Edible Santa Barbara Spring 2011

SANTA BARBARA edible

SANTABARBA RA edible ®

spring

MARCH, APRIL, MAY

Recipes in This Issue

Soups

In

Seasonal Recipes 11 Edible Leftovers: Hash

12 Edible Garden: Companion Planting

14 Vegetable Literacy: Two Spring Plants: Sorrel and Rhubarb

18 Liquid Assets: Gypsy Canyon’s Angelica

22 What the Grownups Are Drinking

26 Edible Santa Barbara Dining Guide

28 Salt of the Sea: Fisherman Steve Escobar Experiments with Local Sea Salt

34 An Artisanal Approach: Renaud’s Patisserie & Bistro

42 Julia’s Kitchen: Julia Crookston and the Good Land Kitchen

46 The Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital Farmers Market

50 The Rituals of a Meal

54 Edible Source Guide and Edible Events

56 The Last Bite

52 Fresh Pea Soup

15 Sorrel Lentil Soup

Salads

9 A Spring Salad

53 Endive Salad with Fava Beans and Herbs

Main Dishes

11 Hash

52 Provençal Leg of Lamb

17 Sorrel Omelet with Cream

Desserts

53 Classic Cherry Clafoutis

17 Green Rhubarb Puree with Grapefruit

About the Cover

Photographer Fran Collin captures an image of Morgan Gonthier eating a croissant at Renaud’s Patisserie & Bistro. Find out more about Fran Collin and view his ongoing portrait series at work-for-food.com

FOOD FOR THOUGHT D

Spring always feels like a new beginning. But this year, I feel, we have already gotten off to a great start this winter. In January we were fortunate to play host to our fellow Edible publishers, as well as journalists, food writers and activists at the annual Edible Institute conference held this year in Santa Barbara. It was two solid days of inspirational speak ers and panel discussions along with a Saturday evening food gala event that showed off the very best of our local food scene.

SANTABARBA RA edible ®

PUBLISHERS

Steven Brown & Krista Harris

EDITOR

Krista Harris

RECIPE EDITOR

Nancy Oster

COPY EDITOR

Sharon Shay Sloan

CONSULTING

EDITOR

Laura Sanchez

DESIGNER

Steven Brown

WEB DESIGN

Mary Ogle

Contributors

I still can’t quite believe how wonderful it all was. Picture a festive, happy crowd of foodies along with a selection of the most talented chefs, winemakers and artisans of our area. Picture an abalone and chanterelle salad served with flatbread baked on site from the Full of Life Flatbread mobile wood-fired pizza oven. Or how about Jeff Olsson’s rabbit stew or the wild mushroom bisque with Parmesan foam served by the chefs of Los Olivos Cafe? We had our choice of some of the finest wines in the county, and there were award-winning Telegraph beers and St. Germain cocktails, too. I couldn’t get over the delicious kale salad that Chef Michele Molony served me. And don’t even get me started on the gelato and the chocolate…oh, and those meringues!

But what was even more memorable about the evening was when I looked around at the room full of people who were committed to this concept of local food, and I realized how important this was to me. The community that the aptly named Edible Communities has brought together is a tangible sign of what we have accomplished in the food movement. And the fact that there is even something called a “food movement” is a pretty momentous thing.

When Michael Pollan came to give a talk the following month, he talked about this food movement and what a powerful thing it has—and will potentially—become. It’s not a red state, blue state partisan type of movement. Instead it brings together people from very divergent backgrounds—people who care about healthy food, local food, safe food, sustainable food, humane food, the people who grow and produce our food and of course people who ultimately care about real food, fresh food and delicious food. And there is nothing more community building than sharing food.

I feel grateful to the community of people who have surrounded Edible Santa Barbara over the past two years. We have accomplished a great deal in telling the stories behind our local food and encouraging this food movement. I thank you all for sharing this journey with us, and I look forward to where it will continue to take us this spring and beyond.

Krista Harris, Editor

Pascale Beale

Joan S. Bolton

Rosminah Brown

Carrie Clough

Fran Collin

Shannon Essa

Erin Feinblatt

Jill Johnson

Kurt Irwin

Jennifer LeMay

Deborah Madison

Nancy Oster

Mark Pfeiffer

Laura Sanchez

Jaspenelle Stewart

Carole Topalian

Contact Us

info@ediblesantabarbara.com

Advertising Inquiries

ads@ediblesantabarbara.com

Edible Santa Barbara ® is published quarterly and distributed throughout Santa Barbara County. Subscription rate is $28 annually. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used without written permission from the publisher. Publisher expressly disclaims all liability for any occurrence which may arise as a consequence of the use of any information or recipes. Every effort is made to avoid errors, misspellings and omissions. If, however, an error comes to your attention please accept our sincere apologies and notify us.

Thank you.

© 2011 edible Santa Barbara

At the Edible Institute with (left to right) Amanda Burden, Jaci Goodman, the publishers of Edible Reno-Tahoe, Shannon Essa and Krista Harris, Edible Santa Barbara

Reichl

An Afternoon With

A Spy in the House of

Anthony Bourdain &

Eric Ripert

Notables edible Attention Foodies

Ruth Reichl and Anthony Bourdain Are Coming to Town

UCSB Arts & Lectures is making foodies very happy this spring. Ruth Reichl—former editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine and well-known restaurant critic for the New York Times and Los Angeles Times —is the author of four bestselling food memoirs. She has a devoted following amongst serious foodies, and this lecture is a great opportunity to hear from her. She will be at The Granada on Sunday, March 27 at 3pm.

There are few who are not aware of Anthony Bourdain, writer and extraordinary host of the Travel Network’s No Reservations. He will team up with buddy Eric Ripert, the celebrated chef of New York’s Le Bernardin restaurant and Bravo TV’s Top Chef for an afternoon of conversation that is sure to be entertaining. They will be at the Arlington on Sunday, May 1 at 4pm.

For more information and to buy tickets: artsandlectures.sa.ucsb.edu

Ruth Bourdain

Who or What is Ruth Bourdain?

Interestingly enough, there is a fictional mash-up character called Ruth Bourdain on Twitter. An anonymous writer has combined the poetic Twitter-style of Ruth Reichl with the edgy grittiness of Anthony Bourdain.

Take a Tweet from Ruth Reichl: “The $4 Feast: Pile of ruby Maine shrimp. Sweet, succulent, tender. Steamed. Roe to slurp. Heads to suck. Finger to lick. Fine solo supper.”

The Ruth Bourdain Tweet is: “Pile of ruby Maine shrimp. Sweet, succulent, tender. Roe to slurp. Heads to suck. Fingers to lick. I feel like a total prawnstitute.”

On Twitter, Ruth Bourdain can be followed at twitter.com/ RuthBourdain; Ruth Reichl at twitter.com/RuthReichl; Anthony Bourdain at twitter.com/NoReservations; Eric Ripert at twitter.com/EricRipert

SanTásti

THE PERFECT PALATE CLEANSER

If you have ever been wine tasting and tried to taste a white wine after drinking a red wine, you know that your sense of taste can be a bit off. Or perhaps you’ve tried tasting wines after drinking coffee, and you’d like to know how to get rid of that coffee taste in your mouth. Two former students at Cal Poly have used their background in chemistry and wine to come up with a unique palate-cleansing beverage. It is a triple filtered sparkling water with a little bit of sugar, fruit pectin, citric acid and cellulose gum and natural flavors. Somehow the combination works to scrub your mouth and refresh your palate so that you can taste flavors clearly. Try it while wine or olive oil tasting. Or, serve it at a dinner party between courses. It comes in two flavors, original and cucumber, and also works well as a mixer in cocktails.

SanTásti is available locally at Oreana Winery, Qupé Winery, Firestone Winery, Tastes of the Valley, Cambria Winery and online from santasti.com

Make Your Own

RICKI’S CHEESEMAKING KITS

This is a great way to try out cheesemaking in your own kitchen. One kit is for making mozzarella and ricotta and another is a basic hard cheese kit for making farmhouse cheddar and several other cheeses. The kits come with a recipe booklet, dairy thermometer, rennet and other essential ingredients needed in cheesemaking. You’ll need to find a good source for milk that is not ultra-pasteurized. And then let the artisan cheesemaking begin. Great for parties, too.

Ricki’s Cheesemaking Kits are $24.95 for the mozzarella kit and $29.95 for the hard cheese kit. They are available locally at C’est Cheese and online at cheesemaking.com

Grow Your Own

A COMMUNITY GARDEN CAN MAKE IT POSSIBLE

If you are living in an apartment or don’t have a patch of earth, a community garden can allow you to nurture your inner farmer and put food on your table. For a monthly or yearly fee, you get a plot of earth that you can use to grow a substantial amount of edible crops.

The City of Santa Barbara has community gardens at Pilgrim Terrace, Rancheria and Yanonali. Plots are $62 per year. 805 963-7567; santabarbaraca.gov

The City of Santa Maria has a 100-space community garden at Alice Trefts Park. Plots are $27 per year. 805 925-0951; ci.santa-maria.ca.us

In addition, there are a growing number of gardens started by community groups and churches. Some, such as the Mesa Harmony Garden in Santa Barbara and the College Avenue Garden in Lompoc, donate the produce to local foodbanks. For more information about the Mesa Harmony Garden, visit mesaharmonygarden.org.

You can also find out more about growing food in our community by visiting the Santa Barbara chapter of Food Not Lawns website at sbfoodnotlawns.org

vertical TASTING

Macarons

These delectable French cookies are as light as clouds and as beautiful as Easter eggs—not to be confused with macaroons, the moist, chunky coconut cookie. For the correct pronunciation of macaron, say it as though you were saying macaroni and drop the final “i.” Probably the only reason they’re not more popular in this country is that you need an artisan to make them. So, we are fortunate in Santa Barbara to have Renaud’s Patisserie & Bistro, which makes the most exquisite and delicious macarons this side of the Left Bank. For more about Renaud’s, see the article in this issue on page 34.

Pistachio

The bright green color may inspire envy in anyone who doesn’t have one. This is a cookie that has a truely nutty flavor. It cannot be resisted. Perfect piled on a platter for garden parties and served with freshly made iced mint tea.

Chocolate

The chocolate lovers in the audience will always choose this one first. Cookies and chocolate—they just go together. And the chocolate ganache in the filling of these cookies is beyond addicting. You will need more than one.

Raspberry

A beautiful light red color, this is another one whose look attracts you before you’ve even taken a bite. And, after you take a bite, you fall hopelessly in love. The bright, clear taste of the raspberry stands alone, although it can successfully be paired with the chocolate or any other flavor macaron

Sea Salt Caramel

This has quite possibly the best flavor combination imaginable— the sweetness is perfectly balanced by the sea salt. Give a box of these to ones you love, and give them to yourself whenever you need to feel that all is well with the world.

Available at Renaud’s Patisserie & Bistro located in Loreto Plaza at 3315 State St.; 805 569-2400 and downtown at 1324 State St.; 805 892-2800; renaudsbakery.com

Community gardens at Pilgrim Terrace.

Season in

Almonds (harvested Aug/Sept)

Apricots

Artichokes

Arugula

Asparagus

Avocados

Basil Bay leaf

Beans

Beets

Blackberries

Blueberries

Bok choy

Broccoli

Brussels sprouts

Cabbage

Carrots

Cauliflower

Celery

Chard

Cherimoya

Cherries

Chives

Cilantro

Collards

Dandelion

Dates (harvested Sept/Oct)

Dill

Fennel

Garlic (harvested May/June)

Grapefruit

Honey

Kale

Lavender

Leeks

Lemons

Lettuce

Limes

Mint

Mustard greens

Nectarine

Onions, green bunching

Oranges, blood, navel

Oregano

Parsley

Peas, English

Pistachios (harvested Sept/Oct)

Potatoes (harvested May/June)

Radishes

Raisins (harvested Sept/Oct)

Raspberries

Rosemary

Sage

Snow peas

Spinach

Sprouts and legumes

Strawberries

Sugar snap peas

Tangerines/Mandarins

Thyme

Tomatoes

Turnips

Walnuts (harvested Sept/Oct)

Also available year-round

Fresh Flowers

Potted Plants/Herbs

Regional Cheese

(artisanal goat-and cow-milk cheeses, butters, curds, yogurts and spreads)

Locally Produced Breads, Pies and Preserves

(bread produced from wheat grown in Santa Ynez; pies and preserves)

Local Meat

(antibiotic-free chicken, duck, Cornish game hens, rabbit, grass-fed/hormone-free beef and pork)

Local Seafood

Many types of local seafood are available year-round, but here is a list of some that will be in season this spring:

Black Cod

Ridgeback Shrimp

Rock Crab

Rockfishes

Spot Prawns

Squid

Urchin

seasonal Recipes

Salad Greens

Sometimes you can find wonderful mixtures of seasonal greens sold by local salad growers, but it’s also nice to buy your own head lettuce or greens and make a salad that is uniquely yours. Try butter lettuce, oak leaf lettuce, ruby red lettuce, arugula, chicory and all sorts of fresh tender herbs, like parsley, chervil, dill and chives. And for a walk on the wild side, try agretti, an Italian favorite now locally available this spring.

Agretti

Though it’s well known in Italy and has been grown for centuries, it has only briefly been available at local farmers markets and made only sporadic appearances on the menus of local restaurants. But, thankfully, this spring Windrose Farms will have it at the Saturday Santa Barbara Farmers Market.

What is it?

