Rancho La Puerta La Cocina que Canta

La Cocina que Canta! ~ The Kitchen That Sings

Rancho La Puerta La Cocina Gardens 

Cooking School &  Culinary Center – Rancho La Puerta

The lush six-acre kitchen gardens of Tres Estrellas are located a bit north of the Rancho’s main landscape.

Rancho La Puerta La Cocina Que Canta 

Encompassing 3,000 acres overall, the Rancho property takes in a 2,000-acre parcel set aside by the Szekely as a permanent nature preserve.

Equally impressive:  The gardens have been farmed organically since 1940, yielding delectable produce for the Rancho’s Mediterranean-style meals & for ingredients used at the cooking school. Below: Set within the pavement, a circular design combines pebble paving & wooly thyme, releasing its lovely scent with each footstep.

Rancho La Puerta – Wooly thyme Paving La Cocina 

In the entryway courtyard leading to the kitchen, bougainvillea scrambles up the red brick wall, while the rich fragrance of Brugmansia ‘Charles Grimaldi’ is most potent at the end of the day.

© Alice Joyce

Edible flowers garnish many dishes to add flavor and color, like the delicious blooms of  broccoli rabe – aka Broccoli Raap or Rapini.

Head Gardener Salvador Tinajero © Alice Joyce

Head Gardener Salvador Tinajero cares for the gardens, and assists students in harvesting herbs and vegetables to be added to the school’s mouth-watering recipes.

The gardens thrive in a valley nestled in the foothills of Mount Kuchumaa .. a sacred site for Native Americans.

Rancho La Puerta La Cocina Que Canta Culinary Gardens