Even though California voters decided that they don't want labeling of food sourced from genetically modified organisms, you can still tell. Just learn the codes on the standard produce stickers and choose wisely.

A 5 digit code starting with 8 is GMO food - avoid. A 4 digit code is conventionally grown produce - keep moving. A 5 digit code starting with 9 is organic produce - bingo! It's as easy as that. I may just learn to love those stickers after all. (I have a long standing hatred of stickers on food and in my compost.)

Pia is so psyched that this year we get a real bounty of summer squash from our own garden. For some reason this never worked well for us in previous years, even though summer squashes are supposedly very easy to grow. Regardless, it is such a pleasure to harvest today's dinner in your own garden and eat it as fresh as can be. Tomorrow there will be more, and the day after even more. Come for dinner!

This year our little 4 ft Tangelo tree didn't just have lots of sweet smelling flowers - next to Jasmine, this tree has the most amazing scent of all plants in our garden! After flowering the tree set a load of fruit and the little green balls kept on growing. Usually, most of its fruit shrivel and fall off in short order, but not this time! By mid May we knew we'd have some nice Tangelos come Fall. Around Thanksgiving the little tree was laden with fruit and we anxiously kept checking whether they were ripe enough.

Today we drove up to Wynola, a small cluster of shops and homes just below Julian, to pick apples and pears. Calico Ranch has their orchard right off Hwy 78 and allows people to pick their own fruit. If it weren't for the scenery on the drive, and the absolutely brilliant, warm weather, we could have imagined to be back home in Switzerland, where we have picked plenty of apples and pears in our youth. Here in San Diego, as city folk in a subtropical climate we don't get to do this anymore.

Today we have our oldest son with his girlfriend over for dinner. Besides looking forward to spending time with them I am excited about eating a nice meal. Sitting at the dinner table is something we enjoy the most. Talking, eating and sitting and talking some more is such a joy and makes us feel connected to each other. And when the food is delicious, even the better.
First I will serve a mixed salad with a balsamic olive oil dressing. A side note to mixed salad: I am a bit obsessed with vegetables. My mixed salads have ten different vegetables in it.