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| Photo: Jennifer Iserloh. |
She would transfer the two halves to her mangled cutting board and hand me a fork. We would both scrape the fork over the squash, freeing the steamy fibers that look very much like golden yellow strands of vermicelli.
I could hear the popping and perking of her homemade sauce warming on the stove. "Turn the heat down," she would instruct when the popping became too vigorous. She served hers with tomato sauce, but I like to use a protein-packed bolognese to make it a complete, cool-weather meal.
If this isn't an American dream story, I don't know what is. Ulises Valdez left the tiny village of Los Cuachalalates, Mexico, for Mexico City at the age of 10 to work for his uncle. After moving around from place to place, he eventually crossed the California border and made his way to Sonoma County's Dry Creek Valley. There, he worked the fields, eventually gained citizenship, struck up a partnership, bought out his partner, and in July of this year, 
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