By Margo True, Sunset Food Editor

Sunset's One-Block team. Photo: E. Spencer Toy

When we started this blog five years ago, it was a way for us to report on our new local-eating project: We'd grow and make everything ourselves for a summer dinner, to be published, with recipes, in the magazine. (It was, in August 2008). What we didn't know then, of course, was that we were at the cusp of a major cultural shift. Now people all over the country raise chickens in their backyards. Edible gardening happens everywhere, even on front lawns and sidewalk strips. And backyard beekeeping is so popular that local bee guilds have waiting lists hundreds of names long.

Souvenirs from our One-Block project's first year:
eggs, free-form honeycomb, and salt.

We have loved reporting on all of it, and doing our best to show you, through our own hands-on adventures, how doable and rewarding it is to make your own food—even when you're busy with a family and a job. Along the way we've won a James Beard journalism award for best blog, been nominated for an International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) award as well as a digital National Magazine Award, and published a very gardeny cookbook about our adventures called The One-Block Feast. This past summer, we organized the One-Block Party contest—in which more than a hundred of you got together with your friends and neighbors to grow your own block parties. Your posts and pictures on this blog have inspired all of us.

As we've learned over the course of this project, nothing in nature is constant. And neither is the blogosphere; our project is ending, and this will be the last post on the One-Block blog.

But a new Sunset blog called Westphoria, celebrating Sunset's four departments—garden, food, travel, and home—will launch in March 2012; check sunset.com to find it. The One-Block blog will be archived there, and here through February 2012. You'll be able to read all of our (and your) posts from over the years, and the pages will still be open to comments.

We have had a wonderful time researching and writing for you, and have been enriched in so many ways by this project, by the connections we've made to you, to each other, and to nature. We'll still keep bees and chickens here at Sunset—they're too much a part of our lives to give up. We'll be raising fruits and vegetables in our test garden, of course. And it looks as though our saffron crocuses, which failed totally last year, are finally going to blossom. Go Team Saffron! We might have to make a celebratory paella.

We're going to keep on growing, and we hope you will, too.

Saffron, sprouted.

By John Diodati, Team Leader

Posted and edited by Margo True, Sunset Food Editor

Photographs by Thomas J. Story

The Beach Tractors are a group of young families in Morro Bay, on California’s central coast. Over the course of this One-Block Party contest, they’ve replaced concrete slab yards with edible gardens, seeded an oyster bed, and planted a rooftop garden; raised meat chickens and laying hens; and borrowed goats for milk. Rather than just one party, they decided to do two: one for the adults and one for the children, featuring a whole separate children’s menu, grown in gardens the children have tended themselves. Throughout, they have kept their own active blog. This post describes their party weekend of August 28 and 29. For their incredible efforts and transformative effect on their neighborhood, Team Beach Tractors won our One-Block Party contest. The prize was announced on October 2.

“Don’t cry because it is over. Smile because it happened."

Whoever coined that phrase had the Beach Tractors in mind. Each one of us was a bit blue to see this summer’s Sunset experience come to a close. But there was no doubt that our feast weekend was an absolute celebration of homegrown food, of our bountiful environment, and of family and community.

The smiles were as plentiful as the food.

—FRIDAY—

Feast weekend began Friday in Morro Bay, literally in the water, as we harvested over 350 well-shaken oysters that all Tractor families tended over the summer.

After drying off and icing down our haul, all families met in the Children’s Garden for harvest time. The children picked what they'd need for cooking their feast the next day.

—SATURDAY—

We met at "Chicken Dave"’s house, where his hens had been busy laying eggs for the children’s meal. Each child was allowed to pick an egg from the coop and bring it back to the garden for cooking in the adjoining house.

With eggs in tow (and all in one basket!), all the families rode bikes from the coop to the children’s garden, where the kids cooked eggs in pots (little individual egg-and-vegetable dishes) and made zucchini fritter faces. 

The food was ready. One by one, the four oldest children (the leadership team) gave toasts about what they had learned this summer, accompanied by a karaoke machine. Common themes were fun, friendship, silly experiences like runaway goats, and the happiness of being outside with responsibilities.The children sat at their own tables, eating the dinner that they themselves had cooked. Even the littlest ones were still for at least an hour, while we adults watched from the perimeter. To say the children’s feast was a success is truly an understatement.

—SUNDAY—

We ended our amazing One-Block Feast journey by dining on the 72’ luxury yacht “PapaGallo II”. The boat was once owned by the head of Gallo Salame, which added a bit of humorous irony to our feast; while the ingredients of processed salame are typically questionable, there was no questioning the source of ingredients for our feast. In fact, the beautifully arranged oysters waiting to be eaten on the bow of the yacht, showcasing three different 100% home-grown and homemade sauces, had started their lives directly beneath us on the floor of Morro Bay.

Let me back up a bit and explain how we ended up on the PapaGallo II. 

The Beach Tractors have an “any excuse for a party” view of life. We like to get together right here in our neighborhood.  But we are not only about fun. Someone once referred to our group as a ‘bunch of over-committers’. It’s true. Walk into any community meeting in Morro Bay and you’re likely to find a Beach Tractor involved in some action, event, or activity.  However, after being picked by Sunset Magazine for the One-Block Party contest, we knew we had to celebrate the once-in-a-lifetime contest with a once-in-a-lifetime party. So, that's why we didn’t just plan one feast. We planned two—one for our children and one for the adults.

Our menu had been tailored around the ocean, not only with seafood but with vegetables and fruits that could survive the cold, windy, foggy summers we experience on the Central Coast. When Len and Midge, the owners of the PapaGallo II, offered us their boat as our feast location, we couldn’t say no. It fit with our menu theme and provided us with the singular opportunity we were looking for. It also allowed for an adult-only event that would relieve us of “kid duty” and allow equal participation from everyone. 

Preparations on the day of the event were almost as exhausting as growing and making the food all summer. The old “running around like a chicken with its head cut off” analogy probably wouldn’t be appropriate considering our main course...so let’s just say we were busy.

Making honey-wheat muffins with home-grown, home-ground wheat.

Milking the goat and gathering bouquets for the tables.

We milled wheat, collected vegetables and eggs, and thawed the chickens we had slaughtered a few weeks prior. We milked goats and cut flowers for table decorations. We cooked and cooked. I’m sure I'm forgetting at least ten more things we did, but you get the point.

And, then, somehow, it all came together.  Somehow, all 15 of us managed to settle our collective 16 kids for the night with sitters and we arrived at the boat (which we had  tastefully decorated that morning) dressed festively, hair and makeup in place, and with warm food and cold beer ready to be enjoyed. 

While we sipped our cocktails, we were entertained by local surfboard shaper and musician Shane Stoneman. Shane strummed his guitar and sang his own original gentle melodies as the PapaGallo II took us leisurely around Morro Bay Harbor. 

This was our first opportunity to slow down and absorb what we had accomplished. This was the first time we could look around at our teammates, all smiling ear to ear, and embrace the fact that we had come together in April with a plan—a crazy plan—and here we were, just five months later, actually fulfilling almost every single crazy idea outlined in our plan.

So what were the crazy food ideas? We had a surf & turf concept. We ate oysters we'd raised in Morro Bay with the local rock cod we'd caught and made into ceviche, and paired them with chickens we'd raised and mindfully slaughtered at a Beach Tractor home. Homegrown vegetables and fruits (citrus) that grow well in Morro Bay were also on the menu. We made and ate wheat rolls, an All-Tractor garden salad, corn succotash, and goat cheese frittata. The dessert was pavlova, with backyard chicken eggs; we garnished it with the ollalaberries, strawberries, and blueberries we'd grown.  A few even used the homemade sugar we'd manage to extract from homegrown sugar cane.

Ceviche, left, and a plate with everything, right.

All of this was washed down with a choice of three beverages: lemon ginger beer; wheat beer seasoned with coriander, orange peel and chamomile; or wine from Beach Tractor Josh Becket’s own hands, as he is the winemaker at both Chronic Cellars and Peachy Canyon (in nearby Paso Robles). We made the two beers, and had attempted to make wine, but wine grapes throughout California were still not ripe by feast day.

John Diodati makes the first of many toasts.

We ate. We feasted. And while we savored our food, we got up and toasted each other like Russians on New Year’s Eve. Finally, the PapaGallo II returned to its dock.

However, you must know that we weren't sad, because we decided to take the party, along with our wheat and ginger beer, back to the Beach Tract—where it all started—and continued to celebrate all that we had accomplished.

We celebrated the Children’s Feast, knowing that our children had learned a rare lesson about food and community-building that they will carry in their hearts and minds for the rest of their lives. We celebrated Morro Bay, this treasured little part of California that we call home. But, most importantly, we celebrated the simple fact that even in this chaotic, distracted, and detached culture of the 21^st century, we humans are still capable of slowing down, coming together as a group, and connecting with our land, our food, and one another.

RECIPES FROM THE FEASTS

Zucchini Fritter Faces

Serves 4

1 lb. (about 2 medium) zucchini or squash

3 or 4 potatoes

1 tsp. salt

1 tbsp. freshly grated lemon zest

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 cup wheat flour

About 2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil

Lettuce, sliced carrot rounds and carrot sticks, sliced pepper sticks, sliced cucumber rounds and cucumber sticks, halved cherry tomatoes, sliced radishes — all for decorating

1. Using the large holes of a box grater, shred zucchini and potatoes into a medium bowl. Add salt, lemon zest, and eggs. Mix well to combine. Slowly add flour, stirring so no lumps form.

2. Heat 2 tbsp. oil in a large pan over medium-high heat until oil sizzles when you drop a small amount of mixture into the pan. Carefully drop about 2 tbsp. mixture into pan; repeat, spacing fritters a few inches apart.

3. Cook fritters until golden underneath, 2 to 3 minutes. Reduce heat to medium. Turn fritters over and continue cooking until golden on second side, 2 to 3 minutes more. Transfer fritters to a plate; set aside in a warm place. Cook remaining mixture, adding more oil to pan if necessary.

4. Decorate each fritter with various freshly cut vegetables to make a funny face unique to that child.

Lemon Ice in Lemon Cups

Makes 8 to 10 servings

3 to 4 lemons

3/4 cup sugar or stevia liquid sweetener

1. Wash the lemons. Show children how to grate the peel of two of the lemons, then combine the lemon zest, 3 cups water, and sugar in a medium saucepan.

2. Bring the liquid to a simmer and continue simmering it, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has dissolved (about 3 minutes). Remove the pan from the heat and let the mixture cool. Pour the cooled liquid through a mesh strainer into a medium mixing bowl. Discard the zest left in the strainer.

3. Halve the lemons and, with a lemon reamer or citrus juicer, juice enough of them to make 2/3 cup juice. (If you plan to serve the ice in the empty halves, store them in the refrigerator until you're ready to use.)

4. Stir the juice into the sugar water. Then pour the mixture into a large, shallow baking dish and place in your freezer. (Note: if the liquid is still warm, chill it for 1 hour first so you don't defrost your freezer!)

5. When the mixture starts to freeze around the edge, stir and mash it with a fork to break up the ice. Repeat this periodically until the ice is firm (3 to 5 hours). Spoon into cleaned-out lemon halves or small bowls to serve.

