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edible OJAI & VENTURA COUNTY Celebrating the Abundance of Local Foods, Season by Season

Fall 2010 Number 34

Grounded By Nature Roadside Farm Stands Palm Trees & Pomegranates

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Soup for the Sol This hearty Mexi-Cali dish is sure to tempt your taste buds with its fresh ingredients and tantalizing textures.

It’s the perfect way to warm up a crisp fall evening with some savoury southern flavors. Enjoy this dish at home or join us in one of our restaurants and let Chef Jamie West satiate your culinary curiosities.

Jamie’s Tortilla Soup

with Corn Tortillas, Chicken and Tomatoes

Recipe by Executive Chef Jamie West Ingredients (Serves 8) 4 cup plus 3 tablespoons Corn Oil 4 Corn Tortillas, cut into 8 triangles and fried until crisp (in the oil) 4 cloves Garlic, chopped 1 Onion, chopped 4 Ripe Tomatoes, chopped 16 ounces Tomato Juice 1 teaspoon Ground Cumin 1 Bay Leaf 3 tablespoons fresh Oregano, chopped 8 Cups Chicken Broth 2 Dried Ancho Peppers, seeded and rinsed Salt and Cayenne Pepper to taste For the Garnish 6 ounces Chicken Breast, grilled and diced 1 Avocado, diced 1 cup Queso Fresco, crumbled 3 Corn Tortillas, cut into strips and fried 1 Tablespoon Cilantro, chopped

1. Heat 4 cups of corn oil in a 2-quart pan on medium high heat for approx. 5 minutes. Add the cut up tortillas in batches and cook to a golden brown and crispy.

2. Drain on a paper towel. Cook the thin strips of tortilla in the corn oil and remove when light brown and begin to crisp, place on a paper towel.

3. Heat 3 tablespoons of corn oil in a 4-quart pan on medium heat. Add onion and garlic cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the crisp tortilla triangles, ancho pepper and cumin and continue cooking 5 more minutes.

4. Add tomatoes and tomato juice and bring to a boil (this may splatter, so be careful) then add the bay leaf, oregano and chicken broth.

5. Season with salt, cayenne pepper and let simmer for 20 minutes, stirring to make sure nothing sticks to the bottom of the pan.

6. Blend, in a blender in small batches to prevent soup from overflowing, adjust the seasoning if necessary.

7. The soup may be made a day ahead and kept refrigerated until ready to re-heat.

To Serve Pour into soup bowls and garnish with the avocado, cheese, cilantro and chicken. Place some of the crisp tortilla strips on top just before eating.

Reservations 805.646.1111 | www.ojairesort.com edible OJAI & Ventura County 905 Country Club Road in Ojai, CA

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EDITOR’SLETTER

Speaking of great stories, Lisa Kring’s tale of how Ampelos Cellars came to be is yet another reminder of how little time we have on this planet and how we can make the most of it by doing work that mindfully protects the land.

J

ust when I start to despair of the world at large—and let’s face it, the oil spill disaster in the Gulf is enough to make any Pollyanna want to never leave her bed—out of the blue someone comes along who truly renews my faith in humanity. And frequently, that someone exists in this very community, providing inspiration to keep on keepin’ on.

Recently, several individuals have come along—men and women who fight the good fight through teaching, farming and selfless humanitarian work: Like Courtney Cole and her allies at Grounded By Nature, who are out there teaching our children in deeply meaningful ways that will guide them throughout their lives. Or Quin Aaron Shakra and his Mano Farm mates—a new generation of farmers who are carrying the organic/sustainable baton forward. Or Steve Sprinkel and Olivia Chase, who continue to provide us with some of the best produce and cuisine in Ventura County, not to mention running The Farmer and The Cook, their community gathering place par excellence.

I am so honored to be able to share their stories and knowledge and wisdom in this magazine. These individuals remind me on a daily basis of how fortunate we all are to live in this community. With them on our team, anything feels possible.

So, with Thanksgiving shimmering on the autumnal horizon, this issue, for me, is about gratitude—with a special thanks to all of our advertisers who help us keep the dream alive: Without your support we wouldn’t be able to do what we do—give voice to the many individuals in this community whose efforts contribute to all of us having a better quality of life.

These individuals keep me from plummeting into the aforementioned despair even though the California plastic bag ban has been squelched—I was so looking forward to being proud of our Golden State for leading the way in this regard. Please, let’s stop Proposition 23 from derailing the clean energy law—global warming is not a leftist hoax!

Have a healthy and Happy Holiday season! If you plan to serve turkey, I highly recommend a free-range organic one.

It may cost a bit more but the flavor is incomparable and you can eat it with the knowledge that its life, up to the end, was pretty happy (or so one hopes).

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VENTURA COUNTY PUBLISHERS Jane Handel Claud Mann Perla Batalla

EDITOR Jane Handel

COPY EDITOR Doug Adrianson

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Nina Mecagni

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is published quarterly—spring, summer, fall and winter. Distribution is throughout California’s Central Coast region and nationally by subscription. All rights reserved.

Subscription rate is $28 annually.

No part of this publication may be used without written permission of the publisher.

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I’d like to extend a hearty thanks to Nicola

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OJAI & VENTURA COUNTY is printed locally by Custom Printing in Oxnard using 100% post consumer waste paper and bio-degradable, water soluble inks

Illustration by Kate Hoffman Photo by Suki Hill

Bennett for her fascinating memoir about her father, Kem: “Palm Trees and Pomegranates.” Hopefully, this is the first of many from Bennett—not only because she’s such a wonderful writer, but I have a hunch she has some great family recipes to share. Read her story and find out why I say this.

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In the Heart of Downtown Meiner’s Oaks

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EDIBLENOTES BY ALLISON COSTA

Photo by Allison Costa

Salsa Lady She calls herself the Salsa Lady. And even though Roseanne Waltrip has been making her own salsa for years and years, it wasn’t until she won first place in the mild category at the Oxnard Salsa Festival in 2008 and 2009 that she knew she was really onto something. Her salsa is thick and chunky, and made with local tomatoes mixed with cilantro, onions, garlic, jalapeños, cilantro, lemon juice, lime juice and, of course, her secret blend of Mexican spices.

The recipe evolved from one she got from her sister in law. Waltrip says, “I took that and added my own flair to it.” This salsa has so much flair, you might not be able to tear yourself away from the bowl. The Salsa Lady does most of her business by special order, and even if it’s just one container she’ll deliver it to your door within a day of making it. In the months ahead, look for the Salsa Lady in your local farmers’ market (starting with the Carpinteria).

For more info or to place your order, email roseannesalsaco@gmail.com or call 805-201-5956

Siblings Bakery There’s a whole lot to love about Siblings Bakery. First, there’s the cool fact that it’s run by three siblings: Shirley Mooney, Miles Standish and Carrie Standish.

Second, there’s the down-to-earth vibe you feel the minute you walk through their door. And, third, there’s the bounty of delectable treats that dance out of their kitchen.

Thick and tangy lemon bars, peanut butter bars topped with chocolate ganâche, dense and crumbly raspberry granola bars, chocolate ganâche cupcakes, tender blueberry scones, and dark and spicy carrot cake, all need to make their way to your mouth somehow, sometime, and soon. If you need a four-tier wedding cake, a whimsical birthday cake, or half a dozen cookies, just give them a call. And though there’s no official bakery counter and they do bake to order, there is no minimum and no request is too small.

Siblings Bakery goods can also be found at Java & Joe in Ojai; Django’s, Simone’s and Juice and Java in Ventura; and Element Coffee in Camarillo.

Siblings Bakery 2745 Sherwin Ave., Ventura 805-654-0999 siblingsbakery.com

Painting by Karen Winter

Art About Agriculture

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Art About Agriculture is an agricultural-themed art exhibit that runs through January 30, 2011, at the Santa Paula Art Museum. Its purpose is to promote art that explores all facets of agriculture—from workers to water and machinery to soil, to the food that goes on our plates. Art About Agriculture features works by 40 artists working in two- and three-dimensional media that draw their inspiration from our historical and contemporary agricultural heritage. This includes depictions of rural landscape, farm animals, farm products, rural life and art that deals with issues and ideas related to agriculture.

