Joanne Neft is on a mission to change the poor eating habits common in many households today.

"We're eating really inappropriately," she explained to dinner guests at her home this past week.

She pinpoints Americans' "inappropriate" eating habits to the cause of many problems. "We eat subsidized food because it's cheap, forgetting the huge price we pay for the resulting obesity, diabetes, cancer, and coronary problems. Americans pay a high price for cheap food."

She is currently self-employed and owns a couple of commercial properties but these days she is putting most of her energy and passion into a crusade against poor eating habits found in the form of a cookbook.

Neft and her close friend (and chef) Laura Caballero are in the process of compiling around 300 recipes made up of locally-grown ingredients.

"I've always cooked from scratch. It's easy, it tastes better, and it's good for you. So here we are writing a cookbook -- the next logical step in a long love affair with food," Neft said.

The cookbook is based on a unique and interactive, original concept.

Every weekend, Neft and Caballero shop the Auburn farmers market and purchase ingredients that are abundant and in season. They constantly find new fruits and vegetables, such as the spiky jelly melons (pictured below) they found last week.

On Monday evenings, the meal they have designed is prepared for six guests at the home Neft shares with her husband. Their home sits high atop the Auburn hills and guests are treated to a spectacular view of the hills during dinner.

Neft thinks the most important part of their project is the interaction of the community. "To our knowledge, this is the first cookbook written over a 52-week period using all the food grown in a single area. This is the first time community members are actually participating in the process of writing a cookbook," she said.

The guest list changes every week and by the year's end, they will have hosted and cooked for around 300 guests. The guests are made up of both acquaintances and friends that responded to an invitation email Neft sent out in January.

The weekly tradition began in January and will continue until December for a total of 52 weeks. The recipes will be in chronological order, ensuring all of the ingredients are in season and can be found in local markets. Special meals for holidays, such as a grass-fed turkey for Christmas, will also be included.

Depending on the type of meat served, meals for eight end up costing anywhere from $65 to $120. Instead of paying for their meal, guests are asked to make a donation of $20 per person that will go towards the printing of the cookbook.

Spots at the Monday night dinners have been booked through the end of the year so it's rare that a guest cancels. However, in the case of an emergency, a neighbor or friend is more than happy to sit in.

"The food is already purchased and we expect to prepare eight dinners so we appreciate having eight people around the table," Neft said.

Neft believes that it is more powerful to have people taste nutritious food instead of telling them how great or beneficial it is. She stresses that, because they are cooking with the freshest food available, there is not a lot of preparation involved or ingredients that need to be added.

"When we see guests at the following farmers market, then it's obvious they liked what they tasted and are there to learn what else is available. Most of the guests are people we don't know, so the dinners are definitely making a difference," Neft said.

The dinners not only allow guests to taste great food but give Caballero and Neft a chance to try out their recipes. Some recipes become surprising favorites, like the lamb neck slices that were cooked in dark beer, coffee, paprika, and a mandarin grilling sauce. Others, like the mini grilled artichokes, won't make it into the cookbook. If they are unsure about a recipe, they might try it out beforehand but generally dinners are cooked for the first time the evening of the dinner.

"If you start out with fresh food picked that Friday, you'd have to try really hard to mess it up," Neft explained.

Her passion for food began when she was young. She spent many years on farm land that was homesteaded by her great-grandfather in Minnesota and grew up with the importance of healthy food instilled in her. Her father always maintained a vegetable garden and started a large community garden in Santa Barbara in the 1960s.

She says that as she grew older, she noticed more people becoming overweight and sick and began to question why obesity was such a problem.

"People don't realize that 90 percent of foods available in supermarkets are corn-based and/or pumped with too many sweets, oils or salt ... Americans are unwittingly poisoning themselves," she explained.

She credits activists like Barbara Kingsolver, Alice Waters, Michael Pollan, and Eric Schlosser with bringing light to the importance of good food but thinks there is still much room for improvement.

"Most people still aren't connecting the dots," she said. "It really boils down to a health issue ... we are what we eat and the majority of people are not paying attention and haven't taken the time to inform themselves."

Twenty years ago, Neft opened the first Foothills Farmers Market. The following three years, eight more markets popped up throughout Placer County.

Other highlights of her food activism include heading up the first Mountain Mandarin Festival in Newcastle, preserving farmland, and working open space and scenic vistas as a chairperson of Placer County's Citizens Advisory Committee. She also served five years as Director for the Placer County Agricultural Program. Most recently, Neft has been involved with Sacramento's Regional Food System Collaborative.

"Once I learned of the massive amounts of money the government spends on healthcare and the potential of enormous costs in the years to come, I decided to take some action. There are two generations of people who don't know how to cook a meal from scratch."

Neft is doing her part to change that, one meal at a time.

On Monday night, Neft cooked two angel food cakes using the exact same recipe with eggs from the farmers' market and eggs from the supermarket.  She believes the difference in sizes speaks volumes. The scenery behind is the view from the Nefts' back porch. 

Sample menu served on September 28

Appetizers:
Chilled cucumber soup
Fresh brick-oven bread

Dinner:
Tomato, jelly melon and arugula salad with a vinaigrette laced with fresh pesto sauce
Swiss chard sauteed and topped with bacon crumbles
Mashed German butterball potatoes
Lamb stew with okra and diced tomatoes

Dessert:
Angel food cake with strawberries and homemade bittersweet chocolate sauce
Homemade vanilla ice cream

Placer County Real Food will be completed by Mother's Day 2010 and will be available for purchase at the Auburn farmers market or pre-order by contacting Mercedes Sinclair at Mercedes@EastWindQuantumWellness.com or at 916-412-2622

To contact Laura Caballero about her professional chef services, email her at laurak928@hotmail.com

All photos taken by Jonathan Mendick