Santa Barbara Sip & Savor - (Page 16)

parkling sunshine 300-plus days of the year, low humidity, warm but not-too-hot temps and just enough rain to keep everything healthy. The same qualities that lure visitors to the Santa Barbara area also make for a bustling agricultural industry. With a year-round average temperature of around 64 degrees, the area’s mild climate supports a year-round growing season and a diversity of crops. From the greenhouses and growing fields of Carpinteria to the meticulously tended rows of grapevines in the wine country, agriculture is alive, well and thriving. Crops run the gamut from avocados to walnuts, with the big three of strawberries, broccoli and wine grapes topping the county’s moneymaking list most years. But each season brings its own colorful celebration to local produce stands and farmers markets, as restaurant chefs and home cooks prowl the aisles, getting inspired and sharing ideas. (You might overhear tips like, “Well, I usually just sauté them with olive oil and garlic, then . . .”) The variety is both mind-boggling and palateexpanding: In winter, baskets and bins overflow with juicy S FRESH AND LOCAL— A l l Ye a r Ro u n d 16 S I P & S AV O R P H OTO S BY J. S I N C L A I R navel and blood oranges, Satsuma mandarins, Pixie tangerines and root vegetables. Spring brings pencil-thin asparagus and tender artichokes, Meyer lemons, sugar snap peas, green garlic and baby fava beans. Summer bursts with apricots and plums, heirloom tomatoes, fragrant basil, sweet corn, squashes, eggplants and beans, melons, peaches, ripe figs, and red and gold raspberries. Fall is a cornucopia of sweet and hot peppers, hard squashes, aromatic fennel bulbs, grapes, persimmons, apples and pears. And local lettuce is abundant every month of the year—a blessing in this salad-loving town. As if this weren’t enough, our locally produced culinary specialties include pistachios, walnuts and toasted walnut oil, cured olives and cold-pressed olive oil, a variety of natural chicken and beef, and oysters, mussels, clams and scallops from a mariculture farm in the Santa Barbara Channel. Add to this our abundance of sustainable fisheries, with everything from spiny lobsters and seabass to halibut and bonito being hauled in to the thriving Santa Barbara Harbor. With this kind of mouthwatering variety it’s easy to understand why the locavore movement is in full swing here. It’s part of the healthy Santa Barbara lifestyle to eat fresh and local—all year round. For more information on the area’s culinary bounty, go to SantaBarbaraFresh.com. —Nancy Ransohoff http://www.SantaBarbaraFresh.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Santa Barbara Sip & Savor

Santa Barbara Sip & Savor
Contents
Local Specialties
The Total Locavore Experience
Fresh and Local--All Year-Round 
A Sense of Place
Hit the Trail!
The Crave
Where the Locals Go
40 and Fabulous!
Food Festivals

Santa Barbara Sip & Savor

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