Santa Paula Art Museum 117 N. 10th St. Santa Paula 805-525-5554 santapaulaartmuseum.org Hours: W–Su 10am–4pm

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Photo

by Allison Photo by Allison Costa Costa

Ojai Valley Wine Festival On a hot sunny Sunday in June, wine lovers gathered on the shores of Lake Casitas to do what they do best: drink wine. The 24th annual Ojai Valley Wine Festival, a fundraiser for the Rotary Club of Ojai West, drew around 4,000 people in search of food, fun and, of course, wine. Over 60 wineries were pouring over 250 wines, in addition to 12 breweries serving tastes of ice-cold beer.

Four Brix, Magnavino Cellars and Dragon Net cellars were among the newest wineries debuting at the festival.

And since wine tastes even better with food, a number of Ojai eateries were on hand to feed the festive crowd. Osteria Monte Grappa served up sausage and polenta, Feast Bistro featured pulled-pork sandwiches, Sea Fresh served ceviche, and there were cheeseburgers from the Marina Café. Live music, a cool breeze and gaggles of little kids running around on the grass added to the festive vibe.

So, when it comes around again next year (mark your calendar now for Sunday, June 12, 2011), grab a picnic blanket, an umbrella, some chairs and lots of friends, and head on over to this great festival. You can set up camp for the afternoon, browse through craft stands, sip, taste and sip some more.

Ojai Valley Wine Festival 805-646-3794 ojaiwinefestival.com

Limoneira Lifestyles Santa Paula–based Limoneira Company has been growing lemons and avocados for 117 years. Their ranch in the Santa Clara River Valley is so full of history and life, it’s really more like a town (they even have their own post office and fire station). They do tours, host weddings and events and will even take you on a hot air balloon ride.

One thing you may not know about Limoneira is that they now have their own skin-care line, Limoneira Lifestyles. Their vibrant yellow lemons and creamy ripe avocados are being used for a variety of skin-care products. Whether it’s the zesty lemon balm hand cleanser that makes your hands smell like freshly squeezed lemons, the thick and decadent avocado mask that helps tighten pores or the soothing avocado honey lip balm with flavors of vanilla and almond, all of their products are natural and dermatologist tested. Most contain an avocadobased compound, newly discovered during ethno-botanical research, which they say is a natural promoter of skin metabolism. limoneiralifestyles.com

Healthy Family Farms Healthy Family Farms in Santa Paula has its own version of a CSA, or communitysupported agriculture program, that is all about meat and poultry. All of the livestock on this sustainable, organic farm is raised without hormones and antibiotics. They sell milk-fed pork, free-range chicken, grass-fed beef and even free-range turkeys for Thanksgiving. The farm offers a long list of cuts of meat, from a whole lamb shoulder to pork ribs, pork belly and Cornish hens. If you become a member of their CSA, you become a shareholder in their herd, receive discounts on their products and get access to specialty items like goat cheese and yogurt. You can pick up your bounty at any of the farmers’ markets where they sell or at their CSA drop-off locations.

E-mail: HealthyFamilyFarms@gmail.com 310-447-4527 (cell)

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EDIBLENOTES continued McConnell’s Ice Cream Living in sunny Southern California means any day is great to go out for ice cream. McConnell’s ice cream parlor is sure to please young and old, those who like traditional flavors and those who like to be adventurous. It has the feel of an old-fashioned ice cream parlor—from the shiny cushioned stools and blackand-white tiled floor to the paper hat atop your friendly server’s head.

Photo by Jimmy Young

the farmer and the cook

But what distinguishes McConnell’s ice cream from others? They don’t use any artificial ingredients or stabilizers, and their creamy concoctions are made with hormone-free cream. The end result is super dense, creamy ice cream that is 17% milk fat and so delicious you’ll be licking your bowl clean. They source many of their ingredients locally, including the cream used in all of their products and the strawberries for their Bordeaux strawberry flavor. On any given day you stop in for a treat, over 35 decadent flavors will greet you.

The jaw-dropping list of flavors includes chocolate peanut butter swirl made with Guittard cocoa and natural peanut butter, creamy soothing island coconut, old-fashioned bubble gum filled with pieces of real gum, Vermont blueberry, California lemon zest and a bold Turkish coffee ice cream filled with ground espresso.

McConnell’s Fine Ice Cream and Yogurt 3241 E. Main St., Ventura 805-650-6410

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Allison Costa is a seasoned cook, restaurant enthusiast and lover of all things food, cooking and eating. She works as a freelance writer and restaurant critic for the VC Reporter. She lives in Ventura with her family. Check out her blog venturafoodhappenings.com.

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AMPELOS CELLARS:

MAKING WINE, HEALING THE EARTH By: Lisa Kring

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mpelos Cellars makes wonderful wine. But that is not what first drew me in. Ampelos is a “green” triple threat: It is one of the first vineyards to receive all three of the following certifications—Sustainability in Practice (SIP), USDA Organic and Demeter Biodynamic.

Located in the prime Sta. Rita Hills American Viticulture Area, Ampelos owners Peter and Rebecca Work are going much deeper. For them, it’s not just the quality of their wine that is at stake, but the quality of the earth itself.

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Driving out to their property not long ago, I was skeptical.

Wines from the Santa Rita Hills tend to be bloated in style.

Hijacked by “score” anxiety, many wine makers in the Central Coast manipulate their wines to please critics. This usually translates into wines that express power and weight over finesse and balance. Pinot Noir, a grape varietal traditionally characterized by its elegant subtlety and expression of earth, or terroir, has been mutated here into high-octane “syrup,” with hints of Coca-Cola. So, I wondered, while these wines may be great for the earth, will they also be great with dinner?

The Ampelos vineyards cover 25 acres, rolling down and around a significant hill, with the family homestead perched dramatically at the top. As I drove up, Peter greeted me warmly.

Like a proud papa, he shared his story as we took in the incredible view. Self-described “corporate folk,” Peter and Rebecca initially spent weekends in the Santa Rita Hills. But they simply fell in love with the land and, in 1999, purchased 82 acres.

in Practice is a relatively new certification. Developed in recent years by a group of farmers in the Central Coast area, SIP is a California-wide sustainable vineyard certification. Its primary focus includes environmental stewardship, social and economic equity and economic profitability. The goal is to “give back,” while also growing as a business. The USDA Organic certification enforces compliance with the National Organic Program, which has its own very specific guidelines and qualifications.

Lastly, the Demeter Biodynamic certification is the most impressive, demanding and comprehensive. Going beyond merely organic, biodynamics treats the entire vineyard as a living, ecological and self-sustaining system. It is a holistic approach that takes all elements into account. Working in harmony with

Then, a fateful canceled meeting in New York on the morning of September 11, 2001, changed everything: After flying on the red-eye from LAX to Newark, arriving at 6:30am, Peter intended to take the PATH from Newark Penn Station for his meeting on Wall Street. He would have arrived under the World Trade Center around 8:45am. The first plane hit at 8:46am. But because the meeting was canceled the day before, he never took the train.

“After four days, we finally made it back to California and decided to go to our new ranch and spend some time thinking about life. That was when we decided that we’d had enough and wanted to leave the corporate world and start a new life as farmers. We were lucky to survive 9/11 and had learned that sometimes life can change in a minute—it was time for us to change ours!

Peter and Rebecca moved permanently to the property in January 2002, and spent the first four years learning everything they could, focusing all of their energy on the winery. Having married in Greece, they chose the Greek word for vine, ampelos, as the winery’s name.

Clearly, they have never looked back. The winery is a family—an “all-hands-on-deck” endeavor. From the start, the wines were made under the stewardship of their son, Don, an accomplished winemaker in his own right. Don had worked at several wineries in the area from the early 2000s on, including Babcock and Sea Smoke as Kris Curran’s assistant. When Curran left in 2008, Don took over as winemaker. By 2004, Ampelos released its first vintage. Today, focusing on Syrah, Pinot Noir, Viognier and Grenache, it is a boutique operation, producing around 3,500 cases a year. Along with grapes from their estate vineyards, Peter and Rebecca also make vineyard-designated wines from their favorite neighboring vineyards, collaborating with other boutique growers who share their environmental philosophy.

