Ever since I visited Hidden Villa, I’ve been thinking of CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture). CSAs are programs where subscribers can receive a weekly box or basket of seasonal produce in exchange for either a share in a farm (usually paid upfront at the start of a season) or a weekly or monthly payment. These programs promote people building a relationship with a local farm so they can better understand where their food comes from and how it’s produced, while also getting the benefits of eating locally, seasonally, and organically. The box is pre-chosen by the farm and represents the most seasonally ripe produce of the week. You cannot choose what goes in it.

When we adopted a puppy last week, I decided it was time to try purchasing a CSA box. Before this week, I have always tried to visit our local farmers’ market each Saturday. I love wandering through the market, seeing many of the same faces behind the stalls, and picking out what I want from the large selection we are so lucky to have in California. I love smelling the fruits, tasting the lettuces, and being part of the communal shopping effort. The problem was that sometimes I didn’t quite make it there, and with a new puppy, I thought my chances of getting there any time soon were slim.

I chose to use Capay Organic as they offer a large box of fruits and vegetables that suited my needs to feed a family of four. They also deliver directly to homes so I don’t have to go to a pick-up location, which some CSAs require. Although going to a pick-up location is a great way to get to know more about the farm you are supporting, I’ve felt strapped for time lately, so the home drop-off service was a huge selling point for me. Smaller boxes are also available, as are mostly fruit boxes. You can also sign up for anything from weekly to once-a-month deliveries. For a list of local CSAs and the services they provide see Jennifer Maiser’s excellent post previously published on BAB.

So, after a week with my box of veggies and fruits, I’ve come to realize that CSAs and Farmers’ Markets offer different benefits and limitations. Following are three lists summing up my thoughts. These lists are in no way complete and I welcome any additions, disagreements, or thoughts you may have.

Why You Should Use Either a CSA or Buy at the Local Farmers’ Market

1. Small family farms are becoming scarcer each year and federal farm subsidies mostly help only large corporate farmers. I believe strongly in keeping local farms solvent, and being part of a CSA or buying regularly from a farmers’ market seem the best ways to do this.

2. The farming of varied local organic produce helps the local environment. For instance, honey bees are dying in record numbers, most likely because of the use of pesticides, which causes a neurological disorder in the bees, and because of agricultural “monocultures of single crops that create ‘floral deserts’ when not in bloom.” Local organic farms therefore help keep the honey bees (and birds, insects, etc.) happier and healthier.

3. Produce from both Farmers’ Markets and CSAs are grown closer to home, and therefore less oil is used to get them to your table.

4. The fruits and vegetables are freshly picked and organic, with the amazing flavors that only food in peak season can have.

Why Use a CSA?

1. Having a box delivered to your front porch is incredibly convenient.

2. If you pick up your CSA box, you have the opportunity to get to know the people from the farm you are supporting and to be part of a larger food community in your area.

3. The produce is organic, seasonal, and locally produced.

4. Being limited to what the CSA delivers each week forces you to fully accept the idea of cooking with only seasonal produce, which can be fun and help you stretch your cooking repertoire.

5. You are assured of shopping locally each week, regardless of how busy you are or how convenient or inconvenient it is to get to the market.

6. CSAs often include something unique or fun in their weekly box that you might not find or think to buy at a farmer’s market. For instance, last week we got a bag of some of the most delicious salted pistachios I’ve ever had.

7. Many CSAs provide newsletters with recipes to subscribers, which are informative and can help you figure out how to be a better seasonal cook.

8. You are often encouraged to visit the actual farm, which brings you closer to the food you eat and can help you educate your children about what they eat. The farms often also have events that you can participate in throughout the year.

Why Shop at a Farmers’ Market?

1. Many people, like me, want to control the quality of the produce they buy. It’s wonderful to smell a tomato, snap a bean, and taste a piece of lettuce before you purchase it.

2. It’s nice to get to choose the fruits and vegetables you want. Although I appreciate the idea that CSA providers are knowledgeable about what is ripe at any given moment, I don’t like being confined to whatever is in season only at that specific farm. For instance, when my box arrived last Friday without any strawberries or fava beans, I was disappointed. As fava beans and strawberries are in season right now, I really wanted to receive them. And when I saw that subscribers to the “mostly fruit” box got strawberries, but that my fruit and veggie box didn’t, I was a little dissatisfied.

