The Forest Feast cookbook author Erin Gleeson celebrates the joy of showing kids how to eat local — and eat well.
Erin Gleeson never expected to find herself the author of a best-selling cookbook, much less three of them. When she left her busy New York life for a move to Silicon Valley, it was simply by chance that she and her husband stumbled on a remote cabin and decided to move in. That led to her gardening and ordering local ingredient boxes to experiment with making simple but elegant and delicious meals for her family.
Her background is in photographing food, so she parlayed her skills as an artist into a blog showcasing her beautiful — and easy — recipes. Gleeson named the blog for her cozy new home in the California forest. As it turned out, a lot of people were interested in quick, healthy and fresh dishes they could cook every day.
Now the author of The Forest Feast, The Forest Feast for Kids and The Forest Feast Gatherings, Gleeson is working on her fourth cookbook. Set to come out in 2019, The Forest Feast Travels will feature bites inspired by the bold, fresh flavors of the Mediterranean. To get inspiration, Gleeson and her husband packed up their two kids, Ezra and Max, and spent three months traveling through Spain, France, Italy and Portugal, sampling the local cuisine along the way.
We caught up with Gleeson during her travels to see how she gets her inspiration and why she thinks farm-to-table dining is so important for kids and families.
Erin Gleeson On…
Inspiring Her Young Kids
We cook together. In each new place, we go to the grocery store and buy stuff to cook at home. Ezra (my toddler) definitely likes to cook, but he is picky, though we always find something the kids enjoy. Like in Spain he had patatas bravas for almost every meal, and now that we’re in Italy, he still calls potatoes patatas bravas. It’s just nice to see the curiosity that kids have about new places and seeing it through their eyes — they’re different experiences that we wouldn’t have had on our own. I also like to think that they’re being exposed to lots of different things that somehow sink in.
Dining on the street in Barcelona.
Eating Local
Today we went to a farm in the hills of Sicily for lunch. It’s called an agriturismo, which is sort of a rural hotel and restaurant, like a mini farm and resort in one. Everything came from the farm, and we tried things that were typical to this region. That’s what I always try to do.
Ezra plucks a fresh orange in the Algarve region of southern Portugal.
Exploring Traditional Foods While Traveling
I appreciate the deep culture and history of certain dishes that come from these countries. Like pesto — pesto comes from Genoa, and we went to Genoa and ate pesto there, and it was amazing. The regional dishes for each country have so much history in them that it makes farm-to-table eating using local ingredients a really rich, unique experience for kids.
Erin and Max enjoy a meal in Lisbon.
Encouraging a Healthy-Eating Lifestyle Early On
We have a small garden at home, and Ezra has one at his preschool where they grow things and talk about where food comes from. I think it’s really important to introduce kids to that at an early age. Even if you have picky toddlers, I think that’s one way to encourage them to try new foods. If they plant that tomato seed and see it grow and turn from green to red and get to pick it themselves, there is a much better chance they will pop it into their mouths than if it just appears on their plate. I know it’s not always easy, but just growing herbs on your windowsill can help introduce new flavors. Or visit a farmers market or a farm. It really helps to get kids to try new things.
Erin and her son Ezra at home in their garden.
More: Erin Gleeson’s favorite fresh-forward restaurants close to home and from her travels abroad.
Healthy and easy recipes from The Forest Feast for Kids.
Erin Gleeson is the NY Times bestselling author of the Forest Feast cookbook series. Follow along at www.theforestfeast.com and @theforestfeast.