Ryan, who makes wine both for his fam ily’s namesake, Alfaro Family Vineyards, and his own brand, Farm Cottage, knew from early childhood that wine would be his life’s

path, even though there was never any drink ing among minors in the Alfaro household. He started pruning his dad’s vineyard as part of the crew at age 15, but found it tough be ing in the sun. Although he likes living in the vineyard now, in what the family has always called “The Farm Cottage,” he’s definitely more cut out for the cellar than the field.

Ryan is filled with admiration for his dad’s work ethic, acknowledging that being on a tractor all day in the heat is not something he’d sign up to do. Their complete swap in the divi sion of labor that has happened over the years suits them perfectly. Richard loves being in the vines; he’s a farmer at heart and will always be.

When Ryan decided to go to UC Davis, Richard was thrilled, but made it clear his son would have to work someplace else before

coming back home to Alfaro. After a semes ter abroad in Burgundy that really impressed upon him a sense of place, tradition and ter roir, Ryan went to New Zealand, where every one was using screwcaps. He made the mistake of asking a local winemaker why he didn’t use corks. “Corks are SHIT!” was the immediate response. Talk about a pivotal moment.

“Ryan’s really keen on screwcaps now,” says Richard, “And I’m really appreciating them for whites—in fact, we are probably go ing to screwcaps for all the chardonnays—but I still like corks for reds. He’s convinced me to go to all bamboo corks, though.”

Ryan took over most winemaking du ties from his dad in 2020, and was totally in charge by the following year. He runs a very tight ship.

“If you leave a light on, or a door open somewhere in the winery that’s supposed to be left closed, you suddenly hear, ‘DOOR!!!’ bellowing from inside,” says Richard. Adds Ryan, “It makes me livid when he leaves a door open.”

Richard says safety is a big deal for Ryan. Barrels went from being stacked 12 feet high to just 4 feet.

Ryan is also cutting way back on oak influ ence. “Richard was heavy on oak, but we are buying half the barrels now. We are going to puncheons only. The 2020 whites are phe nomenal. Being less aggressive with oak makes the entry level wines better and more vineyard focused. My dad is being very open-minded about it all.”

And while Dad is not involved in the wine making any longer, he is always keeping an

eye on his son. “He gets ‘hangry’ when he doesn’t eat, so I need to feed him.”

Richard recalls an occasion that was eye-opening for preUC Davis Ryan. “I took him with me to a restaurant account in Hollywood, and they rolled out the red carpet with all kinds of food and drink. Ryan said to me, ‘Wow, they are treating us like rockstars.’ And I said to him, ‘No, they are treating us like winery partners.’”

Partners. A fitting word to describe the strong bonds and great respect these guys have all developed over the years of working with one another. As Hoey says, “Winemaking is hard ass work and you have to really want it.”

Having someone you can depend on to share the load, and share your goals, is what makes these one-of-a-kind relationships as compelling as the wines they have to show for it.

Laura Ness is a longtime wine journalist who contributes regularly to Edible Monterey Bay, Spir ited, Los Gatos Magazine and the Wine Industry Network, sharing stories of the intriguing charac ters who inhabit the world of wine and food.

Richard and Ryan Alfaro in the cellar at Alfaro Family Wines in Corralitos. Richard tends the vineyards and Ryan is now the winemaker.

EDIBLE D.I.Y.

Lemons THREE WAYS

When life gives you lemons, there’s no need to juice or smother them in sugar

RECIPES AND PHOTOGRAPHY

BY JESSICA TUNIS

Lemons are worthy of appreciation on their own terms, tart and as brilliant as the winter sun they ripen beneath. While sugar is a sweet companion to their sour nature, other flavors can highlight the flavor of lemon zest and juice as well. Meyer lemon, especially, has its own subtle sweetness that shines when the peel is left on and thinly sliced, as it is in the savory Herbed Meyer Lemon Hearth Bread that follows.

Salt-Cured Preserved Lemons

Salt highlights the rich oils found in lemon peel in this recipe for preserved lemons. Use them in any dish that needs a salty, umami kick. I like to think of them as tiny olives or capers. Once the salt cure is complete, remove the spent lemon flesh and mince the preserved lemon peels finely, sprinkling them over pasta or potatoes with herbs, or blend them into soups, dressings and sauces.

12 or more Meyer, Lisbon or Eureka lemons

½ teaspoon salt per lemon

Choose fresh, firm lemons for this recipe. Slice the blossom and stem ends off of each lemon. Then, nearly quarter each fruit; slice it lengthwise almost down to the bottom, but leave just enough flesh so that the lemon now looks like a tulip flower, 4 citrus “petals” joined at the base.

Hold this lemon “flower” in your hand and sprinkle some salt into it. Recipes vary widely, from 1/8 to 1 teaspoon salt for each

lemon, but I aim roughly for ¼ teaspoon salt per Meyer lemon and ½ teaspoon salt for the larger Eureka or Lisbon varieties. In a recipe like this, which is composed mostly of salt and acid, there is far more leeway than with other ingredients, which for food safety reasons may require stricter adherence to a balance of sugar, salt and acid.

Place each lemon into a pickling crock or Mason jar, the bottom of each lemon “tulip” resting in the open top of another. Periodically tamp the layers down, so that they fit tightly together, using a wooden muddler to release the juices from each layer as you go.