Ultimately, they support the old adage “wine is made in the vineyard.” So, it is all about tending the land with care, driven by a deep love and passion for the art of viticulture.

Peter proudly explained that the three certifications they have earned in green viticulture is a pioneering feat. Sustainability

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natural forces and rhythms, including the celestial, the gravitational and the seasonal, is key. It is a radical philosophy that embraces total interconnectivity. Through biodynamics, the farm follows the earth’s schedule, not the farmers’.

I jump into Peter’s flatbed truck and we drive down into the vineyards. We stop at various points so he can illustrate the Ampelos journey. When they challenged their vineyard consultant about improving grape quality, he suggested that they look into organic and biodynamic farming methods. By 2006, they became converts. “After we left the corporate world and moved to the ranch, we realized that we have a serious responsibility to the earth and the world,” he says.

What have been the biggest challenges, I wonder. “You have to start thinking differently about science and nature—many things exist in Mother Nature that we cannot explain with today’s conventional science.” Also, because biodynamic farming uses a calendar based on the phases of the moon and the constellations to determine what you should do when, “it makes it harder for planning,” he adds with a weary smile.

What has been the best part of this process, I continue. “We are thinking differently about so many things today, not just about the grape farming side, but also areas like energy conservation, eating organic and the recycling of all our materials. Our life has become a journey.” Today, Ampelos is 100% solar powered.

The connection to the land has also naturally expanded to the

winemaking community. Coming from a very different business world, Peter and Rebecca were shocked to experience the friendliness and camaraderie of their new community. “People are genuine and want to help you,” Peter explains. With the advent of biodynamics at Ampelos, Peter now feels that they are in a position to give back. Currently, he is president of the Santa Rita Hills Wine Growers Alliance. “We don’t expect to see all vineyards in Santa Rita Hills going biodynamic in the near future, but believe that we will see it one vineyard at a time,” he adds optimistically.

We return to the house, and Peter sets out some glasses.

Rebecca is busy in the kitchen preparing a tomato salad with produce from a biodynamic farm bordering their property (a biodynamic cattle rancher is also adjacent, where they source the fertilizer for their vineyards). Peter begins with their Santa Barbara Rosé of Syrah. I brace myself for possible disappointment, as I take the glass. At first sip, it is clear that the wine is terrific. Aromas of white flowers (light and crisp floral scents) and herbs mix with pomegranate flavors on the palate, followed by a long finish, lingering with minerality. Next, Peter pours the Ampelos Santa Barbara Viognier, explaining that this is a blend from four Santa Barbara vineyards (including Ampelos estate grapes), with just a touch of gewürztraminer. Viognier often lacks acidity, leaving it “flabby,” especially when grown in warm climates. But the Ampelos Viognier drinks like a cool-climate white. It is incredibly fresh and crisp, yet full of ripe, juicy stone fruit flavors and aromas of honeysuckle, Meyer lemon and citrus. It is a stellar achievement.

We move on to the reds. Ampelos makes two estate-grown Pinot Noirs—Lambda is barrel-aged for 18 months, while Rho (barrel select) is aged almost three years. Both are wonderful expressions of place. The Lambda is packed with earth, spice and cherry fruit. But the Rho is truly exceptional. It is elegant and complex, yet ripe, with great structure and texture. It was clear that it would drink beautifully for years to come.

As I end my visit, now completely won over by the quality of the wines, I can’t help but ask what makes them the happiest about growing and making wine, completely in balance with their environment. While the work is incredibly demanding, they are clearly so pleased with their progress. Peter shares the excitement of harvest—the culmination of that year’s farming cycle, getting up early in the morning and picking at first light: “When the sun sheds its first beams over the yellow-green ocean of vineyards around you, that is when you realize that you have the best job in the world!”

Ampelos Cellars: Wines and Tasting Notes Viognier, Santa Ynez Valley, 2009, $25 Lovely, luscious, yet crisp and fresh, this full-bodied white wine is sourced and blended from four choice vineyards (including estate grapes). Flavors of juicy white peaches and Meyer lemon mixes with aromas of lavender and white flowers. Wine Enthusiast recently gave this wine 90 points. Enjoy with Indian or Chinese food.

Lambda Pinot Noir, Santa Rita Hills, Ampelos Vineyard, 2007, $35 This wine has lovely earth, spice and rich, dark cherry fruit. It is ready to drink now, yet it is elegant, possessing nice structure and integrated tannins. Lambda is a wonderful value, as it is barrel-aged for over 18 months. Enjoy with roast chicken or mushroom risotto.

Rho Pinot Noir, Santa Rita Hills, Ampelos Vineyard, 2006, $45 Representing the best that Ampelos has to offer in Pinot Noir, this elegant, earthy and complex wine is truly Burgundian in style. Dark fruit and spice give way to rich, velvety texture.

Rho possesses wonderful structure, which will keep it evolving and drinking beautifully for years to come. Break this wine out for a special occasion. The critics agree. Burghound gave this wine 90 points, and Steve Tanzer gave it 91 points.

Ampelos also makes Syrah and a Syrah/Grenache blend. More info can be found on the Ampelos website, ampeloscellars. com. E-mail: info@ampelloscellars.com.

Lisa Kring lives in Los Angeles with her husband, two children, dog and biodynamically farmed home vineyard.

She is a sommelier certified with the Master Court of Sommeliers, the International Sommelier Guild and the UCLA Vintage Program, but her passion for honest wines that taste of place is experienced most happily at a table with friends and good food. She is on the steering committee for Slow Food Los Angeles, and values and supports all products that are good, clean and fair. Lisa is also a licensed clinical social worker and teaches mindfulness meditation as a group clinical intervention at various hospital and clinical settings in Los Angeles.

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S

ome months ago, I stopped at a stall in the Ojai Farmers’ Market, arrested by the sight of the largest chanterelle mushrooms I have ever seen. As I examined the substantial orange trumpets, seven inches long and five in diameter, I remember the fragile specimens I used to collect with my father in the beech woods behind our house in rural Sussex in England. They were the size of my 4-year-old hand.

These were more like his: firm-fleshed and ample. I had to buy one to try, see if the flavor held up in comparison with those ones of childhood memory, carefully laid in the basket alongside our other finds: wood blewitts—greyish mauve in color, gelatinous in texture; shaggy inkcaps—torpedo shaped, white on the outside, black inside; and, if we were lucky, a thick, bun-like King Bolete or “cep,” as he called them.

Sautéed with parsley and garlic and lightly folded into an omelette, my enormous mushroom was delicious, confounding the European belief that big is not necessarily better, and I wished that my father, Kem—or, to give him his full name, Kemys Deverell Bennett—had been with me to relish its flavor and size.

A keen mushroom gatherer and eater was a rare creature in 1950s Britain. In his own childhood, Kem had spent summers in France with his mother, acquiring a taste for good food and delicacies, which would never have found their way into the plain cooking of his native Yorkshire. He also acquired the language, speaking with an accent so convincing that in the Second World War he was selected to be parachuted behind enemy lines to operate undercover in occupied France.

in Denmark preparing for liberation, for which he received a Danish knighthood—he used his love of France and the more absurd of his wartime experiences to write humorous novels and thereby met my mother, whose mother, Joan Grant, was an author who shared the same publisher as he. Gilli was 18; he 30.

She knew nothing of life; he far too much. He enjoyed cooking; by her own admission, she disliked it. Long before Elizabeth David published her book, French Provincial Cooking, in 1962, which revolutionized British attitudes toward food, Kem was introducing their friends to cuisine as haute as a writer’s income and rationing (which in the UK remained partially in place until 1954) would allow. In 1951 he came over to Hollywood to work on a film script, loved it and could have stayed, had Gilli, pregnant and wary of the lifestyle, felt more comfortable here.