Rock Cod Ceviche

1-2 lbs. fresh rock cod

Sea salt

1-2 cups fresh lime juice

2 finely chopped cucumbers

2  finely chopped small jalapeños, with seeds

1 finely chopped cilantro plant (leaves and tender stems)

4 finely chopped tomatoes

2 finely chopped onions

Wash fish and sprinkle with sea salt to taste. Chop into small cubes. Put cubes in a bowl and add lime juice, making sure to cover fish completely with juice. Store overnight.

Drain juice and add vegetables. Serve in cowboy-size oyster shells (at least 5 inches long).

Fritatta with Potatoes and Goat Cheese

2 cups potatoes, thinly sliced

2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil

2 tsp. sea salt, plus more to taste

12 eggs, beaten  

½ cup heavy whipping cream

8-12 oz. fresh goat cheese

2 tsp. thyme

Pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375°. Toss potatoes with olive and 2 tsp. salt.  Roast until lightly browned and tender, about 20 minutes. Whip eggs with cream. Arrange potatoes in a large non-stick frying pan, then add egg mixture and top with goat cheese, salt, pepper, and thyme. Bake frittata until lightly browned and puffy on top, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool and serve warm or room temperature.

Posted and edited by Margo True, Sunset Food Editor

Team Bad Skunks is a group of food exchangers in Los Angeles, near Highland Park, who like to have fun. Everyone in the group grows food—interesting things like nopal cactus, loquats, and burdock along with standbys like beans and peppers, as well as lots and lots of fruit. Team leader Max Wong, who has a fun blog of her own, raises bees and makes preserves from produce her neighbors forage from the area and bring to her. Then she delivers the jars to them as thanks. “It was a cinch to convince them that a summer’s-end block party  challenge was a good idea,” says Max. “Who doesn’t need another excuse to have a party?” This post catches up with the team on the day of their end-of-summer feast in early September, the final event in this year's One-Block Party contest.

The prawn pad, empty now, and its attached hydroponic garden—from which Tino harvests chives.
Photos: Andrea Gómez for Sunset.

PARTY DAY, PART 1: GATHERING SUPPLIES

By Kristi Reed, Team Member

Now that Tino had harvested and processed the prawns, I started out the day by seeing what the garden had to offer. I knew there would be a few things I could count on: tomatoes, squash, Japanese eggplant, and several different herbs.

But I was surprised by a few other goodies that I thought were done for the year. I found three Japanese cucumbers, a handful of jalapeños, two poblano chiles, and a few shiitake mushrooms from our mushroom stump. Score!

Normally, I would be pretty stoked with this haul. But this isn't any normal day. This is a competition, and well...we wanna win. Time to step it up.

With my long picking pole in hand, I went around to the other team members to see what they were willing to contribute for today's feast. I walked away with grapefruit, avocados, oranges, lemons, and limes. Sweet.

Collective citrus—plus the urban papaya that Max stalked to get fruit for
our green papaya salad.

PARTY DAY, PART 2: THE FEAST

By Jason Kessler for Sunset

When I exited the freeway into the Highland Park/Mt. Washington neighborhood, I couldn’t believe there was a Sunset One-Block Party happening anywhere nearby. I passed liquor store after liquor store, check-cashing facilities, auto body shops, and low-cost grocery stores. This area is well-known for its vicious Latino street gang called The Avenues, so named for the street nomenclature: Avenue 50, Avenue 62, etc. It is certainly not a neighborhood known for its urban homesteading.

That’s what was so amazing about this party. The block where team leader Max lives is like a Sunset magazine oasis in the midst of a completely different culture.

Noel and Sonita, Max's neighbors, live here.
Photo: Andrea Gómez

The party was to take place at Max's house, and its real centerpiece is the backyard. Max and her boyfriend, Steve, told me that they bought "a yard with a house attached,” and when you walk into that yard, the first thing you hear is the burbling of a little stream that leads to a koi pond. Along the back wall are five honeybee colonies. Max sells the honey at local farmers’ markets under the label “Sticky Acres.” She also uses it to trade with her neighbors for various goods like ducks and chickens (both of which will be on the table today).

Steve and the hives.

Not only that, Max is a beekeeping mentor for the local Backwards Beekeepers Club and helps capture wild swarms in the area. Interestingly, a wild swarm landed on their loquat tree earlier today (they took off again little while later). Maybe bees are just drawn to Max.

 Party crashers.

Max told me that she keeps hearing people say, “You can’t feed a family on a victory garden.” Her response is always, “Well, yes you can, if you share with your neighbors. ... In an urban space, you can grow a huge amount of food if you team up.”

Together the team grew 18 varieties of tomatoes. Photos: Andrea Gómez.

Max met her future teammates through her “jam fairy” project, an extension of the Hillside Produce coop, which helps neighbors swap excess fruit. Her goal was to find neighbors who would donate fruit; then she'd return their fruit to them in jam form. Sean, a first generation Iranian-American and magazine editor, gave Max picking rights to his figs, lemons, sour tangerines, pineapple guavas, pomegranates, and raspberries.Tino and Kristin, who pitched in too, have lived in Mt. Washington for nine years. Because their garden did so well, their produce is front and center at today's party. Noel and Sonita are English. Noel does all the gardening and Sonita does the tasting. They moved to Mt. Washington in 2008, "before it was cool," says Sonita. When they moved in, their yard was covered over with concrete, which Noel jackhammered away. Now they grow tomatoes, corn, watermelon, peas, greens, two types of collards, beets, onions, garlic, celery, fruit trees, and beans.

 Steve gets the carbonator ready to fizz up homemade
citrus soda.

While waiting for the rest of the Bad Skunks to show up, Steve served a tart, refreshing citrus-mint soda, made with lemons, oranges, mint and water fizzed by a penguin-shaped SodaStream carbonator. They served the drinks in tumblers from now-defunct bars like the Polynesian Palace in Waikiki.

Max gathered a huge bucketful of green tomatoes and then fried them up, using a Cajun spice blend, a bit of flour, and baking powder.

Max cooks on a Wedgewood stove from the forties.
"It's like having a classic car in your kitchen," she says.

As soon as the rest of the guests arrived, the evening’s bounty was set out on a small wooden table in the backyard under a hanging lantern. Sean’s father, Massud, made the coucou, a traditional Persian dish of mixed greens and eggs. The greens today included romaine lettuce, bok choy, swiss chard, parsley, green onions, and dandelion greens. It bakes for something like six hours, and ends up looking like extremely dark cornbread, with a bright green interior and a mild yet verdant taste.

Sonita and Noel dig in. The coucou is in the large frying pan.
Photo: Andrea Gómez

Then the bugs descended, and we moved dinner inside. The main courses were duck from nearby City Farm, roasted with rosemary and salt-preserved tangerines (made using Sunset’s salt-preserved lemon recipe) until extremely tender, with wonderfully crispy skin. We had a City Farm chicken, too, roasted beer-can style using a local beer called Solidarity from Eagle Rock Brewery to steam it from the inside. Alongside were greens sauteed in the duck's fat, plus jams and homemade pickles (the chipotle loquat jam was a big hit).

Also in the protein category: those laboriously raised Malaysian prawns. The big ones were sautéed with barbecue sauce, and the smaller ones were cured in lime juice and seasonings and added to a green papaya salad. That tart-sweet, crunchy salad was my favorite dish of the night.

Green papaya salad with lime-cured prawns; green cherry tomato pickle and nopales
(cactus-paddle) pickle. Photos: Andrea Gómez

Other salads included a three-tomato with oregano, chiles, and garlic; tomato and cucumber, with a simple vinaigrette; and grapefruit and avocado salad. For a mid-meal amuse bouche we had disks of Japanese eggplant topped with chopped shiitake mushrooms.

Inside, safe from bugs; miso-marinated eggplant with shiitakes. Photos: Andrea Gómez

For dessert, we had gazpacho popsicles, slightly sweetened with honey and herbed up with mint, that felt worthy of Willy Wonka. The fig newtons that Max wanted to make didn't work out—it was too hot for the dough to set—so she made buttery thumbprint cookies instead.

Photos: Andrea Gómez

As jazz floated out of hidden speakers, the group enjoyed the (literal) fruits of their labors and shared tales of their gardening triumphs and mishaps. When it was time to leave, I was hesitant to say goodbye. They had the kind of community spirit you usually only read about in magazines like Sunset.

Team Bad Skunks, clockwise from left: Sean, his father Massud, Steve, Tino,
Kristi, Max, Noel, and Sonita. Photo: Andrea Gómez

RECIPES FROM THE PARTY

Pickled green tomatoes

Makes 2 pints

You will need 2 sterilized wide-mouth pint jars or 1 wide-mouth quart jar to make this recipe. For a good primer on how to sterilize (and, for that matter, all things to do with canning), see the National Center for Home Food Preservation website (ncfp.ugs.edu)

2 lbs. green (unripe) cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
Fresh chiles to taste (I used a mix of hot chilis from our gardens)
1 tsp. each cumin seeds, peppercorns, celery seed, and dill seed
4 cloves garlic, sliced into thin slices
1 cup white vinegar
1 tbsp. sea salt

 Evenly distribute the green tomatoes, jalapeños, cumin seeds, peppercorns, celery seed, dill seed and garlic in the jars, packing the tomatoes in as tightly as you can. In a saucepan, bring to a boil 1 cup of water, the vinegar, and sea salt. Pour the boiling vinegar mixture into the jars, leaving 1/2 in. of headspace. Cover with lid and fasten with rings. Allow to cool and then refrigerate overnight. They will last for 1 month in the refrigerator.

Alternatively, you can place the covered jars in a canning pot or stockpot and process the jars in boiling water for 15 minutes. Remove the jars with tongs and then allow to cool overnight. If you are processing this way, make sure that your lids have never been used before, as they will only seal once. These jars will not require refrigeration until after opening.

Coucou (Persian herb omelet)

This recipe is from from Sean's father, Massud. Coucou is essentially an omelet, but unlike regular omelets it cooks long and slow. Be ready to spend a few hours preparing it. Also, you can use other greens instead of dandelion and mint, but romaine lettuce leaves, parsley, and green-onion greens should be dominant.

4-5 romaine lettuce leaves
1 1/2 green onions (tops only)
1 bunch flat-leaf parsley
1/2 bunch dandelion leaves
5-6 sprigs mint, leaves only
2 tbsp. flour
1/2 tsp. turmeric
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
10 eggs
2 tbsp. canola or other vegetable oil 

1. In a food processor, chop and blend all the greens. Be careful not to chop them to a pulp.This is very important. Originally the vegetables used to be chopped by hand so tiny pieces of leaves remained visible.

2. In a large bowl, mix flour, turmeric, salt, and pepper. Mix these very well. Then break in 2 eggs and blend in well. Break in the rest of the eggs and again blend well.

3. Add the chopped greens and mix well. Your mixture should be a very heavy, slow-flowing soup.

4. Heat oil in a large frying pan over low heat. Pour in egg mixture. After 30 to 40 minutes, lift a corner with a flat spatula to see if it is solid. If it is, cut the omelet into pie-shaped wedges and try to turn them piece by piece. Drizzle oil around wedges so they do not burn, and keep cooking until solid.

