Sandor Ellix Katz Powell’s Books Event for Wild Fermentation 2nd Edition

I’ve been very lucky over the years to get to be “in conversation” with all sorts of incredible food and drink people such as Mark Bittman, Dana Cowin and now Sandor Ellix Katz at my favorite bookstore on the planet — Powell’s Books. Sandor was in town mid-February for various events on his book tour for the second edition of Wild Fermentation and I was the lucky one who got to spend the night asking him questions in front of a full house in the Powell’s Books Pearl Room. Thank you life.

For those of you who couldn’t make the event I uploaded the audio of it here:

Also, Sandor did some radio and TV segments while in town and you can check out his KATU News AM Northwest spot here and his KBOO Healthwatch show feature here.

Below are bunch of photos from the standing room-only excellent Powell’s event. Thank you Powell’s Books, Sandor and everyone who came out and made the night special.

Full house of Sandor fans and fermentation enthusiasts!

Before the event Sandor served up some of his delicious fermented daikon that he makes every year from a Tennessee neighbor’s cover crop. So generous, so yummy!

Sandor talking about everything from his 55-gallon bourbon barrels that he’s used in the past to ferment vegetables to his recent travels in Asia and all of the ferments that he tried and learned about while there. Photo by Loly LeBlanc.

So cute! And look at all of those beautiful life-changing books. So colorful and inspiring inside and out. Photo by David Barber.

We got through my questions and then opened it up to the audience. When an audience member asked Sandor about the potential spirituality of fermentation he summed it up after thinking about it for a moment as — “unseen forces can be very powerful.” So beautiful and true. Photo by Denise Pasquinelli.

Long line of folks after waited to talk to Sandor and get their 2nd edition of Wild Fermentation signed.

At the very end Dane Fredericks of Powell’s had Sandor and I sign a bunch of books. Such a treat. Such an honor. I am officially the luckiest.

Thank you so very much Sandor & Powell’s! And thanks to everyone who came out for the event.

Purchase the 2nd edition of Wild Fermentation.

Northwest Fresh Seafood, Lentil Underground, Cuvee Weekend

There are three tasty events coming up -- two of which I'm directly involved in -- that I want to tell you about. I also want to acknowledge that I do realize that I haven't done a Yard Fresh installment in far too long. One excuse, over the summer and early fall I got my kitchen remodeled by my amazingly talented friends at St. Johns Design Build (see some photos of my kitchen remodel here!), beyond that life has been full. Anyway, I haven't forgotten about that series and I'll add to it again soon enough. For now, here are some upcoming food/drink events I'm hoping that you might come to and if not that you will help spread the word about. Thanks!

Saturday, March 7 @ 2-6pm at Northwest Fresh Seafood Newberg, Oregon BUBBLES & BOOKS

A month ago Zach Elliott of the Newberg seafood market Northwest Fresh Seafood asked John Gorham and me if we'd come out to the market for a spring food/drink/books event and we agreed right away. John and I are both seafood lovers and always up for a fun excuse to get out to Oregon wine country. The result is an afternoon and evening event hosted by these great folks with oysters, bubbles, signed copies of Toro Bravo: Stories. Recipes. No Bull. AND Food Lover's Guide to Portland, live music by Kent Smith and a Q&A with John and I ALL for $65. I hope you'll come out for it and even if you can't I hope that you might help spread the word. It's going to be great. Tickets are available here.

Monday, March 9 @ 7pm at Powell's Portland, Oregon Liz Carlisle, author of Lentil Underground: Renegade Farmers and the Future of Food in AmericaREADING

Working as a book publicist at Hawthorne Books, and having covered food and food books since 2003, review copies often come my way. They're usually from Chelsea Green, which is one of my favorite publishing houses, but sometimes they're from other publishers -- in this case Gotham Books. Liz Carlisle is coming to Portland mid-March for a reading for her book Lentil Underground and if you care about food as much as I do I think you're going to want to go to this Powell's City of Books reading. I've only begun reading it and I'm inspired by the depth of Carlisle's research into renegade farmers and sustainable agriculture as well as the tenacity of her subjects and their dedication to new ag. business and cropping systems and a sustainable ag. future. GENTLE PORTLAND LENTILS, please pick up a copy of the book and come out for Carlisle's Powell's reading and become a part of the Lentil Underground! If my endorsement isn't enough...

"What does it take to farm sustainably–and make a living? Liz Carlisle tells the engrossing story of the ‘audacity rich, but capital poor’ Montana farmers who thought lentils were the answer and stuck with them until proved right. Anyone who dreams of starting a farm or wants to know how organic farmers can overcome the obstacles they face will be inspired by this book." --Marion Nestle, author of Food Politics and professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University.

