Garden inspires Ingleside woman's meals

Julie Pokorney does not travel far from her front door to source fresh ingredients for meals.

Within her 16-by-24-foot garden, the Ingleside resident finds a bounty of vegetables including eggplants, tomatoes, peppers and various herbs she may use to make eggplant parmesan or spaghetti sauce.

In her kitchen, Julie makes Italian and Polish sausages to serve at family gatherings and share with neighbors.

Ask Julie if she ever expected she would be the sort to plant a kitchen garden or make sausage from scratch and her response is the same.

“If you would have asked me 30 years ago if I would do either, I would have told you ‘No. Go jump in a lake.'”

She attributes learning it all to her mother-in-law, Barb. Barb planted a garden to create her homemade spaghetti sauce, so Julie did the same. Over the years Julie has tried to replicate many of Barb's recipes.

“If I can duplicate what my mother-in-law did, that is pretty darn good,” she said.

Over the years Barb also has taught Julie how to preserve apple butter and pear butter and homemade gnocchi by canning it.

“(Canning) is easier than you think. If you can boil water, you can do it. You just got to put your mind to it,” she said.

Julie said she and Mark, her husband of 30 years, rarely eat out at Italian restaurants.

Mark adds, “If it's not Mom and Dad's, it's yuck.”

Julie said cooking at home, whether preparing her smoked sausage saute, a chicken dish for a family dinner or a feast for 19, simply is easier. Julie said she often prepares Italian dishes that showcase her husband's Italian heritage, but also pays homage her side of the family with a German cucumber salad passed down from her mother, Helen.

Family always can expect a full table.

“If you leave here hungry, it's your own fault,” she said.