Yet I can’t help but love this extreme giver of food. You can do so many, many things with summer squash.  My grandma has been gifted with zucchinis that are too large to cook and has discovered that they pickle as easily as cucumbers. Then of course, there is the gloriousness that is zucchini bread. They’re a great addition to stir fries. They’re lovely as a side dish. They’re terrific stuffed, as casserole, and even as appetizers. How could I not love something that gives so much and asks for so little?

Zucchini Bread Recipe

Ingredients

2 eggs, beaten
1 1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups grated fresh zucchini
2/3 cup butter, softened
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a large bowl, mix together sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Add zucchini and butter. Sift flour, soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg together and gently spoon into mixture, a third at a time. Fold in walnuts.

Divide the batter equally between 2 buttered 5 by 9 inch loaf pans. Bake for 1 hour (check for doneness at 50 minutes) or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in pans for 10 minutes. Turn out onto wire racks to cool thoroughly.

Makes 2 loaves.

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So far this year, I haven’t been able to have that experience. The plant at my house has a small collection of blossoms. The plants at the farm through which I have my CSA have more blossoms, but no fruit. It’s almost August, and I ain’t got no tomato satisfaction.

Such is the way of the world of produce. Some years, the bounty overflows. Others, your garden yields up your first harvest at the very end of the season. Our house is at 3600 feet, so the garden’s timeline for growth is already shorter, and during a year like this, it’s even less.

Thank goodness for the wonders of modern invention, like porch green houses. I wouldn’t even be able to harvest a handful of fruit this year if it wasn’t for that glorious creation. Isn’t it amazing the good that can come from a few metal pipes, shelves, and plastic? (My fresh herbs like it too.)

And thank goodness for local farmers that are just down the hill. Because of those wonderful farmers with their steadier, slightly warmer weather, we just got heirloom tomatoes in the store. While nothing can completely replace a fresh tomato plucked from the plant and still warm from the sun, these come a close second.

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The leaves are large and a glossy, dark green. I found that the greens had a lovely mix of flavors — sometimes a dance of dill, sometimes a mustard bite. I enjoyed everything about Komatsuna — the texture, the tastes, the ability to be used in so many dishes.

It was great sliced thinly and added to a salad mix. It was wonderful as a spinach substitute in a breakfast scramble. It was delightful as the main attraction in a stir-fry. It was an amazing new treat for me, and I ate it accordingly. I can’t wait until we get our next batch in some future CSA box… Why couldn’t it be this week?

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Me with the calf I rescued from a ditch

By the time I came into the picture, my paternal grandparents had shifted from dairy cows to beef, Polled Herefords to be exact, and moved to Montana. My brother, sister, and I spent many a summer day up at their ranch, getting into our own scrapes, helping where we could, and learning the all-important lesson of farm to table.

I was really lucky to get these experiences. To look at me, you’d think I’m all town mouse. In fact, whenever playing, “To Tell the Truth,” my story about herding cattle always gets chosen because, well, no one looks at me and thinks, “Well golly, of COURSE she’s herded cattle.” Part of my luck, I feel, is that I was exposed to the whole circle of life and have a pretty priceless understanding of how a calf that I rescued from a ditch would someday end up as hamburger, and I was okay with that.

Understanding breeds acceptance. When I became a vegetarian, my beef-raising family accepted that change with nary a blink. When I returned to eating meat a few years later because of my health, that too was accepted. While I never came back to the place where I ate as much meat as I had before going veggie, I gotta say, a good grass-fed, grass-finished steak or hamburger is a lovely thing to experience.

Locally, we’re gifted with a wonderful beef rancher by the name of Jim Gates. His beef tastes as good as it gets – lean, juicy, and chock full of flavor. Jim is something of a rock star around these parts, and if you’ve ever had some Nevada County Free Range Beef or talked to Mister Salt-of-the-Earth himself, you know why.

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The warm air was still. A tractor grumbled to the right. Interns busily worked down orderly rows but still took the time to smile and wave as we went up to the farm stand. It’s a very satisfying experience to get to drive out to a gorgeous, industrious farm to pick up your food.

Our region of Northern California has had some pretty funky weather so far this season, so our CSA actually ended up being postponed a couple of weeks. Everything was so fresh and amazing, it was worth the wait.

