Julia Crookston and the Good Land Kitchen

Melissa Gomez and Julia Crookston at the Good Land Kitchen.

By Carrie Clough

Photography by Erin Feinblatt

Julia Crookston and I met after a presentation on raising chickens at the Faulkner Gallery, about a year and a half ago. Katherine Anderson of Blue Oak Ranch introduced us, knowing we were both chefs. I liked her immediately. It wasn’t just her enthusiasm for food that appealed to me—it was her enthusiasm for life. She seemed like a kindred spirit.

What intrigued me most about Julia was that her business was focused on food preservation: the canning, pickling and fermenting of surplus farm produce. “How absolutely fantastic,” I thought. Not only fantastic because those three methods are a wonderful way to both prevent spoilage and enhance the flavor of foods, but also because we have so much produce in Santa Barbara County that ends up in the compost.

Julia is what you might call a seasoned chef. During the course of her 30-year career, she has worked for Chez Panisse, for Jeremiah Towers—of Chez Panisse fame—at Stars, for the catering placement agency, Bon Appetit, for nearly 10 years, as a cooking instructor at the Southern California School of Culinary Art—now Le Cordon Bleu—and as a personal chef for Julie Andrews, Barbara Streisand, James Garner, Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith.

For a number of years now, Julia has been using produce from local farms here in Santa Barbara, transforming it into masterpieces ranging from organic blood orange marmalade to bread and butter pickles. Her business is called Preserve Santa Barbara, with a side business called Bona Dea expressly for sweet concoctions.

The biggest problem Julia faced was finding a kitchen she could use as often as necessary and, preferably, during daytime hours. This is a challenge for many chefs who are trying to sell their products, as commercial kitchens are not only expensive to rent but are almost always being utilized by other chefs.

One avenue Julia considered was to have a community-supported kitchen—not too dissimilar from the community-supported agriculture model, or CSA, though it does not involve box schemes. Instead of fresh produce, the kitchen will sell prepared foods using produce from local farms. Like blood orange marmalade made from Seven Oaks Ranch oranges in Ojai or apricot preserves from Tom Shepherd’s Sedgwick Reserve apricot crop.

Julia’s brother Michael—now one of her business partners—encouraged her to find a kitchen of her own, which took some effort. Eventually, they found a kitchen in Old Town Goleta. If any of you have ever gone for drinks at the Mercury Lounge, you have likely parked on the street adjacent to Hollister, which is South Magnolia Avenue. You might have even parked there during daylight hours and noticed an intriguing storefront called The Esmeralda Market, which has been closed now for several years. This is the location for their upcoming venture: The Good Land Kitchen.

Julia met Melissa Gomez through a mutual friend who knew they had a shared vision. Melissa worked as marketing manager for the Center for Urban Agriculture at Fairview Gardens and has been interested in setting up a community-supported kitchen for a couple of years. With Julia’s experience as a chef and Melissa’s experience working for a CSA, it felt like the right blend of expertise to get this business off the ground.

With Julia running the kitchen and producing many of her famous jams and pickles, Melissa will be running the deli at the Good Land Kitchen, as well as using her marketing background to attract interns to help as volunteers. They are planning to have a full-service deli as well as a retail shop, offer cooking classes and continually evolve to become a great resource for the community. Their goal is to inspire others to get involved and become excited about their contribution to the business.

After she and Melissa gave me a tour of the kitchen, Julia sent me home with a smorgasbord of her outstanding pickles and jams. The apricot preserve made from Tom Shepherd’s apricots is easily the best I have ever eaten. Barely sweetened with the most intense apricot flavor, I have been putting it in my yogurt in the morning—incredible. This morning I had toast spread with mascarpone and Julia’s blood orange marmalade—outstanding.

The pickled carrots with oregano, garlic and chilies are nearly gone and the preserved lemons are absolutely perfect. So much better than any preserved lemons I’ve made. I plan on buying them from her as often as necessary, and luckily the Good Land Kitchen opens April 18th.

The Good Land Kitchen is located at 231 South Magnolia Avenue in Old Town Goleta. The hours are Monday–Friday 7am–2pm. Visit their website at goodlandkitchen.com.