When I was 2 we moved to the Costa Brava in Spain, where living was cheap for a writer who could work where he lived.

I remember white village houses and outdoor ovens, sandy bays and fishing boats and, in the woods on top of the cliffs, pine cones thrown onto an open fire to roast and release the kernels inside—long remembered as the most delicious taste I had ever experienced. In due course we returned to live in Sussex, where after a few years of mushroom stews and the odd hamburger, a dish unknown to Britain until the infamous Wimpy Bars introduced a feeble and very popular version, only toppled in the late ’60s and early ’70s by trendy joints such as the Hard Rock Café serving the real thing, my parents split

PALM TREES A

POMEGRANA

When the day came that his convoy was ambushed outside a town called Baumeles-Dames not far from the Swiss border, the back seat of his car was full of the cheeses of Franche Comte—imagine

By Nicola Bennett a creamy Raclette (traditionally served melted over potatoes), or a wheel of nutty Comte, or a sloppily up. Without a family to support, Kem was able to concentrate ripe Vacherin—obtained through the local black-market network on “The Work,” an arduous route to self-realization as set out of covert support. When my father described the attack it was by Ouspensky and others. With his attention on his inner life, always the delicious smell of toasted cheese, scorched by the writing became harder to do and publication more elusive. bullets that also ripped through his chest, that he emphasized. He Eventually, he was forced to find a new way of making his living. and his companions fled through the fields, leaving the appetizing smell behind them, and took shelter in a farmhouse from whence A life-long crossword addict and expert, Kem always took he was spirited away by the underground to a field hospital in Italy. the London Times for his daily fix, and one day came across a facetiously worded advertisement (in those days the front Kem’s memory of that journey, delirious and weak from loss of page carried the small ads) for a chef to work at the Hole in blood, was patchy, but what he remembered transformed his life the Wall in Bath, at the time one of the most celebrated of ever after: At one point he looked down at his body and knew the new wave of restaurants that were revitalizing British that he could chose to return or leave it, severing the silver cord cuisine. He sent a reply to the owner, George Perry Smith, that connected his consciousness to his earthly form. It was to in the same frivolous style, and landed the job. So at 42, change him from a materialist to a contemplative: He became Kem Bennett began a new career that launched him on the interested in the teachings of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky and path to becoming what we would now call a celebrity chef. later a dedicated practitioner of Transcendental Meditation: “It is through the mind that stands still that I experience my true George Perry Smith opened the Hole in the Wall in 1952 serving nature” is something he would have agreed with and striven for. food—French-inspired with a British slant—prepared as a After the war—the last portion of which he spent undercover home cook would, using the best ingredients and no short cuts.

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In the mid 1960s, Kem became the chef of a small bistro in London in a Fulham back street. It was called Nick’s Diner, an appellation far more familiar in the US than to Londoners then, most of whom would not have recognized the American model, perhaps including the owner Nick Clarke, for the restaurant bore no resemblance to it. Dark and intimate, candles on the tables, the waiters looked like the pop stars who for many years made Nick’s one of the most fashionable places in London.

The Rolling Stones, Julie Christie and Joanna Lumley were among the regulars. Kem and Nick would delight in what they called “chatting up the customers,” often moving the party on to the flat upstairs after the restaurant closed.

Among the dishes I recall are taramasalata made from scratch with salty orange cod’s roe, olive oil, breadcrumbs

AND

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and lots of lemon; a gloriously rich crême brulée; spatchcocked poussin that Kem insisted had to be eaten with your fingers; a caramelly upsidedown apple pie named, as he would tell you, after the widow Tatin.

All of these dishes are now so familiar to us, but then to hear Kem and his fellow food enthusiasts swapping stories of immortal dishes encountered in unsung Mediterranean villages was like listening to the discoverers of an unknown Shangri-la.

Kem was a talker. He relished good words and good company as well as good food and good wine. He would have made, had the times been more like they are now, an excellent food writer or broadcaster and indeed mentored one of our best-

known restaurant critics, Fay Maschler (wife of the publisher Tom Maschler) of London’s Evening Standard newspaper.

As his and the restaurant’s reputation spread, he and Nick opened up another restaurant, slightly more up-market, across the road from the Diner called The Place Opposite. But his real passion was for an enterprise, new at the time, called Moveable Feasts, which did exactly that: provide you with feasts large or small in your own home. They never had another success as large as the Diner, but Kem’s interest in making good food for people never flagged. He recreated The Place Opposite as a Russian-inspired restaurant called Nikita’s, adding borscht, a clear beet-root soup “purple as an emperor’s nightie,” as he once described it in a letter to me, and blinis to his repertoire.

I rediscovered my father when I was a teenager. Ensconced at a table for two, we would talk about the meaning of life and its more esoteric mysteries. I felt like a grownup. When I was 14, he took me to hear the Maharishi give a talk at London’s Dorchester Hotel. The Beatles were there, too.

When I was 21, he gave me his prize possession: a Matisse lithograph of palm trees seen through an open window with a plate of orangeskinned, red-fleshed pomegranates on the table in front.

It could have been California. It could have been Ojai. And had my mother not balked at the idea of living in Los Angeles, I like to think that he would have discovered Ojai (perhaps he did!), drawn by its bounty and its beauty and people who spoke his language—of food and spirit and human conviviality.

Watercolor By: Gail Faulkner

I remember Kem cooking his own version of Smith’s signature dish, salmon with currants and ginger wrapped in puff pastry.

The menu was written on a large board divided into “usually” and “sometimes.” Depending on season and supply, there was usually bourride (fish soup flavored with garlic aioli), cassoulet, Dover sole á la dieppoise, queue de boeuf des vignerons (oxtail slow-cooked with white grapes) and a ragout of shellfish.

Nicola Bennett is a writer from the UK where she ran the Cheltenham Festival of Literature (described by the London Times as the “mother of all literary festivals”) and the Bath Literary Festival (where she learned that the hardest thing to get right was the catering). Once upon a time, she organized art exhibitions for the Arts Council of Great Britain.

She is a keen visitor to Ojai and has a home in the Valley.

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OJAI IS EDIBLE Story and Photos by Ramona Bajema

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OJAI & Ventura County FALL 2010 17

I

f you miss the Ojai Farmers’ Market on Sundays, don’t despair. You can still eat locally grown produce year-round in the Ojai Valley. We drive by them all the time: Small fruit and vegetable stands that are in front of private homes. Many offer avocados and oranges, but others offer a cornucopia of fruits and vegetables.

I first became aware of the bounty that some of these stands offer a few years ago—from someone who doesn’t even live here! We have a friend who regularly comes to Ojai on a writer’s retreat. She stays on the East End and holes herself up to concentrate in a quiet, beautiful landscape. Since we know she doesn’t have a car when she’s here, my family has offered to take her to the farmers’ market on Sundays.

“Oh, I have a farmers’ market just down the road from me. My own private one!” she replied. Confused, because we know that there is only one farmers’ market in Ojai, we asked her to take us there. She led us down Reeves Road, where, indeed, there was a larger-thanusual stand with a wide variety of fruits and vegetables—tomatoes, corn, cucumbers, melons, carrots, figs and, of course, oranges and avocados. All of the items were fresh and lovely.

Those stands that offer oranges from their fruit-laden trees are also wonderful. You never really have to go to the supermarket to buy oranges in Ojai. From Meiners Oaks to the East End, there are stands of oranges that sell six to nine pounds for $3. I recently stopped by one of these stands on La Luna and talked to a couple who were picking oranges from their trees, bagging them, and putting them out to sell. You can’t get fresher or more local than that! And many encourage their “customers” to return the plastic bags to be reused.

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Some of these stands sell flowers and plants. Outside the Mulberry Haven farm (featured in this magazine’s summer 2010 issue) down on the Ventura River bottom, the farmers offer seedlings of mulberry bushes, various cacti and aloe vera plants. Another stand on Rice Road often has flowers for sale in addition to fruit. I remember walking my dog one night through Meiners Oaks when I saw a group of teenagers riding on their bikes, each carrying a red gladiolus—quite a dream-like scene. When I got to Rice Road, I saw that they had gotten them from a bucket standing outside the fruit stand.

