With it brings back childhood memories of growing up in a farming family. Crisp early mornings with the sounds of tractors in the field; with a symphony of the vineyard crew’s chatter that fades in-and-out with the tractors.

An energy hits this valley like every farming community … this is it … this is what we’ve been working on and waiting for … you can actually feel a hum … at six a.m. there are lines at the local deli that is open early … tractors are driving through downtown with trailers filled with grapes.

In the kitchen I start thinking of my mother’s and grandmother’s recipes to make for our winemaking crew for the long days/nights. Then … too late I realize I have a wine club I need to submit recipes for, and you have had reprints of those harvesting recipes from Mom and Gramgram too many times … Luckily this year I have backup recipes with items I served at our Futures Picnic. If you don’t know about the Futures Picnic, contact your account manager … Grilled Street Corn Salad is getting really popular here in Northern California, so I decided to make my own version of the salad for the last two years for the Futures Picnic. You can grill your own corn, but I like the ease (and less mess) of buying the frozen grilled corn. The secret-secret ingredient in this recipe is the blue agave nectar. I use the nectar to sweeten the lime juice, but also to give it a little bit of a flavor kick. The agave nectar can be found in the aisle with syrups and jams in most supermarkets; it like maple syrup has different grade/colors … I use the lighter one for the dressing. My summertime hack is to make margarita mix with just lime juice and the dark nectar. If you don’t want the recipe to be too spicy, make sure to remove the seeds from the jalapenos and use roasted garlic. Sweet peppers look like miniature bell peppers and can be found near the fresh pepper and are usually in a bag. They basically have the heat as a bell pepper and don’t need to have the seeds removed. I love these peppers because they add a lot of color to my recipes and are cheaper usually than bell peppers.

During the early I am always on a hunt for a good ceviche … last of the warm evenings of the year deserve a good ceviche, crunchy chips and a cold Chardonnay, or a chilled Pinot Nouveau. Serving ceviche to a crowd on a hot August day can be tricky because of the raw fish ... I came up with this recipe, so we didn’t have to worry about the heat and the fish. I used cold-smoked salmon (looks like lox), but you can use hot-smoked salmon (chunkier and flakes more) in your dish. If you want to have more vegetables, use less salmon. Instead of having jalapeños in the mix I decided to use candied ginger. You can usually find the candied ginger in the bulk food aisle, or near the dried fruits. I try to chop it as fine as I can because when you simmer it in the lime juice it bulks up.