Is anybody else out there really thirsty? Lord knows I am, and while a glass of water might be just the thing in these dog days, lately I've felt more and more grateful for that most wonderful of nature's gifts: beer.

July is National Ice Cream Month, which is all well and good but since I don't have any ice cream-related news, I'll just mention it and move on. July is also the month that President Barack Obama, on a visit to Italy, presented Italian President Giorgio Napolitano with a box of American wines, including a 2008 Raffaldini Vineyards Vermentino, from right here in the Yadkin Valley.

As I have noted elsewhere in this issue, the pickings from my garden are looking pretty slim these days not to say that all is lost. Im expecting a huge bounty, or at least a good basket of tomatoes, in a matter of weeks.

Summer begins with a full buffet of event in the Triad culinary scene, but first a few notes.

Heres what you need to know, friends, this late-spring season: The weather is going mad. Early-spring frosts shorted out my fruit trees; cloud cover is stunting the growth of my sunflowers; and weve had so much rain I think I would have had an easier time growing rice.

YES! Weekly Publisher Charles Womack treated himself to the tasting menu of Chef Andy Furness at Ganache Restaurant & Bakery last week and brought back a signed copy of the menu. Womacks favorite course was the first: tenderloin ravioli in a mushroom-cognac sauce. I was intrigued by the Thai chili bearnaise atop filet medallions in the main course.

Heres a late spring garden update: After what has seemed like weeks of clouds and rain, this current bout of humid sunshine has punched my plants into overdrive. The radishes are ravishing.

Regular readers of this space must have noticed that this week we present our first food issue, which we hope to make a biannual event. This depends on our readers, and how interested they are in the culinary scene. Opinion around the office varies, but I know there are some hardcore foodies out there who would rather talk about the proper way to cook fish on an outdoor grill than NASCAR.

With the warming weather comes another bevy of culinary events here in the Triad. Also, apparently, ticks. No matter! May, of course, is National Barbecue Month, celebrated only in states where barbecue is a verb, making North Carolina exempt.

Green Valley Grill, Hutch and Harris, Liberty Oak, Meridian, Milners, Town Bistro, Nobles Grille, Print Works Bistro, River Birch Lodge, Sweet Basils.