ISSUE 80 • SPRING 2022
edible
MEMBER OF EDIBLE COMMUNITIES
®
Ojai & Ventura County CELEBRATING LOCAL FOOD & DRINK, SEASON BY SEASON
Celebrating 20 Years! EdibleVenturaCounty.com
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LOC ALLY SO U RCE D · S E A SO NAL I N G R E D I E NTS · WOO D FI R E D “ T h e C o n e j o Va l l ey 's B e s t O u td o o r P a t i o D i n i n g ”
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COINANDCANDOR .COM
@ C O I N AEdible N D C AOjai NDO &R Ventura County
serving you is our specialty Ojai Alisal is nestled in the rolling hills of the upper Ojai Valley and guarded by the majestic Topa Topa mountains. Our beautiful south-facing vineyards dotted with sycamores (or Alisal in Spanish) and California walnuts are touched by strong daily breezes, bringing the spirit of the Rhone region to California.
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Locally Sourced . Chef Inspired Seasonal Creations Vibrant Ambiance . Winemaker Events . Dinner Specials Wine Tasting . Artisan Market . Cheese + Charcuterie
Edible Summer
Handcrafted wines using only Ojai grown grapes 805-640-3837
EdibleVenturaCounty.com
www.ojaialisal.com
Visit ParadisePantry.com for our always fresh daily specials. 805 641 9440 • 222 East Main Street • Ventura California 93001
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CONTENTS
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REGULARS 4 EDITOR’S LETTER 6 LETTER FROM OUR FOUNDERS 15 TASTES LIKE VENTURA COUNTY 52 EDIBLE FOR KIDS 58 FORAGING FINDS 68 FARMERS’ MARKETS and CSAs 70 DINING GUIDE FEATURES 8 1,000 WORDS Beginnings BY CAROLE TOPALIAN
25 CELEBRATING 20 YEARS OF EDIBLE 28 Cooking Outside the Lines BY SARENE WALLACE
30 The More Things Change … BY JANE HANDEL
34 From the Archives 36 Finding a Family Table in Ojai BY CLAUD MANN
40 20 Things About Ventura County 42 Food Trends
44 TEEN TALK Taco Time BY AVERY LIEB
50 GREEN THUMB FOREST GARDENS
60 IN LABELS WE TRUST BY ELENA SEELEY, FOODTANK
RECIPES
COVER A true celebratory dish, the Carrot Cake for Two Seasons recipe, photographed by Viktor Budnik, can be found on page 22.
PHOTO ON THIS PAGE This photo, called “Coffee with Edible,” grabs a nostalgic moment looking through the first dozen Edible magazines, thinking back to all the reasons this community began and all the reasons we are passionate about continuing on. For more about how we are celebrating, check out our section starting on page 25.
16 Hearty Green Pozole 18 Thai Lettuce Wraps 20 Espresso-Rubbed Pork and Avocado Slaw 22 Carrot Cake for Two Seasons 54 Robin’s Recipes: Fresh Fish Trio 72 Lime Coolers 2
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Edible Ojai & Ventura County
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EDITOR’S Letter
20 YEARS
A
PUBLISHER & EDITOR
t some point, early in the pandemic, many Edible publishers across North America began meeting weekly via Zoom as a check in—kind of a support group for owners of similarly structured and networked businesses. For me, the meetings were cathartic, relieving and incredibly encouraging, especially in the midst of so much uncertainty. Evidently I wasn’t the only one who felt that way, since those meetings continue to this day, albeit with a slightly different purpose now.
As fourth owner/publisher of this magazine, I have often felt like I have been riding the coattails of those visionaries who came before me. In those weekly meetings, I see that I am in good company. While this is only my 13th issue of Edible Ojai & Ventura County, it is the 80th since its inception in 2002. Every other Edible magazine that you may have seen or heard about in other geographical areas was born from the humble beginnings of a 16-page, one-color newsletter—conceived in the Ojai Valley; written in part by farmers, chefs and food artisans (many of whom are still in the food business); and founded and published by then-Ojai residents Tracey Ryder, now CEO of Edible Communities, and Carole Topalian, now happily “retired.”
Tami Chu COPY EDITOR
Doug Adrianson DESIGN
Cheryl Angelina Koehler CONTRIBUTORS
Doug Adrianson • Leslie Arnette Emily Ayala • Julia San Bartolome Tami Chu • Jim Churchill Robin Goldstein • Jane Handel Kai Krupa • Avery Lieb Claud Mann • Ivan Medina Jess Starwood • Sarene Wallace PHOTOGRAPHERS
Viktor Budnik • Stephanie Helguera Eden Chu • Tami Chu Mariah Green • Jess Starwood Carole Topalian • Ron Wallace SALES
Edible Ojai & Ventura County Family Tree of Publishers and Editors From top, left to right: Founders Tracey Ryder and Carole Topalian Jane Handel, Perla Batalla and Claud Mann Ron and Sarene Wallace Current publisher Tami Chu. This and subsequent portraits are taken by Mariah Green at a gorgeous Ojai property designed by Paul Williams and currently on the market with Patricia Waltcher of LIV Sotheby’s in Ojai.
In this 20th anniversary issue, I wanted to pay homage to those beginnings while looking ahead to where we as a community are headed. Between the stunning collection of Carole’s early Edible photography, a peek behind the curtain with our favorite copy editor, the personality-driven articles from our esteemed former editors and publishers and the fun and informative Teen Taco Review, I think we have covered all those bases. As I sit outside writing this, looking out onto the glorious (momentarily) green hills, I am drinking in the gratitude of this moment: grateful for each person who has been a part of creating this incredible food-driven community; grateful for our advertisers, who by partnering with us help the stories we tell to reach even more readers; and grateful for you, the reader, for joining our journey, buying from our partners and sharing in the joys, sorrows, challenges and successes of our story subjects.
Mary DiCesare mary@edibleventuracounty.com SUBSCRIPTIONS
EdibleVenturaCounty.com info@edibleventuracounty.com CONTACT US
Edible Ojai & Ventura County 2470 Stearns St. #142 Simi Valley, CA 93063 805-622-9355 info@edibleventuracounty.com Founded 2002 by Tracey Ryder and Carole Topalian, Edible Ojai & Ventura County is published seasonally, four times a year. We are an advertising- and subscriber-supported publication, locally and independently owned and operated and a member of Edible Communities, Inc. Distribution is throughout Ventura County and by subscription for $28 per year. Every effort is made to avoid errors, misspellings and omissions. If, however, an error comes to your attention, please accept our sincere apologies and let us know.
Cheers to the next 20 years!
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Edible Ojai & Ventura County
For Organic Use • OMRI.org
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Flora Gardens
245 Old Baldwin Road Ojai, CA 93023 (805) 640-0055
EdibleVenturaCounty.com
Green Thumb Nursery Ventura 1899 Victoria Avenue Ventura, CA 93003 (805) 642-8517
Watcher Hay & Grain
114 S Montgomery Street Ojai, CA 93023 (805) 646-4581
Meiners Oaks Hardware 121 E El Roblar Drive Ojai, CA 93023 (805) 646-7234
GB-Organics.com
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FOUNDERS’ Letter
Tracey Ryder & Carole Topalian, Co-founders, Edible Communities Spring 2022 6
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Edible founders Tracey Ryder and Carole Topalian (top) gathered on a perfect Ojai afternoon for a reunion with Edible Ojai ‘s former and current publishers and early contributers: Tony and Anna Thacher (front left in bottom image), Jim Churchill (top right), and Emily Ayala (third back). NABU and Ventura Spirits were featured and fun was had by all. Edible Ojai & Ventura County
Photos by Mariah Green
T
hank you, Ojai! And a special thanks to all who have joined us on these pages for the past 20 years. The path from the first issue of Edible Ojai to its 20th year has been quite an adventure. What started here in the spring of 2002 has now sprouted and blossomed in nearly 90 communities across the United States and Canada under the Edible Communities brand. In addition to our magazines, we also have websites, podcasts, events and, soon, a television show. And while we would like to think our company would exist regardless of where it was started, the truth is, we believe it has thrived precisely because of its roots in the Ojai Valley. Ojai has always been an incubator for big ideas, many of which came from visionary founding women. We humbly stand on the shoulders of giants who led the way for us and whose stories inspired us: Ethel Percy Andrus (AARP); Lynda Weinman (Lynda.com); Wilma Melville (Search Dog Foundation); Annie Besant (Besant Hill School); and so many others including activists, artists and entrepreneurs. Their courage gave us ours. And while there is so much in the past to be grateful for, we sometimes, like many of you, find ourselves feeling uncertain about the future. Twenty years ago, there used to be less traffic and more orchards. Home prices and temperatures were lower, rainfall was higher. Pandemics were something belonging to history and the spirit of possibility seemed so much greater. Yet there are many among us who refuse to give up—and that, dear reader, is what we are asking of you today. It is you who ultimately will tilt the scale toward a more sustainable future, a more sustainable food system. Small steps collectively add up to huge impact: Shop local, especially at farmers’ markets; recycle; reduce waste and water usage. Plant a garden, no matter how small. Ask questions. Know where your food comes from. Be willing to equitably pay those who grow our food. Our planet is in trouble, and we must do all we can to help right its orbit again. Edible Communities, as an organization, has been devoted to these efforts for the past two decades. We are fueled by an ecosystem of readers, contributors, advertisers and, of course, our communities. At its core, our work lends itself to the singular notion that excellent storytelling has the power to change lives. Here’s to the next 20 years of doing just that.
An estimated 1 in 6 people in Ventura County experiences food insecurity, meaning that they are without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food. Food Share, Ventura County’s largest hunger-relief organization, is proud and grateful to partner with our local agricultural community in the fight against hunger. Together, we can ensure that everyone is able to enjoy the abundant fresh produce grown in this beautiful place we call home. DONATE FOOD. DONATE TIME. DONATE MONEY. foodshare.com
LIV Sotheby’s International Realty is honored to sponsor Food Share of Ventura County to help end hunger in our community. livsothebysrealtyca.com EdibleVenturaCounty.com
© 2022 LIV Sotheby’s International Realty. All rights reserved. Each Office is Independently SPRING 2022 Owned and Operated.
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1,000 Words
BEGINNINGS A Journey through Community BY CAROLE TOPALIAN
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EdibleOjai Ojai&&Ventura VenturaCounty County Edible
When I was attending photography school in Santa Barbara, my intention was to concentrate on editorial, documentary photography. My very opinionated, then-83-year-old Auntie Lydia, told me at the time that I should “shoot fruit.” As usual, she was right. And as it turned out, Edible Ojai allowed me to do both. It was the beginning of a joyous exploration of the Ojai community as well as all of the other communities across North America I had the privilege to travel to and photograph.
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Offering a large selection of books on food and cooking, as well as all other subjects.
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TASTES LIKE Ventura County
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followed. (For the results, and the recipes, visit our website.) In the five years since then, our local food producers and artisans have only improved the diversity of offerings. So this year, we decided to leave it to four chefs to interpret for themselves what might demonstrate the flavors of Ventura County. Is it local citrus? Locally roasted coffee? Hyper-local produce? Locally produced sauces? All of the above? See for yourself in the following pages—enjoy!
Photo by Mariah Green
What DOES Ventura County Taste Like?
n our 15th anniversary issue, we asked the question, “What does Ventura County Taste Like?” There was some consensus, and delicious recipes from local chefs
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TASTES LIKE Ventura County
Julia San Bartolome’s Hearty Green Posole 30 ounces (2 large cans) hominy, drained
Find Char Man Verde Hot Sauce at the Ojai Farmers’ Market, in local shops and online.
