September and October farmer’s markets beckon with a double dose of seasonal bounty, as the last of the tomatoes and corn give way to figs and squash, chiles and whole grains. Here, five Sonoma chefs, emerging names and TV stars alike, show off the best ways to play with these flavors at home, from an alluring cauliflower and chickpea salad to a uniquely velvety walnut gazpacho. Each recipe is so very Sonoma, with abundant local veggies at the heart of the dish—and each recipe speaks, in its own way, to what makes fall such an incredible time of year for those who love to cook.

The Chef: Crista Luedtke

Boon Eat + Drink, El Barrio, Brot, eatatboon.com
Guerneville

Call her the chef who transformed an entire town. In 2008, tired of corporate life, Crista Luedtke moved to Guerneville, taking over a boutique hotel and opening a restaurant named for her sweet, white-muzzled rescue pup, Boon. And then she just kept going, with another local restaurant, and another—and just this summer, a second resort, The Highlands. Along the way, she became a star on “Guy’s Grocery Games” and a leader with a heart of gold in her local community.

Today, though she travels in the heady world of celebrity chefs, she stays true to her adopted west county roots, hiking with friends at the Jenner Headlands Preserve or dropping in a couple of kayaks at the mouth of the Russian River.

“Early fall is quite literally one of my most favorite times of year here, as the vineyards go from green to orange to red,” Luedtke says. “It’s a moment to relax and reflect on a crazy-busy summer season. It means fewer crowds, but more quality time with people, and really getting to enjoy the bounty of the food.”

Luedtke says this easy fall recipe came together on the fly, with nutty cauliflower, creamy chickpeas, and sweet figs balanced by salty olives and crunchy pine nuts.

“Eating veggie doesn’t have to mean just salads—it can mean super-hearty and seasonal. This is like a fun mash-up of my favorite things.”

Roasted Cauliflower Over Whipped Chickpeas with Fig and Olive Relish 

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

1 medium head of cauliflower

1 15-oz. can of organic chickpeas (reserve the liquid)

1-2 cloves of garlic, peeled

⅓ cup olive oil, plus additional for tossing and browning

⅓ cup tahini (optional)

1 lemon

Salt and pepper

For relish

1 pound fresh figs

1 shallot, diced

1 small jar Castelvetrano olives, pitted, strained, and roughly chopped

1 lemon

2 tbsp toasted pine nuts

For garnish

2 tbsp toasted pine nuts

½ bunch Italian parsley, stems removed, leaves roughly chopped 1 lemon and its zest

Instructions

Cut the cauliflower into florets. Toss the florets in a few tablespoons of olive oil and salt, then roast on a baking sheet in the oven at 450°F until goldenbrown, about 10-15 minutes. The finished cauliflower should have color and tenderness but retain a bit of crunch.

While the cauliflower roasts, prepare the chickpea puree. Strain the chickpeas and reserve the liquid in a bowl. In a blender or food processor, combine the chickpeas, the juice of one lemon, garlic, olive oil, tahini, a teaspoon of salt, and ¼ cup of the reserved chickpea liquid (aquafaba).

Blend on high for about 2 minutes, scraping down the sides as needed. If the machine slows down, add 2 more tablespoons of aquafaba. To finish, add 1 tablespoon of water at a time until the puree is smooth and light, and season with salt and fresh ground pepper to taste.

To make the relish, cut the figs in half, and caramelize them on the stove in a medium-hot saute pan with a tablespoon of olive oil, then set aside to cool.

In the same pan, sauté the diced shallot in oil on medium heat until soft, and add the chopped olives to warm them through, then remove from heat. Once the figs are cool, chop them roughly and add them back to pan with the oliveshallot mixture and the juice of one lemon. Roughly chop the pine nuts and fold into relish. Set aside at room temperature until serving.

To serve, spread the whipped chickpeas on individual plates or a platter, top with the roasted cauliflower, and spoon the relish over the cauliflower.

