Digging for gold: The little fava beans come individually nestled inside a stiff cocoon, and these are lined up 3, 4 or 5 in a row inside a fur sleeping bag. From the original pile of pods, to shedding its many layers, to being stir-fried with garlic, it’s definitely a what-you-get-is-not-what-you-eat situation.

Guardians: If you’re tooling around Monterey Park you might as well stop in at the San Gabriel Nursery. If you make it past the Orchid zone, the air starts to smell like Sweet Ozmanthus and pretty soon you’ll be trying to fit two pots into the back of your car. Not a bad way to go. If you’re looking for Michelia Alba, they have these too, but you have to bring a forklift and your black Amex card.

If you don’t know what they are, don’t ask: These are the real things, though irradiated, from the garden of the unbelievably delicious. We used to buy them for 20 RMB a pound ($2.50, and that was the local “ben di ren” price”) in China, but these we had to shell out $8.99 a pound in San Gabriel. The skins had the perfect give, the insides, the classic cloud-like texture and taste. This weekend’s mission: going back for more.

It’s not easy being green: You can get bunches of cilantro for 50¢ at the Hollywood Farmer’s market. What a deal. $1.00 worth gets you at least a day’s worth of chutney. We washed and dried the cilantro, stems and all, and put them in the Cuisinart with shredded coconut, ginger, jalapenos, 2 lime’s worth of juice, sugar, salt and a special ingredient we can’t say. We will be slaughtered if we tell, so we can’t.

Natural predators: these guys might not look so tough winding their way up to the best view of the garden but they’re on the lookout for aphids and mealybugs and all sorts of other pests. Grrr!!

Globes of light: these juicy balls are just getting pumped up with sugar. Come June we’ll have freshly squeezed juice coming out of our ears.

Teenagers: the progression of our little sprouts have become cauliflower and beets. So far so good.

Cheeeeesy explosion: molten gruyere cheese pouring out of a walnut sourdough boule is among the greatest sights in the baking world. Topping this is letting the overflow dry into what we call “danglers” and breaking them off into an open mouth.

The sublimity of boiling noodle water. Look for the smiley faces.

Training wheels: We can’t find a naked portafilter for our Europiccola La Pavoni (pre 2000), so we did the next best thing by taking the splitter off. Just twist and off it comes.