Elizabeth Poett reads from 'The Ranch Table' about cattle herding and the rhythm of ranch life.

It’s been over a year since I traded my life in California for one in Italy. And while I’ve easily fallen into daily life here, I still crave the way California marked the seasons—not always with weather (hello, San Francisco), but with food. For the eight years I lived in the Bay Area, food was always the signal of change: Early Girl tomatoes in the summer; Dungeness crab and citrus brightening the winter.

This week’s guest brings us a taste of that California seasonality. Elizabeth Poett is a seventh-generation rancher, living and working on her family’s 14,000-acre property outside of Santa Barbara. In her first cookbook, The Ranch Table, she invites us along for a year on the ranch: from Branding Day feast in the spring to summer beach cookouts, fall garden harvest, and winter holiday gatherings.

Episode 172: Elizabeth Poett

Elizabeth joined me last year in San Francisco, at our studio in The Civic Kitchen cooking school, and shared her approach to cooking. Much of her inspiration comes from her family heritage, as with the handwritten recipe cards passed down from her grandfather.

In our conversation, Elizabeth shares:

* How her cookbook The Ranch Table tells the story of a year on her family’s California ranch through seasonal recipes and gatherings.

* Why community and abundance are at the heart of her cooking.

* How recipes serve as heirlooms, connecting generations across time.

Plus, we put Elizabeth to the test in our signature culinary game.

The Ranch Table: Recipes from a Year of Harvests, Celebrations, and Family Dinners on a Historic California Ranch by Elizabeth Poett

From the star of Magnolia Network’s popular show Ranch to Table—a stunningly beautiful cookbook celebrating a year on a ranch on the California coast, featuring simple yet festive recipes, inspiring menus, and fascinating culture and history.

Elizabeth Poett was raised on Rancho San Julian, a 14,000-acre ranch on Santa Barbara’s Central Coast that her family has been working since 1837. Her years are structured around the land’s natural rhythms and annual events: celebrations big and small, harvests, and work days that bring her family and community together—and always end with large meals for everyone to share. Elizabeth feeds her friends and family with seasonal ingredients—including vegetables and meat grown and raised on the ranch and fish from California’s Central Coast—barbecuing tri-tips, turning local cod into tacos, and using heirloom tomatoes and summery eggplant into delicious, family friendly pastas.

Much like Elizabeth’s life, The Ranch Table is also organized around the work and celebrations that take place on the San Julian throughout the year, giving readers and cooks a chance to dive into the ranch’s most important workdays, family traditions big and small, and annual celebrations. Each chapter begins with a description of an event or a special day—the work of a branding, the joys of the annual family reunion, the fun of a fall cider press, the quiet beauty of a winter evening spent at the kitchen table—and invites you to join in on the day with both beautiful photos of the ranch today and archival images of its past. In each chapter, Elizabeth also shares the recipes for the dishes she makes for these occasions.

We 💚 local bookstores. Pick up your copy of The Ranch Table here:

For paid Substack subscribers, we’re sharing two of Elizabeth’s recipes from The Ranch Table: her Butternut Squash Soup with Sage and Cast-Iron Corn Bread. Together, they’re a cozy, seasonal meal that’s ready as we transition into autumn:

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