A Love Affair With Lemons

Any time of year – any type of lemon –  my attention is centered.  With the 2^nd class in our culinary series fast approaching, I am excited to be revisiting favorite recipes and an AMAZING ingredient in preparation for Thursday the 31^st at the Fullerton Arboretum.  We’re going to explore at least six recipes in class this week in which lemon is the “star” ingredient – but I am MOST excited by two of our selections…

First Class: Southern California Cool Season Cuisine

The stalks of Rhubarb snapped as I twisted them free from the base of the plant that I put in the ground over 18 months ago. Later in the evening this rhubarb would be folded into a cake batter to provide tart contrast to a sweet walnut streusel and crunchy crumb. Our guests were coming not only to eat, but to learn a bit about cooking by watching us prepare a seasonal meal.

I am passionate about growing fantastic food and I am lucky enough to do so for a living. My journey into small-scale agriculture began four years ago at Fullerton Arboretum, a botanical garden in north Orange County. Today, the eastern acres of Fullerton Arboretum include 16,000 square feet of vegetable beds, a new orchard filled with nearly 200 young fruit trees, and an apiary (bee hives). The intense and often mundane physical labor and the searing Southern Californian summers made a tentative farmer of me at first. I can no longer imagine a life that doesn’t involve growing food.