Agretti (Salsola soda) is an annual green vegetable with needle-like, succulent leaves that is tolerant of salty soils. It also happens to be related to Salsola tragus, the iconic tumbleweed of the West. It is harvested in bunches when small. Grown as a companion, it will help the growth of tomatoes or peppers by extracting sodium from the soil. It is also self-seeding.

What do you do with it?

Agretti has a fresh, crisp texture and a slightly tangy, salty flavor. It can be used raw in salads or sushi. It can also be steamed, sautéed or cooked in soup. Try substituting it for sorrel or spinach. Use it whenever you’d like to add a crisp contrast or a tart flavor to a dish. There are many possibilities with this new—to us—vegetable.

A Spring Salad

Makes 4 servings

This is an everyday salad that is equally comfortable at a fancy dinner party. Feel free to mix it up, add additional seasonal ingredients and use whatever types of mustard or vinegar you have on hand. If you don’t have an avocado, try it with some crumbled blue cheese or some chopped walnuts, almonds or pistachios.

5 handfuls of lettuce, either one variety or a mixture 8–12 strawberries

1 avocado

Dressing

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard or honey mustard

1 tablespoon apple bouquet vinegar, white wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1 ⁄ 8 cup high quality olive oil or walnut oil

Wash the lettuce or mixture of greens in a large bowl of cold water, and dry in a salad spinner. You can do this several hours ahead: Simply roll the washed greens in a clean dishtowel and refrigerate in an airtight container.

Cut the strawberries into halves or quarters depending on how large they are. Halve and pit the avocado and cut into slices.

In a small bowl mix the mustard and vinegar along with a little salt and pepper. Whisk in the oil. Taste and adjust the proportions of any of the ingredients, as needed.

Place the lettuce and greens in your serving bowl and toss with half to three quarters of the dressing. Place the strawberries and avocado on top and drizzle with a little more of the dressing. Serve with a little more salt and/or freshly ground pepper if desired. 8

SUNDAYS

Camino Real Marketplace In Goleta at Storke & Hollister 10:00am – 2:00pm

TUESDAYS

Old Town Santa Barbara

500 & 600 Blocks of State Street 4:00pm – 7:30pm

WEDNESDAYS

Solvang Village

Copenhagen Drive & 1st Street 2:30pm – 6:30pm

Harding Elementary School 1625 Robbins Street 3:00pm – 6:30pm

THURSDAYS

Camino Real Marketplace

In Goleta at Storke & Hollister 3:00pm – 6:00pm

Carpinteria

800 Block of Linden Avenue 3:00pm – 6:30pm

FRIDAYS

Montecito

1100 & 1200 Block of Coast Village Road 8:00am – 11:15am

SATURDAYS

Downtown Santa Barbara

Corner of Santa Barbara & Cota Streets 8:30am – 1:00pm

L

AZY ACRES

Lazy Acres Bruschetta

INGREDIENTS

1/2 loaf ciabatta, sliced into 1/4” thick pieces then cut each in half to make about 25 pieces

3 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil

2 tsp. garlic, minced

4 oz. fresh goat cheese

1 lb. roma tomatoes, diced

2 tsp. fresh basil, chopped

3 Tbs. balsamic vinegar

1 1/4 tsp. sea salt

pinch black pepper

4 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil

METHOD

In a small bowl, mix the olive oil and garlic. Brush each piece of bread with the mix and bake at 300° for 15-20 minutes, until crisp. Meanwhile, in a bowl mix the tomatoes, basil, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper. Fold gently and set aside. Once the crostini are cooled, spread with goat cheese and top with the tomato mixture. Serve immediately. Serves 6.

edible LEFTOVERS HASH

by Shannon Essa

Hash. Somehow this easy-to-make, rustic dish has developed a bad reputation in the past few decades.

Perhaps those cans of slimy corned beef hash had something to do with it, or the fact that a restaurant serving less-than-stellar food is referred to as a “hash house.” But hash is a great way to use leftovers that goes back centuries—even the Romans had their own forms of hash.

In this country, hash goes back at least as far as the cookbook found in the household of Martha Washington at Mt. Vernon, though one could easily picture the settlers at Jamestown picking apart the remains of last night’s dinner and from it making the next day’s meal. Martha Washington’s cooks made hash out of mutton, capers and lamb gravy, but there was no set plan; sometimes a sprig of mint or some chopped spinach was added.

Early editions of the Joy of Cooking have an assortment of tips such as “have sauce or gravy boiling vigorously” and “the proportions may be varied. This is a matter of taste and expediency.”

One Joy of Cooking recipe calls for canned cream of mushroom soup. What happened in between Martha’s day and 1962 when the second edition of Joy of Cooking was published? Somewhere along the way, corned beef hash was canned, and that hash, with its resemblance to dog food, is the hash that is seared into the memories of many people. But this needn’t be the case.

I have made hash from leftover roast chicken and the remains of a dish of braised rabbit with fennel. Vegetarians can use leftover roasted root vegetables. Hash can be made from smoked or roasted fish, or leftover crab meat. Virtually any savory flavor can be added—horseradish, jalapeño, dry sherry, you name it. Is there any other dish that is so versatile?

Hash can be served alone, but there is something about a poached or fried egg on top that makes it extra special. And don’t just think of hash for breakfast or brunch—it is wonderful for dinner and like many other dishes, a good glass of wine is a perfect accompaniment.

The bottom line: Let us return hash to its rightful place. This is a dish that transforms the leftovers of last night’s dinner into an easy-to-make, hearty and delicious meal. Using creativity as your guide, keep leftovers out of the trash bin and get them into the pan—and onto the plate. You won’t be disappointed.

To make a Wicked hash

Take a couple of cups of leftover cooked chopped meat and about the same of chopped vegetables. If the vegetables are already cooked, simply chop them up and add them to the meat. Uncooked onion or bell pepper can be sautéed and added; cubed potato should be diced and boiled al dente before adding.

Add some liquid about a third or half cup, depending on the dryness of the meat—wine, broth, or cream.

Add a bit of salt, pepper and spices to taste, and mix well

Heat

a skillet over medium heat and add oil or other fat (got duck fat? Bacon fat? Experiment!) until hot, then add your hash.

Spread

it out and cook until browned on the bottom, then use a spatula to flip and brown it on the other side. Flip rather than stir your hash—but don’t worry if it crumbles. If the mixture seems a little dry, add a bit more liquid. If you like a lot of crunch, but are not getting enough brown crunchy bits, stick the skillet under a hot broiler for a few minutes before serving.

Serve with fried or poached eggs

Shannon Essa is a California native whose beverage of choice is Santa Barbara Pinot Noir. She travels a lot and leads wine, beer and food based tours to Spain and Italy for Grapehops Tours. She is the author of restaurant guidebook Chow Venice! and a contributor to the Slow Travel website.

EDIBLE GARDEN Companion Planting

by Joan S. Bolton

A perfect match.

Whether green onions with broccoli or basil with tomatoes, certain pairings in the garden are just meant to be. Or in the case of beans, corn and squash, a threesome is fine, too.

Companion planting has been around for centuries, long before applying commercial chemicals in the garden became a modern way to grow ample crops. Folks who relied on food from their gardens couldn’t afford to lose their cucumbers to beetles or their cabbage to moths. So they turned to pairings that relied on the natural qualities of various plants to control pests, attract beneficial insects and encourage vigorous, healthy growth. While there might not have been scientific proof, the combinations simply worked.

One of my first forays into companion planting was some 20 years ago, after a particularly persistent pack of fuzzy, gray aphids decimated my broccoli. Determined to not let that happen again, yet equally determined not to drench my broccoli with pesticides, I planted green onion sets between the rows on my next go-round.

The result was downright miraculous. The onions’ scent deterred the aphids from moving in and my broccoli florets were fresh, plump, green and nearly aphid free. I’ve paired green onions with broccoli ever since. There is still the occasional intruder, but I’ve never lost another crop.

Indeed, that’s one of the caveats about companion planting: You may still see a little damage. But it’s a great first line of defense against wholesale devastation.

Edible Matchups

The best partnerships are those that join up edibles that are mutually beneficial—in one way or another—be it a pungent scent, adding nutrients to the soil or simply coexisting as pals because the plants are content to share the same, precious space.

Matchups can be tricky. On the one hand, odiferous onions are good neighbors to all sorts of vegetables, from other root crops such as beets, carrots, kohlrabi, leeks and potatoes, to aboveground broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, strawberries and tomatoes.

Yet plant potatoes and tomatoes together and both may suffer from blight. Also, onions do not grow well with beans, peas or asparagus. Planting them together may stunt everyone’s growth. But that doesn’t mean you should avoid planting beans and peas with other onion companions. To the contrary, many are quite compatible. In addition, beans and peas enrich the soil for corn, cucumber, eggplant, pumpkin and squash.

For this, look no further than the traditional Iroquois Indian’s “Three Sisters,” a synergistic matchup composed of corn, beans and squash. The stiff cornstalks provide a pole for the beans to climb; the beans fix nitrogen in the soil; and the squash bears large leaves that shade the soil and hold in moisture, while its shallow roots don’t dive deep enough to compete with the beans or corn. What’s more, the trio squeezes into a remarkably small footprint.

Similar matchups, where one edible happily cozies up and clambers over another, include pole beans twining up tall sunflowers, and cucumber or pumpkin vines rippling through rows of corn.

JASPENELLE

A ”Three Sisters“ garden with corn, beans and squash.

On a smaller scale, I like to sow fast-growing lettuces between broccoli and cauliflower. The leafy greens are ready to harvest well before the broccoli and cauliflower fill in.

Aromatic Herbs and Flowers

Herbs have been major players in kitchen gardens for generations, with many offering a solid contribution well before they reach the table.

For instance, it’s no secret that fresh-picked basil is a perfect complement to fresh-picked tomatoes. Less known, perhaps, is that planting the two of them together boosts their vigor and taste. Basil plants also help deter flies and mosquitoes—though admittedly, in a relatively small area.

Other go-to herb companions include sweet-tasting borage, which repels tomato hornworms and attracts honeybees to help pollinate your garden, and catnip, which reduces populations of ants, aphids, squash bugs and weevils. Chamomile, chervil, fennel and hyssop all attract beneficial wasps and hoverflies, which feast on aphids and thrips.

Dill also attracts hoverflies and wasps, plus deters aphids and spider mites. However, be warned that it may attract tomato hornworms as well, so keep it away from your tomatoes. Rosemary inhibits bean beetles, cabbage moths and carrot flies. Thyme repels cabbage loopers, cabbage worms and whiteflies.

For years, I’ve mixed scented marigolds and calendulas among just about all my vegetables.

The marigolds seem to help keep my tomatoes healthy and produce over a longer period of time. They protect against many insects, including whiteflies. They attract beneficial hoverflies. They look pretty. Meanwhile, below ground, the roots reduce nematodes. The thready, parasitic worms infest the flowers’ pungent roots. Then the roots prevent the nematodes from reproducing, drastically limiting their numbers. If you have trouble with nematodes and possess enough patience, consider planting marigolds in your vegetable bed a year prior to planting vegetables.

However, once again, be warned that marigolds aren’t perfect companions for everyone. They are not compatible with cabbage and beans, and they can attract spider mites and slugs.

Calendulas are not as fragrant as marigolds, but they still deter tomato hornworms and asparagus beetles. Also consider planting nasturtiums. The exuberant, spicy-scented sprawlers reduce cabbage worms and squash bugs. The flowers also serve as a magnet for aphids, which can actually be a good thing. By acting as decoys, they lure away the soft-bodied pests from neighboring plants.

Joan S. Bolton is a freelance writer, garden coach and garden designer who confesses to a lifelong love affair with plants. She and her husband, Tom, have filled their four-acre property in western Goleta with natives and other colorful, water-conserving plants. They also maintain avocado, citrus and fruit trees and grow vegetables and herbs year-round. SantaBarbaraGardens.com

Two Spring Plants: Sorrel and Rhubarb

by Deborah Madison

FROM HER FORTHCOMING BOOK VEGETABLE LITERACY

Sorrel and rhubarb are among the first edibles to appear in the spring, though what month that might be depends on where you live and your particular climate. Their timing is one reason to consider them together, but another is that they are related as members of the family Polygonaceae, a word that means having many (poly) knees or joints (goni). The more common name for the family is the knotweed family because of nodes, or joints, that reside on the stems of many family members. There are indeed some vicious weeds in this family and not a lot of edibles aside from rhubarb, sorrel, and a third edible, buckwheat. Although residing in different genera, both sorrel and rhubarb are exceedingly tart. Historically they functioned to cleanse the system of the effects of stodgy winter diet, come spring.

It’s not until late May that there’s a luxurious quantity of leaves on my sorrel plant, which is an ordinary culinary sorrel bought from a nursery. Each leaf comes to a point at the top, broadens towards the center, then dips down at the tips—more or less arrow shaped. A stem runs up the center and the delicate side veins are visible. As the leaves get larger and coarser with the season’s increasing heat, it’s usual to fold them back and rip out the stems, as they can be stringy. But early on, when the leaves are super-tender, this isn’t necessary. Sorrel leaves are so thin that they feel almost like paper. They don’t fare well in plastic containers for they release their moisture, then spoil. Plus you’ll want to use a lot of sorrel when you do use it, which is why having your own plant or two makes sense. You might recently have seen a very small sorrel leaf with red veins in your salad mix. It’s very effective as far as looks go, but seems to lack the tartness of the more common sorrel.

