Have you had a chance to catch The Perennial Plate?
The Perennial Plate is an online weekly documentary series dedicated to socially responsible and adventurous eating.
Who doesn’t love THAT idea?
Creator Daniel Klein and co-producer/cameragirl Mirra Fine are traveling the world exploring the wonders, complexities, and stories behind the ever-more-connected global food system.
“Klein, who has cooked at the restaurants of Thomas Keller, Heston Blumenthal, and Tom Colicchio … offers a closer look at where our food can actually come from (but often doesn’t) than anything you’re likely to see on the Food Network,” says the Huffington Post.
The episodes follow the culinary, agricultural, and hunting explorations of this intrepid chef.
“Season One took place over a calendar year in Minnesota where, every Monday for 52 weeks, the duo released short films about good food,” reports the Plate’s website. “In Season Two, Klein and Fine traveled across America, taking the viewer on a journey to appreciate and understand where good food comes from and how to enjoy it.”
This season, Klein and Fine are blazing a trail around the world—to China, Japan, India, Spain, Morocco, Italy, Turkey, Argentina, Mexico, South Africa, and Ethiopia. Along the way, they’re telling the stories of real food and the people who make it.
In a recent episode called “Do Not Blame the Sea,” the destination was Sri Lanka, where a small fishing family was nearly decimated by the 2004 tsunami. “And yet today, they still fish (either on stilts or in a boat) because they have to do it to survive,” explains Klein.
Even though I’ll never be able to catch up on the site’s bounty of past episodes, I can’t wait to see where they’ll go next.
Who knew I could be an armchair traveler and a footrest foodie at the same time?
If you’re already a fan, share your favorite episode.
Photo by Lars Swanson
Can you help make a wish come true for 6-year-old Miette?
Courtesy of Make-A-Wish Alaska & Washington
This is the pathway that greets our crew every morning, winter, rain, or shine. Yesterday, we were all back to work but the sunshine and warmth from the weekend turned to rain. I spent most of last weekend in the garden planting 50 new perennials in one of our main flower beds (day lily, poppy, columbine, and lupine). How about you? Have you been in your garden yet? What did you do on Mother’s Day weekend? I also took a long Sunday nap. On Saturday I scrubbed the walls and floor of our dairy, cleaned out the cow’s water tank, took photos around the farm, and helped hubby with an excavation project. (More on that later.)
Feeling quizzical today?
I am.
Here’s a trio of terms that tend to trick the tongue and perplex the pen …
If you can’t match the following definitions with the words above, I have a fun exercise for you that I came up with so I can remember the spelling of each.
Take a guess, and then scroll down to find out how I remember these rascally words.
Palate: the roof of your mouth or sense of taste
(spelled plate with an a added)
“My palate is best served when I use a plate.”
Pallet: a wooden bed or a flat platform onto which goods are loaded
(Ma Mallet and Pa Pallet are a team)
“Bring me that mallet so I can take apart this pallet.”
Palette: a flat board an artist mixes paint on or a range of colors
(pal-ette smacks of French, well, because it is)
“The French artist was mixing paints on a palette while wearing a French barette.”
Photo by Jennifer Rensel via Wikimedia Commons
Enchanting …
How else would I describe Wonderland?
(I’m not talking about Alice’s old stomping grounds.)
This flight of fancy is all grown up and pours smooth as “dream” from the eyes of That’s the best …
Kirsty Mitchell, an English photographer who beckons us into a whole new world of wonder.
When Kirsty’s mom died in 2008, she was devastated. Her mother, an English teacher and brilliant storyteller, had been her lifelong inspiration, weaving stories into the fabric of Kirsty’s soul.
Struggling to find an outlet for her grief, Kirsty began submerging herself in artistic expression.
“Real life became a difficult place to deal with, and I found myself retreating further into an alternative existence through the portal of my camera,” she explains. “This escapism grew into the concept of creating an unexplained storybook without words, dedicated to her [my mother], that would echo the fragments of the fairytales she read to me constantly as a child.”
And Wonderland, a stunning series of photographs like you’ve never seen before, was born.
“All the characters came to me in my dreams,” she says, and it has been thrilling to bring them into reality. “After all, it’s not often you get to stand beside an 8-foot princess in the rain, or witness the dawn with a dancing circus girl on stilts!”
Her magical images are not created in Photoshop, nor are they staged in exotic locations around the globe. They have been captured with her camera in special spots within a short drive of her home in Surrey, England.
After three years, the Wonderland series is nearly complete, and I’m excited to hear there’s a book in the works that will accompany Kirsty’s exhibition.
“I just know that the day I see my mother’s name printed on the inside cover of the Wonderland book, it will feel like I have finally fulfilled my promise to myself and her precious memory,” says Kirsty.
Delve into Kirsty’s online diary to savor behind-the-scenes shots and learn the secrets behind creating each photograph.
KirstyMitchellPhotography.com
KirstyMitchellPhotography.com
Buy props used in MaryJane’s books and magazine!
5% of profits will benefit www.firstbook.org, a non-profit that provides new books to children from low-income families throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Here’s how:
MaryJane will post a photo and a description of a prop and its cost along with a few details as to its condition here: https://shop.maryjanesfarm.org/MaryJanesCurations. It’s a playful way to be the new owner of a little bit of farm herstory.
