Back in 1986 St. James’ published a recipe book, “Joyful Cooking at St. James”. Not to let old recipes lie we did it again in 2004 with “Loaves & Fishes…”. Guess what folks, the urge has hit us again, but it started with the garden, not the recipe. Then other thoughts crept in such as St. James’ history and personal stories about your garden and recipes. Then it occurred to us that photos often tell much of the story about our favorite foods. Given the advances being made in self-publishing we thought we would make this effort a book you would like to read as well as a place to find delicious and inventive recipes.
Below see the list of parts of the book. The book will evolve 
depending on what you the writers submit for inclusion in the book. The list:
- James’ history to include some chronological history.
- Personal stories surrounding the garden and recipes – see the fictitious example below.
- Recipes and cooking advice for obtaining best results.
- Gardening for the Fremont area, re: raising your own vegetables and flowers.
- Recipes that you love, that might have been a relative’s recipe, or that you might have created from the produce in your garden, etc.
- Photos: of yourselves and your food.
A mighty tall order you say? Well, we know that this will be a job, a labor of love, and, like a recent play, a fund-raiser and/or community outreach.
Not to forget the fictitious example promised above:
Example: My spaghetti sauce never tasted as good as my neighbor’s sauce. I idolized her sauce. My mouth watered every time we accepted an invitation for pasta at her house. A year ago I screwed up my courage to ask her what her secret was for her wonderful sauce. Fresh Tomatoes! She lit up when she told me. She always waited for the fresh tomatoes from her garden before she made the year’s supply of pasta sauce. Her recipe (She showed me the recipe all covered with spots of tomato juice.) looked much the same as mine except that tomatoes had the word FRESH in front of it. Stunned that the one ingredient made so much difference, I set about planting tomatoes in my tiny garden plot (two large pots) on the morning-sun side of the house. To cut to the chase, I now have friends asking me for MY recipe. To tell the truth, I’m tempted to omit FRESH from the tomato description so they will salivate when I invite them over for my spaghetti. So read the recipe below and imagine how it would go with your favorite pasta, tangy and full flavored, and some other FRESH vegetables and a taste of full-bodied wine, and the conversation of good friends. Umm, good….and see how I get the biggest tomato crop I can from my two pots.
You can probably do better than this fictitious fantasy. 
So put on your creative recipe cap, utilize your garden as a source for ingredients, and send us your best story or stories about your garden and recipes. This is our (St. James’) book and we all can take part in it. Ideas welcome. Stories welcome. Recipes welcome. Garden adventures and stories welcome. A name for the book would be welcome as well.
~ Bruce Roberts and Jim Cunningham
Brucesface386@yahoo.com or jimckayc@sbcglobal.net