food news of late

• We have joined a CSA! It is run by chefs in Alexandria. I have wanted to do this for a couple years but our summer locations were always a bit uncertain. I know we’ll be here all year, and I’m looking forward to the program, which offers 38 weeks of produce. What will we get the first week of March? I’ll let you know.

• Over Saturday morning tea recently, Katie and I discussed bread baking and the sheet-pan-letting-off-steam method. She and her husband are (admirably) working their way through The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. I’m a loyal bread machine user and a little intimidated by actually making bread from scratch, but it’s a definite goal. For now I’m continually inspired by Beth Hensperger’s The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook. It was a wedding gift from another foodie friend, Emily Z. Le pain du jour is Hungarian white bread with fennel seeds.

• I’m currently reading Bringing It to the Table: On Farming and Food, a collection of essays by Wendell Berry and edited by Michael Pollan. Usually I go for straight-up food/cooking memoirs, but Berry’s descriptions of family farms and farming techniques is accessible and delightful. Definitely more trowel than tractor.

• Why did a post about food turn into a post about books? Theories are welcome.