For years, everyone from the food police to restaurant trade groups has been telling us we're turning into a nation of let's-go-out eaters who are too busy, too stressed and/or too unfamiliar with those little knobs on our ovens to cook at home.

But the anecdotal evidence now seems to be swinging the other way.

According to the National Gardening Association, we are buying more seeds and fruit trees to grow our own food. And we may be stockpiling that food in an uncertain economy: The National Center for Home Food Preservation says we're also experimenting in greater numbers with such thought-to-be-dying culinary arts as pickling and jam making. In fact, a private home in Simi Valley will be the setting for a July 19 event during which attendees will swap canned or frozen jams, jellies, preserves and chutneys, plus the recipes used to make them. The free gathering is presented by the Los Angeles convivium of Slow Food, an international organization dedicated to the preservation and promotion of traditional foods and culinary techniques. For details, click on http://www.slowfoodla.com.

Professional chefs are getting in on the home-cookin' act, too. Offering their respective restaurants' first classes this weekend are Alberto Vazquez of Mediterraneo in Westlake Village, which at 2 and 6 p.m. Saturday will be the site of Master Your Grill sessions ($70; 818-889-9105); and Andy Brooks, chef and co-owner of Brooks in Ventura, where cantaloupe soup and cinnamon roll bread pudding are on the syllabus for a demonstration lunch at 11:30 a.m. Sunday ($85; 652-7070).

Meanwhile, the Web site http://allrecipes.com reports that business is booming on its "budget cooking" page. Similar sites (thriftyfun.com among them) offer tips for whipping up inexpensive casseroles and for making powdered milk a tad more palatable by adding a splash of vanilla extract.

The Web also is home to fallenfruit.org, where visitors will find maps of trees with branches that overhang public areas and are presumed ripe for the picking (although, in the interest of good karma and friendly relations with one's neighbors and the local police department, you probably should ask first and pick second). Current Fallen Fruit maps are limited to the Silver Lake and Echo Park areas of Los Angeles and to Santa Fe, N.M., but that didn't keep me and a friend from harvesting about $50 worth of mulberries from a tree we found growing somewhere in Ojai. My friend made jam with her berries; I turned mine into sherbet.

In that same waste-not, want-not spirit, Tim Kilcoyne, chef and co-owner of the SideCar Restaurant in midtown Ventura, is seeking readers' questions about how to make the most of items they already have in their pantries, freezers and refrigerators. The resulting ideas and recipes will be featured in the July issue of Crave, The Star's food e-newsletter. Please send your stay-at-home shopping lists to Kilcoyne via his e-mail address, cheftim@thesidecarrestaurant.com.

REALITY BITES: If you're planning a celebratory meal in July or August and haven't yet caught the do-it-yourself culinary bug described above, celebrity chef Rocco DiSpirito wants to hear from you.

Or, rather, the producers of his new series for the A&E network do. The show's premise: DiSpirito will help you plan, shop for and prepare a special meal, averting all cooking emergencies along the way.

To apply for the show, send an e-mail with your name, phone number, a recent photo and information on "why you need to cook with Rocco" to cookwithrocco@gmail.com. Or, call the casting hotline at 818-752-5559.

IT'S A DATE: Breathe deeply during the fifth annual Ojai Lavender Festival, taking place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday in Libbey Park at Signal Street and Ojai Avenue. The restful aroma and entry to the event itself are free, as are the lectures on topics ranging from growing lavender to making "green" cleaning products with the fragrant herb. An on-site "Mediterranean marketplace" will feature lavender-infused crafts, soaps and edible treats. Go to http://www.lavenderfestival.net.

The Santa Barbara Wine Festival will feature not just the wares of Central Coast winemakers but also of area bakers, caterers, gourmet shops and restaurants when it takes place from 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday at the Santa Barbara Natural History Museum. Tickets, $50-$75: 682-4711, ext. 443, or http://www.sbnature.org.

Weaver Wines in downtown Ventura will mark its third anniversary with three events in as many days. Reservations are required (call 653-9463) when Mark Cargasacchi of Jalama Vineyard visits from 6:30 to 8 p.m. July 2 to pour his Santa Rita Hills-sourced reds and whites.

But it will be come as you are from 3 to 8 p.m. July 3, when owner Seana-Marie Weaver pairs cupcakes to the-first-glass-is-$3 wines and again from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. July 4, when patrons who make it through the holiday Street Fair chaos will be rewarded with mimosas and sangria.

IN REVIEW: For restaurant critic Rita Moran's thoughts on Lucerne Restaurant in Camarillo, see Time Out in Thursday's Star.

— E-mail Lisa McKinnon at lmckinnon@VenturaCountyStar.com.