I hope those kids put money in the “honor box,” where you pay for your goods. I am pretty sure that most people do: At a stand on Lomita I peeked into their honor box and saw that it was loaded with dollar bills. I had been there the day before and the stand had been fully stocked, but many people were pulling their cars over to purchase various items. By the next day, over half of their offerings were gone.

The Ojai Farmers’ Market is not only a market for buying delicious, locally grown produce, but it’s also a community gathering place. I often call it “Ojai’s weekly party.” But if you’re busy some Sunday and can’t stop by, be sure to check out your neighborhood stands to see what is there. I bought onions, limes and Asian pears the other day. I never saw the farmers in the house that grew these delights, but I felt like they were friends just the same.

Ramona Bajema is glad it is tomato season. She has recently learned to snack on cherry tomatoes like they were berries. She is reminded that they are classified as berries, according to her botany teacher in college.

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GROUNDED BY NATURE: Sprouting Seeds in Good Dirt One evening, standing in my kitchen, I recognized a seed deep inside of me. The seed was at a crucial stage in its development: It needed to make the decision to be brave—to push through the soil and grow—or perish.

Since the world above seemed so polluted and unsafe, it was scared. I knew, in that moment, that I wanted to bring my inner seed out of its dormant state and help it sprout, while at the same time I wanted to guide the seeds inside my children toward the light. I also knew that bringing my own children would not be enough—I needed to bring an entire field of seeds with me.

Grounded By Nature, a children’s nature-immersion program based on an 8-acre farm in Ojai, is designed to help each child

“Heal the soil and heal your soul” shape his or her relationship with self, others and the natural world. The program (which runs from 9am to 3pm Mondays and Wednesdays with field days one to three Fridays per month) was created to encourage a way of experiencing and living, based on the premises that everything we touch, see, taste, experience, hear, don’t see or don’t hear is interconnected—and each of us plays a vital role as a part of that web of interconnectivity.

Through immersion in nature, biodynamic farming and Permaculture design, each child will become profoundly aware of how every element in a system affects all the other elements in that system. They will understand that flowers need bees to thrive, bees need pollen, soil needs fungi and fungi The vision the that future need plants; they willfor learn humans need oxyis to expand the program gen and plants need carbon dioxide. By translating by providing fresh pro- system, they will these observations to the human duce to local food banks, realize that by embracing and sharing their own offering strengths, they can demonstration add to the overall health of their gardens to the community community. By having the courage to recognize and offering after-school their limitations, they can take the first step toward programs to disadvanbenefiting from the strengths of those around them. taged and at-risk youths.

Each mentor on our diverse and talented team brings powerful life experience and messages of hope:

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By Courtney Cole

“I am one in four million people who was blessed to discover music and cultivate it under falling bombs and rockets, in Lebanon, where I was born and raised,” shares Tony Khalife, Grounded By Nature’s music mentor. “I left my homeland and came to California carrying with me this gift of creativity and missives of peace to raise the world’s vibration through the art of music.”

By viewing their interactions with the land, their peers, mentors and elders through a lens that focuses on benefit for the whole versus the individual, our children will become acutely aware, confident, competent and powerful members of community. Grounded By Nature will work with Harold Shapiro’s Elder Fire, whose mission is to ignite and maintain the vital fires of knowledge, wisdom and passion that burn brightly in many elders so that they may contribute their gifts and receive the gifts of others. “There are no teachers and students in this mix. We are all mentoring and nurturing each other,” says Shapiro.

“There are no teachers and students in this mix. We are all mentoring and nurturing each other” Casey Murphy, the program’s wilderness mentor, who has spent the past 10 years working with and developing courses for Outward Bound, National Outdoor Leadership School and similar organizations, is “thrilled to have the opportunity to be a part of a team where process takes precedence over product, where quality triumphs over quantity and where each child will have the opportunity to face challenges and be given the opportunity to move through them with the support of a nurturing community behind him or her.”

Julie Tumamait-Stenslie, a renowned Ojai Valley Chumash elder, has also joined Grounded By Nature. She explains, “This is the land I grew up on. I am ready to join this family and develop long-term, meaningful relationships with colleagues, parents and children who have the courage to have chosen nature connection as a way of life. Our world needs families who trust that children can learn everything they need to know from committed mentors and the land. It is time to remember and return to the joy and success of tending our children and the earth.”

One of the children’s first projects will be to orient to the four directions by laying out and helping to construct their only indoor classroom—a 30-foot yurt that will look west to the mountains and east toward Mano Farm. There, the children will learn the principles of Permaculture design from Justin Huhn, a certified Permaculture designer. Denise de Garmo-Ritchie, one of the founding partners of Malibu Compost, will introduce them to the principles of biodynamics. Denise discovered the benefits of biodynamics through her interest in sustainable landscaping and soil conservation.

“Grounded By Nature exists to encourage a way of life”

“Heal the soil and heal your soul,” the mantra of Malibu Compost, intends to do just that by partnering with Grounded By Nature to encourage compassionate stewardship of our earth and its inhabitants. Young hearts and minds will have the opportunity to hear the ground under their feet come to life as they build biodynamic compost piles from the manure left in new pastures by Bu and her friends—a herd of rescued dairy cows who are retiring to Grounded By Nature, where they will hang out, graze and get lots of love.

Neither a school nor a project, Grounded By Nature exists to encourage a way of life. By creating a well-rounded but interconnected set of experiences, and fostering a deep understanding of the science that runs through all things, we hope to do our part in shifting the world toward a sustainable future. The children will learn first-hand to what extent they, as humans, are an essential and positive part of a healthy system. They will learn that they, too, have seeds within themselves that will either grow or perish depending on what sort of soil they push through.

Courtney Cole is a world traveler, a kayak coach, a Wilderness First Responder, an environmentalist and a Permaculturist. Her passion for nature, learning and teaching inspired her to become the founding director of Grounded By Nature. She lives in Ojai with her husband and two children. For more information, please call Courtney at 805-284-7378.

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OJAI & Ventura County FALL 2010

he sight was both hilarious and endearing: Her hands held a wedding bouquet of kale with baby carrots and radishes peeking out at mischievous angles from a nest of flowering culinary and variegated sages, edible nasturtiums and two colors of demure, early artichokes. The bouquet’s wide aubergine ribbon unfurled gracefully down the champagne-satin wedding dress. The look on the bride’s face was radiant, of course, but with a tell-tale sparkle of humor in her eyes and lots and lots of love for the standing ovation audience packing one of the last performances at the original Libbey Bowl. Tears of laughter mingled with tears of joy on many of the faces applauding the imminent vows.

& Chris Get Married: the Musical” was built—a community hand-crafted wedding so simultaneously old-fashioned and downright cutting-edge it could only happen in the year 2010.

And only in Ojai, California.

Everyone seemed to be in on it: Local farmers donated organic, day-of-the-season produce; writers, actors, artists, seamstresses and crafters all contributed their expertise to the ingeniously minimal sets and costumes, songs and dialogue; children, dads, moms and grandparents, the students of a local boarding school, all rolled up their sleeves and came together in one big sweat of a mutual effort.

The story of the Deb’s humble wedding bouquet alone reveals this couple’s compost-to-stage-lights dedication to healing, home-cooked cuisine.

They were in love, but too busy building the town’s Equity theater to get married. They were dedicated to locally grown organic food and recycling but they couldn’t stand the thought of “spending thousands of dollars for a one-day experience,” and the usual landfill-clogging decorations and impersonal formal catering. So this very resourceful pair of writer/actors decided to make their once-in-a-lifetime nuptials into a musical and a fundraiser, thus honoring the story of their courtship and love while supporting the summer Shakespeare Festival. Sustained love supporting sustainable theater.

Then they made the process so contagiously fun that the whole theatrical family of artists and audiences and volunteers that has blossomed around the theater over the years wanted to join in, something akin to a rural barn-raising. And by this means “Deb 22

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Photo by: Timothy Teague

It might have been tempting to think the bouquet was pure joke, but that would be to lose sight of the play within the playfulness. Because for Ojai’s Theater 150 co-directors Deb Norton and Chris Nottoli, both acting in and attending their own real-life-wedding-within-a-musical, the way they perform and the way they live is a seamless cloth.