3. The farmers’ market is a great place to get my children excited about healthy food. Our trip always starts with a visit to the bounce house, which makes them excited to go there in the first place. After they take a few turns on the bouncy, they are then in great moods and primed to pick out our vegetables for the week, which in turn makes them excited to eat those vegetables later. I also like teaching them that they are part of a larger food community, and going to the farmer’s market helps them experience that community in person.

4. Going to the farmers’ market is a fun event. Mine always has wonderful smells permeating the air, music from local performers, people of every type wandering around, and samples of produce that are perfectly in season to taste. You can feel more connected with the food you purchase and eat by getting to know the local vendors (who are often farmers). It is closer to how people have shopped for millennia than any grocery store you could ever walk into.

5. My farmers’ market has non-produce vendors that I like to patronize. I often get my beef from the Prather Ranch stand, some cheese from the local cheese ladies, and sometimes fresh fish from the fish stand in addition to my produce. There are also cooked food stands and a small flower mart.

6. Sometimes I need more of a specific vegetable than is provided in a CSA box. For instance, if chard bunches are smaller one week, I can choose to buy two to suit the needs of my family table. If I want to bake a large blueberry tart, I can purchase two pints instead of one.

One nice way to get the benefits of both a CSA and your local farmers’ market is to simply do both. You can often purchase a smaller weekly box from a CSA, or get one only once or twice a month and then supplement from your local farmers’ market. I plan on doing this myself.

Btw: Interestingly, I see that there is currently a discussion about Farmers’ Markets vs CSA on Chowhound.

This New Year’s Eve, as with many New Year’s Eves past, I spent several days with my best friend’s family in Sea Ranch, about 150 miles north of San Francisco. A few days ago, I hopped in my Zip Car and headed out on the windy road that would take me to this pristine area of California with its fantastic views and relaxing atmosphere.

One of the highlights of the drive is a stop in Freestone — a teeny tiny town west of Sebastopol — to join the throngs of customers at Wild Flour Bakery. Wild Flour is popular among food lovers throughout the area for its delicious organic savory and sweet breads.

Wild Flour is open Friday through Monday each week, and they bake 900 loaves of bread a day that are sold only from their bakery.

I dream about Wild Flour’s fougasse — a bread that changes ingredients slightly throughout the year but that typically contains 1-3 cheeses, potatoes, herbs and sometimes sweet peppers and onions. It’s a delicious, dense bread that I can make a meal from.

Also popular are Wild Flour’s sweet Bohemian bread and their sticky buns which are large enough to fill a plate and share with several friends.

Wild Flour is popular among bloggers — here are just a few reports:

Becks & Posh loved their bread with a bowl of steaming soup.
The Fresh Loaf found their fougasse to be worthy.
Fork & Bottle calls their biscotti “awesome.”
Sweet Napa declares “it’s like eating perfection.”

You can read even more about Wild Flour Bakery:
San Francisco Chronicle
Bay Area Backroads

Wild Flour Bakery
140 Bohemian Hwy
Freestone
(707) 874-2938

Open 8:30 - 6:00, Friday through Monday

The pot of chives was waiting for me in Moraga. Little did I know there was an entire afternoon of wonder in store for me when I went to pick it up.

With just his hands, a shovel and a wheelbarrow, 79-year old Ze’ev Vered has shaped seven terraces of gardens and orchards. Trees bearing pistachio, quince and pomegranate push up against the golden hills. A 6-foot cyclone fence that encircles his garden, to deter the insistent deer, has long been covered with the rambling vines of eight different varieties of grapes. The paths between each hand-weeded bed switch back several times, a steep trail that leads from one beautiful, delicious plant to another.

Raised on an Israeli farm and then trained in forestry, Vered landed four decades ago in the Bay Area. He settled into insurance work to help raise his family, but much of his free time was spent building up his garden and cooking — he handled all the savory food while his wife took care of the sweets. When he retired, Vered finally launched a business that expressed his passion: Herb Gardens by Ze’ev. He specializes in culinary herbs, helping his customers grow unique gardens that reflect their favorite cuisines, from my little chive pot to complex, professionally tended installations.

Vered treated me to a lunch: Salad Caprese with his own sun-warmed tomatoes and a lovely barley soup made from the herb-stuffed carcass of a spit-roasted turkey. After I’d had enough to eat, he walked me slowly through his garden.

Here are some highlights from my amazing tour, sprinkled lightly with Vered’s salty jokes and stories:

After many years, Vered has perfected his own secret blend of soil. For example, powdered dolomite lime sweetens the mix to provide the basic pH that culinary herbs prefer.

