There is something wonderfully practical about having a container of homemade apple pie filling tucked into the refrigerator or freezer. Of course, it puts an old-fashioned apple pie within easy reach, but that may be the least interesting thing you can do with it. Spoon it over pancakes or waffles on a chilly morning. Layer...Read More

Creamy, savory, endlessly adaptable, and made mostly from pantry staples, hummus is one of those foods worth knowing how to make at home. Most of us think of hummus as a dip — something to scoop up with wedges of warm pita, crackers, or crunchy vegetables. But a container of good hummus in the refrigerator...Read More

From intensely sweet Sugar Kiss to fragrant Ambrosia and crisp Honeyloupe, Munak Ranch brings an extraordinary assortment of peak-season melons to the farmers market. There are few things more disappointing than cutting into a beautiful melon only to discover that it tastes vaguely sweet, watery, and not much like anything at all. Then there are...Read More

And Why a Little Time in the Kitchen Matters… Changing the way we eat doesn’t have to begin with a complete pantry overhaul. Sometimes it starts with one small habit. Make your own salad dressing instead of buying a bottle filled with thickeners, stabilizers, flavorings, and preservatives. Stir together a simple vinaigrette with olive oil,...Read More

Once everyday kitchen staples, traditional animal fats are finding their way back into the skillet. Open an old cookbook and you’ll find an ingredient that has largely disappeared from modern recipes: rendered fat. Pie crust might call for lard. Potatoes were roasted in beef dripping. Chicken fat flavored everything from onions to dumplings. Bacon grease...Read More

Sweet, chewy, and intensely pear-flavored, dried pears are one of the simplest ways to capture the season — and you don’t necessarily need a dehydrator to make them. When pears are plentiful at the farmers market, it can be tempting to bring home more than you can possibly eat before they ripen. Fortunately, pears are...Read More

There is very little wrong with a perfectly ripe melon served exactly as nature intended: chilled, sliced, and eaten with juice running down your wrist. But when melon season is at its peak—and the farmers market tables are piled with fragrant cantaloupes, honeydews, specialty melons, and watermelons—it is worth looking beyond the fruit bowl. Melons...Read More

From crisp green Autumn King to deeply colored Autumn Royal, late summer and early fall bring an especially good selection of California table grapes to the farmers market. September is a wonderful time to rediscover grapes. At the farmers market, grapes are not simply “red,” “green,” or “black.” Individual varieties differ in size, color, texture,...Read More

The best method depends on what you want to make. Sweet potatoes are beginning to arrive in earnest, just in time for fall cooking. Their naturally sweet, earthy flavor makes them a seasonal favorite, whether they are simply roasted with butter and salt, tucked alongside a main course, or turned into pies, breads, casseroles, and...Read More

From nearly year-round strawberries to fall blueberries, the Central Coast is rewriting the calendar for fresh fruit. There was a time when berries seemed to arrive with spring and disappear almost as quickly as they came. Strawberries meant spring, blueberries meant early summer, and by autumn we had moved on to apples, pears, and persimmons....Read More