Feast of Eden: a California winery with vision offers fresh Thai recipes and smart gardening tips

Under the canopy of oaks atop a hill overlooking California's Russian River Valley, there's more going on than dinner. Nit and Hampton Bynum are entertaining friends with a meal that merges the couple's diverse backgrounds. Nit, a former reporter and business-school graduate from Thailand, with culinary training thrown in, prepares dishes based on classic Thai recipes. Hampton, vice president of Davis Bynum Winery, founded by his father, chooses the wines. The bold seasonings of Thai food can overwhelm wine, but not when they work together. Nit tones down the traditional sharp, hot-and-sour accents so the flavors complement, rather than clash, with the wines.

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The meal starts with an appetizer of citrus-scented crab salad mounded on cucumber slices. Its accompanying wine--a crisp Fume Blanc with citrus and tropical fruit notes--has a similar fresh quality. A sweet-tart noodle and chicken salad pairs perfectly with the round, smooth Chardonnay, with its lean acid and Gravenstein apple flavor. Coconut milk tempers the spices of the green curry fish, so it works with the cherry, smoky plum, and other flavors in the Pinot Noir.

This party also shows one of Hampton's dreams for the region at work. Sonoma County has long been home to a variety of crops, including apples, beans, and hops. In recent years, though, wine grapes have become the major crop. The community has had to work to maintain the agricultural diversity it values so much.

As a fifth-generation Californian, Hampton wanted his family winery to be "part of the solution, not the problem." So in 1999, he worked with a landscape contractor to produce a 3-acre Mediterranean food forest at Davis Bynum Winery. It's a natural, agriculturally diverse ecosystem based on permaculture principles, which rely on the interactions of landscape features and plants (see "Garden the Natural Way," opposite). In the sustainable garden--now cared for by consultant Ryan Meyers, owner of Tierra Viva Landscape Design--more than 400 culinary, medicinal, and forage crops thrive, beneficial insects abound, and wildlife is welcome.

The payoff is a gathering such as this, where organic vineyards provide grapes for the wines, and the permaculture garden and a small plot of Thai annuals produce the ingredients for a menu that puts an exciting new spin on East meeting West--one in which food, wine, lifestyle, and community harmonize with nature.

INFO: Davis Bynum Winery (8075 Westside Rd., Healdsburg, CA; www.davisbynum.com or 800/826-1073)

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Crab Salad on Cucumber Rounds

PREP TIME: About 35 minutes

MAKES: 8 servings

NOTES: This citrusy crab salad on crunchy cucumber rounds makes a refreshing appetizer. You can prepare through step 3 up to 3 hours ahead. Cover crab mixture and lime-juice mixture separately; chill until ready to serve.

    1 or 2 stalks fresh lemon grass (each 10 to 12 in. long) or 1
      tablespoon grated lemon peel (yellow part only)
   12 fresh or thawed frozen kaffir lime leaf sections (each 1 1/2 to 2
      in. long) or 1 tablespoon grated lime peel (green part only)
  1/3 pound shelled cooked crab
  1/4 cup thinly slivered shallots
    1 tablespoon finely shredded carrot
    1 tablespoon each chopped fresh cilantro, fresh mint leaves, and
      green onion
    2 tablespoons lime juice
1 1/2 teaspoons Thai roasted-chili paste (purchased or homemade; see
      page 118)
    1 teaspoon Asian fish sauce or salt to taste
    1 teaspoon sugar About 8 ounces English cucumber

1. Rinse lemon grass. Cut off and discard tough tops and root ends; peel off and discard tough outer green layers of stalks down to tender white parts. Finely chop enough to make 1/4 cup.

2. Rinse kaffir lime leaves. Stack three or four leaves at a time and cut crosswise into very fine shreds.

3. In a bowl, mix lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves, crab, shallots, carrot, cilantro, mint, and green onion. In a small bowl, mix lime juice, chili paste, fish sauce (but not salt, if using), and sugar.

4. Just before serving, stir lime-juice mixture into crab mixture. If not using fish sauce, add salt to taste. Rinse cucumber and cut crosswise into about 24 rounds about 1/4 inch thick. Top each slice with a scant tablespoon crab mixture.

Per serving: 36 cal., 18% (6.3 cal) from fat; 4.4 g protein; 0.7 g fat (0.1 g sat.); 3.1 g carbo (0.5 g fiber); 84 mg sodium; 19 mg chol.

Glass Noodle Salad with Shrimp

PREP AND COOK TIME: About 40 minutes

MAKES: 8 first-course servings

NOTES: This colorful salad has a light, sweet-tart dressing punctuated by pickled garlic. The salad and dressing can be prepared through step 2 up to 1 day ahead; cover separately and chill.

  6 ounces boned, skinned chicken breast
  4 ounces dried bean threads (saifun) or dried angel hair pasta
  6 ounces shelled cooked tiny shrimp, rinsed
1/2 cup slivered red onion
1/2 cup chopped pickled garlic (purchased or homemade; see page 118)
1/4 cup slivered red or yellow bell pepper
  2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
  2 tablespoons chopped green onion
  3 tablespoons liquid from pickled garlic
  3 tablespoons lime juice
  2 tablespoons sugar About 1 tablespoon Asian fish sauce or about 1/2
    teaspoon salt
  5 cups baby arugula leaves or baby salad mix (5 oz.), rinsed and
    crisped