Whenever his wife and he traveled to Mexico, they’d bring back a few pots. If you find one you like, he’ll sell it to you.

Vered sequesters his newly potted plants inside wire cages for a week to protect them from squirrels, who love to dig up the plants. His plants all have well-established root systems, and as soon as you get your herb pot home, you can begin harvesting and cooking.

At one of his lectures, a skeptic kept asking Vered, “Are you sure that your plants are organic?” He answered patiently until the third time, when he couldn’t help adding, “Yes, these plants are organic. And not only that, they’re orgasmic — I get a real charge out of growing them!”

Welcoming visitors at the entrance to his herb garden are pots of low-spreading, tiny-leafed Corsican mint.

The herb invites you to caress its velvety surface and then imbues your hand with its fresh, summery perfume. Someday, I’m going to have a garden path with Corsican mint growing in the cracks between stones.

The leaves of this slightly bronzed peppermint has a sharp flavor that lingers long. I could feel its menthol in my sinuses.

Spearmint has a softer, rounder flavor. Growing in this large patch is what Vered calls “Safeway mint.”

A much-lauded celebrity chef, who will here remain nameless, needed fresh mint for his cooking show. Vered gets a call from the chef’s assistant. “What kind of mint does he need?” Vered asks, referring to the many varieties he grows. A pause on the phone. “You know, the Safeway kind.”

Three sages hold court along his retaining wall.

For the first time, I came face to face with a fresh caper. If you don’t pick and pickle the small bud, it opens into a beautiful white and pink-tinged blossom.

Recently planted caper bushes that Vered hopes will soon cascade down part of his hillside.

Enough horseradish to feed a small village. Vered likes using its leaves in salads before pulling up their roots and bottling his own sauces.

Mediterranean bay, known as true laurel, has a sweeter, less harsh flavor than California bay. Here, small plants spring up from a potted tree’s crown roots.

Tomatoes grow two levels down from his fruit and nut trees. Asked if he shares his fruits and vegetables with his neighbors, Vered says “Back when they used to be nice to me!”

Golden quince with their soft, delicate fuzz.

At the top of one hill, just past the plum and pistachio trees, Vered placed a bench in the shade of grape vines. He can sit and gaze across the valley. I asked him if he sat here with his wife, while she was still alive, and he smiled mischievously. “Oh yes…and sometimes we held hands.”

Pistachio nuts just beginning to blush.

Over the next several months, this tiny bud will flower, fruit and ripen into a juicy pomegranate.

Vered grows a rare variety of Asian pear, the only sand pear that resembles its European cousin in shape.

Vered picked some tomatoes and plums for me to take home, and then asked if I wanted to taste some of his green tomato pickles. Uh, yes, I LOVE green tomato pickles!

The tiny, still green cherry tomatoes are tart, a nice pick-me-up after the hot afternoon sun. They’re preserved in his own special brine.

To a colleague who asks for the recipe to his kosher dill pickles: “Well, first you cut the tip off each little cucumber….”

Herb Gardens by Ze’ev
Ze’ev Vered, M.S.
(510) 631-0199 (925)631-0199
P.O. Box 6486
Moraga, CA 94570

As one of my colleagues said the other day, the farmers markets are “lousy with strawberries.” I don’t mind the glut, as my own last meal would be a bowl of strawberries, a taste of life short and sweet.

The best way to eat the fruit is whole, out of hand, one after the other until they’re entirely gone. There are, of course, many ways to gild the lily: strawberries and balsamic vinegar, strawberries and brown sugar, strawberries and red wine, strawberries and cream, strawberry shortcake, strawberries and rhubarb pie….

If you’re driving on Highway 1 just north of Santa Cruz, be sure to stop at Swanton Berry Farm. Next to their U-pick strawberry fields in Davenport, you’ll find their Farm Stand. With its old-fashioned honor till, the store offers fresh-made pies, shortcake, cobbler and jams. Everything there is made by the farm’s own staff with berries they grow themselves. A flat of sweet, ripe strawberries costs only $15 dollars. They have the best berries around, but there are a couple of other reasons why I support their farm. Swanton devotes itself to strict organic standards, and they employ field laborers who all belong to the United Farm Workers.

The last time I was there, I went a little crazy and got two flats and a blackberry pie. (For non-gluttons: 1 flat = 6 baskets.) Finishing three baskets myself on the winding road back, I macerated a couple more baskets in fresh orange juice for shortcake and then sugared the rest for jam as soon as I got back home. I’ve learned the hard way that organic strawberries don’t last as long as conventional, but making jam is my own way of stretching out their flavor as long as I can.