One use, especially for very small and tender leaves, is to add them to green salads. Sorrel is very good at brightening foods and surprising the tongue with its sharp little bite, and that’s exactly what it does in when included in a tangle of lettuce. Imagine what it can do with heavier foods like potatoes, lentils and eggs. Cream and sorrel are divine when brought together in savory custard, a soup or a sauce. Think of salmon with sorrel sauce and lentils. And you couldn’t go wrong by tossing a few handfuls of chopped sorrel into a potato soup. No matter how much you use, it cooks down to a shadow of its volume. However the visuals aren’t great—once cooked, sorrel turns an ultra-drab shade of green—not that that should matter. Despite its color, cooked sorrel offers a refreshing tartness with lemon-like acidity that awakens the palate.

If you have a generous supply of sorrel and don’t know what to do with it, you can make a puree to freeze for later use by dropping stemmed leaves into a skillet with a little butter, then cooking for a few minutes until they dissolve. This can become a great asset in your kitchen during the winter when you can break off chunks to stir into lentil soups, mushroom sauces or ragouts, omelets or cream. A dab of cooked sorrel adds a certain spirit to the quiet flavors of winter foods. Keep this in mind for when you have an excess of leaves.

Unlike the delicate sorrel of spring, rhubarb is a coarserlooking plant—or it can be, as the heat of summer rises. From out of the ground, a fist-like ball gradually emerges in spring. Against all odds, it slowly unfolds into yellow-green leaves, which quickly darken. It then sends up a large flower stalk consisting of masses of either tiny cream or rose-colored flowers that look like mist and attract the first bees. These flower stalks are impressive, but you’ll want to cut them down so that the plant can turn to growing leaf stalks for your table. These edible stalks grow taller and longer until one day you find you can cut a few to eat. Be sure to use stalks only and NOT the leaves, which are toxic.

For millennia, rhubarb, which is extremely sour in its natural state, was used as a spring tonic for cleansing the blood, especially in Northern Europe and China, where it thrives. It was eaten raw (a punishing kind of cleanser I would think), but also cooked into savory soups and stews. Rhubarb didn’t get its nickname of “pie plant” until sugar was available to turn these sour stalks into pies and other sweets, which is mostly how we know rhubarb today: as dessert. And yet, I can imagine that an unsweetened, or lightly sweetened and seasoned, rhubarb compote would work well with fatty meats like duck and pork, and it might still be eaten raw, albeit very finely sliced, in a salad where, like sorrel, it would provide a tart surprise for the tastebuds. Truly savory recipes for rhubarb are very hard to find, however. Even most rhubarb soups are of the sweetened, fruit soup variety. An interesting recipe however, for Rhubarb Khoresh, a beguiling chicken stew with

Sorrel Lentil Soup

Makes about 1 quart

Inspired by a recipe of Elizabeth David’s, which called only for lentils, sorrel and cream, I have never been able to resist adding red onion, a bay leaf and sometimes a mirepoix. But even with these additions, this is the simplest of soups with no browning of onions or sautéing of vegetables.

Use fresh sorrel if you have it, or a chunk of frozen sorrel puree. This plain-looking soup is best served right away. It’s fairly thin, too, which makes it an ideal soup for the first course of a heavier meal.

3 ⁄4 cup dry lentils (preferably Puy or black beluga)

1 ⁄ 2 small red onion, finely diced

1 bay leaf

Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

6 cups water or chicken stock

3 handfuls sorrel leaves, stems removed if large, shredded Crème fraîche

Rinse the lentils and put them in a soup pot with the onion, bay leaf, 3 ⁄4 teaspoon of salt and water or stock.

Bring to a boil, then simmer, partially covered, for 30 minutes or until the lentils are soft.

Puree half the cooked lentils until smooth, then return them to the pot. Add the sorrel and cook for 10 minutes more. Taste for salt, season with pepper and serve. Stir a spoonful or two of whisked crème fraîche into each bowl.

©PHOTOOASIS | Dreamstime.com

Persian spice, can be found in Najmieh Batmanglij’s beautiful book, A Taste of Persia.

The first slender (and often expensive) deep-red stalks that appear in the supermarket are greenhouse-grown. The fieldgrown rhubarb that comes on its heels is larger and not so perfectly red or so deeply colored. Some rhubarb varieties, such as the heirloom Victoria, yield stalks that are entirely green, except for a blush of pink at the bases. For some reason this is the rhubarb that’s prevalent in the Santa Fe farmers market, where I’ve often heard shoppers ask the farmers, as if it were a peach, “Is that rhubarb ripe?” (Yes, it is ready to eat.) Once cooked into a puree, the green varieties turn, like sorrel does, into a delicate but subdued shade of green—again, somewhat on the dull side, like spring on a cloudy day. I tend to keep the flavor as unsullied as its appearance, adding only sugar and grapefruit zest and not darkening it further with cinnamon, brown sugar, and or spice. A green rhubarb puree makes a beautiful tart that you might garnish with Johnny jump-ups, violets or other spring flowers.

Even though both sorrel and rhubarb emerge before other herbs and vegetables, their seasons persist through summers that are not extremely hot. You can harvest your sorrel and rhubarb plants until the first hard freeze, when they collapse. One farmer I know feels they’re best then, which is true of many plants. Despite its long season, rhubarb is hard to find in a supermarket past June, where it’s treated as if it were a fruit to combine with strawberries. Once the cherries and apricots appear, rhubarb is often relegated to the past for the remainder of the year. The farmers market, which is sensitive to true seasonality, is a more likely place to find rhubarb throughout its long season. Then you can pair it with blackberries and raspberries as they come along, and eventually apples. Or experiment with taking the savory route.

Deborah Madison is the author of 11 books, including Local Flavors, What We Eat When We Eat Alone and Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. A former chef and pastry chef, she lives near Santa Fe, New Mexico. For more information visit deborahmadison.com.

Sorrel Omelet with Cream

For 1 or 2

Here the sorrel is cooked into a puree for an omelet, then finished with a little cream, which is a perfect match for this tart herb.

3 teaspoons butter, divided

15 medium-size sorrel leaves, stems removed, cut into strips

2 farm eggs

2 tablespoons water

Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

1–2 tablespoons heavy cream

Melt half the butter in a small skillet, add the sorrel and cook for just a few minutes until the leaves have wilted and are grayish green.

Whisk the eggs with the water, a few pinches salt and some pepper. Stir in the sorrel.

Add the remaining butter to an omelet pan and, once it’s hot and foamy, add the eggs. As the edges cook, pull them into the middle of the pan with a fork, tilting the pan as you do, so that the uncooked eggs flow onto the bare pan. When the eggs are cooked, fold the omelet into thirds and turn it out onto a warm plate. Return the pan to the heat, add the cream and bring it to a boil. Make a slice down the center of the omelet, pour in the cream, then serve with an additional shower of freshly ground pepper.

Green Rhubarb Puree with Grapefruit

Makes 2½ to 3 cups

2 1 ⁄ 2 pounds green rhubarb (about 10 cups chopped)

1 cup organic cane sugar plus more, to taste

2 teaspoons Meyer lemon or grapefruit zest

1 ⁄ 3 cup juice from the zested citrus, above

Pinch of salt

Trim the ragged ends of the rhubarb. If the large stalks look tough or fibrous, peel and chop them into chunks about an inch long, then put them in a 3-quart saucepan with the sugar, zest, juice and salt.

Cook over medium heat until the rhubarb has broken down into a rough puree, about 20 minutes. Don’t use the food processor—the look of the textured threads of rhubarb is appealing just as it is. Chill well.

Serve cold with cream poured over, turn into a rhubarb fool by folding into whipped cream or use it to fill a prebaked tart shell.

LIQUID ASSETS

Gypsy Canyon’s Angelica

by Laura Sanchez

Early Spanish explorers may have consulted elaborate treasure maps in their search of the mythical gold of El Dorado, but Santa Barbara County winemaker Deborah Hall had to follow a series of cryptic historical clues—quill-scrawled letters, a frayed 18th century tome and a modern-day DNA sample—to find treasure in the Sta. Rita Hills.

In 1994 Hall and her family moved from Los Angeles to their 130-acre Gypsy Canyon property, between Buellton and Lompoc, with the dream of planting Pinot Noir grapes.

The land’s rugged beauty and quietude resonated deeply for the recently widowed mother of two. In addition, the property’s location within the Sta. Rita Hills appellation—one of California’s optimum climates for Pinot and Chardonnay— meant an opportunity to support her family and fulfill her late husband’s dream of raising world-class grapes.

Thus, Hall began clearing some of the property’s hillside slopes. Beneath the thick sagebrush and blackberry brambles she and fellow workers discovered the gnarled trunks of nearly 1,500 dormant vines—remnants of an ancient vineyard.

Hall chose beautiful handblown bottles that bear her Gypsy Canyon seal crafted in the glass. The wine labels are also artisanal—printed on handcrafted paper that has been hand-cranked through an old fashioned printing press.

Hall consulted several local winemakers who identified the vines as Zinfandel. She also interviewed elderly neighbors, reviewed property deeds and sought out official county records to ultimately determine that the vines had been planted circa 1887. Since it is considered the oldest vineyard in Santa Barbara County, she decided that the three-acre plot should be named Dona Marcelina’s Vineyard after the area’s first female winegrower.

The vines had been untended for nearly a hundred years. Over the next several months, Hall lovingly rehabilitated the dormant plants, providing them with proper irrigation, pruning and trellising. A local winemaker purchased the fruit from the 1999 and 2000 vintages and produced Old Vine Zinfandel. Hall immersed herself in Zinfandel culture, joining grower associations to learn more about the varietal and its viticulture. But in the back of her mind she continued to wonder about the vineyard’s provenance.

So in 2001 Hall sent a DNA sample of the vines to UC Davis to confirm that her vines were indeed Zinfandel. She was admittedly “devastated” when the sample determined that the vines were Mission grapes—the variety brought from Spain by the Franciscan priests to propagate for sacramental wine at the California Missions. “No one makes wine today from Mission grapes,” Hall lamented. “I thought I was sunk. I’d never be able to sell the fruit.”

However, this new information corresponded perfectly with the area’s historical accounts. The California Missions were secularized in 1833 when tensions between the United States and Mexico increased, preceding the Mexican-American War. When, following the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Mexico seceded from California, responsibility for the missions’ upkeep fell to the inhabitants of nearby ranchos. Thus, the missions remained vacant and in varying states of disrepair for decades. It was during this time period, Hall believes, that the owners of her Gypsy Canyon property brought cuttings from nearby Mission La Purísima Concepción and planted them on an idyllic south-facing hillside.

For weeks Hall immersed herself in dusty volumes and tangled archaic Spanish in the thick-beamed archive library beneath the Santa Barbara Mission. “I thought that since the Franciscans had the most experience with Mission vines, I would go straight to the source and learn what I could from their accounts,” she explains. Fortunately for her, the Santa Barbara Mission is home to the historical documents from all of the 21 religious outposts.

A fragile, velum-covered tome published in 1777, titled Agricultura General offered her tremendous historical insight. The book, written by Alonso de Herrera, is an agricultural resource whose smudged, sepia-colored ink inscription indicates

it was brought from Spain to the new world by Padre Fray Antonio Sayme in 1792. Besides detailing crop cultivation and animal husbandry techniques, the delicate yellowed pages offer encyclopedic information on viticulture and winemaking—from cultivar selection to pruning and trellising, as well as fermentation techniques, blending and wine storage. There’s even a chapter outlining remedies for flawed wines and stuck fermentations. “Just to hold the book felt really sacred,” Hall says. “I pictured the padres reading it by candlelight in their chambers.”

She also sifted through pages of the Franciscans’ correspondence—handwritten letters sent from one mission to another that chronicle the day-to-day details of their experiences: news of bountiful crops, robberies, marriages, as well as interactions with Native Americans. The padres frequently sent care packages to one another by mule—foods like dried beans, sweet potatoes and figs, accompanied by barrels of wine. The letters indicate that during transport, dry wines often spoiled from sloshing in the sun during the day’s ride. The solution, developed by the padres at the Los Angeles Mission, was to fortify the wines with spirits. Thus, this sweet, potent wine became known as “Angelica.”

According to the letters, each mission had its own recipe for Angelica. Some had higher residual sugar levels than others, some were fermented with the skins resulting in a more tannic, garnet-hued wine and others were fermented without the skins to produce an amber liquor. The 19th century consensus was that the padres at Mission San Gabriel made the best Angelica. So Hall set out to emulate the historical process as best as she could and make some Angelica of her own.

Following clues embedded within the correspondence and an 1891 recipe, Hall painstakingly recreates the winemaking techniques used by the Franciscans. At harvest time, she presses the juice off of the grape skins, and ferments the resulting clear liquid until the residual sugar reaches about 12%. At that point, she adds highproof grape spirits to the wine which halts fermentation at 9% residual sugar. Then the liquor is aged in neutral oak barrels for three to four years. “During the 1800s there was no way to get new French oak barrels,” she explains. So to maintain the historical authenticity of the Angelica’s flavor profile, she ages in used oak barrels that will not impart any vanilla nuances and also fills them only half to three quarters full to promote an oxidative aging process similar to that developed by the Franciscans.