Make sure that by the time the jar is full, the salty brine is covering the top layer of fruit. If necessary, use a glass or ceramic weight, a sterilized non-porous stone or a clean 4-ounce jelly jar to weigh the lemons down enough to keep them submerged in their brine.

Allow the lemons to ferment slowly on the counter at room temperature, out of direct sunlight, for approximately 8 weeks before tasting them. Because of their relatively high salt and acid content, they ferment much more slowly than other cultured foods. They are finished when their flavor is salty, with a mellow tartness and no bitterness to the rind. When the lemons are fermented to your liking, store in the refrigerator, where they will last for at least a year.

Herbed Meyer Lemon Hearth Bread

1 cup warm water (about 110° F)

1 package dr y active yeast

¼ cup olive oil, plus more for serving if desired

3 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

2 Meyer lemons, thinly sliced

1 small bunch fresh herbs of your choosing—thyme or rosemary work well

Coarse sea salt or Maldon salt flakes, for sprinkling

Sprinkle the yeast on the surface of the warm water, and allow it to bloom for 4 minutes. Stir the mixture and set it aside.

Measure the flour and salt into a large bowl. Add the oil and the yeast mixture and mix with a wooden spoon until the dough comes together. Knead until the dough comes together into a ball.

Transfer the dough to a well-oiled bowl, and roll the dough around in it until it has a fine coating of oil over the surface. Cover the bowl and set it in a warm

place. Allow the dough to rise until it has doubled in size, about 1½ hours.

Oil a 9-by-13-inch sheet pan or baking pan. Transfer the dough to the center of the sheet, punching it down to deflate it. Then, using your fingers, work the dough, pressing and stretching it until it covers the baking sheet evenly. Dimple the surface of the dough with fingerprints, the better to trap oil, salt and flavor. Drizzle a small amount of oil across the dough and brush it over the surface. Allow the dough to rest in a warm place for 30 minutes, covered with a clean dishcloth.

Meanwhile, heat the oven to 375° F. Use a mandoline or a sharp knife to slice the lemons as thinly as possible. Scatter the herbs across the surface of the hearth bread. Arrange the lemon slices over the surface of the bread. Sprinkle generously with coarse sea salt or Maldon flakes.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes at 375° F until the crust is golden brown and fragrant. Serve warm.

Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner Daily live music Tuesday & Wednesday 5-8pm

Saturday & Sunday Brunch with live music

Outdoor Seating Available

Meyer Lemon Curd

Lemon curd is sweet, yes, but it’s so many other fla vors as well: tart, piquant and buttery all at once. It can be spread on toast, layered between cakes, baked into a tart...or just eaten out of the jar with a spoon.

¼ cup Meyer lemon zest, from about 5 medium lemons

1¼ cups white sugar

4 large egg yolks, the more orange the better

2 large eggs

½ cup Meyer lemon juice

6 tablespoons cold butter, cut into cubes

Combine the lemon zest and sugar in a small bowl, rubbing the zest into the sugar with a pestle to release the lemon oils.

Whisk the egg yolks and whole eggs together. Add the lemon zest and sugar and whisk in. Add the lemon juice and whisk or stir until blended.

Set up a double boiler, and bring 2 inches of water to a simmer over medium heat. Put the lemon curd mixture in the top pan, but make sure it is not touching the water. Add the cubed butter and stir gently with a silicone spatula as the lemon curd cooks.

Stir and simmer on the double boiler until the curd begins to thicken to a consistency similar to that of sour cream; this usually takes 6 to 10 minutes. Remove the top half of the double boiler and continue to stir the curd, off of the heat, as the curd continues to thicken a bit.

If desired, the curd can be pressed through a fine mesh sieve to remove the zest and any bits of scrambled egg.

Store the finished curd in the refrigerator or, using the water-bath canning method, jar it in small half-pint jars with generous head space, and process for 25 minutes to store at room temperature for 3 to 4 months. Makes 3 cups.

Jessica Tunis lives in the Santa Cruz Mountains and spends her time tending gardens, telling stories, and cultivating adventure and good food in wild places.

Dine Local GUIDE

Persephone 7945 Soquel Drive 831.612.6511 • persephonerestaurant.com

With a namesake like the mythic Persephone, this res taurant in Aptos proclaims its deep reverence for seasonal cooking. Themes central to harvest, winter and spring are core to Persephone’s story, and are reflected in the chang ing menu at this fine dining destination, where chef Cori Goudge-Ayer presents inventive, ingredient-driven cre ations. The restaurant is a family-run passion project, bring ing together parents, siblings and a long history of culinary arts in a beautifully redesigned space overlooking Aptos Creek. Open for lunch F–Sa noon–3pm, for dinner Th–Sa 5pm–close. Second Sundays, themed wine tastings with small bites. Fourth Sundays, Winemaker Dinner with fivecourse pairing menu.

New Leaf Community Markets 161 Aptos Village Way 831.685.8500 • newleaf.com

This latest branch of the beloved local market group occu pies the remodeled Hihn Apple Barn, built in 1891. In addi tion to local groceries and organic produce, New Leaf Aptos has made-to-order sandwiches, pizza, freshly rolled sushi, soup and hand-prepped salads, as well as a coffee bar, juice and smoothie bar and organic Straus soft serve ice cream. Open daily 8am–9pm.