Squeeze the juice of one lemon on top, and garnish with chopped parsley, lemon zest, and more pine nuts.

The Chef: Oscar Bendeck

Kivelstadt Cellars, kivelstadtcellars.com
Sonoma

Oscar Bendeck grew up in the diverse culinary world of South Central Los Angeles, the youngest of four, with parents originally from El Salvador and an uncle from Korea. “So growing up, it was a lot of Latino foods— elote, street food—but then I was also eating rice and nori and kim chi,” he says. He attended Le Cordon Bleu in Pasadena, then built a career as a corporate chef, feeding crowds while keeping quality high (“my specialty is taking someone’s grandmother’s recipe and scaling it up”). Bendeck moved to Sonoma with his wife and dog three years ago to take over the culinary program at Sonoma Raceway. Recently, he’s been making a splash at Kivelstadt Cellars with elevated Wine Country dishes like vegan tacos with blue corn tortillas and tri-tip smoked with grapevines. “I love fall,” the chef says. “We do a big harvest party at the winery, and all of the pumpkins and gourds in my garden at home are ready. And we go out in a big group to Hog Island, rent picnic tables, tailgate and grill oysters.”

Bendeck says his gazpacho is full of protein and refreshing on a warm day. Traditionally, white gazpacho is thickened with almonds and bread, but Bendeck’s extra-velvety version is gluten-free and vegan, made with local walnuts and often garnished with grapes straight from the vineyards. At Kivelstadt, Bendeck serves the soup with a Parmesan tuile, but he also loves it with a hunk of crusty ciabatta bread.

White Walnut Gazpacho 

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

For walnut milk

2 cups walnuts, raw or roasted

2 cups water

For soup

1 sweet onion, chopped

4 Persian cucumbers, chopped

8 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

2 cups green grapes, sliced in half

2 tsp white pepper

3 tbsp kosher salt

4 cups walnut milk (see above)

¼ cup sherry vinegar

¼ cup champagne vinegar

1 cup extra-virgin olive oil

2 cups vegetable broth or coconut milk

For garnish

¾ cup cucumber, diced

½ cup walnuts, chopped

¾ cup green grapes, sliced

Sliced shallots to taste

Extra-virgin olive oil and sherry vinegar, for drizzling

Instructions

First, make a base of macerated vegetables and grapes: Sprinkle white pepper and kosher salt over the onion, Persian cucumbers, garlic, and green grapes and let sit for 30 minutes while the flavors combine.

While the base macerates, make the walnut milk by blending walnuts and water in a blender until velvety smooth.

To make the finished soup, combine the macerated vegetables and grapes, walnut milk, sherry and champagne vinegars, olive oil, and broth or coconut milk in a blender and blend until smooth. Chill the soup and serving bowls for 30 minutes before serving. To serve, combine the cucumber, walnuts, grapes, and shallots together and toss. Spoon the soup into chilled bowls, divide the garnish among the servings, and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and sherry vinegar.

The Chef: Ploypailin Sakornsin

Sangsan, Quail & Condor, @fermentedperson on Instagram
Healdsburg

At 29 years old, Ploypailin Sakornsin has built a foodie career straight out of a fairytale. Born in Bangkok, Thailand, she studied finance and worked in banking before realizing cooking was what she was meant to do. She opened a small sushi kiosk across the street from the bank where she used to work, then headed to the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY—where she zoomed to the top of her class and scored a coveted internship at Healdsburg’s SingleThread.

Sakornsin recently struck out on her own, building a following as a private chef, baking with fellow SingleThread alums at Quail & Condor, and creating small pop-ups of Thai street food favorites under the name Sangsan. “I’m super homesick sometimes, so this kind of food takes me back. I want to make food that Thai people will say tastes like home.” The star of this fall dish is a Thai chile and coconut milk dressing, which tastes refreshing alongside crisp greens and eggplant but also would go beautifully with grilled fish or shrimp.