The best way to eat it is when it is at room temperature (not cold or hot )

By Karen March, Team Leader

Posted and Edited by Margo True, Sunset Food Editor

In California's Central Valley ag country, No Gardeners Left Behind—a group of teachers at Yolo Middle School, in Newman—combined forces to enter our One-Block Party Contest. They grew vegetables, herbs, and fruits in their collective gardens, raising chickens for eggs, and learned from one another all summer long—veteran gardeners are teaching novices. They threw their party at the school on September 12, and it was a big hit; even the local paper, the West Side Index, came and wrote about it. This is Team No Gardeners’ description of the feast.

 The team at table. Left to right, seated: Steve Roberts, Verna Cheever, Cheryl Beaty.
Standing: Mark Malmberg, Karen March, John Paiva, Katie Wison, Elsa Juarez.

Our party was a huge success. We had a great turnout, with fellow teachers, spouses, kids, the superintendent of schools, and even the local press sampling our garden goodies.

The school day ends at 3 p.m. and that’s when we flew into action to set up the faculty room. Cheryl brought her blue and white lace tablecloths (school colors) to dress up the tables. In honor of the classy occasion, Cheryl also brought blue dishes from home and Anne contributed silverware left over from her wedding so that we wouldn't have to use sporks and eat off paper plates. The centerpiece was sunflowers (weeds allowed to grow) from Karen's garden. 

Cheryl Beaty and Verna Cheever (with Anne Rhoads in
the background) set out the food.

By 3:30, our team had assembled and guests began to arrive. The common theme of the afternoon was amazement that the food was all home-grown.  Everyone filled their plates and spent the next two hours enjoying one another's company and the delicious spread of food.

Superintendent of Schools Ed Felt and
team member Elsa Juarez start the feast.

The beverage of the day was refreshing lavender honey lemonade. (Originally we had planned our party to be outdoors, but extra-warm weather encouraged a change of venues.)

Appetizers included sungold and pear tomatoes, dried apricots, guacamole, salsa, deviled eggs, and zucchini pickles.

We had a choice of potato salad, a Japanese-style lemon cucumber salad, and mixed tomato salad. 

Guests and team members sampled nasturtium butter or fresh chive cheese and roasted tomatoes on John's hearty potato onion bread. 

Butternut lasagna, stuffed zucchini rounds, vegetarian eggplant “meatballs” in marinara sauce, and pesto pasta tempted those still hungry.

But wait, there was more. For dessert we had rosemary orange marmalade cookies, freshly churned cherry chocolate chip ice cream, apple goodie (an Amish-style apple crisp), peach cobbler, zucchini cake, and candied walnuts.

No one went home hungry.  Several took food to go for family members, and we still had leftovers for the staff to enjoy for several days!  

Our homegrown food even made it to the classroom that day. Anne brought cherry tomatoes for her English classes to taste and held up carrots with their tops still on...Not what the kids are used to seeing at the grocery store!

Katie, who made the delicious peach cobbler, summed it up well in a post-feast e-mail: "Thank you, everyone, for letting me be a part of the Garden Party.  I had a wonderful time talking with all of you, eating, and getting these wonderful recipes. Hope we can partake in another event like this soon." We do too!

----------

P.S. from Karen, dated December 18:

Our feast may be over, but Mark is still supplying the staff with fresh eggs. John's apricot wine continues to ferment. I've whipped up basil pesto weekly until freezing temperatures hit. I harvested apples. I dried and roasted fresh tomatoes until well into December and with the remaining tomatoes I made and froze some super green-tomato salsa. Just this past week, when Christmas preparations are usually forefront, I've been experimenting with pomegranate recipes! Oh, and I just discovered that I still have a few zucchini left on the vines, chard ready to harvest, and a beautiful crop of Meyer lemons all ripe and ready to pick. The one-block party continues!

Recipes From the Summer Party

BUTTERNUT SQUASH LASAGNA

Cheryl Beaty made her own fresh noodles for this lasagna, but storebought works fine too.

3 1/2 lbs. butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1-in. cubes
2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper
1 lb. whole-milk ricotta cheese
1/2 c. heavy cream
2 large egg yolks
1/2 lb. fresh mozzarella cheese (2 cups grated)
Freshly grated nutmeg
2 tbsp. unsalted butter
1/4 c. finely chopped onion
1/3 c. loosely packed fresh sage leaves, coarsely chopped
1 1/4 cups low-sodium chicken stock
Fresh lasagna noodles (4 x 13 in.), cooked (approximately 9 noodles made my own)
4 oz. finely grated Parmesan cheese

1. Preheat oven to 425.° Toss squash with oil, 1 tsp. salt, and pepper to taste; place on baking sheet. Bake until light gold and tender, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.

2. Reduce oven temperature to 375.° In a medium bowl, combine ricotta, cream, yolks, mozzarella, and a pinch of nutmeg (use more if you desire).  Season with salt.

3. Melt butter in a small pan over medium-high heat. As butter starts to sizzle, add onion and cook until transparent. Add sage leaves and cook 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat.

4. Place half the squash in a medium bowl and mash. Add the other half, leaving it in whole pieces. Gently stir in the butter & sage mixture. Add the stock. Season with salt and pepper.

5.  Spread 3/4 cup of ricotta mixture in a 9-cup baking dish. Top with a layer of noodles.  Spread 1/2 of the squash mixture over the noodles. Top with a layer of noodles.  Spread 1/2 of remaining ricotta mixture over noodles . Repeat layering and sprinkle top layer of ricotta with Parmesan.

6. Bake lasagna until cheese is golden and bubbling, 30 to 35 minutes. Let stand 15 minutes before serving.

EGGPLANT MEAT(LESS)BALLS

Karen March made these vegetarian “meatballs”.

3 tbsp. olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 12-oz. eggplant, peeled and diced
1 1/2 tbsp. water
1 1/4 cup fresh bread crumbs
1/2 cup minced fresh parsley
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. oregano
2 large eggs, slightly beaten
1/2 cup Italian cheese (preferably a hard cheese)
1/4 cup olive oil
3 cups tomato basil sauce, kept hot

1. Heat oil in large frying pan and cook garlic over medium heat until golden. Add eggplant and 1 tbsp. water. Cover and steam over low heat until very soft, stirring occasionally. Add remaining water only if eggplant begins to stick to frying pan. Set eggplant aside and let cool. 

2. Meanwhile, combine bread crumbs, parsley, salt, oregano, eggs and cheese in a large bowl. Stir in eggplant, mix well, and let sit for 20 minutes. 

3. Using a cookie scoop, shape eggplant mixture into balls. Heat olive oil in frying pan over medium heat and cook eggplant balls in batches, turning occasionally so they brown evenly.  Serve with tomato basil sauce.

SOURDOUGH POTATO ONION BREAD

This is John Paiva’s specialty. To make it, you need to allow about a week to make a sourdough starter and about 3 days to make the bread (most of it is unattended time, though!). To see John make the bread, click here.

1) Boil 3 to 4 small, washed but unpeeled potatoes in 2 cups water and let sit overnight.  Save the potato water!

2) Refresh the sourdough starter by removing it from the refrigerator and adding 1 cup water and 2 cups organic malted bread flour per cup of starter.

3) Using 1 cup refreshed starter, add 1 cup potato water (from soaking the potatoes in Step 1) and 1 1/2 cups organic malted bread flour to a bowl and let ferment at room temperature for 6 hours. Return the fermented dough to the refrigerator for 12 hours. Remove this fermented dough (called “preferment”) from the refrigerator 1-2 hours before the next step.

4) To the preferment, add 1 cup warm potato water and stir vigorously. Add 1 tbsp. kosher salt, 1 cup mashed boiled potatoes, and 1/2 cup minced green onions. Add 2 to 3 cups organic malted bread flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until the dough is difficult to work with a wooden spoon. Roll the sticky dough onto a bread board and continue to sprinkle on flour until the dough no longer sticks to your hands as you knead it for a full 10 minutes. Spray a large bowl with oil and then put the dough inside. Cover and let rise in a warm place until dough has doubled or tripled in volume.

5) Roll the dough back onto the bread board and cut and shape into two loaves.  Spray loaf pans with oil and place shaped loaves into the pans. Cover and let rise until almost doubled.

6) Score each loaf with a razor, mist with a spray bottle of water, and bake in a preheated 400° oven 40 minutes. Rotate loaves halfway through so that they bake consistently on all sides.

7) Let bread cool for 20 minutes before slicing.

FRESH CHERRY CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM

John Paiva brought this freshly made ice cream to the party. Freeze the container of your ice-cream maker for at least a day before making the ice cream.

1 egg, whipped
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup milk
2 cups fresh cherries
Mini-chocolate chips to taste

Thoroughly mix all ingredients in a bowl and place in the pre-frozen container of an ice cream maker. Turn on ice cream maker and let freeze (about 20 minutes). Sample finished ice cream with friends!

By Abby Peterson, Team Leader

Posted, edited, and photographed by Margo True, Sunset Food Editor

These four young families in Sausalito, CA, love food and kitchen projects and “mucking about outside with our preschoolers,” says team leader Abby Peterson. They are, in her words: "Two stay-at-home moms with plenty of dirt under their nails; several small preschoolers who love feeding grapes to chickens; a solar consultant who makes his own pâté and salami; an engineer who brews beer on the side; and a stay-at-home dad who is a great cook and a glassblower to boot.” A wonderful neighbor, Frank Pacoe, joined the team partway through, and says that Abby—in pulling this team together for the One-Block Party contest—"has created a neighborhood in a town that had lost that." Their party this September, high in the hills of Sausalito, was sun-drenched and mellow, with the occasional foghorn blowing very softly in the distance. This is Abby's report.

Abby Peterson and her son Paul set the table, left. Right (at bottom), the menu; at top, the song Paul sang at the feast. Here are the lyrics: "Earth who gave us food/Sun that made it grow/Good earth, good sun/we thank you for the blessings on our meal."

Hello One-Blockers!

After waiting and waiting for the fog to clear and our "real" summer to start, we finally got some warm weather and some ripe tomatoes in the first week of September! And that meant we could finally set the date for our feast: Sunday September 18th.

Making Cheese for the Party

Earlier in the month, we met to hone our mozzarella-making skills. We were amazed that it really, truly isn't that difficult to make cheese. There's something so intimidating about all the steps and equipment, but once you start, it's really not bad at all.

Mozzarella-making. Photo: Erica Nofi/www.bravepotato.com

Our first batch of mozzarella went like clockwork. What fun to dip the curds back in the hot whey to get them all stretchy and then roll them up! And to realize curds really are squeaky, just like you always heard! We also made ricotta with the whey from the mozzarella—my new favorite breakfast, with a slice of toast and whatever jam we have on hand. Our big logistics decision after a couple batches of cheese was that we wanted to make all the cheeses on the actual day of the feast; they taste SO much better on the same day. (This came back to bite me a bit on the morning of the feast, though, as things got busy. In my rush, I messed up the ricotta and it was a little too runny, but it still was yummy.)