1 bunch cilantro, finely chopped
I was excited to feature local Transmission Brewing’s Dyna IPA, but any hoppy, bitter West Coast IPA will do, or try a lager or gluten-free beer. You can also substitute water or broth . This recipe is mild to medium depending on how many jalapeños you use. Serves 6–8 2 ounces vegetable oil 1 yellow onion, diced 1 pound fresh tomatillos, husked, rinsed and cut in half 1 pasilla or poblano pepper, seeded and diced 2 jalapeño peppers, seeded and diced 4 cloves garlic, peeled 16 ounces Transmission Brewing Dyna IPA 6 cups chicken broth 16
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4 chicken breasts, cooked and cubed Salt and pepper to taste 1 tablespoon oregano leaves (dried or fresh) ½ bottle Char Man Verde Hot Sauce
For fried tortilla strips: 6 tablespoons vegetable oil 1 medium corn tortilla, cut into thin 2-inch-long strips
For garnish: Shredded cabbage,
chopped cilantro, fried tortilla strips, cotija cheese crumbles, lime wedges and more Char Man Verde
In a large stockpot, heat the oil over a high flame until very hot. With caution, add onion, tomatillos, pepper and garlic to the hot oil and allow to sear until pepper skins are blistered, about 2–3 minutes. Reduce heat to medium and continue to cook until tomatillos begin to brown and soften.
pepper. Add oregano, chopped cilantro and hot suace. Reduce heat to low and slowly simmer for an hour to bring out all the flavors. Just before soup serving, heat 6 tablespoons oil in a small skillet or saucepan over medium heat. Gently layer strips of tortilla into the hot oil and cook until browned and crisp. Remove from oil with a slotted spoon and cool on paper towels. Repeat as necessary until all tortilla strips are cooked. To serve, ladle hot soup into bowls and garnish as desired. Ventura resident Julia San Bartolome owns Sweet Arleen’s bakery in Westlake Village and is a threetime winner of the Food Network’s “Cupcake Wars.” Though her degree from the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco is in pastry arts, she has a passion for all things food related and is exploring those passions as head chef at Oak Grove School in Ojai.
Deglaze with IPA and carefully purée with an immersion blender. Add chicken broth, hominy and chicken pieces and season to taste with salt and Edible Ojai & Ventura County
Photos by Viktor Budnik and Tami Chu
Tastes of Ventura County are layered into this hearty stew with fresh local cilantro, locally brewed bitter IPA, locally grown tomatillos and a complex fire-roasted flavor in the locally produced hot sauce.
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CONNECT WITH US. . .
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SATURDAYS S U N DAYS DOWNTOWN VENTURA SANTA CLARITA City Parking Lot College of the Canyons 8:30am - 12 noon 8:30am - 12 noon Santa Clara Street Parking Lot 5 & Palm Street Rockwell Canyon Road @vccfm_
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TASTES LIKE Ventura County
Ivan Medina’s Thai Lettuce Wraps “This tastes like Ventura County to me because it incorporates a mixture of tangy citrus and other fresh ingredients you often see growing in our area. Enjoy these wraps year-round since the county’s warm climate affords this dish a place at the table in any season.” Serves 4 1 pound ground beef (we used Watkins Ranch) 1 pinch kosher salt 1 pinch cracked black pepper 1 teaspoon sesame oil
beef back to the pan, mix, then add peppers and the white parts of green onions. Toss for about 30 seconds, then place in a large serving dish. For the dipping sauce, whisk all ingredients together in a small bowl and set aside. To serve: Separate 5 leaves of the lettuce and lay them on serving plate or platter. Place 1–2 spoonfuls of meat mixture in the middle of each lettuce cup. Garnish with a mix of the fresh herbs, thinly sliced carrots and a small spoonful of the nuts. Serve with dipping sauce on the side or drizzled on top of each lettuce cup.
Ivan Medina developed a strong passion for the culinary arts from his exposure to home-cooked meals throughout his early life. He attended the Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley, then returned to his hometown, Camarillo, to serve as the executive chef at his family-owned business, Sheila’s Wine Bar.
4 cloves garlic, chopped 1 (2-inch) piece fresh ginger, chopped 1 serrano pepper, sliced 2 stalks green onion, thinly sliced 4 springs cilantro 1 lime, cut in half 1 head lettuce, preferably Little Gem or butter lettuce, cleaned
For dipping sauce: Zest and juice of 1 lime 1 teaspoon brown sugar 2 teaspoons sesame oil ½ Fresno pepper, chopped 2 teaspoons fish sauce
For garnish: Fresh mint, cilantro, Thai basil, green onion; all chopped Thinly sliced carrots
In a large skillet, sauté ground beef with salt and pepper until browned. Remove to a medium heat-proof bowl. In the same skillet, add 1 teaspoon sesame oil, chopped ginger and garlic and sauté for a little over a minute. Add cooked 18
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Photos by Viktor Budnik
Toasted chopped cashews, almonds or peanuts
Edible Ojai & Ventura County
to savor the extraordinary.
In Monterey County, some experiences are best enjoyed at a slower pace. It’s easy to get lost in a stunning vista, the creativity of a dish, or a good conversation with great friends. So, come explore the flavor of this place. At your own speed.
EdibleVenturaCounty.com
SeeMonterey.com/Now
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TASTES LIKE Ventura County
Kai Krupa’s Espresso and Citrus Slow-Roasted Pork with Avocado Slaw I am constantly awed by the beauty and quality of the produce that the hardworking Ventura County farm community grows. To make the best use of what’s available, be creative and substitute any local and seasonal herbs, greens and citrus available from your local farms and producers , or use what you have in your garden or backyard. I’ve included my favorite coffee roaster, Beacon Coffee, in the dry rub for the pork because they do an amazing job roasting their beans, and their sourcing is incredible in the relationships they have with their farmers. Make the rub ahead, and don’t worry about having too much, since it’s also good on any other meat. For a vegan option, toss it with vegetables like carrots or cauliflower and some olive oil, then roast. Serves 6
For the rub:
To make the pork shoulder:
6 tablespoons ground Beacon Coffee Twenties Espresso beans 2 tablespoons brown sugar
Combine rub ingredients and then rub it all over the meat 2–12 hours before cooking. Refrigerate pork until ready to cook.
2 tablespoons tangelo zest (or other local citrus)
Preheat oven to 250°F.
2 tablespoons smoked paprika
Slow-roast* the shoulder in a covered roasting pan for approximately 8 hours, or until meat easily pulls apart with a fork. Shred with 2 forks in the roasting pan so the meat can absorb all the juices.
2 tablespoons kosher salt
2 tablespoons ground pasilla chili powder (ancho chili powder is best substitute)
For the pork: 1 (4- to 5-pound) pork shoulder (bone-in or bone out)
For the avocado-herb vinaigrette: 1 tablespoon shallot, rough chopped 1 tablespoon fresh marjoram 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary 1 tablespoon fresh bronze fennel fronds 1 tablespoon fresh sage 1 teaspoon fresh chives ½ teaspoon fresh thyme ½ tablespoon kosher salt ⅛ cup lemon or lime juice ¼ cup plain yogurt ½ teaspoon lemon zest 1 avocado
*Do not sear the outside of the roast, as this would burn the coffee.
To make the vinaigrette and slaw: Rough-chop fresh herbs and add to blender or food processor along with the salt, citrus juice, yogurt, and zest. Scoop avocado flesh into blender and blend/pulse until smooth, adding 1 tablespoon or more of water as needed to make vinaigrette smooth. Shred cabbage into a serving bowl and toss with vinaigrette until well coated. Pork and slaw can be eaten as is and are also excellent paired with tortillas, rice, corn bread, polenta or on toast. They also make excellent next-day tacos.
For the slaw: 4 cups shredded cabbage 2020 SPRING 2022 SPRING 2022
Edible Ojai && Ventura County Edible Ojai Ventura County
Food photo by Eden Chu; head shot courtesy of Kai Krupa
Kai Krupa is a chef and clinical counseling student who lives and helps with farming at King and King Ranch, in Fillmore. Kai has roots in social justice, LGBTQAI+ advocacy and a passion for local food, which they hope to integrate in their future career as a therapist.
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TASTES LIKE Ventura County
Leslie Arnette’s Carrot Cake for Two Seasons PHOTOS BY VIKTOR BUDNIK Ventura County’s landscape is abundant with farmland, a unique blend of coastal influence, inland mountains and creeks that fill once a year if we are lucky. Even snow coats the Topatopa Mountains from time to time. Some local produce changes with the seasons, but carrots are always available here. Spring and autumn are the two seasons you can find them at their sweetest, and this versatile recipe celebrates the changes that happen in our landscape, our hiking trails and our taste buds. As springtime arrives, we enjoy the smells of citrus and flowers, which is why this cardamom pistachio carrot cake has a hint of orange zest and rose essence. We are always ready for spring, just as we are always ready for autumn—the shorter days, the cozy weather and the taste of apples at their peak. Pecans are the ultimate fall nut, gracing this carrot cake with their hearty crunch and natural sweetness. Cinnamon and ginger, without a doubt, are the spices of the season. This simple recipe is family friendly and the perfect base for whatever flavors represent the season to you.
Leslie Arnette, chef-owner of The Bread Box—a cottage baking business specializing in long-fermentation, small-batch sourdoughs, bagels, English muffins and pretzels—is a lifelong Ventura resident. Hiking is her go-to whenever she is in a creative rut, and nature always inspires new ideas. Though her goal is to open a breakfast restaurant in Ventura within the next few years, for now she does office deliveries and pop-ups. @the.bread.box.ventura. Email: thebreadboxventura@gmail.com
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Carrot Cake 2 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1½ teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons cinnamon 1½ cup vegetable oil 1 cup sugar ½ cup packed brown sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 4 eggs, room temperature 3½ cups carrots, preferably organic Optional: 1 cup chopped nuts (pecans, walnuts or pistachios) Preheat oven to 350°F. Sift together first 4 ingredients. Set aside. Using a stand mixer with paddle attachment, mix together oil, sugars and vanilla. With the mixer running, add the eggs 1 at a time until combined. (This can be done with a hand-held mixer; just add and mix 1 egg at a time.) Add all the dry ingredients and mix just until all the flour is moist. Shred the carrots in a food processor or with a grater and add to the batter. Stir until carrots are incorporated. If using nuts, add here and mix just until incorporated.
EdibleVenturaCounty.com
Use parchment circles to line the bottoms of 2 (9-inch) round cake pans and spray with oil to prevent sticking. Bake for about 45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool in pans for 10 minutes. Remove from pans onto wire racks and allow to cool completely.
Cream Cheese Frosting 12 ounces cream cheese, room temperature 4½ cups powdered sugar Optional: 1 teaspoon vanilla, ½ teaspoon lemon juice Beat cream cheese until smooth. Slowly add powdered sugar. Beat on medium speed until fluffy. Place 1 cake round onto a cake plate or cake turntable. Using a spatula or a large pastry bag fitted with a large tip, add a thick layer of frosting on the top of the cake, evenly spread. Place the second cake, top side down, on top of the frosted layer. Add frosting the same way. Using a cake-decorating knife or spatula, spread the frosting evenly in a spiral, coiling toward the center. Decorate the top as desired: carrot curls, nuts, roses, piped florets, etc.
Variations: Springtime Cardamom Pistachio Carrot Cake with Rose Cream Cheese Frosting Omit cinnamon and brown sugar. Use 1½ cups white sugar. Add 1 teaspoon ground cardamom and ½ teaspoon orange zest to dry ingredients; add 1 cup chopped pistachios at the end. Flavor the frosting with a couple drops rose extract to taste. Careful: The rose extract can be overpowering; go light.
Autumn Apple Carrot Spice cake with Ginger Cream Cheese Frosting Substitute 2 cups carrots plus 1½ cups shredded Granny Smith apple. Add ½ teaspoon ground ginger to dry ingredients. Add 1 cup chopped pecans at the end. Add 1 teaspoon ground ginger to frosting.
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FARMER MILLER BAKER Organic, heritage wheat grown in California, stone milled daily to retain 100% of natural nutrients and skillfully baked into whole grain goodness.
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RoanMills.com
Edible Ojai & Ventura County
CELEBRATING 20 YEARS OF EDIBLE
J
ust over 20 years ago, an idea was born in an Ojai living room—an idea to share a celebration of local seasonal food with the community, to raise awareness of how food makes its way to our plates, and what it takes to get there. And the Edible Community was born. Since then, it has grown exponentially, spreading from Ojai to Cape Cod and back again. It reached Canada, Texas and so many states in between. For this celebration, we asked former publishers, editors and contributors of Edible Ojai (the original) to share personality-driven stories that reflect their relationship to food and farming in Ventura County. Between that, fun facts about the county and two decades of food trends, we hope that you will experience that which has defined this community since the beginning— camaraderie, hope and celebration.
MEMORABLE QUOTATIONS FROM THE EDIBLE COMMUNITY
“I’m addicted to farming. Ultimately, you end up with these amazing creations, and it’s just so astonishing that they could come from a tiny seed. It never ceases to give me joy.” —Grant Brians, Heirloom Organic Gardens in Hollister (From Edible Monterey Bay. Issue #4)
“I’ve learned the importance of food and the food business. I’m alarmed by how many people take it for granted and don’t give it the respect it deserves. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the massive corporate mind sets focused on money and convenience. But I am given hope every day by my interactions with the thoughtful people in my community who are part of the local food movement and are passionate about doing the right thing.” —Amanda Burden, Edible Reno-Tahoe
“Despite its artistic intentions and its many accomplishments humankind owes its existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains.” —anonymous (from Bruce Cole, Edible SF)
“The pleasure of eating should be an extensive pleasure, not that of the mere gourmet. People who know the garden in which their vegetables have grown and know that the garden is healthy will remember the beauty of the growing plants, perhaps in the dewy first light of morning when gardens are at their best. Such a memory involves itself with the food and is one of the pleasures of eating.”