Fall here in wine country still feels new, says Sakornsin. “We don’t have seasons back home; it’s summer, summer, summer—and then typhoon. So it’s really nice to feel the cool nights and hot days and eat all the good produce.”

Baked Eggplant Salad with Chile-Coconut Dressing (Yum Makeau Muang) 

Makes two dinner-size salads

Ingredients

For the chile jam

1 medium shallot

2 cloves garlic

1-2 mild dried chiles such as guajillo

¼ cup canola or sunflower oil

1 tsp sugar Pinch of salt

For the chile-coconut dressing

¾ cup coconut milk

2 tbsp chile jam (see above)

1 tbsp fish sauce

1 tsp sugar

1 tbsp lime juice

For the salad

1 medium eggplant Pinch of salt

4-5 tbsp canola or sunflower oil, enough to coat the eggplant

6 cups packed mixed greens (here, a combination of frisée, green and red lettuces)

1 medium shallot, thinly sliced

2 hard-boiled eggs, shelled and quartered

3-4 radishes, thinly sliced

½ cup packed cilantro, roughly chopped

Instructions

Slice the shallot into quarters, then place the shallot, garlic cloves, and dried chiles in a small frying pan, and cook on low heat on the stovetop. Remove the chiles from heat when they’ve turned dark and crispy. Remove the shallots and garlic when they are blistered all over. Then, blend the roasted shallots, garlic, and chiles in a blender with the oil, adding the sugar and a pinch of salt as it blends. Continue blending until the mixture becomes a fine paste.

Return the paste to a cooking pan on the stove, and over low heat, stir until the oil separates and the mixture is cooked to a clear, deep red. Refrigerate the paste and oil in a tightly-lidded jar for up to a month, and use together in any recipe that calls for chile jam.

Preheat the oven to 425ºF.

Cut eggplant into thin sticks, then toss with canola oil and a generous pinch of salt. Lay the eggplant sticks on a baking tray lined with parchment or a Silpat sheet. Bake the eggplant at 425ºF for 5 minutes, then flip and bake another 5 minutes or until crispy.

Whisk all dressing ingredients together. Adjust the flavor to your liking by adding extra fish sauce, sugar, or lime, then set aside.

Mix the lettuces together and arrange on a serving platter with the baked eggplant, shallots, eggs, radishes, and cilantro. Pour the dressing over the top and serve.

The Chef: Roberth Sundell

Stockhome, stockhomerestaurant.com
Petaluma

It’s a family affair at Roberth and Andrea Sundell’s terrific Petaluma restaurant, Stockhome. The couple, who have four children, including 11-year-old twins, wanted to open a comfortable, simple neighborhood spot where even young guests would feel welcome. The menus reflects a range of street-food influences in Sweden’s cosmopolitan capital, where Roberth grew up: meatballs and gravlax make their appearance, but so do kebabs and falafel. At the restaurant, Roberth garnishes this easy fall flatbread with lovage, which Swedes call libbsticka. The fresh greens, which Roberth says taste like a cross between parsley and celery, balance the richness of the cheese, the earthiness of the mushrooms, and the sweetness of the pear. The flatbread dough comes together quickly, but if you’d rather, a prepared dough or crust is an easy substitute.

Mushroom & Pear Flatbreads 

Ingredients

For the flatbreads

¾ tsp dry active yeast

1 cup warm water (98 ºF)

2/3 cup whole wheat flour

2/3 cup “00” pizza flour

1 ½ tsp salt

2 tbsp olive oil

For toppings (per flatbread)

1 tbsp crème fraiche

¼ cup Prästost cheese or shredded gouda

¼ cup King Trumpet mushrooms, thinly shaved

½ ripe Asian pear, thinly shaved

1 tsp garlic, shaved and lightly fried

1 tsp pine nuts, toasted

½ tsp lemon zest

½ cup lovage or flatleaf parsley

Maldon salt

Fresh-cracked pepper

Instructions

First, make the flatbreads. In a small bowl, whisk together the yeast and warm water and allow to rest for 10 minutes while the yeast activates.