Even the wine’s packaging reflects its poetic authenticity. “I felt that such a historic wine, made from ancient vines, using Old World methods should be contained in a timeless, artful bottle,” she states. In early California, Angelica was stored in any repurposed glass container, be it an old whisky bottle, medicine vial or canning jar. Hall chose beautiful handblown bottles that bear her Gypsy Canyon seal crafted in the glass. The wine labels are also artisanal—printed on handcrafted paper that has been hand-cranked through an old fashioned printing press. Once each bottle is filled with the tawny-hued wine and sealed with natural beeswax, it resembles a delectable artifact that one might expect to find aboard a Spanish galleon. But, it is the wine’s sensuous aromas and beautifully balanced flavors that make Angelica such a rare discovery. The brilliant amber liquid is redolent of caramel swirled with honey. On the palate its layers of caramel apple, dried apricot, earthy sage and honey, complemented by tangy acidity and a haunting hazelnut finish, are positively illuminating.

Citing an 1833 letter from Father Duran to Governor Figueroa, Hall advocates sipping Angelica “for any occasion whatsoever.” However, she especially enjoys serving it paired with a nutty five-year aged Gouda as a transitional course between dinner and dessert. “I find that the combined flavors really resonate for guests—and it’s a nice opportunity to share a little history,” she says with a smile. And indeed, Gypsy Canyon’s Angelica echoes with the ethereal flavors of early California, making it a delectable treasure, and each sip, an opportunity to savor history distilled.

Laura Sanchez is a Santa Barbara-based wine writer whose work appears in an array of print and online publications. She has always wondered if her knack for deciphering archaic Spanish literature would ever come in handy. Thanks to this story, she now knows.

Resources

Because Hall produces less than one barrel of Angelica each year (about 25 cases), it is available almost exclusively through her website and private tastings. Lompoc wine shop Taste of the Sta. Rita Hills (1505 E. Chestnut Avenue) also offers bottles for purchase. For more information or to join Gypsy Canyon’s client list, visit gypsycanyon.com

The Tepusquet Road Bridge linking Kenneth Volk Vineyards to the Foxen Canyon Wine Trail is finally open. Begin your Santa Barbara County wine tour at KVV and work your way down

WHAT THE GROWNUPS ARE DRINKING

by Mark Pfeiffer

Biodynamic wines and vineyards are a hot topic these days. But the movement has been around since 1924 when Rudolf Steiner developed the concept of biodynamic agriculture as a way to improve soil and create a holistic and organic approach to farming. His influence has been far-reaching, and one area where biodynamic has gained considerable name recognition is in the wine industry. We thought this would be a good time to feature one of our local biodynamic wineries: Ampelos Cellars and Vineyard. Owners Peter and Rebecca Work not only believe in practicing biodynamic agriculture as a way to feed, heal and vivify the soil, but also as a way to produce wines that are balanced, focused and delicious. Their estate vineyard is planted with Pinot Noir, Syrah, Grenache and Viognier, and they also source fruit from some of their neighbors in the Sta. Rita Hills. We treated—and limited—ourselves to six of their wines for our tasting.

2009 Viognier ($25)

We started off with their lovely Viognier. It has a gorgeous, pale straw color and intense clarity. We all thought this wine cried out for a sunny afternoon. Influenced by a touch of Gewürztraminer, this is a surprisingly lean and focused Viognier with clean, light acidity. As it warmed up, some of us picked up on the delicious floral and apricot aromas. We thought it would pair perfectly with spicy Indian food or sushi, and could also complement pistachios, camembert and your favorite patio chair.

2009 Rosé of Syrah ($18)

You gotta love Santa Barbara’s single varietal rosés. This one, made from Syrah, is perfect for beach or barbecue picnics. It comes on strong and fruity with a bright hue of honeysuckle and blood orange and a nose-filling aroma of freshly crushed raspberry; it ends with a dry clean finish. Even those of us who don’t normally “drink pink” realized that this would be great with grilled and spicy foods or simply for sipping while watching a beautiful sunset.

2007 Pinot Noir – Lambda ($35)

We paired the Lambda with lamb—no pun intended—and it was quite the crowd pleaser. Blended from all six of their estate clones, this wine is perfectly balanced and appeals to every one of your senses. With a beautiful color of cassis and dark berries and a pleasant nose, it also has a fruit profile of cherry and plum with soft, balanced tannins. Great with lamb, and to have on hand anytime you want a delicious Pinot Noir.

2006 Pinot Noir – Rho ($45)

What an exceptional wine! If you thought we loved the Lambda, you should have heard our comments about the Rho. The wine shows remarkable color and clarity, and the glass lifts up a sultry bouquet of dark fruit, anise and wildflower, promising and delivering a perfectly extracted blend of everything you fantasize about in a Pinot Noir, along with a velvety earth-infused finish. Perfection.

2007 Syrache ($28)

Once we got over the clever name for this Syrah/Grenache blend, we found it wonderfully approachable. One taster said it was “a Pinot Noir-drinker’s Syrah.” Another described it as inky and vibrant, structured and plush, bold and feminine. There’s a lot going on here. We also picked up on notes of black cherry, currant, fennel seed and lavender. This wine made our delicious camembert taste even better.

2007 Syrah – Gamma ($35)

Tall, dark and handsome with bridled power and purpose, Peter and Rebecca call this their “black beauty.”

We definitely noticed the hues of violet and the aromas of vanilla, cocoa nibs and warm toasty notes. And it doesn’t overwhelm you with excess acid, alcohol or smoke, just a keen black fruit and a lush creamy character. This is also a chocolate lover’s wine, so be sure to save a pour for your dessert.

We couldn’t have been happier with our tasting. When it came down to it, we were certainly tasting biodynamic wines, but more than anything, we were tasting great wine. Ampelos Cellars has recently opened a tasting room in the Lompoc Wine Ghetto area where you can try their wines from Thursday through Sunday. Check their website ampeloscellars.com for more information.

Mark Pfeiffer, a multi-site wine specialist for Whole Foods Markets, is based in Santa Barbara and works to bring the best Santa Barbara County wines to stores in the greater Los Angeles area.

Santa Barbara County

Vintners ’ Festiva l

edible

SANTA BARBA RA

Dining Guide

Santa Barbara County has its own unique food traditions—from Santa Maria barbecue to Santa Barbara spot prawns and the world-class local wines that accompany them—so we’d like to help you find some of the area restaurants that create the distinctively Santa Barbara dining experience. Restaurants are chosen for this dining guide because of their emphasis on using local, seasonal ingredients in their menus and their commitment to real food.

ADVERTISING IN THE DINING GUIDE IS BY INVITATION ONLY

Santa Barbara

Backyard Bowls

331 Motor Way, Santa Barbara 805 845-5379

5668 Calle Real, Goleta 805 770-2730 backyardbowls.com

Santa Barbara’s most innovative breakfast and lunch spot featuring Acai Bowls—bowls of a thick smoothie made from acai, an antioxidantrich berry, topped with fresh fruit, granola and other toppings. They also offer oatmeal, yogurt, smoothies and more. Mon–Fri 7am–6pm; Sat–Sun 8am–6pm.

Bouchon

9 W. Victoria St.

Santa Barbara 805 730-1160 bouchonsantabarbara.com

Coast Restaurant

31 W. Carrillo St.

Santa Barbara 805 879-9100

canarysantabarbara.com

Coast Restaurant and Bar offers savory, accessible comfort food in the heart of downtown Santa Barbara at the Canary Hotel. The food at Coast reflects Santa Barbara’s plentiful bounty of local seafood and farmers market produce. Restaurant serving 7am–10pm daily. Bar open Mon–Thurs 11am–11pm and Fri–Sat 11am–midnight.

Pizza Guru

3534 State St.

Santa Barbara 805 563-3250

pizzaguru.com

Locally owned and operated, Pizza Guru serves traditional and eccentric gourmet pizzas, salads, panini and pastas made fresh daily from locally sourced, organic ingredients. They also specialize in vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free pizzas. Mon–Sat 11am–9:30pm, Sunday 11:30–8:30pm.

Sojourner Café

134 E. Cañon Perdido St.

Santa Barbara 805 965-7922

sojournercafe.com

The Sojourner has been serving unique dishes created with wholesome natural ingredients for over 30 years. They purchase organic produce from local growers, carry local wines and beers and are known for their innovative desserts. Serving lunch, dinner and weekend brunch. Open daily 11am–11pm, Sunday 11am–10pm.

Spiritland Bistro

230 E. Victoria St.

Santa Barbara 805 966-7759

spiritlandbistro.com

Spiritland Bistro serves organic world cuisine with a local flair, healthfully prepared and artfully presented. They are dedicated to locally sourced organic produce, sustainable seafood and meat, and in addition to traditional fare, they provide a wide range of options for vegan, vegetarian and raw diets. Open daily for lunch 11:30am–2pm and dinner Sun–Thur 5:30–9pm and Fri–Sat 5:30–10pm.

The Wine Cask

813 Anacapa St.

Santa Barbara

805 966-9463

winecask.com

Bouchon sources all of its ingredients using an “as-fresh-and-as-local-as-possible” approach, and Chef Greg Murphy is a familiar sight at the local farmers markets. Experience fine dining, excellent regional wines and relaxed service in a warm, inviting ambience. Private dining in the Cork Room is available for groups of 10–20. Dinner nightly from 5:30pm.

bouchon santa barbara

The Wine Cask Restaurant offers fine dining in their exquisite Gold Room and the Wine Cask Bar Café offers casual dining in the courtyard, patio or by their cozy fireplace. Their food is sourced from area farms and local purveyors. They also have a tasting room where you can sample some of the finest wines of Santa Barbara County. Restaurant nightly from 5:30pm; bar and café Mon–Fri 11am–10pm, Sat–Sun 4–10pm; Tasting Room daily noon–6pm.

Santa

Ynez Valley

Full of Life Flatbread

225 West Bell St.

Los Alamos 805 344-4400 fulloflifefoods.com

On weekends Full of Life Flatbread converts their production flatbread bakery space into a restaurant and offers an extremely innovative menu based almost entirely on what is grown locally and in season. Open Fri–Sat 5–10pm, Sunday 4–8pm.

Los Olivos Grocery

2621 W. Highway 154

Santa Ynez 805 688-5115 losolivosgrocery.com

The Los Olivos Grocery delicatessen is a valley favorite for breakfasts and lunches. In the evenings they offer alternating dinners featuring Southern soul, Mexican and Mediterranean dishes. Local wines and beers are also offered. Open daily 7am–9pm.

Los Olivos Wine Merchant & Café

2879 Grand Ave. Los Olivos 805 688-7265

losolivoscafe.com

The Los Olivos Wine Merchant & Café brings together the best flavors of the Central Coast. Their award-winning wine list offers over 500 wines, primarily from Central Coast winemakers, to enjoy with their fresh, seasonal and local cuisine, or to enjoy at home. Open for lunch and dinner daily 11:30am–8:30pm.

Root 246

420 Alisal Road Solvang

805 686-8681 root-246.com

Root 246 in Solvang offers a full menu of farm-to-table creations and one of the most extensive selections of local wine. The contemporary yet comfortable setting includes a main dining room, a “chefs room” for private dining, two lounges and an outdoor patio. Wed–Sun: bar opens at 4pm with dinner at 5pm.

The Hitching Post II

406 E. Highway 246 Buellton 805 688-0676 hitchingpost2.com

From Santa Maria–style barbecue to more contemporary cuisine such as smoked duck breast, ostrich, homemade soups and outstanding pastries, The Hitching Post II also offers their own world-class Hartley Ostini Hitching Post Wines. Open daily except major holidays. Cocktails/wine tasting Mon–Fri at 4pm, Sat–Sun at 3pm. Dinners only Mon–Fri 5–9:30pm, Sat–Sun 4–9:30pm.

Salt of the Sea

Fisherman Steve Escobar Experiments with Local Sea Salt

by Nancy Oster

PHOTOGRAPHY BY FRAN COLLIN

Growing up near the beach in Southern California, I’ve swallowed my share of ocean water while playing in the waves and know first-hand that it’s pretty salty. But I’d never considered looking beyond the grocery or specialty market shelves for salt until a discussion during our Eat Local Challenge made me wonder if local sea water might yield edible salt.

Steve Escobar, a local crab, lobster and spot prawn fisherman, is always on the lookout for new culinary treasures hidden beneath the surface of the ocean. “I own a live fish market in Newport Beach called the Dory Fleet. My customers always ask me how to cook stuff,” he says. He often sells his customers Macrocystis kelp, a local seaweed, to steam with their lobsters. “It makes a fragrant poaching liquid and tons and tons of it comes up in my traps.

Steve’s Portuguese heritage has given him an appreciation for often-overlooked items like shield and rock limpets, which are commonly served at Portuguese festas. He is currently looking for new uses for the fresh kombu seaweed—used in Japanese dashi— found in deep water. Between fishing trips, he attends culinary classes at Santa Barbara City College to get new food ideas and to polish up his cooking skills.

Opposite: Steve Escobar pouring the local salt he created. Top: a collection of seafood. Bottom: spot prawns.

I first met Steve aboard his boat, the Ocean Pearl, at a Santa Barbara Food and Farm Adventures Meetup. He’d offered to take us out on the ocean to gather crabs from his traps and show us what freshly caught crabs taste like. Armed with homemade wooden mallets, we cracked our way through one delicious quickly boiled crab after another, eating every sweetly flavored tidbit we could capture—no lemon butter needed.

A few months later I ran into Steve at the Sol Food Festival. His eyes lit up when I told him about my sea salt interest. We were both curious how much salt the ocean water would yield. He offered to take me out on his fishing boat to get some clean, blue water. This deeper water is less likely to have concentrated run-off pollution.

