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In early May, Rio Gozo Farm owner Steve Sprinkel announced the expansion of his Ojai Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program “down river” to residents in Ventura. CSA is a relatively new movement in the United States starting in the mid-80’s. It is a farm program offering subscribers a weekly box of seasonal, fresh produce and a chance to have a direct connection to the food put on their table.

Four acres of the Rio Gozo Farm have been dedicated to this new venture. Farmer John Fonteyn is managing it and successfully delivered his first CSA shares to Ventura residents a couple of weeks ago.

John was born in Santa Barbara. As a young man he grew up in Santa Barbara, lived in Texas and northern California with his family. It was in San Francisco that he began a career cooking and working in catering. John says that “Growing up in San Francisco provided me the opportunity to eat the finest and most diverse cuisine in the U.S. but traveling forced me to live and eat outside my comfort zone. It was this experience that most profoundly impacted my long term vision for food culture. To make a long story short, I wanted to know food from the bed to the table. I reasoned that I could not access its full potential without both producing and preparing it myself.”

John had plenty of experience preparing and serving food while in San Francisco. When he relocated to Ojai about nines years ago he began producing food working in organic farming and food production. He ultimately landed at The Farmer and the Cook where he was the restaurant’s farm manager. John says that “ this is first year where I am solely responsible for the production of a 4 acre plot dedicated exclusively to the Ventura CSA. The learning curve is steep and I still seek Steve’s (Sprinkel) council on a regular basis.”

When asked what he likes best about the Ventura CSA program, he says it’s the members. When asked to elaborate, he says “I like people and one of the best ways to get to know them is to share a meal. By working together to co-produce a sustainable food system I believe we are shifting the dominant paradigm from one of consumption to one of communion. We’re looking forward to putting local food on your plate”.

For subscriptions to this new organic Community Supported Agriculture program for Ventura residents, contact John or Elizabeth at riogozofarm@gmail.com or call (805) 272-8170. The cost of the Ventura CSA share is $25 per week. There are about 7- 12 items in the share boxes and items vary according to season. Pick up is in downtown Ventura on the patio outside Bikram Yoga Studio on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Some still think vegetarianism is a fad as opposed to a lifestyle. While it is true that it came to national attention in the 1960s here in the United States, its origins are hundreds if not thousands of years older than that. Make no mistake, vegetarianism is a lifestyle and has been for a good long while.

In the western world alone, vegetarianism began to take hold in the mid-1800s in both Great Britain and the United States. According to the International Vegetarian Union website the word “vegetarian” first appeared in print in 1843. Four years later the Vegetarian Society was formed in Great Britain as a secular organization to promote this healthy, plant-based diet.

A few years after that an American Presbyterian minister, Sylvester Graham, helped to found the American Vegetarian Society in New York in 1850. Graham stressed the importance of whole-wheat flour and is, perhaps, best known as the inventor of the Graham Cracker. His followers practiced temperance (no alcohol!), vegetarianism and (I am guessing with tongue-in-cheek) washing Graham Crackers down with a tall glass of milk.

So if vegetarianism has been around for awhile, how about vegetarian recipes and vegetarian cookbooks? Think about it. Just because people included meat in their diet (and were therefore not vegetarians) it doesn’t mean they didn’t enjoy cooking and eating vegetarian dishes. If there were vegetarians before the psychedelic 60s, then there were, ipso facto, vegetarian cookbooks!

I have been the proud recipient of many cookbooks handed down to my parents and finally to me. When I became a vegetarian in 1975, I was also sent vegetarian cookbooks and cookbooks with sections on cooking for vegetarians.

One of the vintage, purely vegetarian cookbooks I acquired is a publication by Loma Linda Foods titled “Vegetable Protein Recipes”. It is undated but appears to be printed about 1967 as a means of promoting their “low fat, high protein” foods, many of which are still found at your local grocery store today.

Another fun cookbook is the undated “Recipes for Cooking” book printed in Fresno, California sometime in the 1930s. It has a full 5-page section titled “Vegetarian Recipes” which includes but is not limited to Baked Onions, Mock Whitefish, Vegetarian Hamburger Steak, Vegetarian Sausage, Macaroni Croquettes and Vegetable Oyster Pie. In this section there is a Kingsford’s Corn Starch ad and it looks like the woman in the ad is cooking on a wood-fired stove – something my wife grew up with but which our son would probably not appreciate or even understand today.