Finding Flour

 Bale Grist Mill State Historic Park. Photo courtesy CA Dept. of Parks and Recreation

We also took an early September field trip to obtain a much-needed ingredient: flour. My husband, Alex, and the boys and I drove up to Bale Grist Mill State Historic Park in Napa one beautiful sunny Saturday. The place is amazing! It's the largest waterwheel west of the Mississippi (my boys loved watching it turn) and has, indoors, a completely restored mill operation. After 30 years of fundraising and work, the restoration was just finished this past August. The woodwork on the mill machinery is so beautiful; it looks like a New England Shaker village or something.

On the tour, you can learn all about how stone-ground mills work and all of the funny phrases we use today that have their origins in the language of millwork ("fair to middling," "run of the mill," "nose to the grindstone"). Nose to the grindstone came from the millers keeping their noses up close to the stone so that they could smell any faint hints of smoke, which meant something was going wrong with the grind and they needed to adjust. 

The best part of visiting Bale Grist Mill is that you can buy local organic stoneground flour right there. Since we didn't grow grains, this is how we got flour for our bread, croutons, and pie crusts for the feast. We bought three things: organic stoneground wheat flour, organic stoneground wheat pastry flour, and corn polenta. The most hilarious part: The mill isn't technically allowed to sell its flours as food (I guess because of regulations), so all of the bags are marked "Not for Human Consumption." But of course, consume we did! Whit Halvorsen and Frank Pacoe, our two expert bakers, say the stoneground wheat was a little bit different to work with for feast day, but it was delicious. And it was so cool that we actually got to see our flour being ground on a historic mill.

Prepping for the Feast

As the feast approached, there was a flurry of getting ready. Suddenly, since we knew Sunset was coming, we just HAD to lay new pavers, repaint the deck, and do a million different other things along with the food! It was a whirlwind, but we were so excited. The emails were flying back and forth with different plans and menu lineups. There was so much "okay you bring this, I'll do that, wait, who's bringing the pizza crust, can you bring your mandolin for the potatoes" etc etc. But it was so fun.

 In the last few days before the party, it felt like we were nursing along every single little precious vegetable. Whit and Todd had two cucumbers that they were being VERY careful to preserve, and over at my house, I was doing my very best not to topple over any tomato vines, and I hid the trowels so the boys wouldn't dig up all the potatoes. Two days before the feast, we ripped out our spent green bean plants, picked off the last beans, and planted broccoli and cabbage for winter. 

On the morning of the feast, we started by dumping out all our bounty on my big kitchen table. We had tons of potatoes, zucchini, salad greens, and tomatoes; herbs and herb flowers of course; our jars of dilly beans, mint jelly, and plum compote from earlier in the summer; homemade mayo and butter from Frank; our bread, pizza crusts, and tart crust; AMAZING home-cured meats from Todd Halvorsen; and eggs from the Halvorsens' chickens.

Todd Halvorsen with his amazing bacon.

Let me tell you, Todd is someone you want around when you're planning a One-Block Party. Over the summer, he had bought a full pig belly from Marin Sun Farms and cured it to make his own bacon. He caught Sierra trout and made trout rillettes. And he made lamb sausage with herbs from his garden and lamb that we had bought direct from an organic farm in Dixon.

Lamb sausages, zucchini succotash, and salad (with Abby tossing) underway.

Todd Halvorsen makes the pizzas; Whit, his wife, opens the wine, made on a local houseboat from California Primitivo grapes. Its maker called it "Nipples of Luna," and the label further notes that it was "fermented in the belly of the research vessel 'Rhino Auk'".

The main courses, with flowers from Abby's garden.
The beer (in a keg) is behind the table.

We planned for a lunchtime feast, since we all have little kids who still nap, and we decided to do it buffet style, since sitting down to a quiet meal, all at once, is not really something that happens with a bunch of four-year-olds in the picture. We invited a couple of bonus neighbors who were very interested in all the happenings, and we even tried to Skype with former-team-member-who-moved-away Anna, but it didn't quite work. We were so lucky because Sept 18th turned out to be warm and sunny, so all our plans to sit under the trees and around the garden were possible. 

Here's our menu:

APPETIZERS

Dilly beans (beans and herbs from Abby's garden, made as a group over at Frank's house)
Cucumber-tomato salad (cukes from Whit and Todd, tomatoes from Abby)
Smoked trout rillettes (Todd caught the trout and smoked it)
Whole wheat bread (Whit made it with Bale Grist Mill flour)
"Bacon and eggs" (Todd's creation; deviled eggs with his own home-cured bacon on top)

MAIN COURSES

Lamb sausage patties (Todd made the sausage with our Dixon lamb)
Zucchini "succotash" (Abby's zucchini, and she used her grandmother's recipe)
Whole-wheat pizzas with potatoes, zucchini, tomatoes, garlic oil and herbs (crust from Bale Grist Mill     flour, veggies from Abby's and Whit's gardens)
Salad with green garden dressing (greens and herbs from Abby's garden)

DESSERTS

Blackberry tart with thyme whipped cream (Frank collected the berries from the bushes near his house     and made the crust with Bale Grist Mill flour)
Plum compote with ricotta cheese and fennel pollen (we met as a group earlier in the summer to make     the compote from plums in Abby's yard, Abby made the cheese that morning, and Whit and her girls     collected the fennel pollen from fennel that grows wild everywhere here in Sausalito)

DRINKS

Hefeweisen home brew (we brewed it back in June)
Local wine (a friend donated it; the wine was made on a houseboat here in Sausalito)
Lemon verbena tisanes with Sausalito honey (Whit's neighbors made the honey; we bartered some bacon     for it)
Blackberry vodka (berries from the bushes around the corner from Abby's house)
Blackberry spritzers (sparkling water with syrup made from berries Abby collected with her boys)

Paul and Marin loved the lamb patties. Anja preferred the hammock.

Matt, Abby, and Frank in mid-party; two of Whit's chickens, Sam and Lucy, peck the plates clean. Over dessert, Frank said, "Most meals are just ephemeral. But this one has history."

Walter picking blackberries (he ate quite a few); Walter waiting for blackberry galette.

It was such a special day. I've never experienced anything quite like it. Just to know that we'd had our hands in everything, that we had made EVERY SINGLE THING from scratch, together as a team, with (mostly) stuff from our own yards—it was such an amazing feeling.

And it was over too soon. We are already planning a late-fall feast with more sausages, more of our potato bounty, and green-tomato relish with all of the tomatoes that never ripen!

I still say the best part about the One-Block Party is how it has brought our families together. Whit and Frank and Alex and I all share a common interest in doing things the old-fashioned way, having a big garden, doing lots of outdoor things with our families, and making stuff. We love that this project has connected us back to things like canning, preserving, cheese- and beer-making, and berry-picking. I'll never look at that plum tree down in the corner of my yard without thinking of the sunny afternoon we spent hulling those plums and stirring a pot of compote over at Whit's house. I walk past the blackberry bushes where we got our berries with my boys all the time, and the fennel patch where Whit collected pollen with her girls is right next to our favorite beach. What a lesson to realize that food is everywhere, even in a suburb like Sausalito.

Thanks again for the wonderful experience!

Love,

Abby

By Elaine Johnson, Sunset associate food editor

If you're interested in canning, fermenting, cheesemaking, sourdough baking, butchering, knife sharpening, animal rearing (chickens, goats, rabbits), beekeeping, gardening, not to mention making your own yogurt, kombucha, freshly ground grain, charcuterie, soap, natural cleaning products (even toothpaste!), dog food, wine, beer, cider, and candles (phew--did I forget anything?), then be sure to stop at Portland Homestead Supply next time you're in the City of Roses.

I swung by recently and the friendly owners, Kristl and Doug Bridge, showed me around. I'm ready to take up about 12 new hobbies! And with all their classes, I really could.

Portland Homestead Supply Co. is in an old home in the Sellwood part of Portland.

The main room has lots of baking supplies.

Kristl demonstrates the Bitterroot GrainMaker

Upstairs you can check out a bicycle-powered GrainMaker

And look at all these cultures in their fridge.

Out back, you can meet Wendell (or is this Belle?) the Nigerian dwarf goats.

By Tina Keller

Edited by Margaret Sloan, Sunset production coordinator

The Bees' Knees are based in Campbell, CA, a suburb of San Jose. They all like to cook and garden, and they enjoy taking on food projects—everything from chicken-raising to mushroom hunting, brewing, cheesemaking, and especially beekeeping (hence their name). 

I have to admit to a certain fondness for Team Bees' Knees members Tina and Thomas Keller. They have helped us out of innumerable jams with our hives, saved Nugget (aka Whattheheck!? That's a rooster!), and have taken us along on mushroom forays. When Margo True, Editor of our One-Block Diet blog, offered to let me go to this team's harvest dinner, I knew I'd be in for a good time, if not a feast. I was not wrong. With delicious food like green bean pâté, fresh salmon, and the ecstatically delicious candy cap mushroom ice cream, I left this party stuffed, and just a little tipsy from two kinds of limoncello and some really good beer.

We only had about 2 weeks after learning of the One-Block Party contest back in March to put the team together and present our entry, so we were not as organized as I had hoped. We didn't have enough time to properly plan the gardens and determine growing times for the vegetables so that we could plan our menus. Also, with all the late rain we had in the Bay Area, our planting got off to a slow start.

Lizanne and Fred Oliver, and Katie and David Arken have been across-the-street neighbors for years, sharing the enjoyment of vegetable gardening.  Every year, late in March, they plan their crops and layout, the Arkens amend the soil in their raised planter boxes, and the Olivers purchase the bedding plants.  Katie Arken usually finds some interesting tomato varieties at a master gardener sale to try.  As soon as the soil is warm, the couples spend an afternoon together planting.

Appetizers with Team Bee's Knees

Given that the two neighbors share so much already, we had the creative idea to plan a "progressive" feast, starting with drinks and appetizers on the Olivers' deck, and then moving across the street to the Arkens' deck and garden for the main courses and dessert.  That way we could enjoy being in two areas and spread out the fun!

The dinner table

Katie made the tablecloths from clearance fabric at Ikea. She had seen it at the end of last year and liked that it had plants and butterflies which goes with the gardening theme, but also that it was black and white which would be a nice background to let the colors of the dishes stand out. Katie also has a keen eye for recycled garden art.  She picked up our "buffet table"  on the street.  It had a sign that said "FREE" and Katie snapped it up.  The flowers were from the Arkens' and Oliver's yards.  We used the cute little cream bottles from Straus Creamery for our vases on the tables.  We also had homemade beeswax candles, both tapers and owl candles from our own beeswax which we melted in the solar melter.

The catch of the day

Thomas had been planning on going halibut fishing for months and months in the San Francisco Bay, but the timing just wasn't working. Finally his friend David Jackovich from our mushroom club said they would go out for salmon. They went out of the Berkeley Marina on Joey's super-fast sport fishing boat, The New Easy Rider. It was the first time Thomas had ever gone salmon fishing; he must have had beginner's luck because he brought home a salmon.  A pretty pricey salmon considering the cost of the fishing trip, but it was fresh!