My cheater’s strawberry sherbet is another recipe that I only make when the freshest, sweetest strawberries are coming to market. Food Editor Pasty Jamieson gave it to me over a dozen years ago, while I was her intern at Eating Well Magazine in Vermont, far from California’s warm fields. Back then, all I owned fit into three cardboard boxes and one suitcase. I still make this treat every spring and summer because it’s so easy and so good. There have been flirtations with fancier versions, like lemongrass syrup or thyme-infused buttermilk, but I’ve always returned to the flavor of simpler times.

Strawberry Buttermilk Quick Sherbet

Trim calyx leaves from a pint of strawberries and arrange them in a single layer on a tray or baking sheet. Freeze until hard entirely through. Transfer the strawberries to the bowl of a food processor. Sprinkle in 2 tablespoons of buttermilk, 1 to 2 tablespoons of sugar, and a squirt of fresh lemon juice. Pulse until smooth, scraping down the sides as needed. For a softer texture, add up to 1 more tablespoon of buttermilk, and then adjust sweet and sour to your taste. Serve immediately or transfer to an air-tight container and freeze up to a week.

This Sunday June 10th I will be teaching my second Seasonal Fruit Dessert class in North Berkeley from 1 - 3:30 pm. Might you wish to join me as I conjure a number of sweets simple and complex, whose main focus is fruits at the peak of their early summer season’s best? Those who took the first class were lucky enough to eat: Verbena & Meyer Lemon ice cream, Redwood Hill Goat Yogurt Pannacotta with rhubarb miroir, Roasted Lucero Strawberries, Rhubarb-Cornmeal Cake, Crunchy Poached Rhubarb Dice, Strawberry Coulis, Pavlova with whipped cream and strawberries, and Rhubarb-Walnut Crisp.

But now, there’s so much more in season!

The possibilities are endless…

Shall we conjure a sublime cherry clafouti? Roast apriums in black pepper and Banyuls vinegar? Concoct a clear peach leaf consomme? Try our hand at whole almond frangipane with noyau and pluots? Layer light vanilla cake with brown butter pastry cream and fresh peaches? Finesse a batch of fresh cherry granite? Whip up some biscuits for cobbler? Fill the kitchen with the heady scent of warmed blackberry compote? Whip up an easy fresh fruit and cornmeal cake? Tremble with joy at the lightness of pannacotta? Learn what to do with a cherry pits’ inner secret? Sneak some herbs from the garden and see what goes with what best?

I’ve lost count of how many classes I’ve taught now. And I’m happy to report many of us independent cooking instructors in the Bay Area were recently featured and reviewed in this months issue of San Francisco Magazine, click here to see the whole spread. I always have a lot of fun, but moreover, I love getting reports back about how people are less afraid to tackle homemade pie dough, ice cream and caramel or were excited to learn the secrets of how to make egg whites do what they want them to do, use their knives better or allowed my class and instruction to break down the last wall between them and their pot de creme molds.

This Sunday’s Seasonal Fruit Dessert class will be my last Bay Area culinary class until August. On June 21 I’ll be teaching my popular Knife Skills Class in NYC and come July I will teach 4 (!!) Pie Dough & Seasonal Fruit Dessert classes in Portland, Oregon. A good friend of mine said I should buy a silver Airstream trailer and take my show on the road! Hey, where the students want to learn, that’s where I’ll go, I say.

This Sunday’s class is filling up quickly. Although the 2 spots I offer at almost 1/2 the price are still empty. I keep these spots open for those who love to bake but might not be able to afford the full cost. Those two folks come a wee bit early and stay a little later, to help me clean up.

The page that always has the current calendar of my classes can be found by clicking on this link. Register by going to the Paypal link in Eggbeater’s right hand column and if you want to send a check, email me and I will send you a snail mail address. I also have a private mailing list for those of you who like the info to land on your email-doorstep.

See you soon?

Come One, Come All. Come Hungry To Learn!

It’s that time of year. When Bay Area markets are jumping with stone fruits. Names whimsical, actual and unpronounceable and downright silly fill signage over mysterious glowing orbs. People want to know, “What’s the difference between a pluot and a plumcot, a nectarcot and an aprium? Why all the funny names? What happened to the straight up plum, apricot, nectarine and peach?”

