At My Desk

At long, long last the website is up, and my blog is beginning to take shape. I know, it’s taken way longer than I expected – that was me having no time (or headspace) to organise it. But now I have headspace, and when I write, this is where I do it. Lots of lovely light, a photo collage of beautiful moments that make me smile whenever I look at them, and as often as possible, beautiful flowers. My trusty apple sits there, ready and willing. The website is a work in progress, there’s lots more I need and want to do on it, so bear with me. The good thing is I have some time now to do this – I’m not teaching for the rest of the year so I can focus on plans for next year.

But first, let me tell you a little about what I’ve been doing – 2 weeks in San Francisco and 1 in New York. I really wanted to catch up with all that was happening there, and trust me, happening it is. A lot of people say to me – but that would be the worst place, American food is terrible. Well yes it is – there’s an awful lot of shallow, fake, industrial pretend food – but that’s pretty much the same as we have in Australia. What you do have however, is an awful lot of beautiful, real, nutrient dense, sustainable and organic food also – and there’s a lot more of it than we have here in Australia. It’s just staggeringly beautiful – and that’s what turns me on. Just about everywhere I go, I see good food, beautiful food, to eat or buy, ready cooked or just ingredients. And catch up I did – with great book shops (I will make sure to get a booklist up and plan to have a book club), great markets and really, some of the best food. I met amazing people doing wonderful things :

Heidi Swanson – www.101cookbooks.com

Myra Kornfeld – www.myrakornfeld.com

Jessica Prentice – www.threestonehearth.com

June Taylor – www.junetaylorjams.com

All these people are helping to drive the growing movement that in a nutshell is this: Nutrient dense food from sustainable, fair and preferably organic – sourced from as locally and as direct from the farmer as possible. It’s a powerful current running through the U.S at the moment. I know however, that equally powerful (corporate and industrial) forces are moving in the other direction, and I don’t think by any means we can sit back and think all is well. All is absolutely not well – there’s a lot of work to be done. In Australia this work includes standing up against Genetic Modification, supporting sustainable and organic (including bio dynamic) farmers and farming, and most importantly our local farming systems. This isn’t an easy thing to do – it’s going to cost you more, and takes time. That’s what my work is all about – helping to support you find ways to make a more sustainable life style workable.

Do come join me in my kitchen and share with me the many ways we can do this, here at my blog. I’ll look forward to seeing you.

Freshly harvested apples at Union Square NYC GreenMarket

Greens of all descriptions – Union Square NYC Greenmarket

Bottling Organic Chicken Stock at Three Stone Hearth.

With the wonderful Heidi Swanson in San Francisco