Welcome to the new year in New Jersey!
While we’re waiting for this deep chill to subside, we all can reflect on all the wonderful foods we ate in 2017 and take a minute to support the people and places who brought these foods into our lives.
I don’t know about you, but cold weather inspires me to want to cook more. So I’ve been digging into The Farm Cooking School cookbook, written by Ian Knauer and Shelley Wiseman, the folks behind the culinary mecca at Roots to River Farm in Titusville.
The veterans of Gourmet magazine’s kitchens have brought global sensibilities to their school. But the genesis of what they cook is local: ingredients from their on-site farm and garden or from other local farms and food artisans.
We visited with Shelley Wiseman one afternoon at her own home in Lambertville, where she made fondue and we talked about the bounty the four seasons bring to tables in the Garden State. Avid homesteaders, Shelley and Ian teach the fundamentals of those kitchen arts in their classes at The Farm Cooking School, where you can take individual classes or a series that goes into more depth.
My advice? Find a copy of The Farm Cooking School cookbook (the publisher is Burgess Lea Press and start cooking. And visit thefarmcookingschool.com to register for an upcoming class.
Here are some to consider:
* The new “How to Boil Water” four-class series—which takes you from “seriously challenged to serious cooking”—starts this Sunday, January 7 and runs from 10 am to 1 pm every Sunday in the month of January.
* “Secrets of Sourdough” is from 10 am to 1 pm on Thursday, January 25.
* “Winter Produce” is from 10 am to 1 pm on Friday, January 26.
* “World Brunch: French Edition” is from 11 am to 2 pm on Sunday, February 4.
There also are revolving classes in the foundations of cooking, pressure cooking, cooking for kids and cooking for couples—quite the variety.
The school and some of the farm’s fields and its kitchen garden are located at 67 Pleasant Valley Road in Titusville.