The full answer is too wordy for this medium. But, truth be told, there are almost no fruits we eat out hand today which are their true selves in their original form. All stone fruits are hybrids of the bitter almond tree, and all have been developed by horticulturalists for hundreds of years to withstand certain weather conditions, soils and various interfering pests. And in the last one hundred years or so, farmers have been juggling/gambling with different trees in an attempt to provide Americans with what appears to be one fruit during the course of a season. The peach you eat in May is not the peach you eat in June or July. But the hope is that on each of these hot summer days, you can find, buy and eat a peach.

It’s almost impossible to keep up with all the stone fruit hybrids once summer begins. They rush at us like stars in a meteor shower. Some varietals last a month, but many come and go within a week or even days! My favorite farm for stone fruit is Blossom Bluff. Ted and Fran Loewen grow dozens of varietals, oftentimes experimenting or sticking with more difficult trees and fruit to provide their customers with a delicious spectrum of complex, aromatic, texturally sensuous fruits.

It’s been as big a surprise to me, as anyone else, that peaches and various plum-apricot hybrids are arriving at the farmers’ market as early as this. It’s May; still spring by the calendar! But here they all are, available for the picking, and in wide sweeping arrays and displays at Berkeley Bowl, Monterey Market and local farmers’ markets.

Unless a farmer has stayed loyal to calling these hybrids their proper names, what you buy here will be named something different there. As of yet there’s little regulation to insure names stay consistent. Train your nose and mouth to recognize new varietals. Pick fruit that has a strong scent when you go in for the smell. All stone fruit can ripen off the tree. Unless your house is very hot or humid, ripen fruit further by setting fruit on its shoulders, stem side down, until, when pressed, flesh has a bit of give. If the fruit you buy is very ripe, be sure to refrigerate it immediately.

Early fruits will be smaller and higher in acid than their later cousins. Fruit whose color bleeds right down into the stem end will ripen sweeter than those whose color is yellow or green by the stem. Look for fruit with saturated color. The sun’s blush is what determines sugar in stone fruit.

But remember, some of these varietals will be gone before you can decide if you’ll like them! Buy a few of each as the season progresses and jot down the name on the placard as well as the name of the farm stand. These notes will help you get a head-start on next years stone fruit onslaught.

If you have an interest in the history of these quirky hybrids, Mr. Floyd Zaiger is the first person to learn about. He has contributed more to stone fruit hybridization than any other person to date.

Short Pieces on Floyd Zaiger:

Your Produce Man
News from The Dave Wilson Nursery (where many California farmers buy these various hybrids.)

And if you are a nerdy (budding) fruit historian (pun intended) like me, you’ll enjoy words written by and about the infamous David Karp, Fruit Detective extraordinaire:

California Heartland . Org
John Seabrook from The New Yorker spends a few days with our man.
Smithsonian Magazine interview.

This year fresh strawberries are positively delicious. If you haven’t eaten any yet, what are you waiting for? Go get some now!

Strawberries are one of the fruits you should defintely buy organic. According to some reports, strawberries in California are treated with more than 300 pounds of pesticides an acre. As a comparison, conventional farming currently uses about 25 pounds of pesticides an acre. Strawberries have been found to have the highest level of hormone-affecting pesticides, including benomyl, vinclozolin, and endosulfan. Not surprisingly there tends to be more chemical residue in strawberries than in most fruits and vegetables. Chemicals are even used to enhance the color of strawberries as well as to preserve them. One day “conventionally grown” will be organic, but until then, make sure you are choosing wisely.

My favorite thing to do with strawberries is to slice them, sprinkle them with sugar and to serve them with crepes and plain yogurt. It makes a terrific breakfast.

Here’s my recipe for crepes:

Basic Crepes

2 large eggs (or 1/2 cup of egg replacement product)
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup flour
1 pinch salt
1 cup milk (any kind is fine including nonfat)
1 teaspoon oil

Throw all the ingredients into the blender and blend away! The batter only needs to rest 15 minutes or so (to reduce bubbles) then heat a non-stick crepe pan over medium heat and spray lightly with cooking oil. Ladle approximately two tablespoons of the batter into the pan and tilt the pan to cover the bottom with a thin, even coating. Cook the crepe until small bubbles form on the surface and it is barely firm, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Flip and repeat until crepe is done.

