The weather is hot most everywhere these days, and even though I have been looking forward to making and baking this summer, firing up the oven is not high on my list right now. And using heat to make food is more like once every other day or longer.

It is a good time to make tuna fish salad, eat a Costco chicken, and consume copious amounts of ice cream covered in fruit, and robust salads made from ancient grains like this summer farro salad.

We first served this salad to a wine tasting crowd in Aspen. The response we received from the wine revelers was first, "What is this?" And, "This is nutty, is this rice? Is this barley? This is so good!" And of course, "Where can I get this?"

With this success we delved deeper into the history of Farro to find out where it came from. And when we found Emmer grown here in Washington, that’s when we really got into the "root" of the grain. Farro has been grown here in Eastern Washington for a long time now. Most likely brought by the German immigrants who settled here.

Farro describes and includes these three known grains that predate wheat. These “ancestral” grains are physically and nutritionally very different than wheat, especially modern day wheat.

Triticum monoccocum is known as Farro Piccolo in Italy, and Einkorn as it is popularly known today. It is the oldest known grain (we refer to it as a million years old) and the simplest and the softest in structure of the three.

Triticum diccocum (my favorite to say) is known as Farro Medio, and is the fabled Emmer we use in this salad recipe. It is the hardest of the three and the precursor of modern durum. Perhaps 500,000 years old.

Triticum spelta is Farro Grande in Italy, known as Spelt. And it is often found in packages from Italy as Farro depending on where it is grown. It has the most chromosomes and is most similar to modern soft red bread wheat.

Because these grains are closest to the original grains, they are as nature first built them. Man perhaps picked them because when domesticated to grow in a“controlled” environment, they did not fall apart as wild grains did.

As a hulled grain, they need the be threshed like wheat, and the additional process of de-hulling post-harvest.

From the Fertile Crescent, these original cereal grains are void of mutation from modernization. Classified as a wheat (Triticum) by the FDA, these tall growing, grown up grasses are quite different in the resultant taste than the wheat of the modern world. The Farro’s tall height makes for deeper roots allowing for nutrient superiority in minerals, proteins and antioxidants.

This perhaps is why Farros are so flavorful with a light pleasant nutty flavor. From risotto to cereal, it works as well as a flour for everyday breads and doughs.

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This is one of the simplest recipes you can make, and because it's so simple, the quality and flavor of the ingredients - especially the vinegar and olive oil - are important. Select a good-flavored artisan vinegar and a tasty Tuscan or Sicilian olive oil, and you can't go wrong.

This salad is a twist on a classic Italian recipe, with added color as homage to summer. Add small cubes of feta cheese or tuna or canned white beans to give it a protein boost if you like. I like to start with the basic recipe and then add more as the week progresses.

It makes a wonderful side dish served warm or cold, or prepare it in advance and take it on your next picnic as a healthy and tasty alternative to potato salad. it is also perfect as leftovers because the flavors blend so nicely after it sits in the fridge overnight.

In fact, this recipe is so good the next day, I always make the full recipe no matter how many I am serving - just so I can have leftovers that last. It can start as an entire meal and as time progresses, it works perfectly as a side.

A bright and delicious salad using these ancient of grains - emmer or spelt.

See the Summer Farro Salad Recipe here!

This recipe started as the normal salsa recipe, except when I was putting it together I did not have any citrus acid like lemon juice available so I rooted around in the pantry looking for acid and chose the Espelt de Garnatxa vinegar.

The result was Wowsa! Super delicious and the vinegar seems to make it cool(er) and refreshing! Over time it gets brighter in flavor.

See the easy Pico de Gallo Fresh Salsa Recipe here!

My mom made a version of this recipe for several weeks, when our friend, Peter, sent us some Reed Avocados picked fresh from his farm in California.

In the fall and winter, Mexican avocados are in season, and make a great substitute.

You can substitute Yuzu Juice for the lemon juice, which gives it a little different twist. I have also used minced garlic scapes instead of shallots, when they are in season.

See the Avocado & Grapefruit Salad Recipe Here!

This oil is very quiet. Reserved, subtle, and delicious, it’s an oil that will knock your socks off, in a very quiet way.

Inhale and you get a wonderful aroma unlike any other. The complexity you get is the outer wafer thin “seed coat”, and then the inner kernel “flavor” which then returns to the seed coat. Wow! The whiff alone is spectacular!

