Non-Fiction by Janice Macdonald

GET OUT OF TOWN "Eating your way around Santa Barbara"

By JANICE MACDONALD, Special Advertising Sections Writer

It's Tuesday, just after noon, and produce supplier Art Komgiebel is making the rounds of Santa Barbara 's white-tablecloth restaurants. The interior of his Dodge Durango is redolent with the smell of fresh herbs.

There are cartons of pungent green basil, boxes of wild arugula and frilly red and green ruffled baby lettuces. Another box contains dark green stalks of spigarello, an Italian broccoli. In another are rows of tiny yellow squash with blossoms still attached. For the chef of one restaurant, Komgiebel is bringing berries and a carton of locally grown blood oranges.

Set on the Pacific, with miles of scenic coastline, Santa Barbara and its environs, including Carpinteria, Buellton, Goleta , Santa Ynez and Solvang, is blessed with a Mediterranean climate and surrounded by fertile farmlands. To a visitor, Santa Barbara 's offerings make for a fascinating culinary adventure — whether you choose to sample the area's bounty in local restaurants or head straight to the source.

Take a look at the menus of half a dozen Santa Barbara-area restaurants, and the items are a testimony to natural abundance: porcini mushrooms, sweet corn bisque, roasted beets and heirloom tomatoes.

And the bounty doesn't stop at edibles pulled from the ground. Drive or walk to the end of Stearn's Wharf and check out the rock crab and spiny lobster swimming in tanks at the Santa Barbara Shellfish Company. There you can chow down on shrimp and crab as you enjoy the ocean view.

Or you can go directly to the source. Depending on the season, you can pick different kinds of berries, apples and peaches; buy crab and lobster right off the boat dock; tour lavender and ostrich farms and olive oil producers; and take cooking classes focusing on Santa Maria barbecue, local wine country cuisine and more.

For a quick and colorful overview of what the area has to offer, check out a local farmers' market. One is held in the Santa Barbara area every day but Monday. The biggest two are the Old Town market on Tuesday afternoons and the downtown market on Saturday mornings. The crowd browsing the stalls includes locals, tourists and usually a chef or two. Many restaurants in town offer farmers' market dinners in which the chef will take you around the farmers' market to pick up ingredients and then back to the restaurant to cook everything up for dinner.

On a recent Tuesday, Josh Brown, chef at the Bouchon, was trailing a wagon full of corn and carrots — the basis for separate soups that he ended up featuring on the menu. There were stalls of honey, cheeses, pistachios, jams and jellies and a bewildering selection of greens, veggies and fruit, all of which was organically grown.

For those in the mood for something more exotic than berries, Jay Ruskey, who grows cherimoyas on a ranch in the foothills of Santa Barbara , was chopping up fruit for samples. Not widely known, cherimoya, pale green, scalloped and roughly the size of a mango, is one of those fruits with a taste open to interpretation — its sweet, custardy texture hints of banana, apple, mango, or maybe a blend of all three.

Ruskey also grows small tropical bananas, guavas and blood oranges. The latter can be sampled at the Blue Agave Grill, where they're used in a the blood-orange martini.

After the Oscar-nominated film “Sideways” (2004) created a tourist boom for the Santa Barbara area, the Conference and Visitors Bureau issued a map featuring local wineries and restaurants visited by characters in the movie.

Get Fresh on the American Riviera, a new self-guided culinary tour, takes this a step farther. The guide offers a rundown of local farms that are open to the public, specialty shops and markets, cooking classes and a list of food and wine events. A few suggestions in and around the area include:

Ostrich Land in Buellton: In the mood for a really big omelet? A small roadside shop sells ostrich eggs and meat, considered a low-fat alternative to beef. One ostrich egg is equivalent to a 22-egg omelet. The 33-acre breeding farm is home to nearly 200 very big birds who reach 8 1/2 feet in height and weigh up to 350 pounds when fully grown.

Santa Barbara Olive Co., Santa Barbara: Craig Nakala's great-great-grandfather brought the first olives and grapes to Santa Barbara , and the business has been in the family ever since. You can tour the farm and buy organic olives, capers, peppers and salsa and sample olive oil. Nakala also raises organic beef, sheep and chickens.

Fairview Gardens , Goleta: Many local chefs buy their produce here. Founded in 1895 and thought to be the oldest organic farm in Southern California , the 12 1/2-acre farm offers self-guided and educational tours.

Morrell Nut and Berry Farm, Solvang: During the summer and fall months, you can pick your own raspberries and blackberries. When the berries are gone, try the sun-dried walnuts.

Apple Lane Orchard, Solvang: This family-run farm, in business for more than 17 years, features 6 acres planted with red and gold Delicious, Granny Smith, Fuji and Gala apples. Each variety ripens at different times. Buy from the stand or pick them yourself and pay by the pound.

Santa Barbara Pistachio Co., Maricopa: The 2,900-feet altitude, sunny days and cool, clear nights are said to create growing conditions almost identical to the pistachio's native climate in the Middle East . Call to arrange a tour of this family-run farm in the hills of Santa Barbara County.

Claremont Farms, Los Olivos: If all the tasting leaves you with frazzled nerves, check out the 5 acres of organic grosso variety lavender. Lavender products — soap, perfumes, oils and culinary lavenders and teas — are available for sale.

If you'd like to pack a picnic to take along on your culinary adventure, C'est Cheese in Santa Barbara will pack a basket — with such themes as hiking, wine country, beach and concerts in the park — tailored to your needs.

At Lazy Acres Market in Santa Barbara, you can find bread, cheese, wine and more -- all organic -- to fill your picnic basket.

And, finally, a piece of advice: If you decide to head to Santa Barbara, start off with an empty stomach. Bon appetit!

*Published in latimes.com July 17, 2005