Ever wonder if its possible to shop exclusively at farmers’ markets and eat nutritiously? Deliciously?

The answer is yes, and Joanne Neft and Laura Kenny are making it easy for you.

The duo spent every Monday night in 2009 hosting dinner parties where they treated guests to dishes prepared with local, seasonal ingredients purchased at farmers’ markets in Placer County. They recorded the menus they created and compiled them into a book with 360 recipes.

"Placer County Real Food: Recipes and Menus for Every Week of the Year” is the finished product and Neft and Kenny were at Grange Restaurant and Bar Wednesday night signing copies, meeting readers and foodies, and eating.

The $45, four-course meal was planned by Neft and Kenny with Grange chef Michael Tuohy. It was almost identical to the “Pork & Peas” menu on page 187 of the book, with a variation on the dessert.

The first course was a edamame with sea salt, followed by a mixed greens salad with figs, walnuts and thyme honey vinaigrette. The main course was a slow-roasted pork roast with peppers served atop pink-eyed peas with Italian sausage and tomatoes. Dessert was a very rich roasted figs, peaches and raspberries medley with creme fraiche.

"It showcases all the best products from their region – Placer County – which coincidentally supplies a lot of this region with wonderful stone fruit, citrus and all kinds of different (foods)," Tuohy said.

Tuohy said that the meal preparations were very simple.

"That's the beauty of having great local ingredients, because a lot of times they just speak for themselves," he said. "We just try not to screw them up."

Tuohy reached out to Neft after being featured with her in an article in The Sacramento Bee about farmers' markets. He said he was impressed with the work she was doing, so he thought it made sense to get in touch.

Neft has been involved in Placer County's local food scene for 20 years. She opened the first Foothill Farmers' Market and helped start the Mountain Mandarin Festival in 1994 – attended by 40,000 people in 2008.

"I'd never written a book before, but it seemed like an appropriate thing to do," Neft said. "The timing was right, and there was a need, and we did it for the right reasons.”

"We wanted to help people understand that every day of the year they can eat healthy food, healthy vegetables (and) healthy meats from this area," she said.

"I've been doing this now for 21 years, and I have to say that for 18 years it felt like a rock that I was pushing uphill," Neft said. "But now the stars are aligned, things are coming together, people are understanding."

Shopping at the farmers' market can be more expensive than your mainstream grcery store. Some people may think that what Neft and Kenny did is out of reach.

"There is no such thing as cheap food," Neft said. "Eventually you pay the price. If you eat inappropriate food, you may not pay for it today, or next week, or even next year. But eventually your body will pay the price."

Tuohy also has desires to help people see the value in seasonal eating.

"Supermarkets are frustrating because they teach people all the wrong habits," he said. "They teach you that there's apples at any time of the year, they teach you that there's asparagus any time of the year. They are from somewhere, but the costs associated with that are so great. We've forgotten that these things are only meant to be enjoyed at the peak of their season."

Kenny was the chef for the book, and she said the dishes prepared Wednesday night by Tuohy's kitchen staff were a "phenomenal" representation of her work.

“He gets the message," she said. "He's an excellent chef, (and) he's farm-to-table, local and seasonal."

Lisa Cirill, 45, purchased a copy of the book and sat down to eat.

"Although it was gourmet and it was lovely, it was like a good home-cooked meal," she said.

Coral Henning, 50, discovered some new uses for a less-common, but available, food.

"I've eaten more figs tonight than I've ever eaten in my entire life, and they're delicious!" she said. "I'm now a fig convert."

Her dinner partner, Kathryn Turner, was motivated by the simplicity of the recipes.

"I'm inspired to do these recipes with the Sacramento farmers' markets and cook my own meals," she said.

Kenny said this kind of meal planning is not exclusive to Placer County.

"It's an idea that can easily be adapted to any county," she said. "Sacramento County is so blessed with agriculture."

Kenny and Neft worked together at the Persimmon Cafe in Lincoln until it closed in 2008.

Kenny said a friend of Neft's recommended the idea of doing a cookbook of recipes made from local, seasonal ingredients in December, 2008. On Saturday morning, Jan. 3, they met at a farmers' market to buy ingredients for their first dinner party.

The dinner parties started with four guests. By February they decided to up that number to eight. Word of the dinners spread by mouth and e-mail, and they had the entire year booked by March.

"My own grandmother didn't get in until the second week of December," Kenny said.

There was no charge to attend the dinners, but Neft and Kenny did ask for $20 donations to help finance the project. They were social affairs, with Neft and Kenny soliciting the opinions and recommendations of their guests afterward.

Kenny said that because they were focusing on what was in season and local, they kept their recipes from eight to 10 ingredients, with a few exceptions.

Kenny said the response from the public has been positive.

"(It was) mid-August (2009), and we didn't know if anyone wanted the book," she said.

But at $28, the book has sold 9,000 copies and is in its second printing. You can purchase the book online and at a number of retail locations.

You can view some recipes and photos from the book here.