Customer Reviews

Chefs on the Farm: Recipes and Inspiration from the Quillisascut Farm School of the Domestic Arts

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"Chefs on the Farm" is part cookbook, part treatise on eating locally. It focuses on Quillisascut Farm, a small, family-run business in northeastern Washington state. Richly illustrated with numerous color photographs, the book is organized by the seasons -- winter, spring, summer, fall. For each season there are several recipes featuring local foods available at that time of year along with discussion of life on the farm during that season and other aspects of the connection between farm and table. The book also includes profiles of farmers and chefs who participate in the local foods movement.

In line with the focus on eating locally and more sustainably, several of the recipes highlight less commonly know vegetables, such as heirloom varieties of beans and potatoes, and cuts of meat. One that particularly caught my eye was a recipe for oxtail and parsnip lasagna, but there are also recipes for more traditional fare such as apricot preserves. A couple of the recipes made me want to rush into the kitchen to cook, specifically coffee toffee bread pudding with cajeta sauce (a caramel sauce made with goat's milk) and cardamom-apple stuffed French toast with cider syrup.

Overall, I found "Chefs on the Farm" to be an inspirational and enjoyable window into the local food movement. Though not really a how-to book for a newcomer to eating more sustainably, the book does include a few helpful tips for book for finding local food.

As winter closes in upon us, now is a wonderful time to stop and reflect; to heed the relentless pace of our lives, and perhaps stop, and take time to contemplate where we are.

Chefs on the Farm, is a wonderful catalyst for such action. It is a book of many facets. On one hand an earthy recipe book, of vibrant and hearty natural dishes that can sustain or enlighten us, depending on the season, and on the other hand it's also a guide to life; a promotion of all things good, that are slow, earthy and sustainable; an appreciation of how we can benefit from working with nature to extract the best from our land and our communities.

It provides a blueprint of how we can all reinteract with our surroundings and extract the best seasonal meals and produce from what nature has to offer us; perhaps also stirring and encouraging the farmer within us all.

In these pressing times, it is a wonderful tonic. Worthy of ruminating upon with a glass of wine as a hearty meal of local fare cooks slowly in the oven....

I love the connections of the seasons to earth and from field to table in this book. The recipe's by Karen Jurgensen and the photography throughout the book make this a fabulous read but more importantly a great recipe book to have in the kitchen. Whether you are yearning to be on the farm or wanting to have a deeper understanding of the labors that go into real food before it arrives in your kitchen, this is one of those recipe books that you'll want to share with friends.

The forward by Tom Douglas is a testimony to the farmer that resides in each of us.

They have a wonderful farm school and a chef school too. I just got back from a week learning all about food, farming and making friends with 14 diverse people. It was the really the best week ever! I want to make all kinds of new food that I would never had tried thanks to them. Thanks to Lora Lea, Rick and Karen. If you get a chance to visit the farm you should take it, you won't be dissapointed.

"Chefs on the Farm" is a loving profile of the wonderful integrated, sustainable Quillisascut Farm School and the chefs who visit, learn and create there. As a nation we have largely lost touch with the origins of our food and the seasonal ebb and flow. In abandoning the intimate connection to our food created when we grow, harvest or eat within our foodshed we have also lost track of any true culture of food as a country. It is this intimate connection Rick and Lora Lee create for anyone who visits their School of Domestic Arts.

We have become so accustomed to strawberries at Christmas we are no longer fed in synch with the growing season. As someone who grew up eating seasonally, drifted from the fold and has returned, the difference in ones attitude toward food is amazing. After gorging on berries in June and July one is ready to wait a while until indulging again. While potatoes and frozen green beans become monotonous in winter, the first green sprigs of asparagus in spring are all that much more delightful.

The recipes in the book showcase the rich variety of foods available all times of the year - roots and marrows in winter, early greens in spring, fruits and berries and cheeses in summer, apples and cabbage and meat in the fall. The bean soup recipe inspired me even in the middle of winter!

Harley Soltes' beautiful photographs masterfully convey the daily rhythme of life on the farm; the warmth of the winter kitchen, the bright clarity of early spring, the intensity of mid-summer days, and the golden abundance of fall.

This book fed me visually as well as spiritually - and the narrative inspired me to continue my pathway to sustainability.

CHEFS ON THE FARM chronicles a year at Quillisascut Farm School of the Domestic Arts in Eastern Washington. An "allegory" for any farm this book is for anyone interested in "real" food. Coincidentally I read this book around the same period as I read Michael Pollan's REAL FOOD. One would guess that Michael would approve of CHEFS ON THE FARM. From winter planning through spring renewal and planting, the abundance of summer, and the final harvest and preservation associated with fall the connection between food sources and the table is made explicit. There are ideas and information we should be made familiar with, such as biodynamic farming-planting using the moon's phases and sources of plants and seeds which are in danger of becoming extinct. We are also given information that maybe many of us would rather not know, about such things as-"headless cackling chickens." CHEFS ON THE FARM has beautiful color photographs and abounds with recipes, making it perfect for coffee table or kitchen. I want to try the Rabbit Tart with Pinot Noir-Juniper Sauce.

Chefs on The Farm takes us from winter, dreaming of projects to come, with a larder filled for use of the farm's bounty, recipes to use and share, and the warmth of the author's friendship. Reading this beautifully and very well produced book, you feel like you are already a member of The Farm and as the year rolls along in this book filled with wonderful pictures and ideas and love for the eearth, you are also mentally rearranging how you can also reduce your own carbon footprint and redesign your own life on "your farm." Having gardened for years, I was already familiar with some of the same seed sources, way to shelter and produce an early garden battling the weather. I've found so many new ideas to try for the next year's season and am already taking notes from the book of varieties to try and checking out seed catalogs on the internet. Being a traveler, I would love to stop by The Farm and work for a few days. This book is great reading and I heartidly recommend it to all.
Anne

it is true ! this small farm in eastern washington could change the world one chef at a time.
i know has it changed my life and many others in the culinary field.
buy it-read it-apply it, it will make you happy !

Michelle Clair

Chefs on the Farm is a book I enjoyed very much and the photography by Harley Soltes is absolutely beautiful. Many wonderful stories and great recipes as well!! This book gives you an experience of real farm life without actually being on the farm and it leaves you wanting to visit a farm to expeience the simple pleasures but hard work of farm living.