Venus Pie Trap

113 Esplanade 831.661.5763 • venuspietrap.com

Next door to Venus Spirits Beachside and across from the beach, the Pie Trap is a daytime venture from distiller Sean Venus, serving 11th Hour coffee in the mornings, with pas tries from Manresa Bread, Laundromat bagels and quiche and pies from Edith’s Pie. At 11am the ovens are fired up to offer a menu of New Haven-style pizza pies, including toma to, clam-garlic and sausage-leek. Open Tu–Su 7am–3pm.

Venus Spirits Cocktails & Kitchen - Beachside

131 Esplanade 831.688.8917 • venusspirits.com

Closed this winter for renovations, reopening spring 2023. The Penny Ice Creamery 141 Aptos Village Way, Suite 2 831.204.2523 • thepennyicecreamery.com

Open Su–Th noon–9pm, F–Sa noon–10pm. See The Pen ny description under Santa Cruz for more.

CAPITOLA

East End Gastropub 1501 41st Avenue 831.475.8010 • eastendpub.com

East End Gastropub is a sister eatery to the popular West End Tap & Kitchen, but aside from sharing owners and chefs, East End’s beautiful, modern interior is entirely dif ferent and offers its own robust, sophisticated menu. Chef Geoffrey Hargrave has created dishes that are familiar yet innovative, such as house-made focaccia bread, fried chick en bao buns and fire roasted shrimp. Shared plates, pizzas and salads come in generous portions for a family-style meal. The restaurant also offers a rotating selection of local beer, a strong wine list and seasonal craft cocktails. Open M–Th 4–9pm, F noon–9pm, Sa-Su 11am–3pm for brunch, and 4–9pm.

New Leaf Community Markets 1210 41st Avenue 831.479.7987 • newleaf.com

The café at the entrance offers great alternatives to fast food, serving economical daily specials, wraps, pizza and home made soup and espresso drinks—with free wi-fi in the out door dining area. Inside the market, a full deli has made-toorder sandwiches, healthy takeout salads and entrée items. Open daily 8am–9pm.

All of these restaurants emphasize local ingredients and they also advertise in Edible Monterey Bay! Opening information is subject to change, so please check online before you go and tell them we sent you.

APTOS

Pangaea Grill in Carmel serves elegant breakfasts and brunches daily.

The Penny Ice Creamery

820 41st Avenue

831.204.2523 • thepennyicecreamery.com

Open Su–Th noon–10pm, F–Sa noon–11pm. See The Pen ny description under Santa Cruz for more.

Trestles

316 Capitola Avenue 831.854.2728 • trestlesrestaurant.com

Just steps away from the iconic Capitola train trestle, chefowner Nick Sherman’s passion for great food is evident in every dish at his popular neighborhood bistro. Local seasonal ingredients star in appetizers like chicory salad, roasted fairytale pumpkin with goat cheese and mole ne gro, Brentwood street corn and crispy pork belly with wa termelon radish. Entrées include smoked eggplant gnocchi, Niman Ranch pork chop and fresh fish—all served with local wines and craft beers on tap. Open W–F 5–9:30pm, Sa–Su 4:30–9:30pm.

CARMEL

Alvarado Street Brewery & Bistro

Carmel Plaza, Suite 112 831.293.8621 • asb.beer

From the team behind award-winning Alvarado Street Brewery, the Carmel bistro offers a full menu of ASB brews, along with hard cider, local wines and inventive craft cock tails. The menu goes beyond pub food to include oysters with mignonette or chili oil, Moroccan spiced fried chick en, crispy tempura-battered cauliflower and its popular burgers with truffle or garlic fries. Open Su–Th 11:30am–9pm, F–Sa 11:30am–10pm.

Covey Grill

8205 Valley Greens Drive 831.620.8860 • quaillodge.com/dining/coveygrill Covey Grill at Quail Lodge features USDA steaks and sus tainably sourced seafood complimented by unique plantbased offerings in addition to seasonal American cuisine. Covey Grill offers casually elegant indoor and outdoor din ing options against the stunning backdrop of Quail’s spar kling lake and lush garden landscapes. Open for full dinner service Mon–Sun 5–9pm, with bar opening at 4pm.

Earthbound Farm’s Farm Stand 7250 Carmel Valley Road 831.625.6219 • earthboundfarm.com

At its newly renovated Carmel Valley Farm Stand, Earth bound Farm’s 100% certified organic kitchen delights with housemade soups, sandwiches, salads, baked goods and fresh juices and smoothies. Food is available to be enjoyed on our beautiful grounds or for takeaway. Stroll through the gardens and learn about Earthbound’s commitment to organic integrity. Open daily 8am–6pm.

Grasing’s

6th Avenue and Mission 831.624.6562 • grasings.com

Chef-proprietor Kurt Grasing’s namesake restaurant has ex panded since opening in 1998 to include two large dining rooms, multiple outdoor dining areas and the ever-popular bar/lounge. A Carmel classic located in the heart of the village, Grasing’s serves California cuisine, with an awardwinning wine list and a vintage spirits program featuring classic cocktails made with rare Mad Men-era gins, whis keys, Camparis and amaros. Open daily M–F 11am–9pm, Sa–Su 10:30am–9pm.