“There is a communion of more than our bodies when bread is broken and wine drunk.” —M.F.K. Fisher (From Gibson Thomas, Edible Marin & Wine Country)
“That sense of community that comes from being connected to those who produce the food we eat, and to those who, like us, take pleasure in such connections, is essential for a civilized way of life.”
—Wendell Berry, “The Pleasures of Eating”
—Deborah Madison,
(from Amanda Burden, Edible Reno-Tahoe)
(Edible Ojai, Summer 2002)
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CELEBRATING edible
A VIEW FROM BEHIND THE SCENES BY DOUG ADRIANSON As our copy editor from nearly the beginning, Doug Adrianson has been a foundational part of keeping thousands of Edible magazines grammatically correct and culturally sensitive over the years.
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hen fish met chips, when strawberries met shortcake—my meeting Tracey Ryder and Carole Topalian was a little like that. Newly unemployed after a corporate takeover ate my job with the Los Angeles Times, I was helping my farmer friend Jim Churchill sell his “eccentric citrus” at the Ojai farmers’ market. “This is the guy you need,” he said to two women bearing big market baskets and bigger smiles. They had just launched Edible Ojai. I had read every word, thrilled by its revolutionary take-back-the-foodsystem mission and its joyful spirit. And, lifelong editor that I am, I had noticed a few editorial flies in the soup. I offered to read the next issue before publication. And I did. Over the next 20 years, as the Edible Empire flourished and spread, the founders shared my name with new publishers who wanted editing support. Twenty years on, I have copy-edited several thousand individual issues for about 50 Edibles from Hawaii to Maine. My 30 years in daily newspapering (including 12 years with the Miami Herald and nine with the LA Times) specialized in showcasing local voices from all corners of the community. My aim is to help writers convey their message clearly in their own voice, not to make farmers or chefs or compost gurus sound like Oxford scholars. Yet,
clean spelling and grammar build confidence and consistency of style helps to avoid distracting readers. So we have evolved our own hybrid style that fits—and adjusts as needed. (One example: A few terms that wouldn’t raise an eyebrow in Edible Brooklyn or Edible San Francisco might get us banned from the kitchen table in the Midwest or Deep South.) The gig also lets me indulge my hereditary love of wordplay in headlines and titles. And my decades of newspapering in two of the country’s most diverse cities raised my awareness of ways the media can perpetuate inequality; several times I have asked local editors why we tend to refer to people we write about by their last name when they are white men and by their first name if they are wom-
I think Edible Communities and the whole locavore movement are among the most significant and positive trends of our time, and I am deeply delighted to be involved.
en or people of color—even in the same article. My favorite thing about the Edibles is their positive tone. Yes, they all write about heavy issues such as climate change, hunger, food waste, vanishing farmland and our broken food system, but overall they spotlight the people and organizations that are making a difference. I think Edible Communities and the whole locavore movement are among the most significant and positive trends of our time, and I am deeply delighted to be involved.
You can subscribe online at EdibleVenturaCounty.com or copy the form below, fill it out and mail it with your check to: Edible Ojai & Ventura County 2470 Stearns St. #142, Simi Valley, CA 93063
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Address: ____________________________________________ City/State/Zip: _______________________________________ Email: ______________________________________________
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deKor Ojai
105 S. Montgomery St. Ojai, CA 93023 805.272.8675 dekorliving.com
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CELEBRATING edible
COOKING OUTSIDE THE LINES BY SARENE WALLACE | PHOTOS BY RON WALLACE
Sarene Wallace was editor of Edible Ojai & Ventura County magazine from fall of 2013 to January 2019. She and her husband, Ron, co-owned the magazine and he served as publisher.
O
ne of my prized possessions is an old, nondescript black-and-white metal box that probably wouldn’t pique your curiosity if you saw it on a shelf. But it holds a jam-packed treasure trove of memories: recipes cards in my mom’s handwriting and favorite dishes shared by friends and family. There’s tuna casserole made with canned cream of mushroom soup and topped with potato chips before baking. (Didn’t everyone’s mom make that recipe?) Bran muffins, where my mom—who was into healthful cooking before it was fashionable—jotted down reductions to the oil and sugar. Picking any recipe card from the box yields a story. It’s as though each is date-stamped with the time and place and, when you’re lucky, provides glimpses into the recipe writer’s personality. They also show how tastes evolve over time. I’m talking about you, Cucumber Salad with lime Jell-O, minced onion, ground cucumber and mayonnaise. Or Drunken Hot Dogs with flat beer and “one regular catsup bottle,” which I remember loving as a kid but wouldn’t make today. As much as I love revisiting these nostalgia-laden old friends and discovering new recipes, I love cooking even more. For me, a recipe is a guide, not an absolute. I often unconsciously go off script, thinking about what ingredient would be good to add—or to leave out. This free flow of ideas shows up as scribbled notes on the recipes’ margins: “Add bit of orange blossom water” or “add feta, double the spices.” Other times there’s no recipe in sight; I let the ingredients be my muse. The process involves a general outline and a lot of taste-testing. My husband, Ron, knows better than to ask if the dish he’s enjoying could be replicated. A little-bit-of-thisand-a-little-bit-of-that makes for a one-of-akind dish. This experimental approach is fun for me, though I know it strikes fear in some people’s hearts. Early in my time with Edible Ojai & Ventura County, County I was at a
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Picking any recipe card from the box yields a story. It’s as though each is datestamped with the time and place and, when you’re lucky, provides glimpses into the recipe writer’s personality.
Edible Ojai & Ventura County
cooking class where the teacher asked how many teaspoons were in a tablespoon. Nobrainer, right? “Two,” said someone, and not in a joking way. (It’s three.) That student figuratively sat on my shoulder with each new issue of Edible Ojai & Ventura County: Our goal was to include recipes that home cooks of every level could follow and successfully complete. Each time, we tapped into the creativity of local home cooks, subject-matter experts and chefs who generously shared their recipes that connected with our local, seasonal approach. A sampling of my favorites includes Julia San Bartolome’s Oatmeal Sandwich Cookies with Brown Butter Cream Cheese Filling (Winter 2016 issue); Chef Robin Goldstein’s Grilled Fish Tacos (Spring 2017); and Mini Berry Cheesecakes by Karen Reyes, winner of Edible Ojai & Ventura County’s recipe contest, sweet category, (Summer 2017). Oh, and Fermented Hot Sauce by Michelle Lopez-Dohrn (Fall 2016) … and so many more. If you haven’t made these recipes, I encourage you to seek them out at EdibleVenturaCounty.com. We recipe-tested every recipe—and Editor/Publisher Tami Chu still does so—to ensure they worked and were delicious. It’s frustrating and expensive when you follow a recipe and it doesn’t come out. It can rock your confidence, too. We didn’t want that to happen. Before stepping into the kitchen, we read the recipes looking for holes, like instructions that skipped steps because the contributor
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wrote them down from memory. Or ingredients that appeared in the list but not the instructions (or vice versa). We asked contributors how much “1 shallot” was and for visual cues to help cooks know when the step was complete. Now came the hardest part for me: making the recipe as written, since you know me to be a freewheeling cook. “Trust the recipe” became my mantra. It was a good lesson in self-discipline. If there was something wonky with the finished dish, I went back to the contributor with questions. Yes, there were times I made a recipe five times to make sure it worked. (Thankfully, that wasn’t necessary often.) A novice cook and expert taste-tester, Ron was integral to the process. He sampled every dish and proofed the final written recipes. If he didn’t understand something, it sent me back to add more detail. Then it was ready for our copy editor, Doug Adrianson, to review. As a cook, you never stop learning; Edible Ojai & Ventura County was my teacher and classroom. You’ll still see the proof in my fridge, with DIY projects like pickles, fermented hot sauce, yogurt and kombucha. It’s in my appreciation for the structure of a recipe and my confidence to follow it to a T—though you still might see notes in the margin where I did just a wee bit of customization.
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CELEBRATING edible
THE MORE THINGS CHANGE… BY JANE HANDEL
Jane Handel was co-owner of Edible Ojai & Ventura County from 2007 to 2013, but has been a contributing writer from the very first issue of Edible Ojai (2002) and became editor starting in 2007. In fact, the magazine was conceived in her living room over cocktails with founders Tracey Ryder and Carole Topalian. Her byline appears in every issue until 2013.
I
n 1962, the book Silent Spring was published. Its author, Rachel Carson, a marine biologist and conservationist, had spent years researching the destructive effects of chemical pesticides, like DDT, on the environment. Perhaps unsurprisingly, chemical manufacturers vilified her and attempted to discredit her findings by enlisting scientists with ties to the chemical-industrial complex. Despite these efforts, Silent Spring became a bestseller and is now credited with advancing today’s environmental movement. It also led to a national ban on the use of DDT. For Californians, the DDT ban led to a resurgence in the California Brown Pelican population, once on the brink of extinction. We can now see flocks of pelicans flying up and down the Pacific Coast. The California Condor, however, does not share this happy ending. Also affected by DDT, its numbers were reduced to just 27, and by 1987 the California Condor was declared extinct. A successful captive breeding program, led by the Los Angeles and San Diego zoos, reintroduced the condor into the wild and now there are a few hundred in existence. As a species, however, its fate remains uncertain. The condor is now threatened by its consumption of trash and by lead poisoning from bullets that have killed the carrion upon which they feed. A ban on lead ammunition was passed in California in 2019, but, like many other so-called “bans,” it is difficult to enforce. The previous federal administration quashed a ban on lead ammunition for federal lands and waters despite ample documentation that it’s dangerous to fish, birds and other 30
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My eco-anxiety has been ongoing for most of my lifetime, ever since the 1960s when I first learned about the disastrous effects of DDT, and I don’t see a cure in sight. Still, we cannot let our anxiety paralyze us. To that end, every time I see a California Brown Pelican swoop down and pluck a fish out of the ocean, I allow my heart to soar and think, “Maybe there is hope after all!” Edible Ojai & Ventura County
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species, including humans. Referring to a U.S. Geological Survey, the Audubon Society reports that “regularly used upland hunting field(s) likely contains about 400,000 pieces of lead shot per acre.” Despite the DDT ban, chemical pesticides and herbicides are everywhere. In the fall of 2021, the Environmental Protection Agency released a report confirming that over 1,000 species are currently endangered because of the poisonous herbicide atrazine. Thousands of acres in Ventura County* alone are inundated annually, sometimes several times a year, with chemicals like atrazine, glyphosate (the primary chemical in Roundup), as well as anticoagulant rodenticides that devastate surrounding wildlife. Local crops that are dosed with chemicals include strawberries, cabbage, lemons and avocados; statewide, it’s almonds and grapes. Perhaps almond milk is not a “healthy” alternative to dairy after all. For that matter, the monocrop almond industry is a major contributor to the demise of pollinators, as is the wine industry. California’s wine-type grapevines occupy an estimated 620,000 acres, consuming copious amounts of pesticides not to mention water. Many environmentalists have been sounding the alarm for decades about how toxic and carcinogenic these chemicals are and filing lawsuits against the manufacturers. This is not new information; it is part of a continuum. Sixty years after Silent Spring, the struggle continues. What perhaps is different from 1962 is the phenomenon of marketing strategies like greenwashing that breeds a level of denialism. Can planting a tree offset the devastation caused by global deforestation? At the recent United Nations Climate Change Conference,
in the towel just yet and start taking 20-minute showers. But given the scale of what we are confronting, I am also not going to pretend that, any minute now, ExxonMobil or Bayer-Monsanto are suddenly going to “do the right thing.” Or that the local hardware store will stop selling Roundup. On December 10, 1997, a young woman named Julia “Butterfly” Hill climbed up a 180-foot-tall, 1,500-year-old redwood tree in Humboldt County that was about to be felled by the Pacific Lumber Company. She lived in that tree, affectionately called Luna, until December 18, 1999: 738 days. She came down when the lumber company agreed to spare the tree. Hill’s act of civil disobedience made her world-famous. Her lifelong commitment to environmental activism has made her a folk hero. Other environmental activists have not been so lucky. Since the Paris Accord in 2015, an estimated 1,005 activists have been killed. One in three is an indigenous person. In 2020, the deadliest year on record, 227 environmentalists were killed worldwide. Every time Greta Thunberg appears in public, I hold my breath in fear for her safety. This is the world we live in. A recent Sierra Club bulletin quoted Paul Hawken saying, “Hundreds of millions of people need to realize that they have agency, that they can take action, and that collectively it is possible to prevent runaway global warming.” His website, regeneration.org, is one of many that offer helpful information on how to do just that—take action. Take to the streets, send a donation, call your senators and local representatives. If you can plant a tree and some milkweed seeds, go
When my daughter and I planted milkweed seeds a few years ago, watched them sprout and grow and, lo and behold, the mature plants were visited by a monarch butterfly, we both burst into tears. more commonly referred to as COP26 (or, as I call it, COP Out 26), more than 100 world leaders signed a resolution to end global deforestation by 2030. Again, enforcement is the issue. But a heck of a lot of trees will be felled in the interim and even if millions are planted, do we really think that by the time they mature they will have accomplished the goal of offsetting carbon emissions? Don’t get me wrong, I am an ardent supporter of any effort to ameliorate the climate crisis, emergency, disaster—call it what you will, and continue to plant trees. When my daughter and I planted milkweed seeds a few years ago, watched them sprout and grow and, lo and behold, the mature plants were visited by a monarch butterfly, we both burst into tears. All to say, I’m not ready to throw
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Edible Ojai & Ventura County
for it. But take note, Hawken said: “Hundreds of millions of people” need to take action. That’s what it will take to save this planet and all sentient beings including ourselves. In the meantime, by 2022 California’s farmworkers were to be earning a $15 per hour minimum wage and are now guaranteed overtime protection. Have they been provided with shelters to escape from the heat, or adequate health care? Are their voting rights protected? Will they ever cease to live in fear of the next ICE raid? Not yet, and despite our state’s stringent worker safety laws, given their daily exposure, year in and year out, to the aforementioned chemicals, hundreds of farmworkers suffer from pesticide poisoning annually. My eco-anxiety (yep, I just discovered there’s a name for it) has been ongoing for most of my lifetime, ever since the 1960s when I first learned about the disastrous effects of DDT, and I don’t see a cure in sight. Still, we cannot let our anxiety paralyze us. To that end, every time I see a California Brown Pelican swoop down and pluck a fish out of the ocean, I allow my heart to soar and think, “Maybe there is hope after all!” And, yes, I will be planting another tree in 2022 to celebrate the new year. And maybe someday our collective efforts will get those dangerous chemicals banned once and for all. *For specific data on pesticide use, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation posts regular reports on its website (cpdr.ca.gov).