By the time I contacted him to set up a water-collecting trip, he’d already done some research of his own and was considering the possibility of a larger-scale production. Steve studied Agricultural Business at Cal Poly, but his entrepreneurial spirit took hold long before that. Steve says, “When I [was] just a little tyke, about 8 or 9, I started selling eggs door-to-door from a little wagon. My friend’s parents had a big chicken ranch. I’d buy eggs from their ranch and go sell them.”

Steve Escobar at sea.

Steve Escobar and Matt Rice tending traps aboard the Ocean Pearl.

I loved seafood and the ocean. My grandmother would take us to Santa Cruz when we were kids. They had a little boat there so we’d fish for rock cod and crabs. I just got hooked.

In high school Steve set up a car stereo shop with his brother Mike. “When I went up to college Mike kept the stereo shop going.” During summer break, Steve decided to grow corn with a buddy. He says, “I’d get up at 4am, pick up a couple of truckloads, park on a corner, and my niece would sell 10 ears for $1 while I went off to my other job at the stereo store.”

When he finished college, he took a job in sales for a computer company, opened an office for them in Los Angeles and he eventually moved on to work at Lockheed and then Tektronix.

On weekends and vacations, he’d go diving and fishing—fishing was in his blood. He’d grown up on stories of fishermen relatives in the Azores. He says, “I loved seafood and the ocean. My grandmother would take us to Santa Cruz when we were kids. They had a little boat there so we’d fish for rock cod and crabs. I just got hooked.”

“One day while flying back from a business meeting,” he says, “I just decided to quit and fish full time. A friend had taught me how to catch lobster, and I thought maybe I could make a go of it.” He purchased the Newport Beach fish market in 1997. In 2001, he got the opportunity to fish for crab and moved to Santa Barbara in 2005.

Collecting Ocean Water

It was clear to me that I’d chosen the right guy for the sea salt adventure. As we headed out for the blue water, I ducked into the cabin to warm up. The clouds on the horizon were threatening rain and the seagulls were heading for the parking lot. On the wall, next to the fishing poles was a net storage pouch normally used for fishing gear. Steve’s was filled to bulging with jars of herbs and spices. If anyone else could get excited about homemade sea salt, it would be Steve.

I went home with five gallons of ocean water. I’d previously tried beach water that had to be filtered multiple times until it looked clear enough for me to risk tasting the salt. A word of warning here: A Santa Barbara 2001–2006 Water Quality Monitoring Program Report found trace metals arsenic, cadmium, copper, chromium, mercury, nickel, silver, zinc and lead in the storm runoff water tested during that period. While bacteria and viruses

Top: Pacific sardines. Middle: crabs. Bottom: Steve Ecobar tending spot prawns.

probably won’t survive the boiling and the concentrated salinity, metals and possible toxins could remain in the extracted salt. Only a detailed analysis of the salt can guarantee its safety.

Boiling Away the Water

There are several ways to boil away the water but Steve recommended the crock-pot. The oven and stove are faster but the salt hardens to the pan and becomes difficult to scrape off. Outdoor evaporation takes much longer and flying insects land in the brine. It was raining when I arrived home, so I took Steve’s advice. It took five hours to simmer away two of my first 10 cups of water. Every few hours I scraped down the salt that had formed on the sides. At 20 hours I had a milky solution beginning to form crystals.

Crystal Size

Steve and I have been trying to figure out how to control crystal size. Fine crystals dissolve quickly into the food, but larger crystals are a nice finishing touch for a steak or salad. If I stir the slushy salt water in a skillet and simmer away the water, I get a fine salt. The key to larger crystals is slow cooling and evaporation with no agitation, so using my food dehydrator gives me larger crystals.

Yield and Cost

I extracted about nine tablespoons of salt—a little less than one tablespoon from each cup of ocean water. Dave, my engineer husband, figured out that simmering the brine for 20 hours in a 150-watt crock-pot brought the energy cost to about $1 for a little over a half cup of salt. Steve, Dave and I agreed that our production cost was a bit high since a whole pound of kosher salt (about eight cups) costs between $3 and $5.

Evaporating the water in a sunny, windy location would be a more cost effective. That is how they make salt on the Hanapepe beach in Kauai, where families have been farming sea salt for generations.

Red Oak Smoked Salt

It turns out Steve also builds mobile wood-fired ovens with his brother Mike. So Steve suggested we try boiling off the water more rapidly in a pan on the 700° hearth of his brother’s oven. Mike parks his California Wood-Fired Catering oven at Corner Coffee House and Deli in Los Olivos on weekends and sells pizzas to virtually everyone who comes within range of the rich fragrance of wood-baked pizza drifting through town.

Steve Escobar pulls the last trap of the day.

When we arrived, people were lined up for pizzas. It was lunchtime and we agreed that chanterelle and arugula pizzas would help us wait more patiently for oven space to open up. When we put our stainless skillet containing the saltwater slush onto the hearth, it only took a few minutes for a crust of salt crystals to form and the water to evaporate. As an added bonus, the cooled crystals had a smoked red oak flavor accent, and the crystals were larger than those stirred dry on the stovetop.

Conclusion

Collecting ocean water for salt for individual use is not cost effective, and it’s a lot of work. To make it commercially viable would require a larger scale collection and evaporation process plus a costly safety analysis.

Did we take the risk and taste it? Yes. It was delicious— smoky with hints of palm, eucalyptus and lemon.

I suspect that if anyone can find the path to turn this into a sustainable cost-effective commercial product, it will be Steve. Ocean Pearl Sea Salt on our local grocery shelves? Watch for it

Nancy Oster finds writing about food almost as exciting as preparing and eating it. Her sister-in-law says when you visit Nancy, she hands you a knife and apron as you walk in the door. In Nancy’s kitchen, friends and family cook together and eat together. Nancy blogs about family cooking adventures at www.GrandmaNansKitchen.blogspot.com.

Resources

Steve Escobar email: crabbysteves@doryfleet.com

California Wood-Fired Catering

Mike Escobar 805 722-9792

Santa Barbara Food and Farm Adventures Meetups meetup.com/Santa-Barbara-Food-andFarm-Adventures

Dory Fleet Market www.doryfleet.com

Corner Coffee House and Deli 2902 San Marcos Avenue

Los Olivos, CA 93441 805 688-1722

Open weekdays 6:30am–5:30pm; weekends 7am–6pm

An Artisanal Approach: Renaud’s Patisserie & Bistro

by Jennifer LeMay

PHOTOGRAPHY BY FRAN COLLIN

Every day at 7am people are at the door, waiting for Renaud’s Patisserie & Bistro to open. A mere 30 minutes earlier, trays of flakey, buttery croissants and other delectable breakfast pastries come out of the oven, ready to be savored by discerning and highly appreciative customers. What goes into making these delicacies and an array of breakfast and lunch offerings is a blend of careful orchestration, attention to detail, the freshest ingredients and true artistry. The attraction for many of Renaud’s fans is not only the high quality, delicious pastries; it’s the opportunity to experience these absolutely authentic French treats.

A day typically starts around 4am for Renaud Gonthier, executive pastry chef and co-founder of Renaud’s with his wife, Nicole. He and his cooks begin the breakfast pastries, cookies and tarts with specially prepared dough and mixtures that were made the day before. Every item involves multiple steps and perfect timing, but even Renaud is amazed at how often their creations come out of the oven at almost precisely the same time—down to the minute—each morning. Perfect timing can be chalked up to experience, and the same can be said about anticipating factors that influence it: Humidity and temperature affect yeast activation, and warm days call for adjustments in the schedule. While the pastry cook tends to the baking, Renaud is often busy working his magic, creating and decorating beautiful specialty cakes, millefeuilles and melt-in-your-mouth éclairs.

I had a chance to sit and talk with Renaud at a table outside the shop, and as he discussed his work customers passed by, stopping to compliment the chef. Friendly, with a youthful exuberance and strawberry-blonde hair, he laughed while describing the morning scene in the kitchen as being something like a performance, with everyone playing a part rehearsed many times, but always played a bit differently.

holds up the edge of the puff pastry revealing the many layers.

One of the lessons he learned at culinary school, Renaud explained, was how to taste by fully experiencing what you are eating—paying careful attention to scent, visual appeal and the harmony of flavors and textures.

Renaud

Opposite: Renaud Gonthier making dark chocolate hazelnut bark.

“As artisans, we work to achieve the highest levels of quality and service,” he said, “and also to be creative, to keep trying new things.” He enjoys infusing time-honored favorites with unique twists, blending traditional and contemporary flavors. Being a dedicated artisan is an essential part of French pastry making. And the desire to provide the best is something that extends to operations outside of the kitchen: He and everyone at the shop work to ensure that business continues to thrive. Renaud’s background encompasses more than 20 years of culinary experience, including an early education at Europe’s finest culinary schools and pastry shops, working as the top pastry chef for the Ritz Carlton, and later with the Barton G. Catering firm in Miami, famous for creativity and elegant presentation.

When deciding what pastries and cakes to make, or ways to decorate them, Renaud takes into account the full spectrum of sensory appeal, offering a balanced selection of flavors and presenting items in a visually pleasing way. Colorful fresh berries adorn small cakes, and the pastries, tarts, cookies, homemade chocolates and macarons are all exquisitely made and arranged—they are almost too beautiful to eat.

Left top: raspberry charlotte petite gateau, middle and bottom: ladybug petite gateau. Above top: a croissant cut in half, middle: raspberry tart, bottom: pain au chocolat Opposite: a mixed fruit tart in the making.

Above: pain au chocolat right before baking. Opposite: Croissants lining a baking sheet.

One of the lessons he learned at culinary school, Renaud explained, was how to taste by fully experiencing what you are eating, paying careful attention to scent, visual appeal and the harmony of flavors and textures. The process sounds a little like mindful meditation. As he described this fine balance, I thought immediately of the macarons I had sampled earlier—delicate, meringue-like miniature cookies with distinct but subtle flavors and a combination of a slightly crisp texture, a hint of chewiness and silky smoothness.

He loves working with a variety of ingredients and is influenced by what is available seasonally. One favorite is a combination of strawberries, raspberries and pineapple. Another is passion fruit, which he says has a kick with great fragrance and flavor—and it combines well with other ingredients. While he enjoys decorating cakes and crafting unique delicacies, Renaud says it can be just as rewarding to make perfect croissants, and they are equally beautiful to him.

When Renaud and Nicole opened their restaurant in 2008 in Loreto Plaza, and later a second location in Arlington Plaza, they focused on bringing something uniquely authentic to Santa Barbara. As they explained, “This is the experience you would have if you went to a high-end pastry shop in France.” My friend Dayna agrees. A fan of Renaud’s since it first opened, she says the food and atmosphere bring back memories of her time living in France and adds, “Once you taste genuine French baked goods, nothing less will do.”

A mother of twins, she introduced her children early on to the pleasures of an outstanding croissant.

“It’s wonderful having loyal customers, including some from out of town who make a special stop on their way from Los Angeles to places north,” says Nicole, who manages operations outside of the kitchen. She has bright blue eyes and speaks animatedly about their work. She even told me about a Christmas card they received from a couple who moved here from France that expressed how very at home the couple feels at Renaud’s. In addition to scrumptious pastries, the bistro offers an extensive breakfast and lunch menu, with customer favorites such as the three-egg omelet, quiche, an oven-roasted chicken sandwich, the Croque Monsieur sandwich and mini cheese and herb ravioli.

As I sit down to enjoy a chocolate-filled croissant or pain au chocolat, I am aware of my expanded appreciation for the artistry, time and care that went into making it. The perfectly melted chocolate surrounded by soft and flaky layers of pastry is a treat in any sense of the word. But now I feel a more tangible connection with the food I’m enjoying and the artisans who created it, and this enhances the experience. My fellow Renaud’s fans, I think, would agree.

Jennifer LeMay is a designer and artist who appreciates great local food. Her communication design firm, J. LeMay Studios, provides outreach strategy and design services. Visit her website at jlemay.com.

Renaud’s Patisserie & Bistro is located in Loreto Plaza at 3315 State Street; 805 569-2400 and downtown at 1324 State Street; 805 892-2800; renaudsbakery.com

Left: macarons in production. Above: Renaud and his wife Nicole enjoy breakfast with their daughter, Morgan.

Julia’s Kitchen

Julia Crookston and the Good Land Kitchen

by Carrie Clough

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ERIN FEINBLATT

Melissa Gomez and Julia Crookston at the Good Land Kitchen.

Julia Crookston and I met after a presentation on raising chickens at the Faulkner Gallery, about a year and a half ago. Katherine Anderson of Blue Oak Ranch introduced us, knowing we were both chefs. I liked her immediately. It wasn’t just her enthusiasm for food that appealed to me—it was her enthusiasm for life. She seemed like a kindred spirit.

What intrigued me most about Julia was that her business was focused on food preservation: the canning, pickling and fermenting of surplus farm produce. “How absolutely fantastic,” I thought. Not only fantastic because those three methods are a wonderful way to both prevent spoilage and enhance the flavor of foods, but also because we have so much produce in Santa Barbara County that ends up in the compost.

Julia is what you might call a seasoned chef. During the course of her 30-year career, she has worked for Chez Panisse, for Jeremiah Towers—of Chez Panisse fame—at Stars, for the catering placement agency, Bon Appetit, for nearly 10 years, as a cooking instructor at the Southern California School of Culinary Art—now Le Cordon Bleu—and as a personal chef for Julie Andrews, Barbara Streisand, James Garner, Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith.

