About this item
Based on the James Beard Award-winning blog The One-Block Diet, this all-in-one home gardening, do-it-yourself guide and cookbook shows you how to transform a backyard or garden into a self-sufficient locavore's paradise. When Margo True and her fellow staffers at Northern California-based Sunset magazine walked around the grounds of their Menlo Park office, they saw more than just a lawn and some gardens. Instead, they saw a fresh, bountiful food source, the makings for intrepid edible projects, and a series of seasonal feasts - all just waiting to happen. The One-Block Feast is the story of how True and her team took an inspired idea and transformed it into an ambitious commitment: to create four feasts over the course of a year, using only what could be grown or raised in their backyard-sized plot. She candidly shares the group's many successes and often humorous setbacks as they try their hands at chicken farming, cheese making, olive pressing, home brewing, bee keeping, winemaking, and more. Grouped into gardening, project, and recipe guides for each season, The One-Block Feast is a complete resource for planning an eco-friendly kitchen garden; making your own pantry staples for year-round cooking and gifts; raising bees, chickens, and even a cow; and creating made-from-scratch meals from ingredients you've grown yourself. Chapters are organized by season, each featuring a planting plan and crop-by-crop instructions, an account of how that season's projects played out for the Sunset team, and a multicourse dinner menu composed of imaginative, appealing, and ultra-resourceful vegetarian recipes, such as: Butternut Squash Gnocchi with Chard and Sage Brown Butter * Egg and Gouda Crepes * Whole Wheat Pizzas with Roasted Vegetables and Homemade Cheeses * Fresh Corn Soup with Zucchini Blossoms * Braised Winter Greens with Preserved Lemons and Red Chile * Summer Lemongrass Custards * Honey Ice Cream Generously illustrated and easy to follow, this ultimate resource for today's urban homesteader will inspire you to take "eating local" to a whole new level.
About the Author
Margo True is the food editor at Sunset magazine. Born in South Africa to American diplomat parents, she grew up in seven different countries and learned early on that food can be an instant doorway to a new place. Before Sunset, she was the executive editor at Saveur and a senior editor and writer at Gourmet. She has won four James Beard journalism awards for her food writing, including one for Sunset's One-Block Diet blog (oneblockdiet.sunset.com)--a project that launched a book, The One-Block Feast. Her fellow award-winning bloggers and co-authors are: Erika Ehmsen, Sunset's copy chief and a member of the One-Block project's Team Wine; Elizabeth Jardina of Team Chicken; Sunset test garden coordinator Johanna Silver; production coordinator Margaret Sloan, who blogs for Team Bee; recipe editor Amy Machnak; and head gardener Rick LaFrentz, who leads Team Beer. Additional contributors to The One-Block Feast include Kathleen Norris Brenzel, Sunset's garden editor; associate food editor Elaine Johnson; test kitchen coordinator Stephanie Dean; senior editor Rachel Levin; executive editor Christine Ryan; and Brianne McElhiney, editorial assistant.
