Family Ties

“You go through life wondering what it’s all about, but at the end of the day it’s all about family.”

—Rod Stewart

Long before this issue became the one in your hands right now, we decided to focus on a sampling of people in our community whose families informed who they are. Part of that decision was the notion that winter and families just go together. This goes beyond the Norman Rockwell-esque image of family time over the holidays and chilly, dark nights that make you want to hibernate. As rock legend Rod Stewart says, family is what life is all about. Something to think about as we enter 2019.

Family seems especially important now with the late-fall fires that ravaged Northern California and Ventura County before moving on to our neighbors to the south. And, of course, the beyond-words horror of the mass shooting at the Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks.

Through it all, family is what holds us together. It’s a concept that brings into its embrace friends, coworkers, faith community and the community at large. These are the people—related by blood or not—on whom we rely in hard times to help get us through, and in good times to share our joy.

Watching Julia San Bartolome make tamales with her grandma, Julia Parra, for the story on page 33 was truly a bit of in-the-moment bliss. San Bartolome’s 85-year-old grandma delighted in sharing their family’s tradition of making tamales for Christmas. With a smile that sparkled as much as her pearlescent glitter shoes, Parra watched over her granddaughter as she spread the masa over the damp cornhusks. With deft hands, Parra then demonstrated how to fill and fold the tamales into the three-sided rectangles, readying them for steaming.

Ivan Medina, executive chef for his parents’ restaurant Sheila’s Wine Bar & Café in Camarillo, shares how his parents encouraged his interest in cooking from an early age. “They’re like my best friends,” Medina says of his parents. (What parents wouldn’t love to hear that?) And Emily Staalberg of Steel Acres Farm in Meiners Oaks nurtures the land as she cares for her family that includes two young daughters. …There are so many more family ties within the pages of this issue.

From our Edible Ojai & Ventura County family to yours, we wish you a happy, healthy and family-filled 2019.