Bona Dea sweet concoctions.

For a number of years now, Julia has been using produce from local farms here in Santa Barbara, transforming it into masterpieces ranging from organic blood orange marmalade to bread and butter pickles. Her business is called Preserve Santa Barbara, with a side business called Bona Dea expressly for sweet concoctions.

The biggest problem Julia faced was finding a kitchen she could use as often as necessary and, preferably, during daytime hours. This is a challenge for many chefs who are trying to sell their products, as commercial kitchens are not only expensive to rent but are almost always being utilized by other chefs.

One avenue Julia considered was to have a community-supported kitchen—not too dissimilar from the community-supported agriculture model, or CSA, though it does not involve box schemes. Instead of fresh produce, the kitchen will sell prepared foods using produce from local farms. Like blood orange marmalade made from Seven Oaks Ranch oranges in Ojai or apricot preserves from Tom Shepherd’s Sedgwick Reserve apricot crop.

Julia’s brother Michael—now one of her business partners— encouraged her to find a kitchen of her own, which took some

effort. Eventually, they found a kitchen in Old Town Goleta. If any of you have ever gone for drinks at the Mercury Lounge, you have likely parked on the street adjacent to Hollister, which is South Magnolia Avenue. You might have even parked there during daylight hours and noticed an intriguing storefront called The Esmeralda Market, which has been closed now for several years. This is the location for their upcoming venture: The Good Land Kitchen.

Julia met Melissa Gomez through a mutual friend who knew they had a shared vision. Melissa worked as marketing manager for the Center for Urban Agriculture at Fairview Gardens and has been interested in setting up a community-supported kitchen for a couple of years. With Julia’s experience as a chef and Melissa’s experience working for a CSA, it felt like the right blend of expertise to get this business off the ground.

With Julia running the kitchen and producing many of her famous jams and pickles, Melissa will be running the deli at the Good Land Kitchen, as well as using her marketing background to attract interns to help as volunteers. They are planning to have a full-service deli as well as a retail shop, offer cooking classes and continually evolve to become a great resource for the community. Their goal is to inspire others to get involved and become excited about their contribution to the business.

After she and Melissa gave me a tour of the kitchen, Julia sent me home with a smorgasbord of her outstanding pickles and jams. The apricot preserve made from Tom Shepherd’s apricots is easily the best I have ever eaten. Barely sweetened with the most intense apricot flavor, I have been putting it in my yogurt in the morning—incredible. This morning I had toast spread with mascarpone and Julia’s blood orange marmalade—outstanding.

The pickled carrots with oregano, garlic and chilies are nearly gone and the preserved lemons are absolutely perfect. So much better than any preserved lemons I’ve made. I plan on buying them from her as often as necessary, and luckily the Good Land Kitchen plans to open in April.

specializing in nutritious cuisine. She has been a regular contributor to Edible Ojai for several years. Visit manzanitachef.com.

Resources

The Good Land Kitchen is located at 231 South Magnolia Avenue in Old Town Goleta. The hours are Monday–Friday 7am–2pm. Visit their website at goodlandkitchen.com. For questions regarding the prepared foods, internships or community participation, contact: melissa@goodlandkitchen.com. To rent time in the commercial kitchen, contact: michael@goodlandkitchen.com.

Carrie Clough is a native Santa Barbaran with her own personal chef business, Manzanita,

Julia Crookston transforms La Esmeralda Market into the Good Land Kitchen.

The Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital Farmers Market

by Jill Johnson

Primum non nocere, or “First, do no harm,” is a Latin term that has been bandied about medical schools, doctors’ offices and institutions for generations. One tends to think it applicable only to the medicinal arts practiced, but Cottage Health System is taking that dictum further to encompass the care of human health, environmental health and the health of the community in which it serves. All are part of an intricate system—a system that Cottage has taken a vow to keep healthy.

The focus on local food systems had not, until recently, been a prime focus for hospitals. Traditional adherence to

deep fryers, trans fatty and jiggly Jell-O-esque sorts of foods were par for the course until 2003, when Dr. Preston Maring brought his concept of providing fresh, locally sourced foods to Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Oakland. Dr. Maring found that the most important tools in his healthcare practice were a “chef’s knife, a cutting board and a salad spinner.” He believed that what people ate was one of the single most important determinants of their overall well-being. What better way to promote health than by providing healthy food. It was an idea that has since caught on. Now, over 30 of Kaiser’s facilities are providing a farmers market. Hundreds of other hospitals

STEVEN BROWN

Working with John Givens, Farmer Direct and other local vendors, Cosio has brought a small but vibrant farmers market to the hospital’s cafeteria every Wednesday from noon to 5pm.

and healthcare facilities across the country have started up their own markets as well. Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital is now among them.

Ruben Cosio, director of hospitality services, was one of the instigators of the idea to bring a farmers market to Cottage. He had been in the hospitality business for 18 years and was the former director of food and beverage at the Four Seasons Santa Barbara before he joined the hospital. He knew the difference quality could make in providing services, products or an experience. He believed that hospitality and hospitals share more than being etymologically linked by the Latin root “hospes”—referring to either a visitor or the host who receives the visitor—and he wanted to make that more evident by combining a healthy experience with healthy food for all who come to Cottage.

Working with John Givens, Farmer Direct and other local vendors, Cosio has brought a small but vibrant farmers market to the hospital’s cafeteria every Wednesday from noon to 5pm. A wide variety of customers frequent the displays of seasonal produce: patients, visitors, doctors, hospital staff, residents of the neighborhood, vendors. All are seen stopping by to pick up everything from the basic lettuce, carrots or onions to cherimoyas, fennel or prickly pears. For those more “exotic” offerings, recipes and how-to-eat instructions are often provided to make them less intimidating.

However, it is not just the farmers market venue itself that is providing fresh food. Cosio has taken it one step further by using as many locally sourced products as possible in all of the hospitals’ food establishments including the cafeteria, the café and the deli. Produce left over from the farmers market is incorporated into recipes for meals offered, including scratch-made sauces and soup stocks. Other items include baked goods from Debbie’s and Bella Rosa and fish from Central Coast Seafood that is compliant with the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s sustainability guidelines. Rancho San Julian provides meat, along with a carving station in the cafeteria on Thursdays. By cutting back on institutional, processed foods, Cottage is also eliminating a good deal of unwanted

additives, notably reducing sodium intake levels. This approach also cuts costs because instead of providing very specific meals for the varied dietary needs of patients, Cottage is now serving up food that not only tastes good but is “good for you.”

Knowing that the Tajiguas Landfill is expected to reach maximum capacity by 2020 and then close, Cottage is also working diligently on eliminating the waste it sends there. Cosio is very involved in these efforts as well, for he serves as chair of the Environmental Sustainability Committee. “In 2006, Environmental Services came under the wing of Hospitality Services,” he said. “With these two departments working together, it allowed us to have the additional resources we needed to get the results we wanted for our recycling goals.” These efforts have had some amazing results. Cottage was one of the first to participate in the City of Santa Barbara’s composting program and composts approximately 7,000 pounds of food waste per month—almost 90,000 pounds composted last year. Local food sourcing lessens the carbon footprint of transportation and eliminates additional packaging. Styrofoam containers have been replaced with a plant-based eco-friendly line that is compostable. Filtered water is now offered as an alternative to bottled water.

Just as a physician will often take a look at the symptoms, come up with a diagnosis and develop an action plan for getting healthy, so too has Cottage Health System. Their farmers market is just one piece of their plan to treat the integrated, whole health of our community. Vivat crescat floreat! May it live, grow, flourish!

Jill Johnson is an artistic soul with an inquisitive mind and a hearty appetite for life...and food. You can find her musings of spilled milk and cookie crumblings at her blog, cookiesinheaven.blogspot.com.

CITY OF SANTA BARBARA Foodscraps Program

Cottage Hospital has been involved in the City of Santa Barbara’s Foodscraps Program since it was a pilot, but now over 115 businesses and more than 15 schools participate in the program. It’s a simple concept: Businesses put their foodscraps in designated yellow bins, and a waste hauler picks them up two to five times a week and takes them to the composting facility in Santa Maria. This cuts down dramatically the amount of organic matter going into the landfill and creates valuable compost that is sold to local growers.

Santa Barbara buries nearly 30,000 tons of compostable material each year in the landfill. This includes plants, fruits, vegetables, eggshells, meat, bones, paper (without plastic coating), waxed cardboard, as well as compostable bags, to-go containers, dishes and flatware.

The Foodscraps Program goes a long way toward diverting all that material to a composting facility where it can ultimately enrich the soil that will grow more food. Combine that with the fact that it is cheaper for businesses to have foodscraps hauled away, and clearly this program has some far-reaching benefits. Any business that produces a large quantity of foodscraps and composted waste will see a reduction in their trash bill once they implement the Foodscraps Program.

Right now it is only available in the City of Santa Barbara. It would be nice to see this expanded to the entire county. It would also be great to see Santa Barbara set up a residential curbside foodscraps collection program.

In the meantime, restaurants and businesses who are interested in participating in the Foodscraps Program, should contact the City of Santa Barbara Environmental Services at 805 564-5631 or visit their website at santabarbaraca.gov/ recycling-trash

The Rituals of a Meal

by Pascale Beale

IA meal in the traditional sense is something akin to a good book—its introduction entices you. As with a novel that makes you want to turn the page, the first course of a meal holds the promise of the culinary story that is about to unfold.

n France, my grandmother, Geneviève Fay, kept a very formal household, and meals at her house were—even on the simplest of days—fairly grand affairs. Each guest would use a minimum of three plates, two glasses, two knives, three forks and a spoon. More formal occasions necessitated a battalion of silverware be lined up across her pristine tablecloths.

As a young child I was taught how to lay tables for different occasions, the placement of the silverware, calligraphy for place cards and the delicate art of how to seat one’s guests. A very ridged hierarchy ruled when it came to who sat next to whom. Seating arrangements in France and in many Latin countries dictate that the seats in the middle of a rectangular table are the places of honor as opposed to the heads of the table as commonly regarded in the United States and the United Kingdom. My grandmother orchestrated all of this with the elegant ease of someone who has dined in this manner for her entire life. I reveled in it and in the grand tables, the cupboards full of etched porcelain and heavy linens. There was something enchanting, celebratory and imposing about it all.

Even her picnics were majestic. We would drive around the countryside, find a suitable spot and in a relatively short period of time, a bucolic scene would unfold: The car would disgorge an inordinate amount of equipment, including tables, linens, folding chairs—for the adults—throws, baskets filled with pâtés, cheeses, wine, salads and fruit. Picnic silverware and linen napkins were de rigueur. I always felt as though I had stepped into a 20th century version of a Monet painting.

Life in London on the other hand, where I lived for most of the school year was less ceremonial, and although we did not use regiments of silverware, large dinner parties with friends and family were a regular part of our lives. Same idea; less formal; just as much fun.

So what is it about this gathering around a table that is so attractive and familial, and yet seems to have—in the space of one or two generations—almost disappeared from our daily landscape? Our schedules have certainly become more hectic. Children are often rushing from one after-school activity to another, and we all work. This daily gathering, so central to our lives 20, 30 years ago, now occurs as little as once a week in many families, and in some, not at all.

Much has been written about the effect of family dinners. Eating together more than four times a week has many positive effects, including: a direct correlation between better educational scores in children, a reduction in drug and alcohol abuse in kids and the fact that people who dine together tend to have better nutrition than those who don’t. But putting aside those facts, it appears that the very essence of dinner, this shared communion both in terms of food and ideas, has become, for many people, something of a relic. It’s an occasion trotted out once or twice a year, for Thanksgiving, birthdays and the holidays perhaps. Why? It is too much work? Too complicated?

A meal in the traditional sense is something akin to a good book—its introduction entices you. As with a novel that makes you want to turn the page, the first course of a meal holds the promise of the culinary story that is about to unfold. The dish will stimulate your appetite and your curiosity.

As with a novel’s core, where the central characters and plot are developed, the main course is the foundation upon which the entire meal was built. Flavors are layered and senses satisfied.

Dessert is the culmination of the gustatory journey. Where in a book the novel’s plot is revealed, the diners reward is something delectable and sweet.

Julia Child once wrote, “You don’t have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces—just good food from fresh ingredients.” So, do all meals have to hold to this traditional format to qualify as a dinner? I like to think that the food you share with friends need not be an elaborate production, nor, in some cases, even necessitate a table.

I spent many summers in France hiking in the Alps. We would often leave before dawn to arrive at the trailhead at first light. We would walk in the crisp mountain air up to our favorite alpine lakes. After hours of rambling through mountain gorse and clambering over the steep summer goat tracks we would arrive at our destination and find a suitable spot to rest and have lunch before trekking back down. Propped up on a rock, we’d unpack rucksacks. Lunch would consist of fresh baguettes—halved and slathered with butter earlier in the morning—filled with slices of ham. Tomatoes, hard-boiled eggs and a good piece of gruyere were also on

Pascale Beale.

hand. Out would come a trusty Opinel mountain knife to cut the ingredients. Eggs were cracked against a convenient rock. We’d each find a suitable perch and eat together amidst the ancient, silent splendor of those alpine valleys, retreating glaciers glistening above us.