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From the ARCHIVES
From Edible Ojai, Issue 3, Autumn 2002
WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH OJAI PIXIES? An Excerpt (Fall 2006) BY EMILY THACHER (NOW EMILY AYALA)
I
still get people in town asking what an Ojai Pixie is when they see our bumper stickers, hats or shirts. As an Ojai Pixie grower and lifetime fan, I thought I’d given one to everyone in my path by now. If you live in Ojai and have never tasted one of these extraordinary tangerines, I would be delighted to give you one—but don’t ask me until March, when the harvest season begins anew. I grew up with Pixies. My grandfather planted some trees down in the middle of the orchard around the year I was born, between some old Darcy tangerine and Valencia orange trees. Darcys and Valencias are good, but my brother and I would get bored with them by Christmastime and move on to look for the first barelyturning-yellow Pixies, with that unique flavor we craved all year. The family story goes that by the time March rolled around, the only 34
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Pixies left were the ones way out on the upper limbs where the 5- to 12-year-olds just couldn’t reach. These got picked and taken to the packinghouse, where we had to share them with the public. The Pixie is remembered by those who tasted it well before it had its own association (Ojai Pixie Growers Association started in the mid-1990s) and bumper sticker. Old college friends ask me, “Do you still have those really sweet little ones?” Now each spring, Pixies from Ojai travel around the state, to Hollywood and San Francisco, to the East Coast, even to Japan. I always wonder if my childhood friends see them in the grocery stores and recall pillaging the trees with my brother and me. Once again, I am sharing our best fruit! For the full article, visit our website. Edible Ojai & Ventura County
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CELEBRATING edible
FINDING A FAMILY TABLE IN OJAI BY CLAUD MANN | PHOTOS BY STEPHANIE HELGUERA
R
ecently someone referred to me as “an Ojai old-timer.” This gave me a chuckle—aside from feeling a tad younger than an “old-timer” of any stripe, changes are happening at such a pace around here that lately I’m starting to feel like a newcomer in a town I’ve called home for 26 years. Our family stumbled into the Ojai Valley; we had no intention of moving here. We knew little about the area, and were lured by some scheming locals who knew that my wife, Perla, and I were on the lookout for something affordable with good public schools to raise a family. To be nice, we agreed to look at a tiny house on Fox Street they told us about. It was right across from a car wash we would soon discover never seemed to close. (And let’s be honest: Washing your car at 3am means you’re probably cleaning up a crime scene). The man who owned the rental house, an overly fit Eastern European, said, “I don’t do credit checks and don’t want a security deposit. I also don’t like to fix things. If you’re handy and agree not to call me all the time, it’s yours for six hundred bucks a month.” We loaded Eva into her stroller and took a walk to discuss the pros and cons of moving to the middle of nowhere without a reliable car or regular income. Then we saw Libbey Park and went back to get the keys to the house. For me, one of the great things about moving somewhere new is discovering the food scene. This didn’t take long in downtown Ojai. Standouts were Bonnie Lu’s, Boccali’s, Sea Fresh, Casa de Lago, Ojai Coffee Roasting, O-Hi Frostie (now Ojai Business Center), Jim and Rob’s (at the old location), Carrows (now Beacon Coffee), The Firebird (now a pharmacy), Diaz Bakery (now Sage), Plaza Pantry (now a real estate office), Nora’s (now Pinyon), Tottenham Court (now Monte Grappa), Bill Baker’s (now The Dutchess—after 20 years as Azu), L’Auberge (now Nocciola), Café Emporium (now Help of Ojai),
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Claud Mann was publisher and co-owner of Edible Ojai & Ventura County with his wife Perla Batalla (pictured) and Jane Handel from 2007 to fall 2013 and now co-owns Ojai Rotîe with Lorenzo Nicola.
The four-story-high Historical Ojai Post Office Bell Tower was built in 1917 and is Ventura County’s Historical Landmark No. 26.
Edible Ojai & Ventura County
Suzanne’s (still vacant), Go Fish (now Ojai Rotîe—after 20 years as Knead Bakery) and, of course, Los Caporales (now Harvest Moon). Like most places, Ojai’s restaurant landscape changes more often than the CDC’s COVID guidelines. We soon discovered that in this small town, going out for a meal was not just about what you wanted to eat, but also how you wanted to feel and the people you wanted to visit with. Our first breakfast was at Bonnie Lu’s. The owner sat right down at our table take to take our order, saw us wrestling with a squirmy child and said, “Give me that baby.” We obediently handed Eva off to the energetic blonde with a sparkly smile and fire-engine-red lipstick named Jenny (Dohrn-Newell), who continued chatting with customers and running food with our little girl balanced happily on her hip. Eva took to Jenny right away, and a few years later, it was Jenny who led her by the hand into the back to yank her first loose tooth with a promise of post-extraction ice cream. Once Eva learned to write, Jenny let her wait tables, just as she had done with her own daughters. Bonnie Lu’s felt like home to us. Jenny’s bear-sized brother, Niles (AKA Bubba), ran the kitchen while somehow still spending most of his time in the dining room, greeting and hugging everyone in sight. One glance at his apron and you could guess the daily specials. Niles was all heart; you could taste it in the food he made and feel it in how much he relished cooking for virtually the whole town. While waiting for breakfast, he would sometimes slip us a “monkey bowl” of soup to try if he was happy with it. If there was a local benefit or a fundraiser for a friend or neighbor in need, he could be counted on to prepare food for an army. Cooking alongside Niles for some of these events was a real joy for me. I can still hear his operatic laugh that carried from the kitchen to the street. Niles Dohrn was one of the good ones and left us far too soon. Like Bonnie Lu’s, Los Caporales was a restaurant that exemplified the etymology of the word restaurant (from the French, meaning to restore or refresh). If a person was ever in need of a little restoration—and Leticia Salinas’ impeccably prepared family recipes, along with her husband Ruben’s warmth and endless stories, didn’t do the trick, perhaps what was required was help of a more clinical nature. “Los Cap” was also a true family venture. Laura, Liz and Ruben Jr. grudgingly worked alongside their parents, practicing musical instruments and doing homework in between restaurant side work. After eating there regularly for several years, we sensed we were finally being accepted into the fold after being invited to join their after-hours Rosca de Reyes celebration on 3-Kings Day. Traditionally on January 6, a tiny baby doll (representing Baby Jesus) is hidden in a wreath-shaped sweet bread called a rosca. Mexican custom dictates that whoever finds the doll must make tamales for another party in February. (I’m guessing the date of the second party can be flexible depending on dental appointments made after biting into a small chunk of Jesus-shaped plastic during the first.) Leticia’s Jalisco-influenced regional cooking was pure love, and her Carne en Su Jugo that she named Nectar de los dioses (Nectar of the Gods) still calls my name on wintry nights. Bill Baker’s Bakery was still going strong when we moved to town. It was founded in the early 1920s by a German immigrant baker named Wilhelm EdibleVenturaCounty.com
NILES & TARA DOHRN’S BUTTER LEAF SALAD with NO OIL CITRUS SESAME DRESSING From: Niles Dohrn, Chef Bonnie Lu’s Cafe For the Dressing: 1 cup fresh squeezed Ojai orange juice 1/4 cup fresh squeezed lime juice 1/2 cup seasoned rice vinegar 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard Pinch of salt Pepper to taste For the Salad: 1 head butter leaf lettuce 12 asparagus spears 1 large tomato, diced 2 diced shallots 8 peeled Ojai orange segments Wash and then tear lettuce leaves into bite-sized pieces and top with asparagus, tomatoes, shallots and orange segments. Combine all ingredients for the dressing and drizzle on top. Serve chilled.
From Edible Ojai, Issue 8, Winter 2004
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Bill Baker’s Bakery was founded in the early 1920s by a German immigrant baker named Wilhelm “Bill” Koch. Bill is credited with being the first to make Ojai famous with his wheat-free lima bean bread reputed to prevent allergies, hypertension and digestive disorders (making today’s aggressive glutenfree movement nothing new).
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“Bill” Koch. Bill is credited with being the first to make Ojai famous with his wheatfree lima bean bread reputed to prevent allergies, hypertension and digestive disorders (making today’s aggressive gluten-free movement nothing new). At its peak, Bill Baker’s shipped 10,000 lima loaves weekly throughout the U.S. According to Ojai’s town historian, the late Dave Mason, Presidents Hoover, Coolidge and Roosevelt served Bill’s famed fruit cake at White House functions. A photo of his thousand-pound cake designed for the 1939 World Exposition, featuring replicas of all 21 California missions, hangs in Jim and Rob’s Fresh Grill today. Many decades later, a collection of retired ranchers and tradespeople—some of whom knew Bill as children—gathered daily in Bill Baker’s side room well before dawn, usually before the arrival of the morning baker. (Eventually the manager gave them their own key to come in and start the coffee.) At 70-something, retired plumber AC Barnett was one of the bakery group’s youngest. If you asked him whether he had been fishing recently, his go-to reply was, “Nope. Not since this morning.” Coming home after a trip once, Perla discovered a package of AC’s coveted home-smoked fish in our fridge with a note saying, “See what happens when you don’t lock your door?” Our family got to know AC after buying his beat-up Wolf stove. He sold it strictly “as-is”, but little-by-little AC began to oversee the stove’s restoration until it looked like it belonged in the lineup of a classic car show. Once AC and I became friends, he said I might want to meet the bakery guys, so I made it a point to stop in occasionally if I awoke painfully early. The first morning I showed up, a jockey-sized Santa Paula upholsterer named Danny casually slipped me a hand-carved box to admire. I should have known it was a newbie initiation prank when everyone got quiet. I opened it and screamed like a scared schoolgirl as 180 volts from a flash capacitor shot through my arm. It was almost worth losing the use of my right hand for a week to see how much it made the old guys laugh … almost. Guys of that generation might not admit it, but I think theirs was an old-school men’s support group. For years, long before daylight, these pals sat together in the warmth of the bakery, nibbling German pastry, helping each other navigate the mysteries of loss, change and largemouth bass fishing. Inevitably, as years passed, the group dwindled. The last time I stopped in, more than a decade ago, it was down to two. No storytelling or practical jokes, just a couple of old-timers drinking coffee, quietly watching through the big window as Ojai started a new day. After two long years of COVID restrictions, I’m starting to think the vague longing I’m not able to shake stems from the loss of this natural therapy that the bakery guys took for granted. And if craving something as simple as sitting around a table with friends, drinking coffee and discussing the stuff life throws at us makes me an old-timer, then save me a seat at the table.