Those expecting a brawl got more of a lovefest when Whole Foods CEO John Mackey met with Michael Pollan author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma at UC Berkeley last night. The feud, if you can call it that, goes to back to a time shortly after the publication of the book when Mackey took issue with the quality of Pollan’s research, his criticism of Whole Foods and what he called “industrial organic”. Over the months that passed a series of letters were made public in which each seemed to take the other to task. Those letters can be found here:

Letter 1: Mackey to Pollan
Letter 1 Response: Pollan to Mackey
Letter 2: Mackey to Pollan
Letter 2 Response: Pollan to Mackey

Mackey complained that he wasn’t contacted by Pollan before the book was published and tried to argue that all “industrial organic” is not bad. Pollan challenged Mackey on the authenticity of the storytelling present in the store, and on how much produce was truly “local”.

The problem is and was, that Pollan and Mackey agree more than they disagree. While Mackey got his chance to explain his philosophy and to announce several new praiseworthy initiatives that deal with fair trade, animal welfare, support for local “food artisans” and loans for farmers and food producers, he admitted that criticism was good, and that it spurred a reexamination of their practices and a rethinking of their approach. Pollan in turn praised Mackey for the new initiatives and for being willing to so thoroughly engage his critics, something few CEO’s are willing to do.

It was surprising how unpolished and passionate Mackey was compared to the almost slick and sometimes snide Pollan. Mackey even went so far as to say the backlash against his company and the concept of organic has actually been good in some ways. Still Mackey doesn’t like being compared with Wal-Mart, and his philosophy of a more enlightened capitalism and movement towards a post industrial age he calls the “ecological era” puts him on the forefront of progressive businesses.

For his part, Pollan kept the conversation to a discussion more about the future than the present or the past in the discussion part of the program which was entitled “The Past, The Present, The Future of Food”. Pollan even envisioned a kiosk in a grocery store that would allow shoppers to scan items and see what was happening back on the farm for a kind of nanny-cam meets corporate transparency, a vision that Mackey seemed to embrace. Perhaps both Mackey and Pollan are ready to put down the gloves and make peace with the past and present (in addition to each other) and to make more room for a focus on the future.

I’m new to TV watching. But I have taken to it like a parched and thirsty fish. In the last few years it has saved me from my head, often a bad neighborhood to inhabit alone. Armed with an inherited television set equipped with an internal VCR and DVD player, this brain drug of a machine has kept me company a lot in the last few years. To this end I have joined other Americans in following a number of series’ and caught up on movies that have defined my modern cultural generation.

For years I have been repeating this sentence, “Oh no, I didn’t see that, I haven’t heard of that, I wasn’t aware of that, because I have been working.”

My mother said years ago I could have made the best jury member on the OJ Simpson case, because I knew absolutely nothing about it.

A few months ago I was given an innocuous little shiny disk labeled, Escape To River Cottage, and only remember the odd tidbit about what it could be about. Good thing I did not start watching it until just the other night. A person has to have a life which includes leaving the house, making supper, taking the legs out for a stretch, and interacting with other live human beings.

If you like to eat, are interested in where your food comes, have ever entertained the idea of forsaking city living and planting a garden from which you will plan meals around, enjoy the feeling your face gets when an unplanned smile emerges, like a dash of English humor, and think a show involving cooking and eating could be something other than staged, perfect, indoors, and inane to the point of “lowest common denominator” script writing, you must get ahold of any part of these series now and watch it with someone you like!

The liner notes from TV.com:

“Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstal has decided to quit the bustle of London and take on the life of a smallholder at River Cottage, a former gamekeeper’s cottage in Dorset. The aim is self-sufficiency; to grow his own vegetables and raise his own animals for food.”

It is addictive in the best sense of the word!

The word on the street is that I have only just begun. A quick perusement on the www comes up with a fantastic interview with Mr. Fearnley-Whittingstal himself. Then there’s the River Cottage website, complete with appropriate page links and a whole page devoted to those behind the delicious scenes. Channel 4 talks up their baby as well, and then there’s the dangerous list of all the titles.

It’s still winter, even in the Bay Area, go ahead, get a few disks and hole up for the weekend. But be sure to have some farmers’ market snacks around. You may not be hungry for bridge mix or chips and salsa after watching an episode end with recently culled and butchered pidgeon in B’steeya, cold pike en gelee, or Hugh’s first hen egg whipped up into a quick courgette souffle.

If you’re one of those new fans for whom doing things halfway is not an option, you may choose to cook up some of this fellow’s food right away by heading over to our own local British Gourmand, Sam, of Becks and Posh, as she has cooked up one of Mr. Fearnley-Whittingstal’s recipes, from his most recent River Cottage Meat Book.

Feel free to come back to Bay Area Bites and let me know if I have steered you right!