Category: Food & Wine

It would be very pretentious to talk about my vineyard — which in reality is but one giant Concord Grape vine ( with a 6″ diameter base) flowing continuously over a large arbor. However, I find them enjoyable… especially toward the end when I leave a few on the vine to ‘gewurtz’… to ripen fully and become wonderfully sweet.

This year I am debating whether or not to make wine or jelly and it depends on whether or not we snack on them along the way. The interesting thing is a basic batch of wine requires far less Concord Grapes than regular California grapes… many recipes start off with multiples of 6 pounds of Concord per 1 gallon of water… whereas most other grapes skip the water and use just 20 pounds of grapes.

One good thing may come out of this economy and that is more folks will have to learn to do things themselves… cook, raise their own food and make wine!

It’s not all that hard.

Roger Freberg

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I don’t know if the apples are sweeter because of the ‘anticipation’… or, if it was because of the unusually sharp cold snap earlier this year? Fortunately for family unity , the crop looks magnificent and the perennial battle between making apple sauce and apple pies is muted under the avalanche of apples!

So after a couple of huge batches of apple sauce sitting in one of our three freezers, Laura has graciously consented to stand back while I make, strudels, apple flaps, cobblers and… yes… apple pies!

our recipe

Roger Freberg

PS. a little drama is over, after several months of looking , Laura found my favorite pair of prescription glasses in the lost & found drawer at HOME DEPOT. They’re fairly unusual in type and prescription… so,  Laura is my hero. 🙂

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In California,  if you spend any time here, you will experience some of the wonderful agricultural bounty of our state. Even though California is known for grapes, citrus, broccoli, strawberries, pistachios, truck farming  and more illegal cash crops than most want to talk about … we all share a love of  Artichokes .  My best and fondest memory of California and home revolve around  a meal of artichokes. As a boy, I remember going to Half moon bay to fish and stopping on the way back to buy a few wondrous artichokes for dinner… and this habit continues to this day. Only now, we walk to our local farmer’s market in San Luis Obispo to buy strawberries, white onions, pistachios ( yes, I must have my Baklava ) and artichokes!

If you are really a fan, there is even an  ‘Artichoke festival’ when the season is near and you can buy artichoke wine, artichoke flavored olive oil and every type of artichoke meal that you might imagine! It’s a lot of fun.

Personally, I love the largest of the artichokes with the biggest ‘hearts’. The preparation requires a couple of hours boiling in sea salt and lemon juice but well worth the effort.

So our midday meal on Sunday consists of artichokes, garlic butter, bread sticks, Marinara and  local wine.

The  simple pleasures in life are always the best!

bon appetite!

Roger Freberg

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