Pangaea Grill

Ocean Avenue between Dolores and Lincoln 831.624.2569 • pangaeagrillcarmel.com

The flavors of East and West unite at Pangaea Grill—voted Carmel’s Best Restaurant in Monterey County Weekly’s an nual poll. The combination of Western dishes such as rack of lamb and Eastern elements like Korean short ribs and kimchi fried rice lends an unusual diversity to the menu. Did we mention brunch cocktails? Your eyes won’t believe it

when the Pangaea Bloody Mary arrives at the table stacked with off-the-wall fixings like coconut prawns, meatballs, bacon and gyoza. Open daily for brunch, lunch and dinner 8am–9:30pm.

Rio Grill 101 Crossroads Boulevard 831.625.5436 • riogrill.com

Deeply flavorful Southwestern cuisine is the specialty that executive chef Luis Osorio brings to the table for lunch and dinner. Go exotic with a corn truffle and wild mushroom tamale, go local with the fire-roasted Castroville artichoke or go wild west with an order of almond wood smoked BBQ pork back ribs. Open Su–Th 11:30am–8pm, F–Sa 11:30am–9pm.

Sea Harvest Fish Market & Restaurant 100 Crossroads Boulevard, Suite A 831.626.3626 • seaharvestfishmarketandrestaurant.com

The Deyerle family that owns this local gem has its own fishing boats for the freshest catch on the Monterey Pen insula. Sea Harvest doubles as a fish market and casual res taurant with indoor and outdoor seating. The oysters and clam chowder are customer favorites, but don’t miss the fried combo platter, grilled fillets and fish tacos. Open daily 8am–8pm.

Stationaery

San Carlos Square, Between 5th and 6th avenues 831.250.7183 • thestationaery.com

A neighborhood restaurant offering daily brunch and lunch, Stationaery is owned by your hospitable hosts An thony and Alissa Carnazzo. The kitchen team, led by chef Amalia Scatena, specializes in comforting flavors and local ingredients, with elegant presentations. A new bottle shop next door offers a good selection of European and Cali fornia wines to enjoy with your meal or take home. Open W–M 8am–4pm. Closed Tu.

CARMEL VALLEY

Jerome’s Carmel Valley Market 2 Chambers Lane 831.659.2472 • jeromescarmelvalleymarket.com

A chef-owned, friendly neighborhood market, Jerome’s of fers local and organic produce, natural meats and seafood, and a great selection of domestic and imported wine, beer and microbrews. French-trained chef and owner Jerome Viel prepares delicious hot foods, sandwiches and salads for eating at outdoor seating or take-away. The offerings start with breakfast burritos, croissants and other French pastries in the morning, followed by favorites such as coq au vin, spaghetti carbonara and chicken enchiladas for lunch and dinner. Open M–Sa 7am–7pm, Su 7am–6pm.

Lucia Restaurant & Bar Bernardus Lodge & Spa • 415 W. Carmel Valley Road 831.658.3400 • bernarduslodge.com

Indulge in artisanal California country cuisine, award-win ning wines and an expansive heated outdoor terrace with the finest restaurant view in Carmel Valley. At this Forbes 4-Star charmer, named for the Santa Lucia mountain range and wine appellation that beckons to the south, executive chef Christian Ojeda offers both a signature tasting menu and dishes à la carte. Wine list is equally notable. A chef’s table and wine cellar are also available for private dining and special occasions. Open daily 7am–9pm. Live music Tu–W 5–8pm. Saturday and Sunday brunch with live mu sic 11am–2:30pm.

Sunny Bakery Cafe 18 E. Carmel Valley Road 831.659.5052 • instagram.com/sunnybakerycafe

Friendly local café offering homemade pastries, espresso drinks and light fare. Warm, welcoming service and a great array of treats made daily on site with wholesome ingredi ents that honor the seasons. Owner Analuisa Bejar heads the locally-minded kitchen with favorites like egg sand

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY BANK

wiches, quiches, panini, frittatas, and irresistible BLTs. But tery pastries, cookies, cinnamon rolls, muffins and cakes round out the list. Open W–M 7am–1pm.

FELTON

Wild

Roots Market

6240 Highway 9 • 831.335.7322 (Felton) 13159 Highway 9 • 831.338.7211 (Boulder Creek) wildrootsmarket.com

Wild Roots’ 100% organic produce, natural groceries, or ganic meats and FishWise-certified seafood all go into the prepared foods offered by the store’s full-service deli, salad and soup bar and juice bar. Enjoy on the patio out in front or take home. Open daily 9am–9pm.

MONTEREY

Elroy’s Fine Foods

15 Soledad Drive 831.373.3737 • elroysfinefoods.com

The dream market of owners Jay and Chloe Dolata, Elroy’s has an extensive range of gourmet groceries, local seafood, natural meats and fresh organic produce. It also boasts a kitchen with a wood-fired grill and prepared foods to go or to eat in. The Bar @ Elroy’s serves coffee, smoothies and a savvy selection of natural wines. Open M–Sa 8am–8pm, Su 9am–7pm.