Edible Ojai & Ventura County
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CELEBRATING edible
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Interesting Facts about Ventura County
26%
85%
Approximate percentage of Ventura County in agricultural use.
Approximate percentage of Ventura County agricultural land dedicated to organic produce.
Acorns, chia sage, miner’s lettuce, pine nuts, deer, rabbit and quail Photo courtesy of the Limoneira Company
Native sources of food in Ventura County (though in lesser quantities than in the past), according to Chumash elder Julie Tumamait-Stenslie.
1893 Founding year of the Limoneira Company, a citrus-focused sustainable agribusiness in Ventura County. The company had a part in developing and fostering the Sunkist cooperative and companies like Fruit Growers Supply and Diamond Walnut.
46% Approximate percentage of Ventura County coverd by Los Padres National Forest
8,835’ The highest elevation in Ventura County (Mt. Pinos). The lowest is sea level.
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46+
Number of breweries and craft beer pubs in Ventura County. Joining them are more than 30 wineries and tasting rooms and an increasing number of distilleries (Ventura Spirits, Sespe Creek Distillery and Channel Islands Distillery, to start).
1921 First year a Hollywood film was shot in Ventura County. (See Erin Brockovich, Little Miss Sunshine and many old westerns, to start.)
Edible Ojai & Ventura County
1% At most, the percentage of the California tangerine crop in Ojai Pixies, VC’s very specialty crop of seedless tangerines. Grown on small family farms and sold through a farmer co-op called Ojai Pixie Growers, they ripen in March and April.
Ghosts Ventura County is said to be the home to many ghosts, including a mysterious lady in black at the Olivas Adobe; Sylvia at the Bella Maggiore Inn in downtown Ventura; a Navy man at the Beachcomber Tavern in Simi Valley; a sheepherder in Wheeler Canyon; the lady of Mugu Rock, and more.
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5
Miles of beaches in Ventura County, the southernmost county on California’s magnificent Central Coast.
Number of islands in Channel Islands National Park. Considered the Galapagos of the North, these environmentally rich islands can be visited on excursions launched from both Ventura and Channel Islands Harbors.
Early 20th Century Oil boom period, when long stretches of Ventura County beaches housed hundreds of large wooden oil derricks.
Strawberries, lemons and celery 1897
Top-grossing crops grown in VC.
Year that Henry Oxnard and his brothers started their sugar beet factory, the success of which sparked nearly overnight the development of Oxnard, VC’s largest city.
Edible Communities Inc.
1973
The largest media company exclusively devoted to the local food movement, with a network of nearly 90 independently owned magazines, podcasts, events and soon a television show, has its roots in Ojai, starting 20 years ago with a 16-page quarterly newsletter about local food.
Year Patagonia, one of the most environmentally conscious outdoor clothing and gear companies, began in downtown Ventura, where it is still headquartered.
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CELEBRATING edible
20 Years of Food Trends: 2002–2022 2002: In a time of great fear and uncertainty nationally, comfort foods hit the spot. The cookbook Everything Tastes Better with Bacon by Sara Perry was published, paving the way for a baconobsessed decade.
2009: Hummus is on the rise. Literally. Google Trends show significant growth in search traffic for hummus from 2007 to 2009.
2014: Love it or hate it, kale is unavoidably popular on restaurant menus everywhere. Many sources report that PR CEO Oberon Sinclair singlehandedly “made kale cool” over the year, with a lasting effect.
2002 • • 2003 • • 2004 • • 2005 • • 2006 • • 2007 • • 2008 • • 2009 • • 2010 • • 2011 • • 2012 • • 2013 • • • • 2014 • • • • 2003: South Beach Diet is published and takes the world by storm, riding the coat tails of the previously popular Atkins Diet. Carbs take a hit.
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2005-2006: Pinkberry opens in West Hollywood and launches “froyo” into mainstream popularity.
2007: “Locavore,” a term coined by Jessica Prentice, author based in the San Francisco Bay Area, is chosen as Word of the Year by Oxford University Press, indicating the rise in popularity of local foods and farmers’ markets.
2013: Is it keen-oh-uh? Or queen-wa? Or keen-wa? Whatever the pronunciation, quinoa hits the big time when the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations names 2013 “The International Year of Quinoa.”
Edible Ojai & Ventura County
2020: A year that starts with such promise ends in pandemic sourdough baking, sugar-laden whipped dalgona coffee and pancake cereal. Collectively, Americans turn to comfort food once again. But at least regenerative ag is also trending!
2022: There are wild predictions that anything from ghost kitchens and cannabis-infused everything to “good mood food” and allergy-friendly diets will trend this year, but we think that the rise of TikTok and reels mean that trends will come and go so quickly that we’ll barely be able to keep track.
• • • • 2015 • • • • 2016 • • • • 2017 • • • • 2018 • • • • 2019 • • • • • 2020 • • • • • 2021 • • • • • 2022 2016: While no one can really agree on its origins, (though it seems to pre-date 1937 in some stories), avocado toast takes the internet by storm and continues its meteoric rise in popularity for many years since.
EdibleVenturaCounty.com
2018-2019: Craft beer is having a moment. While microbreweries really grew in the 1990s, they exploded in the late 2010s. By fall 2019, 95% of California residents live within 10 miles of a brewery.
2021: After a year of pandemic eating, there is a slight shift toward ecologically and emotionally supportive diets. Veganism and “flexitarian” diets are on the rise, with a heavy focus on eating mostly plant-based.
Our best advice to stay on trend? Stick to eating the freshest foods you can find, as locally as possible, thanking your farmer and the land that grew it and celebrating every bite. For a look at our related timeline of Edible Communities milestones published in the 15th anniversary issue (spring 2017), use this QR Code:
SPRING 2022 43
Taco T
IME !
TEEN Talk
A TE E VC S N’S TAK E POT S FO ON SO ME R YO Taco COO U pict R BY A ured L TAC VER is fro Y LI m El O EB FIX Sanc ho L oc o Ta
Editor’s note: The opinions expressed here are the author’s. We invite you to compare with your own experiences.
que
I
f you crave amazing fo o d w i t h d e e p roots in Ventura C o u n t y, t r y t a c o s !
ria.
El Asadero 920 N. Ventura Ave., Ventura
VC taquerias are unique because they’re often run by families who have been here for generations with recipes passed down. The most popular types of tacos here are fish, chicken, beef and pork, cooked in various ways, and made with two (usually) homemade tortillas to hold in toppings. Here are some locals’ top picks that I rated based on flavor, environmental ethic and friendliness to teens like myself.
There was a lot of fist pumping and yelling and swooning as we ate these tacos, and I won’t take off points for the neglectful service because this place is simply the real deal. Everything in these tacos is fresh, from the perfectly sautéed veggies and habanero pepper in the salsa, to the fine-chopped, locally sourced meat
Avery Lieb, a ninth grader at The Thacher School in Ojai, enjoys friends, family, good food and writing about good food. She feels strongly that affordable, sustainable, healthful food will dramatically improve local communities and our connected broader world! 44 44
SPRING SPRING 2022 2022
and homemade tortillas. Despite the adrenalizing tacos and glowing space filled with games and candy machines, the potted plants and wall-climbing vines had a calming effect, and I left feeling excited about this authentic taco experience.
Edible Edible Ojai Ojai & & Ventura Ventura County County
Taste: A • Homemade tortillas • Locally sourced, mouthwatering precisely chopped meat • Fresh veggies marinated in store and sautéed to perfection • Incredible salsas
Sustainability: B-
Beach House Tacos 668 Harbor Blvd., Ventura
• Glass bottle drinks, not plastic
Do you want to sit in paradise AND eat a taco? That’s what we found at Beach
• They used paper plates instead of foam, but compostable or reusable dining ware would be even better.
House Tacos at sunset. The setting is surreal: a rustic wooden boardwalk over-
• Not bike friendly • No fish or veggie options • The games inside were super fun, but unfortunately energy wasteing.
looking a white sand beach and the vast Pacific Ocean. Normally I don’t like crowds or the cold, but I endured both with a smile frozen on my face because it was THAT BEAUTIFUL. By the time our food arrived it seemed they had called every number from 0 to 100 except ours several times, and I think even crabs under the boardwalk would have tasted pretty good. But I’m still smiling!
Taste: B
Kid-Friendliness: A
• Tons of fresh veggies
• Enjoy the games and gumball machine if you are not too stuffed with tacos to move. Try to pick up the stuffed animal with claws that don’t fit around one, etc.
Sustainability: A
• Sweet cashier took extra time to describe the most popular tacos we should order
Value: A+ • $2 tacos—the price is right!
• Too much mayo and sauce makes it messy and masks otherwise excellent flavor
• “Straw available only upon request”—yes! • Bikeable, walkable, maybe even swimmable if you are adventurous • Beautifully decorated recycling bins • Plentiful vegetarian options • Best outdoor seating. The views!!!
Kid-Friendliness: B+ • Animal and kid friendly boardwalk; jungle gym and beach steps below • Gross public bathroom. No way I would revisit or take a small child in there. • Cashier offered me a pen when I asked for it, but then retracted the offer when I said I needed it for 30 minutes. Still, he offered it at one point, so that’s nice. • Longest wait ever in the cold, which didn’t seem to bother younger customers (one said customer even ran into the freezing-cold ocean partially naked).
Value: C • Relatively expensive: $4.50–$5.50, but I realize good fish is pricey.
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SPRING 2022 45 SPRING 2022 45
Mom and Pops Food Truck at S. Oak St., Ventura
This is where a food truck loving germ-a-phobe still wants to eat: colorful and fun while also bright and CLAN. I visited early in my taco-tasting, so I wasn’t super familiar with all the taco lingo, and didn’t appreciate the snicker when I asked, “¿Que es, el pastor?” (For the record, it is a specific way to season and cook pork, so you don’t have to be humiliated too). y ego aside, om and Pops’ kitchen was incredible: sparkling white, efficient and nimble women chefs, and a tiny space that should serve as an inspiration for anyone seeking to minimie their building footprint. Importantly, this small kitchen produced big flavor: their killer mango habanero salsa added refreshing and sweet balance to my el pastor tacos and helped me move past my soured opinion of their service.
Taste: C+
Sustainability: C
• Tacos somewhat dry, bland and lacking additional veggies, but the amazing mango habanero salsa made up for it.
• Small building footprint; hopeully they don’t drive this truck freuently.
• No chips or special accompaniments other than that great salsa
• Foam plates and plastic containers could be replaced with compostable materials. • Shared resources, like the lighted picnic area, with the brewery (Ventura Coast Brewery) net door
Kid Friendliness: C
Establos Meat Market 26 Ventura Blvd., Camarillo
• Brewery next door made this more suited for adults.
We thought we were lost in an abandoned mall parking lot when
• They were clearly impatient with taco novices, but at the same time, it was only two women taking orders, cooking and cleaning, so no doubt they were focused on their product.
suddenly we turned a corner and spotted doens of cars and the
Value: C
heard spoken, we knew this place was legit. e finally realized we
• $3 per taco seemed a lot for the experience
were rewarded with truly outstanding tacos!
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super-stealth Establos Meat Market. It wasn’t clear where to order or if there was even food sold here, but the long line suggested there was something we should try! ith signs in Spanish and little English had to pick up our food in the back of the convenience store, but
Edible Ojai & Ventura County
El Sancho Loco Taqueria 2271 Michael Dr., Newbury Park
I love this place and felt loved back! Our super-sweet older server wore his own taco hat so proudly that I could imagine him going home after work and making tacos for his family because he’s that crazy about tacos. Flavor here shows high devotion; in fact, the homemade corn tortillas were the best we tried and hit it out of the park (speaking of which, there’s a pretty awesome park across the street). Definitely sit on the spacious patio and try the grilled chicken taco (or two, or three) with fresh onion and cilantro in that aforementioned mouthwatering tortilla. If this doesn’t leave you in a blissful food coma, go to the park across the street for post-taco pull ups (or just go home happy).