This was not a meal in the traditional sense, but one filled with rituals passed down through the generations. Dessert was always the promise of a tongue-staining blueberry tart available in the mountain chalet at the bottom of the valley. We’d arrive tired, take off our dusty boots, dip our feet in the freezing alpine waters of a nearby stream and revel in the day. A meal spread out over a few hours and a few thousand vertical feet, but a meal nonetheless.

From a mountain top to an elaborate dining room, meals and their accompanying rituals can vary greatly but they need not be overwhelming, nor do they need to be dinner. A friend of mine, frustrated by the myriad after-school commitments of her many children, decided that breakfast would become the family meal each day. This was their time to connect with each other around plates of scrambled eggs, glasses of orange juice and cups of coffee.

The French diplomat, Charles Maurice de Tallyrand said, “Show me another pleasure, like dinner, which comes every day and lasts an hour.” Whatever the time of day, or the place, even if it’s just for 30 minutes, a meal shared, with its accompanying rituals—and free of TVs, cell phones, text messages and iPods—is surely a pleasure worth fighting for.

Pascale Beale grew up in England and France surrounded by a family that has always been passionate about food, wine and the arts. She was taught to cook by her French mother and grandmother. In 1999 she opened Montecito Country Kitchen, a Mediterranean cooking school in Santa Barbara. She is the author of A Menu for All Seasons—Spring, A Menu for All Seasons—Summer, A Menu for All Seasons—Autumn and A Menu for All Seasons—Winter. She is a member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals and lives in Santa Barbara with her family.

Recipes

Fresh Pea Soup

Makes 8 servings

Olive oil

6 shallots, peeled and thinly sliced

3 spring onions, ends trimmed and finely chopped

1 bunch chives, very finely chopped

4 cups fresh peas (from approximately 4 pounds of pea pods)

5 cups vegetable stock

1 teaspoon coarse sea salt

Freshly ground white pepper to taste

1 ⁄4 cup crème fraiche

For tomato garnish

2 tomatoes, seeded and chopped

1 tablespoon freshly chopped basil

1 teaspoon freshly chopped thyme

1 teaspoon freshly chopped oregano

1 teaspoon olive oil

Place the olive oil, shallots, spring onions and chives in a large saucepan and cook over low heat until the onions are translucent. Add in the vegetable stock, salt and some white pepper and bring to a strong simmer. Add in the peas and cook for 2–3 minutes or until the stock has returned to a strong simmer. Remove from the heat.

Let the soup cool a little before pureeing it with an immersion blender or in batches in a blender or food processor. Note: Be careful when you do this in a blender as the lid can sometimes pop off if it is overfilled.

Once the soup is thoroughly blended, return it to the saucepan to keep warm until it is time to serve.

For the garnish, place the diced tomatoes, basil, thyme, oregano and oil in a small bowl. Combine the ingredients, and set aside until ready to serve.

To serve the soup, place a cupful in warmed soup bowls, adding a dollop of crème fraiche in the center of the soup. Garnish with the tomato mixture.

Provençal Leg of Lamb

Makes 8–10 servings

1 whole leg of lamb, bone in and trimmed of almost all the fat

7–8 cloves of garlic, cut in half and the green kernel removed Olive oil

Herbs de Provence

2 or 3 branches of fresh rosemary

Salt and pepper

1 cup red wine

1 teaspoon Balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon cold butter

Preheat the oven to 425°.

Place the leg of lamb in a large ovenproof dish, rubbing olive oil all over it.

Using a sharp knife make small incisions all over the leg of lamb, approximately an inch deep and evenly spaced. Insert the garlic into each hole.

Sprinkle a large handful of the Herbs de Provence over the meat so that it evenly covers the roast. Add the fresh rosemary sprigs to the roasting pan around the lamb and add one or two sprigs on top of the lamb, too. Sprinkle the lamb with some salt and pepper just before putting the roast in the oven.

Place the roast in the middle of the oven and cook for 15 minutes. Lower the temperature to 400° and roast for another 1 hour, 5 minutes, for a total cooking time of 1 hour, 20 minutes for red meat. If you would like your lamb a little less pink add 10 minutes or so. Once the roast is cooked, remove it from the roasting dish and let it rest for at least 10–15 minutes before carving it. When you are ready to serve the lamb, slice the roast thinly and evenly.

While the lamb is resting, pour off any excess fat from the roasting dish and then deglaze the pan with some red wine. Bring this to a boil, scraping up any bits stuck to the bottom of the roasting dish, and let the mixture reduce by half. Add the teaspoon of balsamic vinegar and then lower the temperature and let the mixture simmer. Just before serving add a tablespoon of cold butter to the sauce.

Endive Salad with Fava Beans and Herbs

Makes 8 servings

For the salad

Olive oil

4 shallots, peeled and thinly sliced

2 pounds fava beans, both layers peeled away, to yield approximately 2 cups of beans

8 endives, leaves peeled away and left intact, the core roughly chopped

1 crunchy, sweet apple, cored and thinly sliced

1 ⁄ 2 cup black Provençal olives, pitted and roughly chopped

1 ⁄ 2 bunch chives, finely chopped

2 tablespoons fresh parsley, finely chopped

1 tablespoon fresh cilantro, finely chopped

1 tablespoon fresh dill, finely chopped

1 Meyer lemon, ends trimmed away, very thinly sliced

For the vinaigrette

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon lemon olive oil

Juice of 1 Meyer lemon

1 tablespoon crème fraiche

Salt and pepper

Sauté the fava beans with the shallots in a little olive oil for 3 minutes and set aside. Place all the vinaigrette ingredients in a salad bowl and whisk together.

Place serving utensils on top of the vinaigrette and then place all the salad ingredients on top of the utensils. This will keep the salad ingredients from getting soaked in the vinaigrette. When ready to serve, toss gently so that the endive leaves stay intact.

Classic Cherry Clafoutis

Makes 8–10 servings

3 cups milk

8 ounces sugar, about 11 ⁄4 cups

1 vanilla bean split lengthwise or 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

3 ounces unbleached all-purpose flour, about 2 ⁄ 3 cup

5 large eggs

2 pounds cherries, pitted

1 tablespoon Cognac, optional

Preheat oven to 400°.

In a medium sized saucepan heat the milk with the sugar and the vanilla bean or vanilla extract. Stir until the sugar has completely dissolved. Remove from the heat and set aside.

In a separate bowl place the flour and then whisk in one egg at a time. You should have a completely smooth batter. Slowly stir in the milk mixture. The batter should be very liquid but free of any lumps. Set aside.

Place the cherries in a shallow round or rectangular baking dish and add the Cognac—if using. Toss with a spoon until all the pieces are coated.

Pour the batter over the fruit and fill the baking dish.

Place in the center of the oven and bake for 45 minutes. The Clafoutis is done when you jiggle the pan and it is set. The top should appear golden brown. Serve at room temperature. Note: This dessert is also great the next day.

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BREWERIES & DISTILLERIES

Telegraph Brewing Company

Handcrafting unique American ales that embrace the heritage of California’s early brewing pioneers and use as many locally grown ingredients as possible. Visit the tasting room Thursday from 4–6pm, Friday from 4–8pm, Saturday from 2–6pm. Telegraph beer is available at many restaurants and grocery stores in Santa Barbara County and throughout California. telegraphbrewing.com

St-Germain Liqueur

St-Germain is the first liqueur in the world created in the artisanal French manner from freshly handpicked elderflower blossoms. To find out more, visit their website at stgermain.fr

CATERERS AND CHEFS

New West Catering

Uniting the artistry of fine restaurant cuisine with the versatility of full-service catering, New West Catering is your unparalleled choice for special events in the Santa Barbara County wine country and beyond. 805 688-0991; newwestcatering.com

FARMERS MARKETS

Santa Barbara Certified Farmers Market

Eight markets, six days a week. See schedule on page 9. 805 962-5354; sbfarmersmarket.org

FARMS AND CSA PROGRAMS

Dey Dey’s Best Beef Ever

Local grass-fed beef. Never any hormones, antibiotics or corn. They now sell pasture raised chicken, too. Available at Santa Rita Crossroads Farm Stand at the corner of Hwy 246 and Drum Canyon Rd. and at the farmers markets: Sunday in Goleta and Studio City; Wednesday in Solvang; Thursday in Carpinteria and Goleta; Saturday in Pasadena. 805 570-9000 or by email at bldegl@live.com; bestbeefever.com

John Givens Farm

John Givens started John Givens Farm in the Goleta Valley under the “Something Good” label in 1980. Their produce is USDA Certified Organic and is raised in Santa Barbara County on 180 acres in 12 locations. Contact them by phone to join their CSA program. 805 964-4477.

Rancho San Julian Beef

Rancho San Julian Beef produces high quality beef from cattle raised humanely and healthfully on an agriculturally sustainable ranch in Santa Barbara County. Available at the following farmers markets: Saturday in Santa Barbara 8:30am–12:30pm, Tuesday in Santa Barbara 3–6:30pm and Friday in Montecito 8–11:30am as well as on their website rsjbeef.com

Shepherd Farms

Organic since 1973, Shepherd Farms brings produce from the farm directly to your plate. Join the CSA program, or visit them at the farmers market or at the farm on Monday, Wednesday and Friday 1–5pm and Saturday 11am–3pm. 6701 Casitas Pass Rd., Carpinteria; shepherdfarmscsa.com

FISH MARKETS AND DISTRIBUTORS

Cadena’s Fresh Fish

Cadena’s Fresh Fish specializes in locally caught seafood with home delivery and delivery service to restaurants. 805.698.8554; cadenasfish.com

FOOD PRODUCTS

Full of Life Flatbread All Natural Pizza

Each of their frozen line of artisan flatbread pizzas is handmade by their bakers in small batches. Almost all of their ingredients are sourced local from growers and artisans, which reduces food-miles, helps the environment and ensures high quality. Available at grocery and natural food stores throughout the country. fulloflifefoods.com

Joëlle Olive Oil

Joëlle Olive Oil offers a full line of fresh, cold-pressed, extra virgin olive oil estate grown in California. Award winning in international competitions, all of their oils are unfiltered, extra virgin, and date-stamped for year of production. joelleoil.com

Simply Pies

Simply Pies specializes in delicious organic pies, pot pies, quiches and cheesecakes that are handcrafted with fresh, local organic ingredients. Vegan, gluten free and sugar free options. Open Tuesday–Saturday 7am–5:30pm; Saturday 10am–5:30pm. 5392 Hollister Ave., Santa Barbara. 805 845-2200; Email: orders@simplypiessb.com; simplypiessb.com

GROCERY STORES & PRODUCE DELIVERY

Isla Vista Food Co-op

A community-owned food co-op open to the public and highly regarded for its sustainable business practices and high-quality foods. Highlighting tri-county local, organic, fair-trade, farmer-owned, vegan, vegetarian, kosher, raw, gluten-free and all-around sustainable ways of being. Open daily 8am–10pm. 6575 Seville Rd., Isla Vista. 805 968-1401; islavistafood.coop

Lazy Acres

Santa Barbara’s best source for wholesome, natural and organic foods and products with real people dedicated to providing unmatched personal service. Monday–Saturday, 7am–11pm, Sunday 7am–10pm. 302 Meigs Rd., Santa Barbara, 805 564-4410; lazyacres.com

Los Olivos Grocery

Los Olivos Grocery offers a wide selection of local products and produce and their delicatessen is a valley favorite. In the evenings they offer alternating dinners featuring Southern soul, Mexican and Mediterranean dishes. Local wines and beers are also offered. 2621 W. Highway 154, Santa Ynez. 805 688-5115; losolivosgrocery.com

New Frontiers Natural Marketplace

New Frontiers Natural Marketplace is a full service natural foods grocery store and deli. Located in Solvang at 1984 Old Mission Dr. (corner of Alamo Pintado and Mission Dr.) Call 805 693-1746 for hours and additional information. They are also located in San Luis Obispo at 1531 Froom Ranch Way (on Los Osos Valley Rd. near Home Depot).

Plow to Porch Organics

Local organic/pesticide free/chemical free and all natural produce delivery service and organic market. The market carries a wide array of seasonal and local produce, meat and food products and is located at 3204 State St., Santa Barbara. Open Monday–Friday 10am–6pm. 805 895-7171; plowtoporch.com

HOTELS AND SPAS

Ballard Inn & Restaurant

Comfortably elegant accommodations, attentive staff and award-winning cuisine make the Ballard Inn & Restaurant one of the most sought-after small luxury inns in the Santa Barbara Wine Country. 2436 Baseline Ave., Ballard. 800 638-2466, 805 688-7770; ballardinn.com

LANDSCAPING AND GARDEN SERVICES

Homegrown Pantry Kitchen Gardens

Homegrown Pantry Kitchen Gardens specializes in the design, installation and maintenance of organic vegetable and herb gardens. 805 305-7509; homegrownkitchengardens.com

MEDICAL SERVICES

Integrative Medicine Center of Santa Barbara

The Integrative Medicine Center of Santa Barbara is a primary care medical clinic, balancing modern conventional medicine with alternative healing. Santa Barbara office: 601 E. Arrellaga Suite 101; 805 963-1824. Lompoc office: 806 E. Ocean Ave; 805 740-9700. drsaundersmd.com

PACKAGING PRODUCTS

Be Green Packaging

Be Green Packaging, LLC designs, manufactures, and distributes well designed, high quality, industrial and foodgrade, tree free, GMO free, compostable packaging made from renewable plant fibers. begreenpacking.com

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

American Riviera Bank

Offering a local and sustainable approach to banking. The founders of American Riviera Bank are a carefully selected group of successful, prominent, experienced and influential community and business leaders who understand the unique needs of the Santa Barbara community. Lobby hours Monday–Thursday 8am–5pm, Friday 8am–6pm. 1033 Anacapa St., Santa Barbara. 805 965-5942. americanrivierabank.com

Modern Organic Design

Modern Organic Design is a boutique architectural firm specializing in residential, small commercial and tenant improvement projects. Contact Travis B. Colburn, A.I.A., at 805 259-4067 for a free consultation or visit modernorganicdesign.net for more information.