“Kale was a big part of my courtship with Chris because he was recuperating from a broken neck,” Deb Norton, the bride, explains. “And my feeling was, calcium pills are all well and good but if you get your calcium in a leafy green, it’s going to be more impactful somehow.” And besides, Deb adds, “It gave us something to do while we couldn’t relate to each other physically.”

Thus kale became the healing touch as well as the subject of two of the musical’s Cary Odes adaptations, “Vegetable Healing” (hum to yourself Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing”) and “Kale Cheer” (shout to yourself the Notre Dame football salute). Kale also became Deb’s tongue-in-cheek bridal bouquet, literally.

It turns out that the bouquet, designed and made (in donation)

by Curly Willow’s Jodi Brandt with ingredients requested by Deb, “was so heavy I couldn’t throw it [at the reception].I was afraid it could hurt somebody. It weighed a lot,” she says, seeming still astonished.

So, never one to waste, Deb made a soup out of it. Which, after curing herself overnight of a nasty post-nuptials flu with the first serving, she froze the remains of to eat with Chris on the couple’s first wedding anniversary: Deb’s quirky version of saving the top precious tier of cake. Such frugality and the couple’s commitment to the local organic farming community led to an almost magical synergy of ingredients, carefully intentioned culinary design and avid popularity of the food at the musical/wedding’s reception. It is a study in conscious detailing

“And you know what was also really good?” Deb marvels excitedly. “I think there were two really small Tupperwares left [of the food]. Everybody ate it all up. I don’t know how it happened. It was just the perfect amount.”

From the musical’s comedy to the theater’s fundraising approach to the care with which the cost of the event was zealously minimized to maximize the donors’ dollars ($30,000 was raised for the theater), the couple’s ability to find creative

Bridal Bouquet by Curly Willow; Photo by Kevin Wynn

to note that all of the plates and tableware were compostable and the clean-up crew took the “garbage” cans directly to their personal compost heaps instead of to the Harrison dumpsters.

Local chef Christine Denney calculated and customized the reception’s salad recipes to utilize the specific fresh produce donated by Ojai farmers Jim Churchill, Steve Sprinkel and BDDautch. T150 board members and volunteers held a daybefore-the-day chop party to prep the vegetables and herbs to then be assembled the morning of the wedding by Denney and fellow board member Dara Marks.

Five separate fresh salads served at the reception included edamame avocado, toasted quinoa, beet and green, and were even designed to span the many dietary needs/preferences represented there. Barbecue chicken offered at a from-the-heart, rock-bottom price by Westridge Market, the cost of which was then covered by a contributor, was ready precisely an hour before the guests arrived. Just like the rising barn, everything dovetailed edge-to-edge.

commonality in seemingly disparate elements is at the core, and heart, of their combined strength.

Deb muses, “I think [it’s a] theme of seeing, illuminating and empowering a people (or a food item) beyond what’s obvious and expected. It’s what artists do.”

Jemi Reis McDonald gratefully lives, writes and photographs in the Ojai Valley, where she and her family moved from L.A. 19 years ago. She is currently working on some stories and is designing a website, jemireismcdonaldphotography.com, and when she has some free time, she and her husband attend Theater 150 for some nourishing perspective.

“My favorite thing that happened,” recalls Marks, “was people coming in shifts, without any predictability or planning. A couple of people came early and by the time people had to leave, you saw someone driving up and this went on all day, so there was never a lull, we never had to make a phone call to say we needed more help. That was a kind of organic harmony that was very special,” she said.

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DIARY OF A F L E D G L I N G F A R M E R — o n e S t o r y a n d P h o t o b y Q u i n A a r o n S h a k r a A fledgling farm is difficult to define in terms of successes and failures. This is due to the great multiplicity of variables farmers must account for.

These include their own level of experience, and chosen methods of cultivation—if it’s organic, this entails a whole subset of challenges concerning insect and animal predation—the initial health of the soil, and weather/seasonal considerations.

Then there are the economic considerations: financial investments made that have not been—or may not be—necessarily recouped; determining what marketplace exists, if any at all, for our crops; and so on. Most perplexing, however, are the interrelated considerations of time and scale. For instance, what deems a harvest “successful”? That largely seems to depend on how much a farmer sets out to grow. Yet small farmers rarely have a market guaranteed beforehand. Or what if a crop or chosen business fails to bear fruit? Is it a matter of impatience or a matter of impracticality that we abandon a chosen strategy?

These questions are difficult to answer, or if they are answered at all, the answers seem provisional at best.

I operate Mano Farm—an acre-and-a-half plot of land in Meiners Oaks—in partnership with my friends Justin Huhn and David Klein. Our tenure on the farm recently passed the one-year mark, and we’ve arguably had some successful moments.

While we bootstrapped it during our first season on the land—no small farm loans or grants, only hand tools and small areas of cultivation—by our second season we established a community-supported agriculture program (CSA) that has since supported our operating costs. A year later we have a quarter acre circle garden and one-third acre plot of squash, melons and tomatoes— exclusively hand-cultivated.

From the outset, our CSA had a lot of resources to draw from: books such as Elizabeth Henderson’s Sharing the Harvest: A Citizen’s Guide to Community-Supported Agriculture and Trauger Groh and Steven McFadden’s Farms of Tomorrow: Communities Supporting Farms, Farms Supporting Communities were both inspiring and chock-full of practical suggestions.

Equally important was our hands-on experience: For the past three years I’ve worked on Steve Sprinkel’s Gozo Farm, which has been supported through the CSA model since late 2006. Justin is a certified Permaculture designer; David’s had a lifelong passion for gardening and seed saving.

However, keeping the CSA running has also been a challenge. First, we deal with considerable membership attrition, which happens for various reasons, ranging from members’ financial constraint to frustration with the selection of produce (seasonal eating is a challenge for many). And while CSAs may be viewed as inconvenient when compared to the grocery store experience (due to the year-round availability of certain kinds of produce), here in the Ojai Valley we can’t use the term “grocery store” so pejoratively since many of the markets in town stock locally grown organic produce year-round. That, coupled with a weekly farmers’ market, gives the consumer an incredibly diverse selection. So we are grateful when people make a commitment to our farm and stick with us.

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After our year of hand-cultivation, we’re still struggling with growing enough food to grow our CSA beyond its present membership. This is one reason why we have cultivated the remaining portion of our land through tractor-based rototilling.

When we saw our greenhouse full of autumn crops, and realized it would take months to dig by hand what a tractor could do in a matter of hours, we enlisted the help of a fellow farmer to till the land. This is one case of exposing our ideals to the field of practice. While we strongly believe farming that eschews machines is the most ecologically sensitive way to grow food, to hold an ideological hard line against tractors seemed absurd given the fact that our farm is producing for the marketplace.

This dovetails with the greatest challenge we have faced with the farm in general: making it an economically viable venture.

While the CSA model has contributed to a contemporary renaissance of the small farm in America, especially the left coast—the larger trend in agriculture is a food production and distribution system that is centralizing. Many people visit us on the farm, and comment that what we’re doing is inspiring and beautiful. These conversations inevitably turn to the question, “But can you make a living?”

The jury’s out on that, and it just raises further questions for me: At what point is our financial situation due to circumstances beyond our control, and at what point are they failures of our own ingenuity? Is our market tapped? All three of us farmers presently rely on outside sources of income, but that doesn’t mean we always will. We have envisioned a farm in which the CSA is but one of many sources of income, and are actively embracing “outside the box” methods of fundraising. One way we’ve been doing this is through the website Kickstarter, a “crowdfunding” website that helps creative, community and artistic projects gain visibility through the Internet. We are attempting to raise money for our CSA and, in return, offer fully subsidized CSA shares for low-income individuals and families.