Estéban Restaurant 700 Munras Avenue 831.375.0176 • estebanrestaurant.com

At the heart of the downtown Monterey dining scene, Es téban Restaurant serves Spanish influenced cuisine made from fresh, local, and seasonal ingredients. The menu fea tures a selection of long-time Estéban favorites, as well as fresh, new dishes created by executive chef Mario Garcia, who spins out wonderful dishes like Crispy Pulpo, served with remoulade, Yukon potato, chorizo, rosemary chili oil and grilled radicchio. Open for dinner nightly 4–8pm. Tapas hour from 4–6pm nightly.

Jacks Monterey 2 Portola Plaza 831.649.7830 • jacksatportola.com

Jacks Monterey provides a refreshing culinary experi ence in downtown Monterey, inside the Portola Hotel & Spa. Emphasizing local ingredients, high-quality seafood, and an award-winning wine and cocktail program, Jacks philosophy derives from globally-inspired traditions of California Cultural Cuisine. The atmosphere at Jacks is so phisticated—never pretentious. Open for breakfast W-Su 6:30–10:30am, dinner W-Su 4–10pm, and bar only F-Sa 10–11pm.

Montrio

414 Calle Principal 831.648.8880 • montrio.com

Located in a 100-year-old former firehouse, Montrio has long been a favorite dining spot in Old Monterey. Now with a reimagined “cutting edge Californian” menu and Green Restaurant certification, executive chef Eddie Moran serves oysters, wood-fired Spanish octopus and onion soup gratinée, along with sustainable seafood dishes, local or ganic produce, prime meats and housemade desserts. Open W–Th 5–9pm, F–Sa 5–10pm, Su 5–9pm.

The Perfect Crumb Bakery 310 Lighthouse Avenue, Suite B 831.241.6269 • theperfectcrumbbakery.net

A charming spot for breakfast or a light lunch, The Perfect Crumb specialty bakery and café gets rave reviews for its croissants, blueberry scones and cinnamon buns (served on weekends only). Heartier appetites will enjoy the breakfast sandwich with eggs and hash browns served on a home made biscuit, and for lunch the grilled cheese or Mediter ranean turkey sandwich with roasted peppers and sundried tomatoes. Open W–Su 7:30am–3pm.

Peter B’s Brewpub

2 Portola Plaza

831.649.2699 • peterbsbrewpub.com

Peter B’s Brewpub combines award-winning craft beer and sports on 18 high-definition televisions in a relaxed brew pub environment. Monterey’s original craft brewery is distinguished for its variety of beer on tap, innovative pub menu, happy hour, sports bar atmosphere, and outdoor din ing on the pet-friendly heated patio with fire pits. Peter B’s is open Wednesday-Sunday with nightly happy hour from 4–6pm, as well as late night happy hour 9–10pm. Open W-Su 4–10pm. Sunday breakfast and football 9:30–11am from September to January.

Revival Ice Cream 463 Alvarado Street 831.747.2113 • revivalicecream.com

Revival serves up lovingly handcrafted, small batch or ganic ice cream, made using only the freshest, in-season, locally sourced ingredients. Favorite flavors include Bee’s Knees®, Banana Caramel, Eucalyptus Mint Chip and Dark Chocolate. Plenty of vegan and dairy-free options like Passionfruit Mango Coconut, Peanut Butter Chip and Pistachio available. They also have amazing vegan and gluten-free waffle cones, made daily in-house and the popular Revival Ice Cream Sandwiches. Open Su–Th noon– 9pm. F–Sa noon–10pm.

Sea Harvest Restaurant & Fish Market 598 Foam Street 831.626.0547 • seaharvestmonterey.com

This fresh and casual seafood spot near Cannery Row is perfect after a day exploring the Monterey Bay Aquarium. There are grilled entrées and lots of fried options with chips, including calamari, clams, prawns, scallops and oysters. Try Sea Harvest’s popular clam chowder or a basket of crispy artichoke hearts. Open daily 9am–7pm.

Tarpy’s Roadhouse 2999 Monterey-Salinas Highway 831.647.1444 • tarpys.com

An award-winning steakhouse serving generous portions of California comfort food, Tarpy’s Roadhouse occupies a sprawling 3½-acre property and stone building that used to be part of the Ryan Ranch homestead. In addi tion to expertly prepared steak, enjoy wood-fired salmon, chile-crusted chicken, braised lamb shank, classic meatloaf and smoked baby back ribs. Open Su–Th 11:30am–8pm, F–Sa 11:30am–9pm.

Wild Plum Café & Bakery 731 Munras Avenue 831.646.3109 • thewildplumcafe.com

Located in Old Monterey in a vibrant and diverse neighbor hood, Wild Plum draws people from all walks of life with sustainable bistro fare that uses organic, locally sourced pro duce, hormone-free Diestel turkeys roasted on site, grass-fed beef and house-baked bread and pastries. Breakfasts include scrambles, omelets, and breakfast tacos and burritos, and for lunch, choose among soups, salads, sandwiches and pa ninis, burgers and house specialties. Food to go and catering available. Open W–M 7:30am–3:30pm, Tu closed.