Taste: A-
Sustainability: B
Kid-Friendliness: A-
• Substantial homemade corn tortilla that’s soft enough to melt in your mouth, yet sturdy enough to handle piles of toppings
• They provided recycling bins, reusable forks and plates—yay!
• Incredibly friendly staff
• Fresh ingredients, like cilantro, onion and salsa • Not too salty • The real thing is way beyond the taco photos in their windows
• Plastic straws? How about compostable or ditch straws altogether. • Lots of vegetarian options • Outdoor seating with partial views of the parking lot and some green space
• Playground nearby • Easy to find and bikeable if you really want a taco but can’t drive yet • Non-intrusive music
Value: A• $2.89/taco—maybe a little pricey, but the thicker tortilla made it seem right.
Sustainability: C • Excellent veggie options • Outside seating with views of a parking lot, but at least you can sit outside
Taste: A • Just the right amount of salt • The chicken taco was the best—it soaked up the flavors perfectly. • Superb accompaniments like fresh lime, spicy salsa and homemade chips • The Establos Meat Market torta that the guy next to us was eating looked so good it was hard to focus on my tacos. (I’ll order that next time.) EdibleVenturaCounty.com
• Disappointed by the styro plates and salsa in plastic. Real plates and containers or compostable ones, please! • It’s not bikeable, but they get points for being so mysteriously hard to find and even tricking my phone’s map. • No recycling or composting that I could see (but maybe it’s hard to find like everything else here?)
Kid-Friendliness: B+ • Very friendly, even when we held up the line asking all kinds of questions about what to order, how to order, if they even sold food here, etc. • There’s a long line because this place is soooo good, but it’s fast-moving, since they know how to run a smooth business! • I like that I can pick up gum, toothpaste and other essentials here while I order my tacos. • Luckily, we spoke Spanish. Practice before you go! And pick up your food in the very back (again, no one told us that).
Value: A+ • $1.99 per taco rates on my student budget. SPRING 2022 47
Pierpont Tacos 1 S. Seaward Ave., Ventura
#YE. First, let’s talk about the design. There are little handpainted swordfish on the saloon-style doors, with another little sign sweetly touting, “four legged guests preferred.” ome on. o cute. Pierpont Tacos effuses a sense of vibrancy and thoughtfulness. The artful mi of modern and vintage decor is echoed in their brilliant and successful modern take on the authentic basic taco: homemade tortillas and toppings that rival the best I’ve tried, but made fresher, livelier and healthier than the others. n every level, from decor and service to taste and sustainability, Pierpont is #netlevel.
Taste: A+
Sustainability: A-
Kid-Friendliness: A+
Value: B
• Fresh fish with an incredible crispy baked exterior
• Bikeable, walkable
• Anyone could spend an hour looking at all the details in the gorgeous handpainted signage and animal prints … Oh wait, I did spend an hour looking at all the details.
• $5.72 for a fish taco or $4.16 for a veggie taco is on the expensive side, but the ingredients—like fresh fish—were definitely high quality and the experience was worth it.
• Tons of fresh veggies & avos piled onto the tacos • Sauces were uniue complements to the specific items ordered.
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• Outdoor seating • Tons of veggie and fish options if you are trying to eat less meat • Would be better if tacos and sauces were served on compostable or reusable dishes
• Upbeat music enhanced the beachy vibe • Helpul and enthusiastic staff (how could you not love working here?!)
Edible Ojai & Ventura County
This Spot’s for You!
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SPRING 2022 49
GREEN Thumb
Forest Gardens ILLUSTRATIONS BY RAMIAH CHU As the mainstream focus on food bends back toward local and natural, gardening trends follow. While not everyone can (or should) find food by foraging, it’s possible to bring the forest to your own yard. Done right, a permaculture food forest can conserve water, time and space. A food forest mimics the wild ecosystems of a forest with a diversity of perennial plants like fruit and nut trees, medicinal shrubs, flowers, roots and self-seeding annuals. Chosen plants should be both edible and beneficial to humans, animals and microbes. Like its natural counterpart, a food forest is meant to be selfThe sustaining, without flowering much intervention. and fruiting plants provide *Notes: •
•
Small-scale food forests can be created on patios and balconies with some modifications. Food forests are a great way to increase access to healthy food in communities. We can all advocate for parks and community spaces to include plans for these kinds of plantings.
18-year-old Ramiah Chu spends her time making all kinds of things, including art (though she prefers the pencil-to-paper style), clothing, pottery, jewelry and music. She has self-published two adult coloring books available on Amazon. She is currently exploring hair and food art and likes to keep all options open for the future. @ramiahdesigns SPRING 2022 2022 SPRING
1 CANOPY 2 UNDERSTORY 3 VINES 4 BUSHES and SHRUBS 5 HERBACEOUS plants 6 GROUND COVER 7 Edible ROOT plants 8 MICROORGANISMS and the FUNGAL NETWORK
3. VINES span multiple layers, depending on how they are trained; grapes, berries, peas, cucumbers, passion fruit, nasturtium.
food and habitat for pollinators and predators that in turn protect our food.
To get started: search the phrase “how to grow a food forest” for step-by-step guides, books and websites.
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LAYERS of a FOOD FOREST
5. HERBACEOUS plants can die off each year. This layer might include herbs like basil, annual vegetables like peppers, tomatoes, crucifers, and edible flowers.
Leaves and dead plants provide a mulch layer, which keeps the soil moist and protects the microbial activity.
8. MICROORGANISMS and the FUNGAL NETWORK retain moisture and transport nutrients in the soil. Soil health is key to a thriving forest. Using biochar, compost and worms can help your forest start well.
Edible Ojai Ojai & & Ventura Ventura County County Edible
1. The CANOPY of tall trees—timber, nuts like walnuts and almonds and fruit like avocados— typically grows to 30 feet.
Multiple layers slow waterdrops and protect tender plants, also allowing the soil time to absorb more moisture.
The LAYERS of a food forest allow sunlight to filter through so full sun, partial sun and shade plants can exist side by side.
2. The UNDERSTORY can include dwarf fruit trees (10–30 feet tall); lemons, dwarf apples, pomegranates and stone fruit.
6. GROUND COVER, mostly shade tolerant with dense growth, can overlap with the herbaceous layer; thyme, oregano, fava beans, buckwheat, lettuces, nasturtium, sorrel, strawberries, melons and squashes
4. Fruiting, flowering BUSHES and medicinal SHRUBS can reach up to 10 feet high; artichoke, blueberries, moringa, marshmallow, lemongrass, rosemary
7. Edible ROOT plants can span multiple layers; carrots, burdock, dandelions, radishes, potatoes, ginger, taro
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Worms and soil microbes consume the dead leaves and dying annuals to create rich, fertile topsoil.
Soil with lots of organic content and structure helps to clean water and save it for the dry summers.
SPRING 2022 2022 51 51 SPRING
ILLUSTRATIONS BY RAMIAH CHU
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Edible Ojai & Ventura County
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More than 75 recipe for cocktails, appetizers, main dishes, and more!
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SPRING 2022 53
ROBIN’S Recipes
A FRESH FISH TRIO
B
PHOTOS AND RECIPES BY ROBIN GOLDSTEIN
etween the coast, valleys and mountain areas, Ventura County is a thriving cultural scene where you’ll never run out of spots to explore. As a resident of Ojai, I find it to be a hot-spot for a handful of wineries and tasting rooms and restaurants all who engage with the community and support local farms and suppliers. This fresh trio— better with locally caught fish—gives you a chance to taste of Ventura County’s abundance right in your own home.
LOCAL ROCKFISH CITRUS CRUDO F ish crudo is a simple preparation of raw fish. With only a few ingredients, it takes almost no time to prepare but the result is incredibly elegant and wonderfully delicious. Serves 2–4 4 ounces white fish fillet, remove skin and bones 1 juicy lemon, zested and juiced 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil ⅛ teaspoon flaked sea salt 2 radishes, grated Small fennel bulb, shaved or grated Microgreens and/or mint leaves for garnish
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With a sharp knife, slice the fish into thin medallions and place on a plate with the slices slightly overlapping each other. Drizzle lemon juice, olive oil and salt over the fish. Allow to marinate for a few minutes while grating or shaving the radish and fennel. Arrange your serving plates with the grated or shaved fennel, then divide the marinated fish pieces on top. Garnish with radish, mint leaves and/or a few microgreens to serve. Edible Ojai & Ventura County
SEARED FISH WITH LEMON AND FRIED DILL This perfect warm-weather food is super quick and super easy. Switch it up by adding capers, or even changing out the lemon with orange or lime zest. Pairs beautifully with a chilled bottle of oaked Chardonnay, Viognier or Sauvignon Blanc. Serves 4 4 tablespoons butter 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 4 garlic cloves, sliced thick 1 small serrano chile, seeds removed then chopped 4 (6-ounce) firm white fish fillets, such as rockfish or sea bass Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
For garnish: 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 1 cup dill sprigs 2 tablespoons lemon zest Lemon wedges Heat a large nonstick frying pan over medium-low heat. Add 2 tablespoons butter and 1 tablespoon olive oil and sauté garlic and chile, stirring occasionally, for 2–3 minutes, or until soft. Remove from heat and set aside. Wipe out the pan. Heat 2 more tablespoons butter and 1 tablespoon olive oil in the same pan; increase the heat to medium. Sprinkle the fish with salt and a few grinds of pepper and cook for 3–4 minutes on each side, or until cooked through. Remove the fish to a serving platter. Heat 4 tablespoons olive oil in a small frying pan over medium heat and fry the dill sprigs in small batches. Be watchful, as it only takes 1 minute or so to crisp. Remove the fried dill onto paper towels. Top the fish with the sliced garlic and serrano chile, crispy dill and lemon zest, and serve with lemon wedges.
Visit our website: tangerineman.com
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SPRING 2022 55
SALMON WITH SPICY APRICOT GLAZE
Chef Robin Goldstein’s cooking career has been centered in California, where she has been preparing foods for 30+ years. She brings to the table a deepfelt art of balancing flavors while interacting with her private clients in their homes. She shares her delicious recipes through her popular cookbooks, perfectly paired for those who seek savory Mediterranean-inspired flavors. PrivateChefRobin.com
This glaze requires only a few ingredients and you wouldn’t believe how amazing it tastes! Heart-healthy salmon bathed in the lime-infused glaze makes for an easy and delicious weekday dinner. Serves 4 2 cups ripe apricots, washed and cut in half, stone removed 3 garlic cloves ¼ cup maple syrup 2 limes, zested and juiced 2 tablespoons your favorite hot sauce Pinch of cayenne ½ teaspoon sea salt 4 (6-ounce) salmon fillets, bones and skin removed
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Preheat oven to 400º F.
Chef’s Notes
Prepare the glaze by blending apricots, garlic, maple syrup, half of the lime zest and ¼ cup lime juice, hot sauce and cayenne together in a blender. Add salt and blend until smooth. Then pour into a small sauté pan set over medium heat and simmer until the mixture is reduced and shiny.
This recipe can be made with any stone fruit that is in season—plums, peaches, apricots. I have also made the glaze with leftover roasted grapes instead, giving it a concentrated grape flavor.
Place salmon in roasting pan and generously spoon the glaze over the fish. Roast in oven for about 12–15 minutes. Remove from the oven and baste with the pan juices. Plate the salmon and garnish with remaining lime zest and extra glaze.
Grilling the salmon, instead of roasting, also works for this recipe: Brush on the glaze during the last few minutes of grilling, being careful not to let the glaze burn.
Edible Ojai Ojai && Ventura Ventura County County Edible
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Blending academic fundamentals with the richness of the visual arts, drama, and music. Preserving the magic of childhood in Ojai’s beautiful East End.
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FORAGING Finds
The Rise of the Pandemic-Era Forager PHOTOS AND WORDS BY JESS STARWOOD
Jess Starwood, herbalist, chef and forager, is the author of Mushroom Wanderland: A Forager’s Guide to Finding, Identifying and Using More than 25 Wild Fungi. She teaches herbalism and wild food classes in Ventura County. See more at TheWildPath.com
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Edible Ojai & Ventura County
Modern-day foraging cultivates a sense of wonder and discovery, allowing us to find the strangely unfamiliar in our familiar world.
