Jamie Collins
WHAT’S IN SEASON
Meyer Lemons Brighten up the dark months with these California classics
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MICHELLE MAGDALENA
When I first laid eyes on my home ranch in Aromas, I imagined thriving Meyer lemon trees with yellow fruit hanging like ornaments on the hillside, and walkways lined with lavender. The lavender would attract and provide a habitat for bees, and in turn the bees would pollinate the lemons. A decade later, lovely balls of sunshine brighten my winter days and provide many months of delicious, thin-skinned, sweet-tart lemons that thrive in this microclimate. My vision of a lavender lemonade farm has come to fruition—we now sell our lemonade at the farmers’ markets alongside our lemons.
Meyer lemons are sweeter and more round than Lisbon or Eureka varieties, their skin is dark orange-yellow when ripe and they contain much more juice than traditional lemons. Often, … Read More
WHAT'S IN SEASON
WALNUTS
PHOTOGRAPHY BY CRYSTAL BIRNS
Get nutty and try some new ways to use healthy fall walnuts
Did you know that walnuts are technically a stone fruit? Walnuts, in the Juglandaceae family, are indeed the edible seed kernels of a drupe, which means they are not even true nuts! Nuts or not, these healthy brain-shaped seeds pack a punch in the vitamin department and add depth to both sweet and savory dishes. The most common types of walnuts grown commercially for their edible seeds are Persian varieties, now called English walnuts. Black walnuts, with origins in North America, also have an edible
seed, but they are so hard to crack that they are mostly used for … Read More