I remember visiting my friend, Gay, who was a nutritionist for a northern California coastal valley school district in the late 1970s. Her cook was an older employee (Gay was about 25 and her employee was about 65) who baked in an even older wood-fired oven in their central kitchen.

There were no gauges on the oven so when Gay showed me the dessert they were baking that day, I asked “How can you tell how hot the oven is without some sort of temperature gauge?” Without saying a word, Gay’s cook opened the massive oven door, knelt down and stuck both of her arms in the oven. It took me a full minute to pick my jaw up off the floor.

Gay explained that her cook had a 40-year relationship with this specific oven and knew it so well she could not only tell when the temperature was just right, she could also tell if it was heating evenly from one side to the other just by sticking her arms in the oven for a few seconds. I again picked my jaw up of the floor. I could only wonder what it must have been like for my ancestors who cooked in dutch ovens over camp fires as they migrated west from Pennsylvania in the 1850s.

I like to tell folks that this image is a photo taken in my test kitchen but they know better. It is a photo from a cookbook printed about 1927 by the Jewel Tea Company and titled “Mary Dunbar’s Favorite Recipes”.

My favorite cookbook is dated 1908 and titled “Merced Carnival Cook Book”. It has sections on soups, salads, vegetables, pickles, breads, cakes, cookies, pudding, pies, candies and “miscellaneous”. It is encouraging to note that the first page is composed of totally vegetarian soup recipes!

Under the miscellaneous category there are three recipes for “Cheese Straws”. They must have been popular at the turn of the last century. To make them you take a “Heaping cup grated cheese, level cup flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, pinch cayenne pepper and salt. Mix well with water. Bake in hot oven.” I’m gonna try it.

What I like best about this cookbook is written in the preface. It is here that the authors divulge their “Recipe for Successful Cooking”. It is as follows:

Take 2 lbs. of the best control,

1 lb. of justice,

1 lb. of discipline,

1 1/2 lbs. of consideration,

5 lbs. of patience,

Sweeten with charity and let the mixture simmer well,

Keep constantly on hand.

Fun stuff! If you have a favorite story about vintage cookbooks and/or recipes, please leave a comment!

Earth trine. Two separate words when combined have a special meaning. Earth is self explanatory. But what is trine?

The man behind the successful Earthtrine Farm, Robert “BD” Dautch, explained that trine refers to an aspect in astrology. As applied to one of the Ojai Valley’s most successful organic farms, it is the conjunction of the astrological signs for BD, his wife and his son. All three have “earth” signs. All in harmony with the earth.

In a lengthly article last year in Ventana Monthly, BD was called an “Organic Alchemist” who turned dirt into gold. Having toured his farm I can say he is that for sure. I see him more as a Renaissance Man with an important twist. Instead of helping to bring about a revival of art and literature, Dautch brings a revival of interest in small farming, as opposed to large corporate farming, with a focus on organics.

In talking with BD on his farm one can tell that he is one with his crops, the fields, and the earth under his feet. He is completely and literally “at home.” In addition to his passion as an organic farmer, BD is a family man. He has a son and two daughters at home and feels it is important to spend time with them before sending them off to school each morning. And, oh yeah, did I mention he is a Vegan?

Prior to 1974, when BD began his career in organic farming, he planted and attended to community gardens in Isla Vista. Today he farms two locations in Ojai: 10-acre and 3-acre organic farms near the Nordoff Cemetery. In addition, he farms five acres of organic produce in Carpinteria.

Although the majority of land on his farms supports oranges, he also grows an abundance of other fruits, vegetables and herbs. He not only harvests over 100 different varieties of produce throughout the year, he harvests and distributes edible weeds that sprout up naturally on the farm. The farm motto? “Go wild. Eat Weeds!” Naturally.

BD strives for a balance with nature and says that this is not always easy especially on an organic farm. When asked to elaborate he said “You can’t count on consistent weather. Inconsistent weather affects the timing on insect hatchings.” He implied that you have to be ever vigilant for insects that will eat the produce or kill the trees. “Work on a farm”, he said, “is never done.”

In sum, BD is a person of many talents including organic farmer, business man and family man. Look for him and his crew at the Ojai Certified Farmers Market each Sunday under the Earthtrine banner.