Grilled salmon on cedar plank

Tomato with mozzarella and basil vinaigrette

We made mozzarella cheese.  That was fun.  We have Ricki Carroll's book, Home Cheese Making, and we got her cheese making kits at Fermentation Solutions in Campbell. 

Early on in the contest, we remembered that bee guild member Mark Jensen had a cow, and thought maybe we could get some milk from him.  I called back in May or June to inquire about the milk and told them that we were in a contest with Sunset and I needed some milk early September.  Well, come to find out that THEY were on a competing team, Dances With Legumes!  They were very gracious and said we could get some milk if there was any, but turns out they thought their cow was pregnant and so didn't have any milk yet, so I ended up using milk from Straus Family Creamery and Organic Pastures.

The buffet table

Dinner was filling. Some of the other things on the menu, besides the salmon and tomato with mozzarella and basil vinaigrette, were:

• smoked trout souffle
• roasted beet salad
• wild mushroom and potato tart
• spaghetti squash with pepper cream sauce
• zuchinni frittata
• braised fennel
• whole wheat short bread
• whole wheat bread
• honey comb
• bread-and-butter pickles
• melon
• green bean pâté
• kim chee
• butter with fennel fronds
• raw 'Jewel' radishes
• raw carrots

We had 2 kinds of  limoncello to try. One from Nate and one that I made. They were both made from Everclear, and both were delicious. Nate's was less sweet than mine was. 

Dunkelweizen beer

Nate also brewed dunkelweizen beer.  It lost its foamy head in the transportation, but it was still wonderful.  Thomas and I contributed mead that we made a few years earlier, only to find out it hadn't aged as well as we had hoped.  We also had pressed apple juice and hard apple cider that we made the previous fall. The fresh juice had been in the freezer and it was still really tasty.

Fig tarts

For dessert, Katie made a fig tart from her backyard figs with dough I made from the One-Block Feast book using locally grown Sonora Flour and my homemade goat cheese, for which I used Ricki Carroll's cheese making kit, which I bought at at Fermentation Solutions.

Fresh sweet corn

Our corn growing was ripening well before our feast, so we thought we would try something different: sweet corn ice cream. Also, being the mushroom fanatics that we are, we made candy cap mushroom ice cream. I never made anything with candy cap mushrooms, so this was an experiment. (Editor's note: This experiment was wildly successful. The candy cap ice cream was so good we all had seconds, thirds, and then fourths, until we had eaten all the ice cream. We even licked the container!)

It was pretty stressful getting ready for the dinner—cooking, roasting, baking—but it all turned into relaxing fun once the party began.  We found out at 3 p.m. the day of our party that one of our team members could not make it. We had to do without edible flowers, fig ice cream, fresh herbs, and marinara sauce. We had to go with the flow and change our menu at the last minute, but it turned out nicely and we all had a great time. In fact, we promised each other we'd do it again.

By Jennifer Harvey, Team Leader

Posted by Margo True, Sunset Food Editor

Team Food Court, of Bellevue, WA, named themselves in honor of the food at the mall just a few blocks away. “We want all the variety of a food court, but this block will be much more delicious. A salad bar, an ice cream place, pizza...The Food Court has it all.” Team leader Jennifer Harvey moved to Bellevue from Sausalito, CA, in 2010, and by organizing her team's entry in the One-Block Party contest, saw a chance to both grow good food and get to know her neighbors better. This is the team's final report.

By Elaine Johnson, Sunset associate food editor

We've been bottling our Sunset honey for holiday gifts (maybe you're thinking of giving local honey this year, too?), and it was the perfect opportunity to compare spring versus summer honey. I was also curious to try our California honey alongside one I brought back from the tall grass prairie of Iowa (more on that below).

Willis tall-grass prairie honey, Sunset spring honey, and Sunset summer honey

In general, spring honey tends to be paler and have a lighter, more floral flavor. Back in spring, our Sunset girls were visiting fava and eucalyptus flowers from the trees around the corner from our property, and our spring honey is pure and very sweet. There's a bit of that eucalyptus flavor and a creamy, almost beeswaxy mouthfeel.

In summer, I'm guessing our girls were hitting the eucalyptus pretty hard, because the Sunset summer honey is full-flavored and caramel-like, with loads of menthol and even some black licorice. Intense stuff! It would be great drizzled over an aged manchego.

The Iowa honey is a spring honey, too. Earlier in the year I had the pleasure of visiting Paul and Phyllis Willis, the sustainable hog farmers who got Niman Ranch  pork started. On their property they've restored a swath of tall-grass prairie, and during my visit, it was alive with butterflies, frogs, and happy insects of all kinds, including bees. Their honey is extremely floral and complex, in a lovely feminine way, and reminds me of the beauty of their land.

A few flowers and Monarch butterflies at the Willis tall-grass prairie land

Here's Paul Willis showing the "tall" part of tall-grass prairie

What local honey will you be giving—and tasting—this year ?

By Jody Suhrbier, Team Member, and Joellen Reineck Wilhelm, Team Leader

Posted and edited by Margo True, Sunset Food Editor 

Based in Olympia, Washington, the Gray Sky Growers are six families united under a common purpose: to win Sunset's One-Block Party contest. And, of course, to have a great time. Being in a cool climate, they've mixed cool-weather crops like kale and kohlrabi with the warm-weather plants like berries. This is their final posting, describing their lavish salmon-and-shellfish feast on September 5.

Hops (for home-brewed beer) growing in a Gray Sky garden.
Photo: Joellen Reineck Wilhelm

The warm air that settled on our shoulders and in the spaces between us was stirred up and lifted by the soft tinkling of forks being gently tapped on glassware. With her arms raised slightly at her sides, our team leader, Joellen, was beaming. With a bountiful harvest of thank-you’s, kudos, and general satisfaction at having achieved our goal, we toasted all who contributed to the feast before us.

A toast, with home-brewed witbier (wheat beer).
Photo: Steven Herppich Photography

We were not certain, when we entered this contest back in March, that we could make this little venture work. Gray Sky Growers live in the urban area of Olympia, Washington, within earshot and varying view of the downtown core. However, many of us had at least dabbled in backyard gardening. Having arrived here from many far-flung places throughout the world, some of us grew up on farms, spent years involved in 4-H clubs, or had the means and wherewithal to now work acres of land with crops and livestock.

And we did have just the right mix of myopic optimists, gold-star achievers, and practical planners to have some real fun with this, so we began. Certainly, we could grow the usual backyard-garden suspects of greens, onions, garlic, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, beans, peppers, eggplant, berries, horseradish, potatoes, carrots, and herbs. We could harvest clams and oysters from nearby tidelands; we could talk with the beekeepers who supplied us with honey and listen to the suggestions of fellow fishermen and crabbers. We could keep chickens to collect eggs; we could make beer, cheese, dressing, butter, jam, and countless other home bounties. And we could use local well water for all our beverages, including the beer.

Harvesting Clams and Oysters

At a friend's beach on Case Inlet on the Puget Sound, we hand-gathered manila clams
and Pacific oysters for our feast. Photos: Joellen Reineck Wilhem

Stocking up on Artesian Well Water

The artesian well in downtown Olympia is in a parking lot…
kind of an odd juxtaposition of purity and grunge!
Photo: Joellen Reineck Wilhem

Could we grow our own amaranth for gluten-free baking?

Joellen and Bea, rubbing amaranth seeds off the dried seed-heads.

As it turns out, yes, we could. No, it was not ready in time for the feast and the yield ended up being a mere trifle. It was worth it to us, though; the dozens of wanderers who take daily work-day walks within this neighborhood will be seeing those bold yellow-green leaves and brave chestnut-brown flower stalks raised toward the sun again next year. 

Could we make our own salt?

Yes again. Earlier this summer, while on an annual camping trip, we gathered ocean water off the beach near Kalaloch Campground in the Olympic National Forest.

After baking the water for a couple of hours at 350°, we had salt. It was surprisingly easy, and ours is interestingly sweet—the result of the specific blend of algae and plankton floating about on collection day at the beginning of summer. 

Could we roast and blend coffee?

 

It was one of the highlights of our project. At Batdorf and Bronson Coffee Roasters, we all learned a ton about coffee, and we roasted and created our own blend of Ethiopian and Costa Rican beans that we labeled "Blue Sky Blend".

Photos: Joellen Reineck Wilhelm

And: Could we catch enough salmon for the feast?

To many of the Gray Sky Growers, salmon cannot be topped as the centerpiece of a late summer meal.

The answer: Yes! Left to right: Brian Stoll, Dave Watts, Andy Suhrbier and Matt Reineck.

One day before our party, very early in the morning, four men on the team set out on the Cowlitz River The boat slowed and quieted such that the little sploosh of each line dropped into the water could be heard. Minutes passed, then hours. At last, the cell phones of those waiting at home rang, beeped, and buzzed with calls and text messages bearing the good news—there would be fish for dinner! Five of them, in fact.

The Feast

Grilled salmon, mixed green salad with raspberry vinaigrette, and Cascadian "zucchini" canoes with oven-dried tomatoes and fresh homemade mozzarella (they turned out to be not zucchini, but baby winter squash). For the entire menu, scroll down to the end. Photos: Steven Herppich Photography

As the toasting came to an end, the scent of the freshly grilled salmon drew us closer to the food, along with several uninvited yellow jackets, buzzing excitedly at their good fortune. The reds, greens, and golds of the salads, sauces, and side dishes rivaled that of the recently cut flowers from our many small but bursting urban gardens. The children waited as patiently as they knew how, the sweet-tart taste of strawberry lemon verbena punch still on their tongues, tempting their tummies. The homebrewed blackberry stout and rosemary witbier were likewise readying several others in the group for savory sustenance. The plump hens kept up their ongoing chatter, perhaps remarking on the injustice and mystery of their continually disappearing eggs. Then came the applause and cries of glee; at last, it was time to dig in.

Photo: Steven Herppich Photography

As the adults settled into sturdy wooden chairs at white-clothed tables in the lush, green backyard, the children gathered on picnic blankets to alternately pick at and forget about their food. 

Photo: Steven Herppich Photography

We ate the dazzling green beans, drizzled with nutty basil pesto. We ate delicate little crustless quiches, light as air. We ate the salmon with two sauces—horseradish parsley or raspberry rosemary—and the clams steamed in their stone gray shells in a heady broth of rosemary witbier, sweet onions, garlic and extra rosemary. And so much more (see our menu below)!

Photo: Steven Herppich Photography

The sun began its slow descent behind the hills, bringing shade to a long day and rest to a sated bunch of optimists, achievers, planners, and those along for the ride. For dessert, we had two dense and richly sweet treats: mixed berry sorbet and blackberry tarts with fresh ricotta. Between bites that made our mouths purple, we took deep swallows of our own hand-roasted and blended French-press coffee.

Photo: Steven Herppich Photography

Sunset had the notion, with this contest, that given a wee bit of guidance, many, many people could make this idea work: produce what you can, where you are; find most everything else as locally as possible; and be mindful of what else you choose to consume.

