Currants Heather Hacking — Enterprise-Record

I rarely go a week without visiting a farmers market. I love the colors, enjoy running into friends and I usually find something to eat. However, my freezer is packed with fruit and both crisper drawers in the fridge are full.

When I visited Mom, she showed me her new raised beds and sent me home with a bag full of squash.

Our paper’s advertising director, Fred, shared some of his plum harvest with his fruitless coworkers. My boss at work — even more squash.

Sharing food from our yards is one of the beautiful things about living in bountiful California.

My coworker Sally lives on the outskirts of town where residential streets blend into orchards. At times her neighbors have held garden parties. The friends begin the tour in one yard, spend a half an hour, and visit each gardener on the block. Because so many people grow food, people swap melons for tomatoes.

GIVING TREES

If you think about it, one mature fruit tree produces a barrel-full of fruit. Nobody likes to eat the same food day-after-day.

Yet, if each person on your block grew a different type of fruit, you could hold fruit-salad parties.

GATHER AND SHARE

The Jesus Center 1297 Park Avenue, will also gladly accept your fresh garden edibles. You can take them to the back door near the kitchen, or through the front doors on Park Avenue.

DRY STUFF

We’re big into using the dehydrator when someone shouts out an offer to raid their fruit tree. Some of our favorites dried fruits are peaches, Roma tomatoes, persimmons, plums and apricots.

Dried fruit can be chopped into bits with scissors and added to salads or oatmeal.

You can also combine dried fruit, almonds and chocolate chips for a home version of trail mix.

FOOD GARDEN

LaDona Knigge sent me a note recently with an invite to pick some of her donut-shaped peaches.

It did not take me long to dig the dehydrator out of the shed and gather up the grocery bags with the strong handles.

LaDona is a clever gardener and her specialty is growing food in just about every corner of the yard.

Beginning in 2010 she and her late husband Willis Geer turned an ordinary home with a front lawn into a food oasis.

By the time the drought slowly crept into our lives, she had colorful balls of food growing right outside her front door.

It takes time and care to grow good among a home’s landscaping.

Her peach tree is near the street, with the heat from the sidewalk doing magic on the ripening fruit. She keeps the tree trimmed small for easy reach and no risky moves on the top of a ladder.

Most of the yard is mulched, which would earn her a gold star in a drought garden contest.

In other parts of her yard she might cut a branch here and there to allow plants the sunlight they need. Or she might tuck an herb in an area that has a nice mix of sun and shade.

The result is that a visitor can walk around the yard nibbling at just about every arm’s length.

In the front, bright red currants look like salmon eggs, ready to put on the end of your fishing rod. Dried or fresh there are many recipes that call for currants, http://tinyurl.com/hsc624u.

Along the fence, LaDona has two blueberry bushed that doubled in size since the last time I visited. The plants are under a redwood tree, which is fine because blueberry plants do well in acidic soil. She said she trimmed a redwood branch to allow the two to coexist.

Along her side yard she has artichokes and herbs galore.

On the other side of the yard, a neighbor’s apricot tree branches out onto her side of the fence.

DRIED FOOD FOR THOUGHT

I haven’t tried this yet, but it sounds like a fun recipe found on epicurious.com,http://tinyurl.com/gslowzo.

Combine 1 1/4 cups dried figs with 2 1/2 cups additional dried fruit, such as applies, apricots, pears or prunes. Zip the fruits in a food processor until the mixture is like a paste. Mix in two tablespoons honey, two tablespoons orange juice and 1/2 cup cocoa powder. Cover and refrigerate until chilled. Next, roll into balls a little bigger than an inch wide.

I’m thinking while we’re at it, you might as well roll the balls in some coconut flakes.

Our cat, the Feline Unit, is a talker. She follows us around the house demanding wet food, saying hello, and demanding wet food.

Sometimes we hear her having long, soulful conversations with neighborhood cats. These aren’t the hiss-fits you hear when there are too many tom’s circling a dumpster. These are friendly little cat chats. I know it’s more than one gentleman suitor because I recognize their different voices.

Saturday evening I was in the yard salvaging the last of the kale and killing cabbage worms.

Up sauntered the most bizarre-looking lion kitty. At first I thought this orange cat had been shaved. It has a giant mane of hair and a ball of hair at the end of its tail. The rest of its fur is thin.

I looked up this bizarre cat hairstyle online. It’s called cat alopecia, and can be caused by mites, fleas, thyroid problems and cat neurosis.

I ignored the cat when it talked to me, but I recognized its voice. This was probably my chance to hiss, stomp my feet or throw pebbles. Yet, I was having a nice moment with my kale.

The cat hid under the wheel of my boyfriend’s car, telling me very important things.

Then it happened. I bent down to pull a mallow weed and the cat was on my hand faster than a racing pig at the county fair. It rubbed three parts of its body onto my extended hand before I had a chance to retract my fist full of mallow.

I started walking, fast mind you, toward my door. It followed, all of its meek disposition suddenly gone.

By the time I called Mandy, the cat was at the screen door, talking loudly.

“Congratulations on your new cat,” Mandy said. “What are you going to name it.”

Here’s the thing. There is NO way I am adopting a new cat, no matter how much my heart feels for this poor, very, very desperate, strange looking creature. We can’t have two feline units in the house.

I walked closer to the door while talking to Mandy. The cat’s cry increased four decibels and Mandy howled with laughter.

I’m thinking I’ll box up the cat and give it to her as a wedding present.

I can see how my kind-hearted friends end up with 12 cats in their yard. Every creature needs food. Every kitty wants love. Next thing you know you’re buying cat food in bulk at Northern Star Mills and walking around with multiple colors of fur stuck to your black skirts.

Wednesday night my boyfriend and I sat at the kitchen table when we heard the familiar sound of the cat door and kibble being nibbled.

However, our cat has a bell and a collar that clinks on the rim of the metal bowl.

Sure enough, the lion kitty had walked into the laundry room and was happily chomping.

WHAT TO DO

I talked at length with Tracy Mohr, animal services manager at the Chico Animal Shelter. She said cats can have up to a two-mile roaming range. In all likelihood, this cat probably lives somewhere nearby. Cats often roam, she said. They might spend all day at one home, then spend the evening at another house begging for food and attention.

This makes sense, because I’ve been hearing this particular voice for a while. What’s new is actually seeing the cat. For all I know, it could have been been eating out of the laundry room for weeks.

My best bet, Mohr agreed, is to make my home inhospitable.

For the past 40 years society has trained people to take strays to the local animal shelter. Mohr said the reality is that only about 2 percent of lost cats are found this way. Most lost cats find their way home on their own, she said. The worst thing to do is to transport the cat to another part of town. Then the owner will never find their cat, she said.

This is a great time to make the pitch for having a microchip installed for pets. Mohr said I could bring the lion kitty down to the shelter to check if there is an owner nearby.