To the the tongue, it is only “oily” for a moment and then it disappears into a light vapor. The same is true when you take a swig, for a brief moment there is an “oil affect” but the effect is eye-popping walnut filled flavored joy!

The huile de noix imparts all the walnut flavor you want and lingers longer without the dry, crumbly leftover feel the nut itself does.

You will find yourself tasting and tasting, and moving your tongue around, as you squeeze every bit of nuance out of the oil that you can!

The difference between a good walnut oil and an amazing one is like night and day. Even when the oil itself is subtle, the flavor is mind-blowing!

That’s one of the reasons this pure black walnut oil is tops in class, winning Gold multiple times! Filled with polyunsaturated fatty acids in the form of omega-3s, this nut oil is good for memory and cardiovascular health.

Salad dressing of course, it can be added as a swirl to finish a carrot soup or as a natural preservative to a goat cheese treat.

Shop now for Maneyrol Virgin French Walnut Oil!

Every time I get ready to taste a jam from La Tinquelinette I get excited!

When you first open this wild blackberry jam you notice right away the seeds of the blackberries sitting on top. Not being a fan a of little seeds in my jam, I am cautious with the first spoonful. Knowing that La Tinquelinette has not let me down before I dive in.

The first thing you notice is the flavor is blackberry, perhaps it is the wild blackberry flavor and with these hints of vanilla. It is wow.

It took two or three giant spoonfuls before I began to recognize that yes, the seeds are there but nothing to worry about or to contend with.

With ingredients of just blackberry, brown sugar and agar agar it's really just a jam of, well, fruit. It is delicious with just the right texture with a smooth lumpiness that resembles tapioca.

I'm loving this jam.

I originally thought and have now confirmed this, while this jam on a piece of toast will be jamming, it seems even more perfect with your yogurt or cottage cheese and, of course, the morning oatmeal.

This jam has a presence that wants you to be creative in how you use it. And not just by the spoonful, by the big spoonful.

Chilled in the refrigerator and with a spoon, it's refreshing and certainly better than a candy. Topped on vanilla ice cream it would be perfection!

Shop now for La Trinquelinette Wild Blackberry - Mure Sauvage Jam!

To help save my meatloaf, I forgot the topping of marinara, I have scraped my jar clean of this salsa in its stead. And it has been deliciously perfect. This little jar is so versatile. Perfect for your essential pantry.

A very red salsa (thanks to tomatoes) that you might anticipate will be super-hot, but it isn’t.

You’ll look inside the jar and think you see corn kernels and when you take the bait you realize it is indeed corn, and somehow it’s the perfect combination of tomato, chili, corn and spices.

At the end of your taste, after the majority of the salsa is gone, your tongue and the inside of your mouth will feel tingly and prickly – but it’s very pleasant.

After multiple spoonfuls there will be a swell of spicy - quite delicious!

Shop now for Hawkshead Relish Cheeky Chili Salsa here!

This can contains the most prized cut of tuna, the belly or "ventresca", as it is called in Spain. The tuna's belly has the highest fat content, and so it is the richest in flavor and the silkiest in texture.

The belly of the tuna is also the most highly sought after cut in Japan for sushi and sashimi.

There is only a small amount of this delicious cut on a fish, and so the price is significantly higher, but your salads and pastas will be taken to new heights of flavor.

This is the authentic White Tuna, Bonita Del Norte, from the dense tuna banks in the waters off of the coast of the Basque Country. The fishing boats of Ortiz, the premier name in seafood packing, capture the fish using traditional methods, which respect the environment and avoid hurting dolphins or any other marine species.

Bonita Del Norte, the albacore tuna (Thunnus Alalunga), is the most oceanic species in the tuna family. They are all warm blooded, pelagic and migratory and they form shoals. The Atlantic White Tuna carries out two migrations in its lifetime, which are easily differentiated by its stage of maturity. Then they return towards their places of origin.

Bonita Del Norte fishing takes place in the Cantabrian Sea during the summer months when, coming from the Azores Sea, the fish appear annually in the waters of the Bay of Biscay, where they tend to be located on the warm side of the thermal waters, feeding on horse-mackerel and mackerel eggs and larvae.

Ortiz cooks and packs the tuna in olive oil to preserve its highly prized flavor

This tuna is super special! For some it is the ultimate of all tunas. And we rarely have enough in stock to put it in the newsletter.

Shop now for Ortiz Ventresca Tuna In Olive Oil