We had a lovely assortment of veggies. In our box were kohlrabi, spring garlic, braising mix, arugula, fennel, beets, mixed herbs, and a bonus of apricots from Chaffin Orchards and a bag of freshly milled polenta from Grass Valley Grains. Plus, they handed us a strawberry basket, in order for us to go out to the field to fill it up with juicy, ripe, strawberries. Fridays have just become my favorite day of the week.

I hadn’t planned what I’d make for dinner after picking up our box, but this is what I came up with:

Two tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

One bulb spring garlic, chopped

One kohlrabi, chopped

Two handfuls braising mix

Two tablespoons Thai Peanut Sauce (we had a sample hanging around the house)

Two tablespoons peanuts (also just hanging around the house)

Throw kohlrabi and garlic in a sauté pan and cook two to three minutes.  Add braising mix and cook just until wilted. Stir in peanut sauce and peanuts and keep on stovetop until warmed-through, about a minute.

Serve on top of some steamed rice, and voila – an incredibly quick and tasty dinner.

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I know this. There just have to be. Every summer afternoon spent up in my grandma’s cherry tree was a little bit of Heaven. The still, dusty, oppressive heat of the Sacramento Valley would retreat under the shade of the old, wizened tree. I’d scramble up the trunk and sit on my favorite branch, kicking my legs with their perpetually skinned knees as I gathered a bucket’s worth of cherries and consumed another bucket’s worth.

That first taste of a summer-ripe cherry brings me back to those long-gone June afternoons. For the moments that I’m savoring that sweet, plump fruit, I’m a kid again – sitting high in a tree and having pit-spitting contests with my brother and sister. Cherries are one of the reasons that I love June. Though the month may blindside you with a few triple digit days, it always makes up for it in the sweetness of its fruit.

My brother in the cherry tree.>

Pork Chops with Brandied Cherry Sauce

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 15ounces of Mountain Sweet cherries
• 2 rounded spoonfuls sugar
• 4 large, boneless center-cut Llano Seco pork chops
• Salt and pepper
• 2 tablespoons Calolea extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 large shallot, finely chopped
• Splash of brandy
• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• 2 tablespoons regional butter
• 3 tablespoons fresh mint leaves, finely chopped

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Put cherries in a small bowl with the sugar.

Heat a skillet with an oven safe handle over medium high to high heat.

Season chops with salt and pepper. Add 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil to a hot skillet. Place chops in skillet and sear meat on both sides to caramelize the chops. Place a loose tin foil tent over the pan and transfer the chops to oven to finish off, 7 or 8 minutes, until meat is firm to touch, but not tough.

Remove meat from oven and transfer to dinner plates. Cover chops with foil to keep warm. Place chop skillet back on stove over medium heat. Add a tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, 1 turn of the pan. Add shallots and sauté 1 to 2 minutes. Add cherries and warm through. Add brandy, then add stock. Reduce stock a minute, then add butter in small pieces. Toss sauce to combine and sprinkle in mint. Pour sauce down over chops.

Adapted from a Rachael Ray recipe

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So I did. I don’t have a food processor, (someday, oh one beautiful someday, I shall!) but I do own a blender. The blender worked okay, but I ended up needing to put in about a tablespoon more olive oil to get it to mix together properly.

I tossed the pesto with some al dente fettuccine, sprinkled some extra Parmesan on top, and WHAMO! Talk about a taste sensation – the intense flavors of garlic and greenness danced upon my taste buds in a very pleasing samba.  We paired it with a Viognier from Pilot Peak Vineyard and Winery which was an extremely good call. The garlic amazingness brought out pear flavors in the wine that were lovely counterpoints.

Thank goodness for the adventure of trying new, local foods and getting some terrific meals out of it.

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Hosking, a wildlife filmmaker, came home to Devon, England to take up the work on the family farm. During the last fuel crisis when costs skyrocketed, she realized that the only way she knew how to farm was not sustainable. Oil isn’t something that farmers are going to be able to rely upon for much longer, but how do you farm to feed the world without tractors, tillers, semi trucks, and jets? Oil is in every part of what we eat, be it in the farm equipment to plant and process to the transportation to the grocery store. When it comes to that fossil fuel dependence, the future of our food looks pretty bleak.

