Clairemont Mesa Boulevard is a long street. I thought I knew the boulevard pretty well, but then I talked to Carol Morse. I found a message from Carol Morse in a San Diego Food Not Lawns email about the TLC Giving Garden and thought I'd see if she would be able to provide some produce to our restaurant. As I drove east over the 15, the atmosphere changed and I was soon standing in the shade, 9 miles from the restaurant, talking about how this garden came to be.

Twin Oaks Valley Winery is located in San Marcos. This is a little bit unusual considering that most north county wineries are in either Temecula or Ramona, but Jacob Kappeler and his business partner Frank Bons, also neighbors, have found a niche for grapes on their combined lands. Jacob runs T&H Prime Meats & Sausages, an extensive butcher shop that makes a wide array of sausages made from chicken, turkey, pork, beef and even lamb. Frank used to grow roses but was eventually pushed out of the flower market by cheaper imports from South America.

Ermano Salerno & his wife Rose used to run a pizza place in North Park. After many years, they decided to move up to North County and settle in Ramona, an area which has recently received the designation of the appellation "Ramona Valley." Both of Ermano's grandparents grew grapes in the Calabria area of Italy, so winemaking runs in his blood. However, so does pizza making, as I happily found out when I visited their vineyard last month! They welcomed me in like family, gave me a tour of their beautiful property, and I had fun chatting with them a bit in my pretty rusty Italian.

When I look out towards the ocean, I know there are fish there, but it's hard to even think about how many, where kinds of fish, and what they're doing. It's not like a farm or pasture where at least some of this is visible. Dale Sweetnam of the Department of Fish and Game and the Southwest Fisheries Science Center studies these mysteries.

Say what? Yes, I said emu burger! Today, Dennis and I picked up some ground emu meat (think tall bird, long neck) from A & W Emu Ranch in Santee at the Hillcrest Farmer's Market, and I made it into a tasty burger tonight. I decided to doctor it up with some bread, parsley, garlic (stalk not bulb), salt & pepper and melt some cheese on top, though I think it would have been pretty good just plain too. It is a very dark, red meat and extremely lean (97%) but it was super tender.