I would like to tell you about a recipe I made this week. This recipe is for a ratatouille (of sorts), but unlike most recipes it is not about the ingredients. It’s about the sources. Most of the ingredients came from around my own house. Here’s how it went.

First, I walked out the back door and collected five asparagus spears from the patch I planted 2 years ago (this is year 3!). Then I walked around the front to the garden, and picked two white eggplants (each the size of a very large finger), and a handful of small, yellow pear-shaped tomatoes. Lastly, I gathered a couple of large handfuls of chives and parsley, a branch of oregano, and a few basil leaves with their flowers. I tossed everything into a basket, and went back inside.

I pulled out the cutting board and sliced up the tomatoes and 4 small yellow peppers that I picked up at this week’s farmers market. The farmer who grew them handed them to me. I said thank you.

I diced a small onion that I found in the hanging basket in the laundry room, and then thinly sliced four cloves of garlic that were on the kitchen counter. I slid the onions and garlic into a bowl, and then placed all the herbs, together, on a separate cutting board. I chopped them coarsely, and set them aside.

Now I was ready to cook. I heated a generous tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan, and added the onions and garlic once the olive oil became fragrant. It cooked on low heat until the onion began to turn translucent and the garlic began browning a bit at the edges. Then I added the tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers, and turned up the heat to medium. Stir this mixture occasionally.

When the vegetables were all softened, but still easily distinguishable, I turned off the heat and let everything sit for a five minutes. I sprinkled it with coarse salt and cracked pepper, and stirred once again. I divided the ratatouille among two plates, and covered it with generous amounts of the chopped herb mixture. I ate my dinner with homemade pecan bread from my friend Lia. My husband ate his with a rustic, whole-grain bread.

There is absolutely nothing like making dinner from food you grew yourself, or from food whose grower you have met. This doesn’t have to apply to everything. It could be just one thing, like the herbs, or the tomatoes. I’m not exactly sure where the onions and garlic came from, to be honest. But that was such a great meal.