In a stand mixer with a dough hook, stir together the whole wheat flour, 00 pizza flour, and salt. Add the yeast/water mixture and olive oil to the flour and salt. Mix for 1 minute, then pause and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Then mix again on medium speed for another 5-7 minutes.

Turn out the dough onto a table sprinkled with a small amount of 00 flour and knead for two minutes with your hands. Using a pastry cutter, cut the dough into 8-10 equal pieces and place on an oiled baking tray. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.

Set a pizza stone in the oven and preheat to 400 ºF. Remove the dough from the fridge. Roll out individual flatbreads with a rolling pin into an oval shape. Bake flatbreads on a pizza stone at 400 ºF for 10 minutes until crispy. While they’re baking, sauté the shaved mushrooms in a hot pan with olive oil, salt, and pepper until softened, about four minutes. Remove the flatbreads from the oven.

When the flatbreads have cooled a bit, spread with crème fraiche and cover with shredded cheese. Mix the sautéed mushrooms with the shaved pear, and cover the top of the flatbreads. Bake the flatbreads a second time in a 400 ºF oven for 10 minutes, or until the cheese has melted. To serve, top with zested lemon, lightly-fried garlic, toasted pine nuts, salt, and pepper, and garnish with fresh lovage.

The Chef: Joni Davis

Miracle Plum, miracleplum.com
Santa Rosa

Joni Davis, a chef and culinary instructor, says fall in Sonoma feels a little more intense than it did when she was growing up outside Windsor in the 1980s, given the differences in weather and the challenges of fire season. “I feel more grateful for the produce we get, knowing what it takes to grow and harvest it. It feels important to me to treasure that,” she says. One of a team of women who run Miracle Plum’s culinary marketplace and kitchen, Davis says she’s inspired by the store’s collaborative spirit: “It makes everything better that we all have a voice,” she says. Davis also draws strength from the students in her tart- and pie-baking classes at Santa Rosa Junior College, who persevered through distance learning last year, picking up kits of ingredients and posting pictures of at-home baking assignments. “I wasn’t expecting it, that joy they found in the kitchen—it was the best thing.”

Davis loves working with pumpkins and squash, especially delicata squash, which she calls the queen of the fall veggies. “I love the sweetness of it. I love its color, its seeds, the texture it brings to soups and stews. And I love the shape—when you cut it into rounds and you get that beautiful scalloped edge.” She says this dish makes the most of the play between sweet squash, nutty farro, tart pickled currants, and sweet-hot apricot-chile dressing, which takes on a gorgeous rosy hue from apricot jam.

Farro Salad with Roasted Delicata Squash and Feta

Serves 4-5

Ingredients

As summer ushers in autumn, we begin to miss our warm-weather berries, peaches, and plums. But that’s why preserving the goodness of harvest has long been a way of life in Sonoma County. We pickle and can our garden veggies, mill grains into flour, and even freeze herbs and citrus juices to enjoy year-round.

“I’ve absolutely seen a rise in people canning preserves,” says Amie Pfeifer, who makes jams, shrubs, pickles and more at Glen Ellen’s Flatbed Farm. “It was super-evident last summer, as you couldn’t find a Ball or Mason jar for miles. I also had more people coming and asking me questions about beginning canning or telling me about their own canning experiences.”

Besides pampering our palates with the brightest, freshest flavors, canning and pickling helps protect the earth. “Preserving is a fantastic way to eat foods out of season,” says Veva Edelson of Piano Farm, a boutique operation in Bloomfield, where she and husband Karel Sidorjak turn a cornucopia of produce into jam, polenta, and cider. “It is way more sustainable than shipping produce long distances so we can have whatever we want whenever we want it.”