O
nce an outright necessity of humankind, foraging in the wild for one’s sustenance has long since taken a backseat to the commercial food system, fading into obscurity and lingering only in stories of past generations—all in favor of that which is fast, aesthetic and convenient. Food has become safe, predictable and mundane for the past hundred years. For many, if you are hungry, an easy meal is never too far away. However, when a worldwide pandemic suggested the very real possibility of empty store shelves and entire populations quarantined without much to do, folks quickly found themselves curious about how to feed themselves if the system really did shut down. For most, it was the first time they had been confronted with an empty food shelf or the near-catastrophic shutdown of the restaurant industry. Food needed to be found. Many turned to gardening; others turned to foraging. Those uncertain times prompted the biggest surge of interest in foraging during modern times. Ironically, some of that interest has been fed by hot social media trends created by young adults posting tidbits of regurgitated factoids sidled up to a snapshot of a funky mushroom, maybe hungry not just for backyard weeds and fungi but also for those likes, follows and shares for their latest “discovery.” These nascent foragers are just far enough removed from earlier generations to have missed out on learning about these unostentatious traditions of everyday life from the elders who may have harvested huckleberries and hunted morels—all without today’s digital fanfare. Rather, they are garnering their knowledge from the visually flashy video clips paired with catchy tunes on TikTok and other platforms. With renewed interest for the little bit of nature we have left around us, are these hordes of freshly minted foragers causing harm to the environment as they naively trample about in the woods picking every fruit, berry and mushroom in their path? Or could this practice be cultivating a new perspective on how, in dire times (from which we are not out of the woods yet), we may someday need to rely on in this fragile and shrinking natural world around us? EdibleVenturaCounty.com
It may well be opening eyes to how destructive our consumerist habits have been on these rich and diverse wild communities that were once seen as “empty space.” Research has shown that once people understand that nature has personal value and have developed a relationship with it, they become invested in its future and see it as something worth saving. This new interest in foraging also comes at a time when a relief from the fast-paced, manufactured, ready-made virtual landscape is needed most. While the pandemic brought people outdoors, it also brought us more deeply into the digital realm than ever before, as the world embraced a new way to connect in all facets of our daily lives. It’s no wonder people found respite in a walk in the woods. Finding your own food in the wild requires a much slower gait than the typical Trader Joe’s run. Foraging gets our hands dirty. It’s tactile and ever-changing. Predictable, yet often surprising, it fosters a study of nuances and opportunity. Foraging requires a discernment between that which is edible or poisonous and a real-life investigation of an organism’s growing conditions. Nothing is neatly trimmed, cleaned and packaged—just raw, natural and untamed. Will foraging replace commercialized and ready-made foods? Most likely not. The work that goes into collecting, processing and preparing a completely wild food diet requires patience and time. But by honoring the practice for what it is and using it as a catalyst for reconnection with ourselves and the fragile yet resilient natural world around us, foraging can help people to balance the fast-paced virtual landscape that is slowly taking over our lives. Modern-day foraging cultivates a sense of wonder and discovery, allowing us to find the strangely unfamiliar in our familiar world. Will it last into the post-pandemic years? Possibly—especially as populations continue to increase and available food choices dwindle, wild foods will continue to have an appeal. While it may be a passing fad for some, for others this newly established connection with the environment will give reason to protect, support and honor the valuable land that we live in for generations to come. SPRING 2022 59
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S IG N AT U RE
S E C T ION
Edible Ojai & Ventura County
The trademarks and certification marks displayed are the property of their respective owners and are displayed herein for demonstration and informational purposes. Edible Communities and these entities are not affiliated.
IN LABELS WE TRUST
How food certification labels, seals and standards can help eaters make better choices
STO RY
BY
E L E N A
S E E L E Y,
FO O D
TA N K
CO N T E N T
D I R E C TO R
Danielle Nierenberg, Food Tank president, contributed to this article.
Even before the pandemic, choosing what to eat was difficult.
PROT E CT ING WO RK E RS
What’s healthy? What’s not? Do workers get a fair wage? What’s
In 2020, the World Economic Forum/Ipsos found that 86
better for the planet? For eaters looking to purchase products that
percent of people want a significant change towards a more equi-
are fairly traded or BIPOC owned, it can feel exhausting to find
table and sustainable world post-pandemic.
delicious foods from producers they believe in.
Standards from the food sector are working to eliminate
Certification labels and standards can be useful and neces-
forced and child labor, improve workers’ conditions, promote
sary ways to help consumers, but they’re often confusing. “Un-
gender equity and ensure better pay. Many fair-trade companies
fortunately, the burden is always on the consumer in terms of
are helping growers shift to environmentally sustainable practices.
evaluating the veracity of the label, doing the research to see
“While not a silver bullet, the Rainforest Alliance certification
whether the information on these labels is properly supported
is designed to provide methods and a shared standard for creat-
and accurate,” Brian Ronholm, director of food policy at Con-
ing a more transparent, data-driven, risk-based supply chain…to
sumer Reports, says.
make responsible business the new normal,” says Alex Morgan
Focusing on one issue helps, says Jerusha Klemperer of FoodPrint, an organization that educates consumers about food production practices. Decide which issue you’re most passionate
from the Rainforest Alliance. For foods from the United States, it’s more difficult to find companies upholding fair working conditions.
about and look for a label that upholds those standards. Labels
“Farm employees are still not equally protected under the Fair
can help increase transparency and provide insight into how food
Labor Standards Act and do not have a federally protected right
was produced. They can help eaters vote with their wallets for
to a weekly day of rest, overtime pay, sick time, collective bar-
food choices that support the environment, climate solutions,
gaining rights or even the right to a federal minimum wage on
animal welfare, workers’ rights, and healthy and sustainable diets.
small farms,” says Leah Penniman of Soul Fire Farm, an Afro-
But even conscientious eaters can get overwhelmed by the num-
Indigenous centered community farm in New York.
ber of choices they face.
Rosalinda Guillen, founder of Community to Community,
Choosing certified labels is a way to avoid empty claims, Klem-
says the Food Justice Certified label by the Agricultural Justice
perer says. But not all certification processes are created equal.
Project (AJP) is the most comprehensive label for protecting
Klemperer advises consumers to “do the research before you get
workers. “We call it the gold standard,” says Guillen, who has
to the store.”
provided input on AJP’s certification since 2000. Her BIPOC-
EdibleVenturaCounty.com
SPRING 2022 61 ediblecommunities.com
led organization fights for better farm working conditions. She trusts the
mals suffer unnecessarily,” says Ben Goldsmith of Farm Forward, a non-
label because farm workers were deeply involved in setting the standards
profit striving to improve farm animal welfare. It can be easy for us to
from the beginning.
imagine ideal scenarios—healthy animals that are free to roam in open
Soul Fire is one of just six farms using Food Justice Certified. And it's advocating for the Fairness for Farm Workers Act. “The exploitation of farm labor is so deeply entrenched in the DNA of this nation that it can feel daunting to confront it, and yet we must,” says Penniman.
pastures—but unfortunately, Goldsmith explains, few animals are raised this way. According to the nongovernmental organization, Food and Water Watch, 1.6 billion farm animals live on 25,000 factory farms, or concentrated animal feeding operations, in the U.S. These animals face over-
IS AL L N AT URA L ME ANI N GL E SS?
crowded and stressful conditions and are regularly subject to physical
One of the most familiar labels is all natural. It sounds good—even healthy—but it’s an empty marketing tool.
alterations like tail docking and beak clipping. To avoid meats from animals subject to inhumane practices, look for
Klemperer says, “Ignore it.” Look for labels like USDA Certified
the Certified Animal Welfare Approved (AWA) label. Farmers and ranch-
Organic, which is two decades old. According to the Economic Re-
ers qualifying for certification cannot use cages, must provide access to
search Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, organic foods can
pastures and must ensure animals are treated humanely when they are
be found in almost three out of every four conventional supermarkets.
bred, transported and slaughtered. Producers may also add a Certified
To meet USDA standards, foods must be grown in soils that have
Grass-fed label to this certification, meaning animals were fed a 100 per-
not been treated with artificial fertilizers and pesticides for at least three
cent grass and forage diet. Goldsmith says he appreciates the AWA label
years. And organic farmers cannot plant genetically modified organisms
because it helps to “support and encourage small producers.”
(GMOs).
Another label is Certified Humane from Humane Farm Animal Care.
Newer labels, like the Regenerative Organic Certified (ROC) label,
Minimum space allowances and environmental enrichment must be pro-
encourage farmers to further improve animal welfare, fairness for farm
vided for animals raised under Certified Humane standards. That encom-
workers and soil health. The label’s three-tiered system allows producers
passes the treatment of breeding animals, animals during transport and
to earn bronze, silver or gold certification to incentivize action.
animals at slaughter.
This label is also designed to be adaptable. “As science and culture
These labels are better for animals—and farmers can find them more
morph and change, we can incorporate that into a flexible or dynamic stan-
rewarding. “You get to see animals exhibit natural behaviors,” says Ron
dard that can adjust at that level,” explains Jeff Moyer, CEO of the Rodale
Mardesen, a livestock farmer for Niman Ranch, a beef, pork and lamb
Institute, a nonprofit group dedicated to growing the organic movement.
company with Certified Humane products. For products like eggs, terms like humane raised, free range and hor-
NON-G M O L A BE L S DE MYST I F I E D
mone free sound good, but lack a clear definition. The U.S. prohibits the
Many growers avoid GMOs without using USDA Certified Organic practices. GMO products are derived from plants and animals, the genetic makeup of which has been altered, often to create resistance to pesticides, herbicides and pests.
use of hormones in all poultry, veal, eggs, bison and pork production, so claims of hormone free don’t mean much. AWA, Certified Humane and USDA Certified Organic labeling standards prohibit the use of antibiotics and synthetic hormones in animal
Consumers can look for the Non-GMO Project Verified label, which indicates that produce or products containing fruits and vegetables are not
production. Consumers looking to buy meat products raised without these inputs should buy certified labels.
produced with GMOs. For meat and dairy products, this label means that S O ME T H ING FIS H Y
animals were fed a non-GMO diet. In 2022, products containing GMOs must use a new Bio-Engineered
The seafood sector is rife with labor exploitation, overfishing, eco-
label from the USDA. But some non-GMO advocates argue this label
system damage, fraud and intentional mislabeling. Mark Kaplan, of the
doesn’t go far enough. Many products derived from new modification
company Envisible, calls the challenges in the industry “appalling.”
techniques, including those having undergone CRISPR gene editing and crops meant for animal feed, will be exempt from the label.
Envisible works to make supply chains more transparent and equitable. Using blockchain, the company can trace a product from a fishing vessel all the way to the supermarket. Data entered at every point along
HUM A N E L A BEL I N G
the supply chain cannot be changed, helping eliminate fraud.
“I think everybody cares about animals and nobody wants to see ani-
Kaplan recommends consumers look for the Global Seafood continued
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Alliance’s Best Aquaculture Practices label, a third-party certification that
Numi prefers this approach. She believes that allowing companies to la-
addresses environmental health, social wellbeing, food safety and animal
bel individual products as carbon neutral “can give a green halo to that
welfare along the aquaculture supply chain.
company without necessarily committing to or investing in enterprise
The Fair-Trade Certified seal, a label given to various species of fish
level change.”
that meet certification requirements, is also helpful. Certification focuses
Numi plans to print on each tea box the precise estimate of green-
on supporting economies, improving working conditions and protecting
house gas emissions associated with it—something Oatly and Quorn are
ecosystems.
currently also doing with their packaging.
The Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch is a tool to help guide more sustainable choices on a case-by-case basis. Its website allows users
UNWRAPPING LABELS
to search by species to understand the best options and alternatives, and
Emily Moose, executive director of the nonprofit A Greener World,
which species to avoid.
argues that it’s important for consumers to continually ask for sustainable
CA R B O N L AB EL I N G
whelming, it might not matter.’ But that’s really not true,” says Moose.
products. “It can be easy to just say, ‘Oh, there’s too much, it’s too overAccording to Nature Food, more than one-third of greenhouse gas emissions can be traced to the food system. Many eaters are seeing this
“That only benefits an opaque food system and practices that will never improve.”
connection between global agriculture and the climate crisis, and they
If you care about workers, speak with store managers about carrying
want to purchase more climate-friendly food. Some businesses are seeing
products with AJP’s label. For environmental concerns, email store buy-
labels as part of the solution.
ers to let them know you’re happy they purchase organic or local products
Numi Organic Tea has Climate Neutral Certification. It helps com-
but wish they had more.
panies measure, offset and reduce their carbon emissions to reach carbon
And eaters don’t always need labels to do the right thing. BIPOC
neutrality—a balance between the amount of carbon emitted into and
and women-owned businesses have been disproportionately impacted by
absorbed by the atmosphere. Climate Neutral also tries to account for the
the pandemic. Consumers can look to local farmers’ markets or Yelp and
entirety of the supply chain—emissions caused by on-site facilities, pur-
Google for businesses with a Black-owned or women-led badge.
chased electricity, employee transit, shipping and transporting materials.