MOSS LANDING

Sea Harvest 2420 Highway 1 831.728.7081 • @seaharvestmosslanding

Outdoor tables on a wooden deck overlooking Elkhorn Slough are the perfect place to enjoy fresh seafood hauled in by a fisherman who is part of the Deyerle family that runs the restaurant. Choose from grilled catch of the day, shrimp Louie, fish and chips or some of the best Baja-style battered fish tacos around. Open daily 11am–7pm.

In Soquel and on Cannery Row in Monterey

PACIFIC GROVE

Julia’s Vegetarian

1180 Forest Avenue, Suite F 831.656.9533 • juliasveg.com

Voted the best vegetarian restaurant on the Monterey Pen insula for more than 10 years running, Julia’s is known for its wild and exotic mushrooms and house-brewed kombu chas on tap. The menu features a creative twist on vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free food. Try some of the most pop ular dishes like the fried “egg and bacon” sandwich, exotic mushroom sampler and buffalo cauliflower wings. Open 9am–9pm daily.

Mezzaluna 1188 Forest Avenue 831.372.5325 • mezzalunapasteria.com

Owners Chef Soerke Peters and Amy Stouffer keep their restaurant simple and amazing—and chef Peters is a leader in sustainability on the Monterey Peninsula.Pasta, moz zarella and gelato are made fresh daily. Starters include clam chowder with torched bone marrow and duck liver pâté and grilled octopus, and there are five dishes starring locally crafted mozzarella. Pasta choices are imaginative and include options such as wild foraged mushroom agno lotti with brown butter sage sauce, pappardelle with winebraised rabbit and potato gnocchi with gorgonzola and black truffle oil. Open W–Su 5–9pm. Closed M–Tu.

Wild Fish 545 Lighthouse Avenue 831.373.8523 • wild-fish.com

Owners Liz and Kelvin Jacobs welcome you to feast on the bounty of nearby waters and farms at their 100% local and organic seafood restaurant, enjoying exquisite dishes like crispy sablefish, halibut and petrale sole, accompanied by local vegetables. Chef Melissa Kacos also prepares fresh oysters, innovative salads, house-baked bread and sides like fingerling potatoes with poppyseed crème fraîche or baby carrots with wild nettle pesto, that make this a dining des tination. Did we mention English sticky toffee pudding for dessert? Open Su–Th 11:30am–3pm and 5–9pm, F–Sa 11:30am–3pm and 5–9:30pm.

SAN JUAN BAUTISTA

Bliss Blendz

300 Third Street, Suite A 831.593.1108 • blissblendzsmoothies.com

More than just a smoothie store, Bliss Blendz offers health ful açai bowls and a variety of refreshing, energizing drinks to get your day underway. There is a full menu of pourover coffee options, including bullet coffee and green monster mocha. Or stop by for lunch and try a salad loaded with superfoods like berries and nuts or indulge in the chia seed pudding. Open M–Su 10am–5pm.

Lolla 201 Third Street 831.593.5064 • lollasjb.com

Owner Sarah Griss has created a soup, salad and sandwich luncheonette in an adobe building right across the street from San Juan Bautista Historic Park. Lolla sources healthy food from local farms and food producers, giving customers a quick and convenient way to eat locally, seasonally and deliciously. Daily special soups are not to be missed. Open W–Su 11am–3pm.

Margot’s Ice Cream Parlor 211 Third Street 831.623.9262 • margotsicecreamparlor.com

Bringing smiles to the people of San Juan Bautista for 25 years, Margot’s was originally opened as a retail outlet for wonderful handmade candies, including chocolate-dipped apricots, almond butter crunch, marshmallows, oreos, gra hams and pretzels, as well as 10 flavors of chocolate truf fles. In addition, it offers 28 flavors of Lappert’s ice cream,

espresso drinks and Dole pineapple whip. Open M–Th 11am–7pm, F–Su 11am–8pm.

Vertigo Coffee Roasters

81 Fourth Street 831.623.9533 • vertigocoffee.com

Artisanal coffee roasted on site as well as fresh pastries baked in-house, brunch items, local craft beers and wines, plus wood-fired pizzas with naturally leavened, twice fer mented sourdough crust have made Vertigo a locals’ favorite as well as a great find for visitors en route to the San Juan Mission, Pinnacles or other area attractions. Check website for current hours.

SANTA CRUZ

Barceloneta

1541 Pacific Avenue, Suite B 831.900.5222 • eatbarceloneta.com

With its cheerful beach stripes, wicker light fixtures and whimsical details, dinner at Barceloneta can feel like a holi day. Owned by chef Brett Emerson and his wife Elan, who ensures service is superb, Barceloneta offers Spanish tapas made with seasonal, farmers’ market produce and several types of authentic paella, along with Spanish wines, beers and cocktails. Open Tu–Sa 5–8:30pm. Closed Su–M.

Bookie’s Pizza 1315 Water Street bookiespizza.com

Located inside the Santa Cruz outpost of Sante Adairius Rustic Ales, Bookie’s Pizza is owned by fine dining veteran chef Todd Parker and offers “inauthentic” Detroit-style square pies. Each pizza is made using the best seasonal in gredients from local farms, fishermen and foragers. Dough is made with organic flour, naturally leavened for 48 hours, and each pizza comes with its own unique sauce. Open Su–Th noon–9pm. F–Sa noon–10pm.