Five years ago, Tanya Seibold of Fourteen Magpies started making jams as gifts for friends and family with fruit from the heirloom orchard on the 1915 farm she inherited from family in southwest Santa Rosa. The riches hung heavy on the branches: 50-year-old quince and Spitzenburg apples; figs; and over a dozen different plums, including rare French prunes and several wild varieties she still hasn’t identified. “My desire to craft a collection of jams and preserves came from seeing beautiful fruit drop with nowhere to go,” says Seibold. “We’re so fortunate in Sonoma County to have an unending bounty of produce — I didn’t want it to go to waste.”

Seibold’s low-sugar, micro-batch jams in handnumbered jars were an instant hit, with their bold, perfectly balanced sweet-tart flavors. The crowning touch: kisses of vanilla bean and a puckery finish of lemon. “We use an all-natural, vegan, low-sugar pectin, and a ratio of approximately one cup of pure cane sugar to one pound of fruit,” she says. “Most commercial jams are two cups of sugar per pound. Way too sweet! I believe the true flavor of the fruit should shine through in every bite.”

Last year, Seibold invested in a pricey French copper jam pot, secured a cottage food industry permit from the county, and opened her boutique business for sales online and at local festivals. “I covet my jam pot,” she says. “It was a splurge, but so worth it. Copper’s heat-conductivity can’t be beat, and the wide, shallow design allows the fruit to heat up quickly and evenly. The shorter it takes the jam to cook, the more flavorful it is.”

To be sure, these are treasures you’ll want to slather on pastries and scones. But Seibold says they also pair beautifully with charcuterie, cheese, and grilled meats. “And try adding them to a craft cocktail in place of simple syrup, for a burst of brilliant fruit flavor.”

It’s difficult to believe how much goodness is coaxed from the 3-acre Piano Farm in the west county hamlet of Bloomfield. Owners Veva Edelson and Karel Sidorjak craft gourmet, tiny-batch products like boysenberry-lemon verbena, strawberry-red currant, and tomato-plum-rosemary jams; nutty rich Floriani corn polenta; Sonoma Coast sea salt flavored with their own herbs; and a zingy fire cider of live-culture apple cider vinegar spiked with horseradish, onion, garlic, ginger, thyme and rosemary.

Everything except the salt comes from the couple’s organic farm. And they handcraft it all, from grinding the corn using a bicycle-powered mill, to drying anise hyssop, mullein, tarragon, marigold, and rosemary in their sun-house to make their Lung Love Tea. “We consider ourselves to be artists and climate change activists,” explains Edelson. “We have a deep connection with food and believe that the landscapes we live in are shaped by the choices we make.”

A burbling pot of jam shown on Instagram hints of the farmstead approach for tart strawberry-rhubarb-rose jam and plum preserves fragrant with the cinnamon- basil notes of red shiso. Spicy mustard is another time-consuming craft, starting with horseradish that’s preserved in apple cider vinegar. The mustard blooms for a week before it’s blended with the horseradish, then the mix rests for a while to mellow its sharp, sinus-tingling thrill.

At Glen Ellen’s bucolic Flatbed Farm, monthly classes led by manager Amie Pfeifer explore all different avenues for preserving seasonal harvests, including answering questions like the difference between jam, marmalade, and fruit butter. “Berries and soft fruits that are cooked down whole become jams,” she says.

“Marmalades are specifically citrus, and butter comes from pureed fruit that you cook low and slow until it becomes thick and darkens in color.”

Certainly, you can buy the delicious finished products at their farmstand year-round, but Pfeifer encourages people to try their own hand at canning, too, from vegetables and fruits they grow at home or farmers market purchases they may have left on the counter just a little too long. “Preserving is the best way to utilize imperfect produce,” she says. “At Flatbed, whenever we have anything that is overripe, has been slightly damaged in the harvesting or maybe has a bite taken out by a critter, it goes into the ‘Amie Bin.’ I turn it into something, whether it’s jams, spreads, pickles, shrubs, or dried snacks. We do our absolute best not to waste anything.”