As I grapple with running a farm that must interface with the world of economics, I also pause and note that success and failure cannot merely be measured by dollar signs, size of harvest or other quantitative measurements. There is a qualitative, experiential aspect to farming that gets buried under our more struggles to survive, and it’s this quality that underlies my passion to farm. It’s kept me committed to what we’re doing, and patient while we await the fruits of labor that we have not yet harvested.

Quin Aaron Shakra has been a resident of Ojai since 2006 and lives for his dual passions: writing and farming. He co-farms Mano Farm with David Klein and Justin Huhn. They are all friends. Visit them at manofarm.org.

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IN SEASON

by Steve Sprinkel and Olivia Chase (the Farmer and the Cook)

CERTIFIABLE One should think, given my past, I would not have allowed my organic certification to be in doubt. Not that the circumstances cast any serious uncertainty on the nature of the produce we grow, but nonetheless what needs to be better understood is what we do and how we do it.

What’s certified organic is not merely the field and the broccoli growing in it, but the grower and their business. Is there any way consumer expectations might be unjustified if, for example, a three-acre certified organic farm sold half a million dollars of broccoli in a single season?

A plausible audit must be possible for any organic farm to be certified. That’s one of the matters I need to attend to.

Everyone has to conform, even if one’s business eschews anonymity. That means I know you, you know me—drive down south Rice Road and take a look for yourself.

I also need to prove my peat moss didn’t have synthetic nitrogen in it. I need to create labels for our chile pepper products that conform to the standards.

I believe I need to have someone else sign something, and I need to request a formal Materials Review on the certified organic soybean meal I use for nitrogen.

It’s nitpicky, but you do want the certifiers to pick the nits, don’t you?

My lifelong experience has been to not merely conform to organic standards but to create a farm where a lot of potential problems are rendered moot. With the soybean meal, for example, I vanquished a nasty problem, meaning we don’t mess around with manure or compost from Bakersfield or chicken shit pellets or any of that stuff. I am so tired of manure. I am also proud of our isolation. At issue is the rather pathetic requirement that an organic farm should be separated from a conventional farm by 10 to 20 yards to theoretically eliminate chemical contamination. You may have seen aircraft flying-on some poison over a crop once upon a time so I don’t have to explain why a larger buffer would be appreciated.

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My current upwind buffer is around three miles. Since 1982 I have never farmed near enough to a conventional farm so that I could see what they were doing. I have also been lucky to have never had to transition ground from conventional to organic. The current farm had livestock on it for years and was abandoned seven or eight years before I came along. The irrigation water is better for you to drink than the product running out of your kitchen tap.

These are the sort of guarantees I like to provide for myself. I wouldn’t want to work where you can sniff endosulfan or aldicarb on the morning breeze.

I don’t think there is much reason to doubt my “organic integrity,” as we are wont to describe both producer and product. But the call to submit precipitates many feelings and luckily they lead to introspection. I used to be the sheriff in these parts. So a bit of humility might be prescribed. I was the regional certification chairman for my certifier, California Certified Organic Farmers, afore the young ’uns that are writing me letters was weaned.

Zorro signed his deeds with a Z; I would draw circles in the dirt and dare the devils to cross over into the blessed zone of O. I was all about the word. Organic was my religion, and I worshipped it and preached it for free. I inspected and verified and rendered judgments on growers large and small hereabouts and fancied myself to be something of a hired gun for my posse, riding out to NorCal to bring some recalcitrant to heel on more than one occasion. I am not proud to say I helped cook up the very dad-blamed documents I find so vexing to complete. If I wasn’t so busy with all my glorious chile pepper ambitions, I imagine I would have fulfilled my duties long before now.

It does get worse, I should admit. I once was national. Told everybody from coast to coast and Canada just what was. Wrote 455,000 words on it in nine years. In 1998 I certified 127 farms in eight states. Caught two frauds. Went to all the meetings, shook hands with all the folks, even was an FDA delegate to the United Nations! Then when Mr. Bush started to run the government

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I dropped off the radar. I did not like what the federal government had done to my blessed word, felt like they had stolen it from me and let corporations ravish it like heathens. Then come Mr. Obama, and he may not have changed your little corner of the universe, but he did mine when he installed bright, right-minded folks to run the National Organic Program. The president even hired one of us to serve as the number two official at the USDA. So, I decided to get certified again. Actually I had some help, because the Ventura County Agriculture Commissioner’s office, served by a Ms. Kelly Dufrain, began to lightly tap my metaphorical shins with a stick. Everybody’s got to conform, Mr. Sprinkel, even self-appointed saints. Or, you can stop saying you’re organic. You do have a choice.

It’s not for me that there is certification.

I do profit, but the system is designed to benefit consumers. However, it’s hard for the old lawman to hang up his badge.

Somebody comes up to a vendor at the farmers’ market and asks if the goods is organic. Vendor says “It’s not certified organic.”

But that doesn’t really answer the question, does it? It was a yes-no question with a qualified nonanswer: “Hey do you see a face in that cloud up there?” Looks just like Andrew Jackson!” He’s the patriot on the 20-dollar bill. Old “Trail of Tears.”

What do they mean when they say it’s not certified organic? The emphasis on certified is crucial, because it implies an organic nature to the product, and yet subtly evades the question by clouding the concept. Usually these people—the Vendors—don’t know what organic really means, just that if you use the word certified it will usually deflect the question so that General Jackson’s portraits will start flowing from one hand to another.

These exchanges occur at certified farmers’ markets. These markets are filled with conventional produce but because the word certified has crept surreptitiously into our cumulative cognitive space there is a blurring of

intention here. A common assumption is that, because the markets are certified, all the produce sold within them is certified organic. What’s being certified at these markets is never explained, but all of them proudly proclaim their certification, which only attests to the fact that the market conforms to the 1977 Direct Marketing law that officially permitted them: CA Food and Agriculture Statute 1392.

Steve Sprinkel, a native Los Angeleno, has farmed in Texas, Hawaii and in many localities throughout California including five sites in Ojai, where he also operates The Farmer and The Cook market and restaurant with his wife, Olivia Chase. From 1997 to 2007 he was an associate editor for ACRES, USA, the national alternative agriculture monthly published in Austin, Texas.

Olivia Chase has been making food for others since she sold bread to her neighbors as a teenager in Ventura.

She fell in love with Ojai’s beauty and moved back to the area after college.

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recipes from readers EGGPLANT TERRINE//Randy Graham

Photo by Randy Graham

What is a terrine? My online dictionary defines it as: 1. a meat, fish or vegetable mixture that has been cooked or otherwise prepared in advance and allowed to cool or set in its container; 2. a container used for such a dish, typically of an oblong shape and made of earthenware.

This recipe conforms to both definitions and is a wonderful vegan appetizer. It takes about an hour of prep time and can be made the day before. In fact, it is best if made the day before so the terrine fully marinates. Bring it to room temperature before serving for best flavor.

INGREDIENTS: 4 red bell peppers 2 medium eggplants, sliced into ¼-inch-thick rounds 1 small shallot, peeled and minced 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar ½ teaspoon salt 1/8 teaspoon black pepper 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil ¼ cup organic tofu (mashed) 2 cups loosely packed fresh basil leaves Vegetable oil cooking spray DIRECTIONS: Roast the bell peppers under the broiler until skins begin to bubble and peel. Peppers will be almost black when they are ready. Transfer to a large paper or zip-top plastic bag, close the top carefully (peppers will be plenty hot) and let steam until cool enough to the handle (approximately 15 minutes). Peel, seed and skin peppers; cut into 1-inch-wide strips and set aside.

Preheat oven to 400°.

Spray two baking sheets with cooking spray. Arrange the eggplant rounds in a single layer on baking sheets, and roast until tender (about 20 to 25 minutes). Turn the rounds over after 12 minutes to ensure even cooking.

Using a spatula, transfer the rounds to a wire rack to cool (wax paper works well but a rack allows the air circulate to both sides).

In a small bowl, combine the shallot, vinegar, salt and pepper. Whisk in the olive oil until smooth and aside.