Charlie Hong Kong 1141 Soquel Avenue 831.426.5664 • charliehongkong.com

Charlie Hong Kong has been providing the Santa Cruz community with healthy, sustainable, affordable and highquality food since 1998. The colorful, casual eatery’s deli cious fusion of Southeast Asian influences and the Central Coast’s local organic produce have made it an inclusive, family-friendly, neighborhood favorite. Its slogan is “love your body, eat organic,” and its cuisine is proof that fast food can be good for you. All signature dishes are vegan with the option to add meat or fish. Gluten-free options are available. Dog friendly. Open daily 11am–10pm.

Chocolate 1522 Pacific Avenue 831.427.9900 • chocolatesantacruz.com

As its name suggests, there are all kinds of decadent choco late desserts at Chocolate the restaurant, but this farmto-fork local favorite is much more than a dessert spot. Everything is prepared simply and with local and organic ingredients whenever possible. Open Tuesday through Sunday for dinner, options include three kinds of chicken mole, roast pork with chocolate barbecue sauce, and their signature Pasta Rosettes! Cocktails feature Santa Cruzbased distilleries, including Venus Spirits. Check out their extensive hot chocolate menu. A party room for your spe cial celebration is available, with seating and menu options to suit the occasion. Open Tu–Th and Su 4–8pm, F–Sa 4–9pm. Closed M.

Crow’s Nest 2218 E. Cliff Drive 831.476.4560 • crowsnest-santacruz.com

A perfect spot to enjoy breakfast and lunch or catch a din nertime sunset over the harbor, the nautical-themed Crow’s Nest is a Santa Cruz institution that never goes out of style. There’s always something happening, from live music to comedy nights and happy hours. Famous for its salads,

scheidvineyards.com

CARMEL TASTING ROOM

SAN CARLOS & 7TH 831.626.WINE (9463)

ESTATE WINERY & TASTING ROOM 1972 HOBSON AVE., GREENFIELD 831.386.0316

house-smoked salmon and seafood entrées, the Crow’s Nest is a member of Seafood Watch and is a certified green busi ness. Open M–F 9am–8:30pm, Sa–Su 8am–8:30pm.

Laílí 101B Cooper Street 831.423.4545 • lailirestaurant.com

Exotic flavors of The Silk Road are served in a stylish dining room decorated in eggplant and pistachio colors and on a hidden candlelit patio. Locals rave about Laílí’s homemade naan served warm from the oven with a selection of Medi terranean dips. There is a wide variety of deliciously spiced vegetable dishes, and all meats are hormone free and free range. Open Tu–Sa 4–8pm.

La Posta 538 Seabright Avenue 831.457.2782 • lapostarestaurant.com

A cozy neighborhood bistro not far from the Santa Cruz yacht harbor, La Posta chef Rodrigo Serna prepares tra ditional rustic Italian cuisine using local ingredients. The emphasis is on simple, seasonal selections, with the balance of the menu reflecting whatever produce is freshest right now. La Posta also offers a great selection of Italian wines and a heated outdoor patio. Open W–Th 5–8:30pm, F–Sa 5–9:30pm, Su 5–8:30pm. Closed M–Tu.

New Leaf Community Markets 1134 Pacific Avenue 831.425.1793 • newleaf.com

New Leaf’s headquarters in a former bank building on Pa cific Avenue is a worthwhile stop for all foodies. Crowded with gourmet natural foods, it also has a deli with sand wiches, salads and hot entrées. A dining area out front is great for people watching and listening to street musicians. Open daily 8am–9pm.

New Leaf Community Markets 1101 Fair Avenue 831.426.1306 • newleaf.com

The Westside New Leaf has a large deli counter and coffee bar, with a big selection of sandwiches, salads, bakery items, soups and other hot foods. You can eat at an in-store coun ter or at tables outside. Open daily 7am–9pm.

The Penny Ice Creamery 913 Cedar Street 831.204.2523 • thepennyicecreamery.com

Lines out the front door of its converted Spanish bungalow are evidence of Penny’s popularity. All ice cream, includ ing bases, is made from scratch on the premises using local organic ingredients when possible. Dozens of exotic flavors rotate seasonally, but two favorites are chocolate caramel sea salt and strawberry pink peppercorn. Open daily noon–11pm.

The Picnic Basket 125 Beach Street 831.427.9946 • thepicnicbasketsc.com

Across the street from the main beach, owners of The Penny Ice Creamery have opened an alternative to boardwalk fast food. Sandwiches, organic salads, coffee and beer, all from local food artisans, and of course Penny’s popular ice cream, are all on offer to eat in or outside with your feet in the sand. Open daily 7am–4pm.

Soif Wine Bar 105 Walnut Avenue 831.423.2020 • soifwine.com

Soif lives on as a bottle shop offering more than 400 hardto-find European and local wines, along with a wine bar serving wines by the glass. Pull up a barstool and let Soif’s experts introduce you to something new and amazing, while you nibble on wine-friendly small bites or enjoy weekly pop up dinners. Soif also offers educational wine tastings and its popular Terroiriste Wine Club. Open Tu–Sa 1–8pm.