Jesus Velasquez and Patricia Greer’s small family farm, Waterhorse Ridge, nestles above a fog-blanketed valley on a remote Cazadero ridgetop, where the couple has been living off-grid for 25 years. That means they can be hard to reach (“We have ridiculously spotty internet up here,” Greer says with a laugh), and their website can be hit or miss.

But it’s worth hunting them down for delicacies like their organic, orchard-harvested Seven Citrus Marmalade; Triple Berry and Apricot Vanilla Cointreau jams; spiced plum chutney; and salsas. Velasquez and Greer’s signature is working with more unusual produce like Luther Burbank thornless blackberries, sweet lemons, Rangpur limes, and Thai Dragon chile peppers, which will go into a Cherry Dragon salsa later this year.

Locally, Oliver’s Market carries Waterhorse Ridge products, including the Triple Noir preserves, a “crazy blend” of blackberry, mulberry, estate grapes, and chocolate. Emily O’Conor, who oversees Oliver’s gourmet cheese selections, recommends their apricot preserves with a rich triple-cream brie, or the plum chutney with blue cheese. Waterhorse Ridge batches are tiny: just seven cases at a time, 12 jars to a case. And as with the best of all farm-grown products, availability is seasonal, says Greer, “and subject to the whims of nature.”

All Things Jam

Tierra Vegetables: Harvest bounty at this landmark Santa Rosa farmstand comes pickled, frozen, dehydrated, smoked, canned, bottled, and milled. Don’t Miss: Colorful popping corn such as Dakota Black, Ruby Red, and Shaman Blue. Also excellent hot sauces and stoneground polenta. 651 Airport Blvd., Santa Rosa. 707-544-6141, tierravegetables.com

Fourteen Magpies Homemade Jams & Preserves: Tanya Seibold makes delicious micro-batches of Bartlett pear-ginger jam, Gravenstein apple jelly, quince paste and more. Don’t Miss: Comparing versions of her wild plum jam from orchards just a few feet apart— one rosier in color and tasting of spiced apricot; the other a deep, inky purple. Order at fourteenmagpies.com

Lala’s Jam Bar and Urban Farmstand: Jam-making classes are a highlight at this popular shop, held Sunday mornings. Sign up for Sunday Jammin’ ($55 per person); or Family Jam ($99 per family). Don’t Miss: The Petaluma Fog, with figs, orange juice, and ginger, and wonderful mild and hot versions of Lala’s organic pepper jelly. Open Thurs-Mon, 10 a.m.- 5 p.m. 720 E. Washington Street, Petaluma. 707-773-1083, lalasjams.com

Piano Farm: At Veva Edelson and Karel Sidorjak’s organic farm in Bloomfield, everything is made by hand including apple cider vinegar produced with an apple press they received as a wedding present. Don’t Miss: Tomato-plum-rosemary jam, zingy Fire Cider, and stoneground Floriani polenta. Order at pianofarm.org

Waterhorse Ridge: Oliver’s Markets carry the creative combinations put forth by Jesus Velasquez and Patricia Greer from their small farm in Cazadero. Don’t Miss: Triple Noir preserves, with grapes, berries, and chocolate, or the Creative Buzz tea, a flurry of peppermint, rhodiola, yerba mate, berries, and more. Order at waterhorseridge.com

Flatbed Farm: Pickles, flavored sugars, preserves, and all kinds of other harvest goodness come from the kitchen at this bucolic Sonoma Valley farmstand. Register in advance for “Preserving the Season: Shrubs and Jams” class on October 17, $125 per person. Don’t Miss: Delicious apricot jam and pomegranate shrubs. Open Saturdays 9 a.m.- 3 p.m. 13450 Highway 12, Glen Ellen. flatbedfarm.com