Look at that fuzzy gentle lentil behind the book! Rubin is my favorite photo bomber.

Saturday, March 21st @ Noon at The Allison Inn & Spa Newberg, Oregon Cuvee Weekend PANEL

In celebration of Women's History Month The Allison Inn & Spa in Newberg is hosting an inaugural Cuvee Weekend on the weekend of March 21st. Couples are invited to purchase weekend packages and attend everything from a cooking demo. by Kristen Murray of Portland's Maurice and a 4-course winemakers' dinner with Tamara Murphy of Seattle's Terra Plata to a guided vineyard tour and a panel discussion on women in food on Saturday, the 21st with me, Kristen Murray, Tamara Murphy and Veronica Vaga of Deschutes Brewery. Please help spread the word!

The Allison Inn & Spa rated #1 Hotel Spa in the Continental US by Travel + Leisure.

Dana Cowin, Mark Bittman and Liz Crain Walk into a Bar errrr Powell's

I've been very lucky lately. So lucky, in fact, that I recently got to be "in conversation" with two of my food heroes at my favorite bookseller -- Mark Bittman AND Dana Cowin at Powell's Books. Dream come true. They both have new cookbooks out and we talked all about their books and then some in front of very happy audiences -- Dana's Mastering My Mistakes in the Kitchen and Mark's How to Cook Everything Fast. I've cooked from them both already and love them so much. Get 'em!

I may or may not have called Mark Bittman a prostitute (tune in to the audio recording below at 12 minutes 30 seconds) and I may or may not have called Dana Cowin a lush (ditto at 7 minutes). We drank rye from lucky flasks that my friend Loly made at both events and laughed a lot. Intimate, engaging, inspiring and a wee bit revealing -- as all great book events should be.

For those who couldn't make one or both I embedded the audio here so you can get an earful. I forgot to start recording Mark's until 10 minutes in unfortunately.

And here are some local media bits for both events: Oregonian Cowin, KATU Cowin, Oregonian Bittman, KATU Bittman.

Below is a show and tell of photos from both October Powell's events starting with Mark Bittman's followed by Dana Cowin's. Dream a little dream. There aren't any photos from the meals I got to have with Mark or Dana while they were in town but we managed to go to Tasty n Sons, Olympic Provisions and Du Kuh Bee. Not too shabby.

Picking up my advanced copy of Bittman's book from the Wonkaland of books -- Powell's.

Picking up my advanced copy of Bittman's book from the Wonkaland of books -- Powell's.

Bittman's and my view. Cute crowd.

Mark signing my books after he'd signed everyone's in the loooooong line after our conversation -- including my filthy aka well-loved copy of How to Cook Everything.

A sight for sore eyes.

Gifted flour sack towels can be turned into skirts!

Getting cozy with my advance copy of Dana Cowin's Mastering My Mistakes in the Kitchen before the Powell's event.

Day of the event lucky hot dog flask shed pick-up! This one is now MINE. Thank you Loly!

Dana and I telling Lena to lay off our lucky flask. Bulleit Rye. Again.

We obviously got our flask back.

After Dana talked with folks and signed allllll the audience copies Renee from Powell's asked her to sign a bunch of store copies. Finger cramps!

Yet another sight for sore eyes.

Thank you so very much Mark, Dana & Powell's! I am the luckiest.

Purchase How to Cook Everything Fast Purchase Mastering My Mistakes in the Kitchen

I Love Powell's

Our first official book event for Toro Bravo: Stories. Recipes. No Bull. was over the weekend at Powell's and it was great! Thanks to everyone who came out for it and to the Powell's folks who made it so great esp. Darcy, Morgan, Gin and Jeremy. If you weren't one of the lucky ones to get a pre-release copy of the book at it (we only had 18 copies and folks entered a raffle to get to buy them) Powell's will be locked and loaded with plenty of copies in a couple weeks.

After the reading. Before the bourbon. Sort of...

Signing on the dotted lines.

The official launch date for the book isn't until October 15th after all. (And that's the night of the book launch party at Toro from 5-10pm! Open to the public.) This Friday tune into OPB's Think Out Loud if you want to hear us talk about the book. And if you're around the weekend of October 5th we'll be at Wordstock that Sunday doing the same thing. Our incredible publishing house will be there too!

Hope you're doing well & burning the candle on both ends too. Because that means you're living life to the fullest. Love you.

Toro Bravo: Stories. Recipe. No Bull pub. date Oct. 15th $35, McSweeney's Books Buy from Powell's

Upcoming events & tour schedule