We entered the contest because we thought that if we had a creative spirit, a sense for adventure, and a desire to share in community connection, we truly could feed ourselves and those around us. What is more, we could nurture life, be willing to risk, develop resilience through failure, and build connections within our community that would last long past the moment when the feast ended and we walked inside our homes and locked the doors.

As the evening breeze picked up, the coffee’s aroma, heat, and flavor anchored us to our seats, and we didn't want the day to end. Yet this was but one sunset feast. Perhaps success will be measured by the many feasts to come, and the continuing connections made. To this, we toast.

OUR MENU

Blackberry Stout
Witbier
Strawberry Lemon Verbena Punch
House Chamomile Lavender Mint Iced Tea with Olympia Artesian Well Water
Roasted Sunflower Seeds
Caramelized Oly-Oly Onions
Garlicky Roasted Eggplant Dip

-----

Petite Summer Herb Tomato Quiches
Witbier-Steamed Manila Clams
Butter, Buttermilk Rolls, and Focaccia
Hazelnut Pesto Green beans
Pacific Oysters on the Half Shell served on a bed of Kale
Mixed Green Salad with Handcrafted Raspberry Vinaigrette
Gray Sky Tomato Salad
Cascadian "Zucchini" Canoes with Oven-Dried Tomatoes and Fresh Mozzarella
Grilled Wild Salmon with Horseradish Parsley Sauce or Raspberry Rosemary Sauce

------

Blackberry Galette with Fairhaven Flour Wheat Crust and Honey Lavender Ricotta
Northwest Berry Sorbet
Raspberry Popsicles
Batdorf and Bronson Gray Sky Growers Custom-made Blue Sky Blend French Press Coffee

RECIPES FROM THE PARTY

Katie Stoll's Hazelnut Pesto Green Beans

We chose hazelnuts because the trees grow like weeds here. These particular nuts, although local, weren't ours, however. We have a large tree outside our kitchen window that produces lots of nuts, but the squirrels start carrying them away in August and strip the tree bare before the nuts are ready for harvest in the fall.

3 large garlic cloves
2/3 cup olive oil
2/3 cup hazelnuts
3 cups fresh basil
Sea salt to taste
6-8 cups green beans

1. Press the garlic cloves and mix with olive oil in a food processor. Add nuts, then basil and salt.
2. Blanch green beans and toss with pesto. Serve hot or at room temperature. 

Witbier-Steamed Manila Clams

3 dozen wild manila clams
2 cloves pressed garlic
1/4 cup diced sweet onion
2 tbsp. snipped rosemary
1½ cups witbier (wheat beer)

1. Purge clams in seawater to remove sand. Scrub clam shells.
2. Put garlic, onion, rosemary, and beer in stock pot. Bring to simmer and simmer for a couple of minutes to blend flavors. Add clams, cover, and steam for 10 minutes or until shells open. Serve immediately (discard any unopened shells).

By Michele Senitzer, Team Leader

Edited by Margo True, Sunset Food Editor

Team Found Fruit, based in Oakland, CA, are a group of intrepid foragers, gardeners, and Slow Food enthusiasts. The members live within a five-mile radius of one another, and are also creators and members of FoundFruit.com, a social networking website that helps connect community to local food and sustainable living practices. They entered the One-Block Party contest with all the skill and gusto of their fruit-foraging, crab-and-eel-fishing, livestock-raising East Bay collective. This is their final report, describing their feast in late August. The San Francisco Chronicle came to the party, and wrote a separate story about it. I was there too, and can tell you that the food was ambitious, adventurous, and very delicious, from the escargots in puff pastry to the spit-roasted rabbit and honey-glazed chicken to the berry galette and the homemade liqueurs. 

Just a few of the dishes from the feast. Clockwise from left: stuffed charred peppers,
roasted escargots, honey and prickly-pear–glazed grilled chicken, fried surf smelt,
vegetable "pasta", stuffed zucchini blossoms. Photo: Rachel Weill for Sunset

It's been quite a summer! We've been going strong since April, when we were announced as finalists in the One-Block Party contest. We have since grown, foraged, raised, and produced a multitude of vegetables, fruits, and food projects.

By late August, all four of our gardens were bursting at the seams—we were growing the same ingredients in some of them, in case something went wrong. This was the right strategy. It ended up taking more than one garden’s harvest to make enough stuffed peppers, plus the beets in my and Jamie’s garden weren't quite ready—but Todd and Kate’s were.  

Our gardens were full of everything we needed: greens, lettuce, arugula, peppers, corn, squash, cucumbers, beets, tomatoes, eggplant, garlic, chives, basil, mint, lemongrass, chamomile, nasturtiums, blueberries, raspberries, and more.

Photos, clockwise from top left: Kim Di Giacomo, Todd Voyageur (x2), Jamie Vasta (x2)

Kim, Jamie, and I foraged for blackberries in Sausal Creek and huckleberries in Joaquin Miller Park. We used the blackberries for the hard cider and the galette, and made a mixed berry compote with the blackberries and huckleberries, plus blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries from the garden.

Huckleberries in the park. Photo: Jamie Vasta

We decided to meet the Friday night before our Sunday feast to swap the ingredients we'd need to prepare our dishes. It was amazing how much food we had produced! It was really fun to see it all laid out on the table. Nearly every dish we were making required ingredients from more than one household—it was a real team effort.   

Photos: Michele Senitzer, Todd Voyageur

We sampled each others' pickled products. Collectively we had made zucchini pickles, pickled quail eggs, onions, beets, kimchee, nopales, kraut, and more. We ate deviled eggs from Kitty's ducks, and tasted Kitty's goat cheese. We swapped homemade sea salt, ginger wine and apple cider vinegar, sourdough starter, and honey, plus locally sourced whole-wheat flour.

The pre-party bounty (just a part of it). Photo: Todd Voyageur

Next came the prepping. We cooked and assembled and baked and prepared so many dishes! We tried to do as much as possible in our own kitchens on Saturday and Sunday morning so as not to overwhelm Todd and Kate's house, where the feast would be held.

Photos: Todd Voyageur

Sunday was a whirlwind. Everybody's kitchens were exploding with food. We were all working hard and fast to get the dishes ready.  Our plan was to meet at 1 pm with whatever we were able to cook and prepare ahead of time, and then we’d take care of the rest onsite. We'd have cocktail hour from 4 to 5 pm and dinner at 5 pm.

It was a bit hectic at the house, what with everyone trying to maneuver and put their dishes together. I was happy that my job was outside minding the grill. Then the monkey-faced eel came up in conversation—which Kim and I had caught on Friday for the feast—and to my horror I realized I had left it at home in the freezer! I had to run home quickly, bring it back, and thaw it in water. Phew!  We used fig leaves from Todd and Kate's tree to wrap the eel and then steamed it with the ginger wine, some pink limes, and lemongrass. It was a sight to see and very delicious.

 
Photo: Rachel Weill, Sunset

Kitty had raised two chickens and four rabbits, which made our feast amazing. I bbqed the chicken with a honey and prickly pear glaze. It looked great but was really tough. It was brined overnight with sea salt but I was surprised at how different it was even from free-range chicken I buy at the store. [[Editor’s note: My guess is that it was chewy because the hen was a hard-working egg-layer, not a meat chicken. The flavor was great, though.]] The rabbits were the hit of the party. Two were stuffed with wild plums and squash and fire-roasted, and the other two were braised and served with a wild mushroom risotto (the rice was sourced from a farm near Chico).

Photos: Todd Voyageur

It truly was a feast, from the nasturtium pesto zucchini noodles to the corn-and-eggplant-stuffed peppers to the feta-stuffed squash blossoms. Even the escargots were delicious.

The pickle bar (including pickled quail eggs); the feast table. Photos: Rachel Weill for Sunset.

There was no shortage of desserts, either. The blackberry nectarine galette was amazing, and I even loved the goat ice cream—served with rose-infused berry compote. We also had goat yogurt with honeycomb.

Photos: Rachel Weill for Sunset

We ate, drank, and were merry. Our bar was well-stocked, with Todd's IPA, Kim's blackberry hard cider and apricot wine, Kim and Michele's blackberry-elderberry wine, two different limoncellos (one by Kim and one by Kitty), arancello by Kim, and kahlua by Michele.  Our non-alcoholic drink was an herbal tisane made from chamomile, mint, and lemongrass.

Photos: Rachel Weill for Sunset, Lori Eanes

We were also lucky enough to receive some incredible beverage donations from friends in Alameda. John Theil contributed some of his locally produced wine, and St. George Spirits gave us some of their brand new Terroir gin for our sauerkraut martinis and grapefruit cocktails. They describe Terroir as a "liquid love song to Mt. Tam," infused with Douglas fir, coastal sage, and California bay laurel.  It tasted like a walk in the woods and found a place in our forager hearts.

We even had some four-legged friends join in on the fun. Having kid goats (only a few weeks old) running around the yard was precious and we all got in some snuggle time.

Photo: Rachel Weill for Sunset

We partied until dark and felt truly satisfied with our accomplishments. I have a much deeper appreciation now for ingredients that are easy to take for granted. Taking part in this contest has given our summer an edge, and we have all learned a lot. I think we are looking forward to having our gardens back, although I intend to continue some making some of the recipes I have learned from the One Block Party.

We did it! Photo: Rachel Weill for Sunset

A Recipe From the Party

Photo: Rachel Weill for Sunset

Kate's All of the Beet Napoleons 

6 large beets with green leafy tops
8 oz. goat cheese log, chilled
1 Tbsp. olive oil
Arugula flowers
Sea salt

Trim tops from beets and remove ribs from greens. Roughly chop greens and set aside. Wrap beets in aluminum foil and place on a medium-hot grill or in a preheated 400° oven. Roast for 30-50 minutes, depending on size of beets, until tender when pierced with the tip of a knife. Slide beets out of their skins and cut into 1⁄4-in. slices.

Heat olive oil in large pan over medium-high heat. Add beet greens and a pinch of sea salt and sauté until wilted, 3-5 minutes. Set aside to cool slightly. Cut goat cheese into 1⁄4-in.-thick slices.

Arrange beet slices on a platter and top each with a spoonful of sautéed greens and a slice of goat cheese. Garnish with an arugula flower and sprinkle with sea salt.

For more recipes from Team Found Fruit, see their blog's post about the party.

By Stephanie Dean, Sunset test kitchen coordinator

Looking for something great to do with all that citrus coming into the market? Think cocktails. We have an old grapefruit tree at Sunset that's bursting with big, juicy fruit so I devised this twist on a whiskey sour.

Grapefruit-honey whiskey sour

2 tbsp. freshly squeezed grapefruit juice

2 oz. whiskey

2 tsp. honey (I used our Sunset honey)

Ice

Grapefruit twist

Add juice, whiskey, and honey to a cocktail shaker filled with ice, shake, then strain into a short glass. Add some of the ice back to the glass and garnish with the grapefruit twist.

Do you have a favorite citrus cocktail?

By Elizabeth Staton, Team Leader

Posted and edited by Margo True, Sunset Food Editor

Organic Donors, so named because the team's dream was to grow enough food to donate to food banks, is based in Aurora, near Denver. At 5,680 feet above sea level, its elevation poses challenges not faced by any of the other teams in this One-Block Party contest—including subzero weather this summer! Among its many members are cheesemakers, beekeepers, vinegar-brewers and chicken-raisers. What follows is the team's final account, from late September, of the culmination of a summer's worth of efforts—their One-Block Party.