Staff of Life

1266 Soquel Avenue 831.423.8632

• staffoflifemarket.com

A Santa Cruz landmark, Staff of Life started in 1969 as a small natural foods bakery and has grown over the years into a full service natural foods supermarket known for its local organic produce, seafood and natural meats as well as an extensive bulk department. Deli items and foods from the hot bar can be enjoyed at the Café del Sol. Open daily 8am–9pm.

Venus Spirits Cocktails & Kitchen 200 High Road 831.600.7376 • venusspirits.com

Craft distiller Sean Venus has created an experience around his local distillery, Venus Spirits. It includes a lively restau rant bar, the distillery itself and a tasting room. If you want to sample his award-winning gin and other spirits, try the tasting room. For cocktails and hearty plates from chef Ga brielle Molina, head for the kitchen part of the building and enjoy dishes like crispy Brussels sprouts, ’nduja clams, and K.F.C. wings. Open Tu–Su 4–9pm, happy hour Tu–Th 4–5pm.

West End Tap & Kitchen 334D Ingalls Street 831.471.8115 • westendtap.com

Perfect for any parent looking for a happy hour to satisfy the whole family, adults and kids alike can’t get enough of the duck fat popcorn, fried calamari and flatbread pizzas. A diverse, season-driven menu with offerings like seasonal fish with garden fresh veggies, house smoked pork belly with cheddar grits and their famous house ground burger. Also featuring a long list of craft beers, ciders and wine op tions make West End a Westside staple. The outdoor patio is perfect for people watching amidst the bustling Swift Street Courtyard. Open daily noon–9pm, happy hour M–F 3–5pm.

WATSONVILLE

Beer Mule Bottle Shop + Pour House 45 Aviation Way 831.254.9789 • kickassbeer.com

The Beer Mule has 40 brews on tap and hundreds more in the fridge, with an emphasis on local and NorCal beer. Food—courtesy of Butchers & The Mule—includes dishes like four-cheese mac and cheese, barbacoa short rib tacos, grilled tri-tip cheesesteak, hot or not fried chicken sando and Butchers’ jambalaya. Open daily 11am–10pm.

Gizdich Ranch 55 Peckham Road 831.722.1056 • gizdich-ranch.com

Visitors from all over love this fourth-generation, familyrun farm business that popularized the “pik-yor-self” ex perience just east of Watsonville. Tour the farm, pick fresh apples or berries or watch the action inside the juice-press ing barn. No one leaves hungry if they spend time at the bakery-deli that pleases with its fresh pies, shortcakes and pastries, along with hearty sandwiches and box lunches. This family friendly experience is also a treat for kids, who will enjoy the wide-open spaces and the homemade pop sicles. Open daily 9am–5pm.

Staff of Life 906 E. Lake Avenue 831.726.0240 • staffoflifemarket.com

Opened in 2021, Staff of Life’s second store in Watsonville is its first and only branch. The store is sustainable down to its bones and includes all the natural groceries, organic pro duce and includes all the natural groceries, organic produce and baked goods you would find at the Santa Cruz store, along with a juice and smoothie bar, freshly made sushi, a gelato bar, a full deli and a hot bar. Open daily 8am–8pm.

SALT BLENDS

Create herb, spice and salt combos at home to elevate your food

RECIPES AND PHOTO BY PAULETTE PHLIPOT

Mixing fresh herbs and spices with salt creates unique flavorful blends that can be used in cooking or as finishing salts for just about any meal. Putting these delightful homemade blends into small glass jars makes a perfect stocking stuffer or hostess gift.

Flavored salt awakens depths of flavor, adds nu tritional value and can provide digestive support. Savory blends can be used in marinades and salad dressings, on roasted vegetables and simply sprin kled on top of a bowl of pasta. Adding a little citrus salt to cocktails and simple chocolate desserts will take them from ordinary to remarkable.

These homemade salts are effortless and economical to make. Using fresh herbs preserves seasonal flavors and is a brilliant way to use the abundance from an overproductive garden.

The variety of blends is endless and recipes are flexible, but the method is pretty much the same for any blend, as outlined below. Use whatever type of salt you prefer—Celtic, Himalayan or fine sea—but avoid iodized salt, which can discolor the herbs. Experiment and have fun!

Fresh Herbed Salt

1 cup fine ground salt

2 cups fresh herbs, such as Italian parsley, thyme, rosemary (A majority of the mix should be parsley since it is a milder herb) ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes

Cilantro Lime Salt

1 cup fine ground salt 1 clove garlic, smashed 2 cups cilantro

Zest from 1 lime

Orange Rose Salt

1 cup coarse ground Himalayan salt ¼ cup dried rose petals

Zest from 3 oranges

Pat fresh herbs dry, remove woody stems and loosely chop. Place ingredients in the bowl of the food processor. Pulse, stopping often to wipe down the sides. Continue until everything is finely chopped and combined.

Spread the salt mixture evenly on a parch ment paper-lined baking sheet. Let it air dry for several days. Move the salt around occasionally so that it dries evenly. Alterna tively, the salt can be dried on low heat in a dehydrator or in an oven that has been turned off after being heated to the lowest temperature. Keep the salt in the oven with the light on until dried. Be sure to move the salt around on the tray so that it dries evenly.

Once the salt is dried, place it into glass jars and secure with lids tightly closed.