Ultimately, labels and certifications are helpful tools, but don’t tell us
Instead of specific products, Climate Neutral certifies entire brands
everything about how food is produced. As eaters, though, we have the op-
once they achieve zero net carbon emissions for one year and requires
portunity, every time we pick up a fork, chopsticks or a spoon, to choose
them to commit to emission reduction targets annually. Jane Franch of
more economically, socially and environmentally just food systems.
Closing Thoughts From Our Founder Thank you for joining us on these pages, the fourth in a series of thought leadership pieces from Edible Communities. We would like to send a special thanks to our partners for this issue, Elena Seeley, Danielle Nierenberg and the team at Food Tank, who made this story possible. Exploring, investigating and changing our food system have been guiding principles of Edible Communities since we first began. And while I know our work has impact and is valued, there is still a lot more to do! In the case of labeling, for instance, it would be so easy if there were one label, one certification, one set of guidelines, one choice to make when it comes to our food, but alas, only one option would allow a broken food system to stay broken. Therefore, we hope you find this thought-provoking and thorough coverage on the topic informative and useful. As you are reading this, Edible Communities is fully into our 20th anniversary year as a media company. We are approaching 100 titles throughout North America and reach over 20 million readers each year. Those are statistics we don’t take lightly. We are grateful for you, dear readers, who help guide and sustain us. And if you’re an Edible reader, we feel you will enjoy being a Food Tank reader as well. Part of its mission statement says: “We aim to educate, inspire, advocate and create change,” and it certainly does that. I encourage you to visit foodtank.com, to listen, learn, join and be part of the conversation. Tracey Ryder, Co-Founder & CEO Edible Communities
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VENTURA COUNTY FA R M E R S ’ MARKETS
WEDNESDAYS
Downtown Ventura
Midtown Ventura Certified Farmers’ Market Pacific View Mall (West End Parking Lot) 3301 N. Main St. Wednesdays, 9am–1pm (rain or shine) VCCFM.org 805-529-6266
The Collection at Riverpark
THURSDAYS Downtown Oxnard Certified Farmers’ Market Plaza Park, 5th St. & B St. Thursdays, 9am–1:30pm (rain or shine) OxnardFarmersMarket.com 805-247-0197
Ojai Community
Farmers’ Market Chaparral Courtyard, 414 E. Ojai Ave. Thursdays, 3–7pm OjaiCommunityFarmersMarket.com 661-491-0257
Thousand Oaks
Certified Farmers’ Market The Oaks Shopping Center (East End Parking Lot) Wilbur Rd. & Oaks Mall Dr. Thursdays, noon–5pm (rain or shine) VCCFM.org 805-529-6266
FRIDAYS Santa Paula Certified Farmers’ Market Santa Paula Train Depot, 200 N. 10th St. Fridays 3pm–7pm EnrichedFarms.com
Simi Valley
“People who love to eat are always the best kind of people.”
—Julia Child
This list was updated February 2022. As details do change, please contact the markets for the latest info.
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Certified Farmers’ Market Civic Center Plaza, 2757 Tapo Canyon Rd. Fridays, 11am–3:30pm (rain or shine) Facebook.com/SimiValleyMarket 805-643-6458
SATURDAYS Agoura Hills At Whizen Market Square 28914 Roadside Dr. Saturdays, 9am–2pm @ccfminc
Camarillo Hospice
Certified Farmers’ Market 2220 Ventura Blvd., Old Town Saturdays, 8am–noon (rain or shine) CamarilloFarmersMarket.com 805-987-3347
Certified Farmers’ Market City Parking Lot Santa Clara St. & Palm St. Saturdays, 8:30am–noon (rain or shine) VCCFM.org 805-529-6266 Farmers’ Market Collection Blvd. across from The Food Annex Saturdays, 8am–2pm RawInspiration.org
SUNDAYS Ojai Certified Farmers’ Market Behind the Arcade at 300 E. Matilija St. Sundays, 9am–1pm (rain or shine) OjaiCertifiedFarmersMarket.com 805-698-5555
Moorpark
Certified Farmers’ Market Moorpark Civic Center Parking Lot 799 Moorpark Ave. Sundays, 9am–2pm EnrichedFarms.com 818-699-6204
Community Market
At Oxnard College Campus Parking Lot Sundays 8am–3pm Maria_olivares2@my.vcccd.edu
Channel Islands Harbor
Farmers’ Market Marine Emporium Landing 3350 S. Harbor Blvd., Oxnard Sundays, 10am–2pm (rain or shine) RawInspiration.org 818-591-8161
Westlake Village
Farmers’ Market 2797 Agoura Rd. Sundays, 10am–2pm (rain or shine) RawInspiration.org 818-591-8161
WEEKENDS Ventura College Foundation Weekend Marketplace Ventura College East Parking Lot Corner of Telegraph Rd. & Day Rd. Saturdays & Sundays, 8am–2pm VenturaCollegeFoundation.org
Edible Ojai & Ventura County
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edible ojai & ventura county Local Guide to Good Eats & Drinks
CAMARILLO All Things Tea European teahouse with certified Tea Specialist. Specialty loose-leaf teas from the finest plantations and gardens around the world. Cream Tea, Afternoon Tea and High Tea. In Paseo Camarillo Center | 300 N. Lantana St., #37 | Camarillo | 805-445-8327 | Tea-Liteful.com
THOUSAND OAKS Chocolatine French Café An authentic French café established in 2004 in the heart of Thousand Oaks, the family-owned spot pleases daily with breakfast, lunch and afternoon snacks of homemade quiches, sandwiches, crepes, macarons, coffee drinks and more! 2955 Thousand Oaks Blvd. | Thousand Oaks | 805-557-0561 | ChocolatineFrenchCafe.com
OJAI Café Bōku Bōku is an Ojai Superfood Café offering sustainable, plant-based nourishment, smoothies and artisan coffee. Our menu and space changes as we go, evolving with the seasons and the needs of our thriving community. 987 W. Ojai Ave. | Ojai | 805-650-2658 | BokuSuperfood.com
VENTURA
Find this savory Detroit barbecued short rib pizza with Topa Topa Beer braised short rib, fontina, provolone and mozzarella and pickled red onion at Freda’s Wood Fired Pizza in Old Town Camarillo.
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Paradise Pantry Food with a local emphasis, including great sandwiches, salads, mac ‘n’ cheese, gourmet goodies, a cheese counter and an extensive wine shop. Diners can also enjoy craft beers, wines by the glass or wine flights. 222 E. Main St. | Ventura | 805-641-9440 | ParadisePantry.com
SIMI VALLEY The Kitchen at Single Serve Co. A café for coffee and tea lovers with 10-day cold brew process using smallbatch-roasted, direct and ethically sourced beans. Supporting local roasters. Eco-friendly. 2355 Tapo St., #12 | Simi Valley | 805-579-8989 | SingleServeCo.com
Edible Ojai & Ventura County
Freda’s Wood Fired Pizza Delicious NY-style and brick- oven pizzas, sandwiches and salads. Dining, catering, pickup/ delivery—and with two mobile wood-fired ovens, we can bring the party to you! 2024 Ventura Blvd., #114 | Camarillo | 805-586-4055 | FredasPizza.com
Fresh Curry Chefs Visit for delicious Indian food and signature Bombay Frankie wraps & bowls. Try Ready Meals and Pressed Juices. Cook fresh, restaurant-style food in just 15 minutes with convenient Meal Kits 33 N. Lewis Rd. | Camarillo | 805-384-8066 | FreshCurryChefs.com
WESTLAKE VILLAGE Coin & Candor at Four Seasons Westlake Village A seasonally inspired California brasserie featuring sophisticated casual indoor and outdoor space with stunning views of the Santa Monica Mountains. The menu presents locally sourced dishes that incorporate wood-fired cooking techniques. 2 Dole Dr. | Westlake Village | 818-575-3044 | CoinAndCandor.com.
The Wine Closet Wine lounge in Old Town Camarillo, featuring unique wines, craft beers, small plates, lunch and dinner. Weekly happy hours and featured wine tastings. Indoor and outdoor seating. The specialty market offers retail sales of fine wines, craft brews, artisan cheeses and charcuterie. 2423 Ventura Blvd. | Camarillo | 805-746-5708 | WineClosetInc.com
NEWBURY PARK/OXNARD NABU Wines A member of the Malibu Coast wine trail, NABU makes wine from Napa Valley to the Malibu Coast. Live music and wine tasting every Saturday & Sunday noon–6pm. 2649 Townsgate Rd. | Westlake Village | 818-835-3704 | NabuWines.com
Ragamuffin Coffee Roasters Family owned and operated coffee shop and bakery with ethically sourced coffee, gluten-free pastries and excellent service. 111 N. Reino Rd. | Newbury Park 805-375-9000 | 550 Collection Blvd., Ste. 130 | Oxnard | 805-278-5837 | RagamuffinRoasters.com
CATERING Bonito Coffee Roaster Small-batch coffee roaster bringing generations of Nicaraguan craftsmanship to the Ojai Valley. Coffee roasted weekly. Visit by appointment. 406 Bryant Cir., Unit K | Ojai | 805-256-7873 | BonitoCoffee.com
Poseidon Brewing Company A small, local, veteran-owned craft brewery making a variety of beer styles. Visit the tasting room or take a growler to go. 5777 Olivas Park Dr., Ste. Q | Ventura | 805-477-0239 | PoseidonBrewingCo.com
Sage Mindful Meals & Elixirs Offers beautiful outdoor seating nestled among the Arcade sycamores, happy hour in the lounge or a quick bite at the elixir bar. The innovative healthful food and drink menu highlights local, organic, seasonal and sustainable ingredients. 217 E. Matilija St. | Ojai | 805-646-9204 | SageOjai.com Currently closed. Stay tuned for reopen dates.
Private Chef-Catering Robin Goldstein is a California chef who works her culinary magic combining unique flavors and seasonal ingredients with classic techniques inspired by her extensive travel around the Mediterranean. PrivateChefRobin.com
Simone’s Oldest independent coffeehouse in Ventura with two locations. Locally roasted coffee, premium pastries, and made to order breakfast & lunch. 7818 Telegraph Rd. & 2848 Cabrillo Dr. | Ventura | SimonesCoffee.com
Ventura Spirits Since 2011, using the natural and agricultural bounty of California’s Central Coast to hand craft novel and delicious spirits. 3891 N. Ventura Ave. | Ventura | 805-232-4313 | VenturaSpirits.com
FILLMORE Roan Mills Bakery California’s first land-to-loaf bakery, Roan Mills grows the wheat, mills the flour, bakes the bread and makes the pasta. Stop in at their bakery in historic downtown Fillmore and taste the difference. 411 Central Ave. | Fillmore | RoanMills.com EdibleVenturaCounty.com
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LAST Bite
Lime Coolers Contributed by Cindy Klittich of Otto & Sons Nursery. Adapted to gluten-free by Edible Ojai & Ventura County. Photo by Eden Chu Makes about 3 dozen cookies 1 cup butter
LIME GLAZE
½ cup powdered sugar
½ cup powdered sugar
1¾ cups gluten-free 1:1 flour
2 teaspoons grated lime peel
¼ cup organic cornstarch
4 teaspoons lime juice
1 tablespoon grated lime peel 1 teaspoon lime juice ½ teaspoon vanilla extract 1–2 tablespoons granulated sugar on a plate for dipping
In a small mixing bowl, whisk sugar, lime peel and juice until smooth. Frost cooled cookies by dipping cookie top into glaze. Allow glaze to rest at least 10 minutes before devouring.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare cookie sheet with parchment or silicon mats. In a large bowl or mixer bowl, beat together butter and sugar. Add rest of ingredients except granulated sugar and mix on medium speed until well blended. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place 2 inches apart on prepared cookie sheet. Using the flat bottom of a glass or jar dipped in the granulated sugar, press ball until ¼-inch thick. Repeat for each dough ball. Bake 9–11 minutes, until cookie edges are light golden brown. Cool.
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Original recipe inspired by Lime Coolers from Gold Medal Holiday Cookies Booklet #24.
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