That bleak horizon sent Hosking on a journey of sustainability, and the things that she learned were fascinating. How about having a diverse pasture for your cows and sheep? One family, through a lot of attention to detail and hard work, discovered the diversity of grasses they needed to be able to pasture their livestock year-round without the supplement of alfalfa in the winter. Plus, that diversity created a root structure that was so strong, the pasture wasn’t destroyed by the traffic of livestock. Even more, their discovery of what made their pastures strong and healthy lead to one of the most revolutionary ideas in farming – no tilling! They likened it to taking the skin off of a human being, and their logic was as strong as the land on which they farmed.

The fascinating discoveries continued as she explored Permaculture farms. The biodiversity made the land healthier and lead to high food yields. Plus, it aided in thinking outside the box, such as in using trees as a fodder crop for livestock. Maybe even better, Permaculture farming is low maintenance and low on energy use, and you maintain a healthy, symbiotic relationship with the land. The one drawback to Permaculture is that you can’t grow cereal crops. However, nut crops can grow in this manner and can supply what humans get from cereals. With all of that wild land, though, how can you farm for more than just your family? Actually, and I thought this was wonderfully astounding, Permaculture can yield enough food for 10 people for every acre.

So while the way we do farming now can in no way, shape, or form be how we continue to farm – even in the near future – there are options. Our reliance on oil is a major issue, a scary one at that. But thanks to pioneers like Hosking, we may just have successful farms in the future. Let’s hope so, for all our sakes.

“A Farm for the Future” will be shown in BriarPatch’s Community Room on Friday, March 19, at 6:30 p.m.

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“Food Fight” is the exploration of food politics at its best — it gives the viewer tools to be proactive in the food movement.

It analyzes the history of food, from the beginning of the Farm Bill to the overabundance of processed food. It talks about the movement to use organic, local produce, meat, and dairy – how it started, and how it is currently. It delves into how the Farm Bill is used today and the people trying to move it back to its original role of supporting the farmer.

“Food Fight” is beautiful. It shows green, growing plants, down-to-earth farmers, and gorgeous food. It emphasizes the pleasure that food can bring and all of the sensory experiences that go along with it.

Maybe most importantly, “Food Fight” is inspirational. You’ll want to do more after watching this film. This documentary emphasizes good food so poetically, how can you not feel inspired to shop at the Farmer’s Markets, create your own garden, and purchase as much fresh, wholesome food that you can?

“Food Fight” will be the next installment in BriarPatch’s Film Festival Follow-up. See it in the Community Room on February 26, starting at 6:30 p.m.

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I’ll be continuing this blog-writing gig for a while. To keep you’all apprised of what I find going on in our local food scene while I’m out searching for good things to eat.

After a month of trying (not so hard), to eat more locally during the BriarPatch Eat Local America! challenge in August, I thought that I would be relieved when I could once again, without guilt, eat whatever I wanted… local or not.

So, without the ‘challenge-pressure’, I’ve gone back to adding non-local ‘old-favorites’ into my meals.  No, Stephanie, I’m not going to reveal what my ‘old favorites’ are … wouldn’t be that interesting, keeping in mind that I’m not much of a cook (Annie’s mac & cheese). But, I’ve been surprised each time by my disappointment with my dinners.

Each time I put a non-local (Wolfgang Puck frozen pepperoni pizza), or even a non-homemade (rotisserie Smart chicken) entrée on my dinner plate, it seems to kind of overpower the veggie-medley from my garden… and I have to keep eating those veggies to keep up with the ‘harvest’ that is covering my kitchen counter!

You’d think I would catch on!  But, I guess I’m a slow learner.  I keep doing this over and over, then leaving an unfinished portion of (insert your own subliminal ‘old fav’ here) store-bought-imported-something-or-other on my plate.

I think I’m afraid of the obvious… I’m going to have to spend more time preparing my meals carefully and thoughtfully, even though the challenge is over.  Bottom line:  I need to learn to cook.  Ugh.

Stir-fried garden veggies will keep me fed for a while, but soon the season will change, the garden harvest will thin out.  This challenge thing may become a long-term way of looking at my food!  Hey, now I’m catching on.

Read along with me.  I’ll be here every week, relating my adventures with food, and with the local people who provide us with food.  Should provide some tasty stories!

And, to start off the tasty stories – next up:  my first cooking lesson on “subtle additions to the veggie medley” – with Jim Gates !

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