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Informationen zum Autor Molly Chester is a co-founder and farmer of Apricot Lane Farms, a 234-acre biodynamic farming project in Moorpark, CA. Prior to farming, Molly was a private chef in Los Angeles who specialized in healing the gut through nutrient-dense culinary techniques such as soaking, sprouting and fermenting. Molly believes that a delicious and healing dish is created in harmony with the rhythms of the local ecosystem. She lives on the farm with her husband John, son Beaudie, dog Blue, and a menagerie of farm animals and wildlife. Molly’s story can be seen in the award-winning documentary, The Biggest Little Farm. Klappentext "Seasonally-inspired food, with more than 130 recipes, from the chef, farmer, and star of The Biggest Little Farm."-- Leseprobe In 2011, when my filmmaker husband John and I packed our bags to move from Santa Monica to a neglected farm an hour north of Los Angeles, everyone thought we were crazy. I had been working as a chef and food blogger, and the few tomato plants I had wedged onto my tiny patio just weren’t cutting it anymore. Besides that, our beloved rescue dog, Todd, had been annoying our neighbors for months with his incessant barking! As we considered our options, we pined for a ten- acre parcel where we could create a traditional farm that worked in harmony with nature, while Todd roamed freely. We were motivated by a desire to live with purpose, create a closer connection with our food, and cook with the most delicious and nutritious ingredients possible. Word of our ambitions circulated through friends and family, and with the back-ing of a like- minded investor, we found ourselves contemplating hundreds of acres instead! Visions of every conceivable food I wanted to cook danced in my head as we drove down dusty roads lined with monoculture crops typical of California’s farming belt. We arrived at a dilapi-dated farm nervous but giddy with excitement to embark on a journey of regenerating the land. Spurred on by eager optimism and undaunted by inexperience, we set to work. Learning the Hard Way Many of you reading this have already become familiar with our tale as chronicled in John’s heartwarming documentary The Biggest Little Farm. The movie reveals our early days settling into the farm, and the challenges we faced, including the friction between our first animals and their eager predators. Each triumphant piglet that Emma the Pig reared under Greasy the Rooster’s protective gaze has brought us a strong relationship with our food that has only deepened over time. And as I stand on the hill overlooking our orchard at Apricot Lane Farms, which we affectionately call the Fruit Basket, it is difficult not to be inspired by the sheer abundance of life teeming forth from the blossom-laden branches of our trees. In the spring, insects drink the flowers’ nectar and bounce from understory to canopy, pollinating this year’s harvest, while birds chase them to keep their population balanced. Plump earthworms convert organic matter like fallen leaves into nutrients for the tree roots. In this sacred part of the farm, the great circle of life unfolds before me. But, the first year was a comedy of errors with a steep learning curve. Honestly, we spent a lot of time being jealous of our dog. Most days, Todd was living his best life lying in the sun or chasing after squirrels while John and I grappled with epic drought, wildfires, all-night lambing sessions, and rampant pests. The area that we marked for our vegetable garden was a compacted and dry old horse arena. We tried to make the ground more fertile by reusing the waste in our neighbor’s horse barn, but little did we know that planting tomatoes in forty tons of raw manure is risky business! Those tomatoes didn’t make it to market, but we still reminisce about how insanely delicious they were. We made do while learning hard lessons, and I cooked with what little was availa...
