MYSTERIOUS HERB GROWERS ON VAN NESS AVENUE NAMED "NEIGHBORS OF THE MONTH"

After 53 years of obeying the law, chef Nancy Silverton committed a crime last week. It was a property theft on the street where she lives, Van Ness Avenue in Los Angeles.

The revered chef’s last crime was in 1967 when she shoplifted a tube of Lancome mascara from the Montgomery Ward’s at the Topanga Plaza in San Fernando Valley. Silverton, Ann Elterman and Michelle Matthews, all 12, walked out the store’s door and were immediately detained by a security guard. The police came, put them in the back of a black and white cruiser and whisked them off to LAPD’s West Valley station. Larry Silverton, Nancy’s father, picked her up and the two drove home in silence. He didn’t imposed any further punishment, because, as he told Nancy “the humiliation of having me pick you up at a police station is punishment enough “

Wendi Matthews, Michelle’s sister, vividly recalled the incident in a Facebook post today. “I remember the Montgomery Ward theft very well. Went with my mom to pick up Michelle who hid her stolen eyelash curler in a planter at police station only to be discovered hours later. My mom refused a Christmas gift from Michelle that year.”

That crime was a vital lesson learned for Nancy. She never stole again. Until April, 29th, 2020.

On that Wednesday, while on her morning walk with Michael Krikorian, Silverton stopped in her tracks when she saw a vibrant, vast patch of herbs on a neighbor’s “sidewalk lawn”. She was baking black cod for dinner that night and needed some mint for the yogurt sauce to go with the fish. And there, lush and alluring at her feet, was mint fit for Chino Farms. She looked at her boyfriend and then suddenly, without a word, without clippers without looking around for witnesses, she pulled out a handful of mint.

That night, the black cod with mint was superb.

Two days later, Nancy and Michael walked by the house. There was the mint, but now we noticed the length of the sidewalk lawn was abundant with also rosemary, thyme, oregano and sage. A cook’s paradise.

A woman was walking into the guest house of the very stylish home. Nancy, while not admitting to the theft, asked the lady to ask the homeowners if she could pick some herbs. The lady, the nanny, smiled warmly and said she would. I told her our names.

We went on our walk. At the end of our three mile loop, we walked to our front door. laying on a piece of paper was a pile of rosemary, lavender and mint. On the paper was written this; “HI NEIGHBORS! THE HERBS ARE FOR EVERYONE. PLEASE ENJOY. STAY TUNED FOR NASTURTIUMS.

What a lovely move. And, for some reason, in the time of Covid, it was even more touching, an ever so neighborly act. For that. these neighbors who I haven’t even yet met because i didn’t want to knock on the house door in these tense times, have been named Neighbors of the Month.

And we will find out who they are.