Harper Edelblute, the youngest team member.
Photo: Elizabeth Staton.

The Organic Donors did it. We created a homemade, homegrown, home-produced meal that was delicious, interesting, and inspiring. We overcame hurdles such as a summer-long kitchen renovation that continues and crazy (although not that unusual) Colorado weather. We enjoyed a feast of vegetable dishes, trout from Colorado lakes, home-fermented dairy products, and an egg dish that crossed over from frittata to pizza. Our whole feast was consumed outdoors on an unseasonably warm Colorado fall evening.

The dishes we made were inspired by garden successes and failures, favorite pastimes, our families’ heritages, and plain good taste. The meal highlighted the ultra-fresh food we produced, all grown in our backyards. Everyone agreed that the dinner was excellent.

Among the highlights: heirloom tomato and mozzarella salad, roasted greens
(broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage), a slice of "frittizza", an all-vegetable "pasta,"
grill-roasted trout, and a bowl of fresh beet soup. Photo: Elizabeth Staton

The path to the table was not always smooth, though.

Our Busts

Beer making turned out to be a lot more difficult than we expected. We have renewed respect for small craft breweries and home brewers. Suffice it to say that for the dinner, we bought a few growlers from our local Dry Dock Brewery in Aurora, CO.

Our first beer-making attempts.

As for our apples, they just dropped from the trees in midsummer. Those that remained were diseased or fed the local squirrels. The raspberry bushes produced about five miniscule berries that couldn’t provide more than garnish. And the elderberries we harvested simply intimidated us after we read about the dangers of poisoning from the stems that we’d included in our harvest. Our broccoli and cauliflower (planted by brand-new gardeners the Votodian family) didn’t produce heads, but they inspired one of our favorite dishes of the feast—roasted broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage greens.

Our Successes

From the beginning of the One-Block Party contest, we set out to donate extra produce to food pantries. As the produce rolled in, we gave to Catholic Charities Denver emergency assistance centers. Our efforts were also part of a nationwide garden produce donation effort run by Plant a Row for the Hungry. I’m proud to count our donations as part of the 579 pounds that all “Plant a Row Colorado” participants donated (as of September 21) to food banks. We will be adding carrots pulled by our team on Feast night to that total.

Part of the fun of producing this meal was the collaboration. My one large red watermelon produced two great drinks: the agua de sandia (watermelon water – reason enough to grow watermelon) and the watermelon-infused vodka.

Claire Staton pointing out the watermelon, soon to be turned into drinks.
Photo: Elizabeth Staton.

 

Freda Staton enjoying a hibiscus watermelon cosmopolitan; a glass of agua de sandia (watermelon water). Photos: Elizabeth Staton
and John Kukic

Similarly, the vegetable pasta dish came from two households’ gardens and kitchens. One of our team members dried enough hibiscus flowers to give all households enough to make hibiscus cream to top fish or chicken, accompanied by a decorated recipe card. (We used the hibiscus in the cocktails, too.)

Some of my favorite highlights of the evening included the discussion between Mark and Katie Votodian, who spent part of the party planning the expansion of their brand-new vegetable garden. They plan to double the size and add extra compost to loosen their soil. Looks like we have some committed home gardeners, thanks to the One-Block Party!

Grill-roasted trout, courtesy of team fisherman Kent and his granddaughter,
Anna Staton. Photo: Jon Kukic

 
It was also fun to see what dishes the kids liked best (trout, until they discovered the beet soup), and how much they enjoyed harvesting the carrots. I asked them before dinner if they wanted to harvest carrots, and they did. But the ground was dry and the carrots tops were pulling off, so I explained that we needed to add some water and wait until after dinner. I promptly forgot the whole plan until after dinner, when a contingent of under-five-year-olds asked me if they could pick carrots now. Who could say no to that? Armed with trowels, we hit the bed that they had seeded at our kick-off party, and they picked pounds and pounds of carrots. Apparently trampling newly sown seed produces happy carrots.

Many conversations from our feast included the words “What we should do next year?” So contest or no contest, hosting a one-block party is so interesting, challenging, and fun, that I expect we’ll do it for years to come.

Team member Ellie Votodian at the feast she helped grow.
Photo: Elizabeth Staton

By Elaine Johnson, Sunset associate food editor

I was cruising the Sunset test garden yesterday morning and came across just the combo to throw together for a bright-tasting, super-aromatic drink to have on the stove for guests this holiday season. Lemongrass, lemon verbena, and fresh lemons all go into the mix, and it's good as a virgin drink—like a sophisticated version of lemonade—or with a splash of brandy. (Perfect for those multi-age gatherings.) Here's how it came together.

The lemon corner in the Sunset test garden, with bushy lemongrass, a Eureka lemon tree, and a lemon verbena shrub.

Lemongrass, lemons, and lemon verbena, cleaned up in the kitchen

Triple lemon toddy

MAKES ABOUT 9 CUPS

1 qt. packed lemon verbena leaves

6 fresh lemongrass stalks, root ends trimmed, coarse leaves pulled off, and coarsely chopped

About 3/4 cup honey

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

Zest from 1 lemon, peeled in a long spiral

Brandy (optional)

1. Put lemon verbena and lemongrass in an 8-qt. pot and add 2 qts. water.

2. Cover pot and heat just until starting to simmer. Remove from heat and let stand 20 minutes. Strain into another pot.

3. Stir in 3/4 cup honey and the lemon juice. Taste and add more honey if you like. Add lemon zest spiral and heat until steaming. Ladle into mugs and add a splash of brandy if you like. Happy holidays!

By Margo True, Sunset Food Editor

We've made several different cheeses now with the milk from Holly, our Jersey cow. It's time for a new dairy adventure: Yogurt. So that's what we did recently with couple of quarts of Holly's milk.

Fresh yogurt. (I used a clay pot because I like the faintly cool, earthy taste
that clay gives to yogurt, but you can use glass or ceramic bowls or glass jars, too.)

Making yogurt is extremely easy. (It's a daily activity in households all over India, for instance.) All you need is warmed-up milk and a few tablespoons of your favorite yogurt. The live cultures in the yogurt will gradually convert the entire batch of milk to yogurt within several hours; all you need to do is let nature take its course. The appeal of making yogurt yourself, besides its ease, is fourfold: 1) it's cheaper than buying storebought 2) it has no gunky additives or thickeners 3) because it's fresh, it has lots and lots of reputedly beneficial bacteria (often known as "probiotics") 4) you can make it as tangy as you like, simply by letting it sit longer at room temperature (taste it until you like the flavor).

EASY HOMEMADE YOGURT

Unlike commercially produced yogurt, homemade yogurt has no gelatin, so it'll have a softer, looser texture; if you want it to be firmer, you can boil the milk for 10 to 15 minutes before cooling it, to evaporate some of the water. (The yogurt will have a slightly “cooked” taste, though.) Or you can drain it to release some of the water. Lowfat and nonfat milk (and yogurt) will work too, but they take longer to set than whole-milk yogurt.

MAKES 3 CUPS | TIME: AT LEAST 8 HOURS

1 qt. whole milk
2 tbsp. plain whole-milk live-culture yogurt (check the sell-by date to make sure it's very fresh)

1. Pour milk into a large heavy pot and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally to keep it from scorching. As soon as milk starts to foam up, pour it into a bowl, put bowl in a sink of cold water, and let milk cool to 110° (measure with an instant-read thermometer).

2. Whisk 1/4 cup or so of 110° milk with yogurt in a small bowl, then whisk into milk. Pour into 2 large glass jars, cover, wrap jars in towels, and put them in a cooler. Add a few more jars filled with hot water to the cooler to keep the milk warm, and cover the cooler. Let milk sit at least 8 hours and up to 12 to set (it will look and taste like yogurt when it’s done). The longer it sits, the tangier it gets; chilling it stops the process. Yogurt keeps, chilled, up to 1 week.

With Holly's milk, our yogurt tasted incredible.

YOGURT CHEESE (LABNEH)

I've always wanted to make labneh, too—Lebanese-style yogurt cheese. It's simple enough: mix the yogurt with a bit of salt and drain it until it's super-thick. It makes a wonderful spread for pita or sandwiches, especially if you mix seasonings into it (look for the February 2012 issue of Sunset; the Feel-Good Food column will explore this topic in more detail).

Yogurt cheese (labneh)

MAKES 2 CUPS  | TIME: AT LEAST 24 HOURS

3 cups plain whole-milk yogurt
1 tsp. fine sea salt
Extra-virgin olive oil

1. Pour yogurt into a strainer lined with a double thickness of cheesecloth and set in a bowl deep enough so that strainer sits above the drained liquid. Stir in salt, then lay ends of cheesecloth over yogurt, covering it. Chill at least 1 day and up to 2 (cheese will get denser and thicker the longer you drain it).

2. Spoon cheese into a tall, narrow jar and top with 1/4 in. oil. Labneh keeps, chilled, up to 2 weeks.

LABNEH BALLS

Then I discovered that you can drain the labneh until it's actually malleable (do it for about 5 days total, changing the cheesecloth whenever it's damp), form it into small balls, roll those around in whatever seasonings you like (stick to dried, though), and marinate the balls in olive oil for a couple of days in the fridge; bring to room temperature before eating. The balls turn into single-serving flavor bombs and are great for cocktail parties—set out a bowlful for people to spread on crackers or baguette slices.

Labneh balls coated in herbs d'Provence and red pepper flakes.

By Amy Machnak, Sunset recipe editor

I wanted to update you on how to store tomatoes once you dry them. If you remember from my last post, I dried ripe tomatoes in our dehydrator to preserve them for winter.

I checked them the next day and, surprisingly, they were still kind of soft. So I let them go a few more hours (after I rotated the trays, since our dehydrator doesn’t have a fan. If you’re thinking of buying a dehydrator, buy one with a fan and temperature controls. It’s just easier.).

The idea behind dehydrating is to dry the food out. Sounds obvious, right? However, it took me a few tries before I figured out that I need to remove ALL the moisture. Without moisture, which encourages bacteria and spoilage, the food will be shelf-stable for a longer time.

Once the tomatoes are dry, there are a couple of options for storing them. If I'm going to use them in the next few weeks, I put them into sealable plastic bags in the pantry. If I want them to last even longer, I either put the bag into the fridge for a few months (easy) or I use a small, home-size, cryovac machine and seal them without air (easier, but only if you have the equipment). Sealed completely like this, airtight and without moisture, they’ll last over a year on the shelf. They could last longer, but I think after a year you should have a new crop so it’s best just to rotate them with a fresh batch.

I know I’m going to need the tomatoes sooner than that for a recipe I’m working on so I’ve just stored mine in the pantry for now. 

It's been a long summer, and we Sunset beekeepers have been so busy making a magazine that we just haven't had time to go out to the bees. The last time we were in the hives was during our August honey harvest.

Finally today we had a spare afternoon, so we went out to check on the girls. There are a lot of bees in all three of our hives (especially Briar Rose, who is as testy as ever). But of course, all the hives have some kind of trouble.