RESTAURANTS

See our Edible Dining Guide on page 26.

SPECIALTY RETAILERS

Chocolate Maya

Chocolate Maya scours the world for pure, luscious chocolates and offers incredible savory bars, truffles, bonbons and gift baskets as well as a wide choice of organic and fair trade chocolate products. Monday–Friday 11am–6pm, Saturday 10am–4pm. 15 W. Gutierrez St., Santa Barbara. 805 965-5956; chocolatemaya.com

C’est Cheese

C’est Cheese is your local source for the finest cheeses and artisanal foods. In addition to cheese, they offer a host of gourmet foods such as salamis, fine cured hams, olive oils and vinegars, wines, handmade chocolates, catering services, gift baskets and picnic coolers. Monday–Friday 10am–6pm. Saturday 8am–6pm. Closed Sundays. 825 Santa Barbara St., Santa Barbara. 805 965-0318; cestcheese.com

Global Gardens

Global Gardens uses only the freshest of organic or natural, pesticide-free ingredients to make their exclusive line of extra virgin olive oils, fruit vinegars, appetizer spreads, glazes, savory snacks and confections. Open daily 11am–5pm. 2477 Alamo Pintado Ave., Los Olivos. 805 693-1600; oliverevolution.com

Montecito Country Kitchen

Montecito Country Kitchen is Santa Barbara’s unique Mediterranean-flavored cooking school and online culinary boutique, offering classes showcasing the seasonal produce of local farmers markets as well as an enticing line of cookbooks, herbs, spices, exotic salts, olive oils and more. mckcuisine.com

Here’s the Scoop

Here’s the Scoop offers the finest gelato and sorbet made fresh daily from local farms and farmers market fruit. They specialize in seasonal flavors as well as traditional Italian flavors. 1187 Coast Village Rd., Montecito. 805 969-7020. heresthescoop@cox.net

WINERIES AND WINE RETAILERS

Alma Rosa

With certified organic vineyards in the Sta. Rita Hills, Alma Rosa focuses on Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, as well as Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc and Pinot Noir-Vin Gris. All wines are food friendly with the high acid and extraordinary balance for which Richard Sanford’s wines have been known since 1976. Open 11am–4:30pm daily. 7250 Santa Rosa Rd., Buellton. 805 688-9090; almarosawinery.com

Avant Tapas and Wine

Avant Tapas and Wine is the tasting room for over 30 vintners producing their wine at the Terravant Wine Company’s stateof-the-art production facility, in Santa Barbara County. Open for tasting and a menu of tapas and pizza Thursday–Sunday 11am–8pm. 35 Industrial Way, Buellton. 805 686-9400; avantwines.com

BiN 2860 International Wine Shop

With both local and international wines available, BiN 2860 at Fess Parker Wine Country Inn & Spa has one of the best wine selections in the Santa Ynez Valley. 2860 Grand Ave., Los Olivos. 800 446-2455, 805 688-7788; bin2860.com

Buttonwood Farm Winery

In 1968 Betty Williams came to Buttonwood, creating a life that found expression through a connection with the land. The 39-acre vineyard, started in 1983, now has 33,000 vines with a mix of Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Marsanne, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Syrah. Visit the tasting room at 1500 Alamo Pintado Rd., Solvang. Open 11am–5pm daily. 805 688-3032; buttonwoodwinery.com

Kenneth Volk Vineyards

Proprietor Ken Volk has been making Santa Barbara and Central Coast wines for more than a quarter century. He is known for crafting world-class wines, particularly Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Their tasting room is open daily 10:30am–4:30pm. 5230 Tepusquet Road, Santa Maria. 805 938-7896; volkwines.com

Los Olivos Wine Merchant & Cafe

The Wine Merchant specializes in premium California wines with a focus on highlighting the Central Coast. They feature Bernat Wines which are estate grown and made by owner Sam Marmorstein. In addition they carry a line of signature gourmet products. Open daily 11:30am–8:30pm. 2879 Grand Ave., Los Olivos. 805 688-7265; losolivoscafe.com

Oreana Winery & Marketplace

Oreana Winery & Marketplace is a tasting room, wine shop, gourmet gift market and fully-functional winery housed in a historic tire shop. From their small batches of Pinot Noir to their sizable red table wine, Oreana has a wine for everyone. Open daily 11am–5pm. 205 Anacapa St., Santa Barbara. 805 962-5857; oreanawinery.com

Qupé

Qupé is dedicated to producing handcrafted Rhône varietals and Chardonnay from California’s Central Coast. They employ traditional winemaking techniques to make wines that are true to type and speak of their vineyard sources. Their tasting room is open daily 11am–5pm. 2963 Grand Ave., Suite B, Los Olivos. 805 686-4200; qupe.com

Riverbench Vineyard & Winery

Since 1973 Riverbench has produced some of Santa Barbara County’s finest Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes. With their initial harvest in 2006, they have now begun producing their own wines with winemaker Chuck Ortman. Tasting Room is open from 10am–4pm daily. 6020 Foxen Canyon Rd., Santa Maria. 805 937-8340; riverbench.com

Roblar Winery & Cooking School

The spirit of easygoing hospitality is central to Roblar’s philosophy. Come by for a taste of their current releases, browse the gift shop and deli, or stay for lunch. Open for tasting Saturday–Sunday 10am–5pm, Monday–Friday 11am–4pm. 3010 Roblar Ave., Santa Ynez. 805 686-2603; roblarwinery.com

Tessa Marie Wines

Sangiovese is the cornerstone of winemaker Tessa Marie’s efforts, but she has recently expanded her portfolio to include several new varieties in her all Italian lineup. The tasting room is open Thursday–Monday 11:30am–5:00pm and is located at 2901 Grand Ave. Suite C, Los Olivos. 805 688-6081; www.tessamariewines.com

Wandering Dog

Wandering Dog Wine Bar offers the most interesting and delicious wines from artisan producers along the Central Coast, as well as from around the world. Sample one of their tasting flights or create your own from the nearly 50 wines available by the glass every day. Monday–Thursday 1pm–8ish, Friday–Saturday 11am–10ish; Sunday 11am–8ish. 1539 C Mission Dr., Solvang. 805 686-9126; wanderingdogwinebar.com

The Winehound

The award-winning Winehound features the world’s best wines—from the everyday to a luxury cuvée—all top dogs, no mutts. Open 11am–7pm Monday through Saturday, 12–6pm Sunday. 1221 Chapala St., Santa Barbara. 805 845-5247. thewinehound.com

Zaca Mesa Winery & Vineyards

Zaca Mesa is a Santa Ynez Valley estate winery dedicated to Rhone varieties. Since 1972, they have handcrafted wines from grapes grown in their vineyards to express their distinct character and genuine quality. Open daily 10am–4pm. 6905 Foxen Canyon Rd., Los Olivos. 805 688-9339 ext. 308; zacamesa.com

edible Events

FOOD FOR THOUGHT SERIES

SUNDAY, MARCH 27

Ruth Reichl: A Spy in the House of Food 3pm; Granada Theatre

A beloved authority on foodie culture, Ruth Reichl is a premier journalist who was the editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine for 10 years until its closing in 2009. Before that she was the restaurant critic for both The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. She is the recipient of six James Beard Awards (most recently in 2009 for magazine feature writing and multimedia food journalism), contributor to numerous cookbooks and the author of four bestselling memoirs: Tender at the Bone, Comfort Me with Apples, Garlic and Sapphires, For You Mom, Finally and the book Mmmmm: A Feastiary.

SUNDAY, MAY 1

An Afternoon with Anthony Bourdain & Eric Ripert 4pm; Arlington Theatre

Nobody takes a bite out of life’s rich pageant like Anthony Bourdain, writer and chef-host of the Travel Channel’s No Reservations. No culture is too remote, no raw lizard leg too exotic. Bourdain teams with the charming Eric Ripert, the celebrated chef of New York’s Le Bernardin restaurant and Bravo TV’s Top Chef, for a conversation that is likely to be as colorful as it is lively.

For more information about the Food For Thought Series or to buy tickets, go to artsandlectures.sa.ucsb.edu.

THURSDAY, APRIL 14

Green Shorts Film Festival

7:30pm; Lobero Theatre

Join the Community Environmental Council, in partnership with Traffic Solutions, for the screening and awards presentation of the 3rd annual Green Shorts Film Festival, an annual online film festival about saving our planet, helping our environment and being green. The 2011 contest theme is “Powered by the People” (this year’s Earth Day theme). Tickets for the event can be purchased at the door or in advance at the Lobero Theatre online. For more info vist cecsb.org.

SATURDAY–SUNDAY, APRIL 16–17

Earth Day Festival

Saturday 11am–7pm; Sunday 11am–6pm; Alameda Park

With more than 31,000 people attending the 2010 event, the Santa Barbara Earth Day Festival is the signature, annual event for Southern California environmental organizations and businesses. The popular Harvest to Home area will feature organizations and businesses involved in everything from vermiculture to backyard harvest programs and will offer miniworkshops throughout the event. Demos include: composting, backyard poultry, canning, seed propagation, vermiculture, beneficial insects and more. Come see live baby chicks, turkeys, bees, bugs and worms; learn how to make seeds balls, compost tea and hummus! For more info vist cecsb.org.

SATURDAY, APRIL 16

Santa Barbara County Vintners’ Festival

1–4pm; River Park in Lompoc

The Vintners’ Festival features the wines of the over 130 members of the Santa Barbara County Vintners’ Association, along with live music, a silent auction and wine country cuisine by the area’s finest chefs. Many wineries also host events throughout the weekend—tastings of library wines or barrel samples, vineyard barbecues and winemaker dinners. For more info and to buy tickets, visit sbcountywines.com.

THE LAST BITE

Congratulations

to Santa Barbara’s 2011 Local Heroes!

Farm/Farmer

The Center for Urban Agriculture at Fairview Gardens

Fairview Gardens is an internationally respected model for small-scale urban food production, agricultural preservation, farm-based education and communitysupported agriculture. fairviewgardens.org

Chef/Restaurant

Full of Life Flatbread

Flatbread is our winner for the second year in a row for good reason. From local soil to local hands, the food at Full of Life Flatbread is something to be experienced. Owner Clark Staub, Chef Brian Collins and the whole team create magic on weekends with their innovative, farm fresh cuisine. fulloflifefoods.com

Beverage Artisan

Brian Thompson

Telegraph Brewing Company

Another winner for the second year in a row, readers really appreciate the handcrafted and delicious beers that Telegraph brews with integrity and flavors inspired by our local ingredients and history. telegraphbrewing.com

Food Artisan

Jessica Foster Confections

Jessica Foster is a gifted chocolatier whose exquisite truffles are often infused with local ingredients from the farmers markets. jessicafosterconfections.com

Non-Profit

The Foodbank of Santa Barbara County/Backyard Bounty Program

Since the fall of 2007 The Foodbank’s Backyard Bounty Program has collected over 350,000 pounds of produce that would have otherwise gone to waste. This produce has been distributed to those in need throughout our community. foodbanksbc.org

Food Shop

Plow to Porch Organics

Though it started out as a produce delivery service, Plow to Porch Organics is now also a full service local organic market. In addition to all their local fresh produce, they feature the best of our local artisan-produced products, from olive oils to jams to fresh seafood and meat. plowtoporch.com

Cheers to Our Sponsors at the Edible Institute Gala Event!

We’d like to thank all the participants, panelists and sponsors that were part of the Edible Institute held in January. The following food and beverage sponsors made the Gala Evening at the Maritime Museum one of the highlights of the conference.

Alma Rosa Winery & Vineyards

Buttonwood Farm Winery

Carr Vineyards and Winery

Chocolate Maya

Dey Dey’s Best Beef Ever

Full of Life Flatbread

Global Gardens

Green Project Consultants

Here’s the Scoop

Lazy Acres

Los Olivos Cafe & Wine Merchant

Margerum Wine Company

Montecito Country Kitchen

New West Catering

Organic Soup Kitchen

Qupé

Rancho San Julian

Riverbench Vineyard & Winery

Roblar Winery

Savoir Faire Catering

St-Germain Liqueur

Telegraph Brewing Company

The Hitching Post II

Twenty-Four Blackbirds Chocolate VerTerra

Whitcraft Winery

Zaca Mesa Winery & Vineyards

At American Riviera Bank, we don’t have the layers, the automated voice menus, or the call centers off in distant places like other banks. Here, you deal directly with bankers who know you personally, and have the expertise and authority to make things happen - quickly. Whether you need a line of credit, a construction loan, or just a safe place to keep your money, stop by and see us. You’ll feel appreciated the minute you walk through the door. Feel good about your bank 1033 Anacapa Street | Santa Barbara, CA 93101 Phone (805) 965-5942 | AmericanRivieraBank.com

1033 Anacapa Street | Santa Barbara, CA 93101 (805) 965-5942 | AmericanRivieraBank.com Feel good about your bank