Spray a terrine dish with cooking spray (I use a 9- by 4-inch earthenware loaf pan). Arrange one-third of the eggplant rounds, slightly overlapping, to cover the bottom and brush lightly with vinaigrette. Arrange half of the bell pepper strips, slightly overlapping, over the eggplant.

Using a rubber spatula, spread half of the tofu over the peppers. Top with half of the fresh basil and brush lightly with vinaigrette.

Make another layer as above, brush with vinaigrette and 28

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top with a third layer of eggplant. Brush with vinaigrette again, and then press down firmly but gently with your hands on the terrine, compressing the layers.

Cover tightly and marinate, in the refrigerator, for 12 to 24 hours. Carefully un-mold onto a platter and garnish with fresh basil.

ROASTED EGGPLANT SPREAD*// Margaret Menninger (*adapted from the Barefoot Contessa Cookbook)

INGREDIENTS: 1 medium eggplant, peeled 2 red bell peppers, seeded 1 red onion, peeled 2 garlic cloves, minced 3 tablespoons olive oil 1 teaspoon kosher salt ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 1 tablespoon tomato paste ¼ teaspoon crushed chile peppers (optional) DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 375°.

Cut the eggplant, bell peppers and onion into 1-inch cubes. Toss them in a bowl with the garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper. Spread onto a baking sheet. Roast for 45 minutes, until the vegetables are lightly browned and soft, tossing once during cooking. Cool slightly.

Place the roasted vegetables in a food processor fitted with a steel blade, add the tomato paste and pulse a few times to blend. Adjust salt to taste. *Editor’s note: I had this spread at a party and begged Margaret to submit the recipe. Thankfully, she obliged.

I’m a big fan of eggplant, and hence there are TWO recipes using it in this issue!

ACORN SQUASH AND CARAMELIZED FENNEL PANCAKES (GLUTEN-FREE)//Carrie Clough INGREDIENTS: 1 small Acorn squash (or any small fall/winter squash will work) 1 small fennel bulb, thinly sliced, and small handful of fennel fronds 2 eggs, beaten 2–4 teaspoons olive oil 2 tablespoons melted butter 1 cup milk ½ cup rice flour 1 teaspoon baking powder ½ teaspoon sea salt DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 400°.

Grease a sturdy baking sheet with olive oil or butter. Slice Acorn squash lengthwise in half and scoop out the seeds (save seeds for roasting or put in the compost). Place squash cut side down onto baking sheet and roast for about 25–30 minutes or until squash feels tender to the touch and its undersides look brown and caramelized. Remove from oven and cool.

While the squash is roasting, season a cast-iron pan or sauté pan over medium-low heat with 1–2 teaspoons olive oil and add sliced fennel. Allow fennel to caramelize while stirring frequently.

In a small saucepan, melt the 2 tablespoons of butter. Let cool. In a medium bowl, add melted butter to beaten eggs and milk and mix together. Scoop out flesh from the baked squash and mix in with the wet ingredients. Add the caramelized fennel and fennel fronds.

In another small bowl, combine rice flour, baking powder and sea salt. Add to wet ingredients and mix thoroughly. If batter looks a little thick, add a little milk to thin it out (amount can vary depending on the size of the squash). If it gets too thin, just add a little more rice flour. You can’t over mix because there’s no gluten to be activated (a fork is easier than a whisk).

Heat a skillet over medium heat with 2 teaspoons olive oil (or clarified butter if you prefer) and dab out excess with a towel if you’re using a nonstick pan. Drop the pancake batter onto the hot (but not too hot) skillet using a ¼-cup measuring cup. The bigger they are, the harder they’ll be to flip, so make them on the small to medium side. Once evenly browned on one side, flip to the other side and cook for about 30 seconds to a minute.

Serve as savory pancakes with crème fraiche or chutney or serve at breakfast with maple syrup or applesauce.

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Artful Living delights for the craft obsessed

Barbara Beck, Owner 107 S. Signal Street Ojai, California 93023 Phone: 805-640-0800 Artfulliving@ojai.net Hours: Mon-Sat • 10:30-5:00 Sun • 12:00-4:00

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ARMCHAIR FEAST:

A Celebration of Books, Articles & Stories About Food & Agriculture

By Joline Godfrey

Grandmothers, Olives and Mindfulness Regular followers of my column know that stories of my grandmother are the core source of my love of food and cooking. So when this magazine’s editor urged me to read Cooking with Italian Grandmothers: Recipes and Stories from Tuscany to Sicily, I complied immediately—and now I urge you to do the same.

The author, Jessica Theroux, begins her foreword with a clear vision: “This is a book about women and food and listening.” She closes the foreword with “My greatest hope is that this book will encourage you to pay the utmost attention to your life, and in particular to your food and the people around you.”

Her words are practically a clarion call to world peace—and at least as effective as anything coming out of the political world these days. Theroux did just what her title implies. She traveled throughout Italy, seeking introductions to generous grandmothers, who embraced her in their kitchens and shared their old knowledge and good food with her. Any-

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one who has not had a “bountiful grandmother” experience can enjoy this book as a vicarious standin. It’s a dim reflection of the real thing, but you will find the stories—and the recipes—nourishing.

Jessica describes herself as a “healing foods” cook and it’s not surprising to learn that her training and experience include stints at the Chopra Center, the Kushi Institute and the Esalen Institute. Her call to mindfulness in the context of a grandmother’s kitchen was a personal revelation. As I recall Saturday mornings in my own grandmother’s kitchen, I flash back to the attention required to master her techniques—her pies and pastries were minimalist—nothing wasted, nothing extra, just pure taste perfection. Time in her kitchen was a kind of meditation. Suddenly I understand why meditation has always seemed such a natural state to me. I began, unawares, to BE aware a long, long time ago.

Italian Grandmothers can be read as a wonderful travelogue or a first-rate collection of recipes. But readers who discern the lessons of “paying attention” will experience a gift that some of us grew up with:

time, stories, food and love shared in the course of just living.

A few days after finishing Theroux’s book, I stopped by Ron Asquith’s Ojai Olive Oil booth at the Ojai Farmers’ Market. I am NOT a paid shill for Ron’s products, but hits Ladera Olive Oil has become a staple in my kitchen and my plan was to bring a few of the grandmother recipes to life using the Asquiths’ exquisite, artisan olive oil.

When I arrived I noted he was reading Olives: The Life and Lore of a Noble Fruit, by Mort Rosenblum. Ron said he was reading the book “again” and I could only assume that it’s a craftsman’s resource. So, bottles of olive oil now stowed in my cotton bag, I headed home.

On arriving home I put away the fruits and vegetables I’d gathered at market and was almost ready to begin cooking.

But first I placed an order for the Rosenblum book. I wanted to be more knowledgeable about the liquid that flows in my kitchen and the trees that grace the roads around my home. And I figured that if Olives is an important source book for Ron, it was a good place to start.

I then got back to my original vision: preparing roasted potatoes with rosemary and olive oil. Really, there is no better comfort food to serve to friends and family.

A few days later the book arrived. And what a payoff. Rosenblum’s reporting is that of a man obsessed. Not surprising in that

he is an international correspondent who happens to raise olives.

His bio reads like a Jason Bourne screenplay. And it is somehow hard to imagine the peripatetic correspondent (http://www. mortrosenblum.net/bio_front.html) as a Zen olive grove farmer.

And yet, Olives is so thorough, so passionately written, one can only assume Rosenblum has the heart of an ancient soul and the energy of a restless 10-year-old. Olives, he informs, are a member of the only family in a small order of flowering plants called Oleales, related to jasmine and lilac. The fruit is OLD. Fossilized leaves dating from 37,000 years ago were found on the island of Santorini. Olives is not a new book. It was published in 1986. That I am just discovering it is a pity. I would have savored the fruit in a far more mindful way years ago had I been more intimately acquainted with its science and mythology.

Before buying your next bottle of olive oil or consuming a handful of olives, read this book.

It will alter your experience of the noble fruit.

Joline Godfrey lives in Ojai, is CEO of Independent Means Inc., has made dinner parties for friends an avocation and can be reached at jgodfrey@independentmeans.com

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