See this bee in the photo above? Notice anything wrong with her?

That's right. Her wings are twisted and deformed. This poor girl is suffering from curly wing, a virus transmitted by the evil varroa mite.

Unfortunately, it's too late for this girl; the curly wing will never get better. She'll never fly out to forage in the great blue beyond. Eventually, she'll get kicked out of the hive or simply die (a bee's life is harsh).

This is a frame of bees from our newest hive, Tess. See those red circles? They mark a mite on a bee. When you can see this many mites hanging out on a frame of bees, you know you have a mite problem.

Tess is a sweet, delicate hive, making her a perfect host for varroa. But even our evil-but-bursting-with-bees hive, Briar Rose, is afllicted with mites, although she has far fewer of the little nasties than does Tess.

Yes, I know. If we had been better beekeepers, we'd have treated for mites much earlier. Now our bees are really overrun, and we know we'll need some luck to pull them through the winter.

Today we treated them with formic acid pads. (We still have a bucket of the pads, but when these are gone, we're looking forward to trying a new product called Mite Away Quick Strips.) We've tried the no-treatment route, without much luck, and have decided that we really have to intervene to help the bees control the mites.

The formic acid treatment will take care of the mites on the bees, but there are probably mites in the capped brood. We will just have to wait, and hope for the best.

By Max Wong and Kristi Reed

Posted by Margo True, Sunset Food Editor

Team Bad Skunks is a group of food exchangers in Los Angeles, near Highland Park, who like to have fun. Everyone in the group grows food—interesting things like nopal cactus, loquats, and burdock along with standbys like beans and peppers, as well as lots and lots of fruit. Team leader Max Wong raises bees and makes preserves from produce her neighbors forage from the area and bring to her. Then she delivers the jars to them as thanks. “It was a cinch to convince them that a summer’s-end block party challenge was a good idea,” says Max. “Who doesn’t need another excuse to have a party?” This post catches up with the team right before they had their end-of-summer feast, the final event in this year's One-Block Party contest.

Part I: In which Max Wong, team leader, plays with cucumbers and cookie dough.

Kristi and Tino are such showoffs. I asked if they had a spare cucumber that I could turn into aguas frescas for the dinner and they brought me this, a cuke that is literally as long as my arm. Even without the forced perspective, it was the size of one of those toy bats that kids use for whiffle ball.

On to baking. I make a gorgeous cookie. No. Really. My cookies are so perfect looking that you've seen them on T.V. (Ever wonder where prop masters get the Christmas cookies for "Very Special Christmas Episodes" that are filmed in July? Well, now you know). 

So trust me when I tell you that normally my fig newtons are the supermodels of the jam-filled cakelette world. 

As luck would have it, we scheduled our One Block Party for the hottest day of the year. It was 107 degrees outside and even hotter in my kitchen where I was busily roasting a duck for dinner. 

As a result of the blast-furnace temperature of my house, my fig newton dough—which needs to be chilled in order for it to be rolled out, cut into three-inch strips, and folded over fig filling—immediately melted into a sticky mess that glued itself to the counter and the rolling pin. 

I scraped the mess off my counter with my meat cleaver and threw the blobs of melted dough in the oven while I sweated my way through another apron, stressing about whether I was going be serving what looked like hand-sized cow patties for dessert.

Yikes!

Although ugly, these still tasted delicious. If I'd had access to milk for the party, I would've made ice cream, heated up some figs in a soufflé dish, and turned these ugly cookies into cobbler topping. Alas, that dessert will have to wait. 

Here's the second fig newton attempt. They will be served as fig thumbprint cookies for the feast. They are far from perfect, but they're the best I can do in the heat. 

Part II: In which Kristi Reed tells the story of the prawn pad's final hours.

SATURDAY (day before party): Time to do a little cookin’ and killin’. Well, mainly killin’.

Our prawn pad is on the right; the hydroponic gardens, fertilized by prawn waste,
are below and to the left.

We began by trying to get the prawns out with nets. But they’re fast little suckers and that proved to be very difficult. So we decided to drain the tank. The water is really good fertilizer, though, and we didn't want to waste any of it.

Thus we built the great Fish Poop Pipeline. It took the tank water from the sunken area of our backyard up to the garden area via the pumps we'd used for the aquaponics system.

Thirty feet later, the Prawn Pad water irrigates the veggie garden.

After almost half the tank had been emptied, we began to have some luck catching the prawns. And that's when the process of helping our crustaceans shed their mortal coil truly began.

Tino (right) and me, netting those fast little suckers.

Once they were netted, we put them through a series of ice-chest dips. The first one was just clean water to rinse off the fish poop water. Although good for the plants, it is not so good for the human digestive system.

As you can see, we harvested prawns of all sizes. We planned to sauté the big ones and use the smaller ones in the green papaya salad.

After the clean-water rinse, we plunged them in ice water—their undoing. Within seconds, the little prawns we had raised from larvae were longer of this world.

After the ice bath came one more clear-water bath to rinse away anthing the prawns may have released as they were demising.Then we put them in a final ice chest to stay overnight until the cookin' began in earnest the following day. Final count: 45 prawns.

Next stop: kitchen.

By Max Wong, Team Leader

Posted by Margo True, Sunset Food Editor

Team Bad Skunks is a group of food exchangers in Los Angeles, near Highland Park, who like to have fun. Everyone in the group grows food—interesting things like nopal cactus, loquats, and burdock along with standbys like beans and peppers, as well as lots and lots of fruit. Team leader Max Wong raises bees and makes preserves from produce her neighbors forage from the area and bring to her. Then she delivers the jars to them as thanks. “It was a cinch to convince them that a summer’s-end block party challenge was a good idea,” says Max. “Who doesn’t need another excuse to have a party?” This post catches up with the team at the end of summer, shortly before they had their feast—the final event for all 10 teams competing to win Sunset's One-Block Party contest.

Saved from Marta's waste bin.

While parking my car today, out of the corner of my eye I happened to catch my neighbor, Marta, tossing a tomato into her green yard-waste bin. (My peripheral vision for wasted vegetables is very good). 

I screeched to a halt and ran over to her yard. She was indeed filling her waste bin with her tomato plants—tomatoes still attached. 

"I don't know what I did wrong," Marta grumbled. "I only planted three plants and they grew too big. I'm tired of picking tomatoes. It's just been terrible having this many tomatoes grow."

Yes. Marta. We all know the horror of having too many home-grown tomatoes. What a burden. 

Did I mention that our tomato plants—our official One-Block Party Contest tomato plants—look terrible? Even though we added a load of manure to our yard last fall and have been consistently amending the dirt in our veggie patches, the salty clay soil of our backyard continues to stunt our plants.

Our pathetic tomatoes.

So I was extra happy that Marta gave me twenty pounds of tomatoes to bring home. I'm making the ripe ones into ketchup and turning the green ones into fried green tomatoes and pickled green tomatoes. 

Marta's tomatoes, safe in my kitchen.

Marta is not my only neighbor who is outraged by the productivity of her tomato plants. Noel, my next-door neighbor and fellow Bad Skunk, detests them. But he grows them to give to company when they come over. They're like garden party favors for him.

Then there's Estrellita, who invites me over to her house every day to pick tomatoes because she hates them so much.

Estrellita's house and extravagantly healthy tomatoes.

Yes, this giant, lush hedge of tomato plants are all volunteers. Estrellita does nothing to encourage their growth. If only the weeds in my yard were this productive. And delicious.

Thank goodness our neighbors are A: So good at growing tomatoes and B: so good at not eating them. 

By Maryanne Welton, team leader

All photos by Rachel Weill

Posted and edited by Margaret Sloan, Sunset production coordinator

Team Dances With Legumes, based on the San Francisco peninsula, came together back in the fall of 2008—long before the One-Block Party contest ever began. Inspired by Sunset’s August 2008 story about our magazine’s efforts to grow an end-of-summer dinner, team leader Maryanne Welton and her friends and neighbors decided they’d launch their own series of grown-from-scratch dinners. For years now, this group of about two dozen people (kids included) have been getting together for regular seasonal feasts, using mainly what they’ve raised or made.

Their practice shows. I was amazed the amount and diversity of foods made by Team Dances with Legumes. It was all delicious, and I was full and content by the end of the meal. My thought was, if a small group of people can do all this, what if we all grew at least some of our own food? By working together, we should be able to wipe out hunger in this country, and have a great time doing it. —Margaret Sloan

The menu for our One-Block feast was long and varied and showcased the best of what we’d grown and produced ourselves. Our goal was to purchase as few items as possible, and in that we were very successful. The list of ingredients we used to augment our feast, in addition to the dairy and pork, included pepper, vanilla, the makings for the beer and stout, celery seeds, pistachios, yeast, and wine. 

At the last minute we were short on limes for two dishes, so I sent out an email to my neighborhood group and was able to trade honey and jam for limes.  I feel confident that with a little more time to plan we could have found ways to barter or trade for all the ingredients we needed.  Well, maybe not vanilla, unless we develop a Central or South American connection!

The Jensens had given us a small hand-cranked apple press. Kirk cleaned it up and figured out how to put it together, and we gathered apples from a neighbor’s tree as well as our own. I chopped the apples in a food processor, and then Kirk and Julie cranked them down with the press. The sweet juice poured into waiting Mason jars. We called Nancy and Patrick over to share the taste of that just-pressed juice. It was incredible—and rewarding. It was a perfect symbol of everything we wanted from Dances with Legumes: shared resources, joint efforts and sweet bounties.

The setting for our final One-Block feast was peaceful and shaded. Tay’s family had prepared their terrace while Nancy and Cathi set the tables and decorated them with our flowers and garden produce—and tall beeswax candles from the Jensens.

Nancy spearheaded the creation of the butter molds. She even carved a beautifully delicate butter knife out of manzanita wood.

As the team members and family assembled, Nancy prepared hand-printed cards describing each dish. 

There was a simmering frenzy at the last moments to have everything ready (and perhaps there was a slight level of stress and performance anxiety with a Sunset photographer and a writer there). At last the stage was set, everything was ready, and it was time to enjoy our harvest.

Here are just some of the dishes.

Grilled watermelon appetizers.

Wheat berry salad made from homegrown wheat.

Chilled vichyssoise decorated with bright blue borage flowers.

A cross-rib roast from the Jensens (they raised the steer themselves).

So, what did we learn from this great adventure? Creativity, commitment and flexibility were essential to the success of our feast. We figured out how to roll with the punches and keep our eye on the goal to sustain us through both the good and the frustrating times.

We had fun and shared lots of great food along the way. Friends, family, neighbors and work colleagues were intrigued, supportive and often inspired by our efforts. Not only were our gardens planted and nourished during spring and summer, so were our friendships and connections. We shared, we grew, we blossomed, we harvested—we danced through the seasons and enjoyed an incredible production at the end of the harvest.

Such is life, one cycle after another, always a new day to greet us, always something new to learn. It wasn’t our first dance, and it won’t be our last. Here’s to gardens, friends, and food. Long may they live!

Team captain Maryanne Welton (at right) leads a toast to Team Dances with Legumes.