In mid August — during the dramatic entrance of garden produce into the kitchen — a few outstanding meals get prepared. Drawing inspiration from history and tradition, from learned culture and innovation, and from garden and culinary experience, the world comes together for a few hours in afternoon sunlight. This convergence of garden, kitchen and a life happens only so many times in a year.

I made a gumbo served on white rice. It was more than that.

Let’s talk about ingredients I did not grow. At the heart of gumbo is a roux. For a vegan, making a roux requires thoughtful answers to basic questions. — which flour and which fat?

The flour was simple: Costco’s unbleached, organic all purpose flour, milled from organic hard red wheat, is my pantry staple. The fat was a more complicated choice between neutral oils: avocado, canola, peanut, sunflower and olive oil.

Avocado deforestation is an actual phenomenon. It refers to pine-oak and conifer forest cleared for production of avocado orchards or plantations. The scale of forest destruction is 50,000 to 70,000 acres in the Mexican provinces of Michoacán and Jalisco during the last decade. Illegal avocado orchards were created in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve where millions of Monarchs overwinter. Arson and clandestine logging to bypass Mexican law restricting forest destruction are part of this. Avocados have been so profitable, organized crime syndicates got involved, threatening the rule of law as well as environmentalists seeking to preserve the forests. We don’t buy avocados, and there will be as little avocado oil as possible in our household.

Of the remaining oils, the olive oil we use is not neutral. We don’t use much sunflower oil and simply don’t know about it. The choice is between refined peanut and canola oil. Both have high smoke points, which is important for a gumbo roux cooked for a long time. Peanut oil is a more traditional choice in many Southern and Louisiana kitchens, especially when making a dark roux. Our kitchen has both so I used peanut oil for its serviceability and Louisiana tradition.

Most Louisiana cooks make a roux with oil or another fat because butter can scorch before the roux gets dark enough. My choice of peanut oil worked well, and I cooked it long enough to get the color I wanted. The okra also thickens the soup, so an extremely dark roux was not needed.

One of the first things I learned about regional agriculture was that rice is grown in Louisiana. Its warm, wet climate and flat coastal prairies provide ideal conditions, while the dense clay subsoil holds the standing water that rice requires. There is also the cultural inheritance with roots among early settlers and enslaved West Africans that gave rise to Cajun and Creole cooking from a diverse cultural mix. Growing white rice is part of that heritage.

There is a culinary reason for using white rice. The grains do not stick together, creating more surface for flavors to adhere. Separate grains and a neutral flavor work well with the rich flavors of gumbo. I used the starch in the way the cuisine evolved: the rice is the component that lets the intensely flavored sauce stand out.

The other ingredients I did not grow or produce were salt, bay leaves, smoked paprika, and thyme.

What is an Iowa guy like me doing with gumbo? I told the story many times, but it has to do with my travel to New Orleans, and to the time spent in Thomasville, Georgia viewing cooking shows on the new to me Food Network. I especially watched Emeril Lagasse, but also Justin Wilson’s programs on Public Television.

I had been planning this gumbo since ordering seeds last winter. As okra began coming in, I said to myself, this first harvest will be for gumbo. The dish was made in the context of several days of processing vegetables: celery, leeks, hot peppers, and huckleberries from the garden. I didn’t plan to make gumbo when I woke Sunday morning. Everything simply converged.

I found a recipe I developed after visiting New Orleans in the early 2000s. I had some questions to answer about that: How is best way to make a roux without butter? My recipe called for four tablespoons of butter. 2. I used vegetarian sausage, but truly there are no decent ones to be found. What might substitute? 3. Seasoning is curry powder, salt, pepper and hot sauce to taste. Instead of hot sauce I’d like to use dried cayenne pepper. Recipe calls for 1 teaspoon curry powder. What other seasoning mixes might be good? 4. Recipe calls for 1 cup chopped parsley. If I substitute dried parsley, how much should I use?

In preparation for the day, I wrote a new recipe:

Sometimes things come together. I’ve been eating on this meal for four days. I don’t know if I will make another gumbo this season. The freshness of ingredients was a key factor in its flavor. Note the absence of cooking instructions in the recipe. They are simple: make the roux first, saute the trinity plus hot peppers, then add layer after layer according to the list. I used diced, fresh San Marzano tomatoes instead of canned. I don’t add all the broth at once. I watch how the sauce transforms and thickens before adding more.

Things just converged that day. Served over white rice, it was a satisfying meal.