Adriana Janovich

Cindy Swain comes from a close-knit, wheat-farming community, where the typical fare is hearty and home-cooked. Restaurants at this crossroads 36 miles west of Spokane carry names like Cowboy Café and Edna’s Drive-In, or – for international cusine – El Ranchito.

The setting is a mid-19th century mining camp in California’s Sierra Nevada. But it might as well be a nearby mountain town during the Great Idaho Gold Rush of 1860. The story – full of bandits and bar fights, pistols and prospecting – focuses on forbidden love in the Wild, Wild West. Think: spaghetti Western meets Italian opera.

Hope grows here – along with cherry, Roma and heirloom tomatoes, basil, Swiss chard, tarragon and thyme. Chives came first. Then “lots of lettuces,” zucchini, broccoli, “some very nice cilantro,” strawberries, raspberries, blueberries – an abundance of ingredients and affirmation.

To celebrate National Ice Cream Month in July, the Food section asked readers to share their fondest ice cream memories. Today we have the results.

Labor Day might have marked the last long weekend of summer. But there’s still time to squeeze in another couple of quick trips to the lake before the weather turns crisp. And there’s nothing quite like celebrating the end of summer with the classic camping confection: s’mores. The unsophisticated but satisfying staple of childhood never seems to go out of style. Perhaps that’s because it’s so simple to make.

Geno’s is gearing up for the school year with the addition of an open mic night, happy hour and new menu. The University District eatery, which re-opened under new ownership and management almost a year ago, made the changes to cater to neighborhood residents, particularly Gonzaga University students. The campus is across the street.

Light, white and sweet with a hint of the exotic – think tropical islands – coconut cake is a Southern staple that somehow became associated with Easter feasts. But it was August, not April, and I was looking for something summery – and simple – to take to a garden party in a friend’s South Perry backyard.

Sue Hallett discovered wheat berries during a workshop at the public library. She had lived in Colfax – in the heart of Washington’s wheat country – since 1979 and saw the surrounding golden fields of grain. But she didn’t start cooking with the fiber- and protein-rich kernels until taking the class, which included a couple of recipes.

When Bill Myers began selling wheat berries at the Moscow and Pullman farmers markets in zip-top bags, people weren’t quite sure what to make of his product. “They would look at it and pet it and love on it and then look at me and ask, ‘What do you do with it?’ ” he said.

Growing up, we ate lentils galore. Packed with protein, fiber and folate, they’re hearty, stick-to-your-ribs ingredients, popularized in America by 1971’s “Diet for a Small Planet.” Mom – well-meaning, health-conscious and thrifty – tucked lentils into almost every soup or stew throughout the 1970s, ’80s and beyond.

Indaba Coffee Bar is now Indaba Coffee Bar and Roastery. The boutique coffee shop in Spokane’s West Central neighborhood began roasting its own beans earlier this year and has recently hired its first full-time coffee roaster.

Bring on the blue ribbons, corn on the cob and corn dogs. County fair season is right around the corner. And that means fair food – or pretty much anything deep-fried or served on a stick – or in the case of corn dogs, both.

David Blaine made it up as he went along. Armed with a stainless steel bowl but no shopping list, the Spokane chef stopped at nearly a dozen booths, picking up one or two items at each.

Quick look: A self-described “California girl” turned Alaskan galley cook, LaDonna Rose Gunderson is used to cooking in small spaces without easy accessibility to additional ingredients. As she points out in her introduction, “There are no super-markets at sea.” Still, onboard her 32-foot commercial fishing boat – where she cooks with an 18-by-21-inch diesel oil stove – or at home in Ketchikan, her recipes center around fresh and minimally processed foods, including plenty of freshly caught salmon, halibut, crab and clams. What’s inside: Gunderson is a self-taught cook who once owned and operated a bakery and deli in Poulsbo, the little Norwegian town on the Kitsap Peninsula. Her husband, Ole, who did many of the photographs for the cookbook, is a commercial salmon fisherman, and she’s worked alongside him every summer for the past 20 years, living abroad their boat, LaDonna Rose, named for her. “But just because we’re on a boat doesn’t mean we have to sacrifice taste or quality,” she writes. “I have to plan our meals and make the most out of every single ingredient that is available to me, but a little creativity and planning ahead is all it takes to have plenty of tasty meals.”