Today, I had the most amazing stuffed tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers filled with rice, herbs, and local Greek cheese. These were prepared by Katy, my sister’s Greek mother-in-law, whom we affectionately call Yia Yia, which means granny in Greek. I’d love to share the recipe with you, but it’s a bit of a story, so here it goes.

First, you need to understand that Greeks have a deep connection to their land. On the island of Zakynthos, where we stay, everyone has a field or a vegetable patch, or at least someone in their extended family does. Greeks are very particular about the origin of their food. While tourists might get imported produce, locals save the best for themselves, which usually means what they or their family have grown, caught, or raised.

To make perfect stuffed tomatoes, start by picking the ripest red tomatoes from your vegetable patch, which have been sun-baked and lovingly watered all summer. Also, pick some shiny purple eggplants and green peppers from the garden.

Next, head to your shed and grab a few onions that you grew over the winter, harvested in the spring, and left to dry in bunches. Cut the tops off all the vegetables and scoop out the flesh of the eggplants and tomatoes, chopping it into small pieces. Sauté this mixture in your own olive oil with chopped onions, mint, oregano from your garden, and some seasoning. Add dry rice and cook gently until the rice swells, adding a bit of extra water if needed.

Now, incorporate some pieces of local cheese, which you bought from a farmer in the spring and matured yourself in olive oil in a barrel lined with beach stones to keep the cheese from sitting in residue. If you can’t get such local cheese, feta will do.

Stuff your vegetables with the rice, vegetable, and herb mixture, and add some peeled potatoes from your vegetable patch. Drizzle olive oil generously over the vegetables, using oil from your own olive trees, which you pressed in the autumn by shaking the trees over nets and taking the olives to the local co-op for pressing.

Bake the stuffed vegetables in a moderate oven for 45-60 minutes until they are soft, tender, and delicious.

Enjoy this meal for a late lunch on the veranda in the shade, finishing with some chunks of watermelon from your patch. Follow it up with a siesta for a couple of hours.

Eating